Delighted to join Hugh for a belated mini-birthday celebration.

Hugh has been a teacher, scholar, advocate, and institution-builder. He did not merely teach IP law. He helped build the field.

When Hugh arrived at Fordham University School of Law, IP was niche. With vision, determination, and the support of forward-looking deans, he created a curriculum, brought together adjuncts and scholars, and helped make Fordham a global center for the study of IP.

But for many of us, Hugh’s greatest legacy is the global community he built.

As founder and director of the Emily C. and John E. Hansen IP Institute at Fordham Law School and its Annual IP Conference, he created one of the world’s essential gathering places for IP judges, scholars, practitioners, policymakers, agency leaders, and general counsel.

They came because Fordham was where one learned what was really happening. They came to be challenged and yet somehow leave the room feeling more alive, more informed, and more connected than before. Disagreements became memorable exchanges and most serious questions could be framed with wit. Panels felt, at their best, like spirited arguments around a kitchen table. He made Fordham a crossroads of the IP world, but also a place of friendship.

Managing IP called him an “IP provocateur” and “the ringmaster” behind one of the field’s must-attend events. He has shown us that a field is strengthened by honest disagreement conducted among people who respect one another enough to argue hard and return the next year.

Hugh’s genius was never merely convening important people. It was convening them in a way that made ideas matter more than hierarchy. He is a force of nature with a big heart. He is capable of making someone feel terrified, honored, and delighted within the same five minutes. He has the rare ability to unsettle a room and hold it together at the same time.  He expects much from people because he believes they have something worth contributing. He opened doors, launched careers, and gave generations of IP lawyers and scholars the confidence that their ideas mattered.

At Fordham, the most senior judges, the most accomplished practitioners, and the newest scholars entered the same arena to learn, debate, have fun.

That motto captures Hugh perfectly. Serious, irreverent, demanding, generous, impatient with cant, allergic to pomposity, and deeply loyal to people and ideas. He made IP more global, more rigorous, more candid, and more human.

Happy 80th birthday, Hugh! Thank you for building not only a conference, but a community. Thank you for teaching us to learn, debate, and have fun, and for showing us that the best institutions are built not only with vision, but with courage, wit, loyalty, and love.

Catch the conference’s 25th commemorative video (from eight years ago) here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9z4qYoL_-_w.