Terrence L. McCoy - Louisville, KY

Overview

We were married in 1967 in Princeton, NJ and started shortly thereafter to train for the Peace Corps. We served with the Peace Corps in the Independent State of Western Samoa. While in Samoa I worked in the Attorney General's office and with the Law Draftsman. While there I learned about customary Samoan laws, and the Lands & Titles Court which was set up by the Germans after they took control in the late 19th century. When New Zealand became the Trustee of Samoa under the League of Nations it introduced the statutory law of New Zealand which is based on the Common Law. We left Samoa in 1970, travelling home via the Cook Islands, Tonga, Fiji, New Zealand, Australia, Djibouti, Greece, Switzerland, Germany, France and the UK.

I started practicing law with my father in 1970 and Martha started medical school. She is now retired from a general surgical practice and I achieved senior counsel status in 2016. We celebrated our fiftieth wedding anniversary on August 26, 2017. For the last twenty-three years Martha and I have had an ownership interest in a farm in the Dordogne region of France. As a result of this I have had a chance to get a glimpse of law based on the Napoleonic Code. As a result of these experiences, I have learned that the " law" means various things in different parts of the world.