Minerva Laurentus

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Minerva Laurentus
Advocate
Mistress Laurentus
Background
Marital Status	Spinster
Full name
Minerva Attica Laurentus
Father	Atticus Laurentus
Born	October 28 451 (451-10-28) (age 57) Codex, Ethos, Draught
Occupation	Advocate Lecturer in Rhetoric and Oratory
Biographical Information
Species	Human
Gender	Female
Height	5'7"
Eye Color	Dark
Hair	Grey

...everywhere one may hear of ravenous dogs and wolves, and cruel men-eaters, but it is not so easy to find states that are well and wisely governed.

Sir Thomas More, Utopia

Background

Born and raised in the lordship of Codex, in the barony of Ethos, on the isle of Draught, Minerva Attica Laurentus has become one of the foremost advocates on the isle, and a respected lecturer in the arts of rhetoric and oratory.

Some girls spend their girlish years in ribbons and bows. Others, granted to fathers who were given no sons, spend theirs on horseback or with sword in hand. Minerva spent hers in books and scrolls. She learned how to read not from grammars or hornbooks, but from two weightier tomes: her mother's Libris Sancti and her father's copy of Greenleaf's Commentaries on the Laws of Draught.

As soon as she could write with a fair hand, her father, the famed advocate Atticus Laurentus, set her to the scrivener's trade. When she was thirteen and old enough in his eyes, he took her for an apprentice. She learned the basics of mechanics and alchemy through the cases she helped her father prepare, but took three years to study at the College of Science in Pyria to better understand them. She participated in the debating societies there, excelled in the debates, and returned to her father's practice as a full partner in her twenty-second year.

Many years have passed since that day: her grandfather and father have both passed away, and Minerva now carries the weight of the famed Laurentus advocacy tradition on Draught. To say she loves her profession would be a severe understatement: she enjoys it so deeply, they say, she never even considered marrying, and certainly wouldn't have anything to do with children. Instead, she pours her energies into the practice she shares with her partner and the pursuit of her clients' interests.

Over the years she has presented many a case before various tribunals, from small questions of freehold possession to matters of life and death, from local councils to the Duke's court. She served many years as a counselor and adviser to Baron Galen Soranus of Ethos. She has researched and written a number of treatises in Draughtan law, and takes a particular interest in comparing the various legal regimes of the isles in the Empire; the law of other nations, she doesn't give much weight to.

In recent years, Minerva has taken on the professor's mantle both at the College of Science and at the University on Gateway. The education of the young is important to her, and though her practice has taken apprentices for many years, she is now known to teach a class here and there on rhetoric and oratory, and has taken particularly bright pupils under her wing for private tutelage. They say she takes pride in the success of students such as Athar Soranus and Cynara Dhaval, though holds them -- naturally -- to the highest standards.

That she holds to the Purist faith is well known enough, but it bolsters rather than demeans her reputation among advocates and those seeking justice. Because of it, one knows her statements will be true, whatever the rhetoric she applies. And because of it, they say, she has never turned away a defense case: everyone has done wrong in the eyes of Providence, she says, and so everyone deserves a staunch defense before the tribunal.

Relations

Oliver W. Laurentus (deceased), her grandfather, the son of a master healer and a poet. While his father wished him to become a healer as well, Oliver took up study of advocacy instead, and became a respected advocate in Codex and beyond. He lived, as though to spite his father, to a ripe old age.

Atticus W. Laurentus (deceased), her father, the second generation of respected Laurentus advocates and an historian noted especially for his work on the history of Codex.

Evan Laurentus, a cousin, butler to the Soranus household.

Noted Pupils

	Karyleine Codex, Lady Codex
	Cynara Dhaval, Junior Advocate
	Portia Maritus, Student of Law
	Athar Soranus, Baron Ethos

Library

Law

Carter, Lex Testamentaria: A complete treatise of all laws and statutes governing the exchange of property, real and intellectual, on the Isle of Draught

Coke, Reports of Cases Adjudicated Before the Ducal Seat of Draught

Style, Maxims of Equity

Geld, An Analysis of the Laws of the Empire

Giles, Lex Constitutionis: A complete treatise of all laws and statutes relating to the prerogative of the Crown

Greenleaf, Commentaries on the Laws of Draught

M.A. Laurentus, Lex Vadiorum: Indebtedness and its discharge on the Gateway Isles

Tolem, Of the Law of the Keeper

Ygorov, A Brief Survey of Equity Jurisdiction

Advocacy

Arentus, Rhetoric

Belz, Oratory

Forsyth, Logic

O.W. Laurentus, Rack and Pinion

History

A.W. Laurentus, Codex

A.W. Laurentus, Meritas

A.W. Laurentus, Trial by Jury: Its history, benefits and flaws

O.W. Laurentus, The Ratchet

N. Cavanagh, The Chancellory

Other

The Libris Sancti

The Inculpatis Illac

Gallery