As he often does when speaking in public, retired U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer held up his father’s watch a few months ago and started to explain to an audience some of the lessons he learned from the late Irving Breyer’s 41-year career as an attorney for the San Francisco Unified School District.

But this time, before he could finish his thought, Breyer remembered he wasn’t the only Supreme Court justice raised by a school board lawyer.