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NH Bar News Column

A Theme for This Year? Taking Forward Steps

October 15, 2010

By Marilyn Billings McNamara

President, NH Bar Association

So, there I was, driving away from the Mt. Washington Hotel last June, gripping the steering wheel and thinking, “What have I done?” I mean, it’s not as if I have extra time to undertake this Bar president challenge – I just have to fit it in between the practice of law, my various commitments to other groups and, of course, my family.

I have a book on my nightstand called, The Power of a Positive No. I’m told it is very helpful in balancing one’s life, but I haven’t had time to get past the first chapter. It’s been sitting there for a year; I suspect the bookmark won’t be moving ahead any time soon.

Lawyers keep asking me what my theme is this year, and I’m afraid I answer differently every time because I think of something new every day. That said, the threads of my conversations are beginning to intertwine. In my last Bar News column, published in August, I returned to Ian, my grandson, and how he is thriving after a difficult start. Now our challenge, his and mine, is to get up on our feet, stay steady, and move forward. To borrow the General Electric slogan, “Progress is our most important product.”

As the state’s fiscal crisis plays out over the course of the next couple of years (or more), the NH Bar Association will continue to support adequate funding for the judicial branch. We also need to aid the court in finding ways to operate that are cost-effective and justice-effective. The Innovation Commission will have recommendations soon; they may not all fly, but it’s a beginning—and I’m all about taking a few first steps.

To stay relevant, the court has to change, but that’s also true of our profession. Standing and staying on our feet may be an accomplishment, but it won’t mean much if we remain stuck in one place. Here is how I want to move forward this year: I want to reach out to lawyers who are diverse in race, ethnicity, culture or gender identification. We need to develop leaders who reflect our changing demographics and help New Hampshire attract young, vibrant professionals, entrepreneurs, artists, thinkers and adventurers—our state is getting a little old (we are on par with Florida, age-wise) and maybe a little stuffy.

Wouldn’t it be interesting to capture the spirit of change with a positive vision? Let’s embrace the future, come to terms with technology, explore the economics and management of our practices and provide opportunities for all lawyers to succeed, not only in the profession, but also in the community.

I also want to promote our profession by talking about lawyers as valued citizens. Despite the tough economy, lawyers have continued to devote time to the Bar through work on committees, sections, continuing legal education and other Bar initiatives. This year, thanks to the energy of people like Jennifer Parent and Richard Uchida, the Bar will host its first Leadership Academy, offering newer lawyers a path to networking, skill development and public service.

I’d also like to thank Brad Cook for providing the Board of Bar Governors with an overview of not-for-profit entity governance, trends, and challenges at our August meeting. The Bar is fortunate to have volunteers like Jennifer, Richard and Brad, the members of the Board of Governors and so many others who devote hours of time in service to Bar members, the public, the judicial branch and the legislature.

Volunteerism is alive and well among lawyers. Not only do we step up within the profession, lawyers serve on private nonprofit boards from Coos to Cheshire to the Seacoast. In addition, we volunteer on school boards and county, town and city governing bodies; we moderate town meetings, volunteer as firefighters, sing in choirs, act in community plays, coach and referee children’s sports teams, sit with the dying and shelter the homeless. So that’s another theme – the value we add to our clients, our courts, and our country, both as paid professionals and volunteers. We carry a heavy load; lawyers should not be shy about their contributions.

Those of us who are more experienced need to reach out to the newer members, not so much to describe the past, but to demonstrate the lessons we have learned; the need for civility and collegiality, the pleasure of working with good lawyers, even as adversaries, and the duty to mentor new lawyers so that when we retire and move to Maine our work remains behind to inform, grow and keep New Hampshire safe in the hands of those who next take the oath and, if you will, raise the bar even higher.

President's Perspective: Fair Play: Available Justice

August 13, 2010

By Marilyn Billings McNamara

President, NH Bar Association

I’ve been collecting stories about court delays and the impact these delays have on clients. I’m a family law attorney, so the stories I hear from colleagues are particularly dramatic, but make no mistake – the inability of the courts to right wrongs in a timely manner is weighing heavily on the profession and costing us time, money and the respect of the public at large.

Justice is a fundamental right, not just because it’s morally correct to hold to a standard of fairness, though it is, but because fair play is the hallmark of healthy, safe, stable civilizations. Even little kids know what "no fair" means. It means justice.

Every entity, from individual citizen to multi-national corporation, needs a forum in which to find justice. I view a part of our responsibility as lawyers as advocating for the availability of justice: justice not denied, reduced, or rationed.

My last column was a reprise of my speech at the Omni Mt. Washington Hotel in June. I wrote that I learned from my grandson how we need to figure out what to do, and then we need to do it. Ian is doing fine now. He’s turned his attention away from staying alive to learning how to make his opinions known and get from one place to another. Sometime in the next twelve months he’s going to stand up and take a couple of steps forward. That’s what we need to do, too.

Lawyers promise to uphold and defend the Constitutions – state and federal – when they come before the Supreme Court at their admittance to the Bar. Read New Hampshire’s constitution again. It’s got some great language; I like Article 14 [see sidebar] particularly well, but access to justice and fair treatment is a thread woven throughout the document. The founders knew that a safe, healthy community depends upon the ability to solve problems with fairness, timeliness and compassion. The courts are a place, with apologies to Robert Frost, "where, if you have to go there, they have to take you in." (You should read the whole poem: The Death of the Hired Man)

Minor quarrels ought not to be visited upon the court. Lawyers formerly served as a filter for the judicial system, diverting the petty and the pointless away from the courts. Now it’s judges, clerks and court staff who carry the burden, while the clients with lawyers sit outside the courtroom, checking their watches.

There are changes coming that will make our justice system more efficient. The Innovation Commission created by Justice Broderick is working on enhanced technology, streamlined court processes, restructured management and consolidation of functions, and expects to have recommendations within a few months. I do believe, however, that we must look more closely at fundamental change within the profession as well.

Trained in the law, tested in our professional lives, we know more than the public at large, yet we seem to have this low self-esteem issue about our calling – and no wonder, with every third website on the Internet offering legal advice, scrivener’s services or instant readiness to "a lawyer in your state." Recently someone complained to me that the court rules were too hard to understand. "Why should I have to hire a lawyer to explain the rules?" he asked. He didn’t give me time to answer and wouldn’t understand that the rules are the tip of a very large iceberg – a body of law, practice and procedure that has been handed down both orally and in writing, not just for centuries, but millennia.

So, as summer draws to a close and the real work begins, I see two parallel paths before me – one, advocacy for Judicial Branch funding so our clients have access to the justice they need, and two, voicing our value to the court, the public and to ourselves, as well. I have more ideas; but like my grandson Ian, I’ll be taking this one step at a time, so as not to fall too often or too hard. I invite your thoughts, comments, ideas, crazy schemes, and support.