Lawyer Leadership
Article Date: Sunday, April 15, 2007
Written By: Russell Rawlings
LAWYER LEADERSHIP
May 4, 2007
E. Maurice Braswell
Judge, Retired, N.C. Court of Appeals
Fayetteville, N.C.
With my hard-earned law degree in hand, and my bar license having been issued, my professional career was beginning. But with the beginning of my professional career, did I also begin to have a special responsibility to society?
My duty to my clients was obvious. But over and beyond my duty to my clients, should I do more than make a business out of my week's work? Should I become a civic leader and give of myself to society even when I was not in the courthouse? Could the knowledge and skills I had acquired help others to grasp civic responsibility if I would freely give of my own time?
Those questions did not first originate in the mind of a new lawyer. In 1940, I entered a high school essay contest sponsored by the Rocky Mount Rotary Club. For those such as myself who entered, the assigned topic bore the title, "Strengthening Civic Loyalty." While the essay's information sheet suggested developing themes that ranged from duties of citizenship, voting, jury duty, and participation in community projects, it seemed to boil down to writing about an acceptance of personal leadership and responsibility.
I would take judicial notice that the general public looks to each lawyer, doctor, and other professional to become a community leader, and to give more to the community than the skill of making a profitable living out of a profession. We are expected to be leaders, and the public perceives us to have leadership potential.
How do you become a leader? One way is to have someone challenge you. Let me share a personal experience of when I was challenged.
I live in Cumberland County. In the 1970s the demands of the justice system could not be met by the existing Cumberland County courthouse. Daily, there was a huge jam of crowds trying to fit into two outlived courtrooms. The clutter of people grew to such proportion that the City of Fayetteville Fire Marshall declared the building to be a fire hazard, and closed it down until external fire escape stairs could be built. Even with the minor renovations, something had to be done quickly by someone to keep order in the courthouse.
As the Senior Resident Superior Court Judge, I could see the problem. I thought that I could also see the solution. I wrote a letter to the Board of County Commissioners asking for a bond issue to build a new courthouse, and asked for the bond issue to be sent to the voters at the very next election. Then I just sat back and waited. I waited for the commissioners to do their duty and fill our needs.
I had identified the problem and I bad identified the solution, but that was about it. The action of the Board of County Commissioners was crushing. Not only was the bond issue not put on the ballot, it was defeated in the Commissioners' own board meeting. The Commissioners felt very little support from the public for a "lawyers" project, and, therefore, they were not going to support it.
Months of grumbling followed but no real action. One day at lunch I chanced to meet local lawyer Ervin Baer. We chatted about how to move the courthouse project off dead center. We concluded our stumbling block was a Commissioner named Mac Gillis. While thus talking, Mac happened to walk up to us. We continued our conversation with Mac by suggesting that he become our leader for a new courthouse. After politely listening, Mac turned directly to me and said, "You are a leader! You lead!" Whereupon having spoken his piece, he walked away.
Then, it struck me! I had been laying back. I had been wanting others to do what I was in a position to do myself. I had previously just wanted to tell others of our courthouse needs, and then to leave it to anyone or "others" to accept the responsibility of leadership. Mac was right. When we have the ability to lead, we should be leaders.
This chance conversation changed everything. It lit my fire of personal responsibility. Thereafter, I worked untold hours, and even several years, on the project. But leadership for such a project is not a one-man show. There were an untold number of other civic leaders and officials who stepped up. Once all of these people came on board, the rest is history. The people of Cumberland County passed a substantial bond issue and built the new courthouse, completed in 1978. It was 5 stories tall with 10 courtrooms, and a shell floor for expansion.
In working to build a new courthouse, the concept of leadership was rather straightforward: define the objective, develop a plan to achieve the objective, and then put the plan in action by focused motivation and work. But navigating the path of leadership is not always accomplished by simply following a compass in one direction. Leadership involves understanding different ideas and being open to where those ideas might take you.
When I studied arithmetic in a two-room school in the depression years in Dortches, outside of Rocky Mount, I learned that 2 + 2 = 4. That seemed like a pretty solid idea which could not be changed; however, I learned years later during a domestic relations case that 2 + 2 does not always equal 4.
I once had an occasion to represent a man whose wife was seeking child support. In my first interview with my client, he told me that he was the father of 2 children. I knew that this was his second marriage so I asked, "How many children does your wife have?" Again, his answer was 2. I then started trying to figure out proper support for 4 children. Whereupon my client stopped me and said, "But we only have 3 children!"
In this client's case 2 + 2 =3. Further conversation revealed that my client and his current wife had given birth to one child during their marriage, both of them had a child by a pervious marriage. The husband had two children and the wife had two children, but they only had a total of three children. My client had taken one of my rock solid ideas and caused me to change my understanding of that idea. Sometimes it can be helpful to think about leadership by being open to new ideas, or directions. Thus, to be a leader, you must sometimes learn and apply material that would otherwise be new.
In 1954, long before the Rules of Civil Procedure, as you know them, were adopted, the calendaring of civil cases was pretty much controlled by the local bar, and it presented a challenge to the young lawyers in Cumberland County. We were always outmaneuvered by the old lawyers of the bar in getting our civil cases placed favorably upon the trial calendar. The dean of the bar, or the senior lawyer in attendance, usually presided over calender conferences, and if an old and a young lawyer wanted the same trial date and time, it was put to a vote of those present. The older lawyer always won out, as most of the older lawyers were present because of their larger volume of cases.
Following much conversation among the young lawyers, and my suggestion that we form a Young Lawyers Club, which, as I learned, automatically qualified me to become the ad hoc president, we began monthly luncheon meetings. Our solution to the civil calendaring problem was to have all our members attend the calendar meeting, and to outvote the older lawyers present, unless there was an equally worthy plea from the older lawyer for the same trial date.
As our Young Lawyers Club grew, we began having a member report on a new case from the advance sheets, or give a brief biography of some famous deceased legal personality. When it came to be the turn of the late Hal Broadfoot, Sr. to make a presentation, he gave a most informative and entertaining talk on the Britisher Sir Edward Cooke. Lord Cooke was Chief Justice and a champion of the Common Law. One sentence Hal used still sticks with me. Hal said, "Lord Cooke was the Albert Coates of his day." And who was Albert Coates? Why, he was a colorful and beloved law school faculty teacher at UNC at Chapel Hill and founder of the Institute of Government, and a great leader who had a new idea in adult education that he was able to turn into a reality.
Over the years my interest in continuing legal education brought new opportunities for shared leadership. As a District Attorney it was in the creating and writing a form manual for charging crimes in warrants and bills of indictments, which forms were later standardized by the Institute of Government. When the extrajudicial remedy of self help is the best foot forward, don't be afraid to tackle new things yourself, and don't ever fail to share your work with others.
As a Superior Court Judge I was fortunate to help create and publish our multiple volume set of Pattern Jury Instructions, and also our Trial Judge Bench Books for both Superior and District Courts. Later, in 1991 I helped a committee create an Operating Procedures Manual for the Court of Appeals. I would note that for the first 14 of the 17 years I worked on the P. J. I. Project, we of the committee paid our own monthly travel, food and lodging expenses. Also, I would have you remember that it was a grant from the North Carolina Bar Association Foundation in 1968 that made possible the actual publication of our first volume of instructions. While we who participated in these projects got a continuing renewal of our legal education, oh how the wives and children sacrificed.
I spoke earlier of thinking outside the box. To further the understanding of leadership responsibility, I return to the subject of the bond issue to finance a new court house in Cumberland County. After the Board of Commissioners duly approved the placing of the bond issue upon the ballot, we were still met with apathy from both the public and the bar. We still faced doubting Thomases.
Some 10 days before the election, in order to gauge the bond issue chance of passage, I made a personal survey by going to the homes and businesses of people in many varied areas of the county. My heart hung heavy as I came to the belief that "they" were not going to vote for a new building just for the lawyers to make their living in it.
Three days later I attended our bar's regularly scheduled luncheon. When called upon to make a report on the bond issue, my opening words were: "The bond issue is dead!" The silence that followed became broken by an explosions of excited voices, all wanting to talk at once. Then I said, "You, the people who will benefit the most professionally from a new courthouse, have failed to work, have failed to carry the ball, and have failed to tell the public the deplorable condition of our existing facility, and why they should exert themselves to pass a bond issue."
A middle-aged attorney interrupted, took the floor, and proclaimed to the assembled lawyers: "You and I, the lawyers who would benefit the most from a new building, are still sitting on our hands and butts, wanting a gift from the taxpayers, instead of getting out and doing a lick of leg work to pass the bond issue. We have one week left. If we ourselves would but work, we can yet pass it. Mr, President, I hereby pledge $250.00 today to help finance the mailing of a flyer campaign to carry our message, and will contact people in all clubs and businesses with which I am acquainted to get their help and vote." The response to these remarks was electrifying. By the end of that luncheon the bar had received over $6,000, with more checks arriving after a return to their offices. To the pleasant surprise of all, the bond issue passed with a strong margin of victory.
When someone has to arouse the troops to action, there often is more than one way or approach by which one can lead. One way is to just keep on trying,
I have talked today about some of my personal accomplishments. I hesitated to mention some of the things I have accomplished for fear of sounding braggadocios. But I have talked about these things for a purpose: I would like to challenge you. All of what I have accomplished can also be accomplished by you. Think about it; every bit of what I have done could have been done by you, and all of the projects I never attempted, and all the thing I left undone, can still be done by you.
Theodore Roosevelt was a man of action both in and out of public office. He once said, "Whenever you are asked if you can do a job, tell 'em 'Certainly I can!' Then get busy and find out how to do it." I believe you will agree with E. C. McKenzie who said, "Leaders are ordinary people with extraordinary determination." Find yourself a project, and meet its needs.
I am an ordinary person. While I have the special trait of having been granted a bar license and the privilege to practice law in the State of North Carolina, leadership does not require a license. As you think about my accomplishments, think about how much more you can accomplish. As I was told, "You are a leader! You lead!" I am now telling you, "You are leaders! You lead!"