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PRESIDENT 2003-04
James L. Baillie: Building a Culture of Service MSBA
President Jim Baillie has established an impressive track
record by Amy Lindgren Anthony Waldera, CEO of Minneapolis-based Colorbrite, walked into Jim Baillie's office at Fredrikson & Byron in 1999 prepared to file for bankruptcy. As part of a rapidly changing and fiercely competitive industry, the 30-year-old graphic arts firm had struggled through most of the 1990s. Now with 115 employees to pay and no upturn in sight, Waldera knew what he had to do, and he knew what it would cost him: $300,000 in attorney's fees, at a conservative estimate. Imagine his surprise then, when bankruptcy attorney Jim Baillie advised him against the filing, convincing him instead to persevere in the company. That advice, which came out of a series of evaluative meetings Baillie conducted, and which cost $10,000, resulted in a turnaround for Colorbrite. The company prospered in its next three years, attracted the attention of a large national company, and sold at the beginning of 2003 for $10 million. Waldera still marvels at that course of events, and in particular, Baillie's refusal to take the larger sum of money. "I took his recommendation, which was completely against his own self-interest," Waldera says. "He's a fabulous attorney. He's what I would call a professional's professional." Glowing praise, yes, but also bittersweet. Behind Waldera's evident pleasure in Baillie's good service lies a backdrop of surprise that an attorney would act in a client's best interest rather than his own. And behind that backdrop lurks a pervasive public impression that lawyers are more concerned with money than with serving justice. That ill-founded image is something Baillie, the new president of the Minnesota State Bar Association, has committed his career to changing. Improving Access More accurately, it's not the public's impression of lawyers that holds Baillie's attention, but the public's access to lawyers. Since 1980, when he learned of then-President Reagan's initiative to eliminate funding for public legal services, Baillie has thrown himself into organizing efforts to strengthen those services. Thousands of volunteer hours have gone into committees, lectures, manuals and articles, all with the purpose of creating an unshakable pro bono system. Bruce Beneke, executive director of Southern Minnesota Regional Legal Services, has worked with Baillie on this objective since 1981 when both signed on to the newly formed Legal Assistance for the Disadvantaged (lad) committee of the MSBA. Working with the seven legal aid programs in the state, Baillie and others were able to secure the first state funding for legal services. By then the Minnesota bar had recognized the need for civil legal services but, as Beneke recalls, "there wasn't any organized volunteer effort to meet that need. Jim was instrumental in creating a statewide network of volunteer programs. We had a pretty good start in St. Paul and Minneapolis, but Jim extended it throughout Minnesota." Jerry Lane assumed his position as executive director of Mid-Minnesota Legal Assistance in 1980, "just in time to have a whole lot of lean years" in the effort to provide legal services to low-income clients. He had already worked with Baillie in another volunteer capacity, on the Debtor-Creditor Committee of the Hennepin County Bar Association which Baillie chaired in the late 1970s. The committee's charge was to work closely with banks, debt collectors, judges, and consumers to rewrite the statutes governing debtor-creditor law. From that experience, Lane came to see Baillie as a balanced, mediating presence on even the most difficult issues. He also came to enjoy his efficient, task-oriented nature. "We can be pretty confident that any meeting Jim chairs is going to be productive and is not going to waste time," Lane says. "As someone who doesn't have much time to waste, I appreciate that." Both Lane and Beneke see the current climate as a challenge to legal services programs, and both are grateful to have Baillie's attention on this issue. With budget cuts reducing the number of legal services attorneys statewide from 178 to 118, low-income access to an attorney is deeply threatened. For his part, Baillie is not content simply to protect the systems that currently exist. He plans to strengthen them by adding business law to the slate of legal services an indigent client can receive for free. Business Law Pro Bono According to Debbie Segal, Pro Bono Partner at Kilpatrick Stockton llp in Atlanta, it's an idea whose time has come. She served with Baillie when he led the aba's Standing Committee on Pro Bono, a chair she currently fills. In her various roles related to pro bono issues, Segal has heard business lawyers say that they want to volunteer their services, but not in family law or litigation. They want to work within their expertise. Recognizing that need, Baillie created a manual for bankruptcy lawyers to help them provide pro bono services in their own field. He also plans to bring forward this issue as a part of MSBA's work plan in the coming year, with the hope of increasing the opportunities for business lawyers to volunteer their services without encroaching on the work of the practicing bar. Building such an infrastructure goes to the heart of Baillie's problem-solving process. Seeing a need for service, he doesn't stop at providing the service himself. His goal, and method, has always been to create the system or process that will allow multiples of lawyers to serve as many low-income clients as possible. To that end, he has led teams of volunteers in creating manuals, starter kits, and even challenge programs to enable large law firms to institutionalize the delivery of pro bono services. A frequent speaker at Bar events and gatherings of attorneys, Baillie's repertoire of speeches includes several on how to start or operate a pro bono program. His efforts have not gone unnoticed. In the past two decades, Baillie has received numerous awards, including one each from the aba, the MSBA, and the Hennepin County Bar Association, all organizations in which he has taken a leadership role. Culture of Service Ask Baillie why he's doing all this and the answer may surprise you. Yes, he wants to increase access to justice for everyone in the system. But this may be one time when the lawyer is acting more from self-interest than from generosity. It's not the clients Baillie is hoping to impact through pro bono services. It's the lawyers. Here's the script Baillie says is repeated often in the meetings he attends: "When we get to a difficult question, someone will say, ...'We need to go back to basics here. Why are we doing this? What are we trying to accomplish?' And the first answer will be, ... 'It's the clients. These are the people who don't have legal services and this is critically important and we need to respond' and everyone will agree and the conversation will be almost over and I'll say, ...'Well, no. There is a second goal as far as I'm concerned, and that is to affect our own culture. We want to carry on this tradition of doing this kind of work. It will be good for our profession if we are doing this, and it will be good for the future of our profession.' A significant goal of mine is to affect the culture of the profession." After delivering such a serious speech, Baillie can't help laughing. "You don't expect to actually achieve this, not all by yourself," he says. "Small measurable improvements are the goal. Even if you could persuade yourself that it's better than it would have been if you hadn't made the effort -- that's enough." Why does Baillie care so much about improving the culture of the profession? The answer has several parts. On the surface, it's very simple: He takes joy in good lawyering and in the development of good lawyers, an objective that he believes can be furthered through pro bono service. The larger answer runs deeper, and further back in Baillie's life. At the University of Chicago he studied history, including a class from the Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Daniel Boorstin. From Boorstin he learned to reevaluate the concept of community. His professor was seeing a movement away from communities based on geographic proximity and towards communities built around common interests or vocation. The lesson stayed with Baillie and emerged in a surprising place 20 years after that class. In 1984, after 16 years as a practicing bankruptcy attorney, Baillie attended his first aba convention. Out of curiosity, he stopped into a section meeting which turned out to be an energetic group of bankruptcy attorneys from around the country, happily and loudly talking away at breakneck speed. For the somewhat reticent Baillie, who was still a department of one in his own firm, it was a delightful immersion into a community of people who had exactly the same concerns and experiences. "I remember thinking, ...Hey, we all think alike.'" Baillie says now. "It was like having 20 twin brothers. I felt like I'd known these people all my life, and it was jabber, jabber, jabber. It was so much fun." Not long after, Baillie began making some connections in his professional life between the legal service programs he was trying to strengthen and the inspiring vigor he saw in the community of business lawyers nationwide. Interweaving those two areas has been a constant theme for Baillie over the past 20 years, as he has taken higher leadership posts in bar associations while also overseeing the development of a full bankruptcy department at his firm. Setting High Standards Now as incoming MSBA president, Baillie brings with him the benefit of his expansive knowledge of national legal issues, as well as his very detailed understanding of Minnesota's legal landscape. And, though Baillie is undeniably shaped by his commitment to pro bono and legal services, he is planning a program of work for the year which encompasses a much broader scope. Among the issues he and the Executive Committee have identified as needing attention are legislative initiatives, judicial selection, ethics, and continuing assistance for practicing attorneys through MSBA-sponsored tools such as the website Practicelaw.org. He doesn't expect the year to be easy, particularly in terms of time management. Already he is planning to treat the presidency as a half-time job, even while maintaining a nearly full-time load in his practice. In some cases, the commitment may mean he draws back from leadership on other committees, a prospect he views with some enthusiasm. It's not that he's so eager to let go, but rather, that he wants to give other attorneys room to step forward. A long-time sports coach (see "Grappling with the Law," below), Baillie can't shake the habit of building the bench. And, again, he says he is acting from a form of self-interest. When others lead, Baillie says, he learns. Throughout his career and his work on committees, he has grown from watching others. In fact, when asked for heroes, he cites two people he has observed closely over the years. One is John H. Pickering, a founding partner of the national firm, Wilmer, Cutler and Pickering and, in his 80s, still a tireless participant in aba activities. "I am constantly admiring his contribution to the profession, and to the larger world," Baillie says. "He is so effective, and so articulate, and he cares about the same kinds of issues that I do." Baillie also keeps his eye on W. Reece Smith Jr., a past aba president who, in his late 70s, is still "really being an influence and a strong spokesman for things that are important." At 60, Baillie might be a whippersnapper compared to his heroes, but he's still at an age when others contemplate retirement. That's not something he has been planning, although he says he could envision private practice evolving into public service -- which sounds exactly like what he's doing now. In fact, Baillie believes that the mix of private and public service is the solution to any number of career woes. Here are his words on the subject from the June 1997 issue of Hennepin Lawyer, the magazine of the Hennepin County Bar Association:
If Baillie sets a high standard for himself and his fellow lawyers, it's because he knows the goal is worth achieving, and that everyone -- attorneys, clients, and the broader community -- will be improved by the effort. Many law students end up working during law school, although that was less true in the '60s when Jim Baillie was studying at the University of Chicago. But even if some of Baillie's classmates worked, their jobs were unlikely to rival his for sheer character-building. Baillie's law school job was to help rebuild the wrestling team at the University of Chicago, an NCAA Division III school. The story of the team's climb back to respectable standing starts with its fall from grace, which really starts with Chicago's controversial decision to drop its football team and to relinquish a coveted place in the Big Ten. Confused? It's like this: When the University ended the football program, some administrators disagreed with the decision. Hoping to overturn it, and wanting to be prepared for that eventuality, they hired a new football coach and put him in charge of the wrestling team. Unfortunately for the hapless wrestlers, the coach didn't like their sport and, as Baillie recalls, "was not a nice man." The team faltered under his direction, dwindling at one point to just four: Baillie and his friend Clifford Cox, who had served as cocaptains all four years, and two other wrestlers. At the end of senior year for the four, the coach was fired and it looked like wrestling at Chicago could die a premature death. Until, that is, the administration realized that both cocaptains were sticking around for graduate school, Baillie for law and Cox for business. At the athletic director's invitation, the two kept up their partnership as leaders. Cox took on the mantle of head wrestling coach for his two years of graduate school and Baillie worked beside him as assistant coach. After Cox graduated, Baillie rounded out his third year of law school as head coach, hiring another graduate student to be his assistant. And how did the team do in those three transition years? Well, they didn't win any national awards, but they didn't embarrass themselves either. After a two-year struggle to attract and keep a team, Cox and Baillie managed to rebuild to 20 wrestlers. By the time Baillie was leading the team, the Maroons were actually winning more than losing -- for the first time in seven years. In fact, Baillie recalls, they had the best win-loss record in more than a decade. "We put up a good match everywhere we went," Baillie says now. "Coaches who had counted us out were saying ...Who are these guys?' It was fun to sneak up on them and win -- and to be competitive for a change." The Cox-Baillie era put the team back on its feet and rekindled a spark. Today the Maroons are well-respected nationally and attract high-level competitors. The experience changed the fledgling coaches as well. Among the other lessons they learned, the two friends discovered first hand the challenge of training student athletes. "These guys have to get to chemistry lab," Baillie recalls thinking. "They want to get into med school. So we have to find just one thing they can work on now, just one thing to improve. And so that was the issue: How can you make a measurable improvement right now?" It's a habit of thinking Baillie has taken into his law career, along with a number of other lessons from his coaching and wrestling days. "It affected me a lot," Baillie says, "that experience of thinking about how you coach young athletes to be better. I've talked to people since and tried to tell them that wrestling is just like life. Or life is just like wrestling. Part of the conventional thinking is that it's just the two of you out on the mat and there's no bluffing, no making it up, no excuse for losing. I don't care how good you are, there's somebody else that's about as good and you're likely to meet. People who never lose are so, so rare and they're usually not arrogant about it because they know the next match will prove them wrong." Losing is something the Maroons did a lot of, and Baillie learned about leadership as he encouraged each team member to push through seasons with few fans and fewer wins, focusing on self-improvement instead of trophies. Those wrestlers are still impressed on Baillie's mind, and he can recite a biography of each "kid", starting with his weight. Let's see, at the smallest weight class was the little African-American kid from inner city Chicago: whippet fast, very smart, a math major. At the next weight class was the short, stocky Jewish kid whose father was a nuclear physicist at Brookhaven on Long Island and who wrestled well in every match because he made so few mistakes. And so it goes, up to the heavyweight. Each face and the personality behind it have stayed with Baillie, even though his "kids" are pushing 60 now. He coached his own sons as well and Craig, now 33, recently surprised his father with a photo of the senior Baillie instructing him at about age 8, dressed in his wrestling singlet and listening intently to his father's words. The gift brought tears to his eyes, Baillie says, partly because it captures so well the relationship a coach has with his wrestlers, as well as the bond between father and son. Asked if he would coach again, Baillie gives the expected answer: Sure. But returning to that effort is not going to happen anytime soon, given the weight of his other activities. If Baillie's days on the mat are past, he's still a wrestler of sorts, and still a coach. These days it's legal issues that he grapples with, and teams of lawyers he cajoles into higher levels of effort as volunteers and committee members. He doesn't keep a win-loss record and there's no national competition to strive for. But if he's successful in reaching his goals, particularly in the safeguarding of legal services for the disadvantaged, he will leave a legacy of justice and public service, and a framework to allow other attorneys to follow in his steps. Biography of Jim Baillie Education
Professional
Bar Leadership American Bar Association
Minnesota State Bar Association
Hennepin County Bar Association
Other Law-related Volunteerism
Awards and Achievements
Other Interests
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