The Senior Lawyers and Judges section harnesses the wisdom and experience of our senior lawyers, who helped make Minnesota the legal giant it is today.
By Barbara Jones
Ramsey County lawyers, we’re here for you.
By "we," I mean the Senior Lawyers and Judges Section, a relatively new section for lawyers who have been admitted to the Bar for 37 years or more, or are over 62 years old. You’re auto-enrolled, and it costs you nothing. You are a part of our mission: the number one priority in our mission statement is “service to the community and the legal profession by utilizing the extensive knowledge, experience, and wisdom of Section members to guide and serve for the common good.”
And if you haven’t got the requisite number of years of practice, or of living, under your belt, that’s okay! We are always looking for ways to partner with other sections, or to provide events/CLEs that are of general interest to the legal community.
Our elders helped make Minnesota the legal giant it is today. Their extensive wisdom, expertise, and institutional memory is a treasure. We needed a section to represent their needs and interests to the Bar Association. The Senior Lawyers and Judges Section does just that: it channels all the talent that could be lost forever.
The section was created by its present chair, Kathleen Murphy, a Minneapolis lawyer. She was joined by Cliff Greene, Larry Baill, Roy Ginsburg, John Orenstein, Marlene Garvis, and me, Barbara Jones. We launched the section in April of 2021, and we are committed to finding programming and activities that will serve you and the profession as a whole.
Murphy created the section by recruiting officers. “I noticed that with the rapidly shifting age demographic in the legal community, elder lawyers and judges were being overlooked as they reached their senior years," she said. "Our elders helped make Minnesota the legal giant it is today. Their extensive wisdom, expertise, and institutional memory is a treasure. We needed a section to represent their needs and interests to the Bar Association. The Senior Lawyers and Judges Section does just that: it channels all the talent that could be lost forever.
“Senior lawyers and judges want to both give and receive. The world of internet technology, communication, court appearances and the practice of law in general has changed dramatically. Senior members want to learn from our younger colleagues. The potential for collaboration here is boundless,” Murphy said. The Section has ruefully recognized that some of us may need to cede the field of technology to our younger colleagues and we hope for their patience. We think we have wisdom to trade.
We started our programming with a panel discussion of “who am I if I am not a lawyer anymore,” with several lawyers and judges who are finding ways to be retired, through projects as large as writing a novel, or as quotidian as babysitting grandchildren. We don’t want retirement to be competitive but we want our colleagues to feel connected and fulfilled.
Senior members want to learn from our younger colleagues. The potential for collaboration here is boundless.
If you are reading this you likely have read “The Best of What’s to Come," which ran March 29 in the Barrister. In his article, based on a CLE we held in February, Dr. David Alter reminds us that when it comes to the brain and body, “use it or lose it” is good advice.
The SLJ section knows that while you want to take care of yourself and enjoy your leisure, you also want to give back, be it to society at large or the profession. That’s why we’ve varied our programming to range from personal wellness to Zoom court appearances to implicit bias. It’s also why we’ve made room for fun, such as our current project of pairing up musicians who would like to play together. We got going during the Covid shutdown, so much of what we’ve done has been virtual, but we did have an in-person event with the new lawyers section that combined craft brews and discussion of marketing.
But in any event, fun is important. As Alter has taught us, “play involves adaptive mental flexibility, as roles and rules continuously change to enhance pleasure. This is a huge difference from daily adherence to the rule-bound, logical, and evidence-based cognitive domain of the law.”
The word play can also mean any type of creative activity—writing, painting, gardening and so forth, but those are more solitary. We want to connect, be it pickleball or piano. Another way to look at it is that we want to help members engage both sides of the brain, not just the legal left side.
“Therein lies the challenge when facing the transition(s) to retirement. This phase of life is so unlike the one that came before it. Your daily routines can feel unrecognizable. If determining the path forward depended entirely on the application of left hemisphere processing, we would likely encounter the proverbial definition of insanity: we would be attempting the same thing over and over again while expecting different results,” Alter wrote.
So take a walk on the right side. “This part of the brain is sensitive to the emotional and relational dimensions of daily existence and shows a clear preference for what can be experienced directly as opposed to what can be conceptualized or objectively analyzed through a detached, impartial observing stance,” Alter wrote. (A sharp intake of breath here, as an unfamiliar topic is introduced!) “A right hemisphere-based triplet can be useful. This triplet involves the value of uncertainty, curiosity, and discovery. Learning to embrace uncertainty about the future fosters curiosity. An ‘I wonder...’ perspective emerges.”
Looking for ways to get into an "I wonder" headspace? The SLJ section’s purpose is to provide opportunities for senior lawyers and judges to connect, to give back and to be curious; to satisfy that curiously or find other paths for your right brain.
Our message is for senior lawyers and judges, but not exclusively. Our members intend to forge and protect the connections with colleagues that have made life meaningful, with their insight and experience. We are also looking forward to new connections. Senior lawyers and judges will provide knowledge and advice, when it’s asked for, and we senior lawyers look forward to meeting you!
Barbara Jones practiced law for about 15 years and then joined Minnesota Lawyer newspaper, where she stayed for 20 years until “retirement,” as it were, in 2020. She is a 1982 graduate of William Mitchell College of Law. She is now a freelance journalist living in St. Paul.
Interested in joining the Senior Lawyers & Judges Section? Contact Kara Haro at kharo@mnbars.org for more information.