Sara Jane Baldwin
Sara Jane Baldwin is a senior staff attorney at Gender Justice in St. Paul. She lives in Duluth, MN and is a proud graduate of Macalester College and Georgetown Law.
sarajane.baldwin@genderjustice.us
As an attorney who has spent much of my career in civil legal services and public defense, the most unexpected skill I’ve developed is how to use my privilege and personal connections to connect clients to services. This is often far more important than any sort of legal savvy that might be needed to achieve a good result in a client’s case. As a society, we criminalize and penalize poverty and trauma. This results in legal consequences like evictions, lost parenting time, and of course, misdemeanor charges and convictions. I’ve found that if you can help someone stabilize their life, you can help them avoid the courthouse. The reality is that our systems are not always robust enough to help people on the front end. We’ve decided the best way to get someone services is to punish them first, and then let the courts “divert” them to the help they need. I am glad that I have obtained skills and connections that often get better results than any litigation maneuver. True justice often comes from being compassionate and thinking outside the box, not from filing the best legal brief.
Rick Linsk
Rick Linsk is an assistant attorney general for the Minnesota Attorney General’s Office, Charities Division, where he helps enforce compliance with Minnesota law by nonprofit organizations, soliciting charities, and charitable trusts. Before his second career in law, he was a journalist.
rick.linsk@ag.state.mn.us
The most unexpected skill I hope I’ve developed since becoming a lawyer is arguably not even a skill, and it runs counter to what you might expect from a lawyer. I have an increasing appreciation for the value and importance of relationships. Yes, lawyers need to learn the law, and write, and argue, and bring in business if you’re in private practice (or alternatively, serve the public interest if you’re a government attorney like me)—but the best practice I can imagine is dependent on relationships. The world runs on relationships.
They don’t necessarily teach you this in law school, and you might not even learn it growing up. I have been fortunate to learn this by experience and observation in my 16-year-long second career as a lawyer. “The work” is important as you progress in your field, but don’t just keep your head down at the desk churning away at it. Also keep in mind your relationships: Seek them out, pay attention to them, nurture them, have fun with them, and repair them if and when necessary. That includes your mentors, role models, friends new and old, family, and more. It extends to nonlawyer staff, including people without whom you could not function. Appreciate them! They will not only help you have a life outside of law practice; they will make you a better person and hence a better lawyer. It’s not easy, it takes time, and you will fall off the track occasionally, but nevertheless it’s essential. Thanks for the opportunity to say this.
Jean Gustafson
Jean Gustafson practices family law and guardianship in Greater Minnesota. She is the recipient of the Lavender Bar Greater Minnesota fellowship and has presented elder law legal education for the MSBA, Lavender Bar Convention, and Elder Law Institute, as well as the National Association for Legal Assistants. Gustafson lives with her wife in Greater Minnesota.
Jeangustafson11@gmail.com
Of all the many skills I’ve developed since becoming an attorney, financial literacy is the most unexpected. I came to law school with little to no financial acumen, having only taken a consumer mathematics course in high school, with no mathematics courses in college. Financial education wasn’t a part of the regular law school curriculum when I graduated from UND School of Law. I fell into a traditional marriage where my former husband handled our personal and joint law practice finances. He spoke of watching his parents running their business and I figured he had learned something from them, so I was happy for him to handle our financial matters. Despite my lack of financial acumen, I navigated toward the business section of any newspaper, including a subscription to the New York Times. While I didn’t understand many of the terms, I realized that business is like drama, ever changing and ever creating, for good and bad.
Following my divorce, I moved my practice to Brainerd after my dear friend and colleague Pat held out a key to the office in her hand and said, “You belong here.” I was starting my own private practice, not having paid a bill or balanced my checkbook for years. I was terrified about handling my own trust account, not to mention discovering how to pay for office rent, telephone, computers, office supplies, and various other items that a good law firm requires. I realized then that law schools should provide financial education for students considering private practice.
So I figured that I had to learn financial literacy skills on my own. I obtained an advisor with a financial services firm. Seth gave me his time and one of my first questions was whether a gym membership at the local YMCA was financially savvy. Surprisingly, he was ecstatic about my choice of regular exercise, which gave me a boost to continue making more financial decisions.
I also reached out for business help to my local community college and was assigned a SCORE volunteer who gave me ideas on how to run my business—as did local businesspeople I took out to lunch. I found a good community bank and worked with them, especially their loan officers, a few of whom have left banking and are now some of my best friends. I found a good tax preparer.
I met an attorney at a seminar who had an illustrious career defending criminals in Los Angeles. He told me to never forget to take care of my finances, which he claimed he did. With that knowledge, I invested in a retirement portfolio as well as real estate.
Financial literacy is a key skill for lawyers, especially those who engage in private practice, and vital to all lawyers in planning for retirement.