About 15 years ago, then Massachusetts Bar Association President
Marylin A. Beck appointed me to the Ethics Committee, chaired then
and now by the estimable and venerable Andrew L. Kaufman, longtime
professor at Harvard Law School, first-rate intellect and genuinely
good guy. Carol A. G. DiMento, who later became MBA president, had
recommended me to Beck. DiMento and Beck thus got me started on my
active MBA involvement, for which I thank them. Kaufman has been a
great and important mentor to me, whether he realizes it or not.
His combined equanimity, intellect, objectivity, wit and energy are
a marvel. As chair of the Ethics Committee, he has served the MBA
in relative obscurity, overseeing the provision of important advice
to confidential inquirers seeking guidance on ethics matters. He is
a model for all regarding the essence of professionalism and
volunteerism.
Len Clarkin, former Providence College hockey great and
outstanding trial and business lawyer, has been a good friend for
more than 30 years. He and I have worked on many cases together,
including trying a lengthy trust matter in the Probate Court and
successfully prevailing on appeal thereafter. Clarkin is the
consummate professional. His sense of context and proportion is
always spot on. I have learned much from him, not just about the
practice of law but also about life in general. I owe him a
considerable debt.
Robert P. Panneton, longtime chief of staff in the trial court
administrative office, recently retired after a lifetime of service
in our court system. I first met Bob in 1973 when he was working in
the Essex Superior Court Clerk's Office in Salem. I was privileged
to speak at his retirement event in Boston (also the retirement
event for Chief Justice of the Trial Court Robert A. Mulligan and
Massachusetts Sentencing Commission Executive Director Frank J.
Carney). Panneton always got it as a public servant. He recognized
throughout his career that the public were his clients. While
supremely competent, his strongest contribution to our court system
was the example he set by his hard work and his consistent
treatment of everyone with dignity and respect. His retirement is a
loss to our court system, but his legacy will remain. I have
learned much from him, as well, for which I am grateful.
I will not name others, for fear of leaving someone out, but I owe
a great debt of gratitude to my MBA officer colleagues, present and
past, to many lawyers, family, law firm colleagues, friends,
acquaintances, judges, clerks, legislators and loyal clients,
without whose support I could not have done much of anything in my
career. Being an officer of the MBA has been a great honor, and I
have been fortunate to have received personal support from all of
the staff at the MBA over the years.
I am grateful for the support of the MBA's membership, affiliated
bar associations and their leaders. Their response to the
initiatives of the MBA officers and other leadership has been
overwhelmingly positive. Many of you have reached out to me in
person, by letter, by telephone and by e-mail, with positive,
supportive feedback. I am humbled by this response.
As many of you know, I am fond of telling stories. So I will close
with two: one true, the other a well-known joke.
At a recent Federal Bar Association judicial reception I got to
play the piano a bit (as most of you know, I rarely turn down any
such opportunity). This led to a conversation with retired Judge
Paul A. Chernoff, before whom I had the privilege of appearing when
he was on the bench. He and I talked about our common interest in
Mozart, even though I was playing mostly improvised knock-offs of
Thelonious Monk, Miles Davis and Billy Taylor. We briefly discussed
that while Mozart wrote extraordinary melodies, he also was a great
improviser.
This encounter with Chernoff caused me to reflect on my penchant
for stating that my life has consisted largely of making lists and
making and renewing connections. And no matter how good a list may
be or how good the revisions thereof, you still have to be able to
react and adapt, to improvise. Being able to do so comes from
attention to craft, accumulated experience and, most of all, hard
work.
Now the joke, familiar to most of you and rumored to be rooted in
fact. A pedestrian is in mid-town Manhattan and asks a New Yorker
how to get to Carnegie Hall. The New Yorker says, "practice." It's
a good joke, I think, and good advice.
My experience at the MBA - on the Ethics Committee, chair of the
Civil Litigation Section Council, Executive Management Board,
Budget and Finance, and the various officer positions - has
connected me with many dedicated volunteers, committed to our great
profession. Their hard work and enthusiasm have been an inspiration
to me and have helped make me, I think, a better lawyer and a
better person.
Someone - I do not recall who - when comparing Beethoven and
Mozart, observed that Beethoven broke with conventions in music,
being extraordinarily inventive. Mozart, by contrast, more often
stayed within existing conventions: he simply did so better than
anyone before or since.
During the many years I have been active in the MBA, I have heard
many good ideas from many people. Like all successful
organizations, the MBA is not short on good ideas. The challenge is
to take those ideas, create a plan of implementation and execution,
and carry out the plan. By making lists and following through,
success is more likely. With Mozart as our example, we need to
strive to do what we do better than others. That is our challenge
on an ongoing basis - each and every day.
I suggest that my Mozart conversation with Chernoff was about
craft, even though that word never was spoken. More important, like
pretty much everything else I have experienced as a lawyer and as
an MBA volunteer, that conversation was fun for me.
Thanks to all of you for letting me be part of the conversation
with you over the years. It has been enjoyable and instructive. You
have given me more than I ever could give in return. That pretty
much sums it up.