In Hamilton, King George asks in song, “What Comes Next?” It is a question that leaders interested in the continuity and longevity of their organizations address. In our profession, the answer to that question will be shaped, at least in part, by who is entering it.
Happy Valentine’s Day. Today is a holiday when people traditionally express their love through greetings, gifts, and, importantly, sharing their time together. When periodically thinking about that concept in terms of our legal community, several different things have come to mind. But one consistently pops up: Tom Homann dinners.
As we approach Super Bowl weekend, I am slowly coming to grips with the fact that this is another year when the Bills will not be the league champs. Growing up in Buffalo, I was around a lot of sports fans who had something akin to Charlie Brown’s “I got a rock” approach to their teams. Like San Diego, Buffalo has never won a championship in Major League Baseball, the National Football League, the National Hockey League, or the National Basketball Association. Perhaps fittingly, Buffalo’s NBA team left the city in 1978 to come to San Diego, before ultimately departing for Los Angeles. In fact, no city has gone more seasons without a championship than Buffalo. But that made me admire all the more the athletes that competed in my city. They had resilience.
I have been around a lot of discussions about leadership lately. In consecutive weekends, our board had its annual retreat and then I attended the California Lawyers Association leadership conference. And, as referenced below, the San Diego County Bar Association launched its leadership academy, a project that has been years in the making. During one of my many conversations, somebody solicited some leadership secrets, a phrase that triggered my memory of a fun read from many years ago.
Sometimes a small dose of civility has a tremendous long-term effect. When I first started practicing, I had a pretty nice string of law-and-motion victories. In part, that was because I had been tossed a few softballs; the supervising lawyers at my firm realized that morale in their newer lawyers was important.
It was 1980-something, and I was fascinated by stories about the Marine Corps. That was probably related to my father’s service. One film that stood out to me was Heartbreak Ridge. That was in no small part due to Clint Eastwood’s character, Gunnery Sergeant Tom Highway. For those who are not familiar with the film but know the actor’s work, imagine what kind of personality you would expect from the character. Have it in mind? Yep, that’s exactly it.
Some people describe the changing of leadership as the passing of a baton. That is especially true in an organization like this, where presidential terms are limited to a single year.
This marks my last President’s Message for This Week at the Bar. I went back and forth over the last few weeks thinking about what to say and realized there could only be one thing: Thank you.
Thank you to everyone who attended last week’s Stepping Up to the Bar. It was wonderful to see everyone in person and celebrate the holidays together. As we close out 2021, I wanted to share with you all just a few of the incredible accomplishments of the volunteer leaders and staff this past year:
“Hello December! You’re the last one, so be the best one!” Not only is it the last month of the year, but it is also the last month of my term as President of the SDCBA. What a ride it has been, and I’m so grateful to have taken the journey with you all.
