Service with a Smile

President’s Message from the Summer 2024 issue of The Federal Lawyer

I love this old Chinese proverb: “If you want happiness for an hour, take a nap. If you want happiness for a day, go fishing. If you want happiness for a year, inherit a fortune. If you want happiness for a lifetime, help somebody.”

Dozens of modern scientific studies back this up — those who provide volunteer service have “less depression, less anxiety, higher self-esteem, higher life satisfaction, greater happiness and greater sense of meaning in life.” They also enjoy better physical health, so those who serve others not only live happier, they may even live longer.[i]

In late May I flew to Washington, D.C. with my family to see the city and participate in the FBA’s Supreme Court admissions ceremony, an annual event organized by our wonderful Younger Lawyers Division. A small group of lucky FBA members has the opportunity to meet with a Supreme Court Justice in one of the Court’s reception rooms and then be sworn in before the full Court in the most important courtroom in the land. Making the motion for admission is one of the highest honors an FBA President experiences. In typical YLD fashion, the group spent the previous evening at the DC Central Kitchen serving food to the less fortunate.

Service became the theme of my visit. Our family visited Arlington National Cemetery on what turned out to be “Flowers of Remembrance Day.” Anyone who wishes to do so has the privilege of laying a flower in front of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier to honor the service of the brave men and women who have given their lives defending our great nation. That was a powerful moment for me.

Visits to other DC memorials brought to mind quotes about service, like this wisdom from Dr. King: “Life’s most persistent and urgent question is: ‘What are you doing for others?’” Abraham Lincoln put it this way: “To ease another’s heartache is to forget one’s own.” The desire to serve is what motivated many of us to become lawyers—an opportunity to serve those who need an advocate.

The FBA provides a platform for such service. In fact, the FBA’s mission is service-focused. We “strengthen the federal legal system and administration of justice by serving the interests and the needs of the federal practitioner, both public and private, the federal judiciary and the public they serve.”

I love that our mission statement encourages us to serve the interests and needs of our federal judiciary to better allow our judges to serve the public.  FBA practitioners fulfill that role in many ways, from high quality CLE featuring federal judges to lobbying Congress on behalf of the judiciary on matters like judicial funding, adequate judgeships and judicial security.

Over the years, I have had many experiences that underscored the importance of some of our best and brightest lawyers choosing to become judicial public servants over other potentially easier and more lucrative career paths.

For example, years ago, I was part of a small group of lawyers that gathered every month or so for breakfast. We talked about our legal practices, shared war stories, and, as we got to know each other better, we shared more personal (and far more important) stories about our families and our lives. One member of the group told us that his dream was to become a judge someday because he felt like judges served people in unique and important ways. He said that he had been saving his money carefully so that he could afford to make the move when the time was right.

Sure enough, a few years later, he was nominated and confirmed to become a state court judge. He has served in that role with distinction for many years.

After his appointment, he no longer participated in the group meetings. We would see him occasionally at Bar functions and when we appeared before him.

The moment when I truly understood his attitude towards public service came during a trial a few years ago. It was a week-long bench trial with over $10 million at stake. One morning as we prepared to put on our next witness, he told us that we would be taking an additional afternoon break because he had a matter of utmost importance.

Shortly before that appointed time, I heard doors open and looked back to see two young boys, somewhat uncomfortably dressed in suits and ties, walking slowly into the courtroom. Just behind them was a young couple. The couple looked both happy and nervous. The judge called for a recess and left the bench. The bailiff invited the kids to the well. They shyly shuffled to the front of the courtroom. Just then, the door next to the jury box opened, and there was the judge, no longer wearing a robe. He beckoned the kids over to him, got down on one knee so he could look at them in the eye, and said, with a smile, “Hi boys, I’m Todd. Are you ready to be adopted?!”

They cautiously smiled back and nodded. The judge took them back to his chambers. A few minutes later, the boys came into the courtroom through that same door, now absolutely beaming. They ran to their parents and gave them a big hug and, holding hands, they left the courtroom as a family.

The judge re-entered the courtroom, this time with his robe on, and said to us with a smile, “now that is why I became judge.”

Judges throughout the country provide countless hours of public service, some of those hours doubtlessly more enjoyable than others. Increasingly, it is becoming an often thankless and even sometimes dangerous occupation, leading the FBA to prioritize judicial security as one of our top government relations priorities. Yet judges continue to serve. Our judicial system, our constitutional system of government, needs them. They are mandatory public servants.

Judicial service can take many forms. In recent decades, hundreds of judges, both state and federal, have devoted their time and their boundless energy to specialty courts. Specialty courts, such as Veteran’s Courts, Mental Health Courts and Drug Courts, are often judge-initiated and require additional work outside of managing an often-heavy caseload.

In some ways, specialty courts represent judges doing pro bono work to help those who often need the help the most yet are the most challenging to help because of their circumstances.

In early April, I attended the FBA’s Indian Law Conference in New Mexico. It is the FBA’s highest-attended event, representing the largest annual gathering of lawyers and judges working to assist Native Americans. I quickly learned that the issues that group faces every day are some of the most legally complex and emotion-charged any lawyer or judge faces anywhere. While the presentations were first-rate and fascinating, the stories told there of unmet basic needs, including in my home state of Utah, were heart-wrenching.

A few weeks after the Indian Law conference, I attended an FBA Awards Dinner back in Salt Lake City. I was deeply moved to hear that Utah’s federal judges and others, led by Magistrate Judge Dustin Pead, had both initiated and supported a new specialty court—the Tribal Community Reentry Court.  The TCRC is intended to reduce a recidivism rate that has been at nearly 80% within five years of release. As a direct result of the TCRC, that rate is now down to 6%, a promising success story leading other states to implement similar programs.[ii]

Utah Chief Judge Robert Shelby paid tribute to Judge Pead’s leadership over the Tribal Re-Entry Court, lauding his passion for work done in one of the most remote places in the country, on Navajo Nation land with distressingly limited resources:

“Each month, Judge Pead takes three days to drive to Aneth, Utah and meet with his pre- and post-trial participants.  His courtroom deputy, Teri, estimates that he has logged 80 to 100,000 miles on his car driving down and back to meet with his roughly 25 participants in the program at any given time.  As his staff and the Involved USPOs attest, Judge Pead knows every detail about those 25 people—their names, their circumstances, their family members.  He has forged deep and meaningful personal relationships with each of them.

Judge Pead invests his soul into this program and this community. As an example, one of the participants was living in an uninhabitable house. Judge Pead spent the better part of a day helping clean that home and restore it to a habitable condition.

Of the nearly 70 participants since the TCRC started, only four have failed out of the Court. It is an astonishing outcome, which has had a significant positive impact on public safety and changed many lives for the better.

I share this level of detail about the Tribal Re-Entry Court not because of the importance of the Court and Judge Pead’s work – though as I have said, it is incredibly important and impactful. I share this with you because it exemplifies the way Judge Pead does his work, with personal compassion and empathy, with selfless devotion and care, with humility and passion, and with maximum effort.”[iii]

Judge Pead is not alone in such efforts. At a Law Day event presented by our Chicago Chapter and the Northern District of Illinois, the ceremonial courtroom was filled with judges and lawyers praising the pro bono work of practitioners and judges alike. It was a privilege to be there and hear the stories of selfless service for people who need it the most. Much of the work was led by magistrate judges through specialty courts.

Winston Churchill said, “We make a living by what we get. We make a life by what we give.” My FBA experience has been filled with people making a life by what they give. I feel so privileged to be part of the Federal Bar Association because of the service opportunities I have been provided. I look forward to continuing to serve with you for years to come.

[i] M. Merschel, “Help Others, Help Yourself? Why Volunteering Can Be Good for You” American Heart Association News (April 14, 2023).

[ii]T. Wilson, Utah’s Tribal Reentry Court is a Success that Arizona and Utah Want to Model, KUER 90.1 (May 28, 2024). TCRC photo courtesy of Tilda Wilson.

[iii] Chief Judge Robert Shelby, Remarks at FBA Utah Chapter’s Awards Dinner, April 19, 2024 (paraphrased from speaker notes).