Mark A. Easter
Since the theme of the Bar magazine this month is "Women in the Law," I'd like to reflect back on the beginning of my legal career, and three women in the law that had a big influence on me right from the get-go. In late May of 1988, I arrived in Riverside to spend two months as a summer clerk at Best Best & Krieger. In my very first week, I met a partner, senior associate and summer clerk, each of them women, and each of whom I would learn a great deal from.
My partner mentor that summer was Meredith Jury. Meredith was actually the very first female partner at BB&K. Over my first five years as an associate, I worked on a variety of cases with Meredith. Meredith seemed to be able to litigate anything: labor, bankruptcy, contracts, the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), eminent domain, civil rights, police brutality, etc. Meredith could do that because she was extremely intelligent AND intellectually curious. And she worked very hard. But she also made sure she set aside time for her own well-being—she loved traveling, and she was an avid cyclist. And Meredith was also very open and transparent about her life journey.
As a mentor, Meredith was a great example of civility with opposing counsel. Meredith was also very good at communicating to you not just the narrow assignment, but her thought processes about the case as a whole: her strategy, what she thought opposing counsel would try and do, and how it might play out in trial. This was very valuable to a young litigator who was trying to get a handle on the "big picture" of litigation. Meredith is now a retired United States Bankruptcy Court Judge.
Virginia Phillips was a senior associate at BB&K that summer of 1988, and I can remember her being voted into the BB&K partnership during my clerkship. She was very involved in the recruiting and training of BB&K associates. She emphasized the importance of quality written work, preparation, and timeliness-that personality and charm were no substitute for those fundamentals. Virginia was great at helping us "newbies" understand what senior partners like, Bill DeWolfe, Bart Gaut, and Dallas Holmes, were expecting.
Virginia also stressed the importance of putting in the time and taking ownership of not just our assignments, but our cases, and even our practices and careers. I can remember as a first- year associate, reporting back to her after attending a Trial Setting Conference. Upon telling her about the trial date, her instructions were "Okay, go figure out everything you need to do to get the case ready for trial." Simple, but yet I understood both the confidence and responsibility she was conveying to me. A few years later, she would be appointed Commissioner of the Riverside County Superior Court, and thereafter, a United States Magistrate Judge, and then a U.S. District Court Judge.
Last but not least, my "partner in crime" that summer of 1988 was Michelle Ouellette. Michelle and I concurrently learned what life at BB&K as an associate was all about—the expectations, the history and tradition, and the whole cast of characters. We were both given a lot of responsibility early on, Michelle even more than me. Michelle and I both became partners of BB&K in 1996. Michelle worked tirelessly to become one of the leading CEQA and environmental attorneys in the State of California, and she spearheaded the effort to create Riverside County's Multi-Species Habitat Conservation Plan, the first of its kind in the State.
On a personal level, Michelle was also a great sounding board for me about lawyer life and firm life…whether it was my frustrations, funny stories, sports analogies (Michelle's favorite) or "Joe Cocker" rants. But more important, even though she was my peer, Michelle was an example and model to me of hard work, community service, the importance of diversity, and how to read and understand people. I was always amused by how Michelle didn't mince words and wasn't afraid to "emote" to her clients about how she felt about a case or her opposing counsel. Needless to say, clients knew that Michelle cared about them, their projects, and their cases.
I'm very grateful and thankful for these and many other "women in the law" at BB&K that I've been fortunate to call my colleagues. HAPPY MARCH!
Mark A. Easter is the president of the RCBA, a partner at Best Best & Krieger LLC, and has been residing and practicing law in Riverside since 1989.