Baltimore-area lawyers reveal their New Year's resolutions

Ann Parks

If the Internet is to be believed, the tradition of making New Year's resolutions dates back to about 2000 B.C., when the ancient Babylonians began celebrating the beginning of the coming year. Although the lack of Krispy Kreme doughnuts, Ben and Jerry's ice cream and Starbucks coffee had to have made things easier back then (the Babylonians' most popular pledge, rather than losing weight, was to return borrowed farm equipment), one would guess that ancient civilizations weren't much better at keeping these pesky little promises than we are.

While modern-day New Year's resolutions rarely survive beyond Super Bowl Sunday, a handful of lawyers in the area were not only willing to make them this year, but also to see them in print - a risky proposition for a profession that invented the Statute of Frauds. Here they are, the good, the bad and the ugly:

Objection!

In the professional arena, Montgomery County attorney Jon D. Pels pledges not to yell [expletive deleted] about opposing counsel's tactics and then turn around and use the same tactics himself. This will be harder than giving up coffee, he writes via e-mail.

Attorney Susan Stobbart Shapiro of Council Baradel Cosmerl & Nolan has not only promised to watch her language, she's reduced her resolution to writing:

WHEREFORE, on this 31st day of December, 2004, the undersigned, Susan Stobbart Shapiro, Esquire, does hereby swear and affirm that she will use her best efforts to employ the use of non-legalese (hereinafter 'English') in pleadings in calendar year 2005; however, the aforementioned requirement for the use of English shall be subject to a 'reasonable attorney' standard, as opposed to the more stringent 'reasonable person' standard, she writes.

Arthur H. Blitz, a principal working in real estate and financial practice areas at the Bethesda firm of Paley, Rothman, Goldstein, Rosenberg & Cooper, promises never to let a client pay for lunch - except when lunch occurs between 10 a.m. and 5 p.m.; never to bill more than 24 hours in any one day; and to never spin or color the facts, except when negotiating on behalf of a client.

Barry F. Rosen, chairman and chief executive officer of Gordon, Feinblatt, Rothman, Hoffberger & Hollander, pledges not to get into too long a conversation with Piper Rudnick CEO Frank Burch - or else I may have just moved my partners' meeting to London, he jokes.

Saul Ewing's Gary H. Liebowitz resolves to continue providing top- notch bankruptcy representation to his clients; meanwhile, in Towson, attorney Susan J. Land wants to hire a full-time secretary in order to spend more time with her family and friends.

I want to be successful at having more fun than work, Land says.

Why? Because it's there

As part of the self-evaluations this year at Hodes, Ulman, Pessin & Katz, lawyers were encouraged to select personal goals. And if Patricia McHugh Lambert and Susan M. Euteneuer are any indication, they're all going to be fit and trim over at HUPK come December 2005.

Lambert pledges to be able to run 10 miles straight by the end of the year; she recently ran the 5K Jingle Bell Race in Bel Air for the Arthritis Foundation, finishing after the runners but ahead of the walkers.

I considered that a great victory, she said.

Euteneuer, meanwhile, wants to take up mogul skiing. She grew up skiing in central Pennsylvania, but has always shied away from the bumps; she also hopes to participate to a week-long Steeps Camp in Utah, where people learn to ski down extremely steep faces.

There are a lot of moguls to be skied, she says resolutely, adding that she has already bought a helmet and an exercise bike to build up endurance. Even if I fall, I'm doing it.

Skiing was also on the mind of University of Maryland law professor Michael A. Millemann, who resolves to learn how to turn right while on skis. I can turn left, he notes.

Paul A. Tiburzi, managing partner of the Baltimore office of Piper Rudnick, prefers to leave the sporting challenges to the pros: he wants to see the Ravens win the Super Bowl and the Orioles win a playoff game. Saul Ewing's Gary H. Liebowitz also has high expectations for the Orioles, pledging that if the Birds do not sign a Number 1 starter I will fly to the winter baseball meetings myself to bring one back.

Interestingly, attorney Lawrence A. Melfa of Howard, Butler & Melfa was the only attorney willing to admit that his golf game could stand some improvement.

I shoot a 95; I want to get to 90 before I die, Melfa said, adding that golf is a humbling game. That silly little ball just sits there and laughs at you. Still, if I took it too seriously, it wouldn't reduce stress.

Good deeds

Many people resolve on Jan. 1 to improve their community, and the folks at Ballard Spahr Andrews & Ingersoll are no exception.

I would like to spend more time making Baltimore an even better place to live, through any community agency that wants me to help, says partner Morton P. Fisher Jr.

Fisher would like to volunteer his time at an agency that helps children, such as The Family Tree. (He also resolves to clean up his office.)

Teri Guarnaccia, an associate at the firm, pledges to recruit more attorneys and staff members for the Community Law in Action Emerging Leaders program, a mentoring effort in which 12 sophomores from Northwestern High School spend the day at the firm. Nine lawyers and one nonlawyer are participating now, she said.

It's rewarding for the mentees, she says, but we feel we've learned something from them as well.

She also hopes to recruit more inspirational speakers for the program from throughout the legal community, so if you see her number on your caller ID. ...

Over at the Johns Hopkins Children's Center, attorney Hope Tipton hopes to spread holiday cheer long after the holidays are over.

My New Year's resolution is to catch people in the act of doing good things and praise them for their good deeds, she writes.

Warm and fuzzy category

The attorneys at Ober|Kaler must be feeling especially good this year: Henry M. Abromson promises to make sure everyone I love knows it.

His colleague Kevin S. Corwin, who is looking forward to becoming a father for the first time, resolves to work harder to strengthen relationships with family members, and doing more to show my wife how important she is to me.

Finally, Washington, D.C. attorney Dawn V. Martin - who tries to view each new day as an opportunity to be the best person that I can and to stand up for as many people as I can and still remain standing myself - offers some wishes and prayers for the new year:

For the world, I wish for peace.

For my clients and for all other people stuck in the Court system waiting for some judge to care about their lives, I wish for justice, no longer delayed or denied.

For my family, and for all families, I wish for harmony, health, love and material sustenance.

For all children of the world, I wish for dreams, confidence, knowledge, opportunities and the chance for a truly better, safer, more welcoming and loving world.

For myself, I wish for all of the above ... and I wish to be teaching law school again.

(Many thanks to all who responded; Happy New Year from The Daily Record.)

Also On Record: (SIDEBAR)

To cultivate my creative side, or to find out if I actually have one! I would like to spend more time learning landscape photography and perhaps painting my first canvas.

- David Kinzer, attorney, Ober|Kaler

Someone once said that it is useless for sheep to make resolutions in favor of vegetarianism while the wolf remains of a different opinion. This year, one resolution is to convince others to take action on important issues such as global warming and the degradation of our environment. The other is to eat less popcorn.

- Leslie Hayes Russo, Otway Russo, Salisbury

To start working on my New Year's resolutions in October and come up with something better than this.

- David M. Wachtel, member, Rose & Rose, Washington, D.C.

To watch my son take the bar and my daughter start law school; to place as many of my students as possible with judges as interns and law clerks; to take on fewer new projects and to get more sleep.

- Byron L. Warnken, associate professor of law, University of Baltimore School of Law

To continue to contribute to the community of Baltimore and Maryland through maintaining active participation between my university's law school and the Maryland Bar, and to increase my weight load by 30 percent in my Body Pump classes.

- Barbara Ann White, associate professor of law, University of Baltimore School of Law

My hope for the year 2005, and all the years that follow, is that civility can find its rightful place in politics.

- J. Joseph Curran Jr., Attorney General

To savor the time between January 1, 2005 and December 31, 2005 so that 2005 does not fly by as quickly as 2004!

- Hon. Diane O. Leasure, 5th Circuit & County Administrative Judge, Circuit Court for Howard County

To encourage the students in my seminar on the constitutional rights of children to do some reading outside the scope of cases and law review articles. One favorite book of mine is 'Forgiving the Dead Man Walking,' by Debbie Morris. It's the true-life, first-person story of one of the victims of [Robert Lee Willie], who would later become the subject of Sister Helen Prejean's renowned 'Dead Man Walking.' The author tells what it was like to learn to forgive this man for his senseless violence, and how she discovered that forgiveness is not a project, but rather a long and sometimes painful process. Her account of watching her own daughter go on her first date at 16, and recalling that she was 16 herself when she was abducted and nearly killed, is riveting.

I've never seen a better explanation of forgiveness - it's hard work, but we have to do it. Having an understanding of this is important for every student who studies the law. There is something intangibly human in the legal process, and if we ignore it then we are not seeking justice, but rather revenge.

- Gilbert Holmes, dean, University of Baltimore School of Law

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