"Why Do I Want This Job?"
and "What Am I Going to Do?"

John W. Briscoe
Briscoe & Mobley
New London

The first of the above questions has been posed to me on several occasions by some of my good friends who are lawyers, knowing that the job of President of The Missouri Bar requires a significant sacrifice in terms of time. More importantly, that question has been repeatedly posed to me by my long-suffering wife, Joy, who has some sort of idyllic notion that a lawyer's life should be well-balanced among family, religion, law practice, and relaxation.

I practice in a small firm (four lawyers, counting Judge Jim Reinhard, who is "of counsel") in a small town (about 1,100 people). I realize my time away from the office this year will place a substantial burden of additional work on my partner and our associate.

So, why am I doing this? I have done a tremendous amount of thinking and soul searching on that very issue.

I wanted to be a lawyer from the time I was about five years old. So, when I took the oath of admission to The Missouri Bar in the Missouri Supreme Court building on September 10, 1966, it was the happiest day of my life to that point. Since that date, I have enjoyed peaks and valleys in my legal career, as most lawyers have. Fortunately, the legal profession has given me more peaks than valleys. Although it has not made me wealthy, it has afforded me a comfortable lifestyle. It has also given me the opportunity to work with and against some of the finest men and women in the world. I would like to name them all, but it would take several volumes to do so. Suffice it to say that the experiences I have had (winning a few and losing a lot) have made me a better lawyer and a better person. I have always felt that if I could emulate the lawyers who were giants in northwest Missouri when I was young (people such as Fred Bollow, Andy Zenge, Branham Rendlen, Ben Ely Sr., Harry Carstarphen, Marion Wasinger, and Judge L. F. Cottey – all now passed on), I would become a fine person and one hell of a lawyer. I am not certain I have become either one of those. But the legal profession has allowed me to be contented with my chosen work. That is one of the reasons I felt it appropriate to show my gratitude by serving the bar to the best of my ability. So, the bottom line is this: I owe a lot to this profession.

Another important reason I wanted this job is that I want other small town lawyers to know that we have this year a voice in the leadership of The Missouri Bar. I was a member of The Missouri Bar for 25 years before I realized that we country lawyers do, in fact, have a significant voice in the conduct of the affairs of this bar.

Perhaps the more important question is, "What am I going to do?" For those of you who may be concerned about my propensity to be a "loose cannon," talking first and thinking later, I assure you that Keith Birkes and the excellent staff of The Missouri Bar will not allow me to do or say anything the bar will regret.

Some of the programs that I anticipate our Board of Governors will be working on during my year as President are:

1. Working to encourage the Missouri General Assembly and the United States Congress to continue and expand funding for legal services.

2. Expanding The Missouri Bar's Mentoring Program to the entire state, and working to make that very successful program more visible and accessible to our members who wish to take advantage of it.

3. Promoting the involvement of more lawyers in bar activities. We want to work with minority members of the bar to make the bar more inclusive to them. We also want to involve in bar activities those other members who may, for one reason or another, have a feeling of estrangement from the bar.

4. We plan to continue our work in the promotion of an independent judiciary.