Editorial
Front Page - Friday, October 2, 2009
Chattanooga lawyer chairing ABA’s Senior Lawyers Division
David Laprad
People often compare life to a foot race. When striving to achieve one’s goals, it’s a good comparison, but the analogy breaks down as people approach the finish line. Instead of encouraging runners to pour everything they have into the final leg of their event, society expects participants to slow down or drop out altogether. Chattanooga lawyer Thomas Maxfield Bahner, 75, has no such plans.
“I don’t intend to ever retire,” says the 50-year veteran of the legal profession. “When my father died in his 90s, he was researching drugs to treat the new forms of tuberculosis.”
Bahner says some lawyers have to retire when they reach 65 because of their agreement with their firm, but says more and more attorneys want to continue practicing. This includes his senior partner, Jack Chambliss, who at 99 is still in the office five days a week.
“He’s very bright mentally,” Bahner, who joined forces with Chambliss in 1964, says. “And there’s no substitute for experience.”
Bahner brings his accumulated know-how to bear on a practice that primarily involves complex litigation, although he’s also an AAA arbitrator and a Rule 31 certified mediator.
Plus, the American Bar Association has appointed Bahner chair of its Senior Lawyers Division, a position he took over in August at the conclusion of the annual ABA meeting in Chicago.
A longtime member of the ABA, Bahner served 17 years in its House of Delegates, leading the Tennessee delegation for nine years, and served on the ABA Board of Governors from 1999 to 2002.
“The Senior Lawyers Division started out as a place for attorneys who’d been active in the ABA for a long time to meet and be together, but that role has changed,” says Bahner. “We’re a much more active organization now.”
For starters, the group offers a number of CLE programs. It also publishes Experience Magazine and distributes a newsletter titled “The Voice of Experience.” The former has achieved respect among elder citizens both within and outside the legal profession, with the most recent issue featuring an article by Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernake.
The Senior Lawyers Division has even joined the online revolution, distributing an e-mail newsletter and hosting teleconferences and webinars as part of its CLE offerings.
As chairman, Bahner will appoint committees and make sure everyone stays busy.
The ABA appointment is just one of many things that will be keeping Bahner busy in the coming year. In addition to leading the Senior Lawyers Division, Bahner is chair of a 15-person task force the president of the Tennessee Bar Association, Gail Ashworth, appointed to review the organization’s Rules of Judicial Conduct. He expects the group to finish rewriting and reorganizing the current system by May.
Bahner did similar work when he chaired the Tennessee Supreme Court’s Advisory Commission on the Rules of Civil Procedure. During a seven-year stretch, the commission wrote the Tennessee Rules of Evidence, which the Court adopted.
The elder lawyer also continues to do pro bono work, which he believes is one of the higher callings for attorneys. In June, Bahner received the Equal Justice Partner Lifetime Achievement Award from Legal Aid of East Tennessee, which cited him as having “supported the ideals of equal justice from the beginning of his legal career.” He was lauded for his substantial efforts, from volunteering with the original Chattanooga Legal Aid Society to encouraging governmental support of legal aid.
“A lot of lawyers who get to my age start doing more pro bono work,” Bahner says. “Legal aid can take you down many different paths, so you’re able to help a lot of people who can’t afford an attorney.”
Bahner not only applies his accumulated knowledge to his practice but also shares it with the next generation of legal professionals, partly by making sure they have the opportunity to gain experience while he’s around. “I’ve been giving younger lawyers more of the work I’ve been doing,” he says.
There was a time when Bahner was on the receiving end of knowledge. He began his journey toward the law at the age of 22, while attending seminary to become a Baptist preacher. He’d graduated from Carson-Newman College and was serving at the First Baptist Church in Welch, W.Va., when he felt drawn to the local courthouse. During his time off, he’d spend hours listening to lawyers try cases. “The law involves people and ideas, and that fascinated me,” says Bahner.
After finishing seminary, Bahner took the LSAT instead of becoming ordained; two years later, he received his Juris Doctorate from the University of Virginia.
Since then, Bahner has led an active career and brought honor to his profession. Among his achievements, Bahner is a recipient of the Chattanooga Bar Association’s President’s Award for Distinguished Service to the Legal Community and Ralph H. Kelley Humanitarian Award. Additionally, he’s been listed in The Best Lawyers in America for more than 20 years and in Business TN Magazine’s Top 150 Lawyers in Tennessee, among other listings.
Bahner is currently an active member of the American College of Trial Lawyers, the American Board of Trial Advocates and the Defense Research Institute. He’s also a founding member of the Tennessee Bar Foundation and the CBA.
Among his publications, he’s the senior contributing member of “Evidence in America” and author of “Waiver of Attorney-Client Privilege by Issue Injection: A Call for Uniformity,” published in the Defense Counsel Journal.
Bahner is more than the sum of his accomplishments, though. He’s a man who intends to finish strong, like a long distance runner who starts sprinting as the finish line comes into view.
“I like getting up in the morning and wondering what’s going to happen,” he says. “And even though I think I might know, the law still surprises me every day. It’s a fascinating profession.”
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