When a Lawyer is Shot:
A Response from His Community
By James L. Baillie

In an earlier age, when a barn burned down, neighbors gathered to help build a new one. In these days when illness or death comes to a household, members of the family and of the same church group may bring hot dishes and offer to help. When lawyer Richard (Rick) Hendrickson was shot and critically wounded on September 29 in the Hennepin County Courthouse, the response from his community was stunning -- an outpouring of hot dishes.

Rick was (and, thankfully, is again) engaged in practice as a sole practitioner. He describes himself as an average Joe, working-man attorney, trying to help people resolve their disputes. While Rick was unable to practice, lawyer friends Steve Gawron and Loren Magsam stepped in and helped with his clients and kept his practice afloat. Hundreds of other lawyers sent personal emails and cards to him and offered to help however they could. Many of those lawyers who did not know him offered to help with his caseload. Seven Dakota County lawyers, including a judge, came to his home and did a complete "makeover" of his garden with new plants and bulbs.

A brief email message to MSBA members from the presidents of the MSBA, HCBA and RCBA offered Bar members the opportunity to bring a "hot dish" -- in this case a contribution of $10-$20 to help cover Rick's financial losses. The responses were immediate and overwhelming. There were more than 1,200 contributors. One large law firm and several smaller firms made group contributions, but the overwhelming number of responses was individual, small contributions. It appears that the money will be more than enough. Any excess will be offered to the Minnesota State Bar Foundation for similar uses.

Of even more significance was the outpouring of expressions of sympathy and support. Dozens of attorneys expressed their feelings directly to Rick in notes, letters and emails. The Bar Association received hundreds of notes and emails. Some were thanks to the Bar for providing the opportunity to participate in this community. Some were messages to Rick expressing feelings of sympathy and wishing him a speedy recovery. But many of the notes had no specific audience. They represented the lawyer-donors' need to express their feelings.

Some were from sole practitioners. They understood how vulnerable sole practitioners are. They daily walk a high wire without a safety net. Many others were from all parts of the profession. They wanted to express that they felt like companions in the law too, no matter how different their practice settings. The response was strong because we feel that those lawyers who practice in the community, on the ground, with real, individual clients with all kinds of personal problems and in distress, sometimes in the courthouses, are the real lawyers. They are heroes to us.

For Rick, the community that came together consists of well over 1,200 who, for the most part, do not know him, or for the most part, do not know each other. The community is not one of family or geography or faith. It is a community of people who connect to each other through our profession of law.

The drama of the situation played a part in the reactions. An admirable woman killed. Rick trying to be helpful even as his life's blood gushed away. An heroic county worker kneeling beside him staunching the flow of blood. An accused with obvious mental problems. It presents the symbolism and inevitability of a Greek tragedy.

Rick is back in practice part-time, while he rebuilds his stamina. He has been overwhelmed by the outpouring of help and offers to help from attorneys he didn't know. He describes the experience as uplifting and humbling. He says it helped him create an ideal he needs to live up to.

He says that his experience reminds him of the "human-ness" of attorneys. He is more aware than ever of our community of lawyers. When I talked to him he mentioned the communities created by the Bar through the estate planning and small and solo practice listserves that he belongs to. Rick also mentioned the mentoring and other help that is freely given by the lawyer members of each of the listserve groups.

For the 1,200-plus who responded so quickly there is a renewed sense of community, an addition to social capital. For the others, there will be other ways to join in -- helping build a grass roots lobbying network, helping build the listserves and other actual and virtual networks of lawyers Rick mentioned, supporting our judiciary in the Legislature, pro bono service, or just attending Bar events. Heroic efforts are not needed, just thousands more of us bringing our hot dishes and participating in our community.

JIM BAILLIE is president of the Minnesota State Bar Association. A shareholder in the firm of Fredrikson & Byron, P.A., he concentrates his practice in business bankruptcy and insolvency law and related litigation and business transactions.