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Holden Up the Bar

At this critical time for the judicial system, personal injury trial lawyer Susan Holden is the third woman to take over as president of the Minnesota State Bar Association (MSBA). From a judge's point of view, says Minnesota Supreme Court Justice Paul Anderson, "given the whole issue of how judges are regarded, I can't think of a finer person to represent the Bar on this issue."

Soft spoke and gentle, Susan Holden is clearly no ambulance chaser. Praised by colleagues and adversaries alike as an experienced professional who is compassionate and accomplished advocate for the injured and who "cares deeply about the profession as a key instrument in helping society," Holden bears no resemblance to the image of the greedy, avaricious, slippery trial lawyer with which the profession so often contents. "She's very attentive, caring and nurturing when meeting with her clients," confirms Justice Anderson. "She has a soothing and pleasant way and even when she's finished serving them, her clients have contacted her for years afterward to let her know what's happened with their families."

Holden has been widely recognized for her public service and community leadership as well as for the courtroom proficiency that earned her certification as a civil trial specialist by the Minnesota State Bar Association, a distinction achieved by fewer than 1% of women lawyers in the state. Justice Anderson says he was "sufficiently impressed with her qualities as an attorney and her services in the greater area of the Bar" to strongly recommend her appointment by the Minnesota Supreme Court in 1995 (the only lawyer statewide appointed by the Court) to the Commission on Judicial Selection that solicits, evaluates and makes recommendation to the Governor on judicial appointments. From 1999 to 2000, Holden was president of the Hennepin County Bar Association, and she was elected an MSBA officer in 2002. She has been similarly recognized by her peers as a Leading American Attorney and Super Lawyer.

Holden went to law school because, as she explains it, she wanted to do something positive in society.

"Idealism is a common theme among incoming law students," she says. "I wanted to work in a profession and I didn't like the sight of blood well enough to go into medicine. There were no lawyers in my family at all. Of course, ironically, I've seen a lot of gory things in the course of my practice."

She graduated Magna Cum Laude with a B.A. in Political Science from St. Cloud State University in 1984, acquiring her J.D Cum Lade at William Mitchell College of Law in St. Paul four years later, when she was admitted to the Minnesota, State and Federal Bars. At the suggestion of a professor, she applied to Sieben, Grose, Von Holtum & Carey Ltd. for a job as a clerk and began working there during her first semester of law school. "I found out what a great culture it had and what a great firm it was," Holden says, "and all of a sudden 20 years have gone by."

"We recognized immediately when she came to work with us that Susan was the kind of person we wanted to keep," says Harry A. Sieben, Jr., who built his group into one of Minnesota's largest personal injury law firms. "We were looking for trial lawyers and she had all the attributes. She was a good communicator both in writing and orally; she had the ability to present herself very well to the public - to a jury or any other group. She's a very good speaker and leaves a great impression both of herself and the firm. And we were sensitive, of course, to bringing in business and the importance of networking in the community and with other lawyers."

Sieben says his confidence was justified: "We were right. Susan made partner at an earlier stage in her life than any other partner in our firm and we're very proud of her election as president of the MSBA. It's a major accomplishment."

Holden's experience explodes some of the public misperceptions related to a personal injury practice. "It's a very personal issue about people getting their lives back," she says. "It's about advocacy more than the settlement itself. More often than not when I meet clients for the first time, the main thing they are worried about is having to go to court. I repeatedly hear, 'I really am not the type to sue'. They just want someone to give them some information about heir rights and what they should expect, while providing them with the support they need."

"I was initially drawn to Susan because she was such an outstanding trial lawyer," says Lisa Brabbit, assistant dean for external relation sand programs at the University of St. Thomas School of Law. Brabbit worked with Holden as a trial lawyer at Sieben for nine years. "As I got to know her better I was attracted to her because she's so authentic - there's no pretence to her at all. She's completely genuine, and that's what draws other to her and why people trust her. It's never about Sue."

"She comes off just as you see her," says Hennepin County Judge Cara Lee Neville. "I've never seen her become shrill or angry - she just calls it as she sees it. She is calm, matter-of-fact, not overly emotional and extremely articulate. Trial work is a very difficult part of the profession. It takes a great deal of stamina and strength." Justice Anderson says he has seen in Hold a "subtle competence that can sneak up on you at times; she's tough and tenacious."

With a focus on product liability, dram shop liability (the liability of people serving liquor), wrongful death and auto accident / insurance litigation, Holden has seen her fill of tragic and unnecessary accidents in the course of her career. Yet she emphasizes that she has no interest or motivation in taking a client through litigation if she feels she can't be successful.

"We work solely on a contingency basis," she explains. "The attorney's fees are paid when the case is resolved, by settlement or by verdict. And the fees are based on a percentage of recover - not by the hour. So there is a financial disincentive to pursue cases that we don't believe have merit. It's all about evaluating cases not just on the damages, but on the likelihood of success. If liability is unlikely to be adequate, and if we don't believe we can establish a case for the client even through litigation, then our advice would be, 'We can't prove the case it's not feasible to pursue it'. And that applies to a large number of cases we review."

Most of Sieben's clients come from referrals and from advertising, Holden points out, not from waiting in the hospital wings. "Having clients refer their friends to us is very gratifying." she says.

John Anderson, a defense lawyer with civil litigation law firm Bassford Remele, has the high regard for Holden as an adversary. "I appreciated the way she handled the cases we had - two separate accidents at the same location," he says. "She focused on the really substantive issues in an effort to find a resolution for her clients without spending a lot of time and energy posturing and concentrating on irrelevancies such as scheduling depositions - the kind of things that make litigation take longer, cost more, and frustrate judges. Both cases were resolved through medication and though neither side got exactly what they wanted, they got what they could live with and that's the beauty of it when it's done right."

Anderson credits Holden's self-confidence and trust in her own judgment. "When lawyers have enough faith in themselves, they are able to analyze and decide what's important rather than fighting over peripheral issues" he says.

"A young lawyer can be driven away from this area because it is so hard," Holden acknowledges. "It take determination and passion to win the case for your client. You have to know your case - and the law that applies - inside and out. You need just enough tenacity to be resilient. The whole object of your industry is to beat you down and you need to balance the physical and emotional strain of working hard and dealing with legal challenges. We represent clients with crucial needs whose future stands to be changed significantly by the results. That's the motivator - and the job satisfaction. The defense mostly represents insurance companies so the result won't affect their clients' lifestyles or quality of life in more than a minor way."

While more than half the students admitted to law school in 2004 were women and women make up nearly 30 percent of lawyer in the United States, according to statistics compiled by the American Bar Association's Commission on Women in the Profession, relatively few enter the plaintiff's bar. Women account for only 13 per cent of the membership of the Association of Trial Lawyers of America. "In my law school class, the mix was 60/40 male/female, and in the younger generation there are slightly more women than men in Minnesota law schools," says Holden. "But that's not so in litigation. While most people in the profession would agree that gender bias has diminished, women still face challenges that men don't."

As a litigator, Holden points out, "Your schedule is simply not your own. You are always on call for trials out of town - an almost impossible situation for women with young children." She says that having no children, she has flexibility. "A most important," she adds, "I have a very supportive spouse. That makes a huge difference."

While Holden acknowledges that most of the judges and lawyers she works with are very accepting, earlier in her career, she felt the need to be "more prepared than the men." Clearly she has proven herself worthy. "Susan combines strong intellect with purpose and her quest is to better serve members of the Bar and the broader community," says Brabbit. "She always operates at the highest level of professional excellence and she's a great role model. She's had a significant influence on so many women lawyers in the state because she has achieved so much with such humility."

As MSBA President, Holden takes ont eh role as spokesperson for a profession with which Americans continue to have a love/hate relationship. A key issue will be changing the public perception of lawyers and the legal system, which is frequently seen as responsible for escalating product costs through product-liability legislation and for frivolous lawsuits that drive up medical costs.

"The Bar Association hasn't traditionally been in a position of having to b out there marketing and defending the profession," Holden says. "Now it's become very important as the political pressure increases. State Bars across the country and the American Bar Association are very concerned about the attacks on trial lawyers and of course on judge, all of which affect the public's trust of these institutions. (The legal system) shouldn't be political at all; it should be supported on a bipartisan basis. Citizens have the right to access to the courts and the have judges and juries find a solution for them."

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