Profile: Attorney-at-ice
A quarter century after he hung up his figure skates, Appleton
lawyer Roger Glenn makes it to the Olympics as the U.S. pairs
judge.
By Karen Bankston
Roger Glenn is an experienced and respected judge, but he does not
wield the gavel in the Outagamie County Circuit Court where he practices
law.
Instead, the Appleton attorney presides in an international venue,
judging figure skating competitions throughout the world most
recently and notably the pairs event at the 1998 Winter Olympics in
Nagano, Japan.
After competing himself for 12 years, Glenn began judging skating
performances. Participating in the Olympics in Nagano, Japan, was a
pinnacle.
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Glenn, who began judging skating performances after competing himself
for 12 years, says participating in the Olympics was indeed a
pinnacle.
"I just kept saying to the other judges, 'Think of this as just
another small international competition,' but of course it was
different," he says. "There are more people, more excitement, more
pressure. I've done two world championships, but they don't get anywhere
near the same attention as the Olympics."
When the expectant hush fell over Nagano's White Ring as competitors
glided onto the ice, the judges were every bit as nervous as the
skaters, Glenn acknowledges. Media scrutiny and those heart-pounding
moments as the world awaits two rows of double-digit scores turn the
spotlight quickly from the skaters to their judges. And while, win or
lose, the competitors can relax after their performance, the judges must
look forward to a mandatory session before the International Skating
Union (ISU) the next day where they defend their scores.
"All of the judges before the events are understandably nervous,"
Glenn notes. "You want to do the right thing, and your reputation is on
the line."
An Illinois native, Glenn grew up in Rockford in a family of four
children with a shared passion for skating that persists today. His
sister Diana Ronayne of Detroit coaches world-class skaters; in fact,
had one of her skaters not switched coaches just before the Olympics,
Glenn might have been disqualified as a judge. His younger sister,
Leslie Reilly, also coaches skating in Connecticut.
Glenn started skating competitively at age 8. During his years on the
ice, he won the 22-state Midwest championships in both singles and pairs
and placed as high as eighth and fifth in national contests. Throughout
his teen years, he spent up to 55 hours a week on the ice, until the
demands of college caught up with him. Faced with the need to keep his
grades up for law school and the threat of mandatory grade reductions
for absences from class "that would kill me every time I had a
competition" Glenn hung up his skates.
Still, it was difficult to leave behind the arena, so when the ISU
went looking for former competitors to become judges, Glenn stepped
forward. In fact, he trial-judged a few competitions before he stopped
skating, but the ISU does not allow competitors to judge.
To qualify as skating judges, candidates assess competitions on a
trial basis, and their scores are compared to the points awarded by the
official judges. Making the grade as a skating judge can be a lengthy
process, but it must have come naturally to Glenn. He skated in his last
competition in December 1971 and received his first appointment as a
judge the next year. He was judging at the national level within a
couple years.
"At my first national championship, I was judging people that I had
competed against just a couple years before," he recalls.
By 1982 Glenn was qualified to judge international competitions, and
his sideline has since taken him around the world. He travels to one or
two international competitions and three or four national meets each
year. He has been to Canada, Australia, Italy, Russia, Czechoslovakia,
Yugoslavia, France, Germany, England, and Norway. In the season before
the 1998 Olympics, the ISU shipped Glenn and his fellow judges off to
the European championships for a preview of the competitors.
Travel, lodging, and other out-of-pocket expenses are covered, but
judging is an unpaid job. Still, Glenn says, the fringe benefits are
marvelous: "I've really had a wonderful opportunity to see the
world."
Nagano, his first Olympic assignment, marked his fourth trip to Japan
as a skating judge.
The Japanese were wonderful hosts, organized and helpful, he says,
but Glenn focused foremost on the task at hand: the complex dynamics of
the pairs competition.
"I think it's the hardest event to judge," he says. "Even judges
qualified to score pairs sometimes refuse to take on those
assignments."
The Glenn children share a passion for skating. Roger Glenn started
skating competitively at age 8. Here he is practicing a lift with sister
Nancy.
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Skating pairs can perform all the same elements as skaters in the
singles class and then have a whole other repertoire of lifts, spirals,
and elements limited to their genre. "And one of the most important
qualities of the performance is unity," Glenn explains. "The pair has to
do some things exactly the same, and that makes it really difficult to
watch everything at once. At the same time, it's one of the most fun
things about the pairs event."
His lone Olympic disappointment was how little time he was able to
spend with skating competitors. At other world-class events, the
American contingent, skaters and judges alike, travel together and stay
in the same hotel. But at Nagano, the judges were housed in hotels 40
miles from the Olympic Village, and interaction with competitors was
discouraged.
"They felt it would just look better if there was less interaction
between officials and skaters." While Glenn can see the point, "it might
be just a little bit of window dressing. After all, we all know we have
to stand up the next day and defend our scores."
Glenn did not lose touch with his office during the Olympics; in
fact, he even got in some billable hours from Nagano. He took a laptop
computer and logged on daily to America Online to communicate with his
office and emailed in a few pleadings he'd drafted in his hotel room.
Glenn has tried long-distance communications with his office during
other competitions, but quickly discovered that "it's not that easy
receiving and sending faxes to St. Petersburg, Russia."
Glenn is a partner in a four-member firm with partners tolerant of
his sideline. Most of his judging assignments are booked far enough in
advance (he signed on for Nagano 18 months before the Olympics) that he
can work his court schedule around them.
"When I go off on one of these, my wife tells me I'm actually not
home the week before and the week when I come back, and that's true," he
concedes. "I'm spending all my time at the office to catch up."
Glenn sees a couple of parallels between his twin passions for
skating and the law.
"Judging a skating competition has to be very similar to being a
trial judge," he contends. "You have to listen and watch closely, take
notes, and set aside any preexisting notions you have about the people
involved to render a fair and impartial decision."
In addition, judges at every international meet are required to
defend their scores to the referee at a session following the
competition. In some cases, they may even need to write a "brief" to
clarify and explain the rationale behind their decisions.
"It's just like defending someone in court, but your client happens
to be you," he notes.
Glenn spent eight days at work in Nagano, but he took time for
sight-seeing and watching other events. He was on hand for the U.S. vs.
Canada men's hockey game, cheered as the Americans took home two medals
in the two-man luge, and saw both the male and female American skiers
win gold in aerial skiing.
Maybe the American team bound for gold in 2002 should invite Glenn
along as a lucky charm? "If they want to pay my way to the next one, I'd
be happy to try my luck again," he laughs.
Karen Bankston enjoyed the Olympic
pairs competition as well on a TV not far from the Stoughton
office where she works as a free-lance writer and editor.
Wisconsin Lawyer