Military Lawyers: A Sense of Duty

by Dianne Molvig

Like many people, Milwaukee attorney Steve McManus had no idea what military lawyers do, until he became one seven years ago. In fact, when he was a law student in the early 1990s, back in the days before "A Few Good Men" hit the big screen and "JAG" made its television debut, "I didn't even know the military had lawyers," he admits.

That lack of awareness persists among law students, as well as lawyers, and now McManus is among those trying to dispel it. As a member of the Air Force Reserve, he visits Wisconsin and Chicago law schools, where he recruits future Air Force lawyers and tells students what it's like to be a military lawyer. The picture he paints is as varied as the legal profession itself.

A military legal career blends criminal law, general practice, and in-house counsel responsibilities. A military lawyer might defend accused murderers, prosecute misdemeanors, review business contracts, give advice on environmental matters, handle labor disputes, draw up wills, counsel in divorces, and more - all during just a few years of practice and while working for the same employer.

In addition, military lawyers serve specialized functions. For example, during military strikes in Afghanistan, lawyers are advising commanders in selecting bombing targets and types of weaponry, to make sure U.S. forces commit no violations of the Geneva Conventions.

Duties vary depending upon location, individual expertise, the world situation, which branch of the armed services a military lawyer is in, and whether he or she is pursuing a full-time military career or is a member of the Reserve (federal) or National Guard (state). As reservists or Guard members, many State Bar members serve the military part-time while holding down full-time civilian jobs as lawyers and judges. Some choose to take on nonlawyer roles for the military side of their lives. For example, in the Wisconsin National Guard, Madison attorney Tom Rhatican commands a helicopter unit, and Rock County circuit court judge James Daley is an infantry commander. Many Bar members, however, opt to use their legal expertise in both the military and civilian realms.

For some, joining the Guard or Reserve was a natural next step after a stint of active duty. Others have never been full-timers, but have served in the Guard or Reserve for years, even decades. What motivates them to be involved? How do civilian lawyers juggle their private careers with their part-time military duties? What happens if they're called up for active duty for weeks or months at a time? We talked to several Bar members to find out.

Ready and Waiting

Like many reservists, Louis Epps isn't sure what lies ahead. It's anyone's guess if and when he'll be called to active duty now that the United States is at war. But one thing is certain: Epps is eager to go. "I've been emailing the Guard Bureau telling them, 'I'm here. I'm healthy. Come and get me.'"

Epps has been in the Wisconsin Air National Guard for 14 years, following four years in the Air Force Reserve and, before that, nearly five years as a full-time Air Force attorney. He's been deployed with his Guard unit twice: to Japan, and to southern France, where his unit supported missions to Bosnia. Both times Epps left his public defender job in Milwaukee for several weeks. If he's deployed during the current conflict, he figures he'll be gone three weeks, maybe longer. "From what I've heard recently," he says, "they seem to be going for longer deployments."

The uncertainty can get to you, he admits. "But I feel ready now," Epps says, "and that relieves a lot of the stress. I know if I leave, I won't dump on my teammates here at the office. They already have enough on their plates."

Part of his preparation has been through his selection of cases. He's avoided taking new long-term cases, such as homicides. And he's made sure the status of his current cases is such that he could transfer them to a colleague, if need be. "This is a great place to work," Epps says, "because if you have an obligation like this, others step up and cover for you."

Still, leaving isn't easy, he concedes. "The hardest part is worrying about clients," he says. "You form personal relationships; you feel responsible. Even though you know someone else is going to pick up a case and do a good job, you don't want to leave before it's done."

For 18 years, Epps has been blending his civilian and military obligations. His reasons for doing the latter? "I don't know how to put this so it doesn't sound corny," he notes, "but I grew up in Milwaukee. We were poor. I can't think of many other places in the world where I would have had the opportunity to go to college and become a lawyer. This state and this country have been good to me."

Landing in JAG

Steve McManus considered attending the Air Force Academy after high school - until he hit an obstacle. "I'm color blind," he explains, "so that prohibited me from flying. I dropped the idea altogether." Instead, he eventually ended up in law school in Arizona. After graduating in 1993, he discovered that the military has full-time lawyers; one of his fellow bar exam-takers had been a Marine attorney. McManus saw a route to a military career, after all. He gained acceptance to the Air Force JAG (Judge Advocate General's) Department in 1994.

He spent six-and-a-half years stationed in New Mexico and England, gaining "incredible experience," he says, in multiple aspects of practicing law. As just one example, "within my first three months, I was trying a fully litigated court martial," McManus says. "I got trial experience right away." In 1999, in the latter part of his active duty tour, his job was to advise on the legality of bombing missions in Kosovo, working at a base in England, from where the bombers flew their missions.

Now McManus describes his experiences to law students, as part of his recruiting duties as an Air Force reservist. In addition, like all active reservists (as opposed to inactive members, who merely keep their names on a roster), McManus reports for an annual two-week tour of duty plus 12 additional days throughout the year. During this time, he performs diverse tasks, as is typical for JAGs. For instance, he advised security police at the base at General Mitchell Field on developing new gate inspection procedures, and he handled a labor law case involving a civilian employee.

Meanwhile, he's also a full-time associate at an 11-attorney Milwaukee firm. "When I did my two weeks of duty, I was at the base every day, 7 to 4," McManus says. "I came to my office each evening to stay on top of things here. My firm is willing to work with me." He's betting he won't be activated because of the Afghanistan war. If he is, his assignment probably would be to substitute for a full-time attorney at the Milwaukee base who gets deployed overseas.

McManus feels ready for whatever happens. That stems in part from his days as a full-time Air Force lawyer. "In the military," he explains, "someone is always leaving for a new assignment, and someone else comes in. So you constantly have to be able to hand off information to the next person. That's how I've learned to operate."

Outside Help

Jim Chereskin's connection to the military began right after high school. He joined the Marines because, coming from a northern Wisconsin farm family, he needed financial help to attend college. After a tour in Vietnam, he came back to his home state to go to college and the U.W. Law School, from which he graduated in 1986. While a second-year law student, he called a Navy JAG Corps recruiter one day "on a whim," applied, and got in. "I had a job waiting for me when I graduated," Chereskin says.

Then came six years of active duty, split between the Philippines and Diego Garcia, an island in the middle of the Indian Ocean. "If somebody had told me in law school," he says, "that someday I'd be cabled down onto a frigate to meet a client, or that I'd be hopping in an airplane to fly 22 hours to see a client, I would have said 'you're crazy.'"

His last duty station was an Orlando, Fla., Navy boot camp. Now, nearly a decade after his release from active duty, Chereskin remains in Florida, where he's a civil litigation sole practitioner and a State Bar of Wisconsin member. He's also in the Naval Reserve, with a status called "individual ready reserve," which involves no ongoing training requirements. The Navy would activate him only if a large-scale mobilization were to occur. He's in the process, however, of transferring to active status in the Army Reserve. Should he get a call from the latter, "I probably would be doing legal assistance for Army personnel in central Florida who are being activated and shipped overseas," he says.

He can't predict how long his activation might last, but for a sole practitioner, even a few-weeks' stint would require turning over at least some of his usual load of 50 active cases to someone else. He's lined up two attorneys to help, if needed. What happens to his practice if he's gone for several months? "Realistically," he says, "I'd have to start over. It's one of those things; if it happens, it happens."

Gone in 48 Hours

It took major scrambling to cover for Barron County circuit court judge James Eaton in 1990, when he was called to active duty as a member of the Army Reserve. With only 48 hours to report to an Illinois base before being shipped to Saudi Arabia, Eaton had time to do little more than get a haircut and say goodbye to friends and family. The county and state court administrators had to figure out a way to cover the court docket in light of the rather sudden departure of one of the county's two judges.

The remaining judge, Edward Brunner, took on the task of reviewing all cases. To try what would have been Eaton's share of those cases, "they had 14 different substitute judges come in while I was gone for five months," Eaton recalls. "I remember talking to some when I got back that I'd never met before."

Eaton's military involvement dates back to the late 1960s, when he joined the Army ROTC while at Marquette Law School. After graduation, he served stateside as an infantry officer and later an intelligence officer for a few years. When he left active duty, he returned to Rice Lake to take a job in a law firm. He also joined the Army Reserve, from which he retired in May 2000, after nearly 30 years of service. For about half that time, he was an intelligence officer, until he transferred in 1984 to the Army Reserve JAG, to which he belonged when he was deployed to Saudi Arabia.

There he was one of five lawyers attached to the 416th Engineer Command. "We'd get in our trucks, with our computers," Eaton says, "and go out to the units to take care of legal matters that ran from A to Z." He also was a member of the commanding general's special staff, which involved such duties as writing up "lessons learned" reports to help the Army avoid repeating mistakes in the future.

Now that he's retired from the Reserve, Eaton faces no more call-ups. No more having to use his vacation time to attend summer or one-weekend-a-month training sessions, as he did for 30 years. Why did he stay so long? "I loved the people," he says. "I thought I'd hate the Army, but I loved it."

Of Time and Money

In her 15 years total with the Army Reserve and the Army National Guard, Wautoma attorney Robyn Blader has never been called up for active duty. But even the weekend and summer commitments - and she always does more than the minimum required - take a bite out of her practice, especially since hers is a two-lawyer firm. "I'd make more money if I sat in my office and worked all weekend," she says, "and I take another hit when I'm gone for training in the summer. But the Army gave me a great start in life. When I graduated from high school, I didn't have the financial means to pay for college. I feel I owe it back."

So far, Blader hasn't been called up for longer durations of duty, which she knows would have an enormous impact on her practice. She's done what she can to minimize the damage. She's hired an associate, who could keep the firm running, albeit with a smaller caseload and thus a reduced income. She'd turn many of her current cases over to her associate, plus "I have two or three attorneys who could handle the more complicated cases," Blader says. To keep up the business end of the practice, she has a trusted secretary who has authority to make deposits and write checks.

Clients are another concern. "I have to be honest and upfront with them," Blader says. "I don't want to spring this on them. My clients have been very understanding and supportive. No one's been scared away." She's already prepared a letter to clients to be mailed immediately if she's activated.

Blader figures she'll continue in the Guard for some years to come, despite the financial drain and the extra time demands. "When you get home late Sunday night," she says, "and you're back to work right away Monday morning, sometimes it is tiring."

"But it's a rewarding experience for me," she adds. "Especially in the JAG Corps, it's a very close-knit group of people. If anyone ever needs anything, whether it's on the military or the civilian side, everyone bends over backwards to help."

Closing Shop

Probably no Wisconsin lawyer knows better the trials and tribulations of balancing a civilian practice and military duties than Green Bay attorney Jim O'Neil. As a member of the Army Reserve, he spent seven months in Iraq and Kuwait in the early 1990s. Back then, less than three years out of law school, he was an associate with a five-attorney firm. Then in 1996, when he was a sole practitioner in a shared-office setting with five other solos, he was called to Bosnia for seven months. He had to shut down his practice.

O'Neil has learned a lot from these experiences, which may help other attorneys who face a call-up this time around. In both instances, he had to create a network of attorneys who could handle his cases. And both times, the network had to reach beyond the lawyers he worked for or amidst, who "were up to their eyeballs in their own work," O'Neil says.

Reassuring clients is equally critical. "Suddenly the small issues become big issues when clients get notice you're going to be gone," O'Neil observes. Besides conveying that news by letter, O'Neil recommends calling all clients and scheduling meetings with some. Meeting with everybody is impossible, he notes, so set priorities. Which cases have upcoming deadlines, court dates, or other urgent matters? "You also have to look at each client," O'Neil advises. "Oftentimes the clients who have been quiet and have simple, mundane cases are the ones who suddenly get very nervous." In communicating with clients, an attorney can suggest another lawyer but also must inform clients of their right to go elsewhere.

Even after an attorney leaves, O'Neil suggests keeping some support staff on the payroll for a while, or at least making sure they're willing to field questions at their homes or new jobs. Plus, someone, perhaps working part-time, needs to take care of the bills, receivables, and mail that keep flowing in.

In his activations, O'Neil had 30 to 60 days' advance notice, during which he scrambled to tie up a myriad of loose ends, orient other attorneys to his cases, and, before the second activation, close his office. But professional concerns are only half the picture, he emphasizes. "You have only so much time," he says, "and there are competing factors. You want to spend time with your wife and children. Your clients need reassurance, so you're scheduling meetings on evenings and weekends. Your unit is gearing up for the call-up, so you're being assigned additional responsibilities there. No doubt about it, it's a stressful time."

After Bosnia, O'Neil relaunched his practice. He sent letters to former clients, many of whom migrated back to him. But it took several months to get his practice back to where it was. Will he be called now? Unlikely, he thinks, but it's a question he hears often. "My long-standing clients know I'm a major in the Army Reserve," he says. "Almost daily somebody's calling to ask me, 'Are you going to be called up?'"

Preparing to Mobilize

Terence McArdle has split his 22-year law career almost evenly between private practice and the military. A Vietnam vet when he went to law school, he graduated in 1979. He then went to work in his father's law firm in La Crosse and joined the Army National Guard. After his father died, McArdle decided he needed a career change. With 10 years of private practice behind him, he took a job as a full-time Guard attorney at headquarters in Madison.

"I'd expected to come down here for a three-year tour," he says. "That was 12 years ago." McArdle now holds the rank of Deputy State Judge Advocate, reporting directly to the Guard's head lawyer. "One of the main things we do here," he says, "is to make sure that soldiers are ready for mobilization."

"For lawyers, the readiness steps vary depending upon type of practice. Sole practitioners and attorneys in small firms face the toughest challenges," McArdle says. He offers a few basic pointers on preparing for activation:

• Have a good tickler system. Every lawyer needs a system to stay on top of court dates and deadlines. That's all the more critical when you face turning over cases to other attorneys. Safeguard against anything falling through the cracks. "Inform your clients of those dates, too," McArdle advises, "so they know they'll have to make sure things get done on time."
• Enlist backup attorneys. The number you need depends upon your practice. For instance, you might farm out family law cases to one lawyer, probate work to another. In some communities, you may have to look out of town to find the right attorneys. "Keep track of who's doing what in your county bar," McArdle suggests.
• Tell your clients. When should you tell clients that you might be leaving? "There's no hard-and-fast rule," McArdle says. "Have a letter ready, to be sure. But he cautions against telling clients too much too soon and unnecessarily upsetting them - especially in a time when people have plenty to be upset about already. "Most units get a warning order some days before the actual orders to report for duty," McArdle says. "When the unit gets the warning order, it informs all its members. At that point, it would be proper to inform your clients."

For more information on preparing for mobilization, see www.abanet.org.

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