My Memories of James J. Ryan, My Partner
(c) 2009 F. Bruce Abel
My name is Bruce Abel, a law partner of Jim.[1]
If a warren of unruly rabbits or a flock of birds has one, Jim was the shepherding soul of the bevy of ten lawyers known as Steer, Strauss, White & Tobias, strong personalities all. He was the conciliator within the firm and never denigrated another. Lawyers must be actors of course. For the difficult telephone call with a corporate client, Jim had a wonderful, sonorous voice - The Authoritative Telephone Voice - to get us out of the jam.
We in the firm of feverishly-motivated, self-absorbed movers, all loved our work in the field of public utility law and the day-to-day general practice, but Jim also represented the bus company, SORTA, involving public issues, multiple meetings, labor arbitrations, much drafting of minutes, much advising and day-to-day contact with the managers.
Litigating massive taconite electric rate cases and natural gas curtailment hearings, along with lobbying for them, were his specialties, necessitated many weeklong trips to far-off hearings and courts in places such as Hibbing and St. Paul, Minnesota, a profitable yet hardscrabble livelihood.
Washington D.C. and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission was also on his “beat,” for which he had the gravitas, sophistication and appearance of a state department diplomat, as well as mind and abilities to carry it off. And Jim would enjoy the Washington restaurants.
He would return with offbeat tales about Hibbing or Washington and was known to say with his unparalleled deadpan face: [chin up, at attention]
“My favorite job in life would be announcing the stops on the Washington Metro: “Coming up…Faragut North;” “step quickly please.” “Coming up…Foggy Bottom-GWU;” step quickly please.”
Quite often the firm lunched en masse, enjoying the “off-duty” time together and the random camaraderie of a busy partnership of travelers. Jim, after devouring all the gherkin pickles at the table at McAlpins 4th Floor Dining Room, would launch into one of his shaggy dog tales. While I pushed around my Club Salad, I would begin to wonder where the tale was heading. But then he would come out with a hilarious punch line.
My name is Bruce Abel, a law partner of Jim.[1]
If a warren of unruly rabbits or a flock of birds has one, Jim was the shepherding soul of the bevy of ten lawyers known as Steer, Strauss, White & Tobias, strong personalities all. He was the conciliator within the firm and never denigrated another. Lawyers must be actors of course. For the difficult telephone call with a corporate client, Jim had a wonderful, sonorous voice - The Authoritative Telephone Voice - to get us out of the jam.
We in the firm of feverishly-motivated, self-absorbed movers, all loved our work in the field of public utility law and the day-to-day general practice, but Jim also represented the bus company, SORTA, involving public issues, multiple meetings, labor arbitrations, much drafting of minutes, much advising and day-to-day contact with the managers.
Litigating massive taconite electric rate cases and natural gas curtailment hearings, along with lobbying for them, were his specialties, necessitated many weeklong trips to far-off hearings and courts in places such as Hibbing and St. Paul, Minnesota, a profitable yet hardscrabble livelihood.
Washington D.C. and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission was also on his “beat,” for which he had the gravitas, sophistication and appearance of a state department diplomat, as well as mind and abilities to carry it off. And Jim would enjoy the Washington restaurants.
He would return with offbeat tales about Hibbing or Washington and was known to say with his unparalleled deadpan face: [chin up, at attention]
“My favorite job in life would be announcing the stops on the Washington Metro: “Coming up…Faragut North;” “step quickly please.” “Coming up…Foggy Bottom-GWU;” step quickly please.”
Quite often the firm lunched en masse, enjoying the “off-duty” time together and the random camaraderie of a busy partnership of travelers. Jim, after devouring all the gherkin pickles at the table at McAlpins 4th Floor Dining Room, would launch into one of his shaggy dog tales. While I pushed around my Club Salad, I would begin to wonder where the tale was heading. But then he would come out with a hilarious punch line.
He taught Jack Benny the timing of the deadpan look and the wait for the punch line. He was a captivating storyteller.
My favorite was about the New Yorker who illegally cloned himself for tense meetings because he could not control his own foul mouth and temper. One day at such a meeting the clone, swearing a blue streak, initiated a fistfight and fell out the window of a high-rise on 42nd Street, while trying to land a roundhouse punch at his business adversary. The shocked target of the punch rushed down to the street expecting to see a dead man - but the clone got up, said the fracas was all his fault, and brushed himself off. Nevertheless the police arrested the innocent man.
“And what was the other man prosecuted for?” Jim would say,
looking around at all of us “dumb clucks.” [pause]
“Making an obscene clone fall.”
Because I would often launch into a discussion of an ongoing non-utility case long after my partners knew it was a loser, Jim one day at lunch casually announced that he was banning me from ever mentioning it by name, instructing me to call it only “the ‘Uh Uh’ case.” I was allowed to say “May I talk now about the ‘Uh Uh’ case?” or better yet “I promise never again to mention the ‘Uh Uh’ case.”
We each worked on our own public utility cases. When we collaborated, however, we saw each other’s written work. He was of course very articulate and organized in his thoughts. But I was surprised by his effective insertion of quotes from a key case. Some quotes would be full page, single-spaced.
Introducing a long quote is very dangerous to the average writer. Not for Jim because his writing was cr̬me brulee Рa custardy, creamy celebration in the morass of typical legal documents; he could write for the taste of the angels and of the hearing examiners and judges. He took a lot of time to write and his research was thorough. The reader was disappointed to reach the end of the brief.
In the late 80’s the firm began to disassemble. And although many of the partners, including me, moved on to join another law firm, he did say to me. “You know, Bruce, we had a slightly higher culture at Steer Strauss.”
I was proud to be a partner with him.
[1] Greying indicates I did not say these words in order to cut down to the target number of minutes, or just forgot.
My favorite was about the New Yorker who illegally cloned himself for tense meetings because he could not control his own foul mouth and temper. One day at such a meeting the clone, swearing a blue streak, initiated a fistfight and fell out the window of a high-rise on 42nd Street, while trying to land a roundhouse punch at his business adversary. The shocked target of the punch rushed down to the street expecting to see a dead man - but the clone got up, said the fracas was all his fault, and brushed himself off. Nevertheless the police arrested the innocent man.
“And what was the other man prosecuted for?” Jim would say,
looking around at all of us “dumb clucks.” [pause]
“Making an obscene clone fall.”
Because I would often launch into a discussion of an ongoing non-utility case long after my partners knew it was a loser, Jim one day at lunch casually announced that he was banning me from ever mentioning it by name, instructing me to call it only “the ‘Uh Uh’ case.” I was allowed to say “May I talk now about the ‘Uh Uh’ case?” or better yet “I promise never again to mention the ‘Uh Uh’ case.”
We each worked on our own public utility cases. When we collaborated, however, we saw each other’s written work. He was of course very articulate and organized in his thoughts. But I was surprised by his effective insertion of quotes from a key case. Some quotes would be full page, single-spaced.
Introducing a long quote is very dangerous to the average writer. Not for Jim because his writing was cr̬me brulee Рa custardy, creamy celebration in the morass of typical legal documents; he could write for the taste of the angels and of the hearing examiners and judges. He took a lot of time to write and his research was thorough. The reader was disappointed to reach the end of the brief.
In the late 80’s the firm began to disassemble. And although many of the partners, including me, moved on to join another law firm, he did say to me. “You know, Bruce, we had a slightly higher culture at Steer Strauss.”
I was proud to be a partner with him.
[1] Greying indicates I did not say these words in order to cut down to the target number of minutes, or just forgot.
