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Bar News - July 5, 2002 50-Year Veterans of the Bar Recall the Rewards of Law Practice EACH YEAR, THE New Hampshire Bar Association recognizes those among its members who have achieved the milestone of a half-decade of service as members of the legal profession, regardless of where they were first admitted to practice. According to bar records, there are 14 surviving admittees, of whom eight were first admitted in New Hampshire. Brief profiles and interviews have been appearing occasionally in Bar News, and the honorees – who are granted honorary Bar member status – were recognized at the NHBA Annual Meeting Banquet on Friday, June 21. Elmer T. Bourque - Manchester, NH A former assistant and deputy NH attorney general, Elmer T. Bourque served his last 20 years in active law practice as Manchester’s city solicitor. Bourque, admitted to the NH Bar in 1952, began his law career in private practice with the Manchester law firm Wyman, Starr, Booth, Wadleigh & Langdell, which is now Wadleigh, Starr & Peters. In 1953, after his colleague Louis Wyman was appointed the state’s attorney general, Bourque went to work for Wyman in the AG’s Office, where he served first as assistant attorney general and later as deputy attorney general. After his service in the AG’s Office, Bourque returned to private practice in the mid-‘60s, forming the Manchester law firm Broderick, Craig & Bourque with William H. Craig and James V. Broderick. His was a general practice. He then opened a solo firm, also in Manchester, before being appointed Manchester’s city solicitor in 1975. Bourque served one term in the state Senate from 1969 to 1970 and served as chair of the state Personnel Commission in the late ‘70s. He retired as Manchester city solicitor in 1995 and went to inactive retired bar status in 1997. Bourque said that he was involved in a number of interesting and rewarding cases over the course of his 40-plus-year law career, especially during his years in the AG’s Office. One such case was the Martineau and Nelson double murder trial prosecuted by Wyman in the ‘50s. During that trial, the clerk of court had a heart attack and died "and a number of other things happened – you could write a book about that case," said Bourque. There was also a case in which a man was wrongly convicted of a crime and had served time in state prison. The AG’s Office re-investigated the case and proved that the man was wrongly convicted. He was released from prison, and Bourque is proud of his role in seeing that justice was done in that case. Bourque served in the U.S. Navy from 1944 to 1946. After his military service, he attended the College of the Pacific in Stockton, Calif., the University of California-Berkeley, and finally St. Anselm College in Manchester, from which he graduated in 1948. He received his law degree from Boston University Law in 1952. Bourque continues to reside in Manchester with his wife of 48 years, Mary. The couple has four grown daughters, who all live in the area, and six grandchildren. He said these days, he enjoys spending much of his time with his family. Edward B. Hamlin - Lexington, Mass. In 1979, Edward B. Hamlin, at the time a Mass. Bar member, was called upon as an expert witness for the Sulloway & Hollis law firm in Concord because of his knowledge in the area of pension law, specifically the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) of 1974. After working with the firm, he decided to stay. Hamlin moved to NH, passed the NH bar and was admitted to practice in the state in 1980. He became an associate with Sulloway & Hollis in 1981 and held that position for nearly five years. In 1985, he returned to Massachusetts, where he continued his work in the area of ERISA law, working mainly with consulting, actuarial and insurance firms. About 10 years ago, Hamlin began winding down his career. Gradually entering into retirement has been a lengthy process, he jokes – after 10 years, he’s finally down to just one client. Hamlin, who earned his undergraduate and law degrees from Harvard and was admitted to the Mass. Bar in 1951, said he opted to go to law school "because it seemed like an interesting way to make a living." When asked about professional achievements over the course of his 50-year career, Hamlin said he doesn’t "think of things in those terms." "[Practicing law] was a way to make a living," he said, adding that he didn’t particularly enjoy the profession, except that "the intellectual challenge has been good." Hamlin and his wife of 45 years, Elaine, have three grown children and two grandchildren. Malcolm McLane - Concord, NH After 50 years in practice, much of it involving real estate or estate planning work in New Hampshire, Malcolm McLane feels he knows at least someone or some property in every community in the state. "Part of the fun of practicing for 50 years is how well I have gotten to know the state," he said. McLane himself is well known as an attorney, community activist, philanthropist and politician. Still on active status but in an "of counsel" role at the Orr & Reno firm for the past eight years, McLane makes it to the office nearly every day, but often his stay lasts only until his quarters run out in a two-hour parking meter. Then it is off to political activities or meetings relating to his service on various nonprofit boards. McLane has spent his entire legal career at Orr & Reno in Concord. He did not join his father’s law firm, then known as McLane, Davis & Carleton, because after obtaining his law degree from Harvard in 1952, he and his wife, Susan, were thinking of moving to the West Coast. "Dudley Orr found out from my father that I wasn’t interested in joining the firm and coming to Manchester, so he talked to me and said if I decided not to stay out West, would I consider working for him?" McLane and his wife traveled to several Western cities and decided that, all things considered, they didn’t want to settle that far from the rest of their families. So McLane returned to New Hampshire and joined Orr’s firm. McLane soon settled into transactional work, particularly involving businesses and real estate. Among his notable accomplishments was working on the incorporation and financing, from the ground up, of the corporation that developed the Wildcat Mountain ski area. McLane also handled a considerable amount of probate and trust work. Like other attorneys of his generation who became expert in estate planning work, he has enjoyed the satisfaction of working with multiple generations of clients, providing not only legal advice, but an increasingly rare commodity these days – continuity in a professional relationship. McLane has held a number of public offices and made several runs for statewide office. In 1954, he ran for Merrimack County Attorney, and two years later, he was elected to the Concord City Council, an office he would hold for 20 years, including the last six as mayor. McLane had an interest in the community, but he freely admits that, in an era when lawyer advertising was banned, politics was a good way to "meet people and tell them how great you were." Public service in municipal government was a good fit for him, he said. "It was good for a young lawyer. Politics was night work, and it didn’t interfere with my legal work during office hours." He recalls that during his tenure on the City Council, three out of the 15 members were lawyers, and bemoans the fact that attorneys aren’t as involved in politics today. After an unsuccessful bid for governor in 1972 (he ran against Meldrim Thomson in the general election as an independent), McLane was then elected to the Executive Council in 1976. That experience provided him an opportunity to look at policy issues from a statewide perspective. The future of New Hampshire is something that deeply concerns McLane and his wife, a fixture as a state representative and state senator for many years before her retirement, and they pursue that interest through their involvement in politics. McLane said no account of his career is complete without mentioning the satisfaction he has derived from working with statewide and local philanthropic organizations, ranging from the Merrimack County United Way to the Capitol Center for the Arts, the Concord Community Music School and the Appalachian Mountain Club.
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