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Bar News - August 16, 2002 Honoring 50-Year Veterans of the Bar EACH YEAR, THE New Hampshire Bar Association recognizes those among its members who have achieved the milestone of a half-century 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 June 21. The following are the final profiles in the series. James D. O’Neill In addition to his 50 years of Bar membership, James D. O’Neill has left another legacy to the NH Bar – his three children, all NH Bar members: James D. O’Neill III is a NH Superior Court judge, Christina M. O’Neill is a judge in Belknap County Probate Court and Janet O’Neill was an attorney in her father’s Laconia firm before leaving practice to home-school her children. The O’Neill patriarch retired from the practice of law about three years ago, closing the Laconia law office that he had maintained for over 40 years. He retired for medical reasons and because of illness was unable to speak to Bar News, but his wife of 51 years, Stella O’Neill, helped to put together a brief profile of O’Neill’s legal career. O’Neill attended Boston University before joining the U.S. Navy during World War II. After four years in the Navy, he returned to college, graduating from Dartmouth, then went on to graduate form Harvard Law in 1951. His wife said he is a private person who’s never really talked about his motives for becoming a lawyer. O’Neill was admitted to the NH Bar in 1951 and went to work as assistant corporate counsel for the Brown Company in Berlin, NH. About a year later, he and his wife moved to Pittsburgh, Penn., where O’Neill went to work as an attorney for Westinghouse. In that position, he negotiated with the federal government the contract for the first atomic-powered submarine, the Nautilus. The O’Neills returned to New Hampshire in 1954. O’Neill then partnered with the late Thomas McIntyre (who later went on to become mayor of Laconia and a U.S. senator) to open a law office in Laconia. About two years later, O’Neill was elected Belknap County Attorney and opened a solo law practice in Laconia. It was a general practice, according to his wife; he didn’t focus on any particular areas over others. Mrs. O’Neill said that her husband is proud of the fact that as their children graduated from law school, each came to work in their father’s law firm: James III and Christina before being appointed judges, and Janet before leaving practice. Judge Christina O’Neill described her father as "smart as a whip – not just about the law, but about everything." She said that he influenced his children in their decisions to enter the practice of law. "We all became lawyers because he was one," she said. Robert A. Shaines Robert Shaines, president of the Shaines & McEachern law firm in Portsmouth, got an early start in the practice of law after deciding that he was no future farmer. Sometimes things come around, though, and today, in addition to maintaining a thriving law firm, Shaines is again kicking around in the dirt as the owner of a horse farm in Rye. A product of Portsmouth schools, Shaines was admitted to the University of New Hampshire at age 17 and planned to study agronomy and agriculture. But as Shaines tells it, he " got lonesome in the cow barns" and decided he wanted to do something else. An administrator at the school, recognizing Shaines’ natural aptitudes, suggested law school. Instead of continuing at UNH, Shaines applied for an early admission program at Boston University Law School and was accepted without an undergraduate degree. With the Korean War heating up, Shaines joined the ROTC – he was the only ROTC cadet in law school. He obtained his law degree and was admitted to the Massachusetts bar at age 21. He then returned to his hometown and worked briefly for Portsmouth attorney Charles Griffin before he was admitted to the New Hampshire Bar. Shaines also started working on a master’s in business degree at BU. Shaines then served in Korea for a year in the Judge Advocate General corps, where, he recalls, his most memorable case was defending a murder suspect, who was later pardoned by President Dwight Eisenhower. Admitted to the NH Bar in 1954, Shaines worked as a trial lawyer, mostly in criminal matters, for a succession of law firms before finally forming a law firm in 1960 with Fred Madrigan, another former Navy JAG attorney who served at the Portsmouth Shipyard. Paul McEachern became a partner in the firm in 1966, and, a few years later, McEachern’s brothers Duncan and John McEachern joined the firm, which today has 8 attorneys and is one of the Port City’s largest. Shaines has enjoyed spending his career in Portsmouth, saying that the city’s bar has always created an exceptionally collegial atmosphere. Shaines spent the first half of his law career in criminal defense work, but eventually began to shift his focus to corporate law. "I’ve always been very business-oriented and entrepreneurial, and I have enjoyed working with a number of computer hardware and software companies," Shaines said. In his private life, he’s also participated in several real estate development projects and other business ventures. One business venture that’s particularly close to his heart is his 61-acre horse farm in Rye, Independence Farm, where he and his family breed and house quarterhorses. "I became interested in horses because I was taking my daughter to a horse farm for lessons, and then I had to wait there to take her home. One time the instructor said, ‘Instead of standing around, why don’t you learn to ride, too?’ I did, and from then on I was hooked." Today, Independence Farm has an active teaching program, as well as a breeding program. Despite his outside interests, Shaines said he’s never considered giving up the law as his primary vocation. "That’s where the passion is," he said.
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