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Bar News - February 21, 2003 Paul Donovans Recollections of the Early Days as a Coos County Judge By: Jill Brooks Coos County Democrat Editor's note: The following is an adaptation of an article that appeared in the Nov. 27, 2002 issue of the Coos County Democrat featuring recollections of retiring Judge Paul Donovan, who sat on the bench of Lancaster District Court for over 20 years. This article is adapted and reprinted with permission. ON DEC. 15, 2002, Judge Paul Donovan, a longtime fixture at Lancaster District Court, celebrated his 70th birthday. In New Hampshire, as in many states, judges are appointed "for life, on good behavior, until they reach the age of 70." Four days prior to his birthday, Donovan walked across the street from his Main Street law office to the Coos County Courthouse, where he served for the last time as a district court justice. Though not a native, Donovan's mother's family was from Gorham. Young Paul was raised in Braintree, Mass., but his grandfather, Burge B. Bickford, spent his life in Gorham, where he took his grandson camping and hiking. Donovan graduated from Harvard and Columbia Law School. Having lived in New York, he says that he likes cities, but didn't want to live in one. In the early 1960s, he traveled west and settled in Oregon. His then-wife Betsy didn't want to live so far from New England, so he sent 39 letters to New England law offices, and received 38 answers. He interviewed with several law firms and eventually took a job with Walter "Bud" Hinkley, but not before Hinkley checked on the applicant's academic credentials. Columbia University didn't reply to two inquiries about Donovan, and when Hinkley called them, he was told by an embarrassed clerk that she had looked for Lancaster on the map and couldn't find it, so she threw the letter in the trash because she thought it was a joke. Hired by Hinkley, Donovan and his family moved to Lancaster in 1965 and rented a house two doors down from the Hinkleys on Winter Street for $35 a month. His starting pay was $60 a week. There were about 450 members of the Bar Association in New Hampshire at the time, and Donovan said that it was pretty easy to get to know most of them. The Hinkley firm worked with a lot of insurance companies, and for railroads when they were "king." Walter Hinkley was also a judge and had been since 1946, almost 20 years before the district court system was established in 1965. Prior to 1965, there were municipal courts in Whitefield, Lancaster, Northumberland and Jefferson, where "the bench was the kitchen table in Paul Thayer's house." Now district courts have geographical boundaries of jurisdiction, and the municipal courts have all but disappeared. "Bud" Hinkley sat on the bench in Lancaster at 5 on Friday afternoons, "when it was convenient for him," Donovan said. Local people didn't seem to mind, but the out-of-town lawyers didn't like it much. Court was held in the basement of the Town Hall, where the Juvenile Diversion office is today. Hinkley required a special justice to cover for him in case of absences or other commitments, and Donovan was named by default over John Gormley, who was town counsel. That marked the beginning of Donovan's career on the bench. The basement court was called the "floating bench" because when the Israel River overflowed in the spring, the basement would flood and the bench would literally float. Afterwards, it would be disinfected, propped up again, and used. After Judge Hinkley retired in 1983, Donovan was named justice of the Lancaster District Court, and court was held at 4 on Thursdays. George Carter was court clerk, a part-time position, as he also taught at Berlin Voc-Tech. During the Jefferson arson era (1989), a suspect had to be arraigned, and the most appropriate place was the police station, where a large number of news media members gathered shoulder-to-shoulder in the lobby. Seeing this on television, embarrassed Supreme Court officials in Concord called Judge Donovan and asked why the man was arraigned at the police station rather than in chambers. He answered that Lancaster didn't have any judicial chambers, and as the public wanted access to the proceedings, that's where they held special arraignments, at the police station. "And where's your clerk?" they asked. "He's teaching at the Voc-Tech," Judge Donovan told them. Shortly afterwards, Sharon Maguire was hired as full-time district court clerk, and the court was moved upstairs to the second floor of the Town Hall, where two conference rooms were created in front, and an old kitchen was cleaned out in back so that the clerk could have an office. The "floating bench" was covered with plywood paneling and moved upstairs, where it would never float again. When Concord found out that juvenile hearings were held in court, they called to ask why they weren't held in chambers where the kids wouldn't be exposed to adults. "We don't have any (chambers)," Judge Donovan replied. After that, the clerk's office was moved to one of the conference rooms up front, and the judge's chambers were in the old kitchen in back. "It was still better than the mushroom room in the basement," Donovan said. Lancaster District Court was held upstairs on the second floor in the Town Hall on Tuesdays at 4:30 for many years. On hot summer days when the windows were open, the voices of lawyers, witnesses and defendants, and even the judges, were often drowned out by the sound of tractor-trailers driving by on Main Street. In winter, the courtroom was often overheated, and the bailiff would adjust the oversized windows accordingly. All of that changed, though, with the promise of a new courthouse that would combine the Registry of Deeds and probate, juvenile, family, superior and district courts. Completed in 1998, the new court building (to the rear of the old red-brick superior court building) boasts superior security. Superior Court Judge Peter Smith, Judge Donovan and Probate Court Judge David King were consulted before it was built. When the architect and builders asked them, "What do you want in your courtroom?" Judge Donovan laughed and said, "You should see where I'm coming from!" He calls the new facility "300 percent" better, though he acknowledges that it's short on space for the Registry of Deeds. Judge Donovan says that he will miss serving the court, which now meets at 1 p.m. on Wednesdays. "I like what I do, and I think I do a good job. I have more patience with juvenile cases than many of my brethren. If you reach a kid, it's beneficial to the whole community." After the Wednesday, December 11 session of Lancaster District Court, Judge Donovan hung up his robe for the last time and has returned to his now-solo practice, where he has many corporate clients and deals with real estate, trust and probate matters. The retiring judge was honored (and surprised) by a recent dinner for 150 held at the Cabot Motor Inn that included six other judges, his wife Mary, his six children and many members of the law enforcement, service and court community. "I was totally humbled by the experience," Donovan said. "Mary said that it was to be a token acknowledgement of my retirement and I was blown away...I was overwhelmed by the level of appreciation for the time I spent as a judge." Donovan received a plaque from local police that included six police badges, and Rich Sarrette of the juvenile justice department presented him with a plaque with a gavel on it. "At home later, I told my kids that it was the first gavel I ever had," he chuckled. "They wanted to know how I got people in order in the courtroom, and I told them I either slammed the bench or whistled." Judge Donovan, who looks remarkably youthful, says that although he smokes cigarettes and drinks, the clean air of the North Country keeps him healthy. He's never practiced law outside of Lancaster, and feels that he made a good decision when he came here way back when.
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