Meeting a New Challenge
An Interview with HBA President Michael Connelly

THL: Where did you grow up?
Connelly: I was born in Atlanta, Georgia, but my family lived in several states while I was growing up. We moved to Dallas in 1957, where I went to junior high school for two years. But the real change came when we moved to Chicago for my high school years. I had always planned to go to college in the South, but when I got accepted at Stanford, all those plans changed. I didn’t want to miss that opportunity. I got my undergraduate degree at Stanford. However, I did return to Atlanta and attended Emory University School of Law.

THL: Were you involved in athletics?
Connelly: I began playing football and baseball in elementary school, and I played both sports through college. It was quite a challenge, playing both football and baseball and keeping up with studies at a school like Stanford.

THL: Tell me about your family.
Connelly: My mom and dad were great. They were very dedicated to their family. They were part of the “Greatest Genera-tion.” Unfortunately, Dad died last year; but he will always be an inspiration to me. I have two sisters and a brother spread out in various Southern states. Since I am the oldest, there is a polite deference to me, but they are all very talented in their own right. We have gotten emotionally closer over the years, even though we are still geographically apart.

THL: And your immediate family?
Connelly: My wife, Carolynn, and I met in junior high school, married in 1965, and will celebrate our 38th wedding anniversary this year. Our oldest son, Coy, is an attorney with Bracewell & Patterson. Our second son, Ryan, died at age three. Our youngest son, Mark, is still completing his college education preparing to be an athletic trainer, when he tears himself away from his love of the theater. Coy and his wife, Allyson, have two daughters, Margaret and Mary Cate. Since Carolynn and I had only boys, having girls in the family now is an interesting treat. We are very successful spoiling the granddaughters. It’s a lot of fun.

THL: How did you become interested in going to law school?
Connelly: My dad went to law school, but he only practiced law for a short time; it was interrupted by WWII. He always advised me that getting a legal education would be a good foundation from which you could do a lot of things. I always felt that advice was sound, so I went to law school. When I completed the course work, I was so excited to get started in the real world that I did not even wait for the graduation ceremony.

THL: What firms have you worked with?
Connelly: My first job was with a firm named Butler, Binion, Rice, Cook & Knapp. I started there in 1969, made partner in 1975, and remained a partner until 1982. I was part of the group which founded Mayor, Day, Caldwell & Keeton, and I was with that firm from 1982 until 2001. In October 2001, we started Connelly • Baker • Wotring • Jackson LLP.

THL: How did you get interested in volunteer work with the bar?
Connelly: I became involved early in my career. I’m not sure there was any one person or thing that directed me in that way. I didn’t have any intent to seek any higher office; it just seemed to be the right thing to do. I have never completely understood people who isolated themselves in the practice of law and didn’t get involved in bar activities. That seems to be so unnatural.

THL: I know you have chaired many of our committees and programs. Tell me about some of the things you have done within the Houston Bar Association.
Connelly: Early in my career, I served on various committees because I was interested in the work of those committees. Later, I wanted to learn more about the HBA in order to be an effective leader. I felt that serving in leadership positions in the related organizations - the Dispute Resolution Center, the Houston Lawyer Referral Service and the Houston Volunteer Lawyers Program — would prepare me to be a much better president. So, starting about 1995, when I decided I wanted to work toward being HBA president, I started serving on the HBA board and seeking opportunities to lead those organizations. Not only was I interested in the worthwhile work done by those organizations, but knowing the intimate details of how those organizations function was preparing me to be a much more effective leader of the HBA.

THL: Who were your mentors in your legal career and in your bar work?
Connelly: When I was at the Butler, Binion firm, I worked directly with two men who were fantastic trial lawyers—Jack McConn and Frank Knapp. Jack McConn is a former president of the Houston Bar Association; in fact, I think he was president while I was working for him. Those two men taught me a lot about the practice of law. When I joined the firm of Mayor, Day, Caldwell & Keeton, the two people who were instrumental in influencing my career were Richard Caldwell and Jonathan Day. I learned a lot from them, not only about practicing law, but also about running a law firm.
Since I’ve been on the HBA board, I’ve had the opportunity to see some very talented people serve as bar president. I’ve tried to study them and their work and see the ways they successfully led this organization. I’ve tried to adopt some of the same approaches and attitudes, recognizing, however, that I have my own way of doing things. But having had the opportunity to serve under so many presidents has taught me how to be a better president myself.

THL: What do you think is the role of the organized bar in society today?
Connelly: I’m glad you are not asking superficial questions. Of course, it depends on the type of bar organization. For example, the role of the State Bar as a mandatory bar is a lot different from the role of the Houston Bar as a voluntary bar. In addition, it depends on who the members are and what the bar is trying to accomplish. There are more than 30 local bar associations in this area other than the HBA. What they do for their members and this community is often vastly different from what the HBA does. So, I think it’s important for each bar association to define its own existence. Who is its membership? What is its role in this community, and how is it trying to serve our profession? In the case of the Houston Bar, we have a long and distinguished history, and a very sound tradition has been built as to how this bar serves its members, the community and the profession. Our role has been well defined, but we must be good stewards of that role.
The Houston Bar Association has a unique role because of its commitment to support other groups and organizations. It is really impressive to see. Any organization that is stretched thin would have a natural tendency to restrict its talent and resources to its own programs. But the HBA staff has been remarkable in assisting other organizations, teaching them many of the things we have learned, and helping them carry out some of the programs we have begun. That’s really what distinguishes the Houston Bar Associa-tion and its staff, sharing its time and talents to help this community and help our profession.

THL: What do you see as the role of the president in the Houston Bar Association?
Connelly: Most presidents feel they need to somehow put their personal stamp on the organization and leave a legacy. With as much as this bar association has accomplished, it is extremely difficult to come up with new and creative programs. Tom Godbold said last year that he was going to continue doing what the HBA already did well, and that rang true with me. I think that’s largely what we do each year. However, that having been said, I think it’s important for the president to be a very strong, definitive leader. If there are problems, they need to be addressed and not swept under the carpet. If there are needs, they must be met and not ignored.
I have a special place in my heart for the HBA’s programs involving children. There are a number of established programs, affecting young children through adolescents. I’m looking carefully at ways in which we can more adequately support those programs or expand them to serve the children of this community.

THL: What do you think has changed most about the practice of law since you began practicing in 1969?
Connelly: There’s no question in my mind that the biggest change is technology. I can remember practicing law with carbon paper being used to make file copies. That slowed the use of unnecessary motions. I can remember the thrill in the office when we finally went to a Mag Card machine that would allow some level of word processing work. The advances in word processing and the communication technology that have developed are just absolutely remarkable. It allows for so much more productive work, and so much more reliable work. It has really advanced our profession. And, it’s had an impact on bar activities. We’re able to communicate more frequently with more people through the use of technology. However, I don’t think technology has changed the personal service that members of the bar render to this organization and to the community. What is in our hearts hasn’t changed, but our ability to deliver those services and to communicate our ideas has changed.

THL: Do you think that we can make better use of that technology in communicating with our members?
Connelly: Absolutely. It would clearly be less expensive for the bar to rely on electronic communications, and two-thirds of our members are equipped to receive electronic information. That percentage will continue to increase. The advances that the HBA has made on its Web site over the last few years have been outstanding. The amount of information that we provide on the Web, not just to our members, but to this entire community, is tremendous. I spoke recently to a group of solo practitioners, some of whom are not members of the Houston Bar Association. I was able to point out the tremendous amount of information available to them on our Web site, even if they choose not to be members.

THL: What do you like to do outside of the practice of law?
Connelly: My wife accuses me of not having a life outside the practice of law. I have, unfortunately, sometimes been described by my family as a “workaholic.” But I think that has to do with the fact that I take great personal responsibility not only for the work that I do, but for the career development of other people I work with. Naturally, it does require a lot of time being spent at the office. But I do have a life outside the office. I am very devoted to my family. Now that my wife and I have the “empty nest,” we want to do a lot more traveling and enjoy our private time together.
My personal interests have been very diverse. I’ve always tried to have challenges in life that give me something to work for. For example, when I was 40 years old, I played in a Stanford Varsity/Alumni football game, which was a huge mistake. I had forgotten how hard they hit in college football. At age 56, I played in a Stanford baseball old-timers game and got to pitch an inning.
At age 42, I took an Outward Bound Alpine Mountaineering Course and that got me interested in mountain climbing. Since then, I have climbed a number of mountains — about five of the 14,000-foot mountains in Colorado, and the tallest mountain in the Lower 48, Mt. Whitney in California. Then, I started on glacier climbs. I did Mt. Baker in Washington in 1998, and Mt. Rainier in Washington in 2000. That was when I decided to give up glacier climbing. The 5,000-foot ascent to the summit of Rainier, mostly in the dark, may have cured me. But those are real memories because both my sons have climbed with me.

THL: What type of law do you practice?
Connelly: For many years, I worked primarily on the defense side of the docket, handling cases involving products liability, medical malpractice and toxic torts. For the last 10 or 12 years, I’ve been deeply involved in environmental litigation, which really is a special area of litigation. Since we started Connelly • Baker • Wotring • Jackson in October of 2001, I have tried to be more diversified and do more commercial litigation, but I still handle a lot of environmental and medical litigation. Interestingly, our work is not limited to the defense side, because now we are taking cases in which we are bringing claims as well as defending claims. We have a lot more flexibility in this firm to take on matters for a cause. We’ve handled cases for individuals who have been injured in the workplace and for companies seeking recoveries from others.

THL: What do you like best about practicing law?
Connelly: One of the most interesting things about trial work is learning about a multitude of subjects. I think that’s really been true in my case. I have done work involving many subjects, from medicine to engineering to commercial transactions. That really does make it very interesting.
The other enjoyable part of practicing law is the courtroom experience. Like most of the young lawyers in the 1970’s, I learned how to try lawsuits on a workers’ compensation docket. We would often try 20 cases a year on that docket. It gave me a real comfort level being in the courtroom. In addition, my natural competitive nature also contributed to that pleasure. Frankly, to this day, there is nothing more enjoyable to me than being able to actually try a case in court. But the profession has changed somewhat in that regard. Trials of bigger cases, in which I’m more routinely involved now, don’t seem to occur as often. The use of alternative dispute resolution procedures has reduced the number of trials. The fact is, we don’t try as many lawsuits today, and I, from a personal and professional standpoint, regret that.

THL: What other professional and community organizations are you involved with?
Connelly: When you are as actively involved in the HBA as I have been, it is hard to do much in other organizations. However, I’ve been quite active in the International Association of Defense Counsel (IADC). It’s a special organization to me, one that has a strong educational direction. I’ve served on the IADC Foundation Board for a number of years. I take real pleasure in being actively involved in that organization.
In terms of the community, I’ve done a variety of things. My wife and I both became quite interested in Christian education. For a long time, Carolynn served on the board of various Christian schools, trying to help advance their programs. I served as chairman of the board of Harvest Christian Academy, a school in Pasadena, for three years and felt I helped make a positive contribution to the advancement of that school. My wife and I are both very committed to our church. We’re members of Lakewood Church and lead one of their home groups that support people in the congregation. It’s a real benefit to us to be involved in such a loving, caring congregation. That church has meant a lot to us over the years.

THL: Is there anything else you would like to bring out in this interview that is important to you?
Connelly: One of the things that I talked about at our annual meeting is the fact that lawyers are without question leaders in this community by virtue of their education and talents. Lawyers need to be engaged in this community or the community suffers. We all are concerned that lawyers are unfairly criticized because of the actions of a few. The bar association needs to help us focus on what can we do to serve our community and our profession in a way that may help change that perception. It may never change all of public opinion, but in the long run our service to the community and to our profession will engender great respect if each of us uses our special talents and abilities to help the community. As I speak to different groups in my capacity as HBA president, I encourage them, whether or not they are members of the HBA, to lead a professional life and a personal life that will reflect well on our profession. There are a tremendous number of people who do that, and

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