I continue to practice law at the firm of Krug & Zupke, P.C. in Saint Paul, MN with my law partner and close friend Steve Zupke. We’ve handled lots of workers’ compensation, motor vehicle, transportation and general injury cases over many years. Lawyering exercises the reasonable, predictive mind but also calls upon the skill of understanding human nature and need in times of crisis. It constantly asks the question: what is the motivation here? Absent empathy, a lawyer becomes merely a bean counter. Therein is the intersection between being a practicing lawyer and writer, the synergy of linear analysis and evocative inquiry, not just explicating but anticipating, the love affair of science and art.
In my poem Wallace, I have an imagined encounter with the lawyer/poet Wallace Stevens:
I shook the hand of Wallace Stevens
And he walked away, adjusting his tie,
Face back into his notebook,
his left index finger
Lightly counting feet.