Deanne

C.

Siemer

A long-held view about the importance of time led me to leave large-firm law practice in Washington D.C. at age 52 (I was aiming for 50, but a trial matter just kept on going).  I continued writing trial practice books and case files for the National Institute for Trial Advocacy, where I had served as Chair,  and published  two history books on the Mariana Islands with my husband, Howard Willens.  We changed our home base to a 300-acre organic farm in western New York we had owned for years.  As we spent time making and keeping the farm profitable, local people with legal problems fairly typical in a rural  farm community showed up in increasing numbers at our kitchen door.  This pro bono law practice is a wide-open window on the lack of legal resources in rural areas together with the interesting aspect that these legal problems often have embedded statutory interpretation and constitutional problems that can  be adjudicated usefully in the town and county courts.