Sam Hanson finds life on the Supreme Court appealing

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When then-Court of Appeals Judge Sam Hanson discovered last summer that former Minnesota Supreme Court Justice Edward Stringer was retiring, he just couldn’t resist the opportunity to apply for the open seat. Hanson, who prior to joining the Court of Appeals in 2000 had spent 34 years practicing at the Minneapolis law firm of Briggs & Morgan, was one of two candidates simultaneously selected for appointment to the high court. (St. Louis Park attorney Helen Meyer was selected to fill the other opening, which was created when then-Justice Joan Ericksen Lancaster left the Minnesota Supreme Court for a seat on the U.S. District Court.)

Born: Aug. 26, 1939; Mankato

Education: William Mitchell College of Law, J.D., 1965; St. Olaf College; B.A. Economics & History, 1961

Employment: Associate Justice, Minnesota Supreme Court, Sept. 2002-present; Judge, Minnesota Court of Appeals, 2000-02; Briggs and Morgan, 1966-2000; Law Clerk, Hon. Robert Sheran, Minnesota Supreme Court, 1965-66

Professional/Civic Activities: American College of Trial Lawyers; American Board of Trial Advocates; Board of Trustees, National Conference of Bar Examiners; Chair, Board of Trustees, William Mitchell College of Law; Board of Directors, Minnesota Advocates for Human Rights; Minnesota State Bar Association, Public Utilities Section; Global Volunteers

Personal: Wife, Mirja; six children; three grandchildren

Hobbies: Reading, nature photography, pottery, landscaping work, playing basketball and golf

With almost two months under his belt as a justice now, Hanson says that he sees himself as fortunate to have been chosen to add his voice to such a distinguished group and that he still sometimes has difficulty believing that he is there.

“It’s a real privilege to be in the room and be able to hear what the opinions of others are and to be able to offer your own,” Hanson says of his participation on the court. “I pinch myself quite a lot [and ask] am I really here?”

An appealing position

Hanson spent just two years on the Minnesota Court of Appeals before making the leap to the Supreme Court. He stresses that his decision to apply for the high court seat was not because of any discontent with his position on the Court of Appeals. In fact, he says that sitting on the Supreme Court bench was the only job in the state that could draw him away from the Court of Appeals.

“I was happy there and would have been happy to finish my career there. It’s a terrific place,” Hanson says. “I wasn’t thinking about a second move. … But then the opportunity [to be on the Supreme Court] came up. … I had already been through the process with the governor and I knew I certainly had a chance to be considered.”

The high court position was alluring for a variety of reasons. Hanson particularly liked the idea of moving from the error correcting function of the Court of Appeals into the judicial policy area where judges make choices in “uncharted ground.”

The idea of working with the same group of people on each case was also a plus.

“I like working on a team so I enjoyed the collegial aspect of the Court of Appeals,” Hanson observes. “But working with the same seven people on both decision making and the administration of the judicial system was very attractive to me.”

While he spent 34 years as a trial attorney, Hanson likes being an appellate court judge, despite its differences from the everyday practice of law. He says that he has “enjoyed getting back to the study of law for its own sake,” explaining that attorneys become very focused on the use of the law for the benefit of their clients — shaping it, forming it, and pushing it to serve their advocacy needs.

“Here, you don’t have any stake in the outcome,” he says. “It’s really quite refreshing to be in that position. You just want to do the right thing. You don’t have an agenda. You can … look at how the caselaw is developing in a certain area. [You can] look at the history, consider the future, and try to anticipate where this needs to go.”

Hanson adds that appellate court judges also have the luxury of hearing different perspectives on an issue, sharing views and then taking the time to make a good decision.

“[It’s] a very rich process,” he says. “I never leave a conference with the same ideas with which I entered because even if you think you really have an understanding of the case and a strong feeling as to where it ought to go, somebody’s else’s view is going to enrich that.”

Hanson says his new colleagues have told him that having two justices join the court at the same time has changed the chemistry of the court.

“I’m sure there is a certain amount of discomfort because they have patterns they’ve developed and working relationships that have changed,” Hanson observes. “But … everything I’ve been told by the others is that this has created excitement for them — to have fresh perspectives offered. So I hope it’s appreciated; I think it is,” he adds with a laugh.

Falling into place

Hanson was born and raised in Mankato, Minn., the son of a businessman. At the height of his career, Hanson’s father owned 11 gas stations throughout the southern part of the state. His mother worked as the business’s bookkeeper.

Hanson left Mankato in the late 1950s to attend college at St. Olaf in Northfield, where he studied history and economics. His initial aspirations pointed him toward a career in business or international development, although he also toyed with the idea of working for the State Department or the CIA and even interviewed with these agencies during high school.

It wasn’t until late in college that Hanson decided to attend law school, a decision that surprised his parents because there were no attorneys in the family. Because of the importance his parents placed on education, however, they were supportive of his choice.

“Education was very much emphasized in all of us,” Hanson observes. “I have two brothers and we all went into graduate careers. So it was encouraged. They may have been a little surprised that I picked law school —
because it came out of the blue — but just so long as I was improving myself, it didn’t matter in what way.”

Hanson admits that at the time he made the decision to go to law school, he had a somewhat romanticized vision of what a lawyer does. He recalls with a smile that he was influenced by a novel that was popular then, “The Anatomy of a Murder,” and says that at the time he probably thought all lawyers did criminal defense work. “[But] trial work in general interested me,” he adds.

Despite his youthful illusions about the practice of law, Hanson found he enjoyed the reality of the legal profession.

“It was just a very fortuitous thing for me,” he says. “When I started law school I was one of the unusual people who loved [it]. … I just felt like I fell into the place where I belonged.”

Judicial giants

Throughout the time he attended night school at William Mitchell College of Law, Hanson held a series of interesting jobs. His first was as a deputy clerk for the federal court in St. Paul, a position he held for two years.

“I spent almost every day sitting in the courtroom for either Judge [Edward J.] Devitt or Judge [Earl R.] Larson — two of the giants in the judiciary in Minnesota — watching cases be tried, both civil and criminal,” Hanson recalls. “Seeing the real world of lawyering made studying more relevant and exciting.”

After leaving the clerkship, Hanson became the librarian of the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals’ library, located in the same building. He held the position at a time when the 8th Circuit didn’t come to Minnesota, however, so essentially it was a library for former U.S. Supreme Court Justice Harry Blackmun, who was an 8th Circuit judge at the time.

More than 20 years after Hanson left the library position, he met up with Blackmun again. While Hanson was in Washington meeting with someone in the U.S. Supreme Court cafeteria Blackmun came in and recognized him.

“We talked briefly. He asked where I had gone in my legal career,” Hanson remembers. “He was just that kind of a person. … He was just the most pleasant, friendly, congenial person.”

Hanson’s work experience with legal luminaries did not end with Blackmun, however. During his final year of law school, Hanson clerked for Hennepin County Judge Douglas Amdahl, who later became the chief justice of the Minnesota Supreme Court. After graduation, he spent a year clerking for Minnesota Supreme Court Justice Robert Sheran, who also served as chief justice of the state’s high court.

“I was just surrounded by tremendous people in the legal profession,” Hanson observes.

A longtime litigator

In 1966, Hanson joined the Twin Cities law firm of Briggs and Morgan, where he worked for the next 34 years. Much of his practice during that time focused on public utility regulation and commercial litigation.

Throughout the years, Hanson thought of trying for a judgeship, but until 2000 he never put his name in for consideration. He says he “was never very political” and didn’t think he’d have a chance. Two things changed his mind: Gov. Jesse Ventura and a trip to China.

“[I] was pleasantly surprised to see that [Gov. Ventura] was going to use the Judicial Selection Commission for not only the District Court appointments but for the appellate courts as well … and use an open merit selection process,” Hanson explains. “I knew that [Ventura] didn’t worry about political debts.”

In addition, during the spring of 2000, Hanson took a trip to China with a team of lawyers, an experience he calls “a kind of renewal” of his excitement about the law. Hanson met with Chinese lawyers, judges and law students who were struggling to put together a legal system in that country. He says he came back with a real appreciation of the U.S. legal system.

“The independence of the judiciary, the impartiality of judges, the systems and rules and processes that are predictable and fair … and the existence of a strong legal profession — none of that exists in China,” Hanson observes. “They are just at the very beginning trying to build those things. It was kind of an inspiration.”

Almost as soon as Hanson got off the plane from China, he read the announcement of the retirement of Jack Davies from the Minnesota Court of Appeals. “Within a week or two I had my application in,” he says, adding that by that time in his career, he felt that what he had to offer would be more valuable at the appellate level than the district court level.

For a lot of trial lawyers, the switch to the quieter pace of an appellate court position would be very difficult — but not for Hanson.

“It is more isolating for the purpose of allowing you more time to think,” he observes. “You see things at a deeper level and really get into the details and consider the implications and ramifications of what you are doing. So you have to get into that rhythm. I seem to be suited to that rhythm, so it was an OK transition.”

Empty footsteps

Although Hanson has six children, none of them have followed in his legal footsteps — so far. He believes that a practice more connected to average people would probably have generated more interest among his family, recalling a personal injury lawyer once telling him how he used to present his case at the dinner table. The lawyer would ask each of his kids to render a verdict for the plaintiff or defendant and come up with a dollar amount that was fair.

“I think they all became lawyers — because they were integrated into his profession,” Hanson says. “When you are doing utility rate regulation or securities fraud or field contracts, it’s a little tougher to find some common ground,” he adds.

Hanson says it’s still not out of the realm of possibility, however, noting that one of his daughters almost sat for the LSAT this year.

“She is a social worker and thinks that public service law may allow her to do even more things than she is doing now. So it could happen still,” he adds with a smile.