Allen I. Saeks – Leonard, Street and Deinard

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Allen Saeks has been an invaluable part of Minnesota’s legal community for more than 52 years. Over his illustrious career, he’s been honored by bar associations, public interest organizations and community groups for his work on behalf of low-income citizens and the legal community in general.

Since 1960, Saeks has been a commercial and business litigator with Leonard, Street and Deinard. For most of this decade, he’s served as general counsel to the firm, advising it on things like ethics and financial issues.

“When we say Allen is a ‘lawyer’s lawyer,’ we really mean it,” says Leonard Street’s president, Lowell Stortz, who’s worked with Saeks for 25 years. “Our core values are client service, teamwork, hard work, professionalism and community service. Allen is a poster child for all of those core values.”

In addition to diligently serving his firm and his clients, Saeks has long been a proponent of legal services for low-income Minnesotans. He was instrumental in the implementation of Minnesota’s Interest on Lawyer’s Trust Account system, which has raised more than $46 million for Legal Aid since its creation in 1983.

For more than 15 years, Saeks has actively raised money for the Fund for Legal Aid Society, even serving a term as president of its board. He also spent several years on the board of Equal Justice Works, which funds fellowships for law school graduates who pursue careers in public interest law.

Saeks views working for the poor as a responsibility of all attorneys.

“I just think it’s important that as lawyers, and as our ethics code recommends, we do work for people who can’t afford our services as well as those who can,” he says.

Saeks has also been actively involved in bar associations at the local, state and national levels.

In the mid-1980s, while serving as president of the Hennepin County Bar Association, he launched a program to reduce delays in the court’s trial calendar. In 2003, he served on the Minnesota State Bar Association task force charged with recommending changes to the rules of professional conduct. Just last year, Saeks chaired the committee that examined and made recommendations to the state’s lawyer disciplinary system. He’s also currently a member of the year-old Minnesota Supreme Court Historical Society.

“I’ve found it to be exciting work,” Saeks says of his bar activities. “And it seems to me that’s an obligation we have as lawyers — to work with our colleagues to improve the bar and the judicial system.”

Jeremy Lane, executive director of Mid-Minnesota Legal Assistance, has high praise for Saeks’ work not only on behalf of Legal Aid, but on behalf of the legal community in general.

“He’s one of those people who has, I think, always seen the law not as a business but as a profession,” says Lane. “[He’s] been a model in terms of his personal behavior. I don’t think I’ve ever asked Allen for anything and gotten anything but a ‘yes’ answer from him. … He’s a terrific human being and it’s an honor for me to know him.”

— Michelle Lore