Q & A: Victor P. Henderson

Victor P. Henderson

Age: 46

Family: Single father of two boys, Jack, 12, and Spencer, 8.

Education: A 1983 graduate of the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, and a 1988 graduate of the Georgetown University Law Center. He became a CPA in 1985.

Professional: A commercial trial lawyer at Holland & Knight, who also handles pro bono criminal defense trials. He is also president of The Chicago Bar Association.

1. Why did you become a lawyer?
I think as best I can recall for two reasons. One, my father pushed me toward it. And actually what happened is, I went to Penn Wharton as an undergrad. I knew when I went to Penn that I wanted to become a CPA. Some time during my time at Wharton my father encouraged me to also look at becoming a lawyer. Being the son I was, I was discouraged because my father was pushing it. But I wound up taking the LSAT and I knew I was going to be a CPA.

So I was working for Coopers & Lybrand in Philadelphia and I met this guy who I thought was absolutely brilliant and I will never forget his name, Marty Satinsky. He was a CPA and a lawyer. That cemented my desire to go to law school and I never looked back.

I think it’s a tremendous combination to be both a CPA and a lawyer. It makes me understand the financial side of the business, I think, in a way that people who don’t have a business background aren’t able to, especially with the increasing importance of money and business and the law.

2. What is the strangest thing that ever happened to you as a lawyer?
I do pro bono work with the federal defender program, and we were in a magistrate’s courtroom. I like to dress, so I was very well-dressed and I went and sat in the front row where lawyers normally sit. It was a small courtroom and it was relatively packed. So, I didn’t know who they were at the time, but there were two U.S. marshals, one in particular who was telling me that I needed to get up out of the row for attorneys because I wasn’t allowed to sit there.

Court was in session and the guy was kind of motioning to me quietly that, ”You can’t be here.” The bottom line was, it turned out that whoever it was apparently didn’t think that I was a lawyer and maybe was of the impression that I might have been a drug dealer, because the judge was sentencing some drug dealers. I found it highly offensive. And of course I’m originally from New York, and I was about two seconds away from trying to knock the guy’s head off when a colleague of mine kind of intervened and told me that this particular U.S. marshal was just a jerk.

3. What is the last big deal or case you worked on that you can discuss, and what did it entail?
Within the last couple months I had a huge, significant temporary restraining order that was heard in the Circuit Court of Cook County that affected the health care for tens of thousands of people … The significance of what we do as lawyers and what I do as a lawyer really comes home, because the lives of real people were impacted by this dispute between the client I represented and another large institution …

When you have a case that involves the lives of real people who are following the case in the newspaper, it’s both an honor and a privilege to be involved with something so significant. And, by the same token, it’s very sobering, because you realize that you have to do the best you can do and bring all the resources that you have to bear to persuade the court to rule in your favor.

4. If you could have lunch with anyone, living or dead, who would it be and why?
I guess simultaneously my mother and Jesus.

I lost my mom a few years back, but she was and continues to be my primary inspiration and role model for what a good person is. My mother was kind, had a world-view, considerate, an eternal optimist, a firm believer in God and Jesus, a social worker by training, and believed that our existence here is to try to do well by others, which is, of course, the example Jesus set as a living, breathing human being … It would have to be the two of them so I could try to get more insight, I guess, into how I could continue to maximize my usefulness, as well as successfully maneuver the challenges that we face during our time here.

5. What advice do you have for new lawyers or those wanting to become lawyers?
Work hard, be optimistic, and persevere. Also, remember that Chicago is a small town and that, over time, you will start to encounter your colleagues a second and third time in unforeseen venues. And so, the people that you are nice to, when they can’t do anything for you, will remember that; and the people that you are mean to along the road will remember that as well. So it behooves you to do your best to be honest and be a person of integrity and be straightforward, but not necessarily a saint, per se, because none of us are perfect.

6. What do you like the most and least about being a lawyer?
I think the capacity to succeed is limitless, so, in that sense, the opportunity for me, for example, to try to be like a Judge Pincham, Jim Montgomery, or Bob Clifford is exciting and inspiring. Whether I make it there or not is another issue, but just the fact that there is still so much room to grow is personally and professionally exhilarating and kind of overwhelming and daunting at the same time.

But what I like least about the profession is, I think we’ve become a little too inwardly focused on ourselves and miss far too many opportunities to do well for other people. I don’t think that lawyers engage in enough pro bono work … I think it takes a lot of courage, especially for lawyers in large law firms and other institutions where dollars count, as they should, but I think it takes a lot of courage, foresight, and fortitude to try to do for others besides yourself.

I don’t think that we do enough of it, probably because maybe the people who set the tone in the profession, they focus on the wrong things, so lawyers, therefore, sometimes have this sheep or herd mentality. And we don’t focus on the things that we need to.

7. If you didn’t become a lawyer, what career would you have chosen?
I’d be a single bartender in Jamaica.

—Interviewed by Olivia Clarke