Attorney Greg Hague has a new brief

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Others may disagree, but for this correspondent, the high point of today’s Board of Governors meeting here at the Renaissance Glendale may have been their honor of Gregory Dean Hague, the highest-ranked test taker on February’s Bar Exam. For the record, they gave him a briefcase.

This is a ceremony the Board engages in twice a year, and it’s a pretty nice idea. Typically, the honoree is a wet-behind-the-ears recent graduate. He or she deserves all they accolades that come their way, but they always appear to be up-and-comers. In other words, they make the rest of us feel pretty old—and not as accomplished, truth be told.

But Greg Hague is a different kettle of fish. First of all, he was admitted in Ohio a few decades ago. And after that, he did not practice law. But his path to Arizona is a fascinating one.

Back in Ohio, Greg’s father ran a real estate firm. When the elder Hague was struck with emphysema, Greg stepped in to run the company. He made a great run of it, and retired—the first time—in 1981. That industry treated him well, and he eventually moved his family to Arizona.

Eight months ago, Hague tells us, he was in a car trip with his wife Roseann to San Diego, where their son Casey is a law student (3L). That’s when he suddenly told his wife, “I’m going to do it. I’m going to take the Arizona Bar and practice law.”

To add to the out-of-the-blue quality, he said, “It’s been my lifelong dream.”

Hague says that he’s always wanted to practice. He didn’t want to be Batman or Superman. He wanted to be Perry Mason.

So for the next seven months, he ate and slept law. From 8 in the morning until midnight, he toiled on the law. His wife and his son Corey, Hague says, get all the credit for keeping the world at bay in that time. “Roseann and Corey put their lives on hold so I could achieve my dream.” In those months, he laughs, he went out to dinner three times and to the movies twice.

As he finally exited the Bar exam, he says, he was greeted by Roseann, balloons, ribbons, and their two dogs—along with a sign that read “My Dad Rocked the Bar.”

To treat himself, the 61-year-old Hague stopped at a doughnut shop. He bought two doughnuts and ate them as soon as he got home.

He proudly displays a key-ring that his son Casey had engraved: “Good Dads Set the Bar. Better Dads Rock the Bar.”

His voice lowers as he recalls the day the Court posted the Bar results.

“I don’t know of any time in my entire life that I have had the rush and the excitement as I felt when I saw the results. I had done it.”

Hague says he will be working at Stinson Morrison Hecker, where his friend Michael Manning has promised to help make him a great lawyer.

And as for the briefcase? Hague smiles as he says, “I haven’t had to use a briefcase in 30 years. I can’t wait to make use of it.”

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