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Judge
Steven Pihlaja
Originally published in
the December 2002 issue.
Author: Brian R. Dockendorf
On May
31, 2002, Gov. Jesse Ventura announced the appointment of
long-time practitioner Steven Pihlaja to the Fourth Judicial
District trial court bench in Hennepin County. Judge Pihlaja,
pronounced "Pa-laja", took office on June 26, 2002,
and was sworn into office on Aug. 26, 2002. The judge’s
chambers in Hennepin County reflect his straightforward,
nothing-to-hide personality, along with a get-it-done attitude,
a trait his wife agrees is one of his strongest attributes.
Background
and Education
Judge
Pihlaja was born on a small family farm near Wadena, Minn., a
"little town" in north-central Minnesota. Like many
small family farms of the 1950s, when financial trouble struck,
the family had to move, and they subsequently relocated to
Duluth. The future judge was then 3 years old. His father sailed
on ore boats and eventually moved on to work for Coca-Cola as a
machine operator and pop bottler. His mother worked as a
coronary care nurse. A graduate of Duluth East High School, the
judge worked at the local SuperValu as a bagboy and shelf
stocker through high school and his college years at the
University of Minnesota-Duluth. The job provided him with the
financial means to attend college.
At UMD,
Judge Pihlaja majored in political science and history and had
intentions to become a college history professor. He obtained a
teaching certificate but during his final year of college, those
intentions took a turn. As a history major, he was required to
write a senior graduation paper. For his topic of choice, he
pursued his interest in the political philosopher Thorstein
Veblen, author of The Theory of the Leisure Class. For
some background research, the judge remembers heading down to
the St. Louis County Historical Society where, on the wall, he
noticed a picture of the members of the bench and bar in St.
Louis County in 1899. This happened to be the year The Theory
of the Leisure Class was published, a coincidence piquing
his interest.
Upon
further investigation, he discovered that all lawyers that were
members of the bar in Duluth in 1899 became lawyers only after
reading law with another lawyer. After 1899, almost all lawyers
became lawyers by attending law school. He decided the topic was
worthy of his senior paper and dropped the "leisure
class" topic in favor of the history and formulation of
legal education. He earned his bachelor of science degree summa
cum laude from the University of Minnesota Duluth in 1975.
At the
same time, UMD sponsored an event where law professors were
visiting from the William Mitchell College of Law. Although not
a prospective law student at the time, Judge Pihlaja remembers
approaching then-Dean Douglas R. Heidenreich to talk about legal
education. After a 30-minute discussion, the dean told him that
if he was interested in the topic, he should take the LSAT, and
apply to law school.
Judge
Pihlaja found William Mitchell College of Law appealing for its
advanced clinical programs and the chance to get hands-on
learning about the law. He participated in both the appellate
law clinic and the criminal clinic and also served as the
student director of the criminal clinic his last school
semester. This was his first exposure to a regular dose of
courtroom appearances. It would not be his last. He worked
nights loading trucks at UPS while in law school, and, he
continued his membership in the National Guard one weekend a
month, going back to the guard base in Duluth. He earned his
juris doctorate degree from William Mitchell in 1979.
Private
Practice
Judge
Pihlaja was a solo practitioner in Minneapolis from 1979 to
1982. In 1982, he and his wife, Lorrie Stromme, formed the
partnership of Pihlaja and Stromme, and where they practiced
together in Minneapolis from 1982 to 1997. Judge Pihlaja had
started dating his wife in 1968, while they attended the same
high school. They were married in 1975. In their law firm, they
were often self-sufficient, Judge Pihlaja focusing his time on
criminal cases with a mixture of civil cases, and his wife
practicing as a real property specialist. They would often try
the civil cases together. Most of the judge’s practice
covering 22 years was criminal defense. The judge reminisces
that the most difficult part of that practice was scheduling,
which often demanded that he be in several courts
simultaneously.
In more
recent years, his wife completed the master gardener program at
the University of Minnesota, and enrolled in the masters’
program in horticulture at the university. She currently is the
aide to Paul Ostrow, president of the Minneapolis City Council.
Without his law partner, Judge Pihlaja went solo once again in
1997 until appointed by Governor Ventura to the Hennepin County
Bench.
The
Judicial Role
In
Judge Pihlaja’s opinion, "every trial lawyer wants to be
a judge." He includes himself in that category because
courtroom practitioners appreciate and enjoy the courtroom
method of resolving disputes. The courtroom takes the most
highly emotionally charged issues in public life and people who
are having enormous problems and are unable to get along and
through the formalized process of a trial resolves issues in a
peaceful manner. This eventually enables the litigants to
function in society. The courtroom, according to the judge,
allows people to resolve issues in a civilized manner. The best
way that Judge Pihlaja saw to gain maximum exposure to the
system was to be a judge because judges are the only people in
the court all the time.
Judge
Pihlaja says the greatest similarity between practicing as an
attorney and acting as judge is the mandatory schedule. The day
I interviewed Judge Pihlaja, he had presided over housing court
and heard unlawful detainer cases. The day before, he was in the
suburban Brookdale court. The following week, he was scheduled
for felony arraignments. This sometimes hectic schedule and
transition was aided by Chief Judge Kevin Burke’s orientation
program where newly appointed judges are given a selected range
of experiences sitting with another judge.
One of
the biggest surprises for Judge Pihlaja was the difference in
perspective from behind the bench. He is now greatly concerned
about how cases and issues are moved along and if people are
being treated fairly. For example, he described the situation
where defense lawyers and prosecutors know each other and carry
on casual conversations in the courtroom. The judge feels this
can be disconcerting to people in the audience and make them
feel even more like they are in an alien world. He has become
more conscious of that perception and the need for neutrality
from both sides. This neutrality allows citizens who are there
to realize that it is really their courtroom and they are not
excluded.
One of
his real difficulties is that he is a very informal person. He
thought that once he became a judge he would be uncomfortable
with people calling him "Judge" and "Your
Honor." However, because of perceptions, he now tells
people in the courtroom that they should call him "Your
Honor" or "Judge," as that level of decorum is
important to people. He says the other big difference as a judge
is that people laugh at his jokes now…the same bad jokes that
no one laughed at when he was a practicing attorney.
His
philosophy of the judge’s role is that the judge needs to be
absolute Neutral. The more time he spends in court the clearer
that becomes. People must have the faith that the judge has not
pre-decided their case and that the judge listens to what
happened and then makes a decision. Therefore, he practices
patience and believes in the need to give people an opportunity
to voice their views and complaints, which is the terrific thing
about the American justice system.
Personal
Life and Public Service
Judge
Pihlaja greatly enjoys his participation in the public service
arena. He is particularly proud of the Sugarloaf Cove project.
The DNR intended to build a chain of marinas and one of the
target spots was Sugarloaf Cove on the North Shore of Lake
Superior. Judge Pihlaja says it is a beautiful spot with unique
geologic formations, all of which would have been destroyed by
the marina. He started doing some volunteer legal work to halt
the project and met a co-worker, who turned out to be the
daughter of former governor Elmer Andersen. Once introduced,
Judge Pihlaja and Governor Anderson became great friends. They
looked for alternatives to court action and as a result are
celebrating the 10th year of the Sugarloaf nonprofit corporation
that owns Sugarloaf Cove land and has built an interpretive
center there. In addition, the judge, enlisted by Governor
Andersen, negotiated a lease for the state with the mining
company nearby, which also provided local residents with the
safe harbor they desired. Among his many other projects, Judge
Pihlaja formed the volunteer fire department corporation for
Brimson, Minn.
When
asked for his top tips for attorneys, Judge Pihlaja reaffirms
his dedication to volunteering in the community: "Just the
fact that you have some legal training and that you have some
legal experience gives you the opportunity to participate in the
life of your community in ways that other people just don’t
get to do." He followed that up by reminiscing , "The
best part of my practice of law has always been the things that
knowing the law gives you the opportunity to do as a volunteer.
Helping out neighborhood groups, nonprofit associations."
While
no others in his family have become attorneys, there may be one
in the making. His 10-year-old niece and goddaughter recently
sent him an e-mail asking about law schools and he lightly
responded describing briefly how law school worked. The
10-year-old did not appreciate the lighthearted response and
e-mailed him back just letting him know she already had four
specific schools in mind and she had reviews of each ready to
go.
Judge
Pihlaja lives in Minneapolis with his wife, Lorrie Stromme. He
likes to spend time in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area and has
built his own canoe. He also enjoys barbecuing and reading and,
according to his wife, has a knack for memorizing long, bad
poems.
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