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Jay Quam
Originally published in
the May
2007 issue.
Author: Marian Saksena
Jay Quam, age 44, was sworn in as a judge of the
Fourth Judicial District on Oct. 2, 2006. In announcing the
appointment, Gov. Tim Pawlenty said, “Jay has been able to
balance a professional career as a well-respected litigator with
a private-sector law firm with an impressive amount of volunteer
legal work helping the less fortunate. He will bring an
incredible amount of intellect, energy, and compassion to the
position.”
Judge Quam grew up in Detroit Lakes, Minn. His
father, John Quam, was an attorney, and he inspired Jay and his
younger brother, Steven, to join the legal profession. While a
senior at Moorhead State University, where he majored in
political science and psychology, Quam applied for admission to
the University of Minnesota School of Law. He was accepted but
decided to defer matriculation for one year. During this year,
Quam’s endeavors included a four-month stint working on a dairy
farm in Norway, where he milked cows and cut down trees.
Unwavering in his ultimate interest in the legal profession,
Quam traded his milking pail for a study carrel in the fall of
1985, when he became a 1L at the University of Minnesota Law
School.
After graduating from law school in 1988, Quam
joined the law firm of Fredrikson & Byron, P.A., where he
practiced for 18 years. Quam enjoyed a broad general litigation
practice, encompassing both large and small civil disputes. In
addition to civil litigation, Quam handled criminal defense
cases. Through his significant pro bono work, Quam also gained
experience representing clients in family, juvenile, housing,
and other types of cases. At Quam’s swearing-in ceremony, John
Koneck, president of Fredrikson & Byron, praised Quam for being
the type of attorney who truly cares about each client. This
sentiment was echoed by Jim Dorsey, a shareholder at the firm
who also remarked on Quam’s “outstanding ability to relate to
and communicate with a broad variety of people.”
“Jay has been a leader both in the firm and in
our community in promoting pro bono and public service
generally,” noted Jim Baillie, a shareholder at Fredrikson &
Byron, and past president of the HCBA and MSBA. Throughout his
career as an attorney, Quam devoted significant time to
providing pro bono legal services, averaging about 150 hours per
year over the past decade. Specifically, Quam provided pro bono
services to low-income individuals through his firm’s pro bono
program, as well as through Volunteer Lawyers Network, Legal
Access Point, Catholic Charities/Branch III Homeless Shelter,
and North Vista (an alternative school for pregnant or parenting
teens). Baillie emphasized that Quam’s personal commitment to
pro bono work “not only illustrates the breadth of his
background and his willingness and ability to work with people
of all backgrounds, but it especially shows his commitment to
equal justice and to improving our judicial system.”
Yet Quam’s “compassion went beyond providing
direct pro bono services to people of limited means,” observed
Pamela Wandzel, the pro bono/community service coordinator at
Fredrikson & Byron. Quam inspired others to get involved and
leveraged community resources to provide opportunities for more
lawyers and law students to provide pro bono services. Quam
“was the one who conceived the idea of using summer clerks for
pro bono work and he carried that through the Supreme Court
process to allow their temporary admission to practice for pro
bono cases” under the Student Practice Rule, according to
Baillie. Wandzel noted that Quam was “instrumental in
formalizing and formulating our pro bono program.”
Additionally, Quam launched the summer associate program/student
attorney program for the Volunteer Lawyers Network, served on
the board of directors for Volunteer Lawyers Network as well as
Central Minnesota Legal Services, and helped establish the
Minnesota Justice Foundation Partner Program. In recognition of
his extraordinary commitment to pro bono service, Quam received
the Minnesota Justice Foundation Outstanding Service Award for
attorneys in private practice in 2001 and the Fredrikson & Byron
Distinguished Service Award in 2003.
Quam’s devotion to community service also
includes a long-standing interest in mentoring young people. He
coached Moundsview High School’s mock trial team for over 16
years and worked with young people at North Vista, The City,
Inc., and Young Life. Wandzel praised Quam for his significant
help with raising funds for Friends of Fredrikson, an
employee-run 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization with a mission of
promoting the education of disadvantaged children in public
schools and providing food, clothing, and other support to
low-income families and children. In 2004, Quam suggested a new
way to raise funds for Friends of Fredrikson: an annual Friends
of Fredrikson Bike ’n’ Hike to raise money to send disadvantaged
school children to academic summer camps. Quam, who bikes to
work in downtown Minneapolis from his home in Eden Prairie,
received support for his idea from fellow biking enthusiasts and
non-bikers alike. As a result, Quam’s colleagues and their
family members have participated in the annual Friends of
Fredrikson Bike ’n’ Hike and raised the funds to enable dozens
of elementary school children from the Whittier School in south
Minneapolis to attend Camp Chi Rho.
Robert Boisvert, a shareholder at Fredrikson &
Byron who has known Quam for 17 years, shared the following
assessment with the Commission on Judicial Selection: “He cares
deeply about others, is generous, enthusiastic, and hardworking,
and has an abiding commitment to friends, colleagues, clients,
and the community. Jay’s helpful nature, coupled with his
likeable and friendly personality and unflappable demeanor,
would make him a respectful and respected jurist.”
Family is also extremely important to Quam. Quam
is married to Kristi Carlson, who is also an attorney. Quam and
Carlson have two children: Annika, age 7, and Erik, age 3. Quam
is close to his parents, John and Mary Quam, and his two
brothers, Steven Quam, who is a shareholder at Fredrikson &
Byron, and Jeff Quam, who lives near Detroit Lakes.
Now in his first year as a judge, Quam is
assigned to the criminal court calendar. Prior to this
assignment, Quam did manual labor through the Sentence to Serve
program and spent a night in a cell block at the county
workhouse, knowing that these were two of the dispositions he
would soon have to consider imposing at criminal sentencing
hearings.
Quam recalls that when he received the telephone
call from Governor Pawlenty informing him of the judicial
appointment, he felt like his “life’s dream had been realized.”
But as the time grew closer to the swearing-in ceremony, Quam
says that he began to recognize that his life’s dream was not as
much about becoming a judge, but what he would actually do as a
judge. Likewise, while the flurry of accolades was much
appreciated and humbling, Quam realizes that what others will
eventually conclude about his service as a judge in 10 or 20
years is what will really matter. If “what is past is
prologue,” as Shakespeare put it, then the judiciary and
citizens of Hennepin County will undoubtedly be well served by
Judge Quam’s legal acumen, creativity, and compassion in the
coming years. |
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