The award selection process of the Sacramento County Bar Association typically follows one of three courses. The first involves consideration of many proposed nominees, rigorous evaluation and discussion, and ultimate selection. The second is precisely the opposite: no candidate comes to mind and the nominating committee must search actively for potential recipients. The final route, which presents itself much less frequently that the first two, is where one person is recommended by a multitude of distinct parties, the accomplishments of that individual stand out, and the choice is made by acclamation.
This year’s recipient of the Lawyer of the Year Award, Richard Hoffelt, falls clearly within the third category. His name was mentioned repeatedly both within and without the SCBA as the most deserving recipient of this Award, and his selection by a unanimous Bar Council followed effortlessly.
The Lawyer of the Year Award honors an SCBA member who, through the practice of law, has made Sacramento a better place to live and work. Past recipients include Virginia Mueller, Forrest Plant, Sr., and Joseph Coomes, Jr. The award is given for achievements during a single year or over the course of a lifetime.
Hoffelt’s selection is justified on both grounds. Hoffelt, the 1990 SCBA President, has served as a guiding force to the SCBA and legal community during his 42 years of association with the Sacramento law firm of Wilke, Fleury, Hoffelt, Gould & Birney. During his presidency, he conceived the idea of, and made possible, the creation of the successful Minority Hiring and Retention Program, by which minority law students and graduates are recruited by some of the leading law firms in Sacramento and trained to be successful lawyers and leaders in the community. This program continues to be a tangible source of inspiration for law students and a testament to the vision of Dick Hoffelt and the SCBA.
Hoffelt has been active in numerous other professional activities, having served as a founding member and early president of the Barristers Club, on the Executive Committee of the California Association of Local Bar Associations, and as delegate to numerous conventions of the State Bar. He is a member of the ABA’s Forum on Health Law, the ABA’s Construction Law Section and ADR Section, the National Health Lawyers Association, the California Society for Health Care Attorneys, and the SCBA’s Healthcare Law Section. Dick also served as the SCBA’s first representative and delegate to the American Bar Association’s House of Delegates, its policy-making body.
In addition to his lifetime of service to the SCBA and other professional organizations, Hoffelt’s efforts on behalf of charities and arts groups is legendary. 1997 marks the culmination of Dick’s charitable work as Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Shriners Hospitals of Northern California. In June, the Shriners dedicated the Sacramento Shriners Hospital, which provides free treatment for children throughout Northern California and the Western United States who are suffering from spinal cord injuries, acute burns, and orthopedic disabilities. The only conditions on admission are that the child must be under 18, the condition must be treatable, and the child’s family must be without means to pay for the child’s treatment.
The $79 million, 300,000 square foot state-of-the art hospital is located on the corner of Stockton Boulevard and X Street, across from UC Davis Medical Center. The Hospital is unique among Shriners Hospitals because it combines the three separate specialties of other Shriners hospitals in one setting which, together with its advanced facilities, makes it the nationwide leader in the Shriners hospital system.
According to Margaret Bryan-Williams, Administrator of the Sacramento Shriners Hospital, the decision to locate the hospital here has worked out “wonderfully,” based on the proximity of the “outstanding medical center” of UC Davis and the presence of the “pre-eminent orthopedic and burn surgeons to whom health care providers in the area can turn for advice and counsel for the care of complex cases in their specialties. Clearly, when you can deliver pediatric specialty services at no charge, it’s a wonderful addition to the region’s health care system.”
Hoffelt’s charitable work is balanced by his attention to his active law practice and service as an arbitrator/mediator. Hoffelt has served at various times over the last 20 years as judge pro tempore and arbitrator for the Superior Courts of Sacramento, El Dorado, Solano, Yuba, Amador and Calaveras counties. Dick also serves as an arbitrator for diverse organizations too numerous to recount here.
Hoffelt is a third generation Sacramentan. He and his wife of 42 years, Elie, have four children and eight grandchildren. Hoffelt received a bachelor of science degree in business administration at the U.C. Berkeley’s School of Business in 1952, and was awarded his juris doctorate from Boalt Hall School of Law at U.C. Berkeley in 1955.
After passing the bar examination that year, Hoffelt began his long and distinguished practice at the well-respected firm now known as Wilke, Fleury, Hoffelt, Gould & Birney, which is celebrating its 75th Anniversary this year. The firm was founded in January 1922 by Jay L. Henry and Grover Bedeau. Initially known, not suprisingly, as Henry & Bedeau, its first offices were located in the historic Capital National Bank Building at Capital and I. In 1949, Governor Earl Warren appointed Bedeau to the Sacramento County Superior Court, and Henry was appointed to the same court soon thereafter.
Sherman Wilke and the late Gordon Fleury became partners and renamed the firm Wilke & Fleury rather than trade on the name of the former partners. The firm continued its emphasis on general practice until 1970, when the partners decided that the firm should increase its focus on health care law and complex litigation, with an emphasis on medical malpractice defense. The firm has continued to expand its areas of specialization and its corps of lawyers to its present status as one of the ten largest firms in the city.
Although he has focused on healthcare law, Hoffelt has established expertise in all areas of the general practice of law, including corporate, business and business entities; commercial; real estate and leasing; employment and construction law transactional matters and litigation; administrative law; and probate; estate and trust planning, administration and litigation.
He has participated in several significant appellate decisions, including Morris v. Williams (1967) 67 Cal.2d 733 and California Association of Nursing Homes v. Williams (1970) 4 Cal.App.3d 800. In the first case, the Supreme Court relied on Hoffelt’s arguments to invalidate an administrative regulation which had cut Medi-Cal benefits by ten percent. In the second, the Third District Court of Appeal upheld Hoffelt’s due process challenge to administrative regulations regarding reimbursement to providers of Medi-Cal services.
Hoffelt is justifiably proud of his appellate work, of which he says: “My greatest personal accomplishment is one which can be proclaimed by any practicing attorney: ‘To be an attorney engaged in a system of justice which bestows upon the legal profession a major role in saying what the law is.’ From the lawyer’s point of view, this is the essence of Marbury v. Madison. During the early years of the MediCal Program in California, I represented many clients in a number of significant cases in which my arguments were persuasive to the courts in interpretations of the law in new and innovative ways. Being an advocate in the formulation of the ratio decidendi in this way truly is a lawyer’s greatest reward, as well as accomplishment.”
The cases cited above establish that Hoffelt is held in high esteem by the courts. This fact is confirmed by the knowledge that he is often asked to speak on behalf of newly-nominated or appointed judges.
One such judge is William Shubb, who asked Hoffelt to speak at his investiture. Upon learning of the Award, Judge Shubb remarked: “Dick is an old-fashioned kind of lawyer whose accomplishments include not only what he’s done as a lawyer but also what he’s done for the community. He has blended the highest professionalism with his charitable efforts. Excellent choice.”
George Nicholson, an associate justice with the Third District Court of Appeal, asked Hoffelt to speak at his confirmation hearing. He echoes the views of Judge Shubb: “Dick Hoffelt is very deserving of this award because he is a fine lawyer. He’s also a true gentleman who has a smile for everyone. The Sacramento Bar Association is known for its outstanding presidents. Dick is among the best of them.”
Tom Cecil, Presiding Judge of the Sacramento Superior and Municipal Courts, could not recall whether he asked Dick to speak on his behalf, “but many years ago, at a party at Dick’s home, where my infant son was a bit loud, I did permit him to demonstrate the proper technique for feeding a baby with a bottle. Seriously, though, it was leaders like Dick who set an example for me while I was in law school at McGeorge, and he inspired me to stick with it. The Award is well-deserved, and on behalf of the Sacramento trial judges, it is my pleasure to extend my heartfelt congratulations.” So says one, so say they all.
Accumulated wisdom is perhaps our greatest but least used treasure. We can find it in the senior members of our profession, who posses a wealth of knowledge. In a fast-paced, present-oriented society, the profession as a whole loses when we fail to take advantage of their insight and guidance. This lesson takes on added meaning when one sits down to talk to Sherman C. Wilke, one this area’s most seasoned veterans.
Wilke began practice in Sacramento in 1937 after graduating from Hastings. He was one of five attorneys admitted to practice in Sacramento that year. Others included Frank Bottaro, Albert Mundt and William White. Bottaro is still in Sacramento and both Mundt and White later served with distinction as Superior Court judges. Wilke was one of several Sacramentan’s who were beneficiaries of a scholarship fund administered by Judge Shields. After graduation he returned to Sacramento and worked for Judge Shields as an unpaid law clerk while looking for a job.
Finding a job was difficult at that time. The Depression was still on and, recalls Wilke, “there were no relatives in my family who were lawyers…I didn’t even know any lawyers and I was concerned about how I could get a job.” Upon Judge Shields’ recommendation, he entered into an association with Sacramento attorney Ralph Lewis, father of noted family lawyer, Jerome Lewis of Lewis & Zilaff. His salary was $75 per month plus whatever he earned from his own business, which was nothing. Lewis was an excellent teacher. “He was a sharp lawyer and I think that I was very, very lucky to have him hire me,” Wilke said.
Lewis was a meticulous pleader and insisted that Wilke also become one as well. At the end of the first year, Lewis gave him a raise to $100 per month. Their relationship continued until World War II when Wilke “saw the handwriting on the wall” and was drafted under the Volunteer Officers Candidate Program.
After the completion of the training he was sent to Noumea, New Caledonia, a French colony, in the South Pacific. One or two months later, at the tail end of the Munda campaign in the central Solomon Islands he was stationed in the G-2 unit of the Headquarters Company on the Munda Island. After 18 months in the South Pacific, Wilke entered a JAG officer-training program at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. During his four months there he was only able to see his wife, Betty, for two weekends. He still found it to be marked improvement upon the Solomons.
Graduating first in his class, he was commissioned as a first lieutenant and was assigned to Ft. Douglas in Utah, where he remained until the end of the war. Upon the arrival, he was delighted to learn that the commanding officer was Sacramento attorney Albert Sheets, whom he had known well in Sacramento. While at Ft. Douglas, Wilke was joined by his wife and son, Jim. Upon his return to Sacramento, Wilke resumed his association with Ralph Lewis. After several years Grover Bedeau, a frequent opponent, offered him an association with the firm of Henry & Bedeau.
Wilke began with Henry & Bedeau by occupying a chair in the library at their office in the Capitol National Bank building at 7th & J streets. He received one-third of the fees collected from any of the cases in which he worked and could keep all the fees from any of his own clients. Unfortunately, few of Wilke’s clients paid. He recalls that both Henry or Bedeau would call him into their offices and tell him that they were giving him one of their clients, whom he could count as his own. Wilke also was told not to tell the other partner that the client had come from the referring partner. This largess allowed Wilke to survive financially in the early years. In the late 1940’s, Bedeau was appointed as a judge and Henry bought out his practice. Soon after, Henry was also appointed to the bench and offered to sell his practice to Wilke if he could find a suitable partner. Henry told him that he needed a personable partner who would balance the personalities and abilities of the two members of the new partnership. Upon Henry’s recommendation, Wilke approached Gordon A. Fleury, who was two years younger and who had worked in the District Attorney’s office and in Nelson French’s law office. They then founded the law firm Wilke & Fleury.
Although Wilke is now 79, he keeps a busy schedule. He still sees clients and works almost every day on a reduced schedule. He remains a zealous golfer and fisherman. Wilke also continues a routine of two annual month long vacations and annual fishing trips to Sierra City and the Klamath River. He also enjoys activities with the families of his son, Jim, and daughters Chris and Jean. Over the course of his career, Wilke has known many well-known Sacramento attorneys. He was a childhood friend of Jack Downey and they learned to play tennis together from their fifth grade teacher at David Lubin School. Judge William White was the best man in his wedding. Grover Bedeau and Wilke occasionally fished with Otto Rohwer at South Lake Tahoe for Mackinaw trout. Wilke met Paul Peek, former Speaker of the Assembly, Secretary of State, Justice of the Third District Court of Appeal and Associate Justice of the California Supreme Court, when both had sons in the Boy Scouts. Upon Peek’s retirement from the court, he practiced with Wilke at Wilke & Fleury. In the later years Wilke did battle with legendary Sacramento trial attorney, David Rust.
Wilke has seen many significant changes in the practice of law in Sacramento since he started in 1937. The experience of starting as a new attorney is much different now. Not only are there many more attorneys in town, but employment arrangements have changed dramatically. The size of the firms was much smaller. “Downey, Brand & Seymour was probably the biggest law firm, along with Deipenbrock. Those were the two big firms that were here when I started practicing.” “They each had about five lawyers,” Wilke recalls. Salaried associates were not common. Most attorneys started practice with office-sharing arrangements with one or two more experienced attorneys. The nature of the practice was also quite different, Wilke said. Offices were routinely open to the public and fully staffed from 8 a.m. to 6:30 or 7 p.m., and were fully staffed on Saturdays until 3 or 4 p.m. There was also no established public defender program. Instead, all of the new attorneys served on a panel for two or three years and handled indigent criminal defense cases. Payments were to be obtained by taking promissory notes from the clients, but few ever collected on them.
The system did have some benefit for new lawyers. According to Wilke, “You learned how to try a jury case. I would be assigned four or five of these a month. I would probably try a half dozen cases a year. It was good experience, but you didn’t make any money.”
Relations between attorneys have also changed, according to Wilke, He does not pretend that personal relationships among attorneys were always idyllic, but believes that there has been an erosion of trust. Until the last 20 or 30 years there was very little formal discovery in most cases. Instead attorneys would call or visit each other about a week or so before trial to discuss the insurance limit and the nature of each other’s cases. Most attorneys were candid in this exchange and, until about 20 years ago, most attorneys concluded their agreements by handshake rather than by confirming letter, said Wilke.
Wilke notes that he has also seen a significant change in client relations. Clients were generally much less adapt to switch attorneys until the mid-to-late 1960’s. Wilke observes: “I don’t feel that it is not as much fun to be a lawyer as it was 25 years ago. Today you have to watch over your shoulder because some of your clients think, in the back of their minds, about the possibility of suing you for malpractice if you don’t please them. We don’t worry about people that we have known for 25 or 30 years-it’s the new ones. You don’t have to treat them differently than you used to. You have to think about your own rear end. That makes lawyering today not as satisfying as it used to be. I’m sure the doctors feel the same way.”
The attorney-client trust was also reflected in billing practices. The common format was a simple statement with the notation “For Services Rendered” and a dollar amount. Hourly billings were the exception. Lawyers billed most files by reference to the value of the result to the client. In short, if you don’t do much to help the client, you didn’t bill very much. If your result was very beneficial you would build in a bonus.
Wilke believes that the change in billing practices has further eroded attorney-client relations. “I think the clients now feel, and I think with some justice, that all lawyers care about is to keep track of their hours and they don’t give a damn whether they win or lose,” Wilke said.
Wilke is pleased to see a trend beginning towards a return to the value-based system. “I feel that the clients don’t like the time billing anymore. I think there is a trend in the other direction. (S)ome of the insurance companies who thought that system of time slips was great have learned that it is not all that great,” Wilke said.
Despite these changes, Wilke still sees many universals that apply as well today as they did 56 years ago when he began practice. Mr. Lewis’ lesson of precision in pleading, and consequently knowing your case well when you begin, still applies. Wilke also believes that when you get a new case, you should generate client confidence by doing something tangible right away. “Don’t sit around and do nothing,” Wilke said. “Do something even if it’s wrong.” That’s a little bit of philosophy I learned from Ralph Lewis.”
Finally, Wilke believes that you should nurture that confidence by regularly communicating with the client. “Keep them aware by copying them with letters and things that you send out,” suggests Wilke. “It keeps them abreast and they can see exactly what you are doing. Don’t wait for six months to tell your client the status.”
These lessons are timeless. Many more are available to us if we only take advantage of our resources and continue to learn from the senior members of our profession.
