In Pro Per

By Kurt Andrew Schlichter
     
      Kosovo Counsel
     
      The commanding general and I had just finished another grueling negotiation with the United Nations diplomats in our corner of Kosovo. The U.S. Army handled security, but the U.N. handled the civil administration. That meant lots of negotiations, for which we lawyers were uniquely prepared. The general, a civilian litigator with the California attorney general's office, readily played "bad cop." I slipped into "worse cop" mode, and we got the U.N. folks to agree to do what we needed them to do.
     
      As I prepared to jump aboard our waiting UH-60 Black Hawk to head back to our base at Camp Bondsteel, Kosovo, the U.N. chief turned to me and said, in his thick Eastern European accent, "Is everyone in the United States Army a lawyer?"
     
      I smiled. "Pretty much."
     
      That may have been somewhat overstating the case, but a disproportionate number of attorneys are among the National Guard and Reserve soldiers deploying overseas. And these lawyers are not just judge advocate general (JAG) officers; civilian lawyers hold a surprising number of senior positions in the traditional combat arms fields.
     
      This was especially true from February 2005 to January 2006, when the California Army National Guard's 40th Infantry Division led the peacekeeping mission in Kosovo. Kosovo is almost forgotten in light of Iraq and Afghanistan, but the U.S. military, as part of a multinational force, still keeps the peace between the Albanian population and the minority Serbs.
     
      There, both our commanding general and an infantry battalion commander were lawyers. So were our public affairs officer and logistics officer. Counting our many JAGs, it seemed you couldn't about-face at Camp Bondsteel without running into a lawyer. Staff officers who failed to think and present clearly found themselves under cross-examination. Staff meetings took on a courtroom feel -once, a briefer referred to the commander as "Your Honor."
     
      Attorneys thrive in the military because the thought processes used in the legal and military professions are so similar. Both are professions with complex codes of responsibility. Both concern the resolution of disputes, though with distinctly different tools. And both professions glorify the audacious and fearless.
     
      Particularly in peacekeeping operations, army officers spend an inordinate amount of time negotiating and working with foreign and local civilians. I was assigned to the civil affairs section and spent much of my time negotiating with local and U.N. leaders and often-skeptical generals and politicians-tasks I found not so different from those involved in settling and trying cases.
     
      My business law background came in particularly handy. The Kosovar Albanian population has fully embraced U.S.-style laissez-faire capitalism-partly because of their thousand-year history of smuggling under the noses of their foreign overlords and partly because they adore all things American. We figured that if the U.S. sector of Kosovo were prosperous, its young men would be working instead of plotting how to blow up their ethnic rivals. So, we focused on helping locals develop all kinds of enterprises. Soon I was spending evenings at chamber of commerce mixers, talking with local entrepreneurs about marketing-while dressed in camouflage with a big, black M9 pistol strapped to my thigh.
     
      The Kosovar Albanians were grateful for our help and were particularly impressed by the presence of so many lawyers among the Americans. It seems that in the Kosovar Albanian culture, avokats are highly respected and admired. That was a nice change.
     
      My military training never prepared me to design business plans for mushroom farms or try to persuade European Union administrators to part with precious grant monies to fund them. My legal experience did. Sometimes I would look around at all the American soldier-lawyers working with me and mentally total up their hourly rates. Uncle Sam was, and is, getting thousands of dollars an hour worth of legal talent from civilian lawyers-turned-soldiers and paying them less for a day than they usually earn in an hour. That's quite a bargain for our country and the locals we protect. Still, looking back, I can't help but think we soldier-lawyers got the better deal.
     
      Kurt Andrew Schlichter (kas@gssh.com) is a Gulf War veteran and an infantry lieutenant colonel commanding the 1st Squadron, 18th Cavalry Regiment of the California Army National Guard. He is a partner at Gunderson, Schlichter, Shonack & Handel in Manhattan Beach.
     

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