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Member Spotlight By Joan Bibelhausen. “What in the hell do I do with 700 pounds of bear meat?" Joyce Laher received this query over the phone on her first day as Assistant Food Editor of the Detroit Free Press. She had not yet begun to master the culinary resources at her disposal, so she employed some of the skills she would later use as a lawyer: common sense, curiosity and a sense of humor. While few positions since have offered the novelty and adventure of that newspaper job, Joyce’s career has followed an interesting and varied path to her current position as Disability Specialist at the University of Minnesota. Joyce says "My career has been a process of ‘connecting the dots,’ where the ‘dots’ have been significant experiences which have allowed me to make meaningful and logical shifts in my professional direction. To me this is the major difference between a non-traditional path and the more traditional and ‘linear’ career path followed by most attorneys." Before beginning law school, Joyce worked in university settings from Wayne State in Detroit to Metro State and the University of Minnesota in the Twin Cities, earning a Masters in Higher Education Administration with an emphasis on student counseling and personnel work along the way. Joyce has focused her career development on working with students and held jobs such as student advising, teaching and coordinating student services. Just prior to law school, Joyce served as Assistant to the Dean for Administration in U of M’s College of Liberal Arts. She staffed college committees and effectively reconciled often conflicting interests between faculty and administration. She notes "I have always used my sense of humor to diffuse difficult situations and get the job done." Joyce realized that to advance within the academic world, she would need a PhD or a professional degree. "I saw the importance of legal considerations to the outcomes with the committees I worked on, such as faculty tenure and student issues," she says, "so I decided to go to law school." Without expecting to practice law, she entered the University of Minnesota in the fall of 1984. Her sons Joe and Sam were 7 and 10. Shortly before beginning a summer clerkship in the University Attorneys’ office, Joyce suffered a heart attack. She decided then that her career need not be high stress in order to be successful. Several weeks later she interviewed for and was offered a clerkship with the Honorable Rosalie Wahl of the Minnesota Supreme Court which she held after graduation. Justice Wahl says she enjoyed her year with Joyce very much, and valued her maturity and excellent work. "We were able to laugh at ourselves and everything else going wrong around us." Joyce took a job with the NLRB following her clerkship and recommends government work for any lawyer undecided about a litigation career, noting that "You get to court earlier, faster and more often in a government agency." After two years with the NLRB Joyce said "trial work made me realize that I was not healed enough. Why continue to do this if I never intended to do it?” Joyce then picked up a "fun" position with the Minneapolis water department after the city failed to bill 50,000 accounts for two years. In addition to preparing the city’s responses to appeals, she got to repeatedly explain to many irate customers that "even though water comes from God, it is not free!" In 1992, Joyce returned to working with students as Director of Career Services at Hamline University School of Law. During her eight years at Hamline, she was instrumental in maintaining a spirit of support and cooperation among the Minnesota law school career services offices and she also was active on bar committees and in leadership positions in the National Association for Law Placement (NALP). She takes particular pride in her work regarding alternative careers including the study, The Redirected Career, which she co-authored. Joyce’s position at Hamline brought her into contact with students with disabilities as well as the HCBA’s project on recruitment and retention of lawyers with disabilities. This growing interest led her to her current position at the University of Minnesota Disability Services Office where she focuses her work on students with psychiatric disabilities. Joyce feels that in many ways her J.D. adds value to her work with students, as a trainer, on boards and committees dealing with disability issues and in the community. Currently she serves on the Board of Directors of The Disability Institute as well as the advisory committee for Breakthrough, an internship program for college students with disabilities. Joyce seeks opportunities as a lawyer to educate other attorneys regarding elimination of bias with respect to disability. She has presented at CLEs and has spoken at NALP’s annual conference on this topic. She believes that individuals who can impact the law need to be more aware of the challenges faced by their clients with disabilities and the presence of bias in the justice system generally. In her presentations, Joyce effectively communicates the idea that disability is a difference, not a deficiency. Joyce’s contributions to MWL have been numerous. She currently serves on the Advisory Committee after completing four years on the board. She has co-chaired the Professional Development Committee, the Holiday Benefit and co-founded the leadership series honoring Justice Wahl, whose retirement dinner Joyce also co-chaired. Judge Miriam Rykken, whose friendship with Joyce dates back to study group days in law school, served with her on the MWL Board. Judge Rykken remarks on Joyce’s willingness to help colleagues personally and professionally. "Joyce has a particular ability to hone in on and analyze critical issues. She challenged us to look at things in a different way, which wasn’t always easy, and she did it with humor." Joyce and her husband Byron, Director of Public Affairs for the Greater Twin Cities United Way, recently moved from their home of 34 years in north Minneapolis to a town home along with Airedale Molly and tabby Spike. Their oldest son Sam has completed a stint in the Coast Guard and now lives on a boat in Seattle while training to be a boat builder. Following 3 years with Teach for America in Baltimore’s inner city, their younger son Joe and his wife Katy moved to San Diego where Joe is in training for the Navy SEALS. |
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