The State Bar Association of North Dakota Fall 2015 Gavel Magazine | Page 19

He was committed to betterment of the
legal system and realized quite early that the
system worked only if all participants truly
believed in justice. Dewey was one of the few
who served both as President of SBAND
and prior to that- President of the North
Dakota Trial Lawyers. What was unique
during his SBAND Presidency was his
ability to bring the defense bar and plaintiff ’s
bar together at the height of “tort reform”
in North Dakota. He simply refused to
allow the sensitive balance of the practicing
bar to be destroyed by political issues. We
survived the tort reform movement with his
leadership and the bar remained congenial.
We were an odd political pair but our
friendship transgressed political ideology.
That was the way Dewey lived. He had
strong beliefs but was always compassionate
and insightful.
Younger lawyers likely don’t know much
about Dewey (which is their loss) but I know
every one of his contemporaries in this Bar
Association were touched directly by him
and they most certainly benefited from his
dedication to the practice of law and the
ideals of this Association.
He was a rare person. His mischievous sense
of humor was legend. He left a footprint
on our Association, in the ranks of the
North Dakota Trial Lawyers and within our
judiciary. He was a fantastic teller of “war
stories” many of which had him as the object
but always true and extraordinary. He lived a
full legal life. He lived large and he practiced
law with reckless abandon. He loved every
minute of it.
There are those who can tell the stories of
Dewey and his family but a larger story is
his love affair with the legal profession. Rare
today is the person who says that all they
ever wanted to do is practice law and that
when they had that opportunity it was all
that it was cracked up to be. That was Dewey.
He made friends everywhere he went and he
took time to talk to lawyers and to judges.
They were his friends. He also had a rare
sense of balance premised on his devotion
first, to his family and second, to his wide
and diverse set of friends. And believe me
they were extraordinarily diverse. And while

he may have walked with the bar elites, he
lived in the hearts of those he represented
over the many years of his practice. He was
a person who never said “no” when he was
asked for legal help. That was the way he
lived and the way he practiced law. We, in
this legal community, took so much more
from Dewey than we gave to him. But then
he was the man with the big heart.

“May you always walk in sunshine.

And finally, he loved his Irish heritage which
he invoked often.

James S. Hill
Bismarck, N.D.

May you never want for more.
May Irish angels rest their wings right beside
your door.”
Goodbye, Dewey Kautzmann. (1945-2015)

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