Turning challenges into opportunities

Hailing from northern Indiana, Indiana State Bar Association incoming president Michael Jasaitis said the idea of a career in law came to him after getting to know an attorney in high school.

“That’s when the seed was first planted,” Jasaitis said.

During his undergraduate years at Valparaiso University, Jasaitis felt an affirmation that he was on the right path when he and some college friends appealed a noise complaint filed by their dorm’s resident assistant.

“We turned it into a mini-trial where I was calling witnesses and cross-examining the RA,” Jasaitis said. “The person in charge of the entire proceeding said, ‘You need to consider a career in the law and representing people.’”

He now has a law career in Crown Point, where he represents student-athletes.

It started with a friend calling asking if Jasaitis had heard of a high school athlete who was considered a potential Indiana Mr. Basketball candidate, but was ruled ineligible for his senior year.

“After several months of litigation by fire, so to speak, we ended up successfully prevailing in the case which allowed him to have his full senior year of high school basketball,” Jasaitis said. “And from that case, I developed a niche in the practice of law of representing high school student athletes across the state that are facing the same situation where they’ve been declared something less than fully eligible, and oftentimes their post-secondary opportunities are dependent on their ability to participate in athletics in high school.”

He said while it is a small part of his practice, it is the part he is most proud of.

Jasaitis first became involved with ISBA when he was approached in the courthouse parking lot by another attorney, who asked if he’d be interested in being the Lake County representative for the association’s young lawyers section.

He accepted, and Jasaitis has since served in leadership positions with both ISBA and the Lake County Bar Association.

As the incoming ISBA president, Jasaitis said it’ll be a year of “turning challenges into opportunities” for the association and attorneys across the state.

Jasaitis recently sat down with Indiana Lawyer for a conversation about his career and his plans for his year as ISBA president.

A portion of that conversation, edited and condensed for space, follows:

How did you find out you were going to be president of the ISBA?

I received a call from the chair of the nominating committee, who was the immediate past president at the time, who indicated that the nominating committee had elected me to fill that role if I was willing to do so. I indicated that I was honored to even be considered as one of the candidates, much less to be selected, and that I would be interested in serving in our association.

I don’t know if you know, it’s a four-year commitment, because you’re the vice president, and you’re the president-elect, and you’re the president, then you’re the past president. It is a lesson in time management, especially when I’ve got three children that are ages 14, 12, and 6. It’s going to be a wonderful experience, but one that will require some balance for sure.

What’s on your agenda for your year as president?

I’d be remiss if I didn’t talk about the excellent foundation that’s been laid by my predecessors, those boards and our hardworking staff. They’ve set into motion numerous valuable programs, initiatives that hopefully will continue to be supported and expanded. I think the most prominent is addressing the attorney shortage in our state. Not only does it impact our profession, but also the communities that we are here to serve.

So one of the things that we’re going to continue to focus upon is to explore strategies to attract more individuals to the legal profession and retain those that go to law school here and are already practicing in our state.

Another very important issue that I think we need to continue to do that President Thomas Felts has done a really nice job at is improving the access to legal services to ensure that our residents have access to quality legal representation when they need it.

Now, one thing that maybe is a little bit different from my focus is recognizing the importance of continuing and enhancing a robust feeder system for the legal profession, especially at the elementary and high school level. We have a nice start with some of the programming run by the Indiana Bar Foundation, the We the People program, which goes into schools educating students about civics and the Constitution and things of that nature.

I also think that it’s important to encourage our fellow members of our profession to volunteer in our schools, sharing their experiences and highlighting the nobility and importance of our profession, which I consider one of the greatest professions out there, and then also thinking about ways to inspire some of these young people to consider law as a career path, and planting the seeds for them to pursue that career, much like I inadvertently had a seed planted in me in high school when I happened to meet an attorney in the area that I thought was a great role model for the community.

I’m really excited about the opportunity to collaborate with the Commission on Indiana’s Legal Future. This closely aligns with the work that the ISBA has been doing for the past several months, in which we’ve created task forces, which focus on developing alternative forms of licensure, providing broader pathways to admission and addressing the attorney shortage problem in Indiana. I’m hoping that there will be a collaborative approach with the members of the commission, as well as our state bar and our task forces to develop innovative solutions to those challenges facing our community.

What kind of legacy do you hope to leave?

I want to make sure that there is an enhanced focus on our younger members in the state bar. Because of my experience with the young lawyer section, I want to make sure that our younger members feel like they are coveted and to continue to emphasize how they are the future of this bar association, they bring knowledge, innovation and information to us from their perspective that those of us who have been out 20 plus years, like myself, don’t always have the privilege of having the same perspective.

So my hope is that when this year is over, that we not only address a lot of the current challenges and turn them into opportunities for our lawyers here in the state of Indiana, but that we also make sure that the bar association in our state is something that lawyers and young lawyers want to continue to be a part of as they progress in their careers.•