For one thing, she wasn't a recent law school graduate. In fact, she'd graduated 17 years earlier.
Even then, she wasn't typical. By that time, she'd already had a career, then had chosen to go to law school in her mid-50s, finally following her parents into the profession.
She graduated from Washburn University School of Law in 1990 and worked in private practice and as a public defender before deciding to follow her son to Montana a couple of years ago.
Stuart Martin was working as an executive chef in Dillon at the time, but his mother chose Missoula as her new home base after a life spent in the Midwest, mainly in Missouri.
Although she'd already had a legal career, Martin found it difficult to get work in the legal field in Missoula. So she decided to go ahead and take the bar exam so she could work as a full-fledged attorney.
Unfamiliar with the peculiarities of Montana law, she failed her first effort. But then she rededicated herself to the task and showed up in July ready to succeed.
“I was probably twice as old as the oldest person there, maybe, but I got the envelope (that says you passed),” she said.
By doing so, at age 72, Martin became the oldest person to pass the Montana bar exam in at least the past eight years.
But that's not enough for Martin. She wants to go to work, preferably with other attorneys.
“I don't think age should have anything to do with it,” she said. “I want to do this because I have the experience and the knowledge and the willingness to do this.”
These days, Martin is working at Missoula Municipal Court, where she does legal research for the judge. That's a 20-hour-a-week job she got through the federal “Experience Works” program, which weds folks over 55 to employers.
“It's been challenging and rewarding,” Martin said. “I'd never done that much research before in my practice, so it's been a very good learning experience.”
Jane Stoll, who works in the police department, helped bring Martin to Municipal Court, and said she's brought a dash of wit and style to the office.
“Nancy is just delightful,” Stoll said.
Still, Martin wants more. For one thing, she wants to help the elderly with end-of-life legal issues. She's already visited with senior centers and related service providers about that possibility.
And she'd like to do pro bono work, for both older folks and the homeless.
“Lots of people need that sort of help,” she said.
That sort of service, she said, should be an animating force in the worklife of lawyers.
“The road to attorneyhood ... runs through service to people,” she said. “That should be what our profession is about.”
Ideally, Martin would do her pro bono service in addition to a regular job as a lawyer.
“My true job is to find a job,” she said.
She has been somewhat disappointed so far in the response of the Missoula legal community. Simply put, they've looked at her and seen a 72-year-old woman instead of the lawyer she is.
“That's extremely aggravating,” she said. “It's just unfortunate that people have to go through that.”
But no one should doubt Martin's ability to overcome a little age-ism. After all, she's being doing it for years.
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