Lawyer relishes adrenaline rush as paintball player.

Byline: Pat Murphy

One of the commonwealth's top commercial bankruptcy attorneys often spends his free time on the weekends crawling through local woodlands on his hands and knees and loving every minute of it.

Joseph H. Baldiga became hooked on paintball several years ago. Now, he looks forward to every time he competes in the extreme sport, which he describes as a cross between the childhood games of tag and hide-and-seek.

"It's very addictive," says Baldiga. "The games last 10 or 15 minutes. Your adrenaline rush is incredible."

Baldiga is a partner at Mirick, O'Connell, DeMallie & Lougee, working out of the firm's Westborough office. He co-chairs the firm's creditors' rights, bankruptcy and reorganization group.

Baldiga's practice focuses on corporate bankruptcy, dealing with workouts, turnarounds and collection activity. He sees parallels between competing in paintball and his work, which both require "managed aggressiveness" and teamwork.

"I learned early on in my practice to be collegial with the folks you're going up against because the next day you might have a case where you're working together," Baldiga says.

Wikipedia defines paintball as a "competitive team shooting sport" in which players eliminate opponents from play by hitting them with paintballs that break upon impact. Filled with water-soluble colored dye, paintballs are spherical gelatin capsules that are shot using a paintball "marker," a low-energy gun powered by compressed air.

Games are played on indoor or outdoor fields of varying sizes by players using natural or artificial terrain for tactical cover as they attack or defend. There are a variety of paintball games with objectives ranging from a simple "capture the flag" to the elimination of opposing players from the field of play.

Baldiga's preferred tactic is to work himself into a position of cover through stealth and lie in wait as a sniper.

"You're hiding behind trees, in bushes and on riverbanks," he says. "It's like being a kid again playing in the woods."

Baldiga has always been drawn to competitive sports. But he became hooked on paintball by happenstance. His son Rob was invited to a birthday party hosted at a local paintball facility, Friendly Fire Paintball in Upton. Baldiga joined with the kids and other dads in some of the matches and never looked back. Rob, now 20, later got a job at Friendly Fire Paintball and Baldiga took full advantage.

"I'd be playing while he'd be working," he chuckles. "There's...