What’s New - an Interview With Carl Lisman, President of the Ulc
| Publication year | 2019 |
| Pages | 30 |
An Interview with Carl Lisman, President of the ULC
By Therese M. Corsones, Esq.
TERI CORSONES: Today I’m interviewing Attorney Carl Lisman at Lisman Lecker-ling PC in Burlington. Carl, thank you very much for taking the time to visit with me today. First, congratulations on being elected President of the Uniform Law Commission!
CARL LISMAN: Thank you.
TC: That is quite an honor, and I imagine quite an obligation. Before we talk in more detail about your presidency, I wondered if you could tell us a bit about where you grew up, where you went to school, and how you decided on law for a career.
CL: I grew up in Burlington and went to Burlington public schools. I went to UVM, and then law school at Harvard. I knew from a very early age that I wanted to be a lawyer because my dad and my uncle were lawyers.
TC: Did you go right to work in Burlington after law school?
CL: No, I had the privilege of clerking for Sterry Waterman at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in New York. Then I spent time working for a large law firm in Manhattan and was there until the time came to move back to Vermont with a young child and spouse in tow.
TC: You wanted to raise your family in Vermont?
CL: Yes, well it was pretty clear to me that I was making too much money to be poor and too little money to be rich. It was not a good time to raise a child in New York City.
TC: Well, your family in Vermont must have been thrilled that you relocated back home.
CL: I think so. But I was out-negotiated by my dad and my uncle; they came to me and said, ‘if you don’t think you’re going to come back to Vermont to take over the firm, we’re going to shut it down…We’re both ready to retire.’ They won me over, and of course they each continued their practice for many years after that!
TC: It’s my understanding that you first became a Uniform Law Commissioner more than 40 years ago. How did that come about?
CL: Tom Salmon was the governor who first appointed me. Judge Waterman had been a Uniform Law Commissioner and had expressed that he really enjoyed his time working with the ULC. So when Governor Salmon asked me if there was a position in state government that I might be interested in, it was the first one that I thought of.
TC: What year were you first appointed?
CL: 1976.
TC: Does the governor in each state typically appoint the commissioners?
CL: Yes, typically it’s a gubernatorial appointment in every state. In a few states, though, the president of the Senate, the speaker of the house or the chief justice might have an appointment. And the appointments are commonly for fixed terms.
TC: What is the usual term?
CL: Five years.
TC: How many commissioners are there in Vermont?
CL: There are six. Peter Langrock from Middlebury is officially a life member. Rich Cassidy from Burlington, Ted Kramer from Brattleboro and Stephanie Willbanks from South Royalton are Commissioners. And Luke Martland from the Legislative Counsel is also a member.
TC: It’s nice that there’s such a geographic and practice area variety to the commissioners.
CL: Yes. Our governors have looked at geography as well as other factors when they make their appointments. We’ve also been quite lucky in Vermont that it hasn’t become...
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