Articles
The National – May 2001
John Waddell
"Building a respectful, empathic rapport follows from your ability to connect as human beings."
John Waddell
"Someone who's trying to do his part"
"The contrast between his self-perception as a talented and astute lawyer, and his incompetence around the ball field, had unsettled the spring of every year since his daughter started playing the game as a T-baller. His life as a volunteer coach always teetered from surprised relief in victory to over wrought despair in defeat. His measure of success eventually came down to the number of bottles of homemade wine, and the somewhat embarrassed parental thanks, he received at the season-end barbecue. He was far from his element and satisfied himself that, if nothing else, he was a reasonably nice guy who meant well."
- from The Elment Mix, by John D. Waddell
He's a prominent civil litigator in Victoria, but you get the idea he's equally proud of this short story that recently won a contest sponsored by the Vancouver Bar Association. Last year, he was appointed to the Judicial Council of British Columbia, but in conversation it's obvious his passions lie with being a good father to Morgan and Connor. He'll talk about the lectures he's delivered at the law school at the University of Victoria and the fact that he was President of the B.C. Branch of the CBA back in 1995, but he's just as excited about spending his spring vacation holed up in the Billy Barker Inn in Quesnel, B.C., managing his son's AAA Bantam hockey team at a local week-long tournament. John Waddell is a decent, caring man who not only means well, but delivers those intentions.
"Lots of flashpoints," says Waddell. He's assessing his week in Quesnel, where he's done everything from arranging buses and hotels for the kids to mediating conflicts between parents and coaches. All of it on his own time. His own dime, in fact, because he's calling from a phone in his hotel room during the tournament, to help a magazine reporter out east write her story.
"I try to divorce myself from my lawyer's thinking," he explains. "That's not really who I am here. I'm partly a parent, partly someone who's trying to do his part. I use some of my professional skills - giving everyone a fair opportunity to be heard, for example.
"But there's a controlling facet of being a lawyer that doesn't always work," says Waddell, who also a member of National's editorial board. "Here, I need to be collaborative; massage things rather than direct them. Here I get back to real basics - everybody should get a fair shake."
While he might try to keep from being "lawyerly" outside the office, he brigs a lot back into his practice at Victoria-based Stuwart Waddell Raponi & McLean. Daughter Morgan is a rower, runner and softball player. Son Connor is a well and truly into hockey and rugby. Waddell is involved in some way with nearly every activity.
"It all filters into my practice in a fundamental way," he says. "The most important part of the job is whether you can establish the type of relationship with your clients where they both respect you and feel you are giving them objective but empathetic attention to them and their problems.
"The broader your life experience, the more sense you have of the way people live and what's important to them," says Waddell. "In that way, you'll be able to build that respectful, empathetic rapport. It all follows from your ability to connect as human beings."
Charity, in the true sense of the word, did begin at home for Waddell. Both parents were engaged with local and national charitable organizations, and the household was filled with friends, ideas and talk. Through both were busy, his parents always made time to attend his games.
"I was fortunate, and that's really what's drawn me into my children's sports," Waddell says. "I want to be involved with my own kids, but I've acquired a sense of the importance of using sport as a means of positive development for all kids. I don't try to be their pal. I look for the opportunity to make a kid feel important."
What, in his opinion, is his greatest accomplishment? "To have placed my children above myself."
