Monahan's Experience Counts
October 31, 2012
I am an attorney who has practiced law for 16 years, after spending my first two years after law school as a clerk in state trial courts and in a state supreme court. I write to support the re-election of our outstanding Grafton County Register of Deeds, Kelley Monahan.
Ms. Monahan is a seasoned professional who brings 30 years of business experience and dedicated community involvement to her service in our county government. Her management skills, fiscal prudency, business acumen and public spirit have served us well over the last two years. In particular, she has brought needed public scrutiny to the murky practices of “robo-signing” of mortgages and the lapses in the nationwide Mortgage Electronic Registration System (MERS). She deserves to be re-elected to continue her effective work.
Ms. Monahan is being challenged by a newly-minted 2012 graduate of Vermont Law School. Tyler Drummond, who claims his law-school training gives him an advantage over Ms. Monahan’s lengthy business and management experience. I found law school to be a place of vigorous intellectual stimulation and a great opportunity for examining legal theories. But I quickly learned that the real-world practice of law is very different from the musings and wranglings of the classroom. I would no more hire a 2012 graduate to be Register of Deeds than I would hire one to be a District Division judge. A lawyer needs much more seasoning than that to be an effective advocate and administrator.
I also note that Mr. Drummond is not admitted to practice law in New Hampshire, according to N.H. Bar Association records, which makes me question the rationale he gives for his candidacy. He is not working as a lawyer but rather as a paid staffer for the Republican Party. Our County offices must operate in a strictly non-partisan manner, notwithstanding the elective nature of the offices. In my judgment, we do not need professional partisans in our county government.
PAUL J. PHILLIPS
Plymouth
I am an attorney who has practiced law for 16 years, after spending my first two years after law school as a clerk in state trial courts and in a state supreme court. I write to support the re-election of our outstanding Grafton County Register of Deeds, Kelley Monahan.
Ms. Monahan is a seasoned professional who brings 30 years of business experience and dedicated community involvement to her service in our county government. Her management skills, fiscal prudency, business acumen and public spirit have served us well over the last two years. In particular, she has brought needed public scrutiny to the murky practices of “robo-signing” of mortgages and the lapses in the nationwide Mortgage Electronic Registration System (MERS). She deserves to be re-elected to continue her effective work.
Ms. Monahan is being challenged by a newly-minted 2012 graduate of Vermont Law School. Tyler Drummond, who claims his law-school training gives him an advantage over Ms. Monahan’s lengthy business and management experience. I found law school to be a place of vigorous intellectual stimulation and a great opportunity for examining legal theories. But I quickly learned that the real-world practice of law is very different from the musings and wranglings of the classroom. I would no more hire a 2012 graduate to be Register of Deeds than I would hire one to be a District Division judge. A lawyer needs much more seasoning than that to be an effective advocate and administrator.
I also note that Mr. Drummond is not admitted to practice law in New Hampshire, according to N.H. Bar Association records, which makes me question the rationale he gives for his candidacy. He is not working as a lawyer but rather as a paid staffer for the Republican Party. Our County offices must operate in a strictly non-partisan manner, notwithstanding the elective nature of the offices. In my judgment, we do not need professional partisans in our county government.
PAUL J. PHILLIPS
Plymouth
