John Campbell

I was born in Altoga, Texas. It was just as rural as it sounds. Population 200, with more cows than people. I lived in a single-wide trailer on a rock road. What the house lacked in charm, my parents made up for with love. I remember my childhood as happy and full of warmth. My parents were at every game I ever played, ever teaching conference that was ever scheduled. I lived in the middle of nowhere. There were no kids around. My older brother and sister were 16 and 14 years older than me, so they had moved out. As a result, I spent lots of time alone, or with my mom and dad.

My mom and dad were my best friends who kicked the soccer ball with me, played video games, and watched TV with me. My dad was a road construction worker. He poured asphalt in the Texas heat in blue jeans in boots. Asphalt goes down at about 300 degrees, and in the summer, most days it is over 100. It was hard, dirty work. My dad never complained. When I smell asphalt being poured, I always smile, and I think of my dad. He died a few years ago. Mom was a hard worker too. She got up at 3:30am to leave at 4:00 am to get to work at 4:30 a.m. She worked as a waitress at a greasy spoon serving locals and truckers. She worked 9-10 hours per day, six days per week. Then she came home, cooked, cleaned, and did almost everything around the house. She didn’t complain either.

I loved sports. I played soccer, baseball, basketball, football, and track. I was a very good inside linebacker and I loved the intensity and contact. School was easy for me, and I liked it. I got an academic scholarship to go to a Lutheran college called Concordia University. I went with the plan to be a teacher. I met Alicia there. She was going to be a teacher too. I ended up working as a high school teacher for five years, including a year in the inner city, teaching a variety of kids including a fair number of gang members. After two years of teaching, I knew it wasn’t going to be something I did for 30 years. Alicia felt the same way. So we got married and decided to go to law school. Since we had no money and we were sort of clueless – we packed up, moved to St. Louis (it was cheap and we knew a few people there). We taught high school during the day, raced from work to class, and went to law school at night. We graduated in 3.5 years, sleep-deprived, but proud.

I worked for John Simon’s law firm, and there I learned how to try cases. I also argued a lot of appeals – something that people typically don’t know about me. I’ve handled appeals in four federal circuits, three state courts, and I was the “Most Influential Appellate Lawyer” in Missouri twice. In my time in St. Louis gained a reputation as a sometimes too aggressive, reasonably clever, and trustworthy lawyer. I helped on injury cases but my primary job was running a class action department. It did well, and I liked the variety of cases and the challenge.

Wyatt Che, our first son, was born, and I wasn’t going to have a son I didn’t see. So, I applied for a job as a law professor at the University of Denver College of Law, somehow got it, and we moved to Denver. I kept a book of about 20 class cases. Alicia kept a full case load in St. Louis and called the Southwest flight from Denver to St. Louis her commute. People don’t know this about Alicia, but during those first years in Denver, she tried and settled more mortgage fraud cases than perhaps any attorney in the country. She was fearless and gained a reputation as such. I once saw her, semi-lovingly, shove a male opposing counsel in court when he offered her too little money. He laughed, she kept pushing physically and metaphorically, and he paid a boat load of money with the jury in the hallway, waiting. Alicia loved the work because she loves people. She is the only lawyer I know who baked cookies in her office so her homeless clients (she did social security disability work too) could come in from the cold and have a snack. We moved to Denver for the new job seven days after John Atticus (Jack) was born. He and Wyatt are 15 months apart. At the University of Denver Law School, I taught evidence, torts, an appellate class, and legal research and writing. I also learned about online studies, big data, and statistical methods. Blah. Blah. Blah. Published some academic papers. Started doing big data. Had some luck with that, and still love it.

A yearlong sabbatical from the University of Denver led us to Madrid. It was supposed to be a single year, but we loved it and so did our kids. We adjusted our lives, moved there, bought a place, gutted and reformed it, and live there now during the school year. We all speak Spanish now and have been in Madrid for three years. Wyatt is 11. He is sweet and creative, a water polo player, and our first born. He loves Minecraft, he is especially soft-hearted about animals, and he loves new things. Jack is 10. He is sweet too, but also unusually intense and competitive. He always has been ever since slide tackling a kid in soccer at three years old. He is a natural athlete, has gotten into inventing movie trailers for his imaginary films (mostly horror films for some reason) and still likes to cuddle. The four of us are a team, a pretty decent golf foursome, and we like it like that. If we aren’t in Madrid, traveling as a family, or traveling for work, you’ll find us on the Big Island. It is the place I feel most at home and happy on earth. We just bought some land there and just knowing someday I can live there at least part of the year makes me very happy and hopeful.

Random other stuff that doesn’t fit anywhere: I love golf. I am attracted to almost anything new to learn about. I learned how to hypnotize people, and I think I remember how. I worked every job imaginable, starting at 14. Bus boy. Newspaper delivery. Stocker in hospital supply room. Waiter. Usher at a movie theater. Construction site worker. I like to build things sometimes, and I built our boys a clubhouse in Colorado complete with a shingled roof, insulation, two levels, and electricity. I call Alicia before almost every argument, of any size in any court, because I’ve never stopped getting nervous and she makes me feel calm. I love craft beer. I was an evangelical Christian until my twenties. I’m an agnostic now. I work best to Pearl Jam. I think Appetite for Destruction (GNR) and August and Everything After (Counting Crows) are near perfect albums. I could eat poke or Mexican food just about every day.

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