Fast Five: Life, love and law as seen by Robert Green
Meet Robert Green, an Idaho native who loves exploring North Idaho and beyond with his family whenever he’s not directing operations at his Coeur d’Alene law firm, Kootenai Law Group, PLLC. As a Gonzaga Law School graduate and a former deputy Kootenai County prosecutor, Robert has deep personal and professional roots in the area.
Generation: “I straddle that line between Gen X and millennial, so I identify a bit with each. I do know I’d rather be watching a John Hughes film than trying to extricate myself from another conversation about the latest cryptocurrency.”
Career and community involvement: “I started my own law firm to create an environment where serious things get done, but no one has to take themselves too seriously. We enjoy our clients and most of them enjoy us too! I often work with seniors, their families and with small business owners in our area on legal planning of all sorts. There are so many ways to be involved in our community. Among the opportunities I’ve had to serve, I’ve been able to serve with my wife as co-presidents of the Bryan Elementary PTA, as a member of the North Idaho College Paralegal Program Advisory Board, I’m a member of Coeur Group, I volunteer with a panel that gives presentations throughout the area to seniors and their families about aging and I’ve served as the chairperson of the Tax and Probate Section of the Idaho State Bar Association.”
Parental Status: “My wife and I are truly grateful to be raising our four kids (yep, four - I recounted this morning just to be sure) in Coeur d’Alene. Jamie makes parenting look easy, and most of the time I’m just trying not to let the kids see that Mom is the only one who has things figured out. As you might expect though, my wife and my kids are my universe... it all begins and ends with them.”
1. Why have you felt motivated to be involved in your community?
“A community as good as ours requires involvement. It’s just that simple. If you want to live somewhere magical, you need to contribute a little magic. I know of no other way to make it work.”
2. What is a myth or misconception about the practice of law that you’d like to dispel or set straight?
“A common myth about the legal profession is that all lawyers are generalists. The reality is that most attorneys focus their practice on one or two subsets of the law. So, I guess I empathize with the cardiologist who is constantly asked by friends, ‘is this weird spot on my back anything to worry about?’”
3. What is one of the strangest cases you’ve ever worked on?
“Privacy rules mean most of my best lawyer stories go untold, but I can tell you about the time a practical joke in the office nearly shut down the county’s court system for the day. I was working as a deputy prosecutor years ago and upon returning to my office from lunch I noticed an intermittent beeping sound from above the tile ceiling and could see a small red blinking light in sync with the sounds.
“With the bomb-discovery scene of every movie I’ve ever seen racing through my head, I called our office manager, who called courthouse security, who called the police, who determined that another lawyer had snuck into my office and stuck the noise producing mechanism from a greeting card above my desk while I was out in order to drive me crazy. I can also tell you that the lawyer responsible for these shenanigans is now a sitting judge, and as soon as I figure out how to do so without going to jail, sweet revenge will be mine!”
4. What is something people would be surprised to learn about you?
“People who do not already know me are always surprised to learn I have four kids, yet I have some hair left.”
5. What’s one of your favorite childhood memories of Idaho?
“When I was younger, I lived in Boise. One year, when I was 5 or 6, my dad did not have money for a Christmas tree. My parents were divorced and when it was my time to celebrate Christmas with him, he improvised by collecting a giant tumbleweed from outside. I know it sounds strange, but that tumbleweed has forever since been my favorite Christmas tree. We spent the day decorating the ‘tree’ with popcorn, hand-made play-dough and hand-drawn paper ornaments and anything else we could find in the house that could pass as a decoration. I learned then that Christmas was about being with family, not material things.”