Vermont Bar Journal, Vol. 40, No. 2 Vermont Bar Journal, Fall 2018, Vol. 44, No. 3 | Page 6

Column
litigants. Second, how would you describe
your experience presiding in small claims
court?
GF: It’s great. You know, it’s always good
to give back and I’ve enjoyed the opportu-
nity to play “Judge Judy” in real life. You
sit there and listen to some stories that can
be pretty hard to believe and very difficult
to decide, but justice has to be meted out.
I find that most of the folks that appear be-
fore me, if they don’t like the result, they’re
at least satisfied that they‘ve had their day
in court and they were treated fairly. Hope-
fully, it ends the dispute and ultimately that
is what the court is all about. It’s dispute res-
olution; one way or another, your dispute is
going to get resolved. If you can’t do it on
your own it’s going to be done by a judge
or a jury. But it is going to get resolved. It
feels good to help people put some final-
ity to a problem they’ve often been living
with for some time. It’s also been very edu-
cational for me, to have the perspective of
wearing the robe and sitting in the front of
the courtroom and listening to the litigants
present their cases. I see what’s effective
and what’s really not effective, and I try to
take advantage of that perspective while
honing my own presentations.
TC: It is a great way for veteran practi-
tioners to give back, and it’s a tremendous
benefit to the courts. Switching gears to
your new role at the VBA, I wanted to ask a
little bit about when you first became inter-
ested in serving on the VBA Board.
GF: As you know, my partner, Jon Egg-
leston is a past president of the VBA. He re-
ally encouraged me to get involved in the
bar, and basically volunteered me to, initial-
ly, serve on the Chittenden County Bar As-
sociation Boa