Page 103 - ACTL Journal_Sum24

That was the first of hundreds of trials. Cliff believes he has tried at least one case, or at least argued motions or completed depositions in every one of the fifty-six county courthouses in the state.
to riding his horses. A hard pill to swallow at the time, Cliff found a silver lining and became a voracious reader, developing an appreciation for liter- ature that has served him well in his career and life. More important, being told he could not do something gave rise to a grim determination to prove the doctors wrong, what Cliff describes as a “stubborn streak” and a career and life committed to doing what “ought to be done, what can be done, in disregard of the odds.”
Cliff was able to play all sports in high school, and at Carroll College in
Helena he played football and was a sprinter on the track team. “I was,” he
says, “a 10-second flat sprinter back when that was considered fast.” Cliff
intended to become a doctor or veterinarian but a couple semesters of or-
ganic chemistry, calculus and the other medical requirements created some
challenges. In a chance conversation, his uncle, a Montana physician, described his experience testifying in cases for injured folks and observed that if he had his life to live over, he would have gone to law school; and that given his gifts, Cliff ought to reconsider his career goals. Cliff “declared victory” and switched to English Literature, graduating in 1970.
During law school at the University of Montana Cliff had the opportunity to intern with a Billings law firm in the summer before his senior year, and the law school allowed him to miss the first two weeks of class to try a lawsuit as co-counsel in a murder case under Montana’s student practice rule.
Cliff met his first wife, Denise, while attending Carroll College, and they were married in 1971. He is quick to credit her with putting him through law school, working as a third-grade teacher while they were in their early twenties. Denise died of cancer in 1999.
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