A Profile
in pro f e s s i o n a l i s m
Secretary James A. Baker, III and his wife, Susan Baker
P
James A. Baker, III 61st U.S. Secretary of State, Senior Partner, Baker Botts L.L.P.
rofessionalism is not specific to any one line of work or craft. Rather, it is an attention to detail, an intellectual curiosity, a strong ethical code and other personal traits that help a person do their very best in any chosen field. A professional approach is just as important to the success of a lawyer or a doctor as it is to a plumber or a nurse. One of the traits that has helped me most in life has been my adherence to a maxim that my father called the Five P’s—which stands for Prior Preparation Prevents Poor Performance. My father, James A. Baker, Jr., was a tough but fair taskmaster who routinely drilled the Five P’s into my consciousness as a young man. Along the way, I discovered that he was absolutely right. If I got up a little earlier in the morning and worked a little longer at night, then I would be better prepared than the attorneys on the other side of the table. The same was true for my negotiations with world leaders when I was Secretary of State. My father was a fine attorney with the law firm that is now Baker Botts, as was his father and grandfather before him. His father, and my grandfather, Captain James A. Baker, was president of the Houston Bar Association during the depths of the Depression in 1931. He often told young attorneys coming to work for the firm to “work hard, study and keep out of politics.” I jokingly say that I followed the first two of my grandfather’s pieces of advice. Working hard and studying as an attorney helped me build a professional approach to my legal career that later greatly assisted me in my subsequent careers in politics and public service. In many ways, the message of both my father and grandfather was the same—the path of professionalism is paved by hard work and attention to detail. That means dotting the “i’s” and crossing the “t’s.” Some may consider the 5 P’s to be merely an aphorism that adults tell children. But I listened to my father, followed his advice and even at the age of 90, I routinely observe the 5 P’s when I start a new project, and I do so without embarrassment. If you look at the statue of me at Baker Common along Buffalo Bayou near the intersection of Smith and Preston in downtown Houston, you will see “5 P’s” inscribed at the base of the monument. They have been and remain a critical building block of my legal career and everything I do.
thehoustonlawyer.com
November/December 2020
37
