Attorney Spotlight: Doug B. Jensen
Welcome to our attorney spotlight series. In each installment, we interview an attorney at our firm to get to know them better. We will learn about their unique insights, experiences, and personal journeys within the legal landscape. Our series aims to shed light on the diverse expertise and rich narratives that shape our team, offering a unique window into the world of law through the eyes of those who navigate its complexities daily. Join us as we explore the stories behind the suits, one attorney at a time.
View Doug’s attorney bio here at this link.
What made you want to become a lawyer?
I started at an early age being very interested in reading and studying. In high school, for example, I got involved in debate, in public speaking, student government as well as athletics. Fairly early on, I knew I wanted to go to college and law school. I read a number of books by and about lawyers and had family friends and also parents of classmates who were lawyers.
A relative once told me when I expressed interest in being a lawyer, he said, “Well, if you do that, you can work as long as you like and are able,” and that was appealing.
What attracted me about what I read and experienced was that legal principles are, in effect, the coagulation of a very bloody human history. Many of the things that we take for granted now have, over thousands of years, been put in place because of political and physical battles. Law as a profession and as a scholarly pursuit seemed to have a wonderful combination of the political, the legal, the analytical, the financial, also the technical and scientific facts that come into play in any sort of a dispute.
A client recently asked me, “My daughter is in college and she’s thinking about law school.” My reply was, “Then ask her two questions. The first is, do you like to read a lot? And the other is, do you like conflict and competition?” Because it seems to me that those two factors are really at the basis of what you do in a legal practice.
Give an overview of your legal career.
I went to college, went to law school, and eventually clerked for a judge on the ninth circuit for a year. Then I spent a year and a half with the Ford Foundation in Chile, South America, because they had just adopted or were in the process of adopting a new water law.
I went into practice and have been here in this firm since the beginning of July of 1972. So I’m like a bad penny, hard to get rid of. In any event, it has been a pleasure and a challenge.
What are your current practice areas?
While I was in college, I was interested in a number of things including history, geology and accounting. I was naturally drawn toward natural resources, land, water, because so much of the principles that are applied to transactions. Situations involving those assets do involve a knowledge and interest in history, certainly financial factors and scientific nuances that occur.
I work in the area of water, real estate, and leases, land development, purchase and sale option agreements. I do some estate planning, often as a result of being involved in a real estate matter, and then public agency law because so much of natural resources revolve around disputes, either between public agencies that have responsibility to either provide water for irrigation, for example, or provide protection against floodwaters. That’s been the focus of my practice for many years, and that continues to be the case.
As you look back on your career, do you have a favorite project you’ve been a part of?
I think the situation that really appeals to me is trying to find common ground between competing or adversarial interests, whether it’s a buyer or a seller, even if they’re friendly. I mean, adversarial in the sense that the buyer’s going to have a set of interests and the seller’s going to have a different set of interests. Trying to reconcile those differences is the challenge.
What I try to find is equal marginal satisfaction where everybody’s kind of satisfied to the same degree and at the same time equal marginal dissatisfaction where everybody’s, they had to give up something and they’re not very happy about one provision or another. But on balance, it’s good enough for them to get what they want because I’ve found that if either party’s getting a really good deal, the chances of that transaction leading the litigation are greatly enhanced.
You’ve got to find the common glue and enough of it so that the transaction doesn’t come apart and that you’ve established enough common interest and trust so that the people are likely to live with, and frankly benefit from, whatever final agreement you reach.
I like bringing projects to a successful conclusion, and also to provide some peace of mind for clients, bringing things to a conclusion, moving on, hopefully to a better place for all parties.
What do you enjoy outside of work?
The short answer is being active. Charitable public service organizations like Valley Children’s Hospital or Rotary or professional organizations like our County Bar Association, business promotion activities such as the Economic Development Corporation, and industry activities such as ACWA, the Association of California Water Agencies.
Those interests bring together serving other people and bringing a successful conclusion to a problem. You do that as a lawyer, too, and that is frankly the real reward. I’ve tried to do that in and out of my own office.
And then I enjoy many outdoor sports. I spend a lot of time hiking, fishing, hunting, and target shooting. I also with have an interest in classic cars and auto racing, especially road racing and Formula 1, and bicycle racing, too, for that matter.
There’s somewhat of a competitive spirit in all of those things, which, as I say, also formed the basis of becoming interested in being a lawyer.
What has made you stay at Baker Manock Jensen since 1972?
Going to college was a life-changing experience, going to law school was an even bigger life-changing experience, and getting into private practice really changed my life. I was extremely fortunate to have Jack Baker and Ken Manock as mentors and friends. (View the history of the firm and the three named partners here.) That carried the day for many, many days and years of it, even after Ken passed away and Jack retired. Since then, I’ve made other friendships here in the firm with the people, many of whom are still here.
It’s a team feeling and being part of a team that has roster changes all the time, but the goals are the same. Being around people that I like and respect and learn from, as well as having been blessed by very good clients, many of whom have been with me all these years.
Continuing my career with the firm is not a one and done sort of thing. You carry on even in a client family with different generations or in institutions over the years and decades. So I’m still here.
It was fun just to prepare for this interview by thinking about some of the experiences that I’ve had and history that brought me to this place. Thank you very much.
