Where goes the judge?

Byline: Bill Bishop The Register-Guard

Anyone contemplating a life-changing New Year's resolution could take a lesson from Jim Hargreaves.

A decade ago, Hargreaves had 20 years of experience in the black robe of a Lane County Circuit Court judge - a well-paying elective office with regular hours, job security and social status.

He hated it.

"I was tired of it," he says. "I'd spent 20 years going to work, sitting in the same chair, doing the same stuff, seeing the same old thing. It just wasn't fun anymore."

One day in 1993, Hargreaves penned an unprecedented letter to his colleagues in which he declared he would leave the bench as soon as he found another line of work. Judges in Lane County typically leave the bench - without much ado - when they retire.

Hargreaves says the letter was his way of burning the bridge between his fear and his future.

"I really cut off my retreat," he says. "I knew at some point I was likely to get scared, would want to go back to what I was doing."

Months passed as Hargreaves searched for his new path. Some days he just couldn't bear to pick up the phone to ask someone for a job, again. And find nothing, again.

The break came with an offer to become part of IBM's Public Safety and Justice Group, a worldwide information technology consultant service for judges, prosecutors, police and court administration.

The change had come. Hargreaves took off his robe on May 1, 1995.

In his first whirlwind week at IBM, Hargreaves found himself on four flights to four different cities.

The change was not pleasant at first.

"At IBM, things were always in flux. It drove me crazy, until I finally let go of it. What difference does it make where I work? I was so used to having my world so regular," he recalls.

Ten years later, Hargreaves has no regrets.

He has traveled the world to help set up or step up court systems. Azerbaijan. Kazakhstan. Uzbekistan. Tajikistan. Croatia. So many places he forgets a few when he tries to recall.

He learned to let go of routine, to look for opportunity.

After five years with IBM, Hargreaves had mastered the new mindset.

"There was a management change. Life is too short to work for the new guy," he says.

He went to work for a different consulting group and now is a subcontractor, maintaining a network of contacts inside consulting groups who hire him for special projects. He's currently helping plan a new justice facility in Kansas City.

He works a lot from the cozy century-old farmhouse on a 12-alpaca farm outside of Creswell that he shares with his wife, Ginny Saunders, an occupational therapist and master gardener.

They collect art and sculptures for their gardens. They travel, read, cook, entertain and care for their shrinking herd of alpaca.

"We call them pasture art," Hargreaves quips.

Regrets? None.

"The first year. That was the hardest part. Now it's easy. It wasn't then," Hargreaves says. "It's been great fun."

CAPTION(S):

Jim Hargreaves, shown here with one of the many pieces of art that grace the yard and house where he lives in Creswell, has no regrets after giving up his job as a Lane County Circuit Court judge a decade ago.