“Who the hell is Della Bahan, and what the hell is her name doing on my brief?” Paul, then Director of Representation for the California Faculty Association, left that message for me. I had represented CFA since its inception many years earlier, in 1979. To my embarrassment, I had forgotten to tell Paul that due to the press of other urgent matters, I had asked my highly capable then associate Della for help with a brief. 

Paul’s message was a not so gentle reminder that our by then longstanding relationship had blossomed because, our different but overlapping roles in the union’s work notwithstanding, we treated each with respect, as colleagues and as comrades. This minor incident was but a blip in a 45-year relationship that began as client-lawyer but grew into as continuous and fast a friendship as I’ve ever had. 

­I met Paul when he worked for AFSCME Council 36. My first impression was unfavorable. It wasn’t his clothes. (In fact, his determined lack of style grew on me over the years.) He seemed harried, mostly deflecting my questions with questions of his own. I wondered later whether he was testing me, trying to decide whether it was worth his time to teach me about organizing and representation strategy and tactics, in return for any legal assistance I might offer with a mere three years of lawyering under my belt. Perhaps he took a chance on me because I had spent those first few years as a lawyer with the UFW, because he had a generous spirit, or because he loved teaching.

And what a teacher. I don’t remember Paul ever using the phrase “leadership development,” but he shared his valuable experience unsparingly, without patronizing, not only with existing leaders but with members and potential members alike, because his abiding default premise, despite the occasional mismatch or disappointment, was that greater leadership, or greater involvement, could indeed be developed. And as is true for any skilled mentor, he knew well when to remain silent or to step aside.

 At some point I passed the test. I can’t say when, but I knew it had happened because we continued working with each no matter where Paul’s peripatetic path took him – AFTRA, UWUA Local 132, CFA, SEIU, the LADWP Load Dispatchers, and so on – sometimes at his invitation and sometimes at mine. 

Along the way, our friendship took on the characteristics of family – vacations together in the Pyrenees and British Columbia, coming together for holidays, lifecycle events, and for support in times of need. At the top of this page, sitting on Paul’s shoulders during an Iraq War protest march down Hollywood Boulevard in 2003, is our son Jacobo, who was born on May Day in 1997. When Jacobo was born, I called Paul from the hospital. It was a test. I asked him, “What is the most auspicious day for the child of a union lawyer to be born?” He failed the test, initially. But by the time he called me back he had figured it out. Like the rest of us, he wasn’t perfect, but he was pretty damn good!

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