A Lawyer s Life to Live

Kim Cheney came to Vermont at a time when the US Supreme Court ordered reapportionment of the legislature, ended small town dominance, and loosed a flurry of excitement to bring the State into the progressive world. As the first lawyer ever assigned to the Education Department, Cheney replaced ancient laws with a system of checks and balances for running the schools. Once elected Washington County's State's Attorney, he handled crimes from traffic tickets to multiple murder and other serious crimes, and as State Attorney General, tackled many issues like women's rights, public access to governmental documents, and protecting Lake Champlain by suing New York State in the US Supreme Court. Later, in private practice, Cheney helped create laws to protect children in child custody decisions and revised laws governing adoption so that birth parents and adoptees could find each other. In this memoir of a legal life, Cheney shows us how a lawyer can help pave a path to live peacefully with each other.