Andrew M. Baese
by Jane Pribek
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Born: Feb. 11, 1973; Lamar, Colo.
Education: University of Minnesota Law School, J.D., 1998; St. Olaf College, B.A., 1995
Employment: Briggs and Morgan, shareholder, 2001-present; Kuehn & Keppler, attorney, 1999-2001
Professional Associations: American Bar Association, Minnesota State Bar Association
Community Activities: Housing Alliance Law Office, Pilgrim Lutheran Church, Southern Minnesota Regional Legal Services Board of Directors
Hobbies/Interests: Adult hockey league, family activities, fishing, golf, swimming
Family: Wife, Jennifer; one son
Briggs and Morgan, P.A.
Education: University of Minnesota Law School, J.D., 1998; St. Olaf College, B.A., 1995
Employment: Briggs and Morgan, shareholder, 2001-present; Kuehn & Keppler, attorney, 1999-2001
Professional Associations: American Bar Association, Minnesota State Bar Association
Community Activities: Housing Alliance Law Office, Pilgrim Lutheran Church, Southern Minnesota Regional Legal Services Board of Directors
Hobbies/Interests: Adult hockey league, family activities, fishing, golf, swimming
Family: Wife, Jennifer; one son
Andrew M. Baese recently concluded that a Russian family he had been tutoring for several years had finally, fully and very successfully assimilated into U.S. culture.
Sparking that realization was a conversation between Baese and Alex Terk, the family patriarch. Terk said he was ticketed for driving solo in a car pool lane, quite by accident because he didn’t understand the concept. Baese offered to come to court with him, but Terk graciously declined — he was ready to do his own negotiating with an authority figure.
Baese was a second-year law student when he started meeting with the Terks, back in 1996, as part of a volunteer program with the St. Paul Jewish Community Center. He says it’s been exciting over the years to watch the development of the family’s language skills, cultural knowledge, and mostly, their confidence.
Conversely, the Terks would likely say it’s been exciting to watch a young law student grow into a shareholder with Briggs and Morgan and build a successful estate-planning career centered on the notion of helping people.
Some days, he’s engaged in complex tax planning. Other days, he’s representing an individual over a contested will or making sure a client’s elderly family member is in the best possible environment.
Case in point: Baese has visited hospice patients to help them with end-of-life legal decisions. By finalizing documents on the spot, he has brought relief to people who shouldn’t be spending their limited time worrying.
Baese notes that this philosophy stems back to his first job as an associate with Kuehn & Keppler, a small firm in St. Paul where he embraced the importance of making rain, often by speaking publicly and meeting people in his audience.
Baese says he “fell into” the area of trusts and estates as a law student, and he did well enough for the professor to recommend him for a clerkship with the Legislative Committee of the Minnesota State Bar Association’s Probate and Trust Law Section.
“I started with the section as a law student and I never left,” he observes, referring to his continued service to the state bar association.
More recently, Baese serves as chairman of the subcommittee responsible for reviewing the Uniform Power of Attorney Act. He has also been active on subcommittees that reviewed the Uniform Guardianship and Conservatorship Act, the Uniform Trust Code and the Uniform Disclaimer Act. In addition, Baese was recently elected to the section’s Governing Council.
