W. Stuart Home, III - Bar Junkie Extraordinaire
by Karen Jacobsen

I have known Stuart Home now for approximately 8 years. Recently I have had the pleasure of working with him, as he joined our firm in March. As long as I can remember, he has been known as the "computer guru" of the county bar. While his contributions to the bar have been significant, he is also an excellent construction law attorney and devoted father of three.

Stuart was born and raised in Fresno, of which he has been known to say, "It's a great place to leave." He attended San Joaquin Memorial High School and then received his undergraduate degree at U.C. Riverside. Stuart claims that despite his central valley upbringing and subsequent stint "down south" for four years, he has always considered himself to be a Northern Californian. In his fourth year of college, he came to Sacramento for three months to intern for then-State Senator, Robert Presley. In his own words, "I absolutely fell in love with Sacramento, and later that year when I was accepted to McGeorge, I immediately knew it was where I wanted to be."

While in law school, Stuart met Audrianne Taylor, a social worker at that time working in the Center Unified School District. They were married just two weeks after Stuart took the bar exam. This year they will celebrate their tenth wedding anniversary with Graham (age 8), Liam (age 4) and their newest edition, Sophia, who was born in February.

During his third year at McGeorge, Stuart began clerking for Robert I. Harris. After passing the bar in 1991, he accepted a full-time position where he developed a diverse practice including construction law, business counseling and litigation, and estate planning. At the same time, he became actively involved with the Sacramento County Bar's technology section, a group affectionately known as SLUG (Sacramento Lawyers' Technology Users Group), which he would eventually chair from 1996 to 1998. He also become involved with the County Bar, helping to upgrade their computer network and developing their web page, efforts for which he received the Bar Association's President's Award in 1996.

1996 marked just the beginning for Stu's involvement with the County Bar. He would later go on to chair the Pictorial Directory Committee where he produced an outstanding membership directory for the County Bar for three years running. In 1997, he also became involved with the County Bar's delegation to the State Bar Conference of Delegates and has served as a State Bar Delegate for the past four years. This year he chairs the Sacramento County Bar's Delegation to the Conference in Anaheim.

And if this were not enough, for the past three years he has served as a member at large on the Sacramento County Bar Council. Stuart is the first to admit that he is an unabashed "bar junkie," saying: "Working in this bar organization has been a wonderful opportunity to develop invaluable personal and professional friendships. I have not met a finer group of people than the attorneys who dedicate their time to the County Bar, including Karen Jacobsen." I think that last part was added merely to flatter his new boss, but that's ok.

In 1999, Stuart went to work for Borton, Petrin i& Conron's Sacramento office. While Stuart felt he had gained tremendous experience and confidence when working for The Harris Law Firm, he realized that he wanted to narrow his emphasis to two areas of law that he enjoyed the most: construction law and litigation. He explains "I recognized that these were two areas of law that were not necessarily compatible with one another because construction defect cases rarely go to trial. However, I was quite fortunate at Borton to get not only trial experience in two trials, but also to work on complex construction cases, including the representation of a developer."

Prior to hiring Stuart to come work for us, I had known him for many years through County Bar activities and I had watched his development as an attorney. I had even given him tips in his legal practice from time to time, such as convincing him not to wear a suit and tie when he went on property inspections. In March of this year, Stuart joined Jacobsen & McElroy because of our extensive practice area in the construction defect litigation arena.

We are very pleased to have Stuart working with us and the Sacramento County Bar Association is very fortunate to have Stuart working for them in his many positions. His generosity with his time and his hard work and dedication to his family, his clients and the bar association is unparalleled and truly benefit everyone he comes in contact with.