Charlie Baird, BBA ’76, has been “in love with the law” since age 6. Speak with him for more than five minutes, and you may soon apply to law school yourself. You also won’t be surprised to learn that his favorite book is the classic tale of legal integrity “To Kill a Mockingbird.” Baird was one of the youngest judges to serve on the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, and the Central Texas Chapter of the ACLU recently honored him with their 2010 Civil Libertarian of the Year Award.

A Gilmer, Texas native, Baird retired from the 299th District Court of Travis County in December to establish the Criminal Law Section at the Austin-based Fowler Law Firm. He and his wife Kristin, a fellow attorney, are the proud parents of Olivia, age 4, and William, age 2. Baird recently announced his plans to run for Travis County District Attorney.

McCombs TODAY spoke with Baird about his experiences as a judge, lawyer, politician and father.

What did you think you would be when you grew up?

A lawyer, probably from age 6 or 7. My parents had some really good friends who were lawyers. Whenever they would come over and talk about their cases, I’d always make a point of hanging around and listening to what they had to say. It still intrigues me. I’ve never fallen out of love with the law.

What led you to study business?

My brother, Jeff, who was and is a big influence on me, was an accounting major. And I thought it would be a great background to compliment a law degree.

How did your business degree help you in your law career?

A business education helps you keep a focused, detail-oriented approach to the law. Especially in accounting, the numbers always have to balance to the penny. You develop the discipline to examine and evaluate things in a precise manner. I think that’s helped me a lot in the law, and I think that’s probably my strong suit in trying cases.

Charlie Baird with his daughter, Olivia.Has your career played out the way you expected?

You remember that movie “Benjamin Button”? My life has always been kind of like that. I’ve always done things in reverse order. You’re not supposed to serve on the state’s highest [criminal appellate] court when you’re 35. You’re supposed to work your way up. I was the youngest person ever elected to that court.

The other thing, I had my children late. I had my first child, Olivia, when I was 51 and my second child, William, when I was 54. Children changed the course of my life. Being a good father is my number one priority.

What is the toughest lesson you had to learn in your career?

No matter how right you think you are and no matter how righteous the cause, there are going to be other people that disagree with you or see it differently. That’s hard to take when you’re so convinced that you’re pursuing the right thing.

Whenever you throw in the monkey wrench of politics, it never works out exactly the way you expected it. I was defeated for reelection in 1998. There was a landslide for Republicans, and I’ve always been a hardcore Democrat. It was just one of those deals where you’re caught in the tidal wave.

It sounds like there’s a lesson in that, too.

Yeah, that you can cast your fate in a certain direction, and from there, it’s out of your hands.

What surprised you the most about a career in law?

What surprised me the most, and what continues to surprise me, is how good folks that are typically honest, loving and hardworking can just get down on their luck or have some strange set of circumstances befall them, and they wind up in the criminal justice system. And how mightily they have to struggle to get out of it, how the system does not presume that they are innocent.

That’s one thing I would’ve liked to have seen change more over the years. I think that people who are poor and I think that people of color still find almost an insurmountable amount of injustice in the criminal justice system.

Tim Cole's mother and Charlie Baird, shortly after Baird signed the order to grant Cole a posthumous exoneration.Describe your proudest moment.

My proudest moment was signing the order that granted a posthumous exoneration to a fellow named Tim Cole who had been wrongly convicted of a crime. He died in prison, and it turned out that he was innocent. It was the first posthumous exoneration in the history of Texas.

No other judge in Texas would hear the case. It was the right and just thing to do, to see that he got his name cleared and his family had that sense of peace of knowing that this was rectified to the extent that it could be by the courts. Most of the time, cases like that are too easy to just sweep under the rug. This ruling made sure that he wasn’t forgotten.

What pieces of wisdom have you tried to abide by in your career?

“To thine own self be true.” At the end of the day, when you put your head down on the pillow, you’ve got to ask yourself, “Did I live today the way I should have? Do I go to sleep with a clear conscious, that I’ve been fair and honest, that I haven’t been intellectually dishonest or disingenuous in any way?” That’s how I’ve tried to live my life.

What do you enjoy doing outside of work?

I’ve got the most boring life in the world, but it’s also the best life in the world. I get up in the morning, I go to work, and when I leave work, I go home and play with my children. When they’re finally asleep, if I have any energy left, I read.

What advice would you give to students interested in a law career?

It is absolutely the best career that you can have. Everybody thinks of the law as these secrets that are locked up in books. But the truth is, it’s very dynamic. It’s always evolving, depending on the makeup of the court, the makeup of the legislature. There’s always something to keep you on the edge of your seat, to keep you learning.

The people that you meet in the legal profession are smart and honorable and are there to do the right thing. That is, to advance the human condition, to contribute to their profession and hopefully to their state and their country. It’s the best job in the world.