Ronald Babb had a law office in Blue Island’s historical Masonic Temple from 1993 until 2018 when the Temple was sold. The thought of retirement crossed his mind and that was the one thing that two of his three daughters said to him, “Dad, wouldn’t this be a good time to retire?” He didn’t feel like he wanted to retire yet and had to relocate to Oak Forest (15601 S. Cicero Ave. #103).
Babb has lived in Blue Island since 1970 and served as an alderman from 1983 to 1990. He grew up in neighboring Calumet Park “from about the age of nine or ten years old until I got married at 21 or 22.” I was surprised to learn that he actually lived on the same block as me.
Since he still lives in Blue Island, I asked what he likes about it. “It’s interesting because as kids growing up in Calumet Park, most people then had a feeling that we weren’t as good as the people living in Blue Island.” I was again surprised because I personally have never experienced that feeling, yet, this is not the first time a Cal-Parker has mentioned this. He said, “I don’t think it’s true and I didn’t think it was true back then.”
Babb continued, “But you see, Blue Island was a hub back then. Back then was in the 50s and into the 60s because you had all the car dealers and Kline’s. At one point, we had a Montgomery Ward and a Sears store, two or three men’s and women’s clothing stores, two maybe even three jewelers. It was quite different. The businesses were quite different than the ones that are here now, but see, this was in the days before shopping malls, so Blue Island was in a really different position. They were a business hub.”
I told him of my mom and I taking a bus from Cal-Park to Blue Island and it was like a field trip. Babb reminisced about how, “You could also go the other way to Roseland. Roseland was a big place too. There was the Home Store, Gately’s People Store, which was big according to standards back then. And of course, a big thing that Blue Island and Roseland had back then was a movie theater. This was mostly when there were no TVs, or maybe TVs with four channels and that was it,” he chuckled.
(Photo by Michelle M. Ryan)
I asked when he knew he wanted to go into law? Babb was married and working, so he went to college part-time. “I got interested in Liberal Arts but originally started as an engineer. Political science, psychology, and history are easier to do than math, science, and physics. For one thing, you can usually just read the material, then take a test. With math and science there are ongoing assignments every day. I wasn’t able to do that because I worked. With history, if I couldn’t get everything done each day, I could catch up on the weekend,” he said.
Oftentimes, teachers help us all along career paths and Babb had a teacher who said he should take the LSAT (Law School Admissions Test). He took the test and did very well. Another political science teacher suggested he apply for Northwestern. He thought, “Why would they want me? (chuckles) But they did. It’s a good school.”
While Babb was struggling to get through college, his wife was very supportive. She had a master’s degree in teaching, but he said, “You have to put in the time. I just worked, went to school and slept for a number of years. As a young man you don’t get into trouble doing that,” he again chuckled.
Babb went to law school at Northwestern with an undergrad at the University of Illinois at Chicago. “It was an interesting time. I started law school in the fall of ‘69. This was at the start of the Viet Nam war. This was after the 1968 Democratic Convention of Chicago where all these people were arrested, and the Chicago Seven trial was going on in my first year of law school. It was a turbulent time,” he said. Babb was admitted to the bar in 1973. “I enjoyed my time there. I learned a lot and met some really interesting and really smart people. I’m still in touch with a couple of the people I knew there.”
Upon asking of any standout memories, without hesitation, he answered, “Before the Bridgeview Courthouse was there, Oak Lawn used the council chamber as a courthouse. In my first month as a lawyer, I was with another lawyer with about seven months experience. The sheriff came in and said you need to talk to a guy. He was brought in wearing shackles and had shot and killed seven people − his parents, next-door neighbor, a little girl riding a tri-cycle … ”
“This was back before there were a lot of mass slayings. We had to stand before a judge for a bond hearing, which was denied and it was handled by the court at 26th and California.” (This was the first time that Babb’s name appeared in a newspaper and his wife said, “You’re in the paper for representing a crazed killer.”) “The defendant was ruled unfit to stand trial, and sent to downstate Chester, a (maximum security) mental health facility. He was rehabbed on meds, sent back to Chicago to spend a month or two in Cook County jail. This process was repeated for about 10 years until the defendant died in prison of a heart attack.”
Babb continued to work as public defender for 17-and-a-half years before going into private practice. He reflected, “It was interesting and sometimes a little depressing. I handled a number of murder trials over the years. Some lawyers are in a task force that only handles murders and I didn’t want to be in there.”
Currently, his practice is mostly real estate and evictions, not too much criminal law anymore. I asked if someone is considering going into law, what advice would you give? “Well, there are a lot of lawyers. I read that we now have 90,000-something lawyers in Illinois. If someone nowadays wants to go into law, I wouldn’t discourage them but I wouldn’t tell them that they’re really going to make a lot of money.” (According to 2Civility.org, as of 2016, there were 94,610 registered lawyers in Illinois.)
Regarding the best part of being an attorney, Babb answered, “A good part is being your own boss, but that would be the same for anyone with their own business. Helping people is another. Most lawyers fulfill a good service. I feel that most of the time. Sometimes it’s a drag but that is part of life. Young people today think everything should be easy, like we don’t need to work for it.”
In contrast, the hardest part of being an attorney or having a law office, Babb states, “Like any business, you have to deal with income versus expenses, you have to balance. If you increase fees you can drive away business.”
I wondered about when we hear about attorneys being charged with a crime and they’re disbarred. All the work to become licensed and they take a wrong turn. Babb explained, “They’re under the same kind of pressure as everyone else. There could be bad cases, some are prone to greed. I knew three or four like this. One or two that I used to work with went to prison for stealing funds from clients. One was a judge involved in briberies and went to prison for about ten years. But this is no worse than policemen and other professions.”
I expressed my joy of two old favorite law shows − The Practice and Boston Legal by David E. Kelley (also an attorney). Babb admitted he loved those shows. “In truth, I always liked Perry Mason because that’s going back years, but even with Perry Mason, they win too much. In reality, the criminal defense attorney, no matter how good or bad, you don’t win much. And as a citizen, I don’t think you want them to win much because there is a reason your client is there.”
I asked Babb what message he would like Blue Islanders to know? “I’m very sorry we couldn’t find an office in Blue Island. We had plenty of cooperation. Mark Miller from the city went with us and talked to people and actually showed us a few places but there was no place that would not have taken a lot of work and an extra investment on our part to make the space inhabitable,” Babb said.
When Babb said “us,” he’s referring to he and his longtime secretary, Dawn Tobin. She has been with him since 1993. Being the gentleman that he is, he wanted to make sure she got an honorable mention. I can attest to this from whenever I’ve called the office. She is very professional, nice, patient, efficient, and empathetic. These are all important traits when dealing with their main area of practice involving evictions.
In closing, Babb has the same clientele coming to him, many Blue Islanders, and many saw his ad in the Forum. He’s had good returns from advertising in the Forum, which he appreciates, and so do we.
This article was originally published in the December/2019 issue of the Blue Island Forum Newspaper. Attorney Babb is still seeing clients in a limited capacity throughout the current pandemic situation. Appointments can be scheduled at 708-388-7783.
