Shareholder, Hopkins & Huebner P.C.

“It’s all good.”

Lorraine May, successful attorney, former candidate for the Iowa Supreme Court, first in her class at Drake University Law School, boils life down to those three words.

She grew up in rural western Nebraska, where she attended a three-room schoolhouse and was the summer cook for hands on a 70,000-acre ranch.

After two years at the University of Nebraska, she came to Des Moines – a selling point was a university where she could get a law degree. Better yet, she could supercharge her course load for the same tuition as though she were just loafing along on a standard 12-hour menu of classes. That enabled her to graduate early and save money.

It was all good.

After passing the Iowa bar examination in 1976, she was offered a job at what is now known as Finley, Alt, Smith, Scharnberg, Craig, Hilmes and Gaffney P.C., where she clerked while a law student and where she would become a shareholder.

She joined Hopkins & Huebner P.C. as a shareholder in 1998.

May has been a member of the Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission and an instructor at Drake Law School. She is a member of the Iowa Environmental Council.

That’s all good, but what really delights her are stories about her family, her three daughters, her husband, Tom, son-in-law and future son-in-law.

“It’s kind of like getting to live your life four times. Each one of them brings new aspects, new adventures, new awareness, new appreciation for other things around you. They’re magical,” she said. “The world is big, and I think they plan for it all.”

When the girls are in town, dinner can run from 6 p.m. to midnight. She is planning an Iowa pork barbecue and English tea to celebrate daughter Whitney’s marriage on Sept. 17 to Andy Roberts, who is from England.

“I think the opportunities for poor taste in mixing those two are just absolutely unlimited,” she said, laughing while a bobblehead doll of Queen Elizabeth seemed to nod in approval. “I’m going to have a whole lot of fun with this. The juxtaposition of white linen tablecloths with cucumber sandwiches and watercress next to corn on the cob served on the pig are just cool. Absolutely cool.”

Really cool, like pulling a four-horse trailer behind a pickup truck with dual rear tires in the middle of the night through Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue on her way to Madison Square Garden.

Or really cool like taking the bar exam and scampering off to Europe with Tom, not really sure what their travel plans were other than having airline tickets into and out of London.

“One thing I have done well in my life is enjoy it – enjoy and know that you have been blessed,” she said.