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Legal Versatility:

Arturo Jaramillo ’75 makes a career switch after trying cases for 26 years

Arturo Jaramillo

Arturo Jaramillo seemed to have everything going for him in a law career that spanned 26 years—he had helped to build a successful firm, became the first Hispanic president of his state bar association, won awards and civic respect in his community. But Jaramillo ’75 (magna cum laude) had a motto, “What else is tomorrow for?”, that pretty much summed up why he wanted to try something new. “I’m not interested in just doing the same thing,” he thought.

Something new, he decided, would be heading a government agency. His timing was perfect with a new administration coming to power in New Mexico in 2003. He made his interest known to the new governor, Bill Richardson, and within days he found himself head of the far-reaching Regulation and Licensing Department, which regulates 35 industries ranging from alcohol and gambling, to construction and financial institutions.

With responsibility for permitting, monitoring, and enforcing regulations, this, he admits, “is nobody’s favorite agency.” On any given day, he hears from as many as ten different industries. “We get a lot of: ‘We don’t like that,’” whether it be controversies over licensing, building codes, or discipline meted out to violators, he says. The result: “tremendous pressure” on his 280-person staff. His attitude: “We try to respond to it in an emotionally intelligent way.” As superintendent, Jaramillo is particularly proud of instituting management strategies around the principles known as emotional intelligence, especially in a department that had experienced negativity that resulted in a several employee grievance cases. After researching emotional intelligence, Jaramillo developed trainings focused on self awareness and picking up cues from others to improve respect, professionalism, accountability and communication. His enthusiasm for the program has spread and he has been asked to develop it elsewhere, including for the state bar of New Mexico.

In the process, it has occurred to Jaramillo that his own emotional intelligence training began at Santa Clara University School of Law. Initially intimidated at SCU because of his low LSAT scores, he found a “wonderfully accessible” community that helped build his confidence and self-awareness. He credits the late Professor Herman Levy in particular for prodding him beyond his rote tendencies to self-evaluation techniques that served him in the courtroom and beyond. “What I really learned at the law school was to pay attention to what I was doing and saying,” and modify as he went along, he recalls.

Descended from New Mexico inhabitants in the 1700s, Jaramillo became the first lawyer in his family when he graduated. In 2001, he was among the first to receive SCU’s Law Alumni Special Achievement Award. Not unexpectedly, Jaramillo also is an enthusiastic proponent of career switching. “Frankly I wouldn’t have thought I could do it,” after 26 years of trying cases, he says. But his government job showed him a bigger picture. “It’s been a great opportunity to learn how diverse lawyering skills can be.”

Rita Beamish B.A.’74