LEX FUGIT

LEX FUGIT?

 Some time ago I joined the ranks of what people might politely call, "seasoned attorneys".  While I enjoy working now more than I have in 20 years, I find that a number of attorneys and judges of my vintage, have left the racket, I mean practice. Some are happily retired; some not so much. Others have left for health reasons and others, sadly, have passed away.  I miss them all; admittedly, some more than others.

 

Lex Fugit is a made up Latin phrase--Lex for law, and Fugit as in Tempus (time) Fugit (flies). The site is intended to be a place to preserve memories of the  legal scene in Michigan, with the emphasis on the Wayne, Oakland, Macomb and Genesee County Courts, where I have had the most experience.

 

After a generation in the practice, I find that I  have  war stories for almost every occasion. I'd like to share my stories of the practice and the people who have made it so memorable. And, I hope that readers will share their stories  as well. The lawyers and the practice deserves to be remembered.

 

Lawyer's stories, tales, anecdotes, and reminiscences, are welcome and encouraged.  Please submit to me at mjbutler722@gmail.com.  I may withhold names of characters involved, if I think it necessary.  I have done so with a few of my own stories that appear here.

 

And, finally what blog/website would be complete without a plug for the author's facilitation/mediation business?

 

As readers of this blog will learn, I am not real big on the self-promotion industry, with its various awards and LinkedIn posts.  But, I am also aware that when considering the appointment of a mediator, there is a certain "default" list of names that comes immediately to mind.  I have the same list for my litigation cases.  People tend to forget other mediators. 

 

So, as I attempt to get on that "default" list, I would like to point out that I have extensive litigation experience representing parties on both sides of the "v".  And, as we enter the "Brave New World" of a new No-Fault Act and a new set of Court Rules, I have both written and made presentations concerning both.  I don't think those on the "default" list can say that.  End of self-promotion.

 

 My CV  can be found here.

 

To steal the closing line of one of my heroes, the late Judge Kaye Tertzag:  "Be well."

 

Mike Butler (734-776-0231)

LEX FUGIT-JET MAGAZINE JULY 9, 1964

I have seen this photo posted several times on Facebook over the years.  The cover story, entitled "Women Lawyers To Aid Mississippi 'Freedom Corps'", appeared in the July 9, 1964 issue of Jet magazine.

The cover photo shows two of Detroit's own, attorneys Claudia Shropshire and Anna Diggs.  In my career I appeared before them both, Judge Claudia House Morcom of the Wayne County Circuit Court, and Judge Anna Diggs Taylor of the US District Court, Eastern Division in Detroit.

I was able to hunt down the actual article and have posted screen shots below.  Although the writing style is perhaps indicative of another time, what does come through is the risk these lawyers faced in their fight for justice for their clients.  The personal danger was real. 

I realize that I did not fully appreciate the challenges many of my judges encountered before they wore the black robe.  I am sure they loved hearing the likes of me bitch about overdue interrogatory responses.

LINKEDIN-CAREFULLY CURATED CAREER COUNSELING

 

I am not a fan of LinkedIn. I find the humblebrag that dominates the platform comical/nauseating.  I do have a LinkedIn page, but I keep it almost entirely for its entertainment value.  It is often good for a laugh.  My favorite part of LinkedIn is not a part of LinkedIn at all.  It is the Twitter account, "Crap on LinkedIn".

Way back when I must have clicked some box indicating I was open to job offers.  So, I still get an email each day with job opportunities.  Most listings come from employment agencies trying to build pools of candidates they can refer to clients who will pay them a commission.  But LinkedIn does pride itself on finding opportunities that match your expressed preferences and qualifications.

So, I have received emails alerting me to employment opportunities with the FBI, at a time when I was several years beyond the mandatory retirement age for field agents.

One of my favorites is the ad above, under the heading of "New Jobs in Livonia" (Michigan).  This alerts me to an opening for a California Mineral Rights Attorney! What an opportunity.  As LinkedIn often adds, "Be one of the first to apply".

I am not licensed in California, and I am not a mineral rights attorney by training or experience.  In fact, I wouldn't recognize a mineral right if I fell down an open mine shaft.

How does such a job ad make its way to a superannuated lawyer from Michigan? At one time or another in my legal career, maybe I said that I found myself between a rock and a hard place?  They probably took my interest in the position for granite.

I looked up other geology puns to add here, but they were uniformly awful.  For instance, "If I was not interested in the job, it was my fault".

So, instead of puns, I looked my LinkedIn page, and clicked the jobs icon for job suggestions meeting my profile.  Well the FBI is still hiring, and when I clicked on the search button for attorney jobs in Livonia, I got this:

To be fair, I do love the Detroit Club.  Reminds me of the good old days when the Mediation Tribunal, located across the street, held hearings in person.

 

THE POWER OF A LAWYER'S (HIGH SCHOOL?) ALMA MATER

    The drive to get into the perceived best colleges and graduate programs has never been greater than it is today.  Students and their families begin building the "portfolio" early.  When our youngest daughter was in 4th grade, she attended the birthday party of a classmate, at which time the child's father announced that his daughter would become a doctor and would earn 3 board certifications.  The latest information I have for that young lady was when she was about 6 years out of high school, at which time she was trying to make her way as a freelance interpretive dancer.  Things do not always succeed as planned.

    While the competition for places in top tier programs remains intense, getting into law school is not as hard as it used to be.  When my now 20-something nephew applied, his mother/my sister, would text me weekly with news of the latest scholarship offers showered upon her son.  Many came from out of state schools to which he had not formally applied.  I responded to her, congratulating him and asked what undergrad grade point average had resulted in such offers.  "3.2".  After I replied that my undergrad average had been 3.7 and no one had offered me a dime, the texts stopped.  

    As the Mock Trial coach at my old high school, Detroit Catholic Central, I see students, including "my boys", working hard, preparing for the next step in their student careers.  And I try to help them when I can.  I do tell them that I see Mock Trial not as a pre-law school activity, but as an opportunity to learn real analytical and "think on your feet" skills which they can carry into any field after the student part of their careers are over.

    There is one thing I haven't told them.  And that is, in my professional career, the most influential educational entry on my CV has been the name of my high school.

I WORKED WITH SOME VERY "INTERESTING" PLAINTIFF PI FIRMS. IF ONLY............

THINK OF THE BILLBOARDS!

 

THINK OF THE TRIALS! (SEE END OF POST)

 

CIVILITY IS EVERYTHING IN THE COURTROOM

 

BOTTOM ROW, RIGHT

I always wanted to do that.

 

 

VACATION COMMUNICATION

Though I am retired from full time litigation practice, as the summer of 2022 enters the final week before Labor Day, I was caused to think of summer vacations past.

It started during a recent extended telephone mediation. Things had stalled. To move things along, I sent out a 2-day notice for a general conference call.  The afternoon before the conference I received an email from a previously non-communicative lawyer, stating he was on a family vacation "with little or no workable cell service or internet. I get internet in the am when we drive into town for coffee, etc."   Thus, he had created plausible deniability if he didn't respond to the conference call (he didn't), and if he didn't respond to the continuing, and reasonable requests for documents supporting his case.  Bad reception.  We had been warned.

Pure BS, of course. His firm is probably the most tech savvy in the state.  I wouldn't be surprised if they had a dedicated satellite link.  I'm sure the firm provided him with any number of methods to connect.  This isn't 1995.  And I can't think of any family whose children would survive being deprived of social media for 5 minutes.

On another level, I can sympathize.  Assuming the lawyer was on vacation with the family, he owes it to them (and himself) to turn off work to the extent he can.  Despite what we say on LinkedIn, we should be working to live, and not living to work.

Firms, clients, and courts expect attorneys to be available 24/7.  We were probably at that point before the COVID/Zoom era.  Now, you can go from the shower to a court appearance in 5 minutes, from your home office, basement, bedroom or kitchen.  Phones and tablets turn attorneys into the obstetricians of the legal system-always on call.  It is hard to relax-ever.

I was not raised during the Depression, but I feel like it when I recall communication, or the lack thereof, while on vacation during my legal career.  

Shortly after we were married, my wife and I went to the same Lake Huron resort (I am sure the term was used ironically) cottages (the size of an average suburban family room) my family went to during my childhood.  No TV, no phone, no AC, a barely working stove, and water of the same consistency, if not quite the same color and clarity of a pint of Guinness.  The cell phone, the internet and the email had not been invented.  No way to call the office and no way for the office to contact me.  Well, there was one way.

The cottage was on the Lake Huron shore, just east of US23.  On the west side of US23 was the Sunset Motel, shown below, in a photo that could have been taken at any time from the date of its construction up to the present.

What is not shown in the photo, is the south end of the parking lot, with accompanying utility pole.  Attached to that pole was a pay phone.  So, what I did, was walk to US23, cross the northbound lanes, the grass median, then the southbound lanes and try to call my office, collect, from that utility pole pay phone. It was tough trying to carry on a conversation with semis whizzing by.  I felt like Eddie Albert in Green Acres.

Lawyer Cartoon July 29, 2022

Oddly enough, this was not one of those cartoons, where you can insert your own name, profession etc.

HOW TO RUN AN EFFECTIVE BUSINESS MEETING--NOT THE LINKEDIN EDITION

 

I have been a fan of Monty Python since the only place to see it was on PBS, 10:30pm Sunday nights.

Pity, I never could get any of my kids interested in the Pythons.  I am grateful that I was able to succeed with the Marx Brothers and Three Stooges.

This meeting of the Royal Society For Putting Things On Top Of Other Things, reminds me of a great many meetings I have attended, and I must admit, a few I have chaired.  Sadly, none of those ended with:  "Meeting adjourned forever."

A shame they didn't.  I agree with the delegate from the Staffordshire branch, the whole thing is a "bit silly".

MEDIATOR HIJINKS

"You can't play your friends like marks, Hooker."-Henry Gondorff, The Sting.

As a facilitator, I understand that the mediation process is not about me.  When attorneys hire me, it is based on a belief that I can help them and their clients resolve a case.

I am grateful for their consideration.  They could have hired someone else. My mediation "Hippocratic" Oath is:  Do No Harm to a Lawyer, especially in their relationship with their client.

i don't  use a case as an opportunity to wring as much money out of the parties as I can.

I've seen it done.

Back before mediation essentially became a part of every case, an attorney in Flint became an player in the facilitation game.  They had been appointed by the judge on one of my cases.  I did not know them.  This lawyer sent us their agreement, and procedures, which included 4 different levels of billing.  I don't remember all 4, but I remember a rate for their time, a rate for administrative work, and a rental rate for the conference room at his office!  As I had an office in Flint across the street, I notified them that I did not need to rent their room, and they could come across the street to my place.  I don't remember if there was a special rate for travel.  

That experience led me to explicitly state to my mediation clients that there would never be an administrative/file set up fees.  

I know mediators who charge minimum fees, whether the case is settled, dismissed or otherwise disposed of before the hearing.  

Others charge a fee if a case is adjourned, whatever the reason.  I have heard of adjournment fees of $1000.  One mediator, perhaps waxing nostalgic for their days as a judge, will assess the whole of the adjournment fee to the party they feel was responsible for the adjournment.  Talk about making attorney/client relations difficult.  

(MOCK) TRIALS AND (TECHNICAL) TRIBULATIONS-PART 1

"Look at all my trials and tribulations
Sinking in a gentle pool of wine (I wish,ed.)
Don't disturb me now....."

CC's Plaintiff Attorney Team

The lines above are taken from "The Last Supper", a song from Jesus Christ Superstar.  An appropriate opening to this piece.  Firstly, Good Friday is this week.  Second, this first Rock Opera came out when I was in high school at Detroit Catholic Central.  And, most importantly, the lyrics are a spot on summary of my state after the twelve hour Mock Trial regional on February 26, 2022, wherein I coached that same Catholic Central high school's Mock Trial team.

The Michigan Mock Trial competition is sponsored each year by the very noble non-profit , The Michigan Center for Civic Education, and its director, Ellen Zwarensteyn.  They do a great job.  I first became involved with Mock Trial as a judge in 2012.  At that time, the Center for Civic Education had just lost its federal funding amid a round of other cutbacks.  The lost $250,000 yearly allocation has still not been completely replaced from other sources.  Knowing that history adds to my admiration for what the Center continues to do.

Briefly, Mock Trial is a competition, where high school students will try a case, based on a set of facts, pleadings, statements and exhibits released in November each year.  A team is a minimum of 6-3 lawyers and 3 witnesses.  Teams are required to litigate both sides of a case. No jury per se. Trials are scored by a panel of 3 judges.  The competition's first round is a regional of 3 trials in one day.  This is a highly abbreviated description.

Teams are coached by teachers and/or volunteer attorneys.  It is a big time commitment for a practicing lawyer.  I was an assistant coach back in 2015, but I had to drop out until this year because of my work schedule.  Coaching Mock Trial was near the top of my post litigation career list of things to do.  And, ironically, coaching the young CC lads would get me back into a courtroom, a rare occurrence since the March 2020 Covid court shutdown.  

Covid had hit the Mock Trial program as well.  The March 2020 shutdown order came in the middle of regional competition season, and the remainder of the regionals and state finals were cancelled.  The 2021 season was totally virtual.  There were many reasons for that arrangement, one of the foremost being that all the courthouses that hosted the trials continued to be closed to the public.  The 2022 season was to include live proceedings as an option, and that certainly would have been my preference.  The Omicron variant put an end to that.  

Although Catholic Central High School has a great tradition of attorney and judicial alumni, it has been historically difficult to get attorney coaches for the team.  It is a big commitment.  Last year the team was coached by a CC teacher, who had left at the end of the school year.  There had not been a lawyer coach in several years and during at least one of those years, CC did not field a team.

In 2021-22, I had more time.  And Bryan Kontry, a 2001 CC alum, took time from his full time practice and young family to help  coach the team.  We had 4 veterans.  We also had 6 freshmen.  We had no faculty moderator.  As the late, great Jack Benny said in similar circumstances:  Yipe!

 

(MOCK) TRIALS AND (TECHNICAL) TRIBULATIONS-PART 2

Feb. 26, 2 hours into trial-only 10 hours left to go.

Part one of this piece, can be found here.

First, a bit about the students of Detroit Catholic Central High School.  The number of class and extracurricular choices available to the boys is amazing.  There are 35 clubs listed in the Student Life section of the school website.  That number does not include the teams for 16 sports .  Classes begin at 8am, though there is something called Zero Hour, from 7am-8am.  Various clubs and activities meet an hour before classes start.  There is daily Mass at 7:20am.  When classes end at 2:45pm, some students leave right away, but a whole lot stay.  When our practices ended at 4:30, there were still a lot of students in the renovated library, now called the Learning Commons.

Mock Trial starts comparatively late in the school year, and many of my young men already had a full academic and extracurricular plate before our first meeting.  Practices were missed for such things as Finance Club (a big deal at school), the March for Life in Washington, meetings to approve Eagle Scout projects, sports team practices and personal training.  Many had other activities that did not start until after our practice was over.

Back in my early CC days, even though I was in the Honors Science program (hilarious considering my post-high school educational and career path), after school I was chiefly concerned with schlepping to the McNichols DSR stop, to see if I could catch a bus that went farther west than Grand River Ave.

Many CC alumni of my vintage, take pride in the memory of the blue collar, hardscrabble Outer Drive Shamrock student of yesteryear.  We did do more with less.  The world has changed a lot since then.  CC students have more assets and more options, but they take full advantage.  They have set some lofty goals for themselves.  One of my boys hopes to get a service academy appointment next year.  Another was notified of his acceptance to U of M, during our non-dress competition rehearsal.

CC once had the reputation as the "jock" school, with U of D High being the academic school.  We have a lot of sports teams and many of them do very well.  As I write this, I read that Catholic Central has just won its 11th consecutive academic team state championship.  In addition, CC is breaking ground on a $35M  STEM wing addition which will essentially double the size of the school.  For those of my generation who may not be familiar,STEM is an acronym for Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics.  

One final stereotype that I found was not supported by the evidence.  Some keyboard PhDs post that places like Catholic Central are more like English boys private schools than the hundreds of Catholic high schools that covered the city of Detroit in the 1950s and 60s.  Not based on my experience.   My future Eagle Scout and Wolverine works a part time job at Taco Bell.  When I was a teenager, my standards for jobs weren't high (dietary department porter, "warehouse rat" at Toys R Us to name a few), but even I drew the line at places like Taco Bell.  Another team member, who aspires to go to law school, works part time in the family convenience store.   Tuition is high at CC, but a very substantial percentage of families get some form of tuition assistance.

But, as always I digress.  Back to Mock Trial.