LEX FUGIT: Memories of the Metro Detroit Legal Scene, Present, but Mostly Past

After infesting Wayne County Circuit Court (mostly), for over two decades, doing plaintiff personal injury work, two years, three days and seven hours ago, I left the law firm of Bernstein & Bernstein-"Doing Legal Stuff Since 1923".    In the two years since, the law offices of Landry, Mazzeo & Dembinski has tolerated my peculiar approach to the practice with seemingly boundless good humor.  I do tort defense almost exclusively now, and the transition from one side of the PI game to the other was not difficult.  As Rik Mazzeo told me, "It's all advocacy".  And so it is. 

What has been difficult to get used to is the decrease in my court appearances in Wayne County.  My cases are now spread over a wider area.  Fewer cases as well, but bigger ones.  More work as well, but better work product, I think.

With fewer trips for Friday motion call, I fell behind the curve regarding news of the "Guild", that is, fellow members of the trial bar that I had known and practiced with (and against) for years.

I have been a lawyer for a long time.  I have long since grown into what was once my prematurely gray hair.  Now, I am just happy to have any hair, without regard to its color.  

My P number is in the low 3os.  Many people seeing me after a long time say, "I thought you retired", or "You're still practicing?" (with the kind of head tilt and expression my dog gives me when I do something particularly stupid-he uses that expression a great deal).

Well, sorry to those folks who have been counting the days to retirement since their 35th birthday, I am working more hours, and having a lot more fun in the practice than I ever have.  But.....with depressing frequency, the people I have known for 30+ years are closing their firms, moving on, retiring, or dying.  And I hate that.

Over the last few months:

Tom Killeen-retired;

Kurt Anselmi-deceased;

Bill Brickley-retired;

Teresa Fredericks-retired;

Brian Fischer-retired (mostly);

John Cothorn-retired (mostly);

Prena, Evansen and Fredericks-closed;

Cothorn and Mackley-closed;

Raftery and Associates-radically changed.

Judge Daphne Means Curtis-retired;

Judge Kathleen MacDonald-retired.

There should be a way and a place to gather our memories of these people, these firms and our experiences "in the trenches" of practice in the trial courts in Michigan.  I am not going for the "war stories" where trial lawyers try to impress people with their big verdicts--you do that already on your websites and Facebook pages.  I want to read the stories about those attorneys "putting for dollars" in front of Judge Jim Montante, lawyers covering motion days in Wayne County when there were  Circuit Courtrooms in the City-County Building, the Old County Building, and the departed Lafayette Building.