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.  

 

Let's hear about what it was like to represent a strip bar in the Court of Appeals before Judge Mike Talbot (mine).  And how about motion call before Mike Stacey.  Or the day Judge John Cozart ruled as a matter of law that a single motor vehicle accident happened on two different dates, 4 days apart (mine).  Or your first dep as a plaintiff lawyer with Rik Mazzeo appearing for the defense (same case, actually).  And doctor's deps at the luxurious Junction Clinic.  Or hiding your client in the stairwell the time the judge threatened to arrest him if he rejected a settlement offer and appeared at a civil settlement conference (mine).  Or taking a dep at Bill Eggenburger's office when everyone in dep room was required to smoke (mine, but factually enhanced).  Motion day in Wayne County, when there were courtrooms in the City-County Building, the Old County Building and the Lafayette Building:  "I have to check in Jim Hathaway's Court, I'll be right back".  Waiting in line to use one of the 2 pay phones, or if you were lucky, the phone booth on each floor of the courthouse.

 All of us have those stories--true, or mostly true.

Let's remember the days when lawyers would go toe to toe for hours in a deposition, and then go out for a beer (or more) with each other afterward.  It still happens for me some times, but it doesn't happen much in the practice.

These stories should be told and preserved--somewhere, before the stories are lost along with the memory of the actors therein.  That's what I hope "Lex Fugit"  will be.  A grammatically incorrect (I assume) Latin phrase which I hope means something like: "The Law Passes".   Well, I would like to remember most of it. 

I will share the possibly interesting stories of my tawdry little legal career, if you will share yours.   Obviously,  providing the names of those involved is kind of basic to the intent of this project, but I understand that some of the most interesting stories will involve occasions when certain people may not have acted with the utmost professionalism and/or decorum.  If a contributor wants to exclude names, for whatever reason, I will comply.  If a contributor wants to include names, and I think discretion would be better served by exclusion, I will submit the story to an impartial panel made up of the members of the Landry, Mazzeo and Dembinski law firm all of whom have taken the "Squealers Oath", promising to keep sensitive material confidential.

I have waited for the elevators on the first floor of the CCB a thousand times, I bet, but my first visit seems like yesterday.  The judges come and go.  The lawyers come and go.  The clients come and go.  I don't like that.  I want to remember the stories and the people that made the practice interesting at its best, and crazy most of the time.

Submissions can be directed to Mike Butler at [email protected].  If there are any questions, call me at 248-476-6900 Ext. 20.

Lex may Fugit, but let us Semper Memento (my apologies to Cicero, and others).