LEX FUGIT GUILD UPDATE

COVID 19 has essentially shut down the courts of southeast Michigan, certainly as practitioners knew them, since mid-March, 2020.  

This website was initially designed to reminisce about the practice of law in the Detroit area over the last 30-40 years.  Back in the days when Wayne County Circuit Court had judges in 3 separate buildings downtown (not counting Frank Murphy-Recorder's Court was a separate entity back then).  Motion day on Friday could take you to the CCB-now the Coleman A. Young Municipal Center, the Lafayette Building-now demolished, and the Old County Building-since remodeled, but now vacant.

I haven't been inside the Circuit Courthouses of Wayne, Oakland, Macomb, Washtenaw or Genesee (not to mention Kent, Newaygo and Isabella, among other), since before March 1.  

While I have been a remote case evaluator, mediator, and litigant many times since the shutdown, my only in person appearance since mid-March was in fashionable Huron County (Bad Axe) where the only Circuit judge's entire court room was turned over to the case evaluation panel, with evaluators and litigants equally distributed among counsel tables, court reporter station, jury box and audience.  The judge wasn't around-he's no fool.

I now find I miss the cattle call of motion day in Wayne, Oakland and Macomb, though I can't say I miss jamming passengers like sardines into elevators on the first floor of the CCB.  On those days I learned Newton's 4th Law of Physics-that now matter how tightly people are packed into an elevator on the first floor, for every single passenger that exits on an upper floor, 2 more can get on.  Without limitation.

Lawyers connect and network in the courthouse, its courtrooms, its hallways and its stairwells(a branch office for many attorneys).  And its case evaluation tribunals.  Those networks are "off the air" at the moment-and a very long moment it has become.

Litigating attorneys are are unique among professionals in this regard-our work keeps us in frequent contact with many of our fellows.  In courthouses and deposition rooms.  Every case has its opponents, often several on each side.  Cases are adversarial proceedings and ultimately, resolution of those disputes can be obtained in a few select locations-the courthouses.  Where the Guild members meet, and network.

Since live court has been suspended, attorneys can't keep abreast of what's going on beyond their home offices and their Zoom feeds.

Over the last few months we have lost:  Bob Scarfone of Scarfone and Geen, Val Temrowski, who headed up Geico's local house counsel office, Nick Manikas of Sam Bernstein's firm, and Dennis Burnett, long time member of the City of Detroit's Law Department.  And word of their passing did not reach most of the legal community until long after the wakes and memorial services, such as they currently are, were over.  Dennis died in June.  I learned about his passing yesterday, October 13.

I was able to attend Nick Manikas' memorial on October 1.  The event was under very controlled and I might say surreal conditions, and not at all a fit sendoff for the man.

So, boys and girls, when we get back to some sort of normal, members of the Lex Fugit movement will host a yearly party:  no speeches, no awards, no fundraising, no advertising, no self promotion.  Just members of the Guild of Lawyers getting together to enjoy each others company, laugh a lot, and keep in touch.  While there is time.

And the venue for this affair?  Jacobys is the obvious choice, if it can continue to stay open during the slow down.  It has been open since 1904, so it has a history of surviving  a lot.  Hopes are high.

Watch this site and the upcoming Lex Fugit podcast for further details.

See you in Court--I hope.