BAGATELLES I

A few comparatively short, random flashbacks from my shadowy legal career.   A bit different than the flashback I had for 10 years of walking into the classroom building at Wayne State Law School to find all the students taking an exam of which I was apparently unaware.

I.  THE SAVOYARD CLUB

The Savoyard was a private club on the top floor of the Buhl Building.  The building opened in 1925, and the club opened in 1928.

Access was a bit odd.  An elevator took members to the 28th floor. Ahead was a vaulted stairway, with three turns and landings.  My first boss, an old time Irishman who started out around the time Jerome Cavanaugh was Mayor of Detroit, took me to an event there in the early 80s.  Very cool place, oozing old power.  I assumed that I'd be back.  But, with dwindling membership, the club closed in 1994, and as far as I know, Detroit's revitalization has not reached the space.

The Buhl Bar, on the ground floor of the same building, has a page on its website called the Savoyard Club, but it is not an attempt to reopen the space.

I did not know how the Savoyard Club got its name until very recently.  I used to relate the term "Savoyard" to devotees of Gilbert and Sullivan (my nerd background is showing).  But the Savoyard was actually a river in Detroit, and the Buhl Building was built over the stream, which was encased in stone by the City in 1836, having become something of an open sewer.

Who knew?

There is apparently a stained glass window with the crest of the Savoyard Club (which I don't remember seeing on my visit).  A depiction is shown on the match book on the left (I bought the matchbook on eBay), and a graphic is shown at right.

While writing this I now recall that when I started as a clerk for my first boss, he was dealing with the fallout on a case, wherein a deposition had been scheduled on the day of Jerome Cavanagh's funeral.  My boss called the opposition and left a message asking that the deposition be adjourned so he could attend the funeral. He assumed that was all that was necessary, given the event and the "rules of the game" for gentleperson lawyers.  He learned later that the attorney did not adjourn, went forward with the dep and the boss was stuck with the very poor testimony (for him) from that event. 

Not adjourning the dep was a clear violation of the rules of the Guild.  This is not the way (to coin a phrase).

II.  A POST HEARING NIP OF SCOTCH IN HIS HONOR'S CHAMBERS

During my time with the same boss referred to above.  He sent me to cover a hearing before a judge that was one of his friends.  Last hearing of the day, after which the judge called both counsel into his chambers and in the course of discussing something other than the "instant case", he asked us if we wanted a drink?  Yes, certainly.  He pulled a bottle of scotch out his desk drawer and poured a nip for all in chambers.  Just one.

This is wonderful, I thought.  Real 30s-40s era movie stuff (excluding Judge Hardy, of course).  This is why I became a lawyer.  I mean that seriously.  I assumed this would be merely the first of many such in camera proceedings.

Never happened again.

And, that unique event didn't really put me in tight with that judge.  About a year later, he reamed me from the bench for checking in on an 8:30am hearing---at 8:35am.

I am reminded of the not so unique occasions wherein I would be walking to the Ford Auditorium parking structure at 9:45am, having completed my Friday Wayne County Motion call.  I would often greet more than one Circuit judge who was just arriving for his/her 8:30 or 9am Motion call.

So it goes.  It's good to be the King.

 

Comments

[lucetta franco]

The few times I went to the Savoyard Club (after they started allowing women to enter the Club),
I always ordered turtle soup. It was delicious. I gave not one thought to the poor turtles who gave their lives for that soup. I am not sure I could eat that soup today.