BUTZEL?LONG ASSOCIATE Brian McGinty assists a Scout in making an “S” hook on the blacksmithing anvil. McGinty teachers blacksmithing at his childhood Boy Scout summer camp in Wisconsin.
By John Minnis
Legal News
You might say that Butzel Long associate Brian McGinty is forging his way as an instructor at his boyhood Boy Scout summer camp in Elcho, Wis.
That is because McGinty, 27, an Eagle Scout originally from suburban Chicago, teaches boys blacksmithing two weeks every summer.
“I am mostly self-taught,” says McGinty, who has worked at Camp Mach-Kin-O-Siew and Camp Shin-Go-Beek since 2000. Six years ago he was asked to work in the camps' Outpost Department for older boys, ages 11-17.
“I had to come up with an activity that would keep the older boys' attention,” he recalls. “It occurred to me that blacksmithing might be the thing to do.”
McGinty obtained a forge — made from an 18-wheeler brake well — from another camp and experimented with it.
He got some pointers from a retired blacksmith, but most of his learning came from trial and error.
“After seven years,” he says, “I've figured most of it out.”
Using bar stock, the boys make “S” and “J” hooks, eating utensils (nothing sharper than a butter knife), tent stakes and steel hearts for girlfriends. Blacksmithing goes toward earning a Metalworking Merit Badge. The other segment is welding, taught by another instructor at camp.
“I think I can safely say it is the single most popular activity at the camp,” McGinty says of blacksmithing. “Most nights I have the forge open, I have more kids than I can handle. Scouts love fire, and the forge is the hottest fire in camp.”
McGinty has been in the Boys Scouts of American since he was 6 years old as a Cub Scout. He earned the top Eagle Scout rank at age 15.
Following graduation from high school, McGinty began his college education abroad, attending University College Cork in Ireland for a year before matriculating to Dartmouth.
Unable to keep his feet on American soil, McGinty also studied abroad for a trimester at Beijing Normal University in China and for a semester at the Queen's University of Belfast in Northern Ireland.
After Dartmouth, he settled at Harvard Law School. While there, he worked as an intern for Justice Henry duPont Ridgely of the Delaware Supreme Court, where he researched and analyzed appellate arguments and wrote bench memoranda in both civil and criminal appeals.
He joined Butzel Long a year ago, splitting his time between business and corporate law and litigation.
His working knowledge of Mandarin gained from his Beijing stint comes in handy at Butzel as well.
McGinty is the son of a lawyer, Rory McGinty, who is a solo practitioner with a general practice in Downers Grove, Ill.
The younger McGinty says his father did not seek to become a lawyer. “He was arguably the nation's best debater in high school and college,” the son explains. His father's debating skills earned him a free ride at Eastern Illinois University as well as the University of Texas-Austin Law School, where he coached debating as well.
But while his father became an attorney by default, Brian McGinty became a lawyer by choice — a choice his father did not encourage. “I haven't regretted it for a minute,” the son says.
While many suburban Detroit youth are flocking to Chicago, McGinty came to Detroit, where he lives downtown.
When not at summer camp in Wisconsin, he helps out with Scout Troop 226, a 90-year-old unit that meets at Most Holy Redeemer Catholic Church in Southwest Detroit's Mexicantown.
“It is a point of discipline in their lives,” McGinty says of the Mexicantown troop, “and it keeps them busy and not involved with gangs. I'm a big supporter of the Boys Scouts.”
––––––––––––––––––––
Subscribe to the Legal News!
http://legalnews.com/Home/Subscription
Full access to public notices, articles, columns, archives, statistics, calendar and more
Day Pass Only $4.95!
One-County $80/year
Three-County & Full Pass also available
