– Photos by Robert Chase
(Left) First elected to the State Bar Board of Commissioners in 1992, Tom Ryan became president of the statewide organization in the autumn of 2000. (Right) Upon reflection, attorney Tom Ryan believes that lawyers from firms large and small have a “special responsibility to participate” in bar association service.
By Tom Kirvan
Legal News
A piece of fatherly advice has stood the test of time for Tom Ryan, a past president of the State Bar of Michigan who earlier this year marked his 40th year as an attorney.
Ryan, who concentrates his practice in municipal law and in alternative dispute resolution work, attributes his legal longevity to some early words of wisdom from his father, Frank, a tool and die maker who rose from the ranks of the factory floor to eventually become vice president of a manufacturing company.
“He always said to me, ‘Be your own boss,’” Ryan related. “If I heard that once, I heard that a hundred times from him. It was something that he longed for in his own career. He always wanted to go into business for himself, but the opportunity never quite presented itself.”
For Ryan, on the other hand, the chance to “blaze my own trail” came early in his legal career following graduation from the University of Detroit School of Law. It may have been a partial response to a pair of jobs he held while attending night school at U of D.
“I worked at the Wayne County bail program, a job that was a real eye-opener for someone embarking on a legal career,” Ryan said. “I also had a job as a substitute teacher – and I have the scars to prove it. Those two jobs taught me a lot about what I didn’t want to do in life.”
A University of Notre Dame alum, Ryan was a law clerk at Plunkett Cooney before accepting a teaching fellowship overseas in the fall of 1973. He taught French students classes in constitutional law, torts, and contracts, hoping that it would lead to a job in international law in Washington, D.C. upon his return to the U.S. Instead, Ryan landed a job in 1975 with the Oakland County Prosecutor’s Office then headed by L. Brooks Patterson, spending two years there in various roles, learning the legal ropes from attorneys such as Leonard Gilman, who would later become U.S. Attorney in Detroit. Two years later, he entered the world of private practice, eventually joining forces with attorney Tom Dillon in Oakland County, where “I cut my teeth in the field of municipal law,” Ryan indicated. When Dillon retired in 1982, Ryan was enjoying success building his own practice, eventually representing such municipalities as Bloomfield Township, Clarkston, Keego Harbor, Beverly Hills, and Orchard Lake, while also handling a variety of criminal defense and private litigation matters.
“Being a solo practitioner is not for everybody,” Ryan admitted. “It can get dicey at times, but I like having the ability to call my own shots even without the resources of a large firm. Of course, I have been fortunate to have received a lot of help over the years in building a practice from a number of former judges, current judges, clients, lawyers, and staff members.
Obviously, nobody can do it by themselves. Still, there is a special satisfaction that comes from building something from the ground up, knowing that you’ve invested a lot of time and effort into making it happen.”
He imparted that message to fellow solo practitioners around the state when he served as president of the State Bar of Michigan in 2000-01, capping a rise up the bar association ranks that he marvels at to this day.
“I never would have dreamed that I would become State Bar president when I first ran for the Oakland County Bar board in 1986,” Ryan said. “I simply wanted to give back to my profession, to be something more than just a joiner. I wanted to contribute in a meaningful way. Everybody has a part to play in the success of the bar, not just the big firms.”
Seven years after he was elected to the OCBA board, Ryan was chosen as president for 1993-94, some 30 years removed from the time his mentor, Tom Dillon, headed the Oakland Bar.
“There was a bit of symbolism in that,” Ryan said. “For Tom, it was as if I was the son he didn’t have.”
His involvement in State Bar activities was encouraged by attorney George Googasian and would saddle him with the tongue-in-cheek title of “Landslide Ryan” after he won a seat on the Board of Commissioners by a 26-vote margin in his first elective try.
“I eventually was asked to get on the chair list, which ramps up your involvement considerably,” Ryan said. “It was a tough decision to make, since I had five kids and a solo practice.”
When he ascended to the State Bar presidency, Ryan reached out to his friends, attorneys Tom Plunkett and Tom Cranmer, for help, according them the unofficial titles of “co-chiefs of staff” for the new man in charge.
“Tom (Cranmer) and I had some fun with it and performed several ‘important’ functions for Tom such as chauffeuring him around the state for some of his many speeches given to local bar associations,” Plunkett recalled. “Needless to say, we heard some of the same stories more than once.
“On a more serious note, Tom has shown himself throughout his career to be a fine lawyer who gives of himself for many community causes,” said Plunkett, a former Oakland County prosecutor who now is a partner in the Birmingham firm of Williams Williams Ratner and Plunkett. “Tom is one of the most skilled mediators who has successfully facilitated settlements of all forms of litigation both for our firm’s clients and many other lawyers and clients.”
Christine Derdarian, a Bloomfield Hills attorney and former chair of the Michigan Employment Relations Commission, was a Detroit law student in the early 1970s when she first met Ryan.
“I was in the courtroom to give moral support the first day Tom ever tried his wings as a full-fledged attorney,” Derdarian wrote in a Michigan Bar Journal article in 2000. “It is a memory that has given me fodder for years and has been officially recorded by me in the Ryan annals. Allow me to say, without going into detail, that Tom has come a long way.
“From our law school days, to those early years of practice, to the present, I have watched Tom grow into the kind of lawyer in whom everyone in our profession can take pride,” said Derdarian, a University of Michigan alum who spent nearly 30 years working in the state Attorney General’s Office. “He represents the best and the brightest, to borrow a phrase from David Halberstam. Tom is a little bit Atticus Finch, a little bit Clarence Darrow, and a little bit Learned Hand all rolled into one. His sense of fairness, respect for his fellow man, and wisdom have served him, his clients, and his profession very well.”
Mike Schloff, who worked with Ryan at the Oakland County Prosecutor’s Office, would put his stamp on that statement as well. As a fellow past president of the OCBA, Schloff has long admired the way Ryan conducts himself in and out of court, calling him “unpretentious,” a “great attorney,” and one committed “to the good works of the legal profession.”
A member of the Judicial Tenure Commission since 2005, Ryan is a Detroit native, living on the east side of the city until the age of 7 when his family moved to Grosse Pointe Woods. He graduated from Detroit Austin, a Catholic high school that produced NBA great Dave DeBusschere.
“It was a terrific school and I have maintained great friendships with classmates over the years,” said Ryan, who regularly meets with Austin alums at the Roma Café near the Eastern Market in Detroit.
He is particularly grateful to have reconnected with his high school geometry teacher, a mathematician who was known for “carrying around a sawed off hockey stick to keep a lid on things” at school, Ryan recalled with a smile.
“Those were the days,” he mused.
One of three children, Ryan has a special twinkle in his eyes when he speaks of his late mother and father, Betty and Frank, both Detroit east-siders who achieved “the gold standard as parents.”
He has a similar gleam when talk turns to his wife, Colleen Ronayne, a distinguished lawyer in her own right, and the couple’s five children, Meghan, Brendan, Molly, Maureen, and Daniel. His wife is a U-M grad who earned her J.D. from Detroit College of Law. She is one of 11 children and her father, a doctor, was a Detroit Catholic Central grad and “an absolute institution there” who may have looked askance at one of his daughters marrying a Detroit Austin alum.
The Ryan clan is a “tight-knit bunch” that is undeniably proud of their Irish American heritage, according to the family patriarch.
The couple’s oldest, Meghan, is an IP lawyer in Chicago after graduating from law school at DePaul University.
Her brother, Brendan, a business school grad from Marquette University, works for a company that provides litigation support services. He recently married Kelly in Chicago and Ryan
said she is a “wonderful addition to our family.”
Molly, a U-M alum who earned a master’s from Boston University, is employed by Cambridge Health Alliance in Boston after spending time in Africa on a Schweitzer Fellowship.
Their youngest daughter, Maureen, graduated from Miami (Ohio) University and recently moved to Colorado Springs to pursue a teaching career. Her brother, Daniel, who graduated from Cranbrook, is a freshman at U-M with hopes of becoming a sportscaster.
Last Christmas, Ryan’s daughter, Meghan, a Notre Dame alum, gave him tickets to the BCS title game in Miami between Alabama and unbeaten Notre Dame, his beloved alma mater.
“When I opened the present, I was speechless — for one of the few times in my life,” Ryan said with a smile.
There were few smiles among the Irish faithful after the title game, which saw the Crimson Tide drub Notre Dame 42-14 to claim their second straight national championship.
“It was a downer, no doubt about it,” Ryan said of the setback. “But Notre Dame is my team, win or lose, and that’s the way it will always be no matter how many times I leave a stadium disappointed.”
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