By Tom Kirvan
Legal News
After spending the first 16 years of his career defending the likes of insurance companies and a giant automaker, attorney Nick Andrews decided to cross the proverbial line to do “God’s work.”
Those last two words were not uttered by Andrews when he had the change of legal heart some 15 years ago. Instead, they came from his now longtime law partner, Arthur Liss, founder of the Bloomfield Hills firm that bears his name.
Liss, who has been a prominent plaintiff’s attorney for the bulk of his 47-year legal career, bumped into Andrews at a 2005 investiture for a 36th District Court judge in Detroit. The two had crossed paths periodically over the years and had a serious case of mutual respect despite their plaintiff-defendant differences.
“When I saw Arthur at the investiture, he asked if I ‘ever thought about doing God’s work,’” Andrews said.
Andrews, seldom at a loss for words either inside or outside a courtroom, had a ready response. “I replied, ‘I am,’” Andrews said in recalling the remark, which undoubtedly provoked some joint laughter.
Now, 15 years later, Andrews and Liss can view the anecdotal story in a shared light, one in which they see their names on the legal letterhead at the firm of Liss, Seder & Andrews, P.C. The firm specializes in no-fault litigation involving catastrophic brain or spinal cord injuries, and includes longtime partner Karen Seder, a Wayne State Law School grad who has been with Liss since he opened the practice more than 25 years ago.
Andrews may have inherited his dedication while under the wing of his father, retired Oakland County Circuit Judge Steven Andrews. The former jurist, who retired in 2008 after serving on the bench for more than three decades, had a well-earned “no-nonsense” reputation and was consistently rated as one of the “Most Respected Judges of Michigan” in polls conducted by Michigan Lawyers Weekly.
“My father was – and is – one of my legal mentors, along with Arthur (Liss), of course,” said Andrews. “He set a very high bar for everyone in the family to follow.”
Andrews has two sisters: Mary, an attorney who formerly worked in the Oakland County Prosecutor’s Office, and Elisabeth, who formerly served as a paralegal.
The legal lines run deep throughout the family. At one point, each of the couple’s children was married to an attorney, which invariably made for some spirited discussion around the dinner table at family get-togethers, according to Andrews.
“Let’s just say there is no shortage of opinions,” Andrews said with a smile.
During his collegiate days, Andrews was a philosophy and history major at Miami University in Ohio. “My father was neither encouraging or discouraging about attending law school,” said Andrews, who eventually enrolled in Detroit College of Law, formerly stationed where Comerica Park sits today.
Following graduation, Andrews spent seven years with an insurance defense firm in Metro Detroit, before taking his courtroom talents to a firm that handled defense work for General Motors.
“We specialized in handling ‘old vehicle cases,’ representing a GM executive or one of their family members in accident cases,” Andrews explained. “GM never shied away from trying a case. Consequently, as a young lawyer, I tried a lot of cases while at the firm.”
One case in particular stands out, Andrews acknowledged. It involved a pedestrian/vehicle accident in which the driver of the GM car was accused of negligence in the civil action.
“I appeared in court that day to ask for an adjournment since the lawyer from our firm who was handling the case had a conflict,” Andrews explained.
The Oakland County Circuit Court judge, however, was in no mood for such a motion, telling Andrews to “Get ready, we’re trying the case today.”
“When I tried to explain that I was only appearing in court to seek an adjournment and that I didn’t have any knowledge about the facts of the case, she said something to the effect that ‘you better start learning it,’” Andrews recalled, giving him 15 minutes to “get up to speed on the case.”
Which he did, eventually prevailing in a two-day trial that proved to be an early baptism under fire for the young attorney.
Later, when he crossed paths with the judge outside the confines of the courtroom, Andrews received an unusual greeting.
“She said, ‘You never thanked me for that case,’” Andrews related. “I wanted to say something in response like, ‘What, for throwing me under the bus?’ but I decided not to say much of anything instead.”
It proved to be a wise move, since the judge still is a member of the bench, according to Andrews, and is “one of the best judges around.”
Andrews admits he has “learned by watching other lawyers in action,” a habit he began while his father was on the bench.
“I used to stop by his courtroom as often as I could, to glean as much as I could from how he handled evidentiary questions and how attorneys presented their cases before him,” Andrews said. “Those visits offered a great education.”
So did the transition from defense to plaintiff work 15 years ago, said Andrews.
“My first trial as a plaintiff’s attorney involved a third party case in which a young woman suffered a severe back injury in an auto accident,” Andrews recalled.
“Judge (Robert) Colombo presided over the case, and he is as close to my dad as you’re going to get for running a tight ship in court.”
As it turned out, the case proved to be a harbinger for Andrews in his role as a plaintiff’s advocate.
“We received a great verdict, one that exceeded the policy limits,” Andrews related.
“But I was not happy because I had asked for more. It was then Arthur knew that I was cut out for this kind of work, that I was a true believer in what we do for our clients.”
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