Bittersweet: Coveted award presented posthumously to attorney at annual FBA event Dec. 7

prev
next

Photo courtesy of Butzel Long

By Tom Kirvan
Legal News

A normally festive occasion, the Federal Bar Association’s annual holiday party took on a different tone for a few moments December 7 at the Westin Book Cadillac Hotel in Detroit.

The change in complexion occurred during the presentation of the Avern Cohn Award, which this year posthumously honored Mike Lavoie, who died of a heart attack in mid-October.

Lavoie, an attorney with Butzel Long, served as president of the Historical Society for the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan for 9 years, and championed several important projects during his tenure at the helm of the organization. His Butzel Long colleague Debra Geroux, who served as emcee at the award ceremony, spoke in glowing terms of the 2016 award recipient.

“Many of you know Mike for his larger-than-life persona, his legal prowess, and his never-ending commitment to his community, community service, and Burkina Faso,” Geroux said to those gathered for the award presentation. “But, today we celebrate his accomplishments and contributions to the profession and the court’s Historical Society, as a trustee and as its president from 2004-13.”

In particular, Geroux pointed to a series of Lavoie’s “accomplishments” while leading the Historical Society.

“Mike helped raise funds and other arrangements for the publication of David Chardavoyne’s book on the history of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan . . . and worked with Bankruptcy Judge Walter Shapero on the publishing of Kevin Ball’s book on the history of the Bankruptcy Court,” said Geroux, who serves as secretary of the Historical Society.

“Perhaps one of his proudest accomplishments was his leadership role in the Presidential Wall project that resides in the concourse of the courthouse,” noted Geroux, who also praised Lavoie’s role in “supporting the historic site marker (now in the courthouse museum)” for the Milliken v. Bradley desegregation case.

A native of Pontiac, Lavoie graduated from the University of Notre Dame before spending two years in the Peace Corps in the West African nation of Burkina Faso. Upon his return to the U.S., Lavoie set his sights on a legal career, graduating from the University of Detroit School of Law in 1980. He served as an assistant U.S. attorney in Detroit for nearly 6 years before joining Butzel Long.

Ironically, Lavoie was the driving force in 2012 in helping establish the Cohn Award, which serves as a lasting tribute to the federal jurist who has been a member of the U.S. District Court bench since 1979. The honor recognizes Cohn’s “immeasurable contributions to the cause of legal scholarship and the study of legal history” throughout his storied career.

“As a notable collector of historic legal documents and artifacts, Judge Cohn has inspired others through his generous support and guidance of worthwhile organizations that promote the study of Michigan’s rich legal history, bestowing upon future generations the legacies of curiosity, scholarship and wisdom,” according to the inscription on the award.

For Geroux, who like Lavoie has an impressive history of community service, the presentation of the award was framed in a mixture of “pride, honor, and unfortunately, profound sadness,” she said during her December 7 remarks.

“Being up here presenting the award is bittersweet, as the honoree is someone who not only brought me into the Historical Society as its secretary and a trustee in 2012, but also was someone with whom I worked closely for many years and I am proud to be able to have called him a colleague, mentor, and friend,” Geroux said of Lavoie, “whose contributions to and leadership of the court’s Historical Society will long be remembered.”

––––––––––––––––––––
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