By Tom Kirvan
Legal News
As he is the first to admit, there is a lot of “show and tell” in Fritz Damm’s office on the 18th floor of the Buhl Building in the Detroit Financial District.
Perhaps most striking is the magnificent view of the Detroit River as it stretches south past the Ambassador Bridge and into a series of Downriver communities that line the international waterway.
But before visitors can catch a glimpse of a steady stream of freighters heading north or south, there is another eye-catching sight to behold – a wall lined eight stacks high with an array of toy truck models, each with its own story to tell.
There, from top to bottom, are scores of truck models representing dozens of transportation companies, each of which has somehow crossed legal paths with Damm over the course of his 51-year career in the law.
Damm, a past president of the Transportation Lawyers Association, is now Of Counsel with the Detroit office of Scopelitis, Garvin, Light, Hanson, & Feary PC. He was a partner with the Indianapolis-based firm when it opened its Detroit office in 2008 at a time when businesses across the country were in contraction mode due to the onset of the recession.
“It wasn’t exactly an ideal time to open another office, but the powers-that-be saw an opportunity here and it has turned out well for the clients we represent,” said Damm, a University of Michigan grad who earned his law degree from Wayne State University Law School.
In large part, the firm owes its standing to the age-old saying, “If you got it ... a truck brought it,” according to Damm, who was 12 years into his career when the deregulation of the trucking industry began with the passage of the Motor Carrier Act of 1980, federal legislation signed by then President Jimmy Carter.
“It was a Teamster-dominated industry at the time and that obviously has changed over the past four decades,” said Damm, who served as co-counsel on various cases with James P. Hoffa when the current Teamsters president had his own Detroit legal practice. “The goal of deregulation was to increase competition and to improve business operations by removing certain government restrictions, but history will be the judge if that has been achieved.”
A close look at the various truck models lining Damm’s office wall may well tell the story.
“Many of the companies whose names are on these trucks are no longer in business,” said Damm with a wave of his hand.
Gone are such giants as ANR Freight, Preston Trucking, Carolina Freight Carriers, and McLean Trucking Co.
“In many respects, the world of transportation has become even more complex after deregulation. That, of course, has meant that we have had to adapt and to evolve to the changing needs of our clients,” said Damm, who believes that the best marketing tool is “to do a good job.”
For the Scopelitis firm, which has offices in 14 cities from coast to coast, that equates to representing more than 5,000 transportation-related clients in the continental United States, providing legal expertise to the trucking, transportation, and logistics industries.
Damm, who grew up in Muskegon, has a wide-ranging transportation practice that includes labor and employment, mergers and acquistions, collections, freight claims, and workers’ compensation matters. He also remains actively involved in the Transportation Lawyers Association, currently chairing its Recruitment and Member Services. In 2009, Damm was the recipient of TLA’s Lifetime Achievement Award” in recognition of his “longstanding dedication and service.”
He began his legal journey somewhat by chance after short-circuiting plans to get a master’s degree in England following his graduation from U-M.
“After spending some time there, I decided going to law school was a better option for me,” Damm said of his change of heart. “Then, once I graduated from law school at Wayne State, I had no idea that I would end up in transportation law. No clue. Zero. But things happen for a reason and I’m certainly grateful that my career path led me into that field.”
Damm developed his work ethic as a boy when he began helping out at his father and uncle’s hardware business in downtown Muskegon on Ottawa Street.
“I did a lot of odd jobs, loading and unloading goods, doing whatever I could to make myself useful,” said Damm. “My dad (Russ) and uncle built a very successful business, and had a very loyal customer base until some of the bigger retailers like Meijer’s started to expand their operations. At that point, the handwriting was on the wall.”
In the early 1930s, Damm’s father made a name for himself as a member of the U-M football team, which won back-to-back national championships under the coaching guidance of Harry Kipke. One of the elder Damm’s teammates on the title-winning teams was an offensive lineman who would go on to greater glory – Gerald R. Ford, the 38th president of the United States.
In honor of the late president, attorney Damm has been part of an educational project destined to keep Ford’s gridiron memory alive in a way that transcends sports and politics (see related story below).
While Damm’s father made his mark in football and business, his mother (Harriet) was celebrated in the arts and in community service.
“My mother’s story centered on community service work in a day when women weren’t known for being involved in that sort of activity,” said Damm. “She was a driving force in that regard and was a real role model.”
Later in life she became an accomplished artist, displaying her oil paintings in galleries in the U.S. and Europe, according to Damm, whose mother died in 2015 at the age of 101.
One of three siblings, Damm unexpectedly became a varsity swimmer at U-M despite the fact that he could barely swim while a student at North Muskegon High School, which didn’t have a pool or a team.
“At the time, the U-M team was coached by Gus Stager, who was the coach of the 1960 U.S. Olympic Swim Team,” said Damm, who is an accomplished downhill skier. “He literally taught me how to swim, to get from one end of the pool to the other. Once I got it into my mind that I could swim, things just fell into place from there.”
He eventually became a member of the Letterwinners M Club, an organization exclusively reserved for former U-M student-athletes who have earned a varsity athletic letter. In 1983-84, Damm served as president of the M Club board, and has been a strong supporter of the Wolverine athletic program over the years.
Damm also has played a pivotal role in the Crossroads of Michigan organization, a social service agency founded in 1971 to provide “emergency assistance, advocacy, and counseling to anyone in need.” In 2013, Damm was the recipient of the James A. McLaren Award for his years of dedicated service to the agency.
“I was an original part of the team that opened this social service unit in November of 1971 at the Cathedral Church on Woodward and Warren, as well as serving as their counsel for all of the years since,” noted Damm. “Father James McLaren was the originator of Crossroads as well as my friend for all of the years until his untimely death in 2006. He married my wife Sheila and I in July of 1972.”
The couple celebrated their 47th wedding anniversary in late July, and have two children, Molly, a professor and counselor at Montana State University, and Jordan, a social worker in California.
In 1981, the Damms became foster parents to a 14-year-old Detroit boy, Patrick, whose family life at the time was in shambles.
“He didn’t have a dad and his life was upside down, so we stepped in to help out,” said Damm. “Patrick is 53 now and has his own son, Lex, and daughter, Kate. We continue to be part of that family’s life.”
That “helping hand” story is emblematic of Damm’s devotion to “doing good,” whether in the legal community or beyond.
“My advice to young lawyers has been to find something outside your practice that you believe in and are passionate about to supplement your law practice,” said Damm. “The rewards of giving far outweigh whatever cost is involved.”
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Local play highlights gridiron story of pair of ‘Victors’
By Tom Kirvan
Legal News
This fall, when the college football season is in full swing, students from two Detroit schools will be treated to a play at Mumford High School that is all about “Black and Blue.”
On October 21, nearly 85 years to the day of the 1934 football game between the University of Michigan and Georgia Tech, a true history lesson will be offered to students from Pershing High School and Nolan Elementary-Middle School, according to Detroit attorney Fritz Damm, a longtime member of the Detroit Athletic Club.
“The students will have the pleasure of seeing ‘Victors of Character,’ the story of former President Gerald Ford and former Wayne County Probate Judge Willis Ward, who were teammates on the 1934 U-M football team,” Damm explained. “As has been said, it’s a story of ‘loyalty, integrity, and the courage to make a difference.’”
The play also will be staged at the DAC that evening for members and guests, and will feature a “tailgate theme” highlighted by an introductory talk from Jack Harbaugh, father of current U-M football coach Jim Harbaugh.
The 45-minute play, written by Dr. Allison Metz, a professor of theater at Grand Valley State University, is based on the 2016 documentary “Black and Blue,” a film that tells the back-story of the Michigan-Georgia Tech game. The Yellow Jackets agreed to play the Wolverines in Ann Arbor that season on the condition that U-M would not suit up Ward, the team’s only African-American player.
According to Metz, “many of Ward’s teammates were outraged when athletic officials at the University of Michigan agreed to the demand. The most outraged Wolverine was Ward’s roommate, a lineman from Grand Rapids named Gerald Ford.”
The future president threatened to quit the team in response to Ward’s benching, but changed his mind at the urging of his teammate. In response, Ford reportedly played one of his finest games as a Wolverine, helping the Maize and Blue to a 9-2 win over Georgia Tech.
For attorney Damm, the story depicting the harsh reality of racial discrimination in the 1930s is particularly relevant in the turbulent world of today.
“Obviously we still have a long way to go when it comes to grasping the importance of racial understanding and social justice,” said Damm, whose father was a U-M teammate of Ford and Ward. “This play really highlights how two men made a significant difference in changing perceptions.”
Ford, while serving in Congress, supported the Voting Rights Act and the Civil Rights Act, and, as president, presided over the first Black History Month in the U.S.
Ward made his mark as a “supervisor for racial integration at Ford Motor Company, as a civil rights lawyer, and ultimately as the first African-American probate judge in Wayne County,” Damm related.
Coincidentally, Damm would come to know Ward in his judicial capacity with the Wayne County Probate Court. In 1981, he appeared before Ward in an effort to become the legal guardian of a 14-year-old Detroit boy named Patrick.
“As we were getting ready to go to court, I told Patrick to grab a sport coat and tie out of the closet so that he would look sharp for the appearance,” Damm recalled.
By chance, the tie that Patrick hurriedly chose sported a special color combination.
“It was maize and blue,” Damm said with a smile. “Judge Ward got a kick out of that.”
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