By Linda Laderman
Legal News
Time hasn’t diminished attorney Ralph Musilli’s commitment to his clients, notwithstanding that he continues to grapple with one of the most vexing cases of his 46 years in general practice.
Since 2008, Musilli has served as Richard Wershe’s legal counsel. Wershe, also known as “White Boy Rick,” was incarcerated as a 17-year-old teenager on a drug offense in 1988.
After serving 27 years of a life sentence, Wershe was deemed eligible for resentencing. Wayne County Circuit Court Judge Dana Hathaway handed down the ruling in early September, finding that Wershe’s sentence was incongruent with the current guidelines for juveniles. Just three weeks later, the Michigan Court of Appeals denied his resentencing bid.
Currently, the Michigan State Appellate Defender’s Office is pushing Wershe’s appeal in the state courts. Musilli is handling a motion for reconsideration in the trial court and a civil action against the Michigan State Parole Board in federal court, claiming deprivation of rights.
Musilli, of St. Clair Shores, said he takes great pains to explain to his clients how they can find a satisfactory resolution through the legal system.
“I like to think I have been able to protect people,” Musilli said.
But, Musilli said, in his opinion the Wershe case is beyond explanation.
“I have never had anything so unexplainable. We have all of the case law in support of Wershe’s resentencing request. This is unlike anything I have experienced.”
Musilli’s future path was uncharted when he enrolled in the University of Detroit after a two-year stint in a Catholic seminary in Massachusetts.
“After two years they told me I wasn’t docile enough,” Musilli said. “So I thought I would be a teacher. That lasted for about two minutes.”
At the University of Detroit, a friend cajoled him into taking the entrance exam for law school.
“On Thursday he said, ‘let’s go to law school.’ On Saturday I took the LSAT. I passed and went to law school,” the 72 year-old lawyer said.
The former seminarian took a night job at a Ford factory to earn his tuition at the old Detroit College of Law (DCL), now MSU College of Law, from which he graduated in 1969.
“Before DCL, I hated school. I hated it from the time I was in kindergarten. Yet, I knew if I didn’t keep going I would be running a 40-foot machine at Ford for the rest of my life.”
Despite his earlier distaste for school, Musilli came to love his legal education.
“I had great professors who were actual practitioners. One of them was the late Harold Norris. He was one of the attorneys at the Nuremberg Trials. I read a transcript of his and fell in love with the law,” Musilli said.
While in his second year of law school Musilli went to work at a general practice firm that was owned by a father and son.
“They would go off for months on vacation and I was left running the show,” Musilli said. “It was great. I learned to do everything an attorney did. The only thing I couldn’t do was sign off on any documents.”
Like every aspiring attorney, Musilli’s last hurdle was the bar exam.
“I graduated in January 1969. I took the March exam which was the biggest disaster in the history of the bar,” Musilli recalled.
“The exam was a disaster because the bar study course people claimed they could prepare anyone to pass the bar, including someone who never attended law school. Well, that threw the bar examiners into a snit. The exam was full of all kinds of hooks and red herrings. Forty-nine percent of the people who took it flunked. I just happened to pass. Some really smart guys failed,” Musilli said.
Musilli was sworn into the Michigan Bar on his birthday June 24, 1969. When he went to work for a firm in downtown Detroit, he soon found he was bringing in a lot of business, but not a lot of money.
In a move that most first year associates wouldn’t think of doing, Musilli confronted the senior partner.
“I told him ‘I’m not making any money here, so it ain’t fair.’ I knew he had some empty offices so I asked him how much he wanted for two offices. I rented the offices along with another guy who was going to be my new partner. When my partner said ‘We don’t have any money to rent offices,’ I reminded him that it was only Monday.”
For Musilli, his early experiences in general practice built the foundation for his current success.
“I was very fortunate to start with a general practice. Right out of law school I tried rape and murder cases. When a personal injury attorney asked me to work for his firm I told him I didn’t do personal injury. His response was, ‘If you can try a murder case you can do personal injury law,’“ Musilli said.
“A general practice attorney is like an internist,” Musilli said. “Sometimes clients don’t have a legal problem. Sometimes I am able to show them what they can do for themselves, and tell them to come back if it doesn’t work. Law is a wonderful way to make a living. You get to help people get over and through things they cannot do by themselves. I love the people I practice with; I love my clients and their humanity,” Musilli said.
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