Legal News
Bodman attorney Jeff Raphelson once was a centerfold.
He was just 28 years old at the time, working as an associate for a prominent Detroit area law firm after earning his juris doctor from the University of Michigan Law School.
Raphelson gained the celebrity status by agreeing to be featured in a tech magazine by the name of Computer Counsel, a publication that billed itself as the “Leading Edge of Law Office Automation.”
A graduate of Kalamazoo College, where he earned a degree in mathematics and became proficient in French after spending his junior year studying abroad in France, Raphelson was a computer nerd back then who had a special fascination for the art of the spreadsheet. He devoured such Computer Counsel features as “Software to Streamline Your Practice,” “What’s New with IBM and Compatibles,” and “Software that Gets Three-hour Jobs Done in Three Minutes.”
His interest in those titillating topics made Raphelson a prime candidate to be featured in a two-page spread bearing the April 1989 headline, “A Day in the Life of an Automated Attorney.”
In the six-photo feature, Computer Counsel let the captions tell the story, noting that “We had a photographer follow him around one day while he practiced law with the help of Wang hardware and an assortment of software.”
Over the course of that day, the magazine discovered that Raphelson did all sorts of extraordinary computer things.
“. . . he did word processing, number-crunched on a spreadsheet program, entered time into a time and billing package, read and sent electronic mail messages, read over a computer manual, and took disks in and out of his hard drive.
“If you’re not practicing law this way, isn’t it about time you consider getting automated?” the magazine asked. “You don’t have to use the hardware or software this lawyer is using. We’re just trying to show you how automating can simplify your life.”
In reflecting on his centerfold past, Raphelson acknowledged that those were the glory days of being a geek, when new tech frontiers were being explored in space, science, education, and commerce on a daily basis.
“It was a time marked by the widespread use of personal computers, the introduction of the internet, the development of cell phones, the popularization of video games, and the Sony Walkman,” Raphelson recalled. “It also was the beginning of the tech age in the legal profession and how best to use it in your practice.”
Now, more than four decades after beginning his legal career, Raphelson has announced his plans to retire this fall at age 65. His farewell will come a few months after he completes a one-year term as president of the Oakland County Bar Foundation (OCBF), a philanthropic organization that provides funding for a number of legal assistance and legal education programs in the community.
Raphelson’s involvement with the OCBF began years ago through the encouragement of Tom Tallerico and Mike Sullivan, two past-presidents of the organization.
“Both Tom and Mike stressed the importance of becoming active in the Bar Foundation and serving in a leadership role,” said Raphelson, a member and general counsel of Bodman PLC. “I’m grateful that they encouraged me to get involved in an organization that has done such good in the community for years and years.
Tallerico, in fact, has worked with Raphelson for nearly four decades, first at Jaffe Raitt and then at Howard & Howard before they both joined Bodman in 1998.
“I first met Jeff when we hired him straight out of law school 40 years ago,” said Tallerico, who also is a U-M Law School alum. “At the time, I thought he had great promise and time has proven that to be the case. He’s a thoughtful, articulate, and caring lawyer who does his best for every client.
“More recently, I suggested that he become more involved with the Bar Foundation,” Tallerico indicated. “I thought he could apply the traits and skills he had demonstrated as a lawyer to benefit that organization. I think he’s done quite well at that.”
As president of the OCBF, Raphelson is devoting much of his energies to the upcoming Signature Event, the chief fund-raising project for the foundation that was formed in 1988 as an outgrowth of the Oakland County Law Library Foundation.
This year’s Signature Event is planned for Wednesday, May 7 from 6:30-9 p.m. at Orchard Lake Country Club, a venue where hundreds of members of the bench and bar are expected to gather for one of the social highlights of the season, according to Raphelson.
“In 2024, the event raised $193,000 to help fund the foundation’s grants,” Raphelson said of the gala reception and strolling dinner. “While the foundation will never raise enough money to fully fund the worthy requests it receives each year, the money from the Signature Event makes a positive impact for organizations such as CARE House of Oakland County, Lakeshore Legal Aid, The Joseph Project, and the OCBA’s Youth Law Conference and Senior Law Days to name a few.”
Raphelson said organizers hope to surpass last year’s fund-raising total, expressing his gratitude for the longstanding support that OCBF sponsors have displayed over the years, especially during the COVID pandemic of 2020 and 2021.
“In 2020, when the OCBF had to cancel the event due to the pandemic, it asked the sponsors to convert their pledges to general donations,” Raphelson related. “The vast majority agreed without hesitation, notwithstanding the loss of the recognition they would have received at the event. In 2021, it was uncertain whether the event would return. So, the foundation made the same request to its sponsors, who again agreed they would donate at their sponsorship levels if there was no event.
“With such big-hearted supporters, it is no wonder that the Signature Event is always a much-anticipated, joyful occasion, well attended by both judges and lawyers,” Raphelson added, noting that the OCBF has funded more than $3.3 million in grants over the past two decades.
Raphelson, who is the treasurer of the Historical Society for the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan, focuses his practice on commercial litigation, particularly matters related to the automotive and banking industries. He also represents clients involved in contract disputes, intellectual property litigation, corporate governance and dissolution, dealer and franchise termination, and other corporate law matters.
A past president of the Michigan chapter of the American Constitution Society, Raphelson grew up in Grand Blanc, where he was a key member of the debate and forensic teams in high school.
His father, Alfred, who died in 2019 at age 91, was the consummate “Michigan Man,” earning his bachelor, master, and doctoral degrees in psychology from the University of Michigan. A star basketball player at McKinley High School in Washington, D.C., the elder Raphelson was an Army veteran, serving with the U.S. occupation forces in Germany in the aftermath of World War II.
“He was one of the founding faculty members of U-M’s Flint campus, where he taught psychology and had the good fortune of meeting his future wife, Jacqueline Meeks, who was the head librarian at the time,” said Raphelson.
Raphelson’s 94-year-old mother, who earned her master’s degree in library science from MacMurray College in Illinois, was “something of a pioneer” at U-M Flint, helping establish a first-rate library on the fledgling campus in the mid-1950s.
One of two children, Raphelson has a younger brother, Michael, also a Kalamazoo College grad who for 22 years was the Medical Director for Hospice Care of SW Michigan.
Raphelson and his wife, Martha, met at K College, where the English major was the editor of the school newspaper. Upon graduation, she took her writing talents to The Ann Arbor News, working there from 1982-86 in a variety of roles that included the education beat and the copy desk.
Her smarts were on full display in 1999 when she was a two-time champion on “Jeopardy!” – the popular game show that for years was hosted by Alex Trebek.
“I sat in the studio audience during the taping of the shows and she did an amazing job, taking home around $25,000 in prize winnings,” said Raphelson of his wife. “It was an incredible experience that we were sworn to secrecy about until the shows aired months later.
“One of her wins hinged on the Final Jeopardy question that asked something to the effect of ‘The only Nobel Prize category not won by a woman,’” Raphelson related. “Martha figured it had to be ‘Economics’ since she hated that subject in college – and she was right.”
The couple has three children, Ben, Maeve, and Sam. A graduate of Grinnell College in Iowa, Ben is the head coach of the cross country team at Bowdoin College, the Maine school that produced Olympic marathon gold medalist Joan Benoit Samuelson. He previously served as head coach of the track and cross country teams at California Institute of Technology after earning a master’s degree from Smith College.
Maeve, a University of Notre Dame grad who earned a master’s degree from the University of Chicago, is a Training Coordinator and Psychotherapist at Inclusive Insight in Chicago, the nation’s third largest city where she is actively involved in promoting social justice causes.
Sam, a product of Bloomfield Hills Andover, works in the Surgical Services Department at Corewell Health Hospital in Troy and relishes beating his father in 5-kilometer races.
Given the age difference between father and son, don’t expect that running dynamic to change anytime soon. What will be new for Raphelson is a long-awaited change of pace when he enters the world of retirement later this year.
“Retirement certainly will allow for more time to be spent trout fishing in the summer and skiing in the winter,” Raphelson mused. “My dad put a fishing rod in my hand at age 2, and I’ve had a love of fishing ever since, particularly on the Au Sable and the Pere Marquette, where I caught my first brown trout. It’s my Zen.”
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