Following in the footsteps of a successful parent has always
been an honorable and flattering goal, especially in the
law. That tradition takes on a new dimension as the second
or third generation of a family becomes president of a bar
association.
Those lawyers inspired by their parents, and in some
cases their grandparents, include President Joan Loring
Wing of the Vermont Bar Association; President Peter
Bomberger of the Indiana State Bar Association; and
President Robert Crowell and President-elect Robert
Dickerson, both of the State Bar of Nevada.
Each admires his or her parents and witnessed their
loyalty to the profession and dedication to family and
tradition. Parents and children share a unique and priceless
bond.
The Wings in Vermont
While commanding an Army infantry platoon, Leonard Wing Jr.
was captured by the Germans on Thanksgiving Day 1944. As the
German soldiers marched 1,400 prisoners near the German
border, the group rested overnight at a farm in Poland and
Wing snuck into a barn to hide. The next morning, Wing and
three other POWs emerged with the same intention to escape.
One of the POWs, a Polish lieutenant, guided them to Warsaw
and, From there, Wing eventually returned to the United
States.
The flight to freedom was fateful. Wing Jr. became an
active community leader, National Guard reservist, lawyer
and president of the Vermont Bar Association (1984-85). He
followed in the footsteps of his father, Maj. Gen. Leonard
Wing Sr., also a decorated World War II hero. Wing Sr. was
halfway through his bar presidency in 1945 when he died at
age 52 of a heart attack.
At 73, Wing Jr. now watches his daughter, Joan Loring
Wing of Rutland, serve as Vermont bar president. "I'm just
delighted. She's very smart and a good lawyer. We're very
close," Wing Jr. says.
The Wings are more than close, and Rutland is at the
heart of their lives. They were born, raised, married, had
children, carved out careers and volunteered for community
projects, all in the small New England town.
Leonard Wing Sr. helped start the firm, Fenton, Wing and
Morse, in the 1920s. The partners died in the 1940s, and the
firm was eventually renamed Ryan Smith & Carbine Ltd., where
Joan works and Leonard Jr. is semi-retired. "There's always
been a Wing in this office. There's a lot of tradition
here," says Joan, 48.
Joan began her career while in her 30s, a single mother
of two children. After her first marriage ended in divorce,
she worked as a tennis club manager. She was also on her way
toward a psychology degree at Castleton College when she
decided to become a lawyer. To accomplish this, she studied
under the sponsorship of two lawyers, R. Joseph O'Rourke and
Harold Berger at Ryan Smith & Carbine, before passing the
bar exam. (In lieu of law school in Vermont, an option
exists for in-office law study under the sponsorship of a
lawyer. After four years are successfully completed and
periodic reports are approved by the Vermont Board of Bar
Examiners, the candidate is eligible to take the bar exam.)
Explaining this mid-stream career shift, Joan says she
was inspired by her father's dedication to the profession,
as well as two uncles who were lawyers. Her mother, Mary
Costello Wing, who raised nine children and is former chair
of the state Republican Party, provided additional
inspiration.
Joan also followed her father's leadership at the
Association for Retarded Citizens, which he organized in the
mid-1950s when one son was diagnosed a having a disability.
She served on the association's board.
In 1979, she married her second husband, Alvin Figiel,
and focused on her family and law practice, which
specializes in insurance defense, domestic relations and
real estate law.
Joan is now focusing on her bar presidency, which began
last September. She hopes to upgrade continuing legal
education, establish a client protection fund, and study and
lobby for funding for Vermont's 6-year-old family court
system.
"It takes a serious commitment to become a lawyer.
It's a fair amount of responsibility you don't have as a
student. Plus your circle of "dependents," such as your
clients, grows too," she says.
The Bombergers in Indiana
Peter Bomberger is a fifth generation lawyer and the third
generation to serve as president of the Indiana State Bar
Association. He follows his father, Charles, who was
president in 1969-70, and his grandfather, Louden, who
served in 1937-38.
In fact, prior generations of the family also served the
people of Indiana. Peter's great-grandfather, Charles
Griffin, was Indiana's secretary of state in 1886-1900; and
his father, Elihu Griffin, was a lawyer in Crown Point from
1856 to 1881.
"My father made the practice known to me. It was no
secret. I knew what I was getting into," recalls Peter, now
57.
Peter Bomberger was born and raised with three sisters in
Hammond. As a child, he remembers visiting his father's
office and being awestruck by walls filled with shelves of
law books.
"I had always been quite a reader, but I couldn't figure
out how they used them all," he says. "And now instead of
books, we have CD-ROMs."
He earned a bachelor's degree in history at Cornell
University in New York and a law degree at the University of
Michigan's School of Law in 1965.
While a first-year law student, Peter married Cathryn Van
Buren, a registered dietitian, and the couple raised four
children. After passing the bar, he focused on medical
malpractice and insurance defense, both rare fields in the
1960s. During those years, Peter looked to his father as a
mentor until his death of a heart attack in 1980 at age 72.
"He was undoubtedly the most ethical man I ever knew. He
would never take advantage of anyone in litigation and
always kept his word. No one ever had trouble litigating a
case with him," he says.
In one case, his father's client had changed his
statement of fact before a federal court judge, prompting
the judge to scold the client. "The judge said he couldn't
believe that Charles Bomberger would ever misrepresent
anyone in his entire career. The case finally settled. But
my father had kept his word and remained on the case," he
recalls.
The most notable aspect of Charles Bomberger's bar
presidency was his effort to establish judicial merit
selection in Indiana in 1970, a plan that remains today.
During his own presidency, which began last October,
Peter is balancing his practice at Blackmun, Bomberger &
Moran in Highland, while tackling public education for
children, which reflects his involvement with children's
organizations in the community.
"Now it's my turn," he says.
The Crowells in Nevada
Robert Crowell always wanted to be a lawyer, just like his
father, William Crowell. Now Robert is president of the
State Bar of Nevada, just like his father was in 1957.
Robert was born and raised in Tonopah, Nev., near a
nuclear test site where he watched the experiments in the
mid-1950s. "Whenever they were going to do a test, the whole
town would go out on the highway to watch. As a kid, it was
something to see. First (there was) a big boom, a mushroom
cloud and then a big windstorm," he recalls.
In 1954, the family moved to Carson City where Crowell
Sr., then Nye County district attorney, ran for state
attorney general, but lost to a neighbor. Today, Robert
lives right next to the home where he grew up.
After Robert graduated from Stanford University with a
bachelor's degree in economics in 1967, his plan to become a
lawyer was delayed when he was drafted. At 21, he served on
the Navy's USS Waddell, providing gunfire support around
north and south Vietnam.
Now a lieutenant, he was offered a plum role as an
admiral's aide in Washington, D.C. Should he continue on a
fast track with a Navy career or return home, become a
lawyer and practice with his father and brother?
"I called my father from the Philippines to ask him what
to do. And he just told me to do what's right for me," he
recalls.
Two strong factors influenced his decision. He loved the
law. He also fell in love with Susan Asbury, whom he met on
a blind date on New Year's Eve in San Francisco en route to
his overseas assignment. He returned to the U.S., married
Susan and settled in Carson City, where they eventually
raised four children. He maintains his ties to the Navy as a
captain in the reserves.
By 1973, Robert had earned his law degree at Hastings
College of Law at the University of California at San
Francisco, where his father graduated. After he passed the
bar, he joined the law practice of Crowell, Crowell &
Crowell. "Any time there was an ethical decision, he was
always right there," he says of his father.
When his father reached his retirement years, Robert and
his brother, William Jr., bought out their father's
practice. Today, the firm Crowell, Susich, Owen & Tackes has
a general practice with an emphasis on government relations
and business law.
William Sr. died while undergoing open heart surgery in
1988, but his sons carry on his tradition. In fact, Robert
will incorporate many of his family's ideals into his bar
presidency. Since taking office last June, he has been
focusing on improving the image of lawyers and strengthening
their professional responsibility.
"The advice my father always gave us was to promptly
return phone calls and to live with yourself (and) don't cut
a fine edge on ethics," he adds.
The Dickersons of Nevada
Robert "Bob" Dickerson was about 10 years old when he
accompanied his father, George, on a case involving an
alleged kidnaping. His father's client was a man charged
with robbing a Los Angeles bar and taking its female
bartender with him across state lines to Las Vegas, Nev.
Young Bob tagged along as his dad scoured the bars around
Las Vegas, showing pictures of his client as he searched for
witnesses. Due to this old-fashioned legwork, his client was
acquitted.
"My dad's the true lawyer's lawyer. He's the most ethical
lawyer in the state," says Bob, 45, who is president-elect
of the State Bar of Nevada. His father was bar president in
1973-74.
Since the age of 5, Bob has been enthralled watching his
father in the courtroom. Becoming a lawyer was a foregone
conclusion, he says.
Bob earned a bachelor's degree in accounting from the
University of Southern California, and his law degree at the
University of Utah College of Law in 1976. After he passed
the bar, he clerked for a federal judge before joining the
public defender's office. He worked as an associate at his
father's firm for four years and then the U.S. Attorney's
Office in Las Vegas for another five years. He married Mary
Hanigan in 1983, and they have three children.
In 1986, he opted for private practice by joining another
former U.S. attorney. When Bob called his father for advice
on setting up the office, George asked, "Do you have room
for an old guy like me?"
"So we hired him as our law clerk," says Bob, jokingly.
The firm, called Dickerson, Dickerson, Consul & Pocker,
focuses on civil litigation with some criminal work. While
Bob was inspired by his father, George was inspired by his
brother, Harvey, who also served as Nevada bar president
(1951-52). Harvey died of a heart attack in 1975.
George served as Clark County District Attorney before
going into private practice. Another major case of his
involved a 19-year-old man charged with killing a 6-year-old
girl and stuffing her body in his attic. George defended the
man in 1959, saving him from the death penalty, and
continued to represent him on various appeals for the next
21 years.
"I felt obligated to help him and felt it was my duty,"
George says.
That same sense of dedication and professionalism runs in
the family. Now that George, 73, and his wife, Doree, are
parents of three and grandparents of nine, he enjoys
watching his son take the reigns as bar president.
"He's perfectly capable of mapping out his own
objectives," George says of Bob's impending presidency in
June. "I said I'll never intrude. But I am available upon
request."
The author is the reporter for Bar Leader.
