PHOTO COURTESY OF VARNUM
by Cynthia Price
Legal News
Despite the Internet’s vast capacity for “remembering” data, there is still a risk of losing our history if no one makes a concerted effort to record it.
That is the reason the Historical Society for the United States District Court for the Western District of Michigan exists.
The non-profit’s mission is “to research, collect, and preserve the history of the lawyers, judges, and cases that have comprised the federal court community in Western Michigan and the Upper Peninsula, and to share this information with the public in an effort to promote a better understanding of the region, the court, and the rule of law.”
The Society’s new President, James Mitchell of Varnum Law, says that is a rich and fascinating history indeed. He joins the board and staff in feeling that capturing the set of stories relevant to the Western District U.S. Court is critical if losing it permanently is to be avoided.
However, Mitchell’s main personal mission for his presidency focuses more on the second half of the statement above: he wants to expand the information sharing to a broader audience, using all the tools at hand.
Mitchell, a partner at Varnum, specializes in intellectual property law, focusing often on the chemical, biochemical, and pharmaceutical areas. His undergraduate degree is a B.S. in Chemistry, received from Michigan Technological University; his Juris Doctor is from University of Michigan Law School.
Litigation in the areas of pharmaceutical patents, including “Hatch-Waxman” litigation, chemical patents, and trademarks/tradenames/domain names compose his particular niche, but he has expertise in all areas of intellectual property law.
Mitchell has been recognized with a listing in The Best Lawyers in America® since 1995, has served on four judicial screening committees for the Western District court, and has lectured on IP law for the Federal Judicial Center.
Magistrate Judge Hugh W. Brenneman, Jr., still a member of the Historical Society’s board, asked Mitchell to be involved several years ago because he knew of Mitchell’s long-standing love of history. “My casual reading is history and science,” he notes.
Mitchell moved up through the officer roster and has just served as Vice President. Other current officers include David Gass of Miller Johnson as Vice President; Michael W. Puerner, who is Vice President, Secretary & General Counsel at Hastings Mutual Insurance Company, as Secretary; and Treasurer, James Brady of Dykema Gossett.
Mitchell has nothing but praise for his fellow officers and board members. Gordon Olson, the former Historian of Grand Rapids who has a comprehensive grasp of the history of our area, and the knowledgeable director of Grand Valley State University’s Hauenstein Center for Presidential Studies, Gleaves Whitney, are non-legal members who contribute heavily. Other board members come from the judiciary and court administration, as well as local law firms.
The official publication of the Historical Society, The Stereoscope, is not available on-line currently, and Mitchell would like to pursue changing that. “To summarize, I’d like us to spend the next two years improving our publicity of the history, and I’d like to improve the website,” he says.
The site can be found at www.westmichiganfederalbar.org/historical_society.php. It includes an application for fee-based membership in the 501(c)(3) non-profit, which was founded with the support of the Western Michigan Chapter of the Federal Bar Association.
Mitchell says that the Hauenstein Center’s web site is “sort of the Holy Grail for us to model our web site after.”
Mitchell would also like to establish a speakers’ bureau with a particular focus on some of the interesting and influential cases which have come up through the Federal Court.
One of them, Mitchell says, is “probably one of the most-cited cases in American jurisprudence.” The Daniel Ball concerns a paddle-wheeler steamship which went from Grand Rapids to Grand Haven on the Grand River. The owner considered the enterprise exempt from obtaining a license under the Interstate Commerce Clause because his route was contained within the state. The U.S. Supreme Court held that, because the Grand was part of an interstate waterway due to its flowing into a Great Lake, the Daniel Ball would have to pay to get a license.
This and similar stories are the substance of The Stereoscope. Mitchell himself has contributed two articles. He believes that this portion of West Michigan history is less likely to be lost if it can be accessible online.
One of the Historical Society’s projects is to record an oral history of the court, and as of now interviews have been conducted with all of the living judges. Though there is a computerized record of audio and visual recordings, as well as of its collection of judicial documents and photographs, Mitchell says for privacy reasons that is unlikely to end up online, but it may well be the subject of speakers’ bureau presentations.
There is also an index to where other information about the West Michigan federal courts is found. Interested parties may call part-time staffer and archivist Mary Andrews from the U.S. District Court Library at 616-456-2068.
––––––––––––––––––––
Subscribe to the Legal News!
https://test.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
