Dick Hillary Sr. expressed surprise and gratitude when he was honored with Cooley’s Marion Hilligan Public Service Award.
LEGAL NEWS PHOTOS BY CYNTHIA PRICE
by Cynthia Price
Legal News
The Kent County public defender system is often held up as a model for other public defender programs across Michigan, and Richard E. Hillary Sr. is the face of the Office of the Defender.
Hillary has been with the office since 1980, and director since 1985.
At this year’s Law Day celebration, Thomas M. Cooley Law School Associate Dean Nelson Miller honored Hillary as the fourth recipient of the Marion Hilligan Public Service Award, which “recognizes contributions by a lawyer in public service to area governmental bodies or community organizations, reflecting greater individual responsibility in promoting public health and welfare through law.”
Unlike the awards given by the Grand Rapids Bar Association, there was no advance notice about who would win the Hilligan Award. Hillary says that, upon looking at the program, he wondered aloud who it might be.
So the recognition took Hillary by surprise, and he showed obvious emotion as he accepted from Dean Miller and GRBA President Mark Smith.
Hillary says there was a possibility he would not have attended the Law Day Luncheon at all, since he usually has lunch with his staff. However, his daughter-in-law, attorney Nancy Hillary of Hillary Law Offices, asked him to take her as a birthday present. When she canceled at the last minute, Hillary decided to go anyway.
As many know, his son Richard E. Hillary II is an attorney at Miller Johnson, and currently serves on the Grand Rapids Bar Association’s board.
Hillary says that as the award was announced, his son nudged him and said, “Dad, that’s you.” Hillary chuckled as he added, “He was just making sure I was listening.”
Surprise or not, a look at Hillary’s career since receiving his degree from Cooley Law School evidences high qualification for the award.
As Dean Miller commented afterwards, “Besides Dick's unflagging devotion to public defense in Grand Rapids, his work on the jury-pool issue years ago, and his spirited mentoring of new lawyers, one only has to see him lip-sync his way through another Grand Rapids Bar Celebrity fundraiser to know how devoted he is in his public service and service to the profession.”
About Hillary as a role model, Ben Symko of Jensen DeHaan and Symko comments, “He is the finest example of a mentor both for personal purposes and professionally, and he demonstrates through his actions rather than words what it truly means to be professional in the practice of law.”
And Nelson Miller added, “He has Marion Hilligan's heart for the people and for public service.”
Marion M. Hilligan passed away in 2008 while serving as the Cooley Grand Rapids campus’s first Associate Dean. Hilligan was also the highly-effective mayor of Portland, Mich.
The three past award winners since the award was established in Hilligan’s honor have all been judges: Hon. William G. Kelly in 2009, Hon. Jane E. Markey in 2010, and Hon. Patrick C. Bowler in 2011.
As he joins that illustrious group, Hillary downplays his part in the success of Kent County’s public defense system. He gives credit to the “ones who run the show,” that is, the county commissioners and administrators, and the judges.
Hillary explains, “In Michigan, each county is responsible for how they handle defense of the indigent. There are some counties that just have abysmal systems, but that’s mostly due to their system not being funded properly, because that county’s specific economy can’t afford it. If they don’t pay their attorneys correctly, they’re not going to draw high-quality defenders.”
He adds that another reason for Kent County’s success is the participation of the judges. “The judges make sure we get the tools to do our work well: adequate discovery, plenty of notice...”
A little-known fact is that the actual name of his organization is the Kent County Office of the Private Defender, since it is through a contractual agreement with Kent County that the non-profit organization provides its attorneys to defend the indigent. “Public defender” would refer to someone who was a county employee, Hillary notes.
The office has grown from eight attorneys when Hillary started to the current 12. They handle only felony cases, and are not the only ones to do so: other attorneys bid on individual contracts and may handle as much as 50% of the caseload.
The single-minded focus of the Office of the Defender allows for very specific training to be offered before attorneys even set foot in court, and since they do no other types of cases, their skills remain current. “We’re exposed to it all day long,” Hillary says. “We don’t have to refresh our memories; this is all we do.”
Hillary estimates his organization handles in the area of 2,000 cases a year.
Though they see a wide variety of crimes, Hillary says most are routine. “We contract to take ten homicides a year, and if you’re going to take homicide cases, you’re going to get some fairly bizarre and well-known cases. We get our share, but those are the exceptions.” Hillary mentions a particularly grisly homicide where a young man from Sparta beheaded his victim and made a very graphic video.
“But for the most part, we see drug cases, domestic abuse, rape cases, armed and unarmed robbery, receiving and concealing stolen goods, car theft,” he explains. “All felonies are severe, but some more than others.”
A native of Grand Rapids, Hillary started out as an elementary schoolteacher, receiving his degree from Aquinas College in history, with a minor in sociology and an elementary education certificate. In order to attend Cooley, he commuted to Lansing.
In addition to his advocacy for a strong public defense system, Hillary has served in many capacities on the Grand Rapids Bar Association. He was president for the 2008-2009 term.
As Miller noted in his comments, Hillary was co-chair, with Steven Drew, of the jury minority representation committee, aimed at reflecting population diversity in the local jury pool — a goal the juries are approaching.
Hillary’s wife Katie has shared with him in raising a family which includes, in addition to Richard Hillary Jr., son Scott, a financial advisor at Comerica who is married to attorney Nancy mentioned above; and daughter Holly, a school principal in Holland.
Hillary reports that he is blessed to live within 15 minutes of all eight of his grandchildren.
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