By Steve Thorpe
Legal News
When a governor appoints individuals to the bench, as Rick Snyder recently did, he must carefully consider all the personal qualities of the candidate.
In one of the biggest steps in his life, Thomas Cameron certainly proved he has one of those important qualities — careful consideration.
“My wife and I began dating during freshman year at Gabriel Richard (High School),” he says. “We decided we weren’t going to get married until we were done with our educations. Sixteen short years later, we were married. She’s an MD and works for DMC (Detroit Medical Center) downtown not far from here. She’s a wonderful person and much smarter than I am.”
They live in Northville Township and have three children, a 10-year-old boy, a 9-year-old boy and a 7-year-old girl.
Snyder recently appointed four new judges to the 3rd Circuit Court in Wayne County, including Cameron, Alexis Glendening, Catherine Heise, and Edward Joseph.
Cameron was the Criminal Justice Bureau chief for the Michigan Department of Attorney General, where he oversaw several large divisions. He fills the vacancy created by Judge Amy Hathaway. He began his career at the Kalamazoo County Prosecutor’s Office after earning his law degree from Wayne State University Law School.
When he learned that he would be receiving a call from Snyder, he wasn’t sure what result would be.
“I was very, very excited,” Cameron says. “I pride myself on keeping an even keel and not letting things shake me. But when I heard I would be receiving a call about two o’clock, it was amazing how the anxiety level goes through the roof. It was very exciting and very humbling to receive the call (from the governor).”
He was born in Wyandotte and grew up in Trenton, attending St. Joseph’s Elementary School and Gabriel Richard (Riverview) High School. He ran cross country and played basketball, “but not well enough to make the varsity team” he says.
Cameron had to grow up fast when he was a teenager because of an illness in the family.
“When I was about 14 my dad developed cancer,” he says. “For the last year of his life, I cared for him. That has a profound effect in any stage in a man’s life, but especially on an adolescent finding his way. You have to grow up early and decide what kind of person you’re going to be.”
He knew no lawyers growing up in a working class neighborhood downriver, but does remember being mightily impressed by occasional encounters with the parent of a friend.
“A good friend of mine’s stepfather was Judge (Raymond) Charron in River Rouge,” he says. “Although I never saw him on the bench — I saw him on the sofa when I visited my friend — he was just an impressive guy. He was so kind and such a good man that it made a big impression on me. Until I started practicing, when I thought of a judge, I didn’t think of ‘Law and Order,’ I thought of Judge Charron.”
When he finally felt the pull of the law, he was faced with the question all aspiring young attorneys face: What kind of law?
“My path was to choose prosecution and I enjoyed it.,” Cameron says. “That path evolved over time from being a courtroom prosecutor handling cases day in and day out to, later, in the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office, working on complex homicides and then public corruption cases in the AG’s office. From there I moved into an administrative role where I managed 160 people. I saw this opportunity as a way to fulfill a lot of the reasons I went into law in the first place.”
As he became more of a manager, he found that there was one arena he consistently missed. Moving to the bench allows him to return to that special place.
“For me, more than anything else, it was always the draw of the courtroom,” he says. “I really loved the courtroom and the idea that important, meaningful disputes were heard and resolved in a fair and honest environment. It’s the foundation of our society.”
One of the realities of Cameron’s new position is that he will have to run in the November election. That will be another new experience.
“I’ve been given this incredible honor to serve on the bench and part of it is that every six years you have to go before the voters, talk about what you’ve done, and then you have to earn it,” he says. “I’ll be prepared to show the voters that the governor’s selection was the right one.”
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