Detroit lawyer advocates pedal power

By John Minnis Legal News Steven Roach is a biker. No, he's not the kind who struts leather and straddles a hog. Rather, Roach, a principal in loan restructuring at Miller, Canfield, Paddock and Stone, wears spandex ala Lance Armstrong and glides along on a Cannondale System 6 carbon/aluminum touring bike. "The Cannondale System 6 is like my sports car," says Roach, 48. "It's my midlife crisis bike. It's tricked out, if you will." Several days a week, Roach traverses the 8.5 miles between his Grosse Pointe Park home and his downtown office by bike. He keeps a change of clothes and suits at his Miller Canfield office. "It's a matter of planning a little," he says. When asked about how he got into biking, Roach begins by saying, "When I was 4 or 5, I got a little blue bike with training wheels. As soon as I get them off, I'll be happy!" Kidding aside, he explains that like almost every other kid, he rode a bike until he turned 16 and got a driver's license. He road a little bit in college out of necessity, but for the most part, the bike ended up in the garage and forgotten. After earning his undergraduate and law degrees at the University of Michigan, Roach joined Miller Canfield in 1986. A "trial lawyer by training," he specializes in restructuring loans and enforcing loan documents. He now heads the firm's financial institutions group of 25 attorneys. Roach's renewed interest in biking did not come about until after getting married to wife Deborah and raising three kids -- Elizabeth, now a 20-year-old at Louisiana State University; Kevin, 18, at Wayne State University; and Michael, 15, at Grosse Pointe South High School. First he bought tandem bikes that he and Deborah or a child could ride together. One thing led to another, and today he has four bikes. Besides his Cannondale System 6 love child, he also has his white, "nerdy" bike, a heavy metal-frame Cannondale street bike he uses for shopping in The Village or on The Hill in the Grosse Pointes. One day, Roach says, "I realized it's really not that far to get to work." Now he bicycles to the office seven or eight months out of the year. On his route to Miller Canfield, Roach takes Kercheval down to Mount Elliott (detouring to Jefferson at the Chrysler North Assembly Plant) and then East Lafayette into downtown. "Detroit's a great city for cycling," he says. "There's plenty of room on the roads, and for the most part, they are in good shape. And there's lots of pretty cool stuff to see." A nontraditional commuter, Roach is a strong advocate of Complete Streets, a national coalition promoting streets designed for all users: pedestrians, bicyclists and transit passengers of all ages and abilities, as well as trucks, buses, mopeds and automobiles. He laments that as the automotive capital, Metro Detroit largely neglected all other forms of transportation. He points to Washington, D.C., Chicago and Toronto, for example, all of which have integrated mass transit systems, but not Detroit. Roach is also active in the League of Michigan Bicyclists, an advocacy group promoting bicycling and bicycling safety throughout the state. Roach serves on the LMB's board of directors representing Region 1 comprising Detroit and Eastern Wayne County. The LMB Web site, www.lmb.org, contains a multitude of resources, ranging from laws on bicycling, safety information, maps and items on "biking tourism." Roach has taken advantage of Michigan's scenic highways. On one trip, he took the ferry over to Wisconsin from Ludington and bicycled some 500 miles and four days around northern lake Michigan. He has done the 412-mile Lake Michigan Shoreline Bicycle Tour twice, and he highly recommends the single-day, 164-mile trans-Michigan bike tour. "That's a great ride," he says of the Shoreline tour, "and it's affordable." One could camp while, biking, but since biking utilizes highways, why not stay in comfort? That's what Roach usually does. "The motels are a good alternative for us," he says. Often he is joined by family members. "It's a good way of talking and communicating," he says. Bicycling is also a good form of exercise and it gets the adrenaline going. "To go flying down a hill at 40 mph," he says, "you can't beat that. It's exhilarating." As part of his firm's award-winning fitness program, MCFit, Roach started the Miller Canfield Cyclists Club. "We're very proactive about it," he says of fitness at the firm. Besides, he says, biking is a great marketing tool, too. "There are actually a lot of professionals who cycle," Roach says, noting that clients especially like the nifty Miller Canfield bike jerseys. "Those are some very popular client gifts." Roach recommends would-be cyclists go to a specialty store. "I wouldn't buy a bike from a department store or online," he says. "You need to ride it, make sure it is what you want, and you need a dealer that will service it." One doesn't need a Cannondale System 6 to get into cycling. A quality road bike will do for around town and the neighborhood. And you don't need all the paraphernalia to enjoy biking. "You don't have to wear spandex," Roach says, "but you do need a helmet." Published: Wed, Dec 30, 2009

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