By Tracy Schorn
April 3, 2017
With members in all 50 states and more than 80 countries, the D.C. Bar is beginning a regular feature to profile the people who make up our community. Read about your peers, their lives, and their work around the world.
Dennis W. Archer, chairman emeritus of Dickinson Wright PLLC in Detroit, Michigan, has been a member of the D.C. Bar since 1972. He served two terms as mayor of Detroit from 1994 to 2001, and from 1986 to 1990, he was an associate justice of the Michigan Supreme Court.
你一直是民主党的一员.C. 从1972年开始当澳博app，所以你是创始成员之一. As a lifelong Michigan resident, do you recollect why you joined the D.C. Bar?
我一直对你的D印象深刻.C. 酒吧领导，警官，澳博app，还有你的员工. 1970年6月11日，我开始从事法律工作. It seemed to me if the opportunity came along to interact with outstanding lawyers, it would be a benefit and I would learn a lot—and I have.
I’ve worked with so many lawyers in the American Bar Association and the National Bar Association who have been D.C. Bar members. The staff has been very generous in helping those whose offices are not in D.C.
You were the first African American ABA president (2003–2004), and last summer you received the association’s highest honor, the ABA Medal, 特别杰出的服务. Of particular note has been your work mentoring new lawyers. What advice would you give those just entering the profession?
There are two lawyers who impacted my life and how I practice law. The first was my law professor at the Detroit College of Law, Donald Campbell. Before I graduated, he pulled me aside and told me that his office at Ford Motor Company’s general counsel’s office wanted any lawyer who met their qualifications. I worked in their office for the summer on Professor Campbell’s recommendation.
He also told me he’d observed that a number of black graduates were active in the Wolverine Bar Association, our local bar that was predominantly African American. Professor Campbell encouraged me to get involved in bar associations—the Detroit Bar, 密歇根州澳博app协会, 以及美国澳博app协会, and I did that.
After I graduated and started in a law firm, the second best advice I got was from Samuel C. Gardner, a law partner at the Detroit firm of Bell and Gardner. Sam counseled: Make sure you return your telephone calls every day, 即使是对一个唠叨的客户, because that person could refer you the biggest case you may ever receive in your life.
When your client comes in, get up out of your chair and bring your client back to your office. That way, you let the client know how important they are. 一定要保持桌子干净. You want your client to feel like they are the most important person you are meeting that day.
He said if you do those things you will earn a very good reputation. Also, get malpractice insurance, and charge a reasonable fee. And put your business relationship in writing—tell your clients this is what I intend to do and this is what you can expect. Your client will get good representation and will feel comfortable talking.
As for my mentoring, I have always tried to meet with anyone who has any interest in law school, or just going to college. 当我在教堂或学校演讲时, sometimes people ask if I could meet with their son or daughter. Or kids come up and say, “I think I’d like to be a lawyer. Can I talk to you?我说:“可以——如果你把父母带来的话。.” Because I want the parents to hear what the requirements are—the need for good grades in high school and undergraduate school. I tell them how important it is to study really hard in law school and to earn the best grades possible.
我今天和年轻澳博app们分享的是数字. 大多数执业澳博app都是单独执业的, and the majority of lawyers who work in law firms are [in] small firms with 8 to 10 lawyers. A bar association is one of the best opportunities for young lawyers to learn, develop, and grow. I encourage them to join their local bar association and get involved with other young lawyers, 加入一个委员会或分部.
If you’re going solo, you want to interact with lawyers who’ve been practicing a long time and get their advice. 你可以通过澳博app协会来实现. 开始接触其他执业领域的澳博app, because you never know when you’ll need to make a referral. You want to refer your clients to a person you are comfortable with and who you believe is ethical and hard working. You make those connections through your bar association. 我相信澳博app协会的工作.
You transitioned very successfully from a legal career to a political career. What advice would you give to lawyers who want to go into politics?
I got involved in politics by virtue of my father-in-law. I’d just gotten married and we were playing golf and my father-in-law told me I should talk to this lawyer he was in the army with during World War II, Robert Millender. Millender was a partner in Michigan’s largest integrated law firm and was very well respected. In 1969 Millender was running the campaign for Richard Austin, 底特律市市长候选人. I wanted to show Millender that I could be a hard-working campaigner so that he might also conclude that I’d be a hard-working lawyer, too.
奥斯汀输了，但我和鲍勃·米勒德关系密切. We worked together on Austin’s 1970 successful campaign for [Michigan] secretary of state. Millender, in 1973, successfully ran Coleman Young’s campaign for Detroit mayor. 四年后的1977年, Millender was the campaign director and asked me to be the campaign manager for Mayor Coleman Young’s reelection.
For the longest time now people have stopped by my office and expressed their desire to run for an office. 我会倾听，然后分享我的经验. If you want to be elected, you’ve got to demonstrate to the people who vote that you are deserving...你关心你想代表的人...that you’re not just someone who shows up and says, “I want to be a judge, will you support me?”
Work with your party and with the people who are passing out campaign literature door to door. That’s how people begin to know you and respect who you are.
And if you’re a lawyer, you ought to be involved in pro bono work. There’s an old saying, “If you cast your bread upon the waters, it will come back to you.“在你想要某样东西之前，你必须先付出.
参与并帮助他人. Go to fundraisers, buy a ticket to help other candidates. 与此同时，你也会学到东西, 你会听那些人的, and you’ll learn about the community you want to serve.
采纳这一建议的人通常都是成功的. 那些不这样做的人很少会成功.
What do you make of the economic resurgence in Detroit? Luxury watchmaker Shinola, Quicken Loans, Buick’s “Made in Detroit” ads, hipsters. 作为底特律前两届市长, do you feel responsible for planting the seeds of this comeback?
底特律已经发生了巨大的变化. 我于1994年1月开始服役. The 1990 census had Detroit with the highest percentage of people living below poverty—32.2 percent. 如果算上儿童，是46.6%的人生活在贫困线以下. 我知道底特律人需要工作.
在我宣布参选之前, I spent about a year developing solutions to the problems we were facing in nine critical areas. I reached out and got help from a number of outstanding professors at the University of Michigan. 我们有来自其他城市的专家, community leaders from Detroit and the region talking about different initiatives. We looked at other cities and how they faced their challenges.
After I was elected, we were able, with the help of then President Bill Clinton and his administration, to get a hand up from their very strong outreach to cities, such as with empowerment zones and the COPS [Community Oriented Policing Services] program. I also had a good working relationship with Michigan governor John Engler who came up with renaissance zones and SmartZones. Our administration had a very good relationship with the business community and companies like General Motors and Compuware who moved into downtown Detroit. The neighborhood communities and the foundation communities were all united to help the city of Detroit to grow and thrive.
I had a great team of people in my administration and others willing to help, who were smarter than me. 在我两届任期结束时，我们有了20美元.2 billion of new investment in Detroit and thousands of new jobs. I was the last mayor before bankruptcy to have a balanced budget, a rainy day fund, and a budget surplus in each of my eight years of service.
During my eight years in office the pension funds for police, fire, 和将军都被过度资助了数百万美元. 我们建了两个新体育馆, one for the Detroit Tigers (Comerica Park) and one for the Detroit Lions (Ford Field). We also had the benefit of a statewide vote in favor of three privately owned casinos in Detroit.
[编者按:在阿彻市长任期结束后, subsequent administrations struggled to stay on economic footing and the city filed for bankruptcy in 2013.]
The business community never turned its back on the city of Detroit. 他们总是继续支持我. Even before Detroit emerged from bankruptcy, it was clear the city was on the uptick.
年轻人开始在这座城市投资. 年轻人开始回来了. Now if you were to come to downtown Detroit and you want to lease space for your car, 您将被告知没有可用的空间. In downtown Detroit you can rent, lease, or buy an apartment, loft, or home. 如今，底特律市中心的情况也是如此. The great thing is the new housing built to accommodate those who want to rent, lease, or buy. There are all kinds of new restaurants and businesses that have opened since Detroit has emerged from bankruptcy.
2001年，你启动了丹尼斯. Archer Scholarship Fund and have since given over a million dollars away to Detroit or Cassopolis high school graduates going to either Wayne State University or Western Michigan University. 你能告诉我们更多关于这个奖学金的情况吗?
It was started to help students who have at least a 2.5 honor point average and have to work at least 20 hours per week to make ends meet. 我想给他们最多5美元,所以也许他们可以辞掉工作, or at least work less in order to get better grades and graduate.
阿彻学者们非常成功. I also have a small scholarship at Lawrence Tech for students who need money for books and other important immediate needs.
Any chance of retiring?
No. When you find something you love, you never work a day in your life.
