Carl Ver Beek earns highest honor the State Bar of Michigan awards

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 LEGAL NEWS PHOTOS BY CYNTHIA PRICE

By Cynthia Price
Legal News

In an evening of outstanding individuals receiving awards, it would be hard to compete with Carl E. Ver Beek, Of Counsel to Varnum, for most-deserving.

Not only was he receiving the State Bar of Michigan’s highest honor last Wednesday night when SBM held its annual awards dinner here in Grand Rapids, he also has an unassailable reputation both in his career and in his community.

Brian Einhorn, who gave him the Roberts P. Hudson Award, said as he called Ver Beek up to the stage, “So selfless has he been that his colleagues find themselves asking, ‘What would Carl do?’ in their own professional lives.”

The Hudson Award is not given every year, and sometimes, as this year, it goes to more than one person — in this case to Francine Cullari of Genesee County. The award recognizes attorneys for “outstanding and unique service to and on behalf of the State Bar of Michigan, the legal profession, and public,” and “signifies unusual and extraordinary help and assistance to the Bar and the legal profession, which has been given generously, ungrudgingly, and in a spirit of self-sacrifice.”

Ver Beek chaired the State Bar Committee on Character and Fitness for ten years, was on the Attorney Grievance Commission for six years, and still sits on the Attorney Discipline Board.

“I think one of the factors in my getting the award,” Ver Beek says, “is  that the State Bar recognizes I’ve worked on all three stages of the attorney discipline process.”

Ver Beek has wonderful and often counterintuitive stories about serving on the Character and Fitness Committee, which is one of two “tests” a prospective lawyer must pass. As law school graduates sit for the bar exam, that committee also reviews files that tell a fuller story about whether they pass muster to become a part of the legal profession. “A key word made all the difference to me,” Ver Beek explains. “The regulations say the committee has to make a recommendation on this person’s current character and fitness. We based our deliberations on that.”

During his tenure, decisions included turning down candidates for relatively minor infractions such as plagiarizing, while recommending for admission people who had committed serious offenses, including murder.

Ver Beek said that many of the difficult positive decisions to admit people who had serious allegations against them have proven good judgments over the years: he has at times tracked the careers of both the attorneys with murder convictions to whom the committee gave the nod of approval, and they have done very well.

“We often based our recommendations on whether we felt the person lied to us. An attorney has to be honest. I felt like saying, even if it hurts tell us the truth — people will forgive you and work with you if you’re really sorry about what you’ve done, but for Pete’s sake, tell the truth.”

Ver Beek continues, “After that I was off for a few years, then Chief Justice at the time Cliff Taylor appointed me to the Attorney Grievance Commission. The grievance commission receives complaints on a form you can get online, and the staff screens them first. You can get everything from a slap on the hand for something like not returning people’s calls on time, to a phone call, to the more serious hearings and censure by the Supreme Court.”

His work on that commission included chairing it for four years, and working to reform the way in which staff members review complaints.

“I think it’s important that the public know that the entire professional ethics and discipline process for lawyers in Michigan is funded by lawyer’s dues, and not a nickel of public money is used in the process,” Ver Beek adds.

His has held a great many volunteer positions with the American Bar Association during his career as well.

In addition to the aspect of service to SBM itself, the Roberts P. Hudson Award recipient must be a lawyer “who best exemplifies that which brings honor, esteem, and respect to the legal profession.” 

Over the years, Ver Beek has received accolades from the profession itself and from the community which reflect his deep commitment over the years. Hope College gave him its Distinguished Alumni Award in 2007, and he received a Special Recognition from the Michigan Health and Hospital Association. He was also given the Dis-

tinguished Service Award by the SBM Labor and Employment Law Section in 2004, along with professional honors such as being listed in Best Lawyers in America® since 1989 and an invitation to be a fellow of The College of Labor and Employment Lawyers.

Ver Beek’s practice has indeed focused on labor and employment law. He is both a mediator and arbiter, as well as a speaker for the Institute for Continuing Legal Education and others on various subjects of expertise.

Raised in Muskegon and then Holland, Ver Beek has long been very active in the Christian Reformed Church. He graduated from Hope College, and then received his J.D., with honors, from Indiana University School of Law before joining Varnum.

He thanks the firm for his success both in and alongside the legal profession. “I’ve really been blessed in a lot of ways. Varnum has provided me a platform to do a lot of the things I’ve accomplished,” he says.

“My priorities are faith, family, happiness, health, wisdom, and wealth, in that order,”?he says. Since he “sort of” retired in 2001, he has been free to round out many of those, but it is clear his passion for working on policies that reflect the most effective and practical ways to make life better for people has not waned. He adds, “I think Varnum likes the fact that I’m still active with a lot of things.”

This is absolutely true of the work he has done regarding health care. He set up the Grand Rapids Chamber of Commerce Health Care Committee, and continues to work behind the scenes on such projects as making sure preschool children have access to medical and preventive care. He is sought after as a speaker for his health care knowledge.

Despite all of his accomplishments, he remains humble. Regarding his latest award, he says, “When I got the letter from Janet Welch, it was one of those very pleasant surprises. What I did first was google the award and look at who else had gotten it, and then I started trying to figure out, how in the world did I get this?”

Bud Roegge of Smith Haughey Rice and Roegge is his leading suspect for making the nomination, and Roegge was indeed present at the awards banquet last Wednesday.

That was a great evening for West Michigan as far as other awards as well; watch for more in Friday’s Grand Rapids Legal News.

The Roberts P. Hudson Award has been given since 1979, though after that it was not given again until 1983. Interestingly, three of the previous Roberts P. Hudson Award winners were from Miller Johnson: John W. Cummiskey in 1991, Jon R. Muth in 1998, and Stephen C. Bransdorfer in 2005.

The State Bar has often given the prestigious award to more than one person annually, as was the case this year. The other 2014 award winner was Francine Cullari of Genesee County, who chaired the SBM Publications and Website Advisory Committee, and served on the Awards Committee, the Public Outreach Committee, the Representative Assemb, and the Board of Commissioners.

 

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