by Cynthia Price
Legal News
In the generous spirit of local bar leaders, 17th Circuit Court Judge Christopher Yates gave a great deal of his time over the last year to ensure that attorneys in the Grand Rapids Bar Association (GRBA) received a spectrum of services in return for their membership dues.
The judge’s dynamic style suited what has developed into a wide range of needs for GRBA?members.
“One of the difficulties that every bar is going to face going forward is that people are more likely to be practicing on their own or in different settings than the traditional large law firm. We discovered from the various events that we’ve attended that we’re not the only bar association with this challenge. But if there’s anybody who benefits, it’s attorneys who are trying to practice on their own – for referral and continuing legal education and everything else.
“So I’m still working on outreach to sole practitioners and young lawyers,” Judge Yates says.
Among the GRBA successes this past year were a bench bar conference that was of special significance to Judge Yates, who feels that the more professional interaction between the lawyers and judges, the better courtroom practice will be for everyone.
“One of my goals this year was to do a fairly elaborate bench-bar conference. That took place in April and virtually all of the judges in the probate and circuit court attended.
“The interaction was extremely helpful to me as a judge. The problem with all of our jobs as judges is that we rarely get any kind of feedback. We’re sort of frozen in time to the last time we practiced, until we get together and talk as a bench and bar and have open, unstructured discussions where both sides can offer comments and ask questions.”
The GRBA hopes to continue doing this on a regular basis. “If I’m asked to put it on next year, I will,” Judge Yates added.
Another great success was the second Destination CLE, where continuing legal education takes place in a relaxed, and generally nice and warm, atmosphere distant from day-to-day interactions.
“I had been a skeptic about Destination CLE’s, but this was far more effective than I thought it would be. Everyone learned a lot. What we’ve decided is we’re going to do one every other year, since it’s a lot to ask of the organizers.”
He notes that attorney Ben Hammond in 2017 and Courtney Quist in 2016, both of whom received the applicable year’s GRBA President’s Award for their work, put in countless hours on the first two Destination CLE events, along with GRBA’s superb Executive Director Kim Coleman.
A key goal of Yates, whose term ended July 1, was to create a “lawyer prep room” in the Kent County courthouse — a place where attorneys who might not have nearby offices, or even those who do and face delays between court appearances, could work or study. The project will still take place, but is currently on hold due to circumstances beyond the GRBA’s control.
“The county is sequencing projects in the courthouse. The first and highest priority is the build-out of two additional courtrooms on the sixth floor, and they’re using all the empty space as a staging area. Once those courtrooms are finished, I hope and expect the next project in line is the lawyer prep room,” Yates says.
Not all of the situations the bar association faced during Judge Yates’s term were planned. There were personnel changes in the GRBA staff, including long-time employee Debbie Kurtz stepping down.
But probably the most pressing challenge came in the 2016 election cycle. When one of the candidates had to drop out of the 2016 race for Family Division Circuit Court Judge, the bar faced a quandary. Not only were there questions about how to handle candidate evaluations, but also Judge Yates and the leadership felt it was important to inform the public, since the candidate’s name was still on the ballot.
“I think we did a good job of
handling the election cycle. It was a real challenge, but I think we settled on the right position, and we tried very hard to get the word out. I just wish the candidate forum hadn’t been on the worst day of the year as far as the weather,” Yates laughs. “It created such a quandary for everyone, but in the long run, it worked out. It’s hard for me to imagine anyone better qualified than Deb McNabb to be on the bench,” he comments.
Yates gives Pat Geary, then the Immediate Past President, accolades for the excellence of that candidate forum, and points out that without the help of several key players he would have met with less success.
Concurrent with his GRBA presidency, Judge Yates was chair of the Legislative Committee for the Michigan Judges Association.
“I will tell you it turned out to be a bigger time commitment than I expected. Between the GRBA and doing all that with the legislative committee, this turned out to be quite a demanding year,” he comments with a hearty laugh.
Judge Yates handles the business docket for the 17th Circuit. Kent County was the second in the state to have a business docket, so when Yates started, he had a hand in developing the position. Judge Yates points out that, because Macomb County’s Judge John Foster has since retired, he is the longes-serving business court judge in Michigan.
“It’s been really encouraging to see business dockets expanding across the state,” he comments. “I think we provide a good service to the business community. These are very complex cases, and the dockets have been overwhelmed in the past.”
All of the business court decisions are published, and can be found at https://www.accesskent.com/SBDFiling/Publish.jsp
Newly-elected Judge Joe Rossi has now joined him on the business docket.
Before becoming a judge, Christopher Yates was an Assistant U.S. Attorney, served in the Office of Legal Counsel at the U.S. Department of Justice, and was the Chief Federal Public Defender for the Western District of Michigan. After receiving his BA?at Kalamazoo College and both his J.D. and an MBA from the University of Illinois, he was a law clerk for two federal judges; immediately prior to assuming the bench in 2008, he worked at Willey, Chamberlain & Yates, and finally at Yates, LaGrand & Denenfeld.
Yates was up to the challenge his term presented, but he comments, “This is a year where we asked a great deal of so many people in bar leadership. I couldn’t have survived without the help of Pat Geary, Ben Hammond, Kim Coleman, and many others.”
But he reserves his biggest compliment for the incoming president, Elizabeth “Joy” Fossel of Varnum.
“Joy Fossel was willing to split with me many of the essential duties of GRBA President. I think Joy will do extraordinarily well.”
For more information about what to expect from Fossel, please see this Friday’s Grand Rapids Legal News.
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