Murders Offer Grim Reminders of Dangers Family Law Attorneys Face

It is difficult to gauge whether these incidents are on the rise because major legal organizations, including the American Bar Association, do not track statistics on crimes committed against attorneys that arise out of their work. But family law is seen as a riskier practice than most, because people in the midst of divorce or facing the loss of their children tend to be highly emotional and may direct their anger at their estranged spouse's lawyer.

“There's a saying that in criminal court, you have bad people at their best,” said Texas Supreme Court Judge Debra Lehrmann, who spent more than 20 years as a Family Court judge. “In family law, you get good people at their worst. In criminal court, dangerous people are in handcuffs. In family court, you don't have any idea who is dangerous.”

Family Court judges helped push for improved courthouse security measures after numerous shootings during the past two decades, many of them perpetrated by participants in family law cases, Judge Lehrmann said. But metal detectors and security guards in courthouses can do little to protect attorneys in their homes and offices.

New York Murder Recalled

New York lawyers have their own horror stories. Two interviewed by the New York Law Journal independently recalled the 1988 slaying of John J. Crimmins, a divorce lawyer in Chatham, who was shot five times and stabbed outside his home when he went outside to investigate his burning pickup truck. His assailant, Mark L. Larsen, was the former husband of one of Mr. Crimmins' clients. He was killed in a shootout with police.

Timothy Tippins, a New York Law Journal columnist, said dangerous situations are an “occupational hazard” for family law attorneys. He said he himself has been the target of serious threats five or six times in 37 years of practice.

In one case, the husband of a woman Mr. Tippins was representing in divorce proceedings repeatedly declared, “If I lose the house, something is going to burn.”

“We thought he meant the house, but apparently he meant [my] office,” Tippins said. His law office was “torched” the day after the court awarded the house to the wife, Mr. Tippins' client.

“I can't prove he is the one who did it, but I don't believe in coincidences,” he said.

Mr. Tippins said that he sometimes carries his licensed firearm if he feels that he is at risk.

“You can't go through life worrying about it, it goes with the territory,” added Mr. Tippins.

Gail Steinhagen, a partner at family law litigation and adoption firm Rosin Steinhagen Mendel in Manhattan, was working for the city Administration for Children's Services in 1987, prosecuting an abuse case, when a defendant threatened to harm her two young children. She recalled that police officers were stationed outside her children's school for several months after the defendant was seen outside her house.

Despite that experience, however, Ms. Steinhagen said, “I don't feel unsafe,” adding that “we're taking people's children away from them. In my mind, I'm kind of surprised people don't get more angry.”

Diffusing the Situation

Bruce Wagner, the chair of the New York State Bar Association's Family Law Section, said the wife of a client once threatened to break his kneecap. He said that family law attorneys do not talk about their personal safety a lot, but it is important for them to “make sure we don't do anything to escalate” what is an already an emotional situation.

“Lawyers can get into trouble by getting overly personal or saying something in the heat of the moment,” said Mr. Wagner.

A principal at Albany law firm McNamee, Lochner, Titus & Williams, Mr. Wagner suggests that lawyers take care with both their spoken and written words, noting that it is important to “make an effort to not personalize it,” and “stick to the facts.”

“Family lawyers have to choose their words carefully,” agreed Linda Lea Viken, a family law practitioner in Rapid City, SD, and the president of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers. She said that she always take pains to preface any allegations recorded in documents with, “My client advised me that ' .

“People in a divorce situation are not in their right minds,” Ms. Viken said. “They are ratcheted up and they can strike out. The worst thing a lawyer can do is buy into that anger. I try to keep a calm attitude with my clients and keep them involved and informed. You can engender hatred and anger in how you handle a case.”

'Everyone Has a Story'

Anger is common, said Ms. Viken. “I've talked to women lawyers who have had guns pulled on them. I've talked to a lot of lawyers who were threatened. It seems like everyone has a story.”

Ms. Viken has had her mailbox smashed and a golf ball sent through her office window; she suspects that both incidents were instigated by estranged husbands of clients. The only time she felt truly frightened for her safety, however, was when a man against whom she had obtained a protection order for a client followed her home from her office one night two years ago.

“We have a security system at our home now,” she said, but many family law attorneys are solo practitioners or work in small offices and do not have the budget for elaborate security measures.

Taking Precautions

Todd Scott, vice president of risk management and member services for Minnesota Lawyers Mutual Insurance Co., began looking in 2010 for safety advice that he could pass on to his attorney clients. He was surprised to find few formal resources. “I would go to these attorney panels and seminars, and almost everywhere I spoke, there was a local story about someone getting attacked or killed, and family law is at the top of the list,” Scott said. “There are some blind spots in our profession, and I think this issue of safety is one of them.”

Ms. Viken agreed that colleagues rarely discuss safety openly. “There's a concern among attorneys that they don't want to give anyone ideas about doing things and create copycats,” she said. “And for some people, it's embarrassing when they are threatened or harassed. They think, 'How did I let this happen?' I guess it's not something we talk about, but maybe it should be.”

Mr. Wagner said that many law firms have beefed up their security in the 25 years he has been in practice. But security consultant Jonathan Lusher has visited law firms with virtually no security beyond a receptionist, he said. He recommends that receptionists receive security training and have a plan in the event that a problem arises. Access to law offices beyond the reception area should be restricted, possibly through a buzzer system, Mr. Lusher suggested. Adding impact-resistant glass is another smart move for law offices, and attorneys should communicate with colleagues about their schedules and who is expected in the office, he said.

In Canada, the Ontario Bar Association formed a task force on lawyer safety in 2003 and later issued a personal security handbook with numerous recommendations, including that attorneys meet with potentially volatile clients in an open space or in a conference room with windows if the matter does not involve personal or privacy issues. The handbook also recommends brushing up on visual clues that someone might act out, such as clenching a fist or jaw and flushing of the face.

One way to reduce the likelihood of violence would be to make family law less adversarial, Judge Lehrmann said. The legal community has been moving toward more collaborative approaches, she said.

Last year, the ABA launched its Families Matter initiative, which encourages the use of alternative dispute resolution in family disputes. “The idea is to reduce the negative impact that the process can have on a family,” Judge Lehrmann said. “The process itself can make a situation more dangerous, so it's best if you can defuse things before they ever get to that level.”

Karen Sloan is a reporter for The National Law Journal, an ALM affiliate of this newsletter. She can be contacted at [email protected]. Laura Haring of the New York Law Journal contributed additional reporting for this article. She can be reached at [email protected].

At 9:20 a.m. on June 2, Carey Hal Dyess walked into the converted single-story house that served as Jerrold Shelley's law office in Yuma, AZ. Dyess, 73, instructed an office administrator to move out of the way, and then shot and killed the 62-year-old lawyer, who had been in the process of packing up his office and retiring.

The attack was not random. Shelley had represented Mr. Dyess' ex-wife in a bitter divorce in 2006. He was one of five victims of a rampage that lasted six hours and ended only when Mr. Dyess turned the gun on himself.

Family law attorneys reacted to the news of Shelley's death with sadness, but not surprise. At least five family law attorneys have been killed or violently attacked by clients' ex-spouses since February 2010, and the recent deaths have highlighted the safety risks they face. In addition to Mr. Shelley:

• Redmond Coyle, 61, was shot and killed outside his office in Pickens, SC, on Feb. 3, 2010, in front of his wife and child. His killer was Jerry Crenshaw, the ex-husband of a woman Mr. Coyle had represented in divorce proceedings. After shooting Coyle, Mr. Crenshaw killed himself.
• On June 11, 2010, Terri Melcher was stabbed nearly 30 times in her law office outside Minneapolis by the ex-husband of a woman she had represented in a child custody case. Ms. Melcher was able to persuade her attacker to stop the assault, and survived. The attacker, Sheikh Nyane, turned himself in to police.
• Judith Soley, 65, was shot and killed on Feb. 16 alongside her client at a restaurant near Fresno, CA, while on court recess in the client's divorce. The assailant was the client's estranged husband, who later killed himself.
• Criminal defense attorney Emmett Corrigan, 30, was shot and killed in the parking lot of a Walgreens outside Boise, ID, on March 11 ' one day after he had filed divorce proceedings on behalf of the attacker's wife, who was one of his employees.

Difficult to Track

It is difficult to gauge whether these incidents are on the rise because major legal organizations, including the American Bar Association, do not track statistics on crimes committed against attorneys that arise out of their work. But family law is seen as a riskier practice than most, because people in the midst of divorce or facing the loss of their children tend to be highly emotional and may direct their anger at their estranged spouse's lawyer.

“There's a saying that in criminal court, you have bad people at their best,” said Texas Supreme Court Judge Debra Lehrmann, who spent more than 20 years as a Family Court judge. “In family law, you get good people at their worst. In criminal court, dangerous people are in handcuffs. In family court, you don't have any idea who is dangerous.”

Family Court judges helped push for improved courthouse security measures after numerous shootings during the past two decades, many of them perpetrated by participants in family law cases, Judge Lehrmann said. But metal detectors and security guards in courthouses can do little to protect attorneys in their homes and offices.

New York Murder Recalled

New York lawyers have their own horror stories. Two interviewed by the New York Law Journal independently recalled the 1988 slaying of John J. Crimmins, a divorce lawyer in Chatham, who was shot five times and stabbed outside his home when he went outside to investigate his burning pickup truck. His assailant, Mark L. Larsen, was the former husband of one of Mr. Crimmins' clients. He was killed in a shootout with police.

Timothy Tippins, a New York Law Journal columnist, said dangerous situations are an “occupational hazard” for family law attorneys. He said he himself has been the target of serious threats five or six times in 37 years of practice.

In one case, the husband of a woman Mr. Tippins was representing in divorce proceedings repeatedly declared, “If I lose the house, something is going to burn.”

“We thought he meant the house, but apparently he meant [my] office,” Tippins said. His law office was “torched” the day after the court awarded the house to the wife, Mr. Tippins' client.

“I can't prove he is the one who did it, but I don't believe in coincidences,” he said.

Mr. Tippins said that he sometimes carries his licensed firearm if he feels that he is at risk.

“You can't go through life worrying about it, it goes with the territory,” added Mr. Tippins.

Gail Steinhagen, a partner at family law litigation and adoption firm Rosin Steinhagen Mendel in Manhattan, was working for the city Administration for Children's Services in 1987, prosecuting an abuse case, when a defendant threatened to harm her two young children. She recalled that police officers were stationed outside her children's school for several months after the defendant was seen outside her house.

Despite that experience, however, Ms. Steinhagen said, “I don't feel unsafe,” adding that “we're taking people's children away from them. In my mind, I'm kind of surprised people don't get more angry.”

Diffusing the Situation

Bruce Wagner, the chair of the New York State Bar Association's Family Law Section, said the wife of a client once threatened to break his kneecap. He said that family law attorneys do not talk about their personal safety a lot, but it is important for them to “make sure we don't do anything to escalate” what is an already an emotional situation.

“Lawyers can get into trouble by getting overly personal or saying something in the heat of the moment,” said Mr. Wagner.

A principal at Albany law firm McNamee, Lochner, Titus & Williams, Mr. Wagner suggests that lawyers take care with both their spoken and written words, noting that it is important to “make an effort to not personalize it,” and “stick to the facts.”

“Family lawyers have to choose their words carefully,” agreed Linda Lea Viken, a family law practitioner in Rapid City, SD, and the president of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers. She said that she always take pains to preface any allegations recorded in documents with, “My client advised me that ' .

“People in a divorce situation are not in their right minds,” Ms. Viken said. “They are ratcheted up and they can strike out. The worst thing a lawyer can do is buy into that anger. I try to keep a calm attitude with my clients and keep them involved and informed. You can engender hatred and anger in how you handle a case.”

'Everyone Has a Story'

Anger is common, said Ms. Viken. “I've talked to women lawyers who have had guns pulled on them. I've talked to a lot of lawyers who were threatened. It seems like everyone has a story.”

Ms. Viken has had her mailbox smashed and a golf ball sent through her office window; she suspects that both incidents were instigated by estranged husbands of clients. The only time she felt truly frightened for her safety, however, was when a man against whom she had obtained a protection order for a client followed her home from her office one night two years ago.

“We have a security system at our home now,” she said, but many family law attorneys are solo practitioners or work in small offices and do not have the budget for elaborate security measures.

Taking Precautions

Todd Scott, vice president of risk management and member services for Minnesota Lawyers Mutual Insurance Co., began looking in 2010 for safety advice that he could pass on to his attorney clients. He was surprised to find few formal resources. “I would go to these attorney panels and seminars, and almost everywhere I spoke, there was a local story about someone getting attacked or killed, and family law is at the top of the list,” Scott said. “There are some blind spots in our profession, and I think this issue of safety is one of them.”

Ms. Viken agreed that colleagues rarely discuss safety openly. “There's a concern among attorneys that they don't want to give anyone ideas about doing things and create copycats,” she said. “And for some people, it's embarrassing when they are threatened or harassed. They think, 'How did I let this happen?' I guess it's not something we talk about, but maybe it should be.”

Mr. Wagner said that many law firms have beefed up their security in the 25 years he has been in practice. But security consultant Jonathan Lusher has visited law firms with virtually no security beyond a receptionist, he said. He recommends that receptionists receive security training and have a plan in the event that a problem arises. Access to law offices beyond the reception area should be restricted, possibly through a buzzer system, Mr. Lusher suggested. Adding impact-resistant glass is another smart move for law offices, and attorneys should communicate with colleagues about their schedules and who is expected in the office, he said.

In Canada, the Ontario Bar Association formed a task force on lawyer safety in 2003 and later issued a personal security handbook with numerous recommendations, including that attorneys meet with potentially volatile clients in an open space or in a conference room with windows if the matter does not involve personal or privacy issues. The handbook also recommends brushing up on visual clues that someone might act out, such as clenching a fist or jaw and flushing of the face.

One way to reduce the likelihood of violence would be to make family law less adversarial, Judge Lehrmann said. The legal community has been moving toward more collaborative approaches, she said.

Last year, the ABA launched its Families Matter initiative, which encourages the use of alternative dispute resolution in family disputes. “The idea is to reduce the negative impact that the process can have on a family,” Judge Lehrmann said. “The process itself can make a situation more dangerous, so it's best if you can defuse things before they ever get to that level.”

Karen Sloan is a reporter for The National Law Journal, an ALM affiliate of this newsletter. She can be contacted at [email protected]. Laura Haring of the New York Law Journal contributed additional reporting for this article. She can be reached at [email protected].