Milestones

My friend and former law partner, Ben Wiles Jr., turned 100 this past week.

That’s right 100.

I have known Ben for almost forty years. In 1979, I was working as a staff lawyer at the Frank H. Hiscock legal Aid Society and was musing aloud about starting my own law practice.

Ben’s brother, Dick Wiles, was a family friend and mentioned to my father that Ben and his son, Chris, had an empty office in the State Tower Building that they might be willing to rent. Dick was a great guy who was extremely civic minded, volunteering to Chair the City of Syracuse Zoning Board for years until Mayor Lee Alexander persuaded him to accept an appointment to the City’s Common Council. He reminded me of the Roman official, Cincinnatus, who in times of crisis would leave his plow to lead the Roman Empire.

I knew Chris slightly from Democratic politics and made an appointment to stop and see them. After making some small talk, Ben told me that they did have an office which belonged to another lawyer but that I could rent it. When I asked why the other lawyer didn’t need it, he told me that he just used it as a place to come in and read the newspaper. I’ve come to appreciate that concept. Thus, began a relationship that would endure and I would cherish from that day to this one.

I shortly discovered that Ben and Chris did work that differed greatly from mine. They were representing clients involved in real-estate transactions, estate work and corporate practice that I didn’t understand. If it was a tax question I never would.

I was representing clients in traffic and civil litigation and a large assortment of criminals in a court appointed capacity. On my first day in the office the secretary we shared asked if there was anything she should do differently. “Hide your purse,” I told her.

Both Chris and Ben were possessed of a great sense of humor and loved hearing about the various escapades that my criminal clients got themselves into. Chris took particular delight in greeting them in the waiting area with the question, “Aren’t you in jail yet?”

Over time we began to trade work on our respective files. They would help me with a real-estate closing or drafting a last will and testament and I would resolve the traffic matters and occasional criminal case that their client might get themselves into. The arrangement worked so well that we decided to form a partnership.

Chris also had an arrangement with an older lawyer, Tom Dyer, in which they shared an office in Marcellus. Tom made it clear that, partnership or no partnership, I wasn’t allowed to use the office in Marcellus because he feared that the crime rate would go up if my clients came there.

One of our most memorable cases involved representing the head zookeeper of a Louisiana zoo who was charged along with a group of other zookeepers with conspiracy to smuggle a Harpy eagle in to the United States. Since we were court appointed, Ben kept asking how there could be an indigent zookeeper? I didn’t have an answer for him. Once the case was dismissed, he wanted to know how he could express his gratitude. Chris and I told he could get us a parrot that could talk.

“What are you going to do with the parrot?” Ben asked. “We thought we’d put it in the waiting area and let it talk to the clients about legal fees,” I answered. “How are you going to feed it on the weekends? “he asked. “Claude, the elevator starter could feed it,” Chris volunteered. “You’d be better off having the parrot feed Claude,” Ben answered.

In the end our newly freed, indigent zookeeper client told us that he couldn’t find one “that wouldn’t chew our arms off.”

One of the beauties of being in partnership with Chris and Ben was that none of us ever knew what the other one was working on. It also meant that no one was looking over anyone’s shoulder or complaining about their productivity.

If you were a fan of the television show, Boston Legal starring William Shatner and James Spader, you know that every episode ended with the two of them sitting on the balcony of their law office, smoking a cigar and drinking scotch at the end of the week. That was how the week ended at Wiles and Fahey each Friday. We’d sit in the corner conference room at the end of the week, with the windows open, a cigar lit and a beer cracked, because we couldn’t afford Scotch, and laugh and catch up with each other.

We shared our victories and losses, celebrated births and weddings, grieved over the people we lost during that period together.
Chris and Ben were there for me though the various political races, giving me the time to fulfill my need for public service including the very dark period after the 1993 Mayoral primary,without ever complaining.

I remain blessed to have them in my life.

Happy Birthday Ben!!!!!

May you live 100 more.