Biography
I was born in 1951, and have lived in Wayne County all my life. After graduating from Livonia Bentley High School in 1969, I married Gail Harju. We both attended Michigan State University, working our way through college. We also had our hands full with our two beautiful children: James and Erin.
We moved to Canton in 1974 after I graduated so I could attend Wayne State University Law School. This time Gail did all the work, while I studied. But reality hit in 1977: I graduated from law school, passed the bar exam, and was admitted to the State Bar of Michigan. It was time to enter the “real” world, and leave academia behind.
I began my career as a law clerk for the firm of Millar, Weinberg, Necker & Johnson while I was a third year law student. I stayed with them after graduating, and experienced a wide range of legal practice, learning much from all of them. I soon joined Jean F. Wagner in the firm’s Plymouth office, and I continue to practice law in Plymouth. Meanwhile, during my first 20 years, the firm changed its name a few times (adding Wagner, Clark and Ryan to the title), and continuously provided quality representation to its many clients. Retirements and career changes finally took its toll, and we went through a very amicable dissolution of the partnership in 1997. I was now “on my own”.
One of my first projects for the firm in 1977 was to figure out Michigan’s then new spouse abuse injunction statute, and to create pleadings for those cases. It wasn’t easy to do, because the statute was poorly written and conflicted with the court rules. My work on that led to my joining the State Bar of Michigan’s Family Law Section, and to attending Family Law Council meetings. The Council asked me to work to improve the spouse abuse statute, and I attended many sessions in Lansing helping to draft the revisions which were enacted in pieces through 1983.
My spouse abuse work led to a far more ambitious project: a complete revision and reorganization of all of Michigan’s marriage, divorce, property division, custody, support and related laws. Attorneys Max D. McCullough of Mt. Clemens, Shirley Burgoyne of Ann Arbor, and I were the three co-chairs of the Codification Committee, leading about 50 other attorneys on a seven year odyssey of meetings and thousands of pages of drafts and re-drafts. The project produced a 156 page House Bill. Max and I also spent two more years writing an official Committee Commentary that explained the proposal and compared it to then current law. In the end the proposal never passed the State legislature. It was just too big for the legislature to handle. But many of our proposals have been adopted in a piecemeal fashion over the years, so some good came of it.
I became very active in the Family Law Section. In addition to being Co-chair of the Codification Committee, I served as Treasurer and Chairperson-Elect, eventually becoming the youngest person to serve as its elected Chairperson in 1987-1988. I wrote articles, lectured at many seminars for attorneys, and served on many of its committees.
I was also busy with other groups, including the State Bar’s Plain English Committee and three of the State Court Administrative Office’s forms committees, where I helped draft plain language forms for use in the court system. I participated in the 1988 Michigan Law-Related Education Project, a project of various state-wide and local groups to develop a "Guide to Practical Law in Michigan" for use by teachers in their classrooms, by co-authoring the Family Law Chapter.
As is common for attorneys, even my participation and involvement in non-law groups and organizations made use of my legal experience. I served 6 years on the Canton Township Historic District Commission, and authored its 22-page Ordinance, enacted in 1988. I was a charter member, and later the President, of the original Canton Kiwanis Club. I then joined the Kiwanis Club of Colonial Plymouth, where I have served as Secretary and also as President.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch, Gail was busy working at the Plymouth Post Office. Over the years she became one of the best known window clerks, and it’s certain you met her if you ever stopped in at the Penniman office. She retired in late 2006. She now volunteers as an usher for the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, and for the Detroit Chamber Music Society. She also volunteers at St. Joseph Hospital. And she now has more time for my favorite activity - golf - than I do, and she has gotten much better at it than I am.
Our son, Jim, spent five years in the Navy as a cryptologist, then completed his undergraduate degree at Eastern Michigan University and his masters degree at Regis University. Being a generation younger than me, he is always a helpful resource when I have computer issues.
Our daughter, Erin, graduated from Kalamazoo College, and married in 1994. A very sad time in our lives followed two years later, when Erin died at the young age of 24 from complications while fighting non-Hodgkins lymphoma. We still miss her, of course.
For more than the last decade, I have been working with Max D. McCullough, who is also a former Chairperson of the Family Law Section, drafting a complete collection of annotated forms for use by Michigan attorneys who practice in the area of family law. The draft is more than 1,600 pages long, and Max and I hope to have it available for purchase on a separate website next year.
So there you have it. Information to help you decide if I am the right attorney for you. Please contact me.
/s/ Jim
We moved to Canton in 1974 after I graduated so I could attend Wayne State University Law School. This time Gail did all the work, while I studied. But reality hit in 1977: I graduated from law school, passed the bar exam, and was admitted to the State Bar of Michigan. It was time to enter the “real” world, and leave academia behind.
I began my career as a law clerk for the firm of Millar, Weinberg, Necker & Johnson while I was a third year law student. I stayed with them after graduating, and experienced a wide range of legal practice, learning much from all of them. I soon joined Jean F. Wagner in the firm’s Plymouth office, and I continue to practice law in Plymouth. Meanwhile, during my first 20 years, the firm changed its name a few times (adding Wagner, Clark and Ryan to the title), and continuously provided quality representation to its many clients. Retirements and career changes finally took its toll, and we went through a very amicable dissolution of the partnership in 1997. I was now “on my own”.
One of my first projects for the firm in 1977 was to figure out Michigan’s then new spouse abuse injunction statute, and to create pleadings for those cases. It wasn’t easy to do, because the statute was poorly written and conflicted with the court rules. My work on that led to my joining the State Bar of Michigan’s Family Law Section, and to attending Family Law Council meetings. The Council asked me to work to improve the spouse abuse statute, and I attended many sessions in Lansing helping to draft the revisions which were enacted in pieces through 1983.
My spouse abuse work led to a far more ambitious project: a complete revision and reorganization of all of Michigan’s marriage, divorce, property division, custody, support and related laws. Attorneys Max D. McCullough of Mt. Clemens, Shirley Burgoyne of Ann Arbor, and I were the three co-chairs of the Codification Committee, leading about 50 other attorneys on a seven year odyssey of meetings and thousands of pages of drafts and re-drafts. The project produced a 156 page House Bill. Max and I also spent two more years writing an official Committee Commentary that explained the proposal and compared it to then current law. In the end the proposal never passed the State legislature. It was just too big for the legislature to handle. But many of our proposals have been adopted in a piecemeal fashion over the years, so some good came of it.
I became very active in the Family Law Section. In addition to being Co-chair of the Codification Committee, I served as Treasurer and Chairperson-Elect, eventually becoming the youngest person to serve as its elected Chairperson in 1987-1988. I wrote articles, lectured at many seminars for attorneys, and served on many of its committees.
I was also busy with other groups, including the State Bar’s Plain English Committee and three of the State Court Administrative Office’s forms committees, where I helped draft plain language forms for use in the court system. I participated in the 1988 Michigan Law-Related Education Project, a project of various state-wide and local groups to develop a "Guide to Practical Law in Michigan" for use by teachers in their classrooms, by co-authoring the Family Law Chapter.
As is common for attorneys, even my participation and involvement in non-law groups and organizations made use of my legal experience. I served 6 years on the Canton Township Historic District Commission, and authored its 22-page Ordinance, enacted in 1988. I was a charter member, and later the President, of the original Canton Kiwanis Club. I then joined the Kiwanis Club of Colonial Plymouth, where I have served as Secretary and also as President.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch, Gail was busy working at the Plymouth Post Office. Over the years she became one of the best known window clerks, and it’s certain you met her if you ever stopped in at the Penniman office. She retired in late 2006. She now volunteers as an usher for the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, and for the Detroit Chamber Music Society. She also volunteers at St. Joseph Hospital. And she now has more time for my favorite activity - golf - than I do, and she has gotten much better at it than I am.
Our son, Jim, spent five years in the Navy as a cryptologist, then completed his undergraduate degree at Eastern Michigan University and his masters degree at Regis University. Being a generation younger than me, he is always a helpful resource when I have computer issues.
Our daughter, Erin, graduated from Kalamazoo College, and married in 1994. A very sad time in our lives followed two years later, when Erin died at the young age of 24 from complications while fighting non-Hodgkins lymphoma. We still miss her, of course.
For more than the last decade, I have been working with Max D. McCullough, who is also a former Chairperson of the Family Law Section, drafting a complete collection of annotated forms for use by Michigan attorneys who practice in the area of family law. The draft is more than 1,600 pages long, and Max and I hope to have it available for purchase on a separate website next year.
So there you have it. Information to help you decide if I am the right attorney for you. Please contact me.
/s/ Jim
James P. Ryan
905 West Ann Arbor Trail
Plymouth MI, 48170
905 West Ann Arbor Trail
Plymouth MI, 48170
Copyright © 2012, James P. Ryan