Tribute To Marsha E. Swiss

When you have spent over 17 years as a disciplinary counsel, you get to see a glimpse of the profession at its worst.

Rarer is the opportunity to see the best it has to offer.

Such a person was Marsha E. Swiss. 

I got a request for a recommendation of a probate attorney today and googled the best one I know. 

Instead I learned that she had passed away last November

 She was one of a small group of women admitted to the class of 1965 at the Harvard Law School. At Harvard she was renowned for an audacious classroom retort to a taunt by Professor Clark Byse, model for the character Charles Kingsfield in “The Paper Chase.” Marsha was active with the DC Bar in promoting alternative forms of dispute resolution, although she reveled in litigation in support of clients and patients who had been abused by the skullduggery of professionals.

I met Marsha after she had prepared a comprehensive bar complaint documenting misconduct of an attorney who had stolen funds of a ward and gambled away (and lost) the funds at the racetrack.

Back then, the D.C. Bar had a Deputy Bar Counsel who sat on new complaints for several months rather than assign them for investigation.

He (who shall remain nameless) ran into my office one day, dropped the file on my desk, and ran out, saying “this case is assigned to you.”

Literally minutes later, I met Marsha Swiss.

She was furious and asked me what the hell I had been doing sitting on the case for three months.

Instead of attending the Judicial Conference scheduled that day, I spent the day drafting a Specification of Charges.

I went to her office the next day so that she could review it for accuracy and filed it that afternoon.

We were friends and mutual admirers from that day forward.

She was one of the most competent and honest lawyers I have ever known. 

She once told me a story about a seminal event in her life. She was with her mother taking a train trip and the ticker seller encouraged her to lie about Marsha’s age to purchase a cheaper ticket.

Her mother refused and paid full fare.

Rest in peace, dear friend. (Mike Frisch)