PILLSBURY’S EX-STAFFER FEELS $230K WORTH OF LOVE
Longtime Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman messenger Martin Macy has often been described as a friend to all, spreading cheer and leaving cookies on lawyers’ chairs in the pre-dawn hours when he came to work.
After he was let go by the firm last year, apparently as part of a belt-tightening effort, those whom he touched did not forget him.
More than $230,000 has been raised to put in a trust for the 59-year-old Macy by former and current Pillsbury lawyers and others who have heard his story.
“Martin is one of the most beloved people who was ever associated with Pillsbury, Madison & Sutro,” said Clement Glynn, a former Pillsbury lawyer now at Glynn & Finley in Walnut Creek. “When he lost his job, there was a great deal of support to do something to make clear how much people cared about him.”
Glynn and former Pillsbury partner William Edlund, now with Bartko, Zankel, Tarrant & Miller in San Francisco, spearheaded the fundraising effort, which culminated on March 29 with a celebration at Fior d’Italia in North Beach. About 80 people attended, including California Supreme Court Justice Joyce Kennard, Glynn said.
Known for his loud and cheerful greetings, Macy’s unique character was a staple in the halls of Pillsbury for four decades. Glynn described Macy as “intensely caring, explosively enthusiastic and unfailingly kind.”
Around 250 people donated to the fundraising effort. As of the end of February, Pillsbury alums had donated around $160,000, current Pillsbury lawyers chipped in $36,000, and widows of alums had put in more than $10,000, with the rest coming from current Pillsbury staff and others who knew or read about Macy, according to a letter sent to donors.
With the trust as well as disability payments from the Social Security Administration (Macy has diabetes), and money coming from his retirement plans, Macy will be receiving more than the $37,000 a year he took home when he worked at Pillsbury, Glynn said.
“Barring the unforeseen, thanks to the generosity of each of you, Martin should be safe for the rest of his life,” Glynn and Edlund wrote in the letter to donors. “We welcome any further donations into the trust, but we can also say, at least for now, there is no emergency that requires them.”
� Zusha Elinson
GRISHAM, MEET MCMILLAN
Last week, Los Angeles attorney Pamela Samuels-Young was sitting in a Kansas City mediation room, staring at the vent in the wall, and wondering if her voice could be heard on the other side.
She wasn’t being overly paranoid. She was thinking more in terms of a storyline for her next legal thriller.
“What if there was a mediator who could control the vents?” she said. “I jotted it in my notes for later.”
Samuels-Young, 49, a former O’Melveny & Myers attorney, is now a managing counsel for labor and employment law at Toyota Motor Sales in Torrance. She’s also an author, who this year published her second novel, “In Firm Pursuit.”
As a self-described cross between John Grisham and Terry McMillan, Samuels-Young writes about what she knows best: Being an African-American attorney.
“I would always read Grisham and other stories about lawyers, and there would never be any lawyer in those stories who looked like me,” she said. “I said, ‘One day, I am going to write a legal thriller.’”
She first gave it a try while at O’Melveny, cramming in writing sessions before work, on weekends and on vacation at her time-share in Palm Desert.
When she was finished, she copied it at Kinko’s and shopped around her manuscript to friends, but the reactions were tepid. She recalls showing it to Cheryl Mason, then an O’Melveny partner, and hearing, “I am going to be honest.”
Mason advised Samuels-Young to focus on the first 50 pages of a second novel she had started, and shelve the first one. Samuels-Young followed the advice, and the book turned into “Every Reasonable Doubt,” which was published last year by what was then BET Books. The original, since improved upon, was resurrected and turned into “In Firm Pursuit,” published by Harlequin in January.
The main character, Vernetta Henderson, isn’t quite Samuels-Young � but there are similarities. The plots exaggerate material from her attorney life: There’s a high-profile murder case, a sexual harassment case, even a “jerk” associate. And she transferred some of her lawyering skills � such as the storytelling style she once utilized in front of juries � to the chapters.
Working in house has made it a lot easier to write. Last year she moved to a part-time role as her schedule got busier, making public appearances, leading workshops and promoting the new book.
The company has been very supportive. Several co-workers gave the draft of one novel a first read. And on the day her first novel came out last year, General Counsel Dian Ogilvie put her Web site on the screen in the middle of a staff meeting and told everybody about the book.
From now on, she’s aiming for one book a year, and eventually would like to be a full-time author. Just the other day, she read about an unethical judge in a legal paper and added it to her list.
“I’ve got a drawer full of story ideas.”
� Kellie Schmitt
