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Frank E. quirk honored with St. Thomas More Award

SHERRY KARABIN
Legal News Reporter

Published: April 28, 2017

Ask Brouse McDowell attorney Frank E. Quirk how he managed to carve out a path to success in both his professional and personal life and he’ll say it was luck.

“We all have junctions in life where we are forced to make choices,” said Quirk. “Looking back now I can say that I was very lucky how mine turned out.”

But those who’ve known and worked with him like Brouse McDowell partner Jeffrey Heintz said there is much more to it than that.

“Frank is one of the top two or three lawyers I’ve had the good fortune to know in my career,” said Heintz, former managing partner at Brouse McDowell. “His strategic abilities, keen intelligence, professionalism and steadfast dedication to his clients make him an ‘all star.’”

 So when Heintz and others learned that Quirk had been chosen to receive this year’s St. Thomas More award, they were not surprised.

Presented annually by the Catholic Diocese of Cleveland during Red Mass as part of the Akron Bar Association’s celebration of Law Week, the award pays tribute to St. Thomas More, the patron saint of lawyers.

Those who receive the award are chosen because of their professional excellence, outstanding personal integrity and community service.

“Frank is richly deserving of this award,” said Heintz.

“I was surprised when I found out that I had been selected,” said Quirk. “Given that I’m on the back end of my career I had no expectation of receiving this award.”

“I am very proud of my father,” said his daughter Elizabeth Sheeler. “He is a very private man and he never seeks recognition for himself. I am happy to see that he is being honored for his good work.”

Born in Boston in 1932 to Frank T. and Eleanor Quirk, he is the oldest of their four children. His father worked for The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company and was transferred from Boston to Akron when Quirk was six years old.

After graduating from St. Vincent High School in 1950, Quirk enrolled at The University of Akron. But he left after his first semester to join the U.S. Air Force during the height of the Korean War.

“When I completed basic training, I learned about a Russian language program,” he said. “I expressed an interest in it and I was lucky enough to be selected.”

He attended the Army Language School in Monterey, California and then received additional training at Brooks Field in San Antonio, Texas.

Quirk was sent to Germany, where he used his skills as a Russian language specialist to intercept Russian military communications in a number of Eastern bloc countries as well as within Russia itself.

About six months later, he was sent to Turkey to perform similar duties at the major Russian missile launching location.

“When I arrived in Turkey, the U.S. did not know much about the Russian missile program,” said Quirk. “My group located the radio network and transcribed the communications that were sent back to the NSA (National Security Agency).”

At the time of his discharge in 1954, Quirk was a staff sergeant in the U.S. Force.

Upon his return to the U.S., he enrolled at The Ohio State University, obtaining his bachelor’s degree in business administration and juris doctor between 1954 and 1958.

Quirk said he attributes his interest in law to the fact that his father, who served as assistant secretary of Goodyear, became a lawyer after the family moved to Akron.

He began his career in 1959 as a sole practitioner, but less than two years later he joined Roetzel, Hunsicker and Michaels as an associate. In 1971, the firm merged with Brouse, McDowell, May, Bierce and Wortman and is now known as Brouse McDowell.

Early on he focused on business and corporate law and some litigation, but several years into his practice he began handling litigation more exclusively.

He met his wife Patricia in 1971 at First National Tower.

The two have been married for 44 years and have three children, Elizabeth, Michael, a sales consultant at Verizon in Canton and John, who owns and operates PSI Graphics in Irvine, California.

“My dad was always very involved in our lives,” said Sheeler. “I was a swimmer through college and at least through high school he never missed one of my swim meets. In fact he served as a timer at most of the meets.

“He’s very athletic and we always went skiing as a family,” she said. “He always stressed to us that it was important to give your all in whatever you chose to do in life and I know that is what he does for his clients.”

Quirk served in several leadership positions at Brouse McDowell, including managing partner from 1989 through 1997, as well as practice chair and the firm’s ethics counsel. In 2002, he became of counsel.

 “Frank is one of my mentors and I am a better lawyer for having had the privilege of practicing with him,” said Heintz. “Frank is a man who has sincere compassion and consideration for others.  He is decisive and has a sense of fair play. Those qualities made him a great managing partner.”

Brouse McDowell partner Paul Rose described Quirk as an “excellent role model for myself and other attorneys. He is the consummate professional whether dealing with colleagues, opposing counsel or the court.

“Frank was an exceptional lawyer,” said Rose, who served on the executive committee of the firm for a few of the years that Quirk was managing partner. “He possessed excellent analytical and verbal skills that enabled him to evaluate situations from a variety of perspectives.”

In 2004 at the age of 72 Quirk was appointed director of the Joseph G. Miller and William C. Becker Center for Professional Responsibility at The University of Akron School of Law.

During his more than 10 years in the position, he prepared and presented seminars for lawyers, addressing the impact of technology on attorneys and the legal profession.  

Quirk was named an honorary alumnus of the law school in 2010.

In addition to his work at the law school, he was also an expert witness and consultant on professional conduct matters and lawyer malpractice issues.

Akron Law Professor Jack Sahl served as faculty director during the time that Quirk was director.

“Frank truly was a ‘lawyer’s lawyer,’” said Sahl. “He was fair minded and had a profound respect for the rule of law and the integrity of the legal system.

“Whether deciding what program to put on at the center or serving as a consultant, Frank respected the opinions of others and tried to take them into account before coming to a decision.

 “Under our leadership, the Miller-Becker Center gained national prominence and that would not have happened without Frank’s many talents and hard work.”

In June 2015 Quirk said he left the university and began scaling down his expert witness work.

Throughout his career, he’s been active in the Akron and Ohio State bar associations, serving as president of the Akron Bar Association from 1983 through 1984 and chairing several committees, including being treasurer and chair of the finance committee.

Quirk was also involved in establishing the Akron Bar Foundation in 1985, taking the helm as president from 1990 to 1991.

In 2008, he was appointed by then Chief Justice Thomas Moyer to the Supreme Court’s Task Force on the Ohio disciplinary process.

In 2011, he received the Akron Bar Association’s Liberty Bell Award.

He also served on the Ohio Bar’s Legal Ethics and Professional Conduct Committee at different periods spanning four decades and chaired the subcommittee that investigated and recommended a change in Ohio’s Attorney-Client Privilege Statute, which was adopted by the state legislature in 2012.

The following year, he was presented with the Ohio Bar’s annual Eugene Weir Award for his exceptional professional responsibility.

Outside of his legal career, Quirk participated in numerous activities to improve the community.

In 1968 he served as president of the board of governors of the American Golf Classic. He was also president of the Akron City Club and a member of the Blossom Music Center Board of Overseers.

From 1996 to 2000, he took on the role of founding chair of the Downtown Akron Partnership during the nonprofit’s inception. The organization has played a major role in the resurgence of the downtown as a business, cultural and entertainment center.

Quirk said his plans for the future are simple: To stay involved in the community and keep fit physically and mentally.

“Before my knee replacement, I used to run marathons and local races,” said Quirk. “I now hike regularly with my dog and work out two or three days a week.”

An avid follower of Buckeye football, the OSU alum said he would be spending more time with his wife Patricia, who retired in 2015 as director of operations at Northwestern Mutual, along with his children and grandchildren.

Quirk will receive the St. Thomas More award on May 5 during the Red Mass at St. Bernard Church.

 

 


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