Subject: John Guerin epitomized the legal eagle
To: Tom Baumgartner <tebaum@pacbell.net>
Fellow Crusaders,
The OC Register daily does a life story about people who have passed. The
following was published in today's OC Register.
Tom
John Guerin epitomized the legal eagle
The Huntington man knew the law and
loved it and was the lawyer sought out by others to answer their questions.
By ROBIN HINCH
The Orange County Register
Taking on attorney John Guerin was no small matter.
He may have seemed elfin and disorganized, with his fluffy, prematurely gray
hair, twinkling blue eyes, cherubic face and jumble of papers, but in the
courtroom, he was a bulldog.
He was fearless, unstoppable and, more often than not, unbeatable.
His ally was not an ability to charm the jurors (although he did memorize each
of their names the instant they were introduced) or a knack for conjuring up
curious twists for his case.
Quite simply, he knew the law better than just about anyone.
John was the lawyer sought out by other lawyers. He often lectured judges on
the law.
He won appeals against some of the biggest law firms, including O'Melveny and
Myers, and had 50 appeals published in the California Appellate Report, which
means the decisions rendered in his clients' favor actually changed existing
law.
John was one of those lawyers who just loved the law. He loved the sound of the
legalese that baffles and frustrates the layman. He believed he was there to
serve others and be an enforcer of the law.
He needed to be paid to support his family of 10 children, but in his heart,
the money was incidental to what he was doing.
He worked seven days a week for more than 50 years and never did retire.
John was 77 when he died May 20 of congestive heart failure and pneumonia.
His longtime friend Al Graham figures John's "filing a petition right now,
trying to get some poor guy out of Hell."
John grew up in Los Angeles knowing he would be a lawyer like his father, who
was also a champion gymnast. John passed on the gymnast part, but decorated the
walls of his Huntington Beach law office with photos of his dad doing
handstands on the ledges of downtown L.A. high-rises.
He graduated from Loyola Law School and married Nadine Martinez before moving
to Huntington Beach in 1965, where they made their home and John set up
practice on Pacific Coast Highway, just north of the pier.
He took cases dealing with everything from property rights to corporate law to
divorce. Generally, he advised against divorce. They're messy and expensive,
he'd say. Save your money and stay married.
Everyone who dealt with him liked and admired him.
He was known lovingly as the worst-dressed lawyer in Orange County, choosing to
bare his stocky little legs between soft-cotton or terry- cloth shorts, pocket
T-shirt (needed the pockets for his pens) and tennies. He wore a suit only to
the courtroom, and the minute he left, he changed back into shorts.
His organizational skills matched his sartorial choices. "Casual"
would be a kind word to use. But John knew where everything was even in his
little Honda, with legal papers and big-band music tapes scattered everywhere.
Only to his family was John as dedicated as he was to the law.
He taught each child to be his or her own person.
When one son worked briefly in John's law office, John flinched slightly but
supported his son's decision to go with another firm.
He sent the children to parochial school and took them on station wagon-packed
fishing trips to Ensenada, Yosemite and Colorado.
Whatever they needed, he tried to provide and said he'd worry about the money
later. It's the reason he never felt he could retire.
Still, he saw himself as a rich man rich in family, he said. He never wanted
material things.
He did, however, have a weakness for horse racing and once built the family a
swimming pool with his winnings. He called studying the Racing Form "doing
my homework," and was known for muttering, "It was a bad day at the
track, but we'll get 'em tomorrow."
He wanted everyone to love life as much as he did. "Life is too
short," he'd say, "not to be happy every day."
His sense of humor stayed with him to the end.
When he was in the hospital, gasping for breath, when Nadine asked if he wanted
her to spend the night John winked and asked, "Well, what did you have in
mind, Honey?"
A LIFE STORY
John Joseph Guerin
Born: March 24, 1926, Los
Angeles
Died: May 20, 2003, Newport Beach
Survivors: Wife, Nadine; children, Alfred, Teresa, Yvonne, Edward,
Arthur, Nina, Josephine (JoJo), Michael, Thomas, Regis; 12 grandchildren
Services: Have been held.
Arrangements by Pierce Brothers-Smiths' Mortuary, Huntington Beach
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CONTACT US: (714) 796-6082 or rhinch@ocregister.com