DBA CONGRATULATES

The Honorable Jeffrey E. Froelich Retires

The Starfish Story originally written by Loren Eiseley in 1969 and adapted many times since then, typically goes like this:

One day a man was walking along the beach when he noticed a young boy picking something up and gently throwing it into the ocean. Approaching the boy, he asked, “What are you doing?”

The youth replied, “I am throwing the starfish back in the ocean. The surf is up and the tide is going out, if I don’t throw them back, they will die.” “Son,” the man said, “don’t you realize that there are hundreds of miles of beach and thousands of starfish? You can’t possibly make a difference.”

After listening politely, the boy bent down, picked up another starfish, and threw it back into the surf, then, smiling at the man, he said, “It made a difference to that one.”

The Honorable Jeffrey E. Froelich tells that story every time that he speaks (even carrying a copy of it with him on a laminated card in his pocket) and its moral, that every individual is important, has shaped his legal and judicial philosophy throughout his career.

A graduate of Miami University (Ohio) and the University of Michigan Law School, Judge Froelich spent a total of 42 years on the bench in various courts throughout the Miami Valley. The first sixteen were with the Western Division of the County Court of Montgomery County (now known as the Montgomery County Municipal Court), where, two days a week, Judge Froelich handled cases arising out of Trotwood and the unincorporated areas northwest of Dayton. During that time Judge Froelich also served as the original Director of the law clinic at the University of Dayton School of Law—a position he held with Assistant Director (and later Judge) Alice McCollum—before returning to private practice with his brother’s firm, Louis & Froelich.

In 1994, Judge Froelich moved on to the Montgomery County Common Pleas Court—filling the seat left open by the Hon. William W. MacMillan Jr. Fourteen years later, in 2008, he transitioned to Ohio’s Second District Court of Appeals where he filled the vacancy created by the retirement of the Hon. William H. Wolff Jr., and where he remained until his own retirement earlier this year.

Throughout all of that time on the bench, Judge Froelich has applied the lesson of The Starfish Story to each case that passes through his courtroom. “You’ll get a speeding ticket, in the court of appeals. And then you pick up the next case and it’s a post-conviction relief for continued on page 15

an aggravated murder case, or a medical malpractice case, or two pro se people suing each other over a protection order. . . . And to each one of those people, it’s the most important case in the world.”

That is not to say, however, that Judge Froelich did not have memorable cases.

At the Common Pleas Court, there were cases that involved moments of high tension, like when a defendant stood up and threw a table at the Court. “I couldn’t find my button underneath [my desk] in time, but luckily there were enough deputies in the courtroom.” Others reminded him of the humanity of the people involved. Like the time he granted a mother’s request to hug her son one last time before he went to prison. “The question [at trial] was not whether he shot the other person, the question was whether it was aggravated murder, murder, or manslaughter. So whatever was going to happen, he was not going to be able to hug her, and hasn’t, for a lot of years. But he’s still somebody’s son, and she’s still his mother, even though what he did was horrendous.”

The Second District Court of Appeals presented Judge Froelich with a different set of experiences and challenges, but was no less rewarding. “At the appellate level, you realize that the case has different audiences. You’re writing first of all for the parties in that case; but you’re also writing for other lawyers that are reading it for precedent, and you’re writing for the public.” Because of that, Judge Froelich’s conception of being on the Court of Appeals was not that his job was theoretical, but rather that it was to practically apply the law to the facts of each case. “We used to have a saying about ‘getting into the weeds’ . . . and we could spend a day deciding something as fundamental as whether there was a final appealable order.” So although many people see the appellate court as “more intellectual and esoteric, it’s really not. It’s still about the people that are in front of you.”

Or, put another way, it’s about picking up each starfish, throwing it back into the surf, and saying “It made a difference to that one.”

As he heads into retirement, Judge Froelich has ruled out going on a cruise anytime soon, but otherwise is not sure about his future plans. He hopes to spend more time with his family. He also wants to continue working with organizations like the Dayton Legal Heritage and Dayton Public School foundations as well as the with the Judicial Advisory Group of the Ohio Judicial Conference. “I’ve been doing stuff like that [for many years,] and I want to keep doing it. People just won’t laugh at my jokes as much anymore.”

Regardless of what Judge Froelich’s next step is, we wish him the best and thank him for his 42 years on the bench as well as the for countless hours that he spent, both in and out of the court room, serving the legal community in and around the Miami Valley..

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The Honorable Jeffrey E. Froelich Retires continued from page 14

By Christopher M. Wolcott Esq. Taft Law DBA Editorial Board CWolcott@taftlaw.com | 937.228.2838