Piedmont’s Pettit Honored with Special Fund

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January , 2012

Piedmont’s Pettit honored with special fund By Luke Tsai Walter Pettit isn’t the kind of man who dwells on the past. At a sprightly 93 years old, Pettit – a five-time national squash champion, principal of a prestigious San Francisco law firm that bore his name, winner of the American Bar Association’s National Lawyer of the Year Award – certainly didn’t accomplish all that he has in his life by fixating on regrets. Friends describe the longtime Piedmont resident – the father of Anian Tunney and two other daughters – as a consummate gentleman and an infectiously positive person. Yet the fact remains: Pettit’s life was changed forever on July 1, 1993. That was the day a gunman with a stash of semi-automatic pistols and an old grudge against the Pettit & Martin law firm walked into the high-rise at 101 California Street in San Francisco, took the elevator up to the 34th floor, where the firm had its offices, and opened fire. All told, the gunman, 55year-old Gian Luigi Ferri, killed eight people – Pettit’s colleagues, visitors to the firm, and others who worked in the building – before taking his own life. The shooting stunned Bay Area lawyers, many of whom never anticipated that such a thing could happen at a law firm in broad daylight. It also left a lingering sadness among the surviving partners and other attorneys at Pettit & Martin. Two years later the firm dissolved, a bitter ending for a life’s work. But out of the ashes of that tragedy, the Legal Community Against Violence (LCAV) was formed, almost immediately afterward, by a few partners at Pettit & Martin and lawyers at other San Francisco firms who saw a compelling need for improved legislation. They supported the fledgling non-profit law center’s mission to prevent gun violence by promoting sensible gun control laws, initially in California. LCAV was instrumental in getting the (now-expired) Federal Assault Weapons Ban passed in 1994, and has since expanded its reach nationwide, preparing amicus briefs and offering legal assistance to municipalities who find their gun laws challenged in court. Almost from the very beginning, Pettit himself has quietly been a staunch and tireless supporter of LCAV. Now, the organization has decided to honor him by dedicating a

Staff photo.

Piedmont resident Walter Pettit has been a tireless supporter of the nonprofit Legal Community Against Violence (LCAV), ever since a deadly 1993 mass shooting at his San Francisco law office spurred the organization’s inception.

special fund in his name: The Walter Pettit LCAV Fund. Upwards of $8,500 has already been donated to the fund, money that will support the organization’s ongoing effort to prevent incidents like the 101 California shooting from happening again. Tragic day It goes without saying that those who were present at the Pettit & Martin offices during the shooting in 1993 are still haunted by memories of that day. For those who subsequently took on leadership roles with LCAV, those memories also provide a constant source of motivation for the gun violence prevention work that they do. One of LCAV’s founders, John Heisse, was a lawyer at Pettit & Martin with an office on the 34th floor of 101 California,. He vividly recalls taking refuge behind a locked door when his secretary told him there was a gunman in the building. “That was a devastating impact on our floor,” Heisse recalled. “Colleagues died, visitors to the firm died. We’re high up in a high-rise – you don’t expect something like this.” Meanwhile, Jim Fousekis worked at a law firm across the street from Pettit & Martin, on the 33rd floor basically directly across from where the shooting was taking place. Fousekis, too, vividly remembers that day: the announcement over the loudspeaker at his firm to stay away from the windows, the sound of shots being fired, the yellow police tape afterward. One of the victims, Allen

Berk, was a fellow Berkeley resident and a close acquaintance. “It was a sad, sad day for lawyers and all people in San Francisco,” Fousekis said. “It was basically unheard of that this would happen at a law firm.” Randy Short joined Pettit & Martin in 1971 and had been the firm’s managing partner for three years at the time of the shooting. Short was lucky: He and his family were on vacation in Europe on that fateful day. Still, even though Short wasn’t physically present, it was impossible not to feel the impact of the event. “It was a tragedy for the firm. One of the fellows killed was two doors down from me,” he said. Pettit himself was in his office on the 35th floor, one floor above were the shooting began. Ironically he had just attended a meeting that morning about security at the law firm. What still haunts Pettit are the bits and pieces that he heard later on from those who saw Ferri first-hand and lived to tell the tale: the secretary who was spared after she froze – just stood there – while everyone around her dove under their desks; the 28-year-old lawyer who died while shielding his wife who had come to visit him at the firm. “It was just such a tragic situation,” Pettit said. “And it really broke up our firm.” It was a firm Pettit had joined in 1962 and bore his name for 25 years. It was a law firm that he had worked hard to build to national success. In its heyday Pettit & Martin had 240 lawyers spread among four offices stretching from San Francisco to Los Angeles to Washington, DC. Out of the ashes But what remains almost as striking as the sense of grief and loss is to observe how quickly the San Francisco legal community rallied together to take action in the shooting’s aftermath. Heisse co-founded LCAV, within days of the incident; Short joined the organization’s board of directors, which he still serves on, in 1995 and Fousekis joined in 1998. All three men remain involved, in various capacities, with the group’s gun violence prevention efforts. All three offered the highest of praise for Pettit and for his ongoing support of LCAV. “Walter’s a hard person not to like. He’s well-respected in all circles,” Heisse said. Al-

though Pettit wasn’t involved in the creation of Legal Community Against Violence, he has been supportive every step of the way, including financially, as well as attending events sponsored by the organization. Fousekis didn’t know Pettit personally at the time of the shooting, but became friends with him later on when the two played squash together. “Walter has been a constant beacon for us because this was right for him,” Fousekis noted. Perhaps Randy Short put it best, in terms of capturing what LCAV meant to Pettit and to so many of the other survivors of the 101 California shooting. All felt the need to create something positive out of that tragedy: “Walter is a very positive fellow and focuses on the positive,” Short explained. “That was one of the good things about LCAV, because it was something positive to focus on at that point.” Indeed, when Pettit talks about his old firm, that sense of positivity is unmistakable. There is sadness when he speaks of the events that led up to the Pettit & Martin’s dissolution, but no bitterness. “We were very lucky,” Pettit said. “We had some really outstanding lawyers.” For his part, Pettit says he was flattered and quite surprised when he found out about the LCAV fund being created in his honor. Pettit recalls receiving a call from Short who delivered the good news. “‘I said, ‘But Randy, I’m still alive! You can’t do that!’” Pettit joked. According to Short, the LCAV board has yet to determine whether the money in the fund will be designated for any one particular purpose. For now, it will simply go toward supporting the organization’s general operating expenses, which underwrites the nonprofit’s provision of legal expertise to the gun violence prevention movement. Those interested in making a donation to the Walter Pettit LCAV Fund can mail a check with the name of the fund to: Legal Community Against Violence, 268 Bush Street #555, San Francisco, CA 94104. Alternatively, donors can log on to lcav.org to make their donation online, choosing the option for a gift in honor of someone and indicating there that the money should be designated to the Walter Pettit Fund.


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