jim pritikin - Leading Lawyers

JIM PRITIKIN
Bullish on One-on-One
Aspect of Divorce
by Paul Dailing
In Jim Pritikin’s downtown Chicago office,
among boxing gloves, family photos, and a
signed jersey from basketball star Dwayne Wade is
a picture of Pritikin getting gored by a bull.
“Someone was kind enough to take a
photograph,” the 74-year-old partner at
Beermann Pritikin Mirabelli Swerdlove LLP
says, smiling wryly as he gestures to the picture
of him tossed midair, about to get ripped by a
bull’s horn.
It wasn’t a wacky mishap on a farm or
stepping into the wrong field out in the country.
The Chicago divorce attorney walked into the
ring on purpose — as a trained bullfighter, a
hobby he picked up in his late 60s.
“I love it. It’s something that I truly enjoy and I
have made friendships with people of similar
interests all over the world,” Pritikin says.
It’s a fit for the man. He says he gravitates to
one-on-one competitions like bullfighting,
boxing, and trial law.
“They’re not team sports,” Pritikin says. “It’s
me against them.”
The bullfighter and his firm might be best
known to some for their involvement in divorces of
celebrities. Pritikin features heavily in client
Wade’s 2012 memoir, “A Father First,” and the
firm’s past clients include basketball legend
Michael Jordan, baseball player Frank Thomas,
and actor Bill Murray.
Celebrities are just a small part of the
caseload, Pritikin says. They might be better
known, but they are no more or less deserving of
attention and counseling during their marriage’s
decline than any other client.
“My clients run the gamut of businessmen,
homemakers,” he says. “I do not limit my
practice to sports and entertainment at all,” he
says. Most of Pritikin’s work is unseen by the
public, which is how he likes it. He disdains
“lawyers playing to the media” and often
considers a “no comment” a better option than a
crafted attack.
“It is not in my clients’ best interest to be
involved in that type of ‘he said, she said’
situation,” Pritikin says. This attitude has earned
him the respect of peers.
“The object is to put your client’s position in
the forefront,” says Floyd Nadler, Pritikin’s law
partner since 1997. “It is not a question of having
the public see that you’ve won a case.”
Past clients say they appreciate both Pritikin’s
tact in avoiding the courtroom when prudent and
his ferocity in the courtroom when needed
“He is a bullfighter, even in his pinstripe suit,”
says a former client who did not wish her name
used. “He is not afraid to throw himself into the
ring and he has the patience, mental strength,
and stamina to emerge the victor.”
Rebelling Against Dad’s Wish
Pritikin was born on the South Side of Chicago
in 1939, the oldest of three children of a podiatrist
and a homemaker.
“My father wanted me to go to medical school
or at least to podiatry school so I that could move
into his practice,” Pritikin says. “And I was one of
those rebellious youths who always thought he
knew better than his parents. And I said, ‘I’ll show
you. I’m going to become a lawyer, not a doctor.’”
Unlike many teenagers who find themselves in
bad rock bands or with tattoos they regret,
Pritikin’s rebellion suited him. He got his
bachelor’s degree from the University of Illinois
and his law degree from DePaul University’s
College of Law.
His first job out of law school unintentionally
set the path of Pritikin’s career. The firm would
give him the cases people with seniority didn’t
want — traffic and the area that would become
his career, divorce.
“I didn’t pick it,” Pritikin says. “It picked me.”
He liked the work and the real, human
connection a good advocate could forge with a
client.
“It is the only part of the law practice where the
lawyer has, first of all—and I hate the use of this
word but it’s a true word—intimate contact with
his clients,” he says. “I know more about the
personal life of my clients than probably their own
therapists.”
A successful attorney-client relationship is a
give and take, Pritikin says. He gets access to
their personal details so he can build the most
successful case. In return, his clients always get
access to him.
“There isn’t a single telephone call I receive
during the day that isn’t returned that same day,”
he says. “There isn’t an e-mail I receive, even at
home on my iPad or computer, that isn’t returned
the same day. I’ve always felt people going
through divorce are at the most vulnerable
emotional stage of their lives and the last one
they need to lose confidence in or to feel is
uncaring is their lawyer.”
That means looking out for his client, but also
for those who are affected by a divorce but have
far less say—children. As the father of four and
grandfather of two boys, Pritikin understands the
value of family.
It’s a dedication his clients appreciate.
“In a forum where children do not have a
voice, he protects them. Under his watch, their
best interests are always paramount,” says the
former client.
Divorce law, Pritikin says, involves everything
from understanding tax returns to crossexamining psychiatrists to knowing property law.
Modern divorces among well-off and heavily
invested spouses aren’t a simple matter of
dividing the property in two.
“There isn’t a single area of the law that we
don’t somehow come in contact, almost in every
case we have,” he says.
The client who did not want her name used
says Pritikin’s expertise came into play many
times during her divorce case.
“In the courtroom, he is able to distill highly
technical and complex financial situations into
cogent and persuasive arguments that support
his clients’ interests,” she says.
Nadler called Pritikin “an excellent, thoughtprovoking litigator. He won’t just jump in and do
something until he’s thought the matter out.”
Although Pritikin deals with the dissolution of
others’ marriages, he has had two strong ones in
his own life. His first wife, the mother of his three
oldest children, died in 1988 in her 40s, he says,
straightening the pink tie he wears in October
during breast cancer awareness month. He
married his second wife, Mary, a prominent
Chicago doctor, in 1990.
“I think you learn from this practice,” he says.
“You learn the mistakes that people make in their
marriages and in their relationships and hopefully,
like anything in life, if you learn from others’
mistakes, perhaps you won’t repeat those
mistakes.”
One lesson he has learned to not take his work
home with him emotionally. He and his wife don’t
talk about either’s work when they’re at home.
“You have to be able to separate your personal
and professional lives,” he says. That separation
helps him be a more effective advocate, says his
former client.
“In an emotionally charged and high-stress
situation, you need a strong advocate and a
voice of reason,” she says. “That’s Jim.”
Pritikin is always on the lookout for new
challenges. He started as a boxing judge and
referee 15 years ago, working with the MexicanAmerican Youth Athletic Association.
About seven years ago, Pritikin found a new
passion, bullfighting.
“I went to train as a bullfighter in both Spain
and Mexico and I now go into bull rings in both of
those countries,” he says.
He says wife Mary supported his effort. At first,
anyway, which returns attention to the photo in
his office of him being gored by a bull.
“She was initially very supportive, as is she is
of most of the things I endeavor to do,” he says.
“Until 2008, I think it was, when I got gored in
Spain.”
The incident, which took place when he was
nearing 70, left him with two broken bones in his
left leg and a torn meniscus in his knee. But it
didn’t keep him away from work, where the hall
leading up to his office is now decorated with
framed capes and swords he used in the
bullfighting ring.
“As soon as they had me on crutches, I was
back here,” he says.
It took him about a year to recover, after which
he went right back to bullfighting — with a stillsupportive, if more cautious, wife cheering from
the stands.
In a Different Sort of Ring
Nadler uses the word “only” when saying how
long he has been law partners with Pritikin.
“Only” since 1997, he says. They’ve known each
other longer, nearly a quarter-century. They met
because they’re both early risers and members of
the East Bank Club gym.
The two and Enrico Mirabelli were founding
principals of Nadler, Pritikin & Mirabelli LLC,
which became a part of the Beermann firm in late
2011.
“It was almost like a family environment,”
Nadler says of working with Pritikin.
A good family law attorney shows restraint,
remembering that people’s lives will be forever
changed by what happens in the courtroom.
Posturing and playing to the cameras has never
been Pritikin’s style, Nadler says. He says Pritikin
diligently researches cases, knowing it’s more
important for his clients’ lives that he wins over
the judge than the crowd. It shows a confidence
that posturing wouldn’t, he adds.
“In this line of work, family law, it’s easy to
throw a bomb and call yourself a litigator,” Nadler
says. “Jim doesn’t have to.”
When not fighting court cases or bulls, Pritikin
is active in the legal community, volunteering with
a number of professional groups. He has been
hearing chair of the Illinois Attorney Registration
and Disciplinary Commission for the last 14
years, making recommendations to the Illinois
Supreme Court on how to discipline lawyers
accused of misconduct.
“Every once in a while, lawyers have to give
something back to the profession,” he says.
He is also a fellow of the American Academy
of Matrimonial Lawyers and has served as
president of the Illinois chapter.
His office is filled with mementos and photos.
Celebrity is at work here. Who wouldn’t want to
show off a photo of his screenwriter son with
Academy Award-winning actor Adrian Brody,
another son with Sarah Palin, or his wife and
daughter meeting LeBron James?
But fame isn’t the issue. Family photos, boxing
gloves, and bullfighting paraphernalia take
greater prominence in Pritikin’s office and life.
The divorce and custody battle of NBA star
Wade earned Pritikin a measure of fame outside
the legal community, especially after Wade
referenced him several times in his memoirs.
Pritikin says appearing so prominently in the
book — he appears on the first page — was
touching.
It wasn’t touching because Wade is famous,
Pritikin says. It was touching because it was a
note of confidence and thanks from an
appreciative client.
“It’s the pat on the back that lots of lawyers
never get in my business,” Pritikin says.
The watchword is still “discretion” when
dealing with any divorce case, even and perhaps
especially when a client is famous.
Pritikin knows that just because some of his
clients happen to make their living on basketball
courts or in movies, that doesn’t mean they have
surrendered their lives and their children’s lives to
the public and press.
During the interview for this story, Pritikin’s
receptionist came in with a request for comment
from the local ABC affiliate. Wade’s ex-wife was
making some sort of statement that afternoon
and they wanted to see if the Wade camp would
be available to give a response afterward.
Pritikin told his receptionist to tell the ABC
reporter “no,” just as he had told the reporters
from CBS and the Chicago Tribune the day
before.
“That’s how you protect your client,”
he says. ■
This article originally appeared in Leading Lawyers Magazine—Consumer Edition for 2013 and has been reprinted with permission. © 2013 Law Bulletin Publishing Co.