Geoffrey Fieger is an American
attorney based in
Southfield, Michigan.[1] Fieger is the founder of the
law firm Fieger Law, and is an occasional legal commentator for NBC and MSNBC. His practice focuses on personal injury, civil rights litigation and
medical malpractice cases.
Fieger and his wife Kathleen have three children and live in
Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. Fieger is the older brother of the late
Doug Fieger, lead vocalist of the late-'70s/early-'80s rock group
The Knack, best known for their hit song "
My Sharona" in 1979.
Legal career
Fieger has been involved with a variety of high-profile or controversial cases. In 1994, he represented
Jack Kevorkian in the first of several doctor-assisted suicide trials. Kevorkian was acquitted in that trial and all subsequent trials where Fieger represented him. (Kevorkian was convicted when he represented himself in his last assisted suicide trial in 1999.) These events were made into a movie, You Don't Know Jack, aired on HBO, in which Fieger was portrayed by actor
Danny Huston.
Ralf Panitz, accused of killing his ex-wife Nancy Campbell-Panitz in July 2000, following their appearance along with Panitz's new wife, on a segment of The Jerry Springer Show. Panitz was convicted in 2002.
The family of
Aiyana Jones, a seven-year-old girl who was shot during a police raid in 2010, conducted while a crew was doing a taping of the
A&E reality show The First 48.[5]
A lawsuit against the
Michigan State Police on behalf of the family of 64-year-old Jacqueline Nichols, a pedestrian who was killed when a cruiser crashed into her during a police chase in
Flint on July 3, 2014.[6] The state agreed to settle the suit for $7.7 million.[7]
The family of
Kenneka Jenkins, a 19-year-old girl who was found dead in a
Rosemont, Illinois hotel freezer in 2017 after a night of partying.[9]
A $100 million lawsuit in regards to the
2021 Oxford High School shooting was filed by Fieger against
Oxford Community Schools on behalf of a 17-year-old student who was shot in the neck and her sister who was walking next to her as she was shot. The suit claims that the girls are experiencing PTSD and that the school failed to protect the students by allowing the shooter to return to class after they had direct information that he was exhibiting homicidal ideation.[10][11]
In 1998, Fieger ran unsuccessfully as the
Democratic nominee for
Governor of Michigan. During the campaign Fieger made several inflammatory and controversial comments and statements, including
an assertion that his opponent
John Engler was the product of
miscegenation between humans and barnyard animals;[12]
a claim that "rabbis are closer to Nazis than they think."[13]
the observation that, "in 2,000 years we've probably made somebody who is the equivalent of Elvis into God, so I see no reason why not to believe that in 2,000 years Elvis will be God. Probably if we went back 2,000 years, and they said, you know, we think Jesus is God, and Jesus is just some goofball that got nailed to the cross."[14]
a radio appearance characterizing Michigan appellate judges as "jackasses" for overturning a 15 million dollar medical malpractice judgment he had won. (A lower court reprimand based on these comments was eventually upheld by the Michigan Supreme Court.)[15]
Other activities
In 1997, Fieger donated four million dollars to the Detroit College of Law, now the
Michigan State University College of Law, to start the nation's first trial practice institute for law students, which was named the Geoffrey Fieger Trial Practice Institute.[16]
In August 2007, Fieger was indicted on federal
campaign finance charges; the
U.S. government alleged that Fieger had illegally funneled $127,000 to
John Edwards'
2004 presidential campaign. Fieger was defended by famed defense attorney
Gerry Spence, who announced this would be his last case. A jury
acquitted Fieger of all 10 charges, and Fieger's co-defendant and law partner Ven Johnson on five charges, on June 2, 2008. Johnson stated that the charges were politically motivated.[17]
^"Michigan Review". Archived from the original on September 5, 2008. Retrieved 2009-06-03.{{
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