A sidebar with Lawrence Garcia.

Byline: Thomas Franz

Lawrence Garcia has had a busy start to his role as corporation counsel in the City of Detroit Law Department.

However, his schedule hasn't prevented him from leading his department in giving back to the city. The law department recently participated in the Motor City Makeover project by picking up trash and debris over a few blocks in the city.

Garcia spoke with Michigan Lawyers Weekly to discuss his position and why it's important for him and his team to be involved with Detroit.

Where did you practice law before coming to the city's law department?

I had my own law firm in the Fisher Building called the Garcia Law Group from 2011-2017.

What kind of law did you focus on while running your own firm?

I was at liberty to take on cases that I wanted to take on, not so much because it scratched my creative itch or made a ton of money, but because it's important to me, and that was to serve the Latino community for Spanish-speaking clients. I speak Spanish and the folks who worked for me spoke Spanish, so we were able to represent Spanish-speaking customers in their own language in what became a general practice.

What was the transition like in going to work for the city?

It was hard. It was a dramatic change. I learned a lot in the first year and the second year has been easier. It's been a lot more fun this year but the first year was very challenging. In addition to learning a lot about municipal law and FOIA and real estate transactions, things I didn't know, I also had to learn about government procedures and how the city government operates.

How did you get approached for this position?

Under the city charter, Mayor Mike Duggan nominates or appoints the corporation counsel and then the selection has to be confirmed by a vote of the city council.

I had known Mike Duggan for a long time. When he was the CEO of the DMC, I did a lot of legal work for the DMC. He had been aware of some of my efforts on behalf of the DMC, and I had been aware of his efforts in politics when he ran for mayor, so we saw each other and knew of each other through those endeavors.

With a wide variety of cases coming to your office, how do you choose which areas to focus on yourself or disseminate to others?

I'm not sure there's a method to that madness. Sometimes the client, which can be a unit of government or a legislator or the mayor, has the desire that I be their client contact or be in charge of the representation. In those cases, I always...