A sidebar with Mike Buckles.

Byline: Thomas Franz

Twenty-five years ago, Beverly Hills collections attorney Michael H.R. Buckles of Buckles & Buckles PLC co-founded the Michigan Creditors Bar Association.

Buckles has been practicing law with his wife, Geraldine, for much of his career. He saw a need for a group like the MCBA to help push statewide legislation to protect creditors.

Buckles spoke with Michigan Lawyers Weekly about his law practice with his wife and the history of the MCBA.

How did you and your wife decide to practice law together?

I worked for a firm for about a year in general practice. I had disagreements with how the firm was managed so I went out on my own.

During this time, my wife was being discriminated against by her employer because she was a woman. I sued them under the Civil Rights Act because they denied her pay and management positions. She left that job and went to work for another employer, who said after a year she was making too much for a woman. We decided to not sue all over again, but to go into practice together.

She got frustrated with the corporate world, and we decided we could do better on our own.

What were you doing at that time?

I was doing collections and general practice. A friend of my wife was being checked by Sears for an account and I resolved that in a fashion that my client could pay. Sears called me six months later and asked me if I could represent them. I had that practice going for about a year before my wife joined me.

How did her background supplement what you were doing?

She is extremely smart. She was an honors student and had a full scholarship to University of Detroit Mercy. In collections and dealing with math and statistics, that was right up her alley. I took the side of the practice that dealt with venue, jurisdiction, consumer protection laws and going to court.

What are the challenges and conveniences to your family in working together?

I think the key to working with your spouse is to treat your spouse with as much consideration as you do everyone else in the office. I think those are words to live by but difficult to achieve in reality.

When we had our kids, we decided to work every other day so that we wouldn't need a nanny or babysitter pretty much up until they went to college.

We purchased a home not far from our own home, and we rezoned it and remodeled it into an office building. We've been there in Beverly Hills since 1989 and focused just on collections since 1991.

The biggest challenge is...