Friends, colleagues remember Milliken

Rochester lost a respected member of the legal community with the passing of David R. Milliken, 56, a longtime public sector attorney who spent the last years of his career with the Office of the Conflict Defender.

The so called “king of motions” had a precision-like ability to pluck out any defect in accusatory instruments, according to Kimberly Czapranski and Joseph P. Crimi, his colleagues at the Conflict Defender’s Office.

Clients knew they could count on the meticulous, detail-oriented attorney who got his first job in law with the Office of the Public Defender in the mid-1980s and stayed with the county in various capacities for nearly his entire career.

“He was spectacular with clients,” said Czapranski, acting Conflict Defender. “He had a multi-faceted way of handling their cases so that he got positive results.”

“He was passionate about his clients and made sure they were competently represented,” assistant Conflict Defender Crimi noted.

The man who hired Milliken for his first attorney job at the Office of the Public Defender, Brian Shiffrin of Easton Thompson Kasperek Shiffrin LLP, said his friend was as passionate about his cases at the end of his career as he was when his career began nearly 30 years ago.

Shiffrin and law firm colleague Lawrence Kasperek said they grew up in life and in their legal careers with Milliken at the Public Defender’s Office. Kasperek said the witty Milliken had an outgoing personality that made everyone who worked with him feel comfortable

“He was an outgoing guy who cared about his clients and his clients sensed that,” Shiffrin said. “He was straightforward. There were no ulterior motives with him and it made him a pleasure to work with.”

The congenial Milliken was also a respected and well-liked adversary by those who opposed him in court.

Colleagues said the University at Buffalo Law School graduate had a dry wit from the beginning to the end of his career.

“It was kind of like British humor,” Czapranski said.

Senior Deputy County Attorney Mark Maves said Milliken brought a “MASH-like humor” to the serious situations and pressure the two often faced as attorneys in the children’s services unit of the County Attorney’s Office in the 1990s, referring to the 1970s television comedy series.

“He was a smart guy who enjoyed the intellectual aspect of practicing law,” Maves said. “He enjoyed the craft of being a trial attorney: standing up in court to make a legal argument, dragging the proof out and examining witnesses.”

Maves said Milliken was well suited for legal work in the public sector where he could spend “99 percent of the time doing lawyer stuff instead of running a business.”

Czapranski said Milliken was someone who could have made a lot of money in the private sector, but chose to work in the public sector.

“He always said he wasn’t a competitive guy, but he was competitive in court,” Maves said, adding that he also liked to compete in athletic endeavors, such as bowling and softball.

Milliken’s colleagues said he had a genuine interest in the welfare of the people he represented and in making sure they were protected.

“Dave was able to look at each individual holistically, not just at the legal issues they had but what was going on in a person’s life at the time,” Kasperek said.

Milliken met his first wife, Nancy Connelly Milliken, at the Office of the Public Defender when she was Shiffrin’s secretary. She preceded him in death.

“They were beautiful people, they really were,” Shiffrin said.

Milliken leaves behind his wife, Theresa Cadieux-Milliken, and three children.