Colleagues, friends remember Richard Anderson

Anyone can see down the street, but Richard Anderson could look down the street and around the corner to see what was coming.

That’s the way Anderson’s longtime friend from their days at Syracuse University School of Law, Alfred J. Heilman, described the forward-thinking Anderson, who died last week at the age of 70 from complications following heart surgery.

Anderson’s honesty was well known to his colleagues and clients. He practiced law the same way he played golf, said Monroe County Supreme Court Justice William P. Polito, who also recalled Anderson’s courtroom prowess at his eulogy.

Fairness meant so much to him he never took a “mulligan.”

During his career, Anderson argued cases before the New York State Court of Appeals and the U.S. Supreme Court. The cases could have put him in the limelight, but he avoided such attention, instead doing what he felt was right for his clients.

When a morning news show asked him to appear after his involvement in a significant Court of Appeals case in the early 1990s, Anderson declined because he felt it wasn’t in his client’s best interest.

“He was a champion of people’s rights and the underdog,” said Joel N. Krane, who practiced with Anderson for many years earlier in their careers.

Colleagues say Anderson had a way of finding the good in people and bringing it to the court’s attention, even if he was representing a client accused of a violent felony. Krane recalled an armed robbery case in which Anderson convincingly argued that his client was a product of society.

 “He was the most honest person I’ve ever met,” said friend Mark Hallimen. “He never fought dirty and always did the right thing. He was the Atticus Finch of our time. He should have been famous but that’s not how it worked out for him.”

The general practitioner also took time for pro bono work through the Volunteer Legal Services Project.

“He went out of his realm to do family law cases because there was a need to do them,” said Mary Beth Conway, staff attorney with the VLSP.

“He had the ability to analyze issues clearly and sensibly,” Justice Polito said. “He didn’t work for the money, he worked for a good cause. I think he enjoyed the real essence of the law and in figuring out what the best course of action was for a client.”

Heilman recalled the times he and Anderson went to Cooperstown and were mistaken for baseball players. Anderson had an imposing figure that belied a non-confrontational, calm and patient demeanor.

Anderson may have avoided confrontation, but he possessed surgeon-like skill when it came to drilling holes in witness testimony in courtroom cross-examination. Heilman said Anderson enjoyed receiving misdirected mail and being mistaken for the former NFL player of the same name.

Friends say the well-read Syracuse University journalism major would quote Winston Churchill and Bobby Bare with a gleam in his eye and there were few subjects he couldn’t speak on.

Anderson once advised his longtime friend and client, Hallimen, to live life and follow the rules Rudyard Kipling set forth in his poem, “If.” Hallimen said Anderson really did live his life by the good advice given in Kipling’s famous poem, and kept a level head when all about him were losing theirs.

“He was a champion of people’s rights,” Krane said. “There aren’t many like him and he will be missed.”