MANCHESTER, N.H. (AP) – Legendary lawyer and Democratic activist Joseph Millimet has died.
Millimet is credited with helping shape the state’s legal and political arena for 50 years, from defending college professors accused of Communist leanings in the 1950s to helping Democrats become governor, congressmen and senators.
Millimet co-founded the Manchester firm of Devine & Millimet in 1947 and the two-person office grew to become the 80-lawyer firm of Devine, Millimet & Branch, one of the state’s most prestigious firms.
Millimet died Friday the Pearl Manor nursing home at the age 92. He had been suffering from Parkinson’s disease for several years, said his daughter, Madlyn Deming of New York City.
“He was one of the finest lawyers of the 20th century, in our state or any other state,” said John Broderick, chief justice of the New Hampshire Supreme Court and a former colleague.
Praise for Millimet came from judges, lawyers and Gov. John Lynch, who credited Millimet with shaping New Hampshire law and politics for more than a half century.
Millimet retired in 1994 after a career that saw him head the New Hampshire Bar in 1962-63; chair state constitutional commissions in the ’60s, ’70s and ’80s; and serve as counsel to Gov. John King.
Millimet was born in West Orange, N.J. He graduated from Dartmouth College in 1936 and from Yale Law School three years later. Enthralled with New Hampshire, he turned down a high-salaried offer in New York and took a job with a general practice in Concord. He joined the Coast Guard after World War II broke out, fattening himself up to meet a minimum weight requirement after the Navy turned him down, Deming said.
After the war, Millimet returned to New Hampshire. In 1947, he and Maurice Devine founded Devine & Millimet.
An early case involved a University of New Hampshire professor who had invited a socialist to speak to his class. Then-Attorney General Louis Wyman took the two to court to find out what was said. Millimet and another lawyer, Bill Phinney, represented the two in state courts, and a Yale law professor eventually took the case to the U.S. Supreme Court, where UNH won.
Millimet’s work on the case was unpopular at the time, but it may have been his single biggest contribution to the law, Broderick said.
“It showed that the law must do things for the right reasons, and lawyers must be fearless,” Broderick said.
In the mid-1970s, Millimet took two cases that further solidified his standing in the legal world. One made him rich, the other earned him the respect of Democrats statewide.
He represented Sanders Associates in an anti-trust suit against IBM, which was then the undisputed maker of computers worldwide. Sanders wanted to sell terminals that plugged into IBM computers and claimed IBM was blocking it from doing so, said Andrew Dunn, a Devine Millimet lawyer who also worked the case.
Millimet won a key ruling that forced IBM into negotiations. The settlement award rescued Sanders from bankruptcy and remains confidential to this day, Dunn said.
“In the ’70s, it was a huge amount. Today it would still be a large amount,” he said.
In 1974, Millimet assisted Democrat John Durkin, whose dead-heat finish with Wyman in a U.S. Senate race prompted a recount, months of legal wrangling in the courts and the U.S. Senate and eventually a second election, which Durkin won.
“I’ll always be indebted to Joe for all the time, and energy and intelligence he put into it,” Durkin said.
Durkin credited Millimet for the “missionary work” in the ’50s and early ’60s that helped build the Democratic Party in the state, leading to the elections of King, Durkin, Sen. Tom McIntyre and U.S. Rep. Norm D’Amours.
Millimet’s political leanings didn’t keep him from hiring Republicans. Devine Millimet alumni include former Gov. Steve Merrill and U.S. Appeals Judge Norman Stahl. Millimet cared most that lawyers were involved in public service, several said.
“Your first duty was to serve the public, your second duty was to get paid for it,” said Devine Millimet partner Ovide Lamontagne, who ran for governor as a Republican in 1996.
A service has been scheduled for Nov. 10 at 11 a.m. at Brookside Congregational Church.
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