Kevorkian's Yeinda' lawyer David Gorosh
gets his turn on the media circuit.
JULIE WIENER
Staff Writer
D
avid Gorosh is enjoying his
15 minutes of fame.
Whether he's Dr. Jack
Kevorkian's attorney or not.
Since early last week, the young
Jewish lawyer from Southfield has
been in the spotlight defending
Michigan's most infamous physician.
That's despite the fact that Kevorkian,
who is charged with first-degree mur-
der in the videotaped killing of
Thomas Youk, a patient afflicted with
Lou Gehrig's disease, is stating pub-
licly that he prefers to act as his own
counsel.
Gorosh, a pleasant-mannered grad-
uate of Southfield-Lathrup High
School, University of Detroit Law
School and United Hebrew Schools'
Julie Wiener may be reached by phone at
(248) 354-6060, ext. 247, or by e-mail at
jwiener@thejewishnews.corn.
B'nai Moshe branch, isn't fazed by his
client's behavior or by the 19-hour
workdays (including Thanksgiving
weekend) his new project requires.
But the unpretentious 30-year-old,
who apologized profusely for being
only a minute late for a Jewish News
interview, is still catching his breath
over the sudden surge of press atten-
tion. In one week he has put in
appearances on Larry King Live,
Nightline and interviews with the likes
of the New York Times and Time mag-
azine.
"Last Wednesday, when I walked
into the district court in Waterford
[for Kevorkian's arraignment], literally
dozens of cameras had been set up,
and on the table in front of me were
maybe seven-eight microphones from
news stations," said Gorosh this week,
sitting in his new office (the diplomas
still are on the floor waiting to be
hung) at Northwestern Highway and
Franklin Road in Southfield.
"I sat down and placed my legal
pad in front of me, and placed out my
legal preparations, and kind of smiled
and asked myself how did this all hap-
pen," he said. "There were a few but-
terflies in my stomach before I actual-
ly stood, but after the first sentence
the cameras didn't bother me, and I
got engrossed."
Gorosh, who spent his high school
and college years on the debate tour-
nament circuit, has wanted to be a
trial lawyer since early childhood.
After two years in the Wayne County
public defender's office in Detroit, he
joined Fieger, Fieger & Schwartz, P.C.,
where he got to know the Southfield
law firm's long-time client, Kevorkian,
and assisted in one of the doctor's
assisted-suicide cases.
Gorosh is in the process of starting
up his own practice, having left the
firm after a falling out with Fieger last
month. The two disagreed over
whether Gorosh should obey a judge's
orders to immediately select a jury for
a Royal Oak case in which Kevorkian
David Gorosh surrounded
by reporters after
Dr. Jack Kevorkians
arraignment Nov. 25.
faced misdemeanor charges or wait for
lead lawyer Michael Schwartz (then in
the hospital) to return and oversee the
matter. According to Gorosh, Fieger
threatened to fire him if he followed
the judge's orders. Gorosh and
Schwartz say Gorosh ended up leaving
of his own accord, although Fieger
told the Detroit Free Press last week
that Gorosh was fired, adding, "He
has no experience."
In a phone interview this week,
Schwartz said he was pleased with
Gorosh's work at the firm, but criti-
cized the young attorney for bad-
mouthing Fieger in the pages of the
Oakland Press after the trial-selection
clash. He also accused Gorosh of exag-
gerating his current role in Kevorkian's
case, asserting that Kevorkian is repre-
senting himself and relying solely on
Wayne State University Law Professor
Robert Sedler for legal advice.
Kevorkian was not available for com-
ment.
Gorosh, who is not billing
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