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David Fink is thinking big

with a small law firm.

Business Magician

David Fink expects his new law firm to weave the old spells.

Bill Carroll
Special to the Jewish News

A

ttorney David H. Fink already
has a reputation as a tough labor
negotiator. Now he's ready to
work his magic in "head-to-head combat"
against larger law firms in the Detroit area.
Fink, 58, who lives in West Bloomfield,
recently opened a small law firm, Fink +
Associates Law, on West Long Lake Road
in Bloomfield Hills with a five-person
staff. "I'm excited about our new firm,"
he said. "It gives us a chance to leverage
what I've learned in more than 30 years in
private practice and public service. We're
building a strong, nimble litigation team,
with all the advantages of the best avail-
able technology."
Fink + Associates Law will focus on
complex commercial and class-action
litigation, plus business disputes, antitrust
matters, consumer and securities fraud,
environmental law, intergovernmental dis-
putes, shareholder derivative litigation and
construction contract matters.
Fink earned a "Minister of Magic" tag
in 2002 when newly elected Michigan

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April 14 • 2011

Gov. Jennifer Granholm appointed him to
her cabinet as the "state employer" — the
state's chief labor negotiator. In view of
today's continuing clashes between labor
unions and the governors of Wisconsin,
Ohio, Indiana and, to some extent,
Michigan, Fink may have been a man
before his time. In tough bargaining, he
persuaded seven state unions to reduce
employee wage and benefit costs by $350

"Oh, there were some protests against
me, as union members carried signs with
my name on them around Lansing:' Fink
recalled, "but we prevailed. My mission
was to accomplish this while keeping
union members happy with the admin-
istration. Gov. Granholm told me that if I
pulled it off, it would be pure magic."
Fink said the key to the state's success
was not to tamper with the unions' col-
lective bargaining rights as is being done
now in other states. "Without that issue
on the table, union members accepted a
concession package more comfortably,' he
said.
As a memento for his efforts, the
Granholm administration presented him

with a desk clock inscribed "Minister of
Magic."
Fink wasn't thinking about magical
mementoes while growing up in Detroit
and Oak Park and attending Oak Park
High School. "In fact, until the age of 14, I
thought I had to be a doctor because my
father was one." (Dr. Samuel Fink is now
retired.) "I got involved with the [Oak
Park High] school debate team and that
inspired me to want to be a court litigator.
That led to Harvard University, where
he graduated magna cum laude from
Harvard College and cum laude from
Harvard Law School.
To gain some quick legal experience,
Fink worked for a year on the city of
Detroit's legal staff, then opened the
Cooper & Fink law firm in 1978 with
his friend Daniel Cooper. "I got thrown
into the fire pretty quickly because the
day after I left the city's employment,
I was litigating in a jury trial," he said.
"Four months later, I was arguing before
the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals in
Cincinnati. It was great experience'
Fink then showed his entrepreneurial
skills by co-founding and serving as man-

aging partner of the Farmington Hills-
based Fink, Zausmer & Kaufman firm for
more than two decades, ultimately grow-
ing the firm to 20 attorneys.
He left in 2002 to run for U.S. Congress
as a Democrat in a losing effort against
then Republican incumbent Joe
Knollenberg. "We each spent about $2.5
million on the campaign; it was a tough
battle," he said.
"I had become interested in public office
in an unusual way' Fink said. "I visited the
Dachau Concentration Camp in Germany,
and I thought, `If the Jewish people were
really to believe in 'Never Again, we had
to try and do something about it, such as
getting involved in the political process."
He has no further political ambitions at
this time, but he's strongly involved in the
Jewish Political Action Committee and
American Israel Public Affairs Committee.

Mediating
Fink then spent three years in the state
employer job — at about $130,000 a
year — but was eager to return to private
practice in 2005 as a senior partner with
the Miller Law Firm in Rochester. For five