OCTOBER 20 • 2022 | 33

P

rominent Detroit-area lawyer 
Ira Jaffe’s official retirement 
was brief. As he explains it, “I 
view doing very little as purgatory.” 
After retiring last year from Jaffe, 
Raitt, Heuer & Weiss, the Southfield-
based law firm that he founded 
in 1968, Jaffe, 81, was doing some 
consulting for families and businesses 
concerning succession planning and 
wealth transition — his particular 
areas of interest. But last month he 
joined the powerhouse law firm of 
Honigman LLP as distinguished 
counsel. “I love working,” Jaffe says, 
and he seeks “enjoyable ways to make 
a difference.”
“Ira was ready to do something 
different, and I was ready to try 
something new,” says 
Honigman CEO and Chair 
David Foltyn, adding 
that other prominent 
individuals, including 
the late U.S. Sen. Carl 
Levin, have served the 
firm as distinguished 
counsel. 

Foltyn says that it took less than two 
weeks to put together Jaffe’s affiliation 
with Honigman. “We were excited to 
do it with him. We love having him 
in the firm, sharing his brilliance and 
expertise,” he says. 
Jaffe will focus on his special 
areas of expertise and interest — 
charitable foundations, family business 
succession, wealth plans and charitable 
giving. In addition, Foltyn expects to 
turn to Jaffe for assistance because of 
his experience in starting and building 
a big law firm. 

“We are honored to have Ira join 
Honigman as distinguished counsel, a 
special Honigman status reserved for 
attorneys who are widely recognized 

in the legal and business communities 
as preeminent practitioners,” Foltyn 
says. 
Honigman LLP has more than 
330 attorneys at multiple offices in 
Michigan, Chicago and Washington, 
D.C.
In addition to his former role as law 
firm CEO, Jaffe served as CEO and 
president of The Fisher Group, the 
Max and Marjorie Fisher family office, 
until 2019. He has been active with the 
Norman and Esther Allen Foundation, 
which focuses on helping the elderly 
Orthodox community. Jaffe is trustee 
emeritus of the Fred A. and Barbara 
M. Erb Foundation. 
Jaffe enjoys “helping families with 
transition including wealth transfer. 
Family businesses need to consider 
the future by asking ‘What is the 
succession plan? Is it the right time to 

sell? Are there appropriate managers 
in place?’”
He enjoys helping families consider 
wealth and tax issues. “Some want 
to spend it all themselves and don’t 
want to transfer so much to the next 
generation. There are no right or 
wrong choices. Everyone is different,” 
he says.
Jaffe explains that some wealthy 
individuals may give large charitable 
gifts or establish donor-advised 
funds with the Jewish Federation 
of Metropolitan Detroit or the 
Community Foundation of Southeast 
Michigan.
 “Some want their own foundations 
— they want to see the good that is 
achieved and participate. It can be a 
way to interface with the second and 
third generations — to engage them in 
good deeds.”
Jaffe will be based at Honigman’s 
Bloomfield Hills office but may open 
an office in Florida for Honigman. 
Jaffe and his wife, Brenda, longtime 
members of Congregation Shaarey 
Zedek, spend much of the year in 
Naples. Fortunately, they were not 
there during Hurricane Ian. 
“Ira has more than 50 years of 
experience working with and advising 
some of the nation’s most sophisticated 
and successful individuals, businesses, 
foundation and nonprofit community 
organizations, a background and skill 
set that will prove invaluable to the 
many Honigman clients he will come 
to serve,” Foltyn says. 

BUSINESS

Ira Jaffe is named distinguished counsel 
at Honigman Law Firm.
Not Ready to Retire

David 
Foltyn 

SHARI S. COHEN CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Ira Jaffe

