56 | NOVEMBER 21 • 2024
OBITUARIES
OF BLESSED MEMORY
J
effrey Hale Miro, 82, of
Bloomfield Hills, passed away
on Oct. 4, 2024, from Lewy
Body dementia at his home, sur-
rounded by the love of his wife and
three children.
Incredibly sharp, affable, hum-
ble and wise, Jeffrey was one of the
foremost attorneys working in real
estate, orchestrating some of the most
influential deals of the ’70s, ’80s and
’90s. He was also a devoted husband,
father and grandfather whose love,
humor and support guided his family
throughout his years.
Born to David and Bernice Miro in
Detroit on June 3, 1942, Jeffrey Miro
was a precocious, athletic and ram-
bunctious child who loved summer
camp in Northern Wisconsin and to
cause mischief with his neighborhood
friends in Palmer Woods.
Jeffrey attended and “left” vari-
ous elementary schools, including
Hampton, Detroit Country Day and
Cranbrook. He settled in for high
school at Grosse Pointe University
School, where he graduated. Jeffrey
received his B.S. from Cornell
University in economics, then went
to University of Michigan Law School
for his J.D. and Harvard Law School
for his L.L.M.
While at Michigan, Jeffrey met his
wife, Marsha White Miro, on a blind
date only to reconnect fortuitously
at the American Express Counter
in Florence, Italy. They recognized
immediately they were different —
one a logical, driven lawyer, the other
an ever-curious dreamer and art his-
torian — yet perfect for each other.
Jeffrey always made Marsha laugh,
supported her as she forged a new
path for women writing about art and
understood deeply her curious and
unconventional mind; while Marsha
helped Jeffrey see the world in a way
he otherwise could not, supported
him as he pursued his sprawling
vision for his law practice, and helped
him balance his brilliance and inten-
sity with a love for the life and family
they shared. They married in 1967
and over a dynamic 57-year union
had three children and nine grand-
children while living in Bloomfield
Hills until moving to Manhattan and
Hillsdale, N.Y., in 2016.
After finishing school in 1966,
Jeffrey joined his father’s law firm
Smith, Miro, Hirsch, Brody and
Zweig, where he began representing
shopping center magnate A. Alfred
Taubman, beginning a lifelong collab-
oration and friendship. While he start-
ed in tax law, Jeffrey quickly gained
a reputation for being a brilliant and
inventive legal strategist in real estate
and corporate transactions. Perhaps
his most influential contribution to
investment law was the creation of
the first real estate invest-
ment trust (REIT) for the
Taubman Company. Also
for Taubman and inves-
tors Max Fischer, Henry
Ford II and Donald Bren,
Jeffrey outmaneuvered
Mobil Oil for the rights
to purchase what would
become modern-day
Orange County — the
Irvine Ranch — from the
Irvine Family in 1977 for the then-
unprecedented price of $337 million.
Jeffrey also advised Taubman in the
creation of the USFL and the founding
of the Michigan Panthers, who won
the league’s inaugural championship
in 1985. Continuing to move outside
real estate, Jeffrey helped facilitate
Taubman’s thwarting of a hostile take-
over for the purchase of Sotheby’s auc-
tion house in 1983 for $124.8 million.
Jeff served on the board of Sotheby’s
for 20 years, helping build it into
the global auction house it is today.
Jeffrey would go on to serve on many
other boards, including at Fortune
500 companies such as the Limited
Corporation.
In addition to helping others build
their business, Jeffrey managed to
build his own. With his father and
brother-in-law, Ernest Weiner, Jeffrey
started his own law firm, Miro, Miro
and Weiner in 1981, gathering a
stable of the most talented lawyers
in Detroit and slowly adding clients
until it became one of the most well-
regarded and sought-after firms in the
city. After its dissolution in 2004, he
became a senior partner at Honigman
LLC.
In addition to his success as a
practicing lawyer, Jeffrey believed in
passing on his knowledge and faith in
the law, particularly the necessity of
practicing ethically. He was a beloved
and talented teacher who worked as
adjunct professor of law, first at Wayne
State University and then for 24 years
at University of Michigan Law School,
where he taught real estate, tax law
and corporate governance.
He loved working with
students and was known as
imminently approachable
and capable of communi-
cating the most complicat-
ed concepts in the simplest
ways. His devotion to his
students’ success was such
that he refused a salary,
instead creating a merit
scholarship fund that con-
tinues posthumously.
Throughout his life, Jeffrey was a
passionate philanthropist, contrib-
uting his own resources as well as
marshaling those of his influential
client base for many good causes in
the suburban Detroit community. He
helped raise money for, among others,
the University of Michigan, University
of Michigan Medical Center and
Cranbrook Educational Community.
Throughout Jeffrey’s many accom-
plishments, his character shone
brightly. He was a true original —
friends, colleagues and family would
often say there was no one else like
him. He was well-known for his abil-
ity to parse problems and distill solu-
tions into wise, workable advice.
He was often prescient, predicting
problems before they happened, and
he had a deep focus and drive that
contrasted with his ever-positive
demeanor — a “fighter” who made
you smile.
Jeffrey was beloved for his wit — he
loved to laugh and get others to laugh
at even the most difficult situations —
and for his intelligence — he famously
walked out of the Michigan Bar exam
so early he was booed, only to take a
deep bow. Jeffrey took great pride in
and demonstrated often his ability to
listen. He felt it was a lost art and an
essential skill for knowing the people
and world around you. It was always
clear that Jeffrey’s understanding of
the emotions and complexities that
make us who we are were essential to
who he was. And what was particular-
ly admirable was how he applied that
understanding, his empathy, his deep
intelligence and love for life, to the
people he loved most.
Jeffrey’s love of his family
transcended everything, and it was
for them he worked so hard. As a
father to his three children, he was
thoughtful, generous and unparalleled
in his ability to gently give them the
confidence and support to pursue
their dreams and become the best
versions of themselves. He always
made time to give them his famous
advice or make them laugh and
see the positive. He took them on
adventures down the Colorado River
or into the heart of the Galapagos,
where he could bond more deeply and
see the world more closely through
their eyes. He was also a loving
grandfather, who loved taking his
whole gang to Hawaii and Walloon
Lake, where his sharp wit was a source
of constant entertainment, even if his
jokes were often inappropriate.
Yet, through all their travels as a
family, the hikes on the Napali coast
or dives with sea turtles, Jeffrey loved
nothing more than sitting for long
meals with his family. He cherished
the banter and storytelling but, above
all, the time spent simply being
together. It was his happiest of happy
places, and he often planned the next
meal as the prior one was still going,
making sure it was a pleasure that
would never end.
Perhaps Jeffrey’s many
A Legal-Minded Visionary
Jeffrey
Miro