It was a pretty cool experience getting to meet Fred Nance.
Part of it was the fact that I had seen him so many times on TV and in the newspaper representing the city of Cleveland in one dispute or another. Most notable of all these, of course, was the work he did to get Cleveland a new NFL franchise after Art Modell moved the original Browns to Baltimore in 1995.
But there were others, and now I had a chance to sit down and talk to this fascinating and very successful individual. I stepped into his office in Key Tower overlooking downtown Cleveland and the room was full of photos from the many experiences he has had and people he has met over the years.
When you become the global managing partner of a law firm like Squire Patton Boggs and provide legal counsel to someone as famous as LeBron James, you’ll have a lot of stories to tell. Nance welcomed me into his office, made me feel at home and began to share some of the tales that have shaped his career.
When he got his first job at the law firm, Nance focused on litigation and trial law as his specialty as a hedge against things not working out.
“I assumed that when I got discovered as a charlatan and kicked out on the street, that I would need skills that would permit me to put food on the table,” Nance says. “If I had trial skills, I could hang up my shingle and make a living. That was the extent of my vision at the time. That was 40 years ago and I’m still here.”
Nance grew up in Cleveland and became a lawyer after witnessing the riots and urban strife that took place here and in other cities across the U.S. in the 1960s.
“I remember seeing the National Guard and Jeeps rolling down the street with machine guns mounted on them that were close enough for me to reach out and touch and soldiers with bayonets,” Nance recalls.
“My initial inclination toward the law was based on a desire to achieve social justice and eliminate this feeling of powerlessness and helplessness that was rampant in our community. That’s when I first decided I wanted to be a lawyer.”
I hope you’ll check out more of my conversation with Nance in this month’s cover story. ●
Mark Scott is senior associate editor at Smart Business Network
