DEFENSE ATTORNEY LANNY FISHER FIGHTS TO PROVIDE CLIENTS WITH HIS BEST REPRESENTATION

BUCHANAN – Lanny Fisher has a passion for helping others whether it’s in his hometown community of Buchanan or in the courtroom as a defense attorney. His nearly 10 year law career has brought him notoriety for some high-profile cases and a reputation for fighting for his clients.
Fisher began his law career in 2005 when he passed the bar exam and began clerking for Cass Circuit Judge Michael Dodge. He opened his own practice in 2008 and continues to have his office in the Kevin Barker building in downtown Buchanan that once housed the Clark Equipment administrative offices.
A 1987 graduate of Buchanan High School, Fisher received his undergraduate degree in business management from Western Michigan University and worked for several years at an X-ray service company where he was a vice-president when he left.
“I decided I wanted to do something for others, I felt a calling to go into law,” he said. “I went to the Ave Maria Law School which was founded by Domino’s Pizza owner Tom Monaghan. I scored so high on my LSAT that I got a full scholarship to law school. I was very fortunate to get it.” “I clerked for Judge Dodge for two years after I passed my bar exam,” he added. “I can’t imagine a better way to enter the law profession than to see him as a judge and see the attorneys interact. What a great way to be indoctrinated in the law. I saw the good, the bad, everything.”
Fisher noted that he had a variety of duties during his time as a law clerk, from doing research on civil cases to scheduling, bringing attorneys together and keeping track of defendants. “What a great experience that was,” he said. “It was on the job training and I absorbed it like a sponge.”
He worked for a Niles area law firm for a year after that before opening his own law office in 2008. He specializes in criminal and family law and has been involved in several high profile cases.
Those cases include the murder cases against two Berrien County teens, an Allegan County cold murder case and the “sextortion” cases involving the “Niles Five” teens. Most recently, he defended a Benton Harbor man accused of killing a teen outside his home.
Fisher was finishing up his defense of a Berrien County resident, Van Buren Hutchison, in an Allegan County murder case when he was hired to defend 14-year-old Dakotah Eliason in early 2010. Hutchison had been arrested in 2009 for a 1993 code case murder in Allegan County and took a plea deal in the middle of the trial.
People will very likely remember the Eliason case involving the Niles teen shooting and killing his step-grandfather, Jesse Miles. The case made headlines not only in this area but nationwide after articles in the Wall Street Journal and the New Yorker magazine.
That case brought attention to the issue of juveniles being sentenced to life in prison for murder. Eliason ended up being resentenced to a 37-year prison term after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that automatically sentencing juveniles to life in prison without the chance for parole was unconstitutional.
Fisher’s next high profile case was that of Destiny Coulson. The Eau Claire teenager shot and killed her boyfriend and, like Eliason, was tried as an adult in Berrien County Trial Court. She ended up being sentenced to prison for 14 years for second-degree murder.
It was the Coulson case that led to Fisher appearing on a national television show. “I was a guest on the Nancy Grace show for an hour talking about the Destiny Coulson case,” he said. “They wanted to advertise it as the blond beauty queen killing her older lover, I wanted to talk about her competency to stand trial.”
When asked about the notoriety he’s received from defending some of his clients, he said “you take what comes and learn to roll with things.” “One thing that was good was that people saw I was somebody who would fight for my client,” he added.
Fisher said his goal with all the people he defends is to provide them with the best representation he can. He admits to being frustrated at times with the workings of the criminal justice system but said he doesn’t get discouraged.
“No, it’s just the opposite,” he said when asked if he gets discouraged. “I want to fight even harder to get my clients the best deal I can … It’s a matter of wanting to help people. Sometimes it works out and you know your hard work has affected someone in a positive way.”
He just finished the trial in his latest high profile case, the case against Benton Harbor resident Terrance Shelby. Shelby was convicted in January of second-degree murder in the shooting death of Grady Manns and will be sentenced Feb. 27.
“It was an interesting case, bringing in issues such as one’s home is one’s castle and self-defense,” he said.
Besides working his hardest for his clients, Fisher also is a firm believer in giving back to the community. He served on the city of Buchanan’s parks and recreation board for several years and continues to coach two floor hockey teams and Optimist youth soccer.
He also makes a point of speaking to high school and college classes whenever he can.
“I got to speak to high school and college classes,” he said. “Kids always ask me if it is hard to defend guilty people and I saw everyone deserves representation. I want to make sure people’s rights are not trampled on.”
“People think my job is tough, to defend guilty people, but that’s not my responsibility,” he added. “Where it gets really hard is when a defendant is truly not guilty and people lie, those are the tough ones.”
Fisher said people have some misconceptions about the law and about the court system. “I think that the glut of tv shows about the law have affected jurors,” he said. “They expect all trials to go like a tv show and be wrapped up in 60 minutes.”
“There’s definitely some apathy toward the criminal justice system but we have a lot of good people working in the court system in this area,” he said. “People think they can’t get a fair shake and they’re skeptical about attorneys, but I tell them I won’t rest until I get the best possible result for them.”
As for what he likes about being a lawyer, he said it’s certainly never boring. “Every single case is different, it’s never boring,” he said. “I’ve never been bored for one minute ever … I also like being my own boss. I’ve never thought about going back to business.”