Chris Messerly didn’t think he’d
done anything heroic. Well, yes. He had won his case. It was a big case, too, one
that went all the way to the Minnesota Supreme Court. But winning was what he’d
been hired to do. As a partner in the Minneapolis office of the law firm
Robins, Kaplan, Miller & Ciresi, winning cases was just one part of his job
description. It didn’t mean he was a hero.
In this case, it did.
In November 2008, Prevent Child
Abuse Minnesota awarded Messerly the Everyday Hero Award for his work on a case
seeking justice for a young girl scarred by abuse. “This little girl was just a
newborn and she was beaten on several occasions,” Messerly said. “She was taken
to the same hospital multiple times and three times the staff sent her home.
The fourth time, she arrived with horrific injuries that left her blind and a
quadriplegic.”
In the state of Minnesota,
Messerly explained, doctors are considered mandatory reporters of suspected
child abuse. However, prior to this young girl’s case, doctors who suspected
abuse and then chose not to report it could not be sued for medical
malpractice. It was a loophole in desperate need of closing.
“This little girl, she couldn’t
speak for herself and she needed a chance at justice,” Messerly said, noting
that she will face lifelong medical expenses. Beyond securing a future for the
girl, the goal of this case was to put a law on the books that would hold
doctors accountable when it came to reporting child abuse. “We weren’t trying
to open a floodgate of malpractice suits against doctors. Instead, we wanted to
give doctors an incentive to report abuse,” he said.
Messerly argued the case before
the Minnesota Supreme Court in 2007. While he’d previously argued a case before
the Wisconsin Supreme Court in 1994, this was his first trip to the high court
in Saint Paul.
“It was terrifying and
exciting,” Messerly said of the experience, “but it was also a very important
occasion. It was tremendous what was riding on this case. It was the welfare of
this little girl, the welfare of every abused child in the state of Minnesota.”
The justices agreed and it was because of this win, and a subsequent law
requiring doctors to report suspected abuse, that Messerly was awarded the
Everyday Hero Award. “I was humbled. I was really honored. I didn’t expect the
recognition,” Messerly said. “I didn’t become a lawyer to win awards.”
He became a lawyer to help
people. After earning an undergraduate degree at Bowdoin College in Maine,
Messerly returned to Minnesota, his home state, and married his high school
sweetheart. He spent two years working as a paralegal with his current firm and
then decided to enroll in law school at Hamline, graduating with honors in
1986. As a law student, Messerly was captain of the Barristers Hockey Team.
“Hamline was an appealing school
because it has a pioneering spirit. It’s committed to protecting the public
welfare and the public good,” Messerly said. “As a kid, I was raised to think
of others, to help others, and Hamline further instilled that in me. Hamline has
a strong tradition of teaching its students to put others first, and really,
that is what lawyers should be doing.”
Now that he is a lawyer,
Messerly has built a distinguished career and a solid reputation by defending
victims of medical malpractice and personal injury. “I’m drawn to helping
people who’ve been injured by no fault of their own,” Messerly said. While he
does clock billable hours for many of his cases, he also devotes a considerable
amount of his time to pro bono work. He’s fought several Title IX cases on a
pro bono basis. Title IX is a federal ruling allocating equal extracurricular
funding for both boys’ and girls’ activities. It is because of Messerly that a
women’s hockey team exists at St. Cloud State.
Framed family photographs crowd
Messerly’s office. Most of them showcase the radiant smiles of his three
children, one daughter and two sons, all of whom have grown up playing hockey
under the watchful eye of their dad. Messerly has coached each of his kids on
the ice, and doing so, he said, has been a “highlight” of his life. The time he
spent with his daughter’s team, though, pushed him to take on Title IX cases.
“I’ve coached boys’ and girls’
teams, and I’ve seen how they are treated differently. The girls get crummy ice
times and less funding,” he said, an inequality that struck him as unfair. “One
of the main reasons I have been a successful lawyer is because I’ve been
playing team sports all my life,” he said. “Team sports prepare you for every
aspect of life to come. You learn to support others and to play under the rules
but to hit as hard as you can. And at the end, you learn to shake hands.”
Messerly considers himself a
team player and he’s quick to credit his co-workers. Without his fellow lawyers
and willing support staff, he said, he wouldn’t be able to take on so many pro
bono clients. Robins, Kaplan, Miller & Ciresi Partner Phillip Sief ’85 and
Associate Genevieve Zimmerman ’03 are two of his teammates that stand out. Both
are graduates of Hamline’s School of Law and together with Messerly and several
others in their office, have taken on twenty pro bono cases representing
victims of the 35W bridge collapse. Messerly recruited nineteen other law firms
to represent about 125 victims who are seeking settlement money from the state.
The various law firms have formed a consortium in order to better communicate
with each other and lobby more effectively at the State Capitol. Messerly
spearheaded efforts on behalf of the consortium with legislators, successfully
arguing for the state’s unprecedented compensation fund. He also dealt with the
media, keeping it informed of the consortium’s progress.
Throughout the bridge case, and
throughout the rest of his career, Messerly has maintained close ties with
Hamline’s law school. He was the longest-standing member of the dean’s advisory
board and he returns whenever he’s asked to speak with students. “I love what I
do,” Messerly said, “I’ll take any opportunity to share my compassion. I’m so
fortunate to do what I do.”
by Kelly Westhoff