Lafayette attorney honored by peersTo attorney Russell Hart, each of the hundreds of cases he handled during his time with Lafayette law firm Stuart & Branigin was just as important as the next. It's this modesty that perhaps led to Hart being the recipient of the 2007 Legendary Lawyer Award by the Fellows of the Indiana Bar Foundation, according to a longtime colleague. "He's a lawyer's lawyer -- a consummate gentleman. I think it's a wonderful recognition of a life well spent," said Joe Bumbleburg of Lafayette, one of more than 100 attorneys and judges in Indiana to attend a luncheon Friday in Hart's honor. "I've had cases where I worked with him and cases where he sat on the other side." Hart, who retired from Stuart & Branigin in 1999 after 43 years of civil litigation, currently serves as the firm's senior counsel. Twenty of those years were spent working asbestos cases on a national level. Hart said after being in the military, then graduating college and working in business, he wanted to pursue something more. He made the most of his career being actively involved in numerous groups, including the Indiana State Bar Association and the Defense Trial Counsel of Indiana. He described Friday's luncheon and formal honor presentation as an overwhelming experience. The Tippecanoe County Bar Association also adopted a resolution in honor of Hart's decades in practice. "Of course, it makes me proud to be recognized by my peers," Hart said. "... It's a great honor for my fellow lawyers to give their support. "Everyone I worked with on all kinds of cases, we were always still supportive of each other." Bumbleburg, of the law firm Ball Eggleston, met Hart after returning to the Lafayette area. He fondly remembers participating with Hart during the 1976 Fourth of July celebration -- with Bumbleburg playing Benjamin Franklin and Hart portraying George Washington. "We just had a great time. Two stuffy lawyers dressed in costume," Bumbleburg joked. "He again proved himself to be what he is: a man of many sides." |