David A. Handzo, ’09, died on June 15, 2022 after a
short battle with cancer. He was sixty-eight. Dave graduated
from Princeton University in 1976 and went on to
receive his J.D. at the University of Michigan Law School
in 1980. Dave served as lead counsel in dozens of jury
and bench trials, securing important victories for clients
in the media, entertainment, telecommunications, and
hospitality industries, among others. He won victories
over the years for the recording industry in numerous
rate-setting proceedings before the Copyright Royalty
Board, where he pioneered the litigation of royalty rates
on behalf of recording artists and record companies to ensure
they were fairly compensated for use of their works
in new media like satellite radio and webcasting. Dave
founded his firm’s Hospitality Practice, winning numerous
victories for Marriott in trials and arbitrations across
the globe, including in Jamaica, Hawaii, Texas, New
York, and Florida. He was also an early leader of his firm’s
Communications Practice, winning many different cases
for MCI over the years. Dave taught many trial teams the
importance of a solid team dinner at the end of each trial
day and cookies at every meeting. Dave also tried many
criminal cases pro bono. He was especially proud of his
work on behalf of Neli Latson, a twenty-three-year-old
man diagnosed with autism, intellectual disability, and
psychiatric disorders who was convicted of assaulting a
police officer and sentenced to more than ten years imprisonment.
Dave and his team persuaded the court to
reduce the sentence to a relatively short time in jail in
addition to time already served. But Dave wasn’t done.
Four years later, Dave obtained a grant of clemency, Mr.
Latson was moved into an appropriate treatment facility,
and he has thrived.
Joseph Lucien Hardig, Jr.,’79, was ninety-two when he
died on May 14, 2020, predeceased by his wife Carolyn
and survived by five children and sixteen grandchildren.
Joe was President of the State Bar of Michigan in 1977.
He loved to dance, play the piano, and listen to Armstrong.
He loved fishing, golf, tennis, skiing, cooking and
traveling, fashion and literature. He loved a Dewar’s and
a can of suds. He loved corvettes. He loved the University
of Michigan. He loved the practice of law.
Hazen van den Berg Hatch, ’76, died October 11, 2013
at age eighty-one. Van attended Dartmouth College and
earned his law degree, with distinction, from the University
of Michigan Law School. Upon graduation, he
joined the U.S. Army, serving in the Judge Advocate
General’s Corps at the Pentagon. He later served as a
delegate to the Michigan Constitutional Convention in
1963 and was a third-generation partner in his family law
firm in Kalamazoo. Van was survived by his wife, Mary
Hatch, two children and five grandchildren.
Kenneth Robert Heineman, ’99, passed away at age
seventy-nine on September 12, 2021. Ken attended the
University of Illinois as an undergraduate and received
his law degree from Washington University School of
Law with honors. Ken’s first job in law was as an FBI
agent, and later as a federal prosecutor. But he spent the
majority of his career in civil litigation and late in his
career he taught a course at the Washington University
School of Law. Ken was married to his wife, Mary, for
over fifty years. He was survived by Mary, two children,
and three grandchildren.
Derek James Hogan, ’21, died May 7, 2022 far too
young at age sixty-six, after a short catastrophic illness
while receiving treatment for throat cancer. Derek’s wife
preceded him in death just six months earlier. Derek attended
Colby College in Maine and Carleton University
in Ottawa. On his return to Halifax, Derek worked as a
journalist (Chronicle Herald, Daily News), and drove a
cab before going on to Dalhousie Law School. He was
called to the bar in 1989. Derek practiced with the NL
Legal Aid Commission for his entire career. Although erudite
and encyclopaedic in his knowledge of criminal law,
Derek was never “prolix or verbose,” words he once used
in an appeal to describe a judge’s instructions to a jury.
Derek was an avid sports fan and recreational athlete. For
almost thirty years, he played pick-up hockey, golf, football,
and softball with a group of friends.
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