Seated in a chair in the Hanover Inn on Saturday, Geoffrey Fieger barely resembled the fiery, dramatic figure he was Friday afternoon. But once he started talking about his work and beliefs, Fieger got riled up once again.
Fieger is the attorney representing Dr. Jack Kevorkian, the "suicide doctor," visited the College the weekend to discuss his work with Kevorkian.
An attorney for the largest personal injury and medical malpractice law firm in Michigan, Fieger said he has probably won as many or more multi-million-dollar cases than any other lawyer in the U.S.
A graduate of the University of Michigan with a speech and communications degree from the drama department, Fieger said lawyers "can't act in front of a jury -- they know."
He said his degree gave him speaking practice, but he thinks his public speaking talents are something he was born with, not something he learned.
Fieger said he was "fairly well-known in Detroit" in 1990, when Kevorkian hired him.
He said Kevorkian saw him on television and in the newspapers after a case where he won several million against a hospital.
He said when the hospital did not pay the client, he had people come and haul away equipment from the hospital until it started paying.
"Kevorkian saw that and liked me," Fieger said.
He said while Kevorkian's case takes up much of his time, he has been able to work on other cases in the past few years -- some similar to Kevorkian's.
He was recently retained by a doctor in Florida who is being charged with assisting a suicide.
"I am well-known in association" with defending assisted suicide performers, Fieger said, and added that he believes he is the world's leading spokesman on the issue.
He said people tend to look at him as "a fighter of small guys against the big guy."
Fieger said he considers himself lucky to be in a position in which he is able to pick and choose his cases, and he feels successful because he has the opportunity to do something he likes for a living.
He has gone to trial three times for five cases against Kevorkian, he said, in addition to an injunction, a dropped murder charge and appearances in numerous supreme courts and courts of appeal.
He said the main opposition to the issue of assisted suicide he has come across has been from members of the religious right in state governments.
"We have a participatory democracy in which no one is participating," Fieger said as he raised his voice.
"But the religious all vote and elect their own kind," he said.
