Joanne Williams
Editor

(Joanne Williams/FAN – The law books are in the library. Instead, Lawyer Lawrence Nolan surrounds himself with memories, accomplishments and work yet to be done.)

Imagine 50 years of doing good for the community at large and the clients under your charge.

Attorney Lawrence Nolan does not have to imagine. Memories and thanksyous greet him daily.

Yet, speaking from his Eaton Rapids office – a 1800 building he bought in 1976 and helped restore – Nolan talks about the one that got away, the one that had local ties, the one that went to the U.S. Supreme Court from Eaton Rapids, Michigan. More on that to come.

Nolan is originally from Detroit, the son of an Irish immigrant who was one of 13 in his family. His father was a police officer. His mother was an immigrant as well.

Nolan was attracted to the practice of law from an early age. It was the early 1960s and Nolan was attending Our Lady of Sorrows in Farmington. He was watching “Perry Mason,” an early television show, spotlighting fictional lawyer Mason. Nolan was also watching the Civil Rights Movement unfold.

Fast forward to 1976 and Nolan’s graduation from Cooley Law School, the first class to graduate from the institution founded by Michigan Supreme Court Justice Thomas J. Brennan. There were four women among the 60 or so member class. Nolan noted the different treatment they received. 

While in law school, Nolan worked for Stuart Dunnings Jr., who started Lansing’s first black-owned law firm. His inspiration had long moved from Perry Mason to U.S. Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, the Supreme Court’s first black justice.

In 1976, Nolan opened the now Nolan, Thomsen and Villa, PC, at 239 S. Main Street.

“I get up every morning, thankful I am alive and that I can help people,” Nolan said, seated behind his desk, covered with piles of paper and plenty of pink message slips, as well as a neat row of yellow highlighters and black Sharpies.

He has a small Apple computer there, a landline and a cell phone. He has already pointed out the library room, filled with hardbound law books. “Technology has changed, but the law doesn’t,” he said.

With his years of experience, Nolan has now earned the right to pick and choose his cases. There is always pro bono (voluntary and uncompensated) work as well, the kinds of cases he enjoys working on and, mostly, winning.

As one might imagine, the accolades and honors Nolan has earned lines his walls. The two-dozen or so plaques tell the story of a life well lived. And there is much more.

First, his family. 

The 165-pound or so blue swordfish was landed on his honeymoon with wife Laurel Blasi. They have two children, Bridget Nolan Rohs, a mental health counselor, and Patrick Nolan, a doctor, as well as two grandchildren, Nolan and Emmersyn Rohs. 

A proud graduate of Western Michigan University, Nolan is a die-hard hockey fan and has the pictures and bruises from playing (in 1969 at Western, and later with the Legal Eagles), to prove it. The Broncos were 2025 national college team champions he proudly points out and show pictures from a Broncos scrapbook.

Fishing and other sports fill his leisure time. He and his wife have overcome some health challenges as well.

Then there are the law honors. Nolan served as president of a number of associations, including the State Bar of Michigan. 

“When you enjoy what you are doing, you are going to be good at what you do,” Nolan said. “I work with a great staff, wonderful people,” he said. 

And the next 50 years? “I love being a lawyer. I love helping people. I can still throw a fast ball or a curve ball,” he said.

From Eaton Rapids to the Supreme Court

Sometimes lawyers find themselves wrapped up in cases far beyond the final decision. When the interview began for this story, Nolan started telling the story of Blakey v USS Iowa.  For him, there was no better place to start as he recalled his 50-year law career.

The case centered around an April 19, 1989 explosion aboard the USS Iowa, during training exercises near Puerto Rico. The blast killed 47 sailors. One of them was Walter Scot Blakey of Eaton Rapids, who joined the Navy after graduating from Eaton Rapids High School in 1986.

Scot’s parents, Walter Gene and Mary Lou brought a negligence claim against the U.S. Department of the Navy and the United States of America. Other victims’ families also filed a suit. Nolan represented the Blakeys.

This is what Nolan said about the experience, from a speech he gave in 2017:

I got involved with the case, not because I knew the family from Eaton Rapids who lost their son, but because I went to church and sat in the first pew and their family sat behind us. In our church, during the celebration, you turn at a point in the mass and say peace be with you with people you are sitting near. I only knew the family because they always sat behind us. I only knew them because I saw them on Sundays. I never had any social discussion with them, until this tragedy happened. They came to me because they knew that I was a Christian lawyer, I was in their hometown, and they wanted some meaning to come out of this event. It was a six-year journey, from filing suit in the Eastern District of Virginia and Norfolk, to Richmond in the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals, then to the Supreme Court. It all arose because I was living in the community, going to the same church, and the family felt comfortable coming to me in handling the case where their son was tragically taken from them. We as lawyers, and we as Christian lawyers, you can look at the 10 commandments and just about take anything off the 10 commandments and use them as the common law and develop from that all the other laws that exist.

The church was St. Peter’s Catholic Church in Eaton Rapids. Back then, Gene Blakey, Scot’s dad,  asked Nolan to look into the incident. He worked on it all the way up to the Supreme Court, which refused to hear the appeal.

Nolan thought the case was strong. For him, all signs pointed to favorable decision. He knows the struggle made “a difference’” for the families involved. He says he has been “blessed” with the opportunity to practice law.

There is a plaque among his memorabilia that says it clearly: “Never, never, never give up.”