![]() ![]() Short in stature and long on diligence and caring, he was thrust into law and community service by inspiration from the generation of DeMeos that preceded him. ![]() “He was a scholar, author and someone who was a master of a host of specialties: litigation, banking, estate, equine, criminal, real estate,” said former Santa Rosa city attorney Brien Farrell, who began his career with DeMeo’s firm. He helped launch the foundation that supports the Valley of the Moon Children’s Home, was a trustee in the earliest days of Cardinal Newman High School and served for years on the board of the Sonoma County Fair.ĭeMeo made himself an expert in many areas of civil law, earning recognition in the legal field across the state and country. He was 82.ĭeMeo, a native son of Santa Rosa, practiced law in the city for 58 years and only in recent months was forced to ease back from work by the effects of myeloma, a cancer of the blood.īorn into an Italian-American family that worked to overcome many of the obstacles facing immigrants in the early 20th century, he became one of the most successful local attorneys of his generation, known around town for his passion for horse racing and for his steady contribution to charitable and community causes. “Sometimes at Christmas,” Herman said, “there are people who aren’t Scrooges.Jack DeMeo, a preeminent Sonoma County trial attorney who grew his family’s Depression-era law practice and became renowned as much for his community leadership and civility as for his dogged brilliance in the courtroom, died Thursday at his Santa Rosa home. Rooter was observing the holidays by forgiving the bills of certain customers. But it was a surprise: Across the country, the wrenchmen told Herman, Mr. The plumbers finished, then approached Herman with what he expected would be a joy-crushing monster of a invoice. “They were incredibly understanding, compassionate and professional,” he said.ĭespite having been cheated before, he agreed to let them proceed with the job. They seemed to go out of their way to assure him that if he approved the work, all would be well. “I can’t afford that,” he told the plumbers. The two-person crew told Herman the fix would cost about $1,000. Herman is a retired optometrist who lost nearly all of his savings to a Ponzi scheme run by someone he’d trusted.Īll he needed just before the holidays was for his drains to back up. IF MONEY’S INVOLVED, you can’t blame Petaluma’s Paul Herman for being as cautious as a bleeder hired to install concertina wire. She dares to hope that the driver will come forward, or that a witness or someone anyone who knows the mystery driver will contact the CHP. She hurts, and she misses the totaled convertible that she bought to celebrate surviving heart surgery 10 years ago and fitted with the plate ONLY2DY. “This person did a terrible thing in not helping me,” she said, “but the gift of being able to sit down with my family for Christmas was priceless.” ![]() If that driver hadn’t slammed on the brakes and pulled right, Day suspects the impact would have been fatal. “You are dead,” she told herself as the large vehicle bore down on her from behind after she’d stopped in a traffic jam. Candice Day of Penngrove feels some gratitude even to the driver of the hit-and-run pickup or SUV that slammed into her Saturn convertible on Highway 101 in Santa Rosa on the Tuesday before Christmas. Jack might like for us to remember why it is that Chaucer said good things must end: “To make way for better things to happen because the best is yet to come.” Three months after the death of Jack DeMeo, remaining partners Emily DeMeo and Joshua West prepare to close the firm.Įmily, who is Jack’s granddaughter, Nick’s great-granddaughter and the daughter of judge and former DeMeo & DeMeo partner Brad DeMeo, said the family decision to terminate the practice was tough, “but it’s one we had to make.”Įmily will join the historic firm of Geary, Shea, O’Donnell, Grattan & Mitchell. But as Geoffrey Chaucer wrote in 1374, all good things must come to an end. “Nick” DeMeo went into practice together in 1939.īy now, three more generations of DeMeos and their partners have sustained and built upon Nick and Chop’s legacy. The DeMeo law firm has reigned among Sonoma County’s most respected and effective since sons of immigrants Charles “Chop” DeMeo and J.N.
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