Des Moines lawyer Mark McCormick isn’t the kind of guy who would let falling off the Great Wall of China or losing a tight primary election to Tom Vilsack get him down.

Many in Greater Des Moines, and around Iowa, know McCormick as the gentleman runner and even-tempered counselor who is in no race to retire.

We wondered what McCormick has been up to lately, and what he’s focusing on. So we sat down for a long interview in the conference room at Belin McCormick P.C law firm:

Mark McCormick now spends a lot of time serving as a consultant to other lawyers on strategy and evidence, and acting as an expert witness on legal negligence and other topics. And he is a valued mentor to other attorneys. 

“I actively enjoy having other lawyers at the firm ask me questions about issues,” McCormick said.

At 81, he has been a lawyer for 54 years, and still works full time. A veteran of 22 marathons and road races and two six-hour runs of 31 miles, McCormick still runs. He prefers that you stipulate we are using a broad definition of the term “run.” Whatever his pace, he puts in three to seven miles an outing, three to five times a week.

He likes to travel, which led to his unorthodox experience at the Great Wall (see sidebar).

But much of his time is devoted to his professional habit of more than five decades — being a lawyer. He has no plan to stop.

“I don’t have a plan for quitting, for retiring,” McCormick said. “I’m just letting things evolve, as I have through my career.”

That is a career that included serving as an officer in the U.S. Navy for three years, before attending Georgetown University Law School. He later returned to his home town, Fort Dodge, to practice law, served as an assistant county attorney, and was named a district judge in 1968. Four years later, he was appointed to the Iowa Supreme Court. In 1986, he joined Belin McCormick as a shareholder.

Why does he still practice law, when many would think he has earned some time for other things? In characteristic understatement, McCormick said, “I enjoy what I’m doing.”

That dedication is why he caused a ruckus when he took a day off last summer to paint his house. 

“The neighbor wanted to know if I had retired,” McCormick said with a laugh.

In his long and distinguished career, McCormick has become a valued mentor, special counsel, expert witness and problem-solver.

“There’s not anyone like him,” said fellow lawyer Steven Zumbach, another shareholder in the firm. “His cases are so well-written. The United States Supreme Court justices write opinions with less clarity and precision than Mark McCormick.

“He also is a great mentor,” Zumbach said. “If you have a tough case, you can ask Mark for advice. He has an encyclopedia-like memory on the cases and law.”

McCormick submits as Exhibit A his contemplative analysis. 

“One learns to address problems or issues on a step-by-step analysis rather than to jump to conclusions. Part of what I do is attempt to address real life and analyze problems and what makes them important,” said McCormick, whose wife of many years, Victoria Herring, also is a prominent Des Moines lawyer. “I’ve been through quite a bit,” McCormick said. “I have a perspective that allows me to look for potential solutions.”

Perhaps that is why he tried his hand at politics. He lost the 1998 Democratic primary for governor to Tom Vilsack by less than 3 percentage points after Vilsack criticized McCormick’s decision to take IBP Inc. as a client. Vilsack had criticized IBP for pollution from its facilities and for its treatment of workers.

For McCormick. it was another civics lesson, an extension of his days at home with his family.

When his father turned on the radio to listen to the news, McCormick soaked it in. He developed an interest in politics that he has maintained to this day, as a Democrat who is in a firm that also includes prominent Republicans. He loves a good discussion about politics.

Yet McCormick resisted the urge to run for office, until his friends came calling.

“About everything has come at the suggestion of someone else,” McCormick said, flashing a grin that often punctuates stories. “I’m kind of weak that way, if it’s a good suggestion.”

Perhaps one that was considered step-by-step.

Mike Peterson, chairman of the Iowa Democratic Party, talked him into it. 

He took a lesson from the experience.

“That statewide run was like graduate school,” he said. “It was just a terrific experience. I wasn’t familiar with the nuts and bolts of politics.” 

He is familiar with the law, and he has no plans to stop practicing, even if he is a bit surprised he’s still adding to his career accomplishments.

Said McCormick: “I didn’t think it would last as long as it has.”

McCormick’s list of major cases

We asked Mark McCormick to summarize a few of his more prominent cases. Here is his response:
As an assistant county attorney in Webster County, I handled the prosecution for murder of Ronald Gramenz. It was a hotly contested trial which resulted in a conviction of second degree murder. The trial court instructed the jury on the doctrine of diminished responsibility. The doctrine permits a defendant to show a mental disease or defect which the jury may find prevented the defendant from forming the specific intent and premeditation necessary for first degree murder. It was the first Iowa case on that subject.

Shortly after being appointed to the Iowa Supreme Court, I dissented in a case in which an Iowa university student had been convicted of flag desecration. The conviction was upheld over my dissent, but the U.S. Supreme Court vacated the conviction and sent the case back for our court to reconsider its holding in light of a decision of that court reversing a flag burning conviction from the State of Washington. By chance, I met then Justice Harry Blackmun at a seminar. He mentioned the Washington case and the cases, like the Farrell case, had been sent back for reconsideration. He said if the convictions were affirmed again and new appeals were taken, the court would deny review in all of them. That is what happened in the Iowa case. I dissented again and was not joined by anyone else on the court. The defendant attempted a second appeal, which was denied. It was very unusual to be told in advance how a U.S. Supreme Court justice would handle an appeal. A few years later, the Supreme Court made it clear in a flag burning case that the burning of a flag in protest against government action is symbolic speech protected by the First Amendment.

I wrote another dissenting opinion for the court in a case in which the court held a trial judge had not abused his discretion in refusing to consider granting probation to a criminal defendant. I argued that the trial judge had abused his discretion in refusing even to consider probation, contending that probation is not leniency. A federal judge quoted from that dissent in Gall v. United States, in which the U. S. Supreme Court upheld his grant of probation over the government’s objection.

I wrote a dissent in another case for our court requiring a trial judge to address a defendant directly at a criminal sentencing to establish that the plea of guilty is voluntary and intelligent.
At the Iowa Supreme Court, I wrote an opinion in which the court abandoned the preference for maternal custody in child custody cases.

I wrote a case for the court in which the court rejected the common law doctrine of comparative negligence in favor of pure comparative negligence regarding a party’s recovery in a tort case subject to reduction by the party’s percentage of fault. The legislature modified the doctrine but its principle remains part of Iowa law.

I had the privilege of arguing the Prairie Meadows Racetrack and Casino’s position in its challenge on constitutional grounds to the state tax system that assessed a lower tax for casinos on riverboats than for those on land.

McCormick on McCormick:

– On his level-headed demeanor: “People don’t understand why I don’t get more excited.”
– On the law: “Our legal system is based on precedent, which means history.”
– On reading biographies: “It’s about living life as if we don’t have enough time, so I read things that are important.”
– About time off: “The things I enjoy in the community are the special events, like seeing (author and Des Moines native) Bill Bryson.”
– On his 30th wedding anniversary: “She’s already talking about a trip, but she hasn’t said where.”

Falling off the Great Wall of China

In October 2007, while on vacation, Mark McCormick fell off the Great Wall of China.

What could have been a 35-foot fall became less eventful when McCormick managed to grab a shrub on the way down. That was handy, because his wife, Victoria Herring, fell in the same spot as she attempted to come to his aid. She landed in McCormick’s lap. Neither was hurt seriously.

“We had hooked up with a guide who promised us he would take us to a remote area of the wall where we wouldn’t run into a lot of other people,” McCormick said. “He let us walk there, and kept his distance. We were on a portion of the wall with a clay surface, with no protective guard on the cliff side of the wall.

“It was about 18 inches across. I have big feet. I slipped and slid off the wall. There was enough of an angle to the wall and there was a bush growing out of the base of the wall. I grabbed the trunk of the bush and held on. Vicky was walking behind me. She got kind of flustered, and she fell. I caught her in my lap.” 

“The guide and a young Peace Corps student pulled her out, then pulled me out.”

It was one way to learn the differences in how nations operate their national treasures, McCormick found.

“I saw the difference between the National Park Service and the Great Wall,” he said. “They had no protective structure (on the Great Wall). And the guide seemed to take it all in a day’s work. He didn’t offer any help with the cuts and bruises.”

McCormick didn’t considering suing, despite his legal background.

“I was pretty sure they didn’t have a tort claim system,” he said with a chuckle.