Legal Ethics

Anti-Gay Lawyer Can Lawyer (In Michigan) No More

An update on a lawyer who rose to Above the Law infamy in 2010.

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Andrew Shirvell

Andrew Shirvell

Hold on from an update from the wayback machine. In 2010, we first brought you the story of Andrew Shirvell, and what an entertaining story it’s been. While more, ahem, experienced readers may well recall his misdeeds, it doesn’t hurt to take a trip down memory lane and let those that may have missed his antics get acquainted.

Shirvell rose to Above the Law infamy when, while employed as an assistant attorney general in Michigan, he maintained a personal blog that was dedicated to ripping the then-current student body president of University of Michigan, Chris Armstrong. The blog was a vile endeavor, which Elie Mystal described thusly:

I read as much of Shirvell’s blog as I could before I ran out of food to vomit back up. I stopped when I got to this post, in which Shirvell tries to get parents of Michigan students to take up pitchforks and defend the heterosexuality of their children from an attack of “the gay”

Shirvell then appeared on Anderson Cooper, and it did not well for Shirvell (it was amazing for the rest of us):

I don’t know if Shirvell thought he was going to get fellated by Larry King when he walked into the CNN studio. But Anderson Cooper was not about to let this unrepentant homophobe have an unchallenged opportunity to spout his hate to a national audience. The best Cooper line: “You seem to be obsessed with this young, gay man.”

But some awful words were not the total extent of Shirvell’s, erm, protests against Armstrong. They escalated until Shirvell was fired from the Michigan AG’s office.

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Shirvell followed Armstrong around the University of Michigan campus and Ann Arbor constantly — an activity that Shirvell characterized as “picketing” or “protesting” the student leader. On one occasion, Shirvell lingered outside a home that Armstrong was in — at 1:30 a.m. One can’t help wondering if Shirvell was hoping to see the student body president’s buff student body, engaged in the kind of activity that hunky college males engage in at 1:30 a.m. (perhaps one of those “orgies” that Shirvell accused Armstrong of orchestrating).

But losing his job was not the end of the saga for Shirvell — Armstrong filed a lawsuit to get the obsessive behavior to stop:

Armstrong is suing Shirvell in Michigan state court for stalking, invasion of privacy, intentional infliction of emotional distress, defamation, and abuse of process. His lawsuit seeks more than $25,000 in compensatory damages, as well as punitive damages and injunctive relief (to enjoin Shirvell from, well, being such a creep).

Again, this didn’t end well for Shirvell: a jury awarded Armstrong $4.5 million, which Shirvell wasn’t in a position to pay.

But all that mess was over by 2012; why is it news now, in 2017? Well, Andrew Shirvell was disbarred on Thursday in a misconduct case brought on the basis of public hostility to Armstrong. According to the Detroit News, Shirvell’s First Amendment defense did not go over well with a panel at the Attorney Discipline Board:

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Shirvell said he was exercising free-speech rights. But the panel at the discipline board says his motive was “dishonest or selfish,” not simply careless.

Shirvell can appeal the decision to the full board.

Which is further proof: Attorney misconduct stories age like a fine wine.

headshotKathryn Rubino is an editor at Above the Law. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter (@Kathryn1).

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