By JODI SOKOLOWSKI
Buffalo Law Journal

While Tim Russert was a law-school graduate admitted to practice in both New York and the District of Columbia, he never really worked as a lawyer.

But his law degree, as well as his behind-the-scenes work in politics, prepared him for his career in journalism, friends and former schoolmates said.

"He probably practiced (as a lawyer) in the true sense of practicing rather than (in) a law practice. He tried to be fair, just and civil, and he certainly got his questions answered," said Mickey Osterreicher, a Buffalo lawyer and former photojournalist who worked with Russert when the latter served on the staff of the late Sen. Daniel Moynihan.

Russert, 58, a South Buffalo native, died unexpectedly Friday morning while taping voice-overs for his weekly "Meet the Press" show at NBC-TV's Washington, D.C., studios.

Childhood friend Patrick Griffin says while watching Russert, he could see how his legal training was a good background for his onscreen role.

"He interrogated his guests with question A leading to question B, then hit you with the haymaker punch," Griffin said. "His interview skills were a reflection of prosecutorial skills, so in a sense he was practicing law on television."

M. Colette Gibbons, who attended both John Carroll University and Cleveland-Marshall College of Law with Russert, said his ability to "read fast, how to tell what was important and what wasn't, and how to get to the point" prepared him for his career.

Gibbons, who is a partner at Schottenstein Zox & Dunn Co. LPA in Cleveland, remembers Russert as likable and a talented mimic.

"He was the funniest person I've ever known in my whole life," Gibbons said. "He mimicked all the professors and students. He would find some little quirk and go with it."

School days

Hon. Carl Bucki, chief judge of U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Western District of New York, and his brother, the Rev. John Bucki, director of Canisius College campus ministries, grew up with Russert as neighbors.

Judge Bucki recalls how Russert became a leader early on as president of St. Bonaventure Elementary School's Catholic Youth Organization and, later, president of the Buffalo Catholic Diocese CYO.

"He was very pleasant with good people skills. He knew how to make you feel at ease," said Bucki.

That leadership style carried over into his years at Canisius High School, where he graduated in 1968, classmates said.

"He had a certain savvy in his speech," noted Griffin, a North Collins High School English teacher. "He spoke clean and pure and never used locker-room jock talk."

The 8th grade president at St. Bonaventure, officer in high school and president of his college's student government, Russert was always focused on politics. Griffin said he was more likely to write a letter to Bobby Kennedy or stuff letters for a political candidate than play sports.

"He was down at Democratic headquarters volunteering to do whatever kind of poop jobs they wanted him to do," he said.

Jamestown lawyer Neil Robinson, a classmate of Russert's at John Carroll, said Russert was attracted to "offbeat, unique" people and brought in such speakers to the campus as Russell Means, an advocate for Native Americans, and Fred Harris, a senator from Oklahoma.

He also recalled Russert's entrepreneurial spirit. Russert convinced Robinson and nine other students to sign up for a bar-exam review course so that he'd get his course for free. Robinson said Russert called him up playing Jethro Tull's "Aqualung" over the receiver to announce that they had passed the bar.

"He always knew of things before everyone else. Even though it wasn't official, if Tim Russert told me I passed, I knew it was true," Robinson said.

Called to serve

Russert worked for Moynihan after graduating from law school and later helped Mario Cuomo get elected New York governor, in 1982.

A year after he joined NBC News in 1984, he supervised the Peacock network's live broadcasts of the "NBC Today" show from Rome, where he was able to convince Pope John Paul II to appear on the program. Russert was named host of "Meet the Press" in 1991.

Gibbons said Russert's passion for his work was similar to his approach to his faith.

"I think he saw journalism as a vocation," he said.