Profile of a Legal Mentor: Judge George Glasser – By Mike Bruno
I can count many blessings in my 41 years as an attorney. Among many mentors over the years, one stands out: George M. Glasser.
In 1980, I was fortunate to be hired as bailiff to Judge Glasser, then a Common Pleas Court judge, as I was finishing my first year of night law school. His courtroom was large and busy. By that time, Judge Glasser had been a judge for 17 years. He would continue as a judge for another 19 years.
Judge Glasser chose law as a career by process of elimination. He knew he wasn’t cut out for sales and wasn’t particularly fond of the Sciences; so, he studied law.
I worked under Judge Glasser for three and a half years, leaving after I passed the Ohio bar exam in 1983.
Judge Glasser earned his Juris Doctor from the University of Toledo’s College of Law in 1953. He was appointed to the Toledo Municipal Court in 1963 and served there through 1970. He was on the bench of the Lucas County Common Pleas Court from 1970 – 1986. He was elected to the Ohio 6th District Court of Appeals and served two terms from 1986-1999.
Judge Glasser is perhaps the most even-tempered person I have ever met. This quality in a judge is welcoming. We hear about judicial temperament; he was blessed in that regard.
He was also a great teacher of work ethic. He was consistently present and confronted the challenge of presiding over a busy docket of criminal and civil cases. If a case needed to be tried, he was on the bench. If a colleague needed assistance, he would offer to preside over another judge’s case. In fact, in 1976, Judge Glasser, along with two other judges, had three jury trials
going simultaneously. The Ottawa Hills murder cases were tried under Ohio’s former death penalty law. The defendants were all convicted and their death sentences were vacated when the law was later declared unconstitutional.
Above all, Judge Glasser was a model of integrity. Impartiality was another attribute and he was certainly a man of his word. In these days of partisan politics including controversy on when the Supreme Court judges should be subject to ethics rules, it is refreshing to reflect on a man who manifested integrity and a strong moral compass over a 36-year judicial tenure.
Judge Glasser has been retired for 25 years. He and his wife Maureen have been married for 70 years. I no longer consider him to be my boss. He is now a close friend and confidant.
