{"id":137,"date":"2016-11-08T15:06:38","date_gmt":"2016-11-08T20:06:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/alumni\/?p=137"},"modified":"2016-11-08T16:20:11","modified_gmt":"2016-11-08T21:20:11","slug":"meet-the-bermans-like-father-like-son","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/alumni\/2016\/11\/08\/meet-the-bermans-like-father-like-son\/","title":{"rendered":"Meet the Bermans: Like father, like son"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tom Berman \u201904 always knew he was going into law. That\u2019s because his father, Ron \u201980, had long praised the value of a law degree to Tom and his brother.<\/p>\n

\"Ron
Ron Berman<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Ron knew first-hand the value of that degree. He earned his from University of Detroit and today, he chalks up his lifetime of business successes to it.<\/p>\n

\u201cI encouraged my children to go to law school because it\u2019s the most versatile degree you can get,\u201d he said. The father and son have had remarkably similar careers that extend beyond the fact that both have law degrees from Detroit Mercy.<\/p>\n

Ron planned on being an attorney since he was in grade school. He earned his undergraduate degree from Michigan State then started at Cooley Law School before moving to Detroit and finishing his degree at University of Detroit Mercy School of Law.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was just married and we wanted to be in Detroit,\u201d he remembered. \u201cI always liked University of Detroit, it had a great reputation.\u201d He particularly enjoyed the experience he had in the Urban Law Clinic and during an internship he had in family law. \u201cI loved it. It was a great education.\u201d<\/p>\n

Upon graduation he started a solo practice, using as his guide the book \u201cHow to Go Directly Into Solo Law Practice Without Missing A Meal,\u201d by Gerald Singer, published a few years before Ron graduated. It worked, he said, and he was off on a successful career. But the entrepreneurial part of him had an idea.<\/p>\n

He imagined a place where several solo practitioners worked independently in the same office. Each attorney would have access to a law library, some support staff and a conference room. It was an idea that would be called the business incubator a decade later. Ron called them Legal Executive Suites and their success was immediate. He opened suites in Southfield, Birmingham, Mount Clemens and Lansing.<\/p>\n

Before long, he found himself not only running the suites, but also some rental properties and several Century 21 realty franchises. \u201cI found I didn\u2019t really need the law practice anymore, though I was doing the work of a lawyer,\u201d he said. \u201cAll the years I was in business I made the legal decisions and did legal work. You can\u2019t forget your degree.\u201d<\/p>\n

As this empire grew, he needed some help, so he hired a 23-year-old named Dan Gilbert who suggested Ron think about getting into the mortgage business. It made sense to Ron and they founded Rock Financial in Ron\u2019s first Executive Legal Suite.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur parents told us it was stupid,\u201d he said. But something about it felt right. It was several years before the idea really took off, and then ultimately attracting the attention of Intuit, which bought Rock and gave it a new name, Quicken.<\/p>\n

Ron had long left the company by then and moved to Florida where he works in venture capital. A serious car accident a few years ago left him in a coma for weeks and he spent two years working his way from a wheelchair to a walker to walking on his own.<\/p>\n

Today, with his health problems mostly behind him, he is running for a seat in the Florida Senate. \u201cI am the underdog, but I want to do it because this is something I think I\u2019d be good at,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

As Ron ran\u00a0for office in Florida, his son Tom ran\u00a0for a seat on the Oakland County Board of Commissioners. Already a member of the Keego Harbor City Council, he wanted to step up his involvement with civic leadership but didn\u2019t necessarily want a career as a politician.<\/p>\n

\"Tom
Tom Berman<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Tom is chief administrative officer and general counsel of Reverie, a sleep technology company and leader in the mattress and adjustable bed industry. Like his father, he ended up following a career path that was aided, though not defined by, his law degree.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m a big Detroit guy,\u201d he said. \u201cI always knew I wanted to be in the area long-term, so going to law school locally made sense, because so many connections and networks can be made with other students who are going to work in the area and all the alumni who already do.\u201d He looked at only two schools, and chose Detroit Mercy, in part because of his father\u2019s positive experience.<\/p>\n

Interestingly, both father and son named Patrick Keenan as their favorite professor. \u201cHe was so dynamic,\u201d Tom said, \u201cHe made learning fun and was able to connect what we were learning to the real world.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tom, too, worked in the urban law clinic during law school as well as with the Wayne County Prosecutors office and the Misdemeanors Defenders Office at the 36th<\/sup> District Court helping run the domestic violence docket and wanted to be what he called \u201ca big time criminal defense attorney.\u201d But he knew that he had no desire to work at a law firm so, like his father, he struck out on his own. A year into his solo practice, a family friend introduced him to a senior attorney and the two created a partnership of a sort for several years, Tom learning from the more experienced lawyer who needed help, while also running his own solo practice.<\/p>\n

Soon enough, Tom found himself wanting to make a bigger impact, and had a decision to make.<\/p>\n

\u201cI asked myself if I wanted to continue as is with only so many hours in the day, take my law practice to the next level, or do something else, so I started to explore the question \u2018what does something else mean?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

With an entrepreneurial spirit much like his father\u2019s, he went to work on a trial basis as general counsel for Bedrock Detroit, a real estate company owned by Dan Gilbert, his father\u2019s former partner. He kept a few clients, though, including Reverie, a sleep technology company formally based out of New York started by two of Tom\u2019s high school friends he had represented for years as their outside general counsel. When Tom called to tell them he was going to step away from his law practice, they discussed joining forces and ultimately offered him a position they created just for him.<\/p>\n

Tom accepted and was the catalyst for moving the company\u2019s headquarters to Oakland County. Tom has since helped lead the company from 20 team members to more than 200 in less than four years.<\/p>\n

He calls Reverie a \u201ctech company that happens to be in the bedding industry,\u201d and the office has the feel of just that, which Tom said is a great way to attract and retain the most innovative and creative team members.<\/p>\n

Like his father, Tom has also faced health issues and lives with ulcerative colitis, which he says nearly took his life when he was a child. Today, Tom serves on the board of the Crohn\u2019s and Colitis Foundation of America\u2019s Michigan chapter, following in his father\u2019s footsteps as well as Leaders for Kids, an advisory board to Children\u2019s Hospital.<\/p>\n

He says he\u2019s pleased at the way his career has gone, moreso because it\u2019s been a nontraditional one. And if you ask him where he\u2019ll be in five or ten years, he says he\u2019s not sure. But he knows whatever he does, he will be someplace where he enjoys the work, is challenged and feels he\u2019s making a difference.<\/p>\n

And his father Ron is proud of that attitude.<\/p>\n

\u201cI supported my children in anything they wanted to do, but I wanted them to get a law degree first,\u201d Ron said. \u201cI think that did help steer them to the right path.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tom Berman \u201904 always knew he was going into law. That\u2019s because his father, Ron \u201980, had long praised the value of a law degree to Tom and his brother. Ron knew first-hand the value of that degree. He earned his from University of Detroit and today, he chalks up …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":66,"featured_media":140,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[2,8],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sites.udmercy.edu\/alumni\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/88\/2016\/11\/Tom-Berman-BW-Headshot.png?fit=1084%2C722&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8Kcng-2d","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/66"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=137"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":142,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137\/revisions\/142"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/140"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=137"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=137"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=137"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}