{"id":96,"date":"2016-10-17T11:13:51","date_gmt":"2016-10-17T15:13:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/alumni\/?p=96"},"modified":"2016-10-18T22:45:34","modified_gmt":"2016-10-19T02:45:34","slug":"not-all-law-degrees-lead-to-a-life-in-court-just-ask-jim-hiller-73","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/alumni\/2016\/10\/17\/not-all-law-degrees-lead-to-a-life-in-court-just-ask-jim-hiller-73\/","title":{"rendered":"Not all law degrees lead to a life in court, just ask Jim Hiller ’73"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Jim
Jim Hiller shares his experience and outlook with law students recently.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Whether it\u2019s tackling a legal case, starting a law firm, changing careers or helping new entrepreneurs, James Hiller \u201973 is always up for a challenge.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe way I look at it, a life without challenges would be an empty life,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Hiller came to the University of Detroit School of Law on the recommendation of his father\u2019s attorney. He liked what he saw.<\/p>\n

\u201cI particularly liked the size of the school,\u201d he said. \u201cIt seemed like a more personal kind of experience.\u201d<\/p>\n

He jumped in with two feet, getting involved with the Moot Court, among other organizations, was president of his senior class and received the Outstanding Student Award.<\/p>\n

\u201cI loved the law school,\u201d he said. \u201cI had a fabulous experience. I feel I was well-trained, well-treated and I made deep and enduring friendships that last to this day. I owe a great deal to University of Detroit Mercy for the success that I have been fortunate to attain.\u201d<\/p>\n

After graduation, Hiller worked for a large Detroit law firm for a few years before opening his own firm with fellow University of Detroit Mercy alumnus Judge Barry Howard. The practice was known for its integrity, he said, in the labor, corporate and real estate law it specialized in. \u201cWe were one of the few firms who represented both public unions and employers. So we brought a unique perspective to what we did that the people we represented appreciated.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the late 1980s, after years of having \u201cone foot in up to my knee\u201d in Shopping Center Markets, a chain of grocery stores started by his father, Hiller left the firm to work full-time for the family business.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know that my position even had a name,\u201d he said with a laugh. \u201cPart of my own makeup is to be entrepreneurial, so I came in with a goal to turn it into a big chain.\u201d He took the business from two stores to seven, changed the names to Hiller\u2019s and sold it in 2015 to Kroger.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was with very mixed emotions I made the decision to sell,\u201d he said. To many customers, Hiller\u2019s was a place that reminded them of mom-and-pop grocery stores of decades ago. \u201cI miss the daily contact with the staff and the customers, but I don\u2019t miss the stress of running a large corporation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hiller jumped right into the next chapter of his career: Hiller Consulting Group, a business that helps entrepreneurs take ideas and turn them into successful businesses.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a part of me that wants to see others do well and I enjoy the nurturing and mentoring of the entrepreneurial spirit,\u201d he said. \u201cPeople come to me for advice and listen to what I have to say because it\u2019s a road that I\u2019ve already walked.\u201d His clients come from all fields, but Hiller especially likes working with people in the food industry.<\/p>\n

Hiller shares his success in other ways, too, by helping support medical research, with Lou Gehrig\u2019s Disease and breast cancer being high on his list.<\/p>\n

His success in other ventures comes from his law school education.<\/p>\n

\u201cHaving a law degree is good if you want to practice law,\u201d he said. \u201cBut it\u2019s even better if you want to do other things. It\u2019s not about teaching you the law, it\u2019s about training you to think in a different way, to approach problems in an inductive way. A law degree prepares you well for business or anything you want to do.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Whether it\u2019s tackling a legal case, starting a law firm, changing careers or helping new entrepreneurs, James Hiller \u201973 is always up for a challenge. \u201cThe way I look at it, a life without challenges would be an empty life,\u201d he said. Hiller came to the University of Detroit School …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":66,"featured_media":99,"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\/10\/hiller.jpg?fit=5151%2C2822&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8Kcng-1y","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96"}],"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=96"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":107,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96\/revisions\/107"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/99"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=96"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=96"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=96"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}