Editor’s note: David Lee Delaney, a longtime Plymouth attorney, died on June 12 after battling a rare form of lymphoma.
Dave Delaney was a highly respected colleague.
Like him, I began practicing law in Plymouth in 1974 and remained here for my entire professional life before retiring 45 years later in 2020.
A good real estate lawyer requires both the ability to review a 50 year title search of a parcel of land and the ability to properly document the pending transaction. The review focuses on the past. The documentation focuses on the future.
When the attorney has done both, he is identified by his notarial signature. Dave’s notarial signature on a deed or mortgage carried with it the implicit presumption that the title to the land was good and that the documentation had been done correctly.
In 1974, when the practice of law was more of a profession than a business, the notarial signatures on deeds and mortgages of attorneys like Hugh Maraghy, Phil Cronin, Bob and Clem Briggs, Bob Galvin, Gerard Galassi, and Reubin Winokur served as heart balm when reviewing a title abstract. Dave soon joined that group.
Dave was a genial man. His geniality wasn’t a ploy designed to get opposing counsel to underestimate him. Dave was not a “Colombo,” using geniality to try to disarm opposing counsel. Unlike Colombo, Dave’s geniality was genuine – although he did sport a trench coat, but in his case, it was a red one.
– Rich Serkey