Rex Bickers (FCHS ‘70),  Guest Contributor

Rule of Law. Is there anything more quintessentially American? Maybe not. It is hard to imagine a world without the Rule of Law and those who take the oath to uphold the Constitution of the United States.

Departing from the customary presentation of Alumni Spotlight, we are featuring SIX grads – – splitting the contents across two issues of the newsletter: three Bulldogs for this month, and then three Highlanders in October.

There may be several hundred NA or FC alumni with careers in law. We begin with three NAHS grads whose careers took them into the judiciary. Next month will follow with three from FCHS whose careers have been serving the public in local government. Broadly speaking, their stories are much more varied than issues as simple (or not so simple) as “somebody broke the law”.

Hear ye, hear ye… these are stories that make up the fabric of this great American life.

Sherman Minton, Sr.
NAHS 1910 (1890-1965)

Assertion: Sherman Minton deserves to be called the first, the original “most famous” graduate in Bulldog history. He was inducted into the first class of Hall of Famers in 2007. He completed his final two years at NAHS, finishing #1 in his class. He attended IU in Bloomington, 1911-1913, doing three years’ worth of coursework in two, then earned a law degree there in 1915.

His career began with practicing in New Albany, serving in World War I, marrying, starting a family, and gravitating towards politics. He was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1934, then lost to Wendell Willkie in 1940. By May 1941, he was nominated by FDR to the (Seventh Circuit) U.S. Court of Appeals. 

His 1949 Supreme Court nomination faced substantial opposition, including leading Indiana Republicans.

Justice Minton and his wife Gertrude had three children: Sherman Jr., John and Mary. Many physicians in Indiana are familiar with Dr. Sherman Minton, Jr., a member of the IU School of Medicine faculty, 1958-1984.

On a personal note: I would like to express my thanks to April Minton Kieser (of Georgetown), daughter of Sherman Minton, Jr., and her son Ben Minton (of New Albany) for sharing with me their reflections on life in the Minton family.

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Basil Lorch III
NAHS 1967

“Buz” Lorch belongs to a multi-generation law family, comprised of seven attorneys (to date). In the seventh grade, he was a part of the very first class who attended the newly opened Scribner Junior High School in 1960-61. Growing up in Silver Hills meant that he can recall a few encounters, with the aging Justice Minton, strolling the neighborhood. He had surely seen the name before. The law practice of his father (and his father’s two uncles) was adjacent to the offices of Minton and Cody in the Elsby building.

Thoroughly Hoosier raised and educated (IU Bloomington, AB ’70 and the IU Maurer School of Law JD ’74), his law practice career began in the firm founded by Chester Lorch and Frank Lorch Jr., almost a century ago. Early on, he focused on bankruptcy and he was a Chapter 7 panel trustee 1978-1991. Lorch was appointed in 1992 to a 14-year term as a bankruptcy judge for the New Albany division of Southern Indiana District. He was recognized as a fellow of the American College of Bankruptcy and reappointed to a second term in 2006.

In addition to his service on the bench, he also returned to IU Maurer for several years as an adjunct professor, teaching both basic and advanced bankruptcy classes. He retired from the court in 2017. Judge Lorch and his wife Vivian have two sons, Matthew (also an attorney) and Adam.

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Jim Hancock
NAHS 1970

Based on his father’s career, a person might suppose that Jim Hancock was born predestined to his profession. His father was a prosecuting attorney and then later served as judge for the New Albany City Court (which no longer exists).

But Jim was pointed in a LOT of other directions, and they began in his years at NAHS. In 1968, he began doing excavating and demolition with equipment that he financed himself. He added to that in 1969 by becoming a licensed (thoroughbred) horse trainer. By the time he went off to Purdue, it looked clearer and clearer: his pursuits were adding up to quite the overload. He credits his father for helping him realize that doing too much could lead to no successes at all. He re-focused and applied himself, managing to earn his undergraduate degree in 1973. He went on to obtain his law degree in 1978 at the John Marshall College of Law in Chicago, with admission to the bar in Indiana and to Federal Court in 1979. Joining his father in the firm that became Hancock & Hancock, they worked together through the final twelve years of his dad’s life. Over the coming decades, he served as an attorney to Floyd County Planning & Zoning, and to the Board of Zoning Appeals.

In 2015, after fifteen years as Superior Court Public Defender, Hancock closed the firm once he was elected Judge to Superior Court 2. He was re-elected in 2021. Married to Belinda Eve (NAHS ’72), the Hancocks have three children, all FCHS grads: Ben ’04, Charlie ’05 and Clarissa ’06.

Read the entire September 2022 Legacy Ledger (Issue 25).

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