Though few have noted it, our profession lost a friend when M. Reed Hunter died in Salt Lake City on November 11, 2009, at the age of 77. Reed was a dear friend, and a first-rate appellate lawyer. You haven’t lived, professionally speaking, if you haven’t read one of his briefs. They stood out among the all too often dreary output of appellate lawyers discussing appraisal testimony and such, like a shining beacon on a misty night. They were more literature than briefing, and they read as if no lawyer’s hand had touched them.
Reed was a genuine gentleman and scholar, an individual of wit (in both meanings of that word), and a dinner companion par excellence. Those of us in the often hard-boiled world of eminent domain practitioners will miss his gentlemanly demeanor and its influence on us that inevitably improved our spirits along with our work.
We will not see the likes of him again. We shall miss him greatly.
For the text of his obituary that appeared in the Salt Lake Tribune, click on the link below.