A series of decidedly close calls afforded founder of Primerus an even greater purpose in life
By Tom Kirvan
“Head-on” is an adjective that will give most everyone the shudders, conjuring various unpleasant thoughts about collisions, unwelcome clashes, or unwanted challenges.
Three days before Christmas several years ago, attorney Jack Buchanan came face-to-face with the term in a chilling car-truck encounter on an icy Michigan road, stirring memories of several other close calls that added some unexpected spice to his life.
It began somewhat innocently enough when Buchanan went out on a festive shopping expedition, stopping by one of the local malls to pick up a holiday present for his wife Sheila. When he departed on that afternoon mission, the roads were dry and clear, camouflaging a dramatic change in weather to come.
Less than an hour later, Old Man Winter began to rear his ugly head, coating local roads with a slippery mixture of snow and ice, quickly turning highways into veritable skating rinks.
Suddenly, Buchanan’s short drive home became a white-knuckled affair, as he attempted to steer his way through treacherous road conditions. Within moments, the trip came to an unceremonious end when his car’s rear-wheel drive failed to make the crest of a small hill, leaving him stuck in the right lane of a busy suburban road with little or no shoulder for safe harbor.
His predicament worsened by the minute, as vehicle after vehicle raced by in both directions despite the wintry conditions.
Then, as Buchanan nervously awaited emergency assistance, a pickup truck came speeding over the hill from the other direction, sliding across the centerline in an out-of-control fashion. The resulting head-on collision crushed the entire front end of Buchanan’s car, setting off a series of airbags meant to protect him from the 40-mph impact.
Miraculously, Buchanan escaped the crash without injury, hurriedly exiting the vehicle before it was engulfed in flames.
In every sense, Buchanan had just experienced his own version of a Christmas “miracle,” prompting a flashback to another “head-on” encounter he survived 50 years ago when diagnosed with an oftentimes fatal form of cancer.
A University of Michigan Law School alum, Buchanan was a young lawyer at the time with a wife and three children, staring down the medical barrel of an agonizing collision with cancer that was expected to end his life within the year.
But then fate intervened, as an experimental treatment program became available, offering him a new lease on life – a life that would include the opportunity to see two of his children, Rob and Jane, join him in the successful law firm he founded.
His son, Rob Buchanan, would go on to create his own medical malpractice firm that also specializes in catastrophic vehicle crash cases, while further making a name for himself by serving as president of the State Bar of Michigan from 2020-21.
His daughter, Jane Beckering, would eventually take her legal career in a judicial direction, first serving on the Michigan Court of Appeals before ascending to a seat on the federal bench for the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Michigan.
The two drew inspiration from their father, who enjoyed an illustrious 40-year career as a trial lawyer while earning the distinction of being inducted into the American College of Trial Lawyers, the International Academy of Trial Lawyers, and the American Board of Trial Advocates.
But that wasn’t the end of the Buchanan story – far from it. There is one more close call to mention, coupled with his quest in recent years to make a much-needed difference in the public service profession.
A 1987 close call was of the decidedly tragic variety and involved an ill-fated Northwest Airlines flight bound for Phoenix on the evening of August 16.
Buchanan was booked on that flight before his legal assistant found a more convenient Phoenix-bound flight departing from Grand Rapids, eliminating the need to first drive over 250-miles to Detroit.
But then word came that the Grand Rapids flight would face a lengthy delay, making Northwest Airlines Flight 255 out of Detroit once again the more attractive option.
So, as Buchanan prepared to head to Detroit to board Flight 255, a Northwest ticket agent regrettably informed him that the last seat on that aircraft had just been sold, forcing him to wait out the mechanical delay in Grand Rapids.
A few hours later, his momentary misfortune was cast in an entirely different light when news broke that Flight 255 had crashed shortly after takeoff, killing 154 of the 155 people on board. The sole survivor was a 4-year-old girl who lost her parents and brother in the deadly crash.
For Buchanan, it was a mystifying example of fate leaning heavily his way, affording him further opportunities to make a lasting difference in the lives of others.
A few years later, Buchanan founded Primerus™, an alliance of boutique law firms framed within the trademark phrase, “Good People Who Happen to Be Good Lawyers™.” It would become another success story of which he was the principal author.
Four years ago, on the 30th anniversary of the international alliance, Buchanan helped launch the Primerus Foundation, a philanthropic endeavor designed to attract higher-quality candidates to political office who are committed to preserving democracy and the rule of law.
It figured to be another defining moment in his life, eventually connecting the Plymouth native to a growing network of “good people” around the globe, each of whom can now posthumously honor him by playing a pivotal role in his dream of making the world a much better place.