Peter Macuga Man of Passion

Peter Macuga

Peter Macuga, ’77, is a man of passion. He has a passion for his work, an affinity for history and a long-time involvement in historic artifacts. With the opening of his new law offices, he has woven these passions together into a historic showplace.

BY LINDA NORLOCK

Peter Macuga and his partner, Steven Liddle, recently refurbished a 10,000-square-foot Victorian mansion in Detroit to serve as home to their practice, Macuga and Liddle. “When my partner and I saw the building, we knew what this place could be,” Macuga says.

“We wanted to bring the building back to its great glory, and we certainly did that.”

Macuga and Liddle have surrounded themselves with antique furnishings as well. Some pieces were manufactured in Detroit in the 1870s, and others were originally among the furnishings of the California statehouse. Some desks were used in Cincinnati during its heyday. “We have tried to be true to the building,” Macuga says.

The building is not the sole reflection of Macuga’s interest in historical relics, nor did his interest begin there. Macuga has collected artifacts of 19th century American military history for many years. His extensive collection includes books and period publications that date from the 1790s through the Spanish American War. The collection, located in his home, includes dress uniforms, headgear and swords.

Macuga’s interest in the military isn’t without personal experience. After graduation from Cass Tech High School, Macuga joined the Army and served as a paratrooper in Vietnam. When he was discharged in 1969, he was a 20-year-old staff sergeant with a high level of responsibility. When he was accepted at the Detroit College of Law, Macuga says, the law seemed like an exciting and worthwhile career.

Essentially, his law career began while he was a student at MSU-DCL. At the same time, Macuga worked as deputy clerk at the Michigan Tax Tribunal and served as a hearing officer. He calls the relationship an interesting scenario. “I was helping to write opinions while I was a senior in law school,” he says. “I was deciding state and local taxation.”

Upon graduation, Macuga became supervising council for tax and finance for the City of Detroit Law Department. He worked there until entering private practice in 1990

Today, Macuga continues his involvement with tax law, both through his practice and as a teacher. He has taught state and local taxation and partnership law at MSU-DCL since 1984. His firm’s specialty, however, is class-action work, and Macuga and Liddle is the most active class-action firm in the state. The pair recently won a Michigan Supreme Court decision that holds municipalities responsible for flooding damage to residential property. As a result of that decision, homeowners may now sue municipalities and their insurers for damages incurred as a result of flooding. Coupled with new state legislation that took effect in January, Macuga and Liddle will rely on the actions to proceed with nine class-action suits representing 15,000 families, many of them in the Detroit metropolitan area.

“We have had cases where the average depth of sewage in residences is 4 to 5 feet,” Macuga says. “Some homes have had sewage as deep as 8 or 9 feet. “When this happens to a family, lives are changed.”

With the number of families that will be touched by Macuga’s work, it seems the prediction he made when entering law school has come to pass. It has been a worthwhile career.

Peter Macuga and his partner refurbished a 10,000-square-foot Victorian mansion to serve as home to their practice.