A local legend passed away yesterday.  Norton Frickey.  He was 84 years old and he leaves behind five children and nine grandchildren.

Norton was a trailblazer.  He was one of the first lawyers in the country to run personal injury advertisements on TV.  His law firm grew into a huge success after he started advertising and he soon took the next step and started an advertising agency that syndicated personal injury ads to lawyers throughout the US and Canada.  That company – Network Affiliates, Inc., later spawned a host of other advertising and marketing businesses including The Media Team, Blue Onion, Page 1 Solutions, DoctorDirect and several others.

Norton’s philosophy was to fight for “the little guy” who previously didn’t have a place in the legal system.  He used contingent fee agreements to even the playing field and ensure that “the little guy” could afford a lawyer to fight against the big insurance and manufacturing companies.  Because he led the way in legal advertising, many “traditional” lawyers didn’t like him.  As the leader, he was the one with the arrows in his back, but he didn’t care.  Although he was very successful, he lacked pretense.  He was honest and he always told you what he thought.

All of us in the Denver area were fortunate to have had Norton in our midst.  We will miss him.

The memorial service will be this Friday, 10:30 am at Holy Shepherd Lutheran Church, 920 Kipling Street, Lakewood, CO 80214.

Following are a couple of blog posts about Norton Frickey:

http://www.netaff.com/legal/2009/06/norton-frickey-great-man_15.html

http://www.page1solutions.com/blog/2009_06_01_archive.html#5021961737547013276

http://www.page1solutions.com/Blog/Bill/2009/06/lasting-message.html

Denver Post Article about Norton Frickey

Article about Personal Injury TV Ads produced by Network Affiliates, the Advertising Agency Norton Frickey founded.