Memorial Remarks of Dan Webb

MEMORIAL REMARKS OF DAN WEBB

Dan Webb*

Remarks delivered at Joel Flaum’s memorial service on April 22, 2025 at the Ceremonial Courtroom, Everett McKinley Dirksen United States Courthouse, Chicago, Illinois.

May it please this Honorable Court, I cannot tell you how much it means to me to have been invited by all of you to speak. He was one of my closest friends, and I am so honored that you allowed me the opportunity. Thank you very much for that. And to all of you, his friends and his family, I’m going to share some personal memories with you.

Joel was one of the closest friends I’ve ever had in my life. I think what I’ll do, I’m going to bookend it. I’m going to start with the beginning, tell you a couple reflections, and then I’m going to go to the end, because I don’t think we should be afraid of talking about the end.

And I’m going to focus on one character trait which I think is great for a judge—good judgment. Flaum, throughout his career, and I built up such a close bond because no matter what I’d be talking to him about—whether it be personal, legal, about our friends, issues, politics, government—Flaum had an extraordinary ability to just use basic judgment and wisdom to somehow analyze disparate facts and circumstances being presented to him and tell you what might be the right way to deal with that. And that’s an extraordinary trait to have.

I’m going to start—let me start with the beginning. I think it was 1973 or so. I was a farm kid from Southern Illinois, and I had found my way into the U.S. Attorney’s Office, trying to learn how to do this thing called trying cases. I had been there a couple years, and Thompson brought Flaum on to be the First Assistant—I think he pirated him from Bill Scott, who was the Attorney General at that time—and Flaum shows up as the First Assistant United States Attorney. I got to know him a little bit, but not great. One day, Thompson walks into my office, as he often did, throws his feet up on my desk and says, “Webb, I want you to take the kid up to court with you.” I said, “Who?” And he said, “Flaum, I want you to take Flaum up to court

with you. You’re trying this.” We had indicted a bunch of aldermen and public officials back in those days, and I was getting ready to go to trial in a case called [the] Paul Lagota case. You wouldn’t have heard about it, but it was just years and decades ago. I was getting ready to try this important case, and Thompson said, “Take the kid to court with you because he’s never tried a case in federal court, he’s a great trial lawyer, and you need to get to know him, so do it.” And I thought, “Oh, my Lord, how could that possibly happen? That’s wonderful.” Little did I know it was that decision by Jim Thompson that started this fifty-year friendship.

We tried the case, we prepared the case for trial, we spent enormous amounts of time with each other, and it came time for closing argument. Flaum said, “What do you want to do?” I said, “No, brother, you tell me what to do, okay? I’m not telling you what to do.” He said, “Here’s what we’re going to do. Webb, you’re going to be the barn-burner. You’re going to get up, you’re going to talk to the audience, you’re going to warm them up in the opening closing argument, and you kind of be yourself, and then I am going to be the wise man that comes back in rebuttal and pulls it all together and use judgment and my ability to persuade.” And I said, “Deal.” And that’s what happened.

We got up, and I gave my closing argument. I was not sure where this was going and what was going to happen. Flaum got up, in one hour, talked to those jurors, just used his own personality, soft-spoken, wisdom, judgment, and I gradually watched him symbolically climb into that jury box. They became his friend. They came to trust him. They came to rely upon the information he provided to them. They wanted to vote his way. And you know what? They did. We won the case. And afterwards, I told Flaum, “The fact that I had the honor and the privilege of trying your first federal case here, I will never forget it.”

That developed a friendship that did last fifty years, and a very close friendship. I constantly would be meeting with him one-on-one over the decades, just to get together. Mostly it was just he and I. We would go out, and we’d have lunch somewhere, nobody else there.

I can remember shortly after that trial, I called him up and said, “I want to have lunch.” I had been in the office three years. By the way, some of you who know me, I am not a patient person. I don’t—I won’t [stop]—I like to keep moving. I like to see what the next experience of life is going to be for me. So I took him out to lunch, just he and I, a place called Berghoff. It’s right next door to the federal building. We sat there and we talked. And after a few minutes, I said, “I got to tell you something. I’m leaving.” He says, “You’re what?” I said, “I’m leaving. I think I’ve learned a fair amount here in three years, and I want to move on.”

He leaned across the table. He said, “I want you to listen very carefully to me. Do you understand what we have in this office? Would you walk down the hallway? Just read off the names of the people on the doors that Bauer, Thompson, and Flaum have brought into this office. You’re never going to have a group of people that you have an opportunity to build up a bond and a friendship and a relationship with that will last you for your life. And why, Webb? Because of your impatience? To walk out the door now? You will not have had time to do it. And I tell you right now, if you listen to me and you follow my advice and you stay two or three more years, I wager you right now, some day you will thank me for this.”

And I did exactly what he told me to do. I followed his advice. I stayed three more years. And, yes, I built up relationships with people that became the closest friends throughout the last fifty years, the same people that I had the privilege of working with in that office under their leadership—and I could rattle off the names, but we’re not going to do it— but they were an extraordinary group of people that Thompson, Flaum, and Bauer had brought together under one roof. And those bonds have lasted me up until today. I’ll never forget that advice and the opportunity that he gave me. That was the beginning. Yes, for fifty years we continued with that frequently: get together, go out, just have lunch, talk about things. No one else present. We did it every three or four months.

I’ll go to the end. I think it was last October, I had been calling Delilah up once in a while because I wanted to get together with him, but he wasn’t getting out very much and he was on dialysis. So Delilah calls me and says, “I’m leaving town for a day, call him up, just go up there and see him, just go up to the apartment.” I said, “Yes.” I went up, called him up, said, “I’m coming up.” He said, “Fine, come on up, the kids aren’t here either.” I went up to his apartment. We spent three or four hours just doing what we always do: sit in the room, talking about friends, family, issues, politics, life. Then it was time to leave. And I kind of said, “You know, Joel, I’ve got to get back.” And he said, “Before you go, listen to me.” He says, “I never wanted to do this. I always said I would never do this. I’d never live on a machine, on dialysis. I wouldn’t do it, and now I’m still doing it.” And he said, “The S.O.B.s are now trying to move me from two days of dialysis to three, and I don’t want to do it.” So I tried to use my greatest skills, selfishly, using my greatest skills of advocacy to say to him, “Please, no. People live on dialysis for years. Come on. Don’t.” And he looked at me, and he said, “That’s not me.” So I hugged him at the door. I had this melancholy sadness.

But then I saw him again. It was a month later. It was the Devitt Award in D.C., I was invited. It was a wonderful evening. Speakers got up and shared their remembrances of Flaum, and it just made me feel great. In fact, I had this hope that this was a turning point. It was a fabulous evening, and Joel was strong. It just was a great evening.

A month later, 1st of December, Delilah calls me and says, “I just left him. We’re in Wisconsin in a hospital. Complications have arisen.” And she said, “He just told me what we’re doing, and he told me, ‘I’m going out like Ted Williams—a winner. I’m making the decision. Nobody else. I’m making the decision.’” And he did. Planned out the funeral, got the details, while he’s still there. Then, two days in hospice, he passed away. As I get a chance to say goodbye to him now at this ceremony, all I can say is thank you very much for giving me the privilege of being here.

And Joel, someday I’ll be up yonder, and we’ll have more

conversations.

Thank you.

--- FOOTNOTES ---

Copyright 2025 by Dann Webb

Printed in U.S.A. Vol. 120, No. 2

* Dan Webb is a Chicago trial lawyer and Co-Executive Chairman of Winston & Strawn. Early in Dan’s career, he and Judge Flaum served together in the Chicago U.S. Attorney's Office. They tried one major case together—involving a Chicago alderman—and obtained a conviction. Dan and Judge Flaum became lifetime friends and constantly enjoyed each other's company.

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Remarks of Dan Webb

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