Eric C. Adams

Don’t let the last name fool you, I was raised in a proud Sicilian family. I’m a lifelong resident of Michigan. I spent my childhood in St. Clair Shores, and grew up in an era that stressed the golden rule; kids should be seen and not heard. We didn’t wear helmets when we rode our bicycles, and we were taught to stick up for ourselves. As an inquisitive kid, I loved to learn how things operated. I had a reputation for taking things apart, and sometimes I struggled putting them back together.

This curiosity was the root cause of some major wipeouts on my bike. (by sheer luck, the lack of a helmet was never an issue) With all the tinkering, most of my family was sure I was going to turn out as an engineer (on some days I think maybe I should have). My mother thought differently, she has always said, “you got a mouth on you.” I can admit it has gotten me into some trouble over the years, but I was never shy about expressing myself and my opinions.

I graduated from Lake Shore High School; I earned an associate’s degree from Macomb Community College; and matriculated to Wayne State University where I obtained a bachelor’s degree in political science. On the advice of my Constitutional Law professor, I applied to law school, and I earned my J.D. (Juris Doctor Law) from Thomas M. Cooley Law School.

While in law school, I had the opportunity to intern with the Macomb County Prosecutor’s Office. The opportunity was fulfilling, and I felt like I was making a difference in the community. However, timing was not on my side, it was 2008, I was fresh out of law school and the economy was in a downturn to the likes of which we had not seen in decades.

With limited opportunities, I hung up my own shingle. I rented some office space from a few seasoned attorneys and started taking cases. Due to the times, I spent several years handling credit card collections, commercial and residential evictions, and estate planning. Needless to say, I didn’t make many friends in court, and I had no choice but to strengthen my thick skin.

I have always been passionate about helping people and I was missing that in my practice, so I moved on. For as long as I can remember I have been critical of authority and found myself naturally rooting for and advocating for the underdog. Most recently I had been facilitating the American Dream for college educated foreign nationals, helping them immigrate to the United States on temporary work visas. That work was fulfilling but did not really impact my community, so I have decided to focus my passion and efforts on fighting for you.

Personally, I must be a glutton for punishment, because I married a beautiful 1st generation Sicilian American woman whose parents immigrated to the U.S. from Sicily in the 50’s. You stick with what you know, I guess. I have two fantastic children, a son who loves to cook and is a talented ice hockey player, and a daughter that has her mother’s creativity and appears to have inherited my gift for gab. As Sicilians we spend significant time with our family; some of my relatives still keep plastic on the living room furniture, many of them have full kitchens in the basement. We are loud, we always prepare too much food, and we play nickel dime poker at family gatherings. In a big family you almost never get your way, and you almost always have to fight for what you want, but the trade off is there is always someone there to pick you up when you need it. So ultimately, I’ve been fighting for things my whole life and I’ve been taught to always be there for people who need help.
I bring those attributes to the practice of law, and I look forward to treating my clients like family.