David C. Comstock Jr. is an attorney specializing in fire litigation and the defense of government entities, including fire departments. He's also chief of the Western Reserve Joint Fire District, Poland, Ohio. Comstock is in the early stages of forming the National Association for Fire Rescue Service Attorneys, a group for lawyers who are involved in the fire service. So far, he says he has more than 50 interested members, and their next meeting is July 26 in Baltimore at the Firehouse Expo. Comstock can be e-mailed at dcj@csandw.com for more information. Fire Chief recently spoke to him about this new organization.

FC: How do you balance being a fire chief and an attorney?

Comstock: They both help each other. A lot of the work I do legally involves the fire service, and so my experience and background in the fire department provides a unique insight into those legal issues. Conversely, my legal experience gives me insight into issues that come up in the fire department. I think they help each other in terms of the knowledge. On a time basis, it's pretty challenging because both require a lot of time.

FC: Describe the purpose of the new organization.

Comstock: It's an association, an organization consisting of career, part-time and volunteer firefighters who have law degrees from accredited institutions. Its mission is to provide an understanding of legal issues within the fire service and to serve as a national source and network of information on current legal topics.

FC: Will the group act as a source of legal counsel for the fire service in general?

Comstock: That's one of the many missions. What we'd like to do is to be able to share information amongst lawyers who are providing legal services to the fire service and to serve as a source of information for the organizations that exist throughout the United States, for national organizations as well as local organizations, including various fire departments.

In addition, we'd like to have a writers bureau or speakers bureau. For example, the speakers bureau would provide an attorney who has knowledge in a specific area — labor law, governmental immunities, worker's compensation, perhaps even domestic relations for those lawyers who might want information in that area, or health care law. I don't know that much about labor law, but I know other lawyers who do. If you had a particular topic that you wanted information on, a more recent example might be HIPPA, we would be able to provide information that way. One of the items we've had discussion on is the creation of a Web site that would provide all of the information in an easy format to firefighters across the country.

What we've found is that there are [fire service] lawyers located in almost every state across the country, and most of the lawyers that I have worked with are willing to do that sort of service for fire departments for no cost. In other words, if somebody in Ohio wants me to come out and do a presentation on a particular topic, I've done that. I don't charge for it, and I've found that most other lawyers do the same. There are five lawyers in Ohio in the fire service, and we have most of the state covered. The eastern United States has a significant number of lawyers in the fire service so I think there would be plenty of opportunities for the attorney firefighters to speak to the various organizations.

FC: Have you considered affiliating with any of the major fire service organizations?

Comstock: Yes, Phil Stittleburg, who's one of the people who originally talked to me about this idea back in 1998, who is chair of the NVFC, talked about the benefits that could serve both that organization and the IAFC. I think the idea is that we will try to remain as independent as we can but also try to link to other organizations, particularly the IAFC and also other publications in the fire service.

We don't want to be just a subsection. Initially there was talk about being a subsection of both the IAFC and the NFPA, and I think that people who are members of our organization come from not only the ranks of chiefs and officers but also firefighters, both career and full-time, so we want to have a group that can basically serve a lot of constituents.

I guess one of the things that this organization does is demonstrate that there are lawyers out there who have an understanding of what it is to be a firefighter, to approach their personal problems from a little different perspective.

When I start talking to people, including other lawyers, they're amazed at how many [fire service] lawyers are actually out there. When I first talked to Phil Stittleburg I was aware of I think three or four attorneys, now that list has grown to more than 50.