Defense attorney, Michael A. Millet, who was well liked and whose friends considered unheralded, died last week at the age of 72 after a battle with cancer. 

Millet was known to the legal community because of his work with the Legal Aid Society and then for over 40 years as an “18b” attorney representing the indigent, who was often seen coming out of his office on Court Street. 

In Millet’s final days, after doctors told him that he would indeed lose his fight, his friend and officemate George Farkas, a past president of the Kings County Criminal Bar Association (KCCBA), wrote a letter to the editor of the New York Law Journal. It was meant as a way to give Millet some credit for his decades of hard work, but, unfortunately, Millet died the day it was published.

“All he does, after a stint with the Legal Aid Society in the 70′s, is represent indigent defendants in criminal cases ranging from public urination to murder,” Farkas wrote. “And he does this, day in and day out, without fanfare. 

“He has few retained clients, perhaps a handful. His office is small and cluttered with hundreds, if not a thousand files, many not more than a half-inch thick. He does the work that the Constitution demands of an attorney and ably represents his clients. He has been doing so for almost 50 years.” 

Less than a week after the letter was published, the Law Journal said that the letter to the editor about this relatively unknown attorney, who once served as vice president of the KCCBA, was one of its most popular all week, according to Susan DeSantis, deputy editor-in-chief.

“The passing of Mike Millet last week deeply affected many in our community here in Brooklyn and clearly beyond, as noted below in the Weekend Edition of the New York Law Journal by its Deputy Editor-in-Chief this past weekend,” KCCBA President Michael Cibella said. “Thank you to all who have shared heartfelt and amusing memories of Mike showing that Mike did not go unnoticed among his friends and colleagues. He was a valued member of our Association and community and he will be sadly missed.”

Millet was previously honored by the KCCBA after his retirement in 2015 and presented with a plaque for his years of service to the organization. Up to his death, he remained an active member of the bar association.

Funeral services for Millet were held on Wednesday, May 30 at Magen David Congregation in Bensonhurst.

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