In 2002, Michelle changed her practice from civil litigation to intellectual property licensing and relocated to the Silicon Valley.  Michelle’s friend, Matthew Gloss, begged Michelle to join him in the legal department at Marvell Semiconductor  After numerous discussions with Matt about moving in-house, Michelle spent a weekend in San Luis Obispo (to watch Russ compete in a race) and so she could let “all of the information ‘just wash’ through me” before making a decision.  When she returned on Monday, she called Matt and told him that she would join him in-house.  When Matt pressed Michelle for an early start date, Michelle told Matt that she would need a lot of time to “take care of people at Buchalter, especially her friend, Peter Bertrand.”  In completing her transition from Buchalter to the Silicon Valley, Michelle demonstrated an essential hallmark of her personality: genuine concern for the circumstances of others.  She wouldn’t leave Buchalter until her projects were in order and until those friends who depended upon her were cared for and covered. 

Despite her small physical stature, immediately after joining Marvell, Michelle distinguished herself as the long sturdy pole over which a rumpled mess of legal project “canvas” could be draped to make a well-order and beautifully pleated work-product “tent.”  Virgo by birth and mental discipline, Michelle was a natural hi-tech, in-house counsel.  She readily received the messy inputs received from our in-house clients and patiently, gracefully and always, she returned to them a clean, efficient and highly effective solution to the company’s then pending legal challenge.  As the only in-house counsel with civil litigation experience, Michelle oversaw the evolution of our numerous legal documents into well-ordered, intelligent and articulate corporate forms.  Our little group was now complete: we had a smart kid from Harvard, London University and Hastings to whom we could take our “homework” to ensure it was correct. 

As it was our custom to bestow nicknames on everyone in the department, we nicknamed Michelle, “Mochelle-Mochelle” and “Mokatollah Khomeni.

Michelle’s talent and abilities soon caught the attention of the Company’s founders, both of whom were greatly impressed by Michelle’s insight, analytical skills, common sense and outstanding business judgment.  It was with no surprise then when these founders promoted Michelle out of the legal department and appointed her the company’s Vice President of Human Resources and General Employment Counsel.  Michelle’s ability, talent, intelligence, warmth and compassion had brought her from rural Georgia, though Harvard, London and Hastings to the executive suite in the Silicon Valley.  And, the Valley was instantly a better place.  In her role as corporate executive, Michelle ensured the Company’s treatment of personnel was ethical, compassionate and pragmatic.  While serving as Marvell’s senior human resources executive, Michelle never her lost her small town values, nor did she forsake the principles upon which she was educated. She remained true to herself. She never sold out; and, she proved herself to be the “total package.” Michelle eventually left Marvell and joined the Microsoft legal department, where she continued to practice technology licensing law and where she worked until she undertook a tour of the world with Russ. In all Michelle did as an attorney, she served her clients and the legal profession with great distinction. She was an exemplary legal counsel.  She remains our friend and co-counsel.

- Matthew Gloss 

After graduating from Harvard with a degree in Russian studies, receiving a Masters Degree in History from the University of London, Michelle held various jobs, including working for "Project RAFT” (which involved arranging rafting trips in Russia and a rafting competition and eco-festival in Costa Rica), and acting as a contract paralegal. Michelle joined Buchalter first as a paralegal in April, 1990 and later as an associate in February, 1997.  In her first interview with partner Peter Bertrand they talked about Russia, travel, music and life in general, but nothing about law or her prior work experience. It was her charm and personality that sealed the deal, and she made a number of long-lasting friendships with numerous Buchalter attorneys and staff over the years. 

In her first stint as a paralegal, which spanned April 1990 to June 1992, she was part of a close-knit team with Peter and Kathleen Cheek, and she worked on some of the most high profile cases in the firm.  She demonstrated deep intellect, flawless instincts and had a great understanding of people. It was this latter skill that was perhaps her most impressive, which when coupled with her Southern charm was an unbeatable combination.  Each day at the office would begin with Peter, Michelle and Kathleen sitting in Peter’s office talking about politics, literature, movies, music and general “life stuff” before digging into the tasks of the day.  Michelle lit up her surroundings with her smile and her laughter, as well as her personal warmth.  She was also quick to laugh at Peter’s jokes, particularly when Peter arranged to have one of his clients call her on the speaker phone in Russian and describe an espionage plot involving Michelle, “Boris and Natasha.”  Michelle had many nicknames at Buchalter, including: “Mo,” “Mokes,” “Mokie,” “Mokester,” and one of Peter’s favorites, “Chelle” (a nickname that her mother would sometimes call her.

After excelling as a paralegal (and clearly being underemployed), Michelle decided to go to law school at Hastings College of the Law.

After graduating from Hastings in 1995, Michelle took a job at another large law firm in San Francisco, and then one in Yuba City, working at a small  firm on primarily trust and estate matters. However, she rejoined Buchalter in February, 1997 when Peter called her and said “Mo, we’re getting the band back together!” After much begging and pleading, Peter ultimately convinced Michelle to return, and she picked up right where she had left off.

During her second stint with Buchalter, she worked with virtually everyone in the office, and formed close bonds with her secretary Dodie Fontano, Jennifer “Ice” Gloss, Susan Jamieson, Pete Mack, Bob Izmirian, Shawn Christianson, Denise Field, Rick Darwin and Mia  Blackler. As before, Michelle worked on a number of major matters, including the Marvell/Jasmine trade secret case, which spawned a number of significant First Amendment and privilege issues that worked their way all the way to the California Supreme Court. As before, Michelle showed an uncanny ability to “mind meld” with Peter and others where she would translate cryptic notes and seemingly random phrases into entire sections of briefs.

She blossomed as an attorney and was one of the most sought-after associates in the San Francisco  office. She was able to charm everyone she came in contact with, and demonstrated a particular  ability to charm recalcitrant witnesses by seamlessly dropping into her warm Southern accent  (which was worth the price of admission just to watch). In all, she had a promising career as a litigator, and was on track to become a partner at Buchalter, but was lured away to an in-house position at Marvell Semiconductor by her close friend Matt Gloss, where she continued to excel in everything that she did. Her passing has left a huge hole in each of our hearts.

-Jennifer Gloss 

I'm thinking Michelle arrived in London around August of 1985 with her then-boyfriend Paul. There was a a Marshall Scholars' orientation in Oxford or Cambridge or one of those fancy places, and then somehow Michelle and Paul ended up living in a shared housing situation in North London, in an area called Finsbury Park. Finsbury Park is not a particularly beautiful or historic part of London, although the Sex Pistols' Johnny Rotten was born there and the stadium of the Arsenal football (soccer) team is nearby.

The very, very English housemates included Julian and Roz, who I believe were siblings, and lawyers, or bankers, or something nice and upper middle class. There were some other folks as well. The house was a little damp and gray, and the hot water heater was tiny, but the kitchen was a cozy place, and the Tube station was very near.  It only took about 20 minutes to get to the University, taking the Picadilly Line to the Russell Square Station in Bloomsbury. Bloomsbury is a much more beautiful and historic part of London, where Virginia Woolf and her writerly and artistic clique hung out, where T.S. Eliot worked as an editor for Faber & Faber, where the British Museum curates pretty much all of human history. It was pretty much the perfect place for a 23-year-old grad student who loved history and literature.

A few of Michelle's fellow Marshall Scholars became close friends, with friendships that lasted long past the London years. Sandra, Sabina, and Susan, who I hope to get stories from soon. 

Michelle studied pretty diligently, especially by British standards, because in most British universities nobody goes to class much and they just study at the very end of the year for these huge high-stakes exams. She went to the theatre on student tickets, and to the National Gallery and the Tate, and of course the British Museum, and to free concerts at St. Martin in the Fields in Trafalgar Square, and to pubs and student cafes and vegetarian restaurants serving nine different kinds of nut loaf.

In London, Michelle discovered avocados, and samosas, and Harrod's food hall, which was pretty much too expensive for a student budget, but it always had an amazing fresh fish display to look at and was an extremely entertaining place to wander through. She got her hair cut super short and spunky, by students at Vidal Sassoon's  hair academy. She went to Oxford and Cambridge to visit her other Marshall Scholar friends. She and Paul took their meager funds and did a trip that included Italy and Greece. It was an amazing trip but they both got violent food poisoning on some Greek island, which is very uncomfortable and awkward when you are sleeping in the loft of a barn. They visited me and my aunt and uncle and cousin in Wales, and we took a crazy, sleet- and storm-filled two day trip to Ireland with my uncle, keeping him company on the long car and ferry rides to Cork. The stormy crossing made Michelle and Paul violently ill, but they were troopers. On the way back to Wales, it was very late and quite snowy, and my uncle made us sing to him every five minutes to keep him from falling asleep.

Eventually Paul's visa ran out, and he returned to the US. He and Michelle drifted apart and stopped being a couple. She finished her studies and got a masters degree in history, but she wasn't ready to leave London. Michelle moved from a stuffy house-sharing situation to one that was way less stuffy. A dude named Clive owned a house in Clapham, in South London, and rented space to a bunch of students and folks from other places, primarily Poland. Clive and his girlfriend Pam liked to walk around the house naked, and this was particularly problematic because several of the "spaces" that he rented out were just corners of the living room and other open areas. Michelle's space was a corner of what would have been a dining area, right next to the kitchen, so waking up to pink, naked Clive making a cup of tea not eight feet away was a pretty jarring way to start the day. But it was cheap and the Polish housemates were cool. Also the hot water heater was pretty big and nobody had a fit if you wanted to shower every day. 

Michelle got a job as a nanny to a young boy named Theo, whose dad had lost his wife and worked a lot of hours in some intellectual field. Theo's ambitions in life were to be an astronaut or a tree frog (he was about five at the time). She made more friends, and traveled around the country some more, taking a canal houseboat up to Oxford with her friend Jill and Jill's dog Ishtar the Goddess of Protection. 

I don't remember when or why, but eventually Michelle decided to come back to America and start the next phase of her life. About which, more soon. 

- Jayne Williams

This brief sketch will keep evolving as the author acquires more information from family and friends. Any accuracies are the fault of Jayne Williams, who was Michelle's friend for 32 years but has a poor memory for some things. Please feel free to contact her at slowfattri at gmail dot com and set her straight on facts and dates. 

Michelle was the oldest child of Bobbie and Joyce Oakes, who both grew up in south Georgia and married young. Michelle was born on September 14th, 1962 in West Palm Beach, Florida, but spent her childhood in Brunswick, Georgia, where the air was soft and smelled pleasantly of mud and salt, and the tidal marshes were full of shrimp and fish. She had approximately a bazillion cousins that she played with, though never ball games because she didn't like to catch balls. She liked to read from an early age, and the book Are You My Mother? became a particular favorite. When she was five or six or somewhere in there, her little sister Grace arrived, and that was fun for everyone. 

Michelle's high school years were spent in Douglas, Georgia, where she attended Coffee High and cheered for the Trojans every Friday night during football season. She was seriously smart. At some point she read To Kill A Mockingbird and determined that she would become a lawyer one day.

There was a spirit of adventure in Michelle's family. Bobbie joined the Army in the 1950s, and Joyce took a bus, by herself, from south Georgia to New York, and a ship to Holland, and a train to where he was stationed in Germany. The young married couple also travelled all around Europe in a beat up used car, camping in an Army tent. Michelle's Uncle Raymond, her mother's brother, introduced her to the Beatles, Bob Dylan and other mind-bending music, and music exploration became an ongoing theme throughout her life. I remember also hearing stories about long road trips with the whole Oakes family piled into the car, sometimes on very short notice.

As Michelle grew up, she dressed up for proms, went on dates, permed her hair and tanned for hours in the summer, like we all did in the 1970s, when skin cancer had not yet been invented. She spent at least one summer, I think maybe two, rocking the Georgia Governor's Honors program for kids with big brains and a bright future. She graduated in 1980 and set off for Cambridge, Massachusetts to go to Harvard - a huge leap for a small but mighty Georgia girl. 

How did she decide she was gong to Harvard? Possibly the same way she decided she was going to be a lawyer. In any case, she showed up in the fall of 1980 with her family and a few boxes, after an epic road trip up the Eastern seaboard. She met a bunch of people from all over the country and the world, read a lot more books, and decided to major first in history and then in Russian/Soviet Studies. 

She lived first in Grays, a dorm in Harvard Yard, on the same floor with Anne Nesbet from California, Allie from Massachusetts, Mary Bly from New Hampshire, Joanna Taylor from Chicago, and other folks whose name I forget. Always quick to relate to people, Michelle adapted well to the social challenges of roommates and the academic challenges of college, but she became particularly close to Anne, who was briliant even by Harvard standards. In her sophomore year, Michelle moved to Winthrop House, one of the "river houses" at Harvard known for its sociable culture and prized for its central location. 

In her sophomore year, our heroine met a bunch of freshmen who would eventually be responsible for her move to California. Jayne Williams, Will Waters, Mike Malone, and Paul Hoffman. Jayne and Will were Anne's friends from California; Mike was Will's first boyfriend, and Paul was one of Mike's roommates. This crew beame tightly knit, and almost inseparable. Michelle and Paul got together, Mike and Paul stayed roommates, adding Bob Parlin to the mix in their sophomore year, and their suite at Winthrop house became the center of activities; watching M*A*S*H on Bob's tiny black and white TV, listening to Motown and the Talking Heads, making runs for hot fudge sundaes, and occasionally studying.  

Michelle ended up graduating in 1985 because her major in Russian and Soviet Studies required her to learn Russian, and that took a little extra time. She continued to kick butt academically, however, and was one of only 30 or so American students to be awarded a Marshall Scholarship for graduate study in Britain. She decided to get a Master's in History at London University, and set off, once again, into the unknown, completely determined to learn everything she could in school, in the great city of London, and from the people all around her. 


-Jayne Williams