David E. Marcus founded the firm in 1974 after only four months in the Welfare Fraud Division of the District Attorney’s Office in Imperial County. David had not been very good at playing along with the politics which are often standard procedure in a public entity, and he had a hard time keeping quiet about things he felt were wrong. So he took the leap and set out on his own in order to be able to scratch his “justice bone,” as he called it, answering to no one but his clients and nothing but his own sense of justice.

He was notorious for a brash, crass, corrosive demeanor, which he would fly at anyone he could offend. He disdained those who withered at his invective, tolerated those who withstood it, and respected those who looked him in the eye and gave back in like measure. He challenged a system to accept his abrasive nature while honoring the truth of his mission. Anyone who knew David will have choice adjectives to describe David’s personality, but always with a nostalgic grin and a wistful eye. Inevitably, whoever describes David will praise his brilliance, his fairness, and his commitment to his clients. Most of all, David is lauded for his honesty. “You always knew where you stood with David.”

David was a dynamo of energy, hurling himself into his profession as though he were trying to outpace the cancer that had been pursuing him since his diagnosis in 1986. He worked full time through 1992, when his illness finally forced him to slow down. By then, his firm was doing more Family Law than all other attorneys in Imperial County combined. Poetically, David E. Marcus passed away on Labor Day, 1993.