Catching up with Brian Fischenich
Brian Fischenich is one Huntington High School graduate who doesn’t believe in sitting still for long. He resigned his position with a Boise, Idaho law firm last July, moved to the Washington, D.C. area and passed the Virginia Bar Exam while waiting to begin training after joining the U.S. Air Force.
One of the greatest Blue Devil wrestlers ever, Fischenich won two Suffolk crowns and captured the New York State championship as a senior after finishing third his junior year. He also starred on the Huntington volleyball team. He completed his mat career with a varsity mark of 83-13.
Following his high school graduation in 1992, Fischenich earned his undergraduate degree at Lehigh University and then obtained a law degree at the Georgetown University School of Law. Along the way, Fischenich has run marathons, developed into very good golfer and become adept at mountain biking, to name just a few of his many interests.
Although successful in his corporate law practice, Fischenich had been increasingly drawn to the possibility of military service, with an initial interest in the U.S. Navy, before deciding upon the Air Force. He begins training this month at Maxwell Air Force Base in Alabama.
“Training consists of four weeks of commissioned officer training with other attorneys and doctors who are joining the medical corps,” Fischenich said during a recent interview. “Then I will have eight weeks of military justice training. After that I head to Hanscom AFB just outside of Boston. The JAG officers at Hanscom spend a lot of time working on contracts, including contracts for a good portion of the Air Force’s command and communication systems. That is exactly the type of work I wanted to do, so I am pretty happy about the assignment.”
Fischenich expects his assignment at Hanscom AFB will last about two years and then he will be given another two year assignment. “I will probably have one or two deployments over the four-year period as well,” he said. “Deployments could be to anywhere overseas, not just Iraq or Afghanistan. And they are usually three to six months, which is a good time period. I think it will be a good and worthwhile service and am looking forward to it.”
Fischenich feels that passing the Virginia Bar Exam will come in handy when he eventually leaves the Air Force, “whether in four, six or 20 years,” he said. “There are a lot of defense industry firms in northern Virginia that have in-house legal departments as well as law firms in northern Virginia that deal with government contracts. I should have a good resume for either type of position.
Since he originally thought his Air Force training would begin in October, instead of its actual start this month, Fischenich had an unanticipated three months off between jobs. “I took a temporary job in D.C. working on an antitrust case,” he said.
The temporary job involved reviewing documents all day, but it was still fun to be back in the nation’s capital, Fischenich said. “I still have a number of friends around here and stay pretty busy.”
Fischenich still keeps in touch with Huntington classmates, teammates and coaches. He follows school happenings on the internet and sends out plenty of e-mails. He said he’s hoping to get back to his alma mater “one of these days.”
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