Marvin Grossberg

"Marvin Grossberg"

- "Ahh... the days of my youth... like the scent of fresh lemon", you see.

Marvin Grossberg is a veteran criminal defense attorney who served as Mia Fey's mentor and headed his own law firm, Grossberg Law Offices. Diego Armando and Robert Hammond were also former employees.

Involvement in the DL-6 Incident
In 2001, Redd White bribed Grossberg into giving him information about a spirit medium named Misty Fey, whose abilities had been called upon by the police to assist in the investigation of the DL-6 Incident. Fey was publicly discredited and left Kurain Village in disgrace. After discovering that the police were searching for the source of the leaked information, White turned on Grossberg, blackmailing him into doing whatever White liked lest he release to the public and the police what Grossberg had done.

Tutelage of Mia Fey

 * Main article: Turnabout Memories

"Marvin Grossberg"

- *groan* My hemorrhoids are beginning to act up...

Several years later, Mia Fey, Misty's daughter, joined the Grossberg Law Offices. Grossberg and his associate, Diego Armando, took it upon themselves to assist her and teach her how to be a lawyer. Fey's first case in court would end in tragedy when the defendant, Terry Fawles, poisoned himself and died on the witness stand. Not long after, Armando was himself poisoned and left in a comatose state.

A few months later, Fey returned to the courtroom in the defense of a young art student called Phoenix Wright, which Grossberg was initially surprised by. Wright refused to cooperate with Fey on the witness stand, and Grossberg gave up, remarking, "I knew that boy was guilty the first time I saw him." However, Fey convinced him to trust her and, with his cooperation, the defense managed to prevail. Grossberg later realized that Fey's true goal was to bring Dahlia Hawthorne to justice, as she had poisoned Fey's lover, Armando. With Grossberg's help, Mia managed to prove that Wright was innocent and that Hawthorne was the one who had murdered the victim, Doug Swallow.

In the end, Grossberg was impressed with Fey's dedication to her client, and realized that to be truly devoted to one's client could be what being a lawyer was all about, something he believed he had lost.

Assisting Phoenix Wright

 * Main article: Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney

Mia Fey eventually left Grossberg Law Offices and created her own law firm, Fey and Co. Law Offices. However, she would later be murdered by Redd White, and Mia's younger sister Maya would be arrested for the crime. When Wright came to Grossberg's law office requesting his help, Grossberg flat-out rejected, stating that this was one case he couldn't take. Wright would ultimately take the case himself.

Later, Wright returned, needing information. Grossberg told him about White and his company, Bluecorp. Wright also noticed that a grand painting of Grossberg's had suddenly disappeared. He saw it again when he went to Bluecorp, which he questioned Grossberg about when he returned. Grossberg confessed that he had been paying off White for 15 years, ever since the DL-6 Incident. The painting was just the latest in a series of payoffs. That was also the reason he couldn't take Maya's case; White would have ruined him if he did by revealing he was the DL-6 Incident leak.

Later that year, Wright returned to Grossberg Law Offices to request information about the DL-6 Incident. Robert Hammond, one of Grossberg's employees, had been murdered. Grossberg told them that Hammond had been the defense attorney in the DL-6 Incident. Wright returned again, asking about a lawyer named Gregory Edgeworth. Grossberg revealed to Wright that Gregory Edgeworth had stricken prosecutor Manfred von Karma with the only penalty of his career. Grossberg also told Wright about Misty Fey's involvement in the DL-6 Incident. With Grossberg's help, Wright was able to pin down Hammond's killer and uncover the truth behind the DL-6 Incident.

Personality
"Marvin Grossberg"

- *Ah-HHHHEM!*

Grossberg is very strict and tends to speak nostalgically of his past. He has a habit of loudly and exaggeratedly clearing his throat to draw someone's attention. Grossberg also suffers from hemorrhoids and frequently complains about them. He appears to be fond of his past employees even after years of seeing them. This sentiment extends to their relatives, as shown by the kind way he treats Maya Fey, although this may have been at least partially influenced by guilt.

In a sense, Grossberg represents an "old generation" of "veteran" lawyers, who have perhaps lost sight of their job's true purpose, and have become tainted with corruption. After seeing Mia Fey's first victory, he remarked on her ability to trust in her client, which he suspected had become a lost art. Despite being a generally good man, he did have a lapse in conscience when he sold scandalous details of the police investigation into the DL-6 Incident to Redd White. This mistake quickly caught up with him and continued to haunt him for the next 15 years, as he had not only inadvertently ruined the reputation of Misty Fey and the Fey clan in general, but also left himself vulnerable to blackmail by the opportunistic White.

Name

 * His Japanese name, "Soranosuke Hoshikage" (星影宇宙ノ介), is both astrology-themed and a reference to two Japanese mystery novels; "Soranosuke" (宇宙ノ介, "star boy" or "boy of the stars") comes from a reference made by the main character in Soji Shimada's début mystery novel "The Tokyo Zodiac Murders", while "Hoshikage" (星影, "starlight" or "star shadow") comes from the name of a detective in a Tetsuya Ayukawa novel.


 * His surname, "Grossberg", originates from the German words "groß" (large) and "berg" (mountain).


 * His French name, "Rosenberg", is a Germanic-language family name and toponym (a place name). Its principal meaning is "mountain of roses", from "rose" + "berg". However, as a toponym, in some locations it may have originally meant "red mountain" or simply "red hill", from "rot" + "berg".

Development

 * Marvin Grossberg was only given four animated sprites in Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney because the developers could not fit any more into the game due to memory restrictions at the time. His reappearance in Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney: Trials and Tribulations keeps the same number of forward-facing sprites (reused from his previous appearance, except with a different suit color), but does give him some new side-on sprites for his role as Mia Fey's co-counsel (albeit with the only two facial expressions he normally has).


 * Grossberg is notably, to date, the oldest character to act as the player's co-counsel.


 * He is slightly thinner in his Turnabout Memories appearance.