Sword and Shield

Mary is a past president of DRI - The Voice of the Defense Bar. She is a past chair of the ABA Section of State and Local Government Law. She is Immediate Past President of the Lawyers for Civil Justice (LCJ) and currently chairs its Class Action Reform Committee. In addition to being a recognized leader of the defense bar, Mary’s skill as an appellate lawyer has been nationally recognized. She is a fellow in the American Academy of Appellate Lawyers, a member of the American Law Institute (ALI), and has served as chair of the ABA Council of Appellate Lawyers (CAL), a division of the Appellate Judges Conference, the ABA TIPS Appellate Advocacy Committee, and the Appellate Practice Section of the State Bar of Michigan. A regular before the Michigan Supreme Court where she served as law clerk to Justice Patricia J. Boyle, she chairs the Advocates Guild of the Michigan Supreme Court and served as co-chair of the Michigan Appellate Bench Bar Conference Foundation for over twenty years. She has handled significant appeals in state and federal appellate courts for governmental and private clients including representing property owners before the Michigan Supreme Court in Hathcock v County of Wayne to overturn decades-old precedent involving condemnation, establishing the retroactivity of dealer statute amendments before the Michigan Supreme Court, and overturning multi-million dollar judgments on appeal. Mary is co-editor of Sword and Shield Revisited:  a Practical Approach to Section 1983 Litigation.