Our Legacy
We’re a law firm built for now, but we never forget that we stand on the shoulders of the firm’s founders—the legal pioneers that helped shape the Core Values that inform our dedication to Excellence today, for our firm and our clients. Excellence. Drive. Trust. Teamwork.
For more than 170 years, Butzel Long has been a part of the business and legal community in Michigan. We’ve been in business since 1854, starting in Detroit, when the city’s economy was based on the Great Lakes shipping trade. Admiralty Law was the specialty of founding senior partner William Austin Moore. He was called to Buffalo, Cleveland, Milwaukee, and Chicago to handle some of the most important cases of his time.
Butzel Long is named for Leo Butzel, who joined the firm in 1896, and Thomas Long, who joined in 1909. Long worked on the General Motors restructuring and in 1920 tried the only matter of litigation that arose out of the entire reorganization. Butzel Long’s list of clients included Durant, the Dodge Brothers, Chrysler, Ford, Kelsey, and the Fishers in the auto industry, and the Scripps and the Booths in the publishing field. The firm also represented many iconic financial institutions, railroads, and other significant businesses during the height of Detroit’s industrial growth.
The firm has maintained its close ties to the automotive industry and has been involved in major transactions in other industries. We helped to create the Michigan Bell Telephone Company (formerly known as Ameritech and now part of AT&T). The firm served as counsel for the acquisition of the Jos. Schlitz Brewing Company by the Stroh Brewing Company in 1982, and later the Heileman Brewing Company.
Butzel Long also continues to provide legal counsel to newspapers and other media concerns. In the late 1980’s, the Joint Operating Agreement (JOA) between The Detroit News and the Detroit Free Press was worked out with the help of Butzel Long attorneys and the firm represented Reader’s Digest and members of the “60 Minutes” team in landmark libel and invasion of privacy suits. The firm’s media attorneys continue to play a leading role in issues involving cyberspace, privacy, and other related issues.
In the early 2000’s, Butzel attorneys represented a well-known newspaper in a landmark lawsuit brought under the Freedom of Information Act in a case involving a prominent political figure resulting in the release of text messages and documentation that became high-profile news throughout the country.
More recently, in the 2020s, Butzel attorneys represent Detroit’s Music Hall for the Performing Arts in the development of a new seven-story, 100,000-square-foot facility with a projected economic impact of $50-60 million.
We’ve served clients with global interests spanning many eras, bringing forward a tradition of practical insight and trusted experience in International Law. From our origins in the mid-1800s representing international shipping concerns, the firm went on to provide legal counsel in some of the country’s most important international trade disputes at the turn of the 20th century. In recent years, a Butzel Long attorney has served as US Ambassador to Japan. In 1991, to assist clients with intercontinental business and legal concerns, we became a founding member of Lex Mundi, one of the first and largest associations of independent law firms from around the world. We’re proud we remain the sole Michigan member firm of the organization to this day.
Over the years, we’ve expanded in Michigan and nationally to include our expansive network of office locations. We’re grateful for the trust our clients have placed in us for decades. We continue to develop new capabilities and to deepen our experience for the benefit of our clients. We’re tenacious when it comes to continuing our tradition of achieving successful results and prevailing for our clients in courtrooms and in boardrooms throughout the world.
Today, we represent clients in some of the most complex industries worldwide, including automotive, aerospace and defense, health care, education, and more. We are proud to serve clients in technology, manufacturing, biotechnology, intellectual property, and cross-border operations and transactions sectors, and many others, including manufacturing, environmental, cybersecurity, construction, and private equity. We represent manufacturers, suppliers, and other entities across the globe. If you don’t know us yet, we hope to have the pleasure of meeting you soon.
WE'RE PROUD OF OUR LEGACY OF SERVICE AND TEAMWORK
