Butzel Long attorney George Donnini featured in the Detroit Legal News

Warrior Lawyer

By Sheila Pursglove
Legal News

Attorney George Donnini recalls finishing a clerkship in Manhattan on a Friday and driving to Quantico, Virginia, to check in that Sunday in his camouflage uniform to start a six-month infantry officer training course.

"That was quite a wake-up call," says Donnini, a shareholder in Butzel Long's Detroit office and vice president of the firm. "I went from living near Times Square and commuting to federal court in a suit and tie to spending weeks at a time out in the field with 200 other Marines."

His four-year service as a Judge Advocate in the Marines gave Donnini an excellent foundation to build his law career.

"I spent a significant amount of my active duty time as a criminal defense counsel," he says. "That experience was similar to being a public defender I was handed a ton of files and my boss basically told me 'good luck.' I worked out a lot of deals, tried a bunch of cases, and got yelled at by a whole lot of judges. It was great. I got a lot of 'on your feet' time in the courtroom, which is something most people a year out of law school simply don't get."

Click here to read the entire article in the Detroit Legal News.