Appellate Specialty Team

When the need arises for this focused area of practice, you can confidently depend on Butzel’s Appellate Specialty Team. Our experienced appellate attorneys have collectively earned a reputation as a powerful group of practitioners, making countless contributions to the success of our clients and supporting the firm’s practice groups spanning all Butzel’s office locations. Our representation includes individuals and entities across a broad range of commerce, plaintiffs and defendants.

Butzel’s Appellate Team consists of a well-rounded bench of seasoned shareholders, ambitious young lawyers, and former Supreme Court Justices. Members of this group have clerked for judges in the Michigan Supreme Court and United States Courts of Appeal and have served on the Michigan Supreme Court Jury Instruction Committee.

The depth of experience Butzel provides is unique, and on a level that many other firms cannot match. We are proud to provide an elevated level of legal proficiency and the detailed precision required to provide clients and trial counsel alike with the best odds of prevailing at trial and on appeal. Our appellate attorneys routinely collaborate with trial counsel to craft trial strategies, motions, and jury instructions that enhance the probabilities of success.

Our Appellate Team has achieved a lengthy and distinguished record of success spanning decades of representation, including in landmark cases that set precedents that stand today. We’ve prevailed in matters surrounding violations of the Open Meetings Act and issues involving affirmative action policies and allegations of age and racial discrimination.

Our attorneys possess a broad range of experience in appellate courts around the country, regularly achieving favorable outcomes, including in the Michigan Court of Appeals; Michigan Supreme Court; United States Court of Appeals for the Second, Third, Fifth, Sixth, Eighth, Ninth, Tenth, and Federal Circuits; United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit; and the United States Supreme Court.

Individuals, entities, businesses, companies, appellants, and appellees all turn to the Butzel Appellate Specialty Team to provide a broad range of appellate services before State and Federal Courts of Appeals. Clients frequently seek our legal knowledge to defend or challenge a result obtained by prior counsel. Our skilled team knows that the greatest odds for success on appeal begins with creating the best record possible in the trial court.

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News

Filed amicus curiae brief with the US Supreme Court on behalf of 13 state-specific mutual-bond funds, addressing the issue of whether income-tax exemption for interest income from in-state municipal bonds violates the Constitution's Commerce Clause

Represented defendant/appellee in US Supreme Court where, in a 7-2 ruling, the High Court held that predicate "misdemeanor crime of domestic violence" in 18 U.S.C. 922(g)(9) need not include as an element a domestic relationship

Obtained dismissal of False Claims Act (FCA) lawsuit against healthcare provider and affirmance of dismissal on appeal, Chesbrough, et al. v. VPA, P.C. (6th Cir. August 23, 2011)

Defense of major regional hospital system in an anti-trust case alleging conspiracy among hospital and physicians to exclude a cardiologist from the hospital staff

Prepared an amicus curiae brief to the US Supreme Court urging the Court to grant state and local government units latitude in the regulation of firearms

Advised Anti-Defamation League following unsuccessful appeal to Tenth Circuit for violation of federal Wiretap Law and common law defamation, and defeated subsequent attorney fee award application

Gratz v. Bollinger, 539 U.S. 244 (2003) and Grutter v. Bollinger, 539 U.S. 306 (2003), where the United States Supreme Court addressed the constitutionality of the University of Michigan undergraduate and law school affirmative action policies

The Detroit News, Inc. v Independent Citizens Redistricting Commission, 163823, Mich. (December 20, 2021), we filed an original action in the Michigan Supreme Court regarding defendant’s violation of the Open Meetings Act, obtaining a swift and unprecedented victory just weeks after filing

Lockhart v. Quicken Loans, No. 355709 (Mich. App. Jul. 28, 2022), we successfully defended on appeal a ruling that Quicken Loans did not commit age or racial discrimination when declining to hire plaintiff-candidate, who was ordered to pay sanctions for bringing a meritless claim