Accolades

Clients expect and deserve great service and great results.  Therefore, our attorneys always strive to deliver outstanding quality and value in a manner consistent with the highest ethical standards.

Attorney ranking systems are one way to measure excellence within the profession; our 100 attorneys do exceptionally well in rankings, whether ranked by peers or clients:

• Martindale-Hubbell Peer Review Rating.  Forty-two attorneys hold AV® Preeminent™ rating.
• Best Lawyers in America.  Thirty-one of our attorneys earned this designation in 2010.  Five were ranked the best in Michigan in their practice areas.
• Michigan Super Lawyers.  Nineteen of our attorneys were recently selected for this recognition based on the survey conducted by Law & Politics magazine.
• Theodore Swift Civility Award.  In 2000, the Ingham County (Lansing) Bar Association established this annual recognition in honor of Ted Swift, one of the attorneys for whom our firm is named.  He was the award’s first recipient.  It honors local trial lawyers for “…manifesting civility in his or her relations with the Bench, Bar, clients, and the public, while adhering to and advancing the highest principals and traditions of the legal profession.”  Scott Mandel, another one of the firm’s litigators, recently received the award.

In addition, prestigious legal associations have recognized our attorneys for excellence in their fields.  For example, Foster Swift attorneys Allan Claypool, Charles Janssen, and Douglas Mielock are members elected to the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel.  Webb Smith has been elected a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers.

Career Builders 

Foster Swift has attracted quite a few attorneys who have already had well-established careers with other law firms.  These include former prosecuting attorneys and a former justice of the Michigan Supreme Court.  Several of our attorneys have led local, state and national bar associations.  

There are also several distinguished alumni who’ve left the firm for other jobs.  One is David W. McKeague, who was an attorney in our Lansing office for 20 years.  He has been a federal judge since 1992, first on the United States District Court for the Western District of Michigan and, beginning in 2005, on the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit.