Recognitions

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 attorneys do exceptionally well in rankings, whether ranked by peers or clients:

• Martindale-Hubbell Peer Review Rating.  40 attorneys hold an AV^® Preeminent™ rating.
• Best Lawyers in America^©.  44 of our attorneys earned this designation for 2017. Additionally, Foster Swift was ranked in more than 47 of the 120 practice areas listed in the U.S. News & World Report and Best Lawyers 2017 Best Law Firms in America.
• Michigan Super Lawyers.  20 of our attorneys were recently selected for this recognition based on the survey conducted by Law & Politics magazine.  We were also honored to have Michigan Super Lawyers name 9 of our young attorneys as "Rising Stars."
• 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 this award.

Click here to view the complete list of Foster Swift attorney rankings.

In addition, prestigious legal associations have recognized our attorneys for excellence in their fields.  As examples, Foster Swift attorneys Allan Claypool, Charles Janssen, and Douglas Mielock have been elected fellows to the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel while  Webb Smith, Fred Dilley and Frank Reynolds have been named fellows 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, courts, businesses and organizations. These include former prosecuting attorneys, in-house counsel and a former justice of the Michigan Supreme Court.  Additionally, several of our attorneys have held or currently hold leadership positions in local, state and national bar associations. For example, Dirk Beckwith is currently the president of the Transportation Lawyers Association, Julie Fershtman is the immediate past president for the State Bar of Michigan, and Scott Mandel is the immediate past president of the Ingham County Bar Association.

There are also several distinguished Foster Swift alumni who’ve served the bench or have been recruited to other high profile legal positions after starting their careers at Foster Swift.  A prime example 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.