LOCATION: Niles/St. Joseph

GENERAL PURPOSE: We are hiring an associate attorney to join our team in Niles and/or St. Joseph, Michigan. Associates may also assist our other offices across Michigan and Washington, D.C., as needed. This position is ideal for a general practitioner who is familiar with a variety of projects including litigation, real estate, family law and estate planning.

Butzel Long has been in existence for over 170 years and has helped shape the legal and business landscape of Michigan for over one-and-a-half centuries. We continue to grow our client base and are at the forefront of some of the biggest cases and most important issues in our industry. We are seeking a standout candidate to join our growing team.

MAJOR RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Draft pleadings, motions, and briefs.
• Attend legal proceedings, such as motion hearings, evidentiary hearings, mediations, and depositions.
• Assist with all areas of discovery including, but not limited to; drafting discovery requests, drafting responses to discovery requests, preparation of initial disclosures, and witness preparation.
• Work with partner-level attorneys to determine documents and information to produce, manner of production, and selection of vendors.
• Organize, review, and maintain documents produced; perform, supervise, or coordinate coding of case documents and development of databases and/or other litigation support applications.
• Review and analyze documents for responsiveness to discovery requests; monitor the status and completeness of discovery responses.
• Review and assemble deposition, trial, and motion exhibits.
• Index and summarize deposition testimony and exhibits.
• Gather impeaching materials for adverse experts including prior testimony, transcripts, articles, and publications.
• Prepare trial materials.
• Attend and assist at pretrial, trial, and post-trial proceedings.
• Meet with clients to discern their wishes, draft appropriate documents including Wills, Trusts, Powers of Attorney, and Health Care Directives, irrevocable trusts, and business planning documents.
• Advise on estate, gift, GST tax, and income tax matters. Primary areas include estate and tax planning for mid to high-net-worth individuals and families, income tax, transfer tax and charitable planning.
• Involved in estate administration matters, including estate, fiduciary income, and gift tax returns, counseling fiduciaries in estate and trust settlement and administration, preparing and filing probate administration documents and attending hearings in probate matters.
• The Associate also supports other attorneys with the above tasks as required.
• Interpret laws, rulings, and regulations for individuals and businesses involved in litigation.
• Demonstrate an ability to cultivate and generate new client relationships.
• Manage new and existing client relationships.
• Conduct research and draft memos for partners.

SKILLS AND ABILITIES:

• Expected to display maturity and confidence to gain both client confidence and demonstrate leadership with other client advisors.
• Excellent written and oral presentation skills
• Ability to accurately summarizes complex problems and proposed solutions.
• Superior intellect and quick grasp of complex legal issues, as evidenced by superior grades in law school and/or work experience in similar settings.
• Strong work ethic and willingness to work as needed to get any task done.
• Good organizational and project management skills.
• Proficient in the use of on-line legal research services and legal resources.
• Superior legal writing skills.
• Must have sound judgment.
• Must be able to work independently with minimal supervision.
• Demonstrates expertise in a variety of concepts, practices, and procedures.
• Ability to work collaboratively and as a member of a team with internal and external contacts.
• Ability to adapt to a changing environment and situations.
• Proven willingness to work hard in a fast-paced atmosphere.
• Experience with use of document/discovery data bases (e.g. Relativity) is helpful.

EDUCATION, EXPERIENCE AND/OR TRAINING:

• Must be a graduate of an accredited law school.
• Admitted to practice law in the State of Michigan or ability to obtain admission upon commencement of employment.
• 4-8 years’ experience required.

To submit your resume or for information regarding current career opportunities, please contact recruiting@butzel.com