Change and Continuity

Cleveland Thurber retired in 1980 after arranging for a more democratic method of governing the firm. For more than a century, the size and influence of Sidney Davy Miller's firm had grown by increments that were scarcely perceptible from one year to the next. But the quarter-century after Thurber's tenure saw greater changes than in the firm's entire previous history. The number of partners and associates grew five fold. The firm's geographic reach expanded enormously. Its membership came much more closely to resemble the cultural profile of the communities it served. Technology and market competition quickened the pace of practice. Yet the traditions that earlier generations had nurtured remained strong-traditions of collegiality and mentoring between partners and associates; a sense of obligation to the communities in which the firm worked; and high professional standards in serving clients and society.

Year by year, as each class of associates grew larger than the last, growth allowed the firm to take larger strides toward the diversity that many lawyers felt it should achieve. Among the earliest women to sign on were Gillian Steinhauer; Donna Donati, a native Detroiter and graduate of Wayne State and Michigan Law; Maureen Aughton; Beverly Hall Burns, a Michigan Law graduate who had been city editor of the Lansing State Journal; Marjorie Basile, another Detroit native and a summa cum laude graduate of the University of Detroit Law School; and Amanda Van Dusen, a graduate of Williams College (the Thurbers' alma mater) and Michigan Law, and the daughter of Richard Van Dusen, a highly respected Detroit attorney. By 2002, there were nearly sixty women attorneys in the firm. Each crop of new associates included roughly as many women as men. And no one any longer gave a thought to a prospective associate's ethnic origin or religion.

African-American attorneys and women attorneys rose to partnership and assumed leadership positions throughout the firm. By 1993, an independent national survey revealed that Miller Canfield had more African-American partners than any other major firm in the United States. Leonard Givens became head of the labor and employment group and CEO of the firm. Mack Faison became head of the product liability group. Marjorie Basile led the intellectual property group. Both Beverly Burns and Donna Donati became deputy leaders of the labor and employment group, and Burns became deputy CEO of the firm. Amanda Van Dusen became deputy leader of the public law group. Dawn Schluter became co-leader of the personal services group.

Opportunities for growth-and the pressure of competition from other firms-spurred the firm to undertake an ambitious series of expansions. The firm's first suburban office had opened in Birmingham in the 1950s. Now, starting in the late 1970s, there came a rapid-fire expansion to Monroe (1978); Lansing (1980); Washington, D.C. (1981); Pensacola, Florida (1994); and New York City (1996). In 1984, Miller Canfield merged with the Kalamazoo firm of Brown, Colman and DeMent. About the same time, a major presence was established in Grand Rapids. In 1984, the firm merged with the Ann Arbor firm of DeVine, DeVine, Kantor and Serr. And through the fortuitous expertise and connections of the firm's Richard Walawender, the firm joined the rebuilding of Eastern Europe with the establishment of Miller Canfield in Poland, a firm of thirty attorneys with offices in Gdansk/Gdynia, Wroclaw and Warsaw.

In January 2002,  the firm broadened its international capabilities much closer to home when Miller Canfield combined with Wilson Walker Hochberg Slopen LLP, the largest firm in Windsor, Ontario, Canada. Founded in 1919, Wilson Walker  focused on providing legal services to foreign corporations and investors seeking to do business in Canada. The combination came at a time when U.S.-Canadian trade was booming. "Combining an American and a Canadian law firm broadened our ability to provide legal services to organizations doing business in North America," said then CEO Thom Linn, "and greatly expanded our ability to offer clients seamless, cross-border representation."  A second Ontario office opened in Toronto in 2008, and we expanded in 2009 after a merger with  Toronto's Gaertner Tobin LLP.

Market growth supported an office in downtown Chicago in 2007 and we expanded our global footprint by opening offices in Monterrey, Mexico, and in Shanghai, China in 2009.

Growth in the number of attorneys has been extraordinary. Compare, for example, the year 1971, when two lawyers joined the firm, to 1984, when newcomers numbered fifty, or 1985, when fifty-three came on board. By 1993 the firm was again the largest in Michigan, with 244 attorneys to Dykema Gossett's 241. In the late 1980s, quarters in the Comerica building in Detroit had grown so tight that the firm needed new space after a quarter-century at West Fort and Congress. The partners agreed to become the anchor tenants in the new Madden Building at 150 West Jefferson, the first major office building erected in downtown Detroit since the opening of the Renaissance Center in 1976. By the eve of the firm's sesquicentennial in 2002, the number of attorneys had passed 260, with a support staff of some 300. Today we have nearly 450 attorneys and paralegals and 375 support staff.

To better prepare associates and staff for the practicalities of modern legal practice, firm leaders in 1999 established an ambitious in-house program in continuing legal education. It carries the tongue-in-cheek title of "Miller Canfield University," but MCU is no joke. New lawyers and support staff are expected to choose from a range of semester-long courses in five "colleges"-practice development; technology; substantive law; practice management and economics; and personal development. All these areas are slighted or ignored in most law schools; the firm aimed to help new members learn about these matters at the outset of their careers, rather than picking up scattered details over years of day-to-day practice. Courses are taught by members of the firm, clients, and professional educators. It's an example of the firm's commitment to the future and to the task of helping attorneys and staff develop satisfying and beneficial careers.

As the firm's 150th anniversary approached, it sometimes seemed as if change itself were the only norm. Yet powerful traditions that had begun with the Millers themselves-high integrity, strong collegiality, and community service-remained the defining marks of Miller Canfield. Members of the firm continue to make extraordinary volunteer contributions to civic life in general and to the profession in particular. A few examples suggest the breadth of this commitment. Organizations assisted by Miller Canfield members include Big Brothers/Big Sisters; the NAACP; Catholic Social Services; the Anti-Defamation League of B'Nai B'Rith; Food Gatherers; Goodwill Industries; Inner City Youth Basketball; the Nature Conservancy; and countless churches, hospitals, colleges and schools.

Though it was impossible in such a large organization to maintain the web of personal relationships that had characterized earlier decades, strong friendships, professional and personal, remained common in each office of the firm. Miller Canfield remained well-known, too, for strong relationships between partners and associates. Because the firm continued to entrust associates with substantial responsibilities early in their careers, good mentoring was no less essential than innate ability and hard work. "Bob Gilbert was a wonderful mentor to me because Stratt Brown was a wonderful mentor to him," said Timothy Sochocki. "If I'm a good mentor, it's because I was well trained. I should be a good mentor."

As for the firm's ability to maintain its integrity amid the pressure of change and competition, it ultimately relies, as in every organization, upon the character of its individual members and the example of those who have gone before. "I think it starts with the shining examples of people like Jim Tobin, Stratt Brown, Dick Gushee," said Jerry Rupley, former deputy resident director of the Detroit office. "It's always easy to step back and say, 'Is this the way those guys would do it?' That's been a really fine moral guidepost. I think that's helped a lot."