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Miller Canfield’s Andrew Blum Honored with Notre Dame Award of the Year
Miller Canfield is pleased to announce that Andrew Blum was named the recipient of the Notre Dame Club of Grand Rapids Award of the Year.
The annual award recognizes Notre Dame alumni with outstanding achievements and outstanding service to the University and who demonstrate civic or religious leadership, contributing to the public welfare. Blum is the youngest person to ever receive the prestigious award.
Blum is a principal in Miller Canfield’s Grand Rapids office, where he is part of the firm’s Litigation and Dispute Resolution Group. He specializes in complex litigation, including eminent domain and land use litigation. He is the author of the leading treatise on the laches doctrine in Michigan, and the co-author of the Michigan Real Estate Litigation Practice Guide (LexisNexis 2016).
Most recently Blum became part of the team of Miller Canfield attorneys who are working with the ACLU of Michigan to provide pro bono assistance to block the immediate deportation of more than 1,400 Iraqi foreign nationals, primarily Christians and Shia Muslims who say that deportation would be a death sentence, due to the rise of ISIS in the country.
Blum is a graduate of the University of Notre Dame and the University of Notre Dame Law School.
Blum has volunteered to serve the community with many organizations, including the Knights of Columbus Coats for Kids project, the local Public Broadcast station WGVU’s pledge drives and Habitat for Humanity. He was in May appointed to the Diocesan School Board, which provides Catholic education in 11 counties. He launched two non-profit educational organizations and is assisting the Diocese of Grand Rapids in its development effort. He serves on the Curriculum Committee and the Development Committee for St. Thomas the Apostle School. Blum has volunteered to serve as a high school mock trial judge. He serves on the Feasibility Study Committee for the Diocese of Grand Rapids, which is studying whether to build new Catholic schools and where they should be placed within the Diocese.
He also provides pro bono legal services to help United Nations political refugees from Bhutan and sub-Saharan African obtain U.S. citizenship. Blum mentors local law students, and has served as Chairman of the Shakespeare at Notre Dame National Board’s Executive Committee and as a member of the University Libraries’ Presidential Advisory Council.