Attorney Receives Award from the Kalamazoo County Bar Association
Gerard Thomas, of counsel in the Kalamazoo office of the law firm of Miller, Canfield, Paddock and Stone, P.L.C., received two awards.
Mr. Thomas received a special award, given only infrequently, from the Kalamazoo County Bar Association for his lifetime of service as a community volunteer and for his significant achievements as a lawyer.
Mr. Thomas is also the recipient of the 2000 American Bar Association Senior Lawyer Pro Bono Award which is given annually to two senior members in the United States who have made a significant effort in providing pro bono legal services. There were two areas of public service that were noted by the American Bar Association. Before joining Miller Canfield, when Mr. Thomas was vice president and general counsel of The Upjohn Company, (now Pharmacia Corporation), he encouraged attorneys on the legal staff to take family law cases involving indigent clients; and after leaving Upjohn, he helped create the free legal clinics that are now held throughout Kalamazoo County.
He received his law degree (L.L.B.) from Cornell Law School where he was a member of the Order of the Coif. His undergraduate study was at Harvard College. He is a member of the American, Michigan, and Kalamazoo County Bar Associations, and is also admitted to practice in the state of New York. He was previously a Director of The Upjohn Company and Stryker Corporation. He was previously President of the Kalamazoo Board of Education and a Director of Senior Services.
Mr. Thomas resides in Kalamazoo, Michigan.
The 260-attorney law firm of Miller, Canfield, Paddock and Stone, P.L.C., established in Detroit, Michigan in 1852, has offices in Ann Arbor, Detroit, Grand Rapids, Howell, Kalamazoo, Lansing, Monroe, Troy, Washington, D.C., New York City, and in Gdynia, Katowice, and Warsaw, Poland; with an affiliated office in Pensacola, Florida.