Miller Canfield’s Morgan Esters and Nashara Peart Earn DBA Young Lawyer Awards Recognitions
Miller Canfield is pleased to announce that associate attorneys Morgan Esters and Nashara Peart were selected as Detroit Bar Association 2022 Outstanding Young Lawyer Pro Bono Award winners.
Esters and Peart are members of Miller Canfield’s nationally recognized Litigation and Dispute Resolution Group. They were honored for their efforts in recent significant pro bono matter successes, including a prisoner civil rights and First Amendment retaliation case in which the jury found in favor of their client and awarded compensatory and punitive damages.
In other significant pro bono matters:
- Peart represented a foreign resident who needed assistance getting her Green Card after leaving an abusive marriage to a U.S. citizen. The client is now authorized to work in the U.S. and has been able to renew her passport, enabling her to visit her family in her country of origin.
- Esters worked on a prisoner’s rights matter, representing an incarcerated man who was denied access to religious items used to practice the West African religion Ifa.
- Peart recently won a case on behalf of a Northern Michigan woman who had become involved in a property dispute with a neighbor. She briefed the matter at the Michigan Court of Appeals, which found in favor of her client on the strength of her briefs alone.
Additionally, Peart is the executive director of JD Bridges, a nonprofit that focuses on providing financial assistance for Black students applying to law schools. She also serves on the Anti-Black Racism Committee at her alma mater, Windsor Law. The committee recently commissioned an independent review of multiple administrative processes to identify areas where anti-Black racism impacts institutional practices.
Esters serves as co-chair of the associates’ committee of the African American Partners’ Collaborative (“AAPC”). The AAPC consists of Black partners at the top 11 Michigan-based firms. The associates’ committee represents the associates who work at the member firms of the AAPC. She is also co-chair of the Young Lawyer’s section of the Michigan Defense Trial Counsel. As co-chair, Esters orchestrates educational and networking seminars for young lawyers on topics including municipality litigation, skills of litigation attorneys, and civility, integrity and professionalism.
Peart earned dual degrees from the University of Windsor Faculty of Law and University of Detroit Mercy Law School. A 2018 graduate, she was admitted to the Michigan Bar in 2018 and the Ontario Bar in 2019. Esters is a 2018 graduate of Michigan State University College of Law and was admitted to the Michigan Bar in 2018.