03.05.2024

At a recent meeting of the Board of Directors of Plunkett Cooney, one of the Midwest’s oldest and most accomplished law firms, partners Scott K. Lites, Michael P. Ashcraft, Jr. and  Audrey J. Forbush were elected to Board leadership positions.

Lites was elected Chair while Ashcraft was re-elected Secretary/Treasurer and Forbush was re-elected Senior Vice-President. All three will serve one-year terms.

A member of the Board for 17 years, Lites is one of the firm’s most accomplished business attorneys with nearly 40 years of experience in mergers and acquisitions, corporate matters and real estate transactions. Lites routinely acts as general counsel for many of his clients and adds a unique, practical perspective to their businesses.

Lites, who is a member of the firm’s Bloomfield Hills office, is listed among the Best Lawyers in America in both corporate and real estate law. He has been listed in DBusiness magazine as a Top Lawyer in real estate law, selected as a Go To Lawyer for business law by Michigan Lawyers Weekly, was previously appointed as a member of the state of Michigan’s Receivership Transition Advisory Board for the City of Allen Park and a member of the University of Detroit Mercy School of Law Board of Directors. 

Lites received his law degree in 1985 from the University of Detroit School of Law and his undergraduate degree in 1982 from the University of Michigan.

Ashcraft, who serves as a co-leader of Plunkett Cooney’s Professional Liability Practice Group, is one of the state’s leading professional liability attorneys. He concentrates his practice primarily on the defense of attorneys, accountants and their firms in professional liability and responsibility matters. A partner in the firm’s Bloomfield Hills office, Ashcraft also represents judges, insurance brokers and agents, securities brokers and dealers, real estate brokers and agents, investment advisors, officers and directors, and notaries public in complex litigation in state and federal courts.

Admitted to state and federal courts in Michigan, Ashcraft graduated, cum laude, from Michigan State University College of Law in 1992. He received his undergraduate degree from the University of Michigan in 1987. Ashcraft is a member of the American Board of Trial Advocates, the State Bar of Michigan’s Professional Ethics Committee, the American Bar Association’s Committee on Professional Responsibility and Liability and the Association of Professional Responsibility Lawyers.

The managing partner of Plunkett Cooney's Flint office and Co-leader of the firm’s Governmental Law Practice Group, Forbush focuses her practice in the areas of medical and municipal liability with particular expertise in the defense of municipalities in police liability matters. 

Forbush serves as Chair of the State Bar of Michigan’s Governmental Law Section, and she is a member the Genesee County Bar Association. She also serves as legal advisor to the Law Enforcement Action Forum, an organization consisting of select law enforcement executives throughout Michigan. Additionally, Forbush is a member of the American Board of Trial Advocates and a Fellow of the Litigation Counsel of America.

Forbush received her law degree, magna cum laude, from Western Michigan University Cooley Law School in 1988 and her undergraduate degree from Central Michigan University in 1984.

Established in 1913, Plunkett Cooney is a leading provider of business law and litigation services to clients in the private and public sectors. The firm employs approximately 140 attorneys in seven Michigan cities, Chicago, Illinois, Columbus, Ohio and Indianapolis, Indiana.

For more information about Plunkett Cooney’s new Board leadership team, contact the firm’s Director of Marketing & Business Development John Cornwell at (248) 901-4008 or via email at jcornwell@plunkettcooney.com.

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