Plunkett Cooney partner Laurel F. McGiffert recently received the 16th Annual Michigan Association for Justice Respected Advocate Award.

“It is such a great honor for me to receive this award,” said McGiffert, a senior trial attorney in the Detroit office of Plunkett Cooney, one of the Midwest’s oldest and largest law firms. “To be acknowledged by my peers for such a prestigious award, it is very humbling.”

McGiffert received the 2012 Respected Advocate Award at the State Bar of Michigan awards banquet on Wednesday, Sept. 19 at the Amway Grand Plaza Hotel in Grand Rapids.

Every year, the Michigan Association for Justice, in conjunction with the Michigan Defense Trial Counsel, recognizes an attorney with the award for their “superb skills as a courtroom adversary, whose civility, ethics and decorum distinguish him or her as an outstanding example of what trial counsel should strive to be,” according to the Michigan Associations for Justice award notification letter.

Criteria for consideration is a “history of success in civil litigation matters, unfailing adherence to the highest standards of ethics and candor in dealing with the court and with counsel and the respect and admiration of counsel on the opposing side of the bar.”

MicGiffert, who has earned Martindale-Hubbell’s highest rating - AV Preeminent™, a certification mark of Reed Elsevier Properties Inc., used in accordance with the Martindale-Hubbell^® certification procedures, standards and policies, concentrates her practice in the areas of medical liability, employment law, municipal law, civil rights and general litigation.

In addition, McGiffert has extensive experience representing clients involved in Michigan’s Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) system. She also serves as an independent arbitrator and mediator in ADR hearings.

McGiffert, who graduated from Vassar College and Wayne State University Law School, is active in numerous community and professional groups, including the State Bar of Michigan, the Detroit and Wolverine bar associations, the American Board of Trial Advocacy and the Association of Defense Trial Counsel. She also has the distinction of being the first African American woman to serve on the firm’s Board of Directors, and she is a member of Plunkett Cooney’s Diversity Committee.

Established in 1913, Plunkett Cooney employs over 160 attorneys in nine Michigan cities and one each in Columbus, Ohio and Indianapolis, Indiana. The firm has achieved the highest rating (AV) awarded by LexisNexis Martindale-Hubbell, a leading peer-to-peer review service to the legal industry. Named by Fortune magazine and LexisNexis Martindale-Hubbell as one of the top law firms in the United States, Plunkett Cooney was also recently named a  “Go-To” Law Firm for litigation by American Lawyer Media.

For more information about Laurel F. McGiffert’s selection as the 2012 Respected Advocate Award recipient, contact the firm’s Practice Development Manager John Cornwell at (248) 901-4008; jcornwell@plunkettcooney.com.

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