• Mediation and A.D.R.
• CLE Teaching Programs
• Publications
• Professional Associations
• Directorships

Of Counsel to the firm, Mike has been litigating cases across the State of Michigan for more than 40 years specializing in personal injury, product and professional liability, commercial and environmental litigation.  Additionally; given the breath of his experience, he now has developed and maintains an active mediation and alternative dispute resolution practice.  He has been honored to teach trial advocacy principles through both Michigan's Institute of Continuing Legal Education and the Western District Federal Bar Association's Hillman Advocacy Institute.  He has consistenly been named one of Michigan’s Super Lawyers and has held Martindale-Hubbell’s highest peer rating of AV since 1987.

He has served the 37,000 lawyers of the State Bar of Michigan in many capacities including service as its 59th President. He has also served on its governing Board of Commissioners for 8 years and chaired many of the Bar's policy committees. In conjunction with his service to the Bar, he was one of nine incorporators of a mutual insurance company formed to address the legal malpractice crises of the late 1980's. In that role he served as a Director, chair of its claims committee and then its President and C.E.O. In 1994 Mike was appointed by President William Clinton and confirmed by the U.S. Senate to serve as United States Attorney and chief federal prosecutor for the Western District of Michigan and served in the role with distinction until 2001.

He is a 1971 graduate of Wayne State University's Law School, a member of the State Bar of Michigan and admitted to practice in the federal courts of Michigan and the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals. Mike is a co-founder of Olson, Bzdok & Howard, having formed the original partnership with Jim Olson in 1972 under the name of Olson & Dettmer.

E-mail: mike@envlaw.com

Mediation and A.D.R.

Certified since 2003 as a Mediator by the State Court Administrator per MCR 2.411(F).  Since certification, Mike has facilitated, mediated and arbitrated nearly 100 cases both by court appointment or by voluntary mutual selection by parties in dispute.

CLE Teaching Programs

Institute of Continuing Legal Education:

• Michigan Environmental Law
  (October 1979)
• Civil Procedure During Trial
  (June 1981)
• Trying a Personal Injury Case under $50,000
  (September 1984)
• Uses and Abuses of Interrogatories
  (January 1988)
• Upper Michigan Legal Institute
  (June 17-18, 1988)
• Professional Obligations
  (September 14 and 26, 1990)
• Insurance Law
  (October 19 and 25, 1990)
• Michigan's Ultimate Trial Notebook
  (November 16, 1990)

Institute of Continuing Legal Education's Advocacy Institute: Faculty

• Basic Trial Advocacy
  Ann Arbor, Michigan
  (May 1984/85/86)
• Advanced Advocacy
  Traverse City, Michigan
  (October 1985)

Federal Bar Association: Faculty

• Trial Advocacy Workshop
  Grand Rapids, Michigan
  (1983-91 & 1994, 1996)
• Trial Advocacy Workshop
  Marquette, Michigan
  (1989)

Publications

• "An Open Letter to the Committee on Standard Jury Instructions"
  Michigan Bar Journal, February 1981
  Co-authored with George R. Thompson

• "The Plaintiff's Case" a chapter of
  Civil Procedure During Trial, 1981
  Co-authored with Dean A. Robb

• "Trespassing on the Recreational User Statute"
  Michigan Bar Journal, September 1982
  Co-authored with George R. Thompson

• "Observations in Professionalism,"
  Michigan Bar Journal
  (September 1989)

• "Public Service, Crisis and Opportunity,"
  Michigan Bar Journal
  (May 1992)

• Monthly President's Pages
  State Bar Journal
  1993 - 1994

• "The Changing Role of the Office of the United States Attorney"
  Capital University Law Review, Volume 28, Number 4 (June, 2000) (co-author)
•  
• Wayne State University Law School Commencement Speaker - 1996

Professional Activities

Department of Justice Related while serving as Untied States Attorney

• Chair, DOJ Attorney General's Committee - Office of Justice Programs (O.J.P.)
• Recipient, Building Safer Communities Award, DOJ, Executive Office of Weed & Seed
• Recipient, DOJ Assistant Attorney General's Special Achievement Award
• Recipient, Michigan Attorney General's Distinguished Service Award
• Recipient, Key to the City, City of Benton Harbor, for crime reduction assistance
• Commencement Speaker, Wayne State University Law School,

State Bar of Michigan

• President 1993-1994
• Elected District A Commissioner, covering Northern Michigan and the Upper Peninsula, 1986-1994
• Member, Executive Committee of Board of Commissioners, 1988-1994
• Chairperson, Committee on Legislation, 1990-1991
• Chairperson, Task Force on Professionalism, 1988-1990
• Co-Chairperson, Standing Committee on Professionalism, 1992-1994
• Chairperson, Upper Michigan Lawyers Committee, 1986-1994
• Chairperson, Standing Committee on Scope and Correlation, 1992
• Representative Assembly, 1977-1980; 1988-1994
• Attorney Discipline Board: Hearing Panelist, 1980-1986

Past Professional Association Memberships - presently inactive

American Board of Trial Advocates
Advocate - elected to membership by peers. Membership consists of plaintiff and defendant trial lawyers who have tried in excess of 50 jury trials.

American Inns of Court
Barrister

Michigan Trial Lawyers Association
Executive Board Member (1980s)
reappointed 2005

Michigan Prosecuting Attorneys Assoc.
Member, 1994 - 2001

National Board of Trial Advocacy
Certified in Civil Trial Advocacy, 1981

American Bar Association
Member, House of Delegates, 1992 - 1998

American Bar Foundation
Fellow

Michigan State Bar Foundation
Life Fellow

Martindale Hubbell Peer Highest Rating AV since 1987

Directorships

• Incorporator and Member of Board of Directors, Michigan Lawyers Mutual Insurance Company, served a director then as its President and C.E.O.
  (1991-1994)

• Director & Secretary of National Association of Bar Related Insurance Companies
  (1991-1994)

• Director, Michigan Political Leadership Program at Michigan State University
  (1993 -1994 )