Attorney Profile
Partner
Phone: (248) 354-9650
Email: [email protected]
Lisa M. Smith has been with the firm since 1991. She graduated magna cum laude from University of Illinois in 1988 with a Phi Beta Kappa key. She received a Juris Doctor degree from Duke University School of Law in 1991. She has been a member of the Michigan State Bar since 1992. She is admitted to practice before the United States Supreme Court, the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, and in federal district courts in Michigan and Tennessee. She has been a partner since 1997.
Lisa represents labor unions, employee benefit plans, workers and retirees in federal and state courts, before state and federal administrative agencies (including the NLRB and MERC) and in private arbitrations. Lisa has been class counsel in several retiree health care benefits class actions in federal courts and has handled complex litigation involving millions of dollars.
Lisa’s practice has included representing the UAW International and many of its Locals, Teamster Locals, SEIU, Insulators, Iron Workers, the Michigan Education Association, UFCW Local 876, Utility Workers, many other Unions, and various joint, labor-management ERISA benefits plans (i.e., health and welfare, 401(k), legal service benefits, apprenticeship, etc.) involving the UFCW, SEIU, Insulators, Iron Workers, Laborers, Roofers, Utility Workers and others. Lisa currently represents the Michigan UFCW Union and Employers Joint Prepaid Legal Services Plan, the Insulators Local 47 Joint Apprenticeship Trust Committee, and the Shopmen’s Local 508 Health and Welfare Fund. Lisa is a member of the International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans and frequently participates in its education programs and conferences. Lisa is also national ERISA counsel to the National Staff Organization.
Lisa has also represented several joint Labor Management Cooperation Committees, including those involving Bricklayers Local 2, Laborers, Roofers, and Utility Workers. Lisa has represented several nonprofit Section 501(c)(3) entities, including the Dennis O’Dowd Scholarship Fund, Inc., the Michigan Labor Legacy Project, Inc., and the Mackinaw Bridge 50th Anniversary Iron Workers Monument Fund, Inc. Lisa has been a speaker at Wayne State University’s Gottfried Labor Law Seminar and regularly speaks at union conferences.