Norman Lippitt, founding shareholder of the firm, with J. Leonard Hyman and Douglas A. Hyman, comes from a long and distinguished legal background. 

Mr. Lippitt holds a Juris Doctor degree from Michigan State University College of Law, which he earned in 1960. In 1998, he was awarded an honorary Doctor of Laws Degree recognizing his prolonged conspicuous and illustrious service to the University. Immediately after law school, Mr. Lippitt served as an assistant prosecuting attorney in Wayne County during which time he tried in excess of 100 major felony trials before he turned 30.

Mr. Lippitt was asked by the Governor to serve as a circuit court judge in the sixth judicial circuit in Oakland County. He served for three and a half years prior to returning to private practice and founding the Firm.

Mr. Lippitt remains an active alumni member of Michigan State University College of Law. He is a former Chairman of the Michigan State University College of Law Development Counsel. Mr. Lippitt served on the Board of Trustees for the Michigan State University College of Law, was elected Director of the Michigan State University College of Law Alumni Association as well as Director, and Second Vice-President. He has been a member and Vice President of the Board of Trustees since 1987.

Mr. Lippitt also is an active member of the State Bar of Michigan, as well as the Oakland County Bar Association, where he was Director from 1989 to 1993. His memberships include the Public Advisory Committee on Judicial Candidates for the Detroit Bar Association, member of the Panel of Arbitrators, American Arbitration Association, and Fellow of the State Bar of Michigan Foundation. He is also a member of the Million Dollar Advocates Forum, membership to which is limited to trial lawyers who have demonstrated excellence by repeatedly achieving trial verdicts exceeding $1,000,000.  In the spring of 2000, he was honored by the Oakland County Bar Association for over forty years as a member of the State Bar of Michigan and Oakland County Bar.

Mr. Lippitt is generally recognized by the bench and bar throughout Michigan as one of its most outstanding trial lawyers. His diverse experience includes representing clients in connection with celebrated capital crimes in his early years and complicated shareholder, employment and real estate disputes tried over the past decade. Mr. Lippitt has enjoyed extraordinary professional successes with excellent jury results. He has assisted his clients, who range from minority shareholders and executives to multi-national corporations, in obtaining and saving millions of dollars.

Mr. Lippitt is also the author of "Running the Gauntlet of Criminal Defense" 60 University of Detroit Journal of Urban Law (1983), "Criminal" 1984 Annual Survey of Michigan Law, 31 Wayne Law Review (1985), "First Impressions," Oakland County Bar Association, 243 Laches 19 (1986) as well as several other publications. Mr. Lippitt is a frequent speaker on a variety of subjects before state and local bar associations, continuing legal education organizations and citizen groups.