LEGAL NEWS PHOTO BY CYNTHIA PRICE
by Cynthia Price
Legal News
“It’s been one of those places I go for inspiration every year,” says Leslee Lewis of Dickinson Wright about the YWCA of Central Michigan Tribute! Award luncheon.
“I’ve been going to the awards ceremony ever since I clerked for Dickinson in 1994,” she continues. “You see these women who are so amazing, role models who have done so much for the community — which is why I’m so honored and inspired to be part of a group of such women.”
Lewis, indeed, has been chosen to receive the 2013 Tribute! Award in the category of Business, Management, Industry and Labor, a fitting honor for the first female managing partner in Dickinson Wright’s 135-year existence who is nonetheless still accessible, “grounded and gracious to
everyone.”
That is a quote from the Tribute! Award nomination authored chiefly by Paula Lindsley, Office Administrator at Dickinson Wright’s Grand Rapids office.?Other Dickinson people who signed on are Amy E. Gras, Paralegal; John G. Cameron, Jr., a Dickinson Wright Member; and Christina K. McDonald, an Associate.
Lindsley includes a moving tribute of her own: when Lindsley was facing a difficult time personally, Lewis suggested that it would provide an emotional outlet for Lindsley and the firm to make over the playroom at Liz’s House, the transitional housing community for women with young children run by Dwelling Place, Inc.
Serving on the Transitional Housing Council for Liz’s House and Bridge Street (formerly My Sister’s House) is just one way Lewis has expressed her deep caring for the community over the years. Probably the most deeply felt has been her involvement with Lake Michigan Academy and the West Michigan Learning Disabilities Foundation.
The Lake Michigan Academy is a a school for first through twelfth graders who have learning disabilities, offering personalized and customized education (or as the academy puts it, “to transform lives by empowering students with learning differences to achieve their full potential.”) Lewis has volunteered with the organization for over 15 years, ten of which were spent on the board and two as chair. She is currently Chairman Emeritus.
In a startling coincidence, Lewis’s involvement predates the birth of her children — she has two boys, currently 14 and 11, and a daughter who is seven — but as the middle and youngest children grew older, it became clear that they too have learning disabilities.
“I had to no reason to be enthralled with the learning disabled before my middle son was born,” Lewis says, “but by the time he hit kindergarten he had all the common issues and shortly after that he got diagnosed.”
Lewis’s daughter is also hearing impaired and epileptic, and it proved challenging to get her the services she needed through the Zeeland Public Schools she attends. As Lewis and parents before her have faced, the school system is set up so that only those who have already failed academically are eligible to get help.
Lewis credits the contacts she had made though her work with the Lake Michigan Academy with helping her to get the point across that the time to offer help to her daughter was prior to her becoming part of the lowest 2% of the class in academic achievement. But while her outcome was positive, she feels profoundly the pain of other parents who lack connections to the resources to get their children help.
She observes, “We both as parents and as community members have a moral obligation to do something about this, and I feel responsible to open the door for all those other kids who come behind my children.”
Beyond that, Lewis’s community commitment has meant focusing on one nonprofit organization a year to donate legal assistance on whatever will help them thrive. She has focused on organizations that preserve the history of surviving World War I veterans, that promote buying local, that run a medical clinic in Haiti, and that minister to at-risk or homeless teens, among others.
She is a member of the Outreach Committee for Michigan Community Resources, which provides pro bono legal services and technical assistance to nonprofits that serve low-income individuals and communities.
Her leadership is also evident both in her particular practice and within the legal profession.
She refers to herself as a “lifer” at Dickinson Wright, where she has been full-time since 1995, after graduating from Alma College summa cum laude and from Notre Dame Law School cum laude.
As Practice Department Manager of Dickinson’s Real Estate, Environmental, Energy and Sus-
tainability practices, Lewis oversees the work of lawyers in Dickinson’s offices nationwide. All in all, Dickinson Wright has 12 offices from Detroit, Lansing, and other Michigan locations to Toronto, Washington DC and Las Vegas, among others.
“Dickinson Wright is 135 years old this year,” Lewis says proudly. “We started out a small firm in the late 1800s specializing in finance and insurance, and we helped found National Bank of Detroit, which is now Chase — we’re in the Chase building in Grand Rapids right now,” she adds.
Last July, the firm announced that Lewis had been made managing Partner of its Grand Rapids office as well. She has been named as one of the Women in the Law, as a Best Lawyer and Super Lawyer, and as a leader in the field by Chambers USA. She is an elected member of the American Law Institute (and a Consulting Member on the Principles of the Law of Nonprofit Organizations for them), and speaks extensively on areas of expertise such as green building and sustainable energy for continuing education and other legal resource organizations, both statewide and nationally, including Grand Valley State University and the U.S. Green Building Council.
Two of her favorite legal projects have been the preservation of the Saugatuck Dunes and the development of Gratiot County Wind, the first wind farm in the state, which is in her home town of Breckenridge and “will help my grandparents preserve the lifestyle they so enjoy,” living on a farm.
She works on multi-million dollar real estate leasing, development, and construction projects, property dispositions, and real estate investments. She co-chairs the State Bar of Michigan Real Property Law Section Summer Conference.
Discussing her practice, which she sometimes refers to as “dirt law,” Lewis says, “One reason I really enjoy my practice here is because you can come out with a tangible result, something you can point to and say I did that. I was involved with the Arena, Rosa Parks Circle — there’s something there at the end.”
She is especially proud of having instituted flex-time at Dickinson, which she credits as a place where women are “well-valued.” But for Lewis, there will be no resting on her laurels. “I think part of my job now is to continue to plow the way for others who come behind me. We need to make sure that we’re treating women well by providing opportunities and the help that’s needed along the way.”
The YWCA West Central Michigan has been giving out Tribute!Awards to “leaders and trailblazers” since 1977. Lewis will receive hers at the annual luncheon Nov. 6 in DeVos Place.
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