by Sheila Pursglove
Legal News
A life-long Michigander, Tyler Stewart, graduated from Kalamazoo College in 2011 with a degree in economics, and played basketball for the NCAA Division III Hornets, serving as the team’s captain for two seasons. As a participant in the study abroad program, he spent three months in San Jose, Costa Rica, studying Spanish and the social sciences.
After interning for the Hon. Alexander C. Lipsey of the Kalamazoo County 9th Circuit Court, Stewart attended the Seattle University School of Law, where he wrote an article about the Kalamazoo River oil spill, published in the State Bar of Michigan Environmental Law Journal, and contributed to an environmental law casebook that was recently published.
After graduating from law school with honors, Stewart returned to Michigan to take the Michigan bar exam. He clerked for the Hon. Paul J. Bridenstine of the Kalamazoo County 9th Circuit Court, before joining Levine & Levine in Kalamazoo, where he focuses his practice on business law, estate planning, and property law.
He uses his extensive knowledge of environmental regulation and land use to assist small businesses with environmental and property issues.
Stewart is a member of the Kalamazoo County Bar Association, as well as the Probate & Estate Planning, Business Law, Property Law, and Environmental Law sections of the State Bar of Michigan; and also is a member of the Great Lakes Business Network.
What would surprise people about your job?
I get the most satisfaction when I am able to bring peace of mind to an individual, couple, or business owner by planning for future outcomes through an estate plan or business succession plan.
Why did you become a lawyer?
I like to think and write analytically and this profession allows me to do that on a daily basis.
What’s your favorite law-related TV show?
The West Wing.
Who are your law role models?
I’ve had the opportunity to work under some great law professors and judges. Those experiences continue to guide me in my practice.
What advice do you have for someone considering law school?
Take classes in as many areas of law as you can fit into your schedule.
What’s your proudest moment as a lawyer?
When I received an e-mail from the judge I had previously clerked for, sending me the Michigan Court of Appeals opinion upholding his ruling on the Motion for Summary Disposition opinion that I drafted for him as my first assignment as a clerk.
What do you do to relax?
Hiking with my two dogs. Playing basketball and volleyball.
What other career path might you have chosen?
Front office executive for a basketball team; or any job in the fields of geography or cartography.
What would you say to your 16-year-old self?
You will have no control over some events that will impact your life. Those events may take you in a direction different than you expected, but everything will work out.
Favorite websites?
ICLE is helpful to me on a daily basis.
Favorite app?
The Podcast app.
Favorite music?
My favorite band is Lake Street Dive. They are amazing!
What is your happiest childhood memory?
Spending summers at my grandfather’s cattle ranch in Eskridge, Kansas, where we would work on the farm, go fishing, and ride horses.
What is your most treasured material possession?
Letters my grandfather wrote to me during my basketball playing days.
What do you wish someone would invent?
A program where members of our military who suffer from PTSD are matched with shelter dogs to go hiking together. Really, any way to help connect service dogs with our servicemen and women who suffer from PTSD.
What has been your favorite year so far and why?
This year has been fantastic for me. I’m settling into my career, my fiancée and I are getting married, and we are establishing ourselves in the place we want to call home – Kalamazoo.
What’s the most awe-inspiring place you’ve ever been?
Watching the endangered Southern resident killer whales off of the San Juan Islands in Washington State.
What’s one thing you would like to learn to do?
Play the piano.
What is something most people don't know about you?
I’ve never chewed a piece of gum in my life.
If you could have dinner with three people, living or dead, who would they be?
Wendell Berry, Theodore Roosevelt, and Ernest Shackleton.
What’s the best advice you ever received?
My grandfather gave me this advice after I passed the bar. Don’t get too high on the greatest days or too low on the terrible days. There will be ups and downs throughout a long career, and it’s important to stay steady and come back to work the next day ready to go again.
Which living person do you most admire?
My grandfather. He grew up in [a] small town (see above). He played college basketball, had a successful career for Goodyear, and still owns and operates a cattle ranch in the town where he spent his childhood.
What is the most unusual thing you have done?
My fiancée and I drove a campervan around Iceland in the month of March. We stayed up to watch the northern lights, drove through blizzards, and saw the incredible beauty of the land.
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