A 2009 alumnus of the University of Michigan Law School, Roger Meyers has been a partner at Bush Seyferth since 2017.
By Tom Kirvan
Legal News
Roger Meyers, the new president of the Detroit Bar Association, doesn’t necessarily subscribe to the theory that “timing is everything” in life.
His career success, in fact, is evidence that the time-honored saying may not have aged so gracefully.
When Meyers graduated from high school in 1992, the U.S. economy was digging its way out of a recession and was in the midst of what was termed a “jobless recovery” marked by persistently high unemployment and slow wage growth.
And yet, Meyers landed a job in musical instrument sales that took him first to Southeast Michigan where he met his future wife Kathleen, and from there to the Boston area where he prospered and obtained a bachelor’s degree in computer information systems from Suffolk University. He graduated summa cum laude from the private university in Boston just as the dot.com bubble was in burst-mode.
Despite the sluggish economy, Meyers found a job as a software consultant for a boutique tech firm, spending the vast majority of his work time on the road assisting company clients. After a few years as a consultant, Meyers was at a career crossroads, weighing whether to pursue an MBA or to attend law school.
“I minored in business law in college and found the subject fascinating,” said Meyers, a fact that tipped the scales in favor of law school at the University of Michigan.
Meyers enrolled at U-M as a “non-traditional” law student, commuting to campus from his home in metro Detroit while helping his wife, a neo-natal nurse, with the job of raising their infant son.
“Despite the commute, I loved my U-M Law School experience,” declared Meyers, a 2009 magna cum laude graduate who served as Articles Editor for the University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform.
“Of course, the year that I graduated from law school, legal hiring was in a tailspin because of the recession,” Meyers indicated.
“I came to the realization that I can’t go to school anymore because I destroy the economy when I do,” Meyers said with a laugh. “My wife even said, ‘No more school for you.’”
Displaying his resilience once again, Meyers took the advice of former U-M Law School Professor (and now U.S. Circuit Judge) Joan Larsen to apply for a clerkship with Judge Raymond Kethledge of U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit.
“It was a phenomenal experience clerking for Judge Kethledge, who is an absolutely brilliant jurist and an amazing man,” said Meyers. “I learned so much working for someone of his caliber.”
The federal clerkship served as a stepping stone to a job with Honigman Miller Schwartz & Cohn in Detroit, where Meyers would work for seven years before he was recruited in 2017 to join Bush Seyferth, a Troy-based firm where he heads its complex business and commercial litigation practice while also serving as its general counsel.
In his work with Bush Seyferth, a 30-attorney litigation-only firm, Meyers handles legal disputes involving business ownership and governance, mergers and acquisitions, commercial contracts, fraud and fiduciary duties, securities, health care, employee mobility and unfair competition, and trade secrets.
He has a strong background in the health care, private equity and financial services, and technology/telecommunications industries.
In recent years, Meyers also has taken on a leadership role with the Detroit Bar Association, serving as its secretary/treasurer, president-elect, and now president for the 2025-26 year.
“Over 100 men and women have served as president of the Detroit Bar Association during that time,” Meyers said at the DBA’s Annual Dinner on June 12, noting that the organization traces its origins to 1836 and is the second oldest bar association in the nation. “It’s one of the highlights of my career that you’ve selected me to join them.”
Among his goals for the coming year are focusing on “engagement” with members and stakeholders; “revitalizing our sections” to deliver “outstanding content and networking” opportunities; and “broadening our connection with the bench,” according to Meyers.
“My goal is that, when we look back next year, we’re saying to each other, ‘Wow, I can’t believe the Detroit Bar Association did all that.’ Because, when we’re engaging our members that way, growing our membership – and our future leaders – becomes easy,” Meyers declared.
Within a month of succeeding Tiffany Ellis as president of the DBA, Meyers presided over the release of a “Special Statement Regarding the Rule of Law.”
The statement, which had been spearheaded by Ellis during the final months of her term as president, was in support of the rule of law, condemning ongoing attacks on the judiciary and legal profession from the current presidential administration.
“Recent events have demonstrated threats to an independent judiciary of this country and to lawyers and judges who have carried out their duties consistently with the oaths of office,” the statement said.
“Adherence to the requirements of the Constitution is independent of political outcomes. Our oath as lawyers requires us to defend our institutions, and our Constitution, first, foremost and always.
“The Detroit Bar Association will continue to advocate, as required by our lawyer’s oath, for justice for all and to protect these principles,” the statement concluded.
Meyers acknowledged that the statement did not meet with unanimous approval from the board, with some members expressing concern that the Detroit Bar was unnecessarily inserting itself into what has become a heated political debate.
“At the end, it was decided that the statement was in line with the Detroit Bar’s history of playing a meaningful role in highlighting the importance of an independent judiciary and in protecting our profession from political interference,” Meyers explained.
Meyers, who also served on the board of the Michigan Science Center from 2016-25, grew up in a working-class family, living in Indiana, Minnesota, Michigan, and Pennsylvania.
“I was never in the same school for more than two years before high school,” Meyers said of his academic odyssey.
He and his wife, who earned her nursing degree from Wayne State University, have two children, Caden (20) and Cate (15).
A graduate of Birmingham Groves High School, Caden is a junior at Michigan State University, where he is studying journalism and serves as co-captain of the MSU Sailing Club. Cate will be a sophomore this fall at Birmingham Groves, and enjoys participating in the musical theater program there.
As a tight-knit family, they particularly enjoy boating and spending time at their lakeside vacation home in northern Michigan.
“As our schedules allow, we like to spend as much time Up North as we can in the summer,” said Meyers. “Caden has had an especially busy summer sailing, recently crewing on a boat that did very well in the Bayview to Mackinac Race. He’s truly at home on a sailboat.”
Legal News
Roger Meyers, the new president of the Detroit Bar Association, doesn’t necessarily subscribe to the theory that “timing is everything” in life.
His career success, in fact, is evidence that the time-honored saying may not have aged so gracefully.
When Meyers graduated from high school in 1992, the U.S. economy was digging its way out of a recession and was in the midst of what was termed a “jobless recovery” marked by persistently high unemployment and slow wage growth.
And yet, Meyers landed a job in musical instrument sales that took him first to Southeast Michigan where he met his future wife Kathleen, and from there to the Boston area where he prospered and obtained a bachelor’s degree in computer information systems from Suffolk University. He graduated summa cum laude from the private university in Boston just as the dot.com bubble was in burst-mode.
Despite the sluggish economy, Meyers found a job as a software consultant for a boutique tech firm, spending the vast majority of his work time on the road assisting company clients. After a few years as a consultant, Meyers was at a career crossroads, weighing whether to pursue an MBA or to attend law school.
“I minored in business law in college and found the subject fascinating,” said Meyers, a fact that tipped the scales in favor of law school at the University of Michigan.
Meyers enrolled at U-M as a “non-traditional” law student, commuting to campus from his home in metro Detroit while helping his wife, a neo-natal nurse, with the job of raising their infant son.
“Despite the commute, I loved my U-M Law School experience,” declared Meyers, a 2009 magna cum laude graduate who served as Articles Editor for the University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform.
“Of course, the year that I graduated from law school, legal hiring was in a tailspin because of the recession,” Meyers indicated.
“I came to the realization that I can’t go to school anymore because I destroy the economy when I do,” Meyers said with a laugh. “My wife even said, ‘No more school for you.’”
Displaying his resilience once again, Meyers took the advice of former U-M Law School Professor (and now U.S. Circuit Judge) Joan Larsen to apply for a clerkship with Judge Raymond Kethledge of U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit.
“It was a phenomenal experience clerking for Judge Kethledge, who is an absolutely brilliant jurist and an amazing man,” said Meyers. “I learned so much working for someone of his caliber.”
The federal clerkship served as a stepping stone to a job with Honigman Miller Schwartz & Cohn in Detroit, where Meyers would work for seven years before he was recruited in 2017 to join Bush Seyferth, a Troy-based firm where he heads its complex business and commercial litigation practice while also serving as its general counsel.
In his work with Bush Seyferth, a 30-attorney litigation-only firm, Meyers handles legal disputes involving business ownership and governance, mergers and acquisitions, commercial contracts, fraud and fiduciary duties, securities, health care, employee mobility and unfair competition, and trade secrets.
He has a strong background in the health care, private equity and financial services, and technology/telecommunications industries.
In recent years, Meyers also has taken on a leadership role with the Detroit Bar Association, serving as its secretary/treasurer, president-elect, and now president for the 2025-26 year.
“Over 100 men and women have served as president of the Detroit Bar Association during that time,” Meyers said at the DBA’s Annual Dinner on June 12, noting that the organization traces its origins to 1836 and is the second oldest bar association in the nation. “It’s one of the highlights of my career that you’ve selected me to join them.”
Among his goals for the coming year are focusing on “engagement” with members and stakeholders; “revitalizing our sections” to deliver “outstanding content and networking” opportunities; and “broadening our connection with the bench,” according to Meyers.
“My goal is that, when we look back next year, we’re saying to each other, ‘Wow, I can’t believe the Detroit Bar Association did all that.’ Because, when we’re engaging our members that way, growing our membership – and our future leaders – becomes easy,” Meyers declared.
Within a month of succeeding Tiffany Ellis as president of the DBA, Meyers presided over the release of a “Special Statement Regarding the Rule of Law.”
The statement, which had been spearheaded by Ellis during the final months of her term as president, was in support of the rule of law, condemning ongoing attacks on the judiciary and legal profession from the current presidential administration.
“Recent events have demonstrated threats to an independent judiciary of this country and to lawyers and judges who have carried out their duties consistently with the oaths of office,” the statement said.
“Adherence to the requirements of the Constitution is independent of political outcomes. Our oath as lawyers requires us to defend our institutions, and our Constitution, first, foremost and always.
“The Detroit Bar Association will continue to advocate, as required by our lawyer’s oath, for justice for all and to protect these principles,” the statement concluded.
Meyers acknowledged that the statement did not meet with unanimous approval from the board, with some members expressing concern that the Detroit Bar was unnecessarily inserting itself into what has become a heated political debate.
“At the end, it was decided that the statement was in line with the Detroit Bar’s history of playing a meaningful role in highlighting the importance of an independent judiciary and in protecting our profession from political interference,” Meyers explained.
Meyers, who also served on the board of the Michigan Science Center from 2016-25, grew up in a working-class family, living in Indiana, Minnesota, Michigan, and Pennsylvania.
“I was never in the same school for more than two years before high school,” Meyers said of his academic odyssey.
He and his wife, who earned her nursing degree from Wayne State University, have two children, Caden (20) and Cate (15).
A graduate of Birmingham Groves High School, Caden is a junior at Michigan State University, where he is studying journalism and serves as co-captain of the MSU Sailing Club. Cate will be a sophomore this fall at Birmingham Groves, and enjoys participating in the musical theater program there.
As a tight-knit family, they particularly enjoy boating and spending time at their lakeside vacation home in northern Michigan.
“As our schedules allow, we like to spend as much time Up North as we can in the summer,” said Meyers. “Caden has had an especially busy summer sailing, recently crewing on a boat that did very well in the Bayview to Mackinac Race. He’s truly at home on a sailboat.”
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