Father-daughter team shares love of law and golf
By Tom Kirvan
Legal News
It’s seldom that a father and daughter are shareholders at one of the state’s most prominent and storied law firms.
It’s even more unusual that they share an athletic love and bond that has cemented their familial relationship to an even greater degree.
Attorneys Sarah and Henry Nirenberg sport more than 50 years of combined legal experience, much of which has been spent in the world of litigation where they have utilized the art of persuasion to build compelling narratives to sway judges or juries.
Their legal paths finally crossed earlier this year when the 68-year-old patriarch of the Nirenberg family joined Butzel as a shareholder in the firm’s Troy office, a place where Sarah has been an employment law specialist since 2020, representing employers in high-profile statutory claims and trade secret litigation.
While well known in the Metro Detroit legal community as a skilled litigator and as a trusted mediator and arbitrator, Henry acknowledged that he was the proverbial “new kid on the block” when he joined Butzel in January, opting to introduce himself to his new colleagues in a decidedly direct way.
“I found that the best way to introduce myself was to simply say, ‘Hi, I’m Henry, Sarah’s dad.’ That pretty much said it all, given how much Sarah is liked and respected around here,”
remarked Nirenberg, who has been more than happy to ride the coattails of his daughter as he settles in to his role with Butzel.
“It’s a joy to work with my daughter, to see how she has grown as a lawyer, and to have the opportunity to interact with her on a regular basis,” Nirenberg declared. “I’m very blessed.”
The feeling, not surprisingly, is shared by his daughter, a graduate of Michigan State University and Washington University School of Law in St. Louis.
“My father has been an incredible mentor to me, and has always encouraged me to excel in whatever I pursued,” said Sarah, a product of Cranbrook Kingswood, where she was a three-time All-State performer on the girls’ golf team for the Cranes. “It’s been great having him here and to have him part of the Butzel team.”
Butzel, which marked its 170th anniversary in 2024, began as a maritime law firm in 1854 when Detroit’s economy was largely based on the Great Lakes shipping trade. During the height of Detroit’s industrial growth, Butzel counted such corporate heavyweights as General Motors, Chrysler, the Dodge Brothers, The Evening News Association (forerunner of The Detroit News), and the Detroit United Railways among its long list of coveted clients.
Now – with eight offices in Michigan and a satellite in Washington, D.C. – the Detroit-based firm has grown to more than 260 employees and is headed by President and CEO Paul Mersino, who assumed the leadership role in 2023 and is a proud guardian of its down-to-earth culture.
That culture, and its history of being among Crain’s “Best Places to Work” in Southeast Michigan, helped attract both Nirenberg attorneys to Butzel, they each acknowledged.
Sarah made the move first six years ago after beginning her legal career in 2013 with the Oakland County Prosecutor’s Office, then headed by Prosecutor Jessica Cooper. Her first job came at the suggestion of her father.
“I initially wanted to go into Big Law after I graduated from law school, but my father said I would end up carrying a briefcase for a senior partner instead of learning how to try a case by myself,” Sarah related. “He was right, of course, as within a very short time of joining the Prosecutor’s Office, I was trying criminal cases – and a lot of them, in fact.”
She did much of her trial work in the courtroom of Judge Cynthia Walker of the 50th District Court in Pontiac, gaining valuable experience under the watchful eye of the longtime jurist.
“Judge Walker was another incredible mentor and I learned so much from her about how to handle myself in court,” said Sarah, who was first in her class as a 1-L at Wayne State Law School before transferring to Washington University School of Law. “I liked being an assistant prosecutor more than I thought I would, principally because of the variety of cases you get to try.”
Her work as a trial attorney caught the eye of Eric Pelton and Liz Hardy, named partners in the Birmingham-based firm now known as Kienbaum Hardy Viviano Pelton Forrest.
“I wasn’t looking to leave, but Eric came knocking on my door saying that they needed a litigator,” Sarah recalled of the opportunity to begin her career in private practice. “I did a lot of litigation work in the employment law field during my nearly four years there.”
Since joining Butzel in the COVID year of 2020, Nirenberg has seen her legal stature grow as an employment law litigator while also serving as Co-Chair of the firm’s Trade Secret and Non-Compete Specialty Team. In that role, she has advised the Michigan Legislature on non-compete reform and authored definitive legal treatises on Michigan restrictive covenants. It also has burnished her reputation in the state’s legal community, where Nirenberg has periodically presented programs to human resource professionals, attorneys, and business leaders on “evolving legal landscapes.”
By contrast, her father traveled an altogether different road to Butzel, one that began as a Canadian native who earned his bachelor’s degree from the University of Toronto where he met his future wife.
He and his wife, Pauline, were married in Canada, moving to the United States in the early 1980s to pursue a job opportunity.
“There was a real nursing shortage at the time and my wife was receiving regular job offers to work in the U.S.,” Nirenberg indicated. “She eventually took a nursing job at one of the Lansing hospitals, which led to other jobs in oncology units at various hospitals in Southeastern Michigan.”
Nirenberg, who long harbored dreams of becoming an attorney, then began his legal journey at Cooley Law School in Lansing, earning a juris doctor with honors before obtaining his LL.M. from Wayne State University.
Early in his career Nirenberg worked as a judicial staff attorney for the Oakland County Circuit Court before making the jump into private practice with the Southfield law firm of Seyburn Kahn. During his time there Nirenberg handled a wide range of complex commercial, employment, probate, and education law matters, while also serving as a mediator, arbitrator, receiver, special fiduciary, and sought-after speaker at local and state Continuing Legal Education programs.
At Butzel, he will continue his collaboration with a variety of medical practice groups, “advising on corporate governance, mergers and acquisitions, sales, management of ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs), hospital practice contracts, and succession planning.” Such work represents a “full circle” experience for Nirenberg, who spent the early years of his career helping young physicians navigate the sometimes-choppy waters of establishing a medical practice.
The work also was a reminder of the many sacrifices that his parents made on his behalf.
“My parents immigrated from Poland to Canada, surviving the war and the Holocaust as Jewish refugees,” he said in somber reflection. “The hurdles they overcame were many.”
Their indomitable spirit lives on, Nirenberg said, and is reflected in the success two generations of their family has achieved.
“They knew all about hardship, and believed strongly in the importance of education and the value of hard work,” said Nirenberg. “Those are memories and lessons we as a family hold dear.”
As parents, Nirenberg and his wife have felt a special obligation to keep their family tight-knit, providing a dependable emotional safety net for their two children, Sarah and Paul, both of whom excelled in sports during their school years.
Sarah, in particular, displayed an early talent for golf, opting to take up the sport after initially finding it “frustrating” and too time-consuming.
“Once I changed my attitude about golf, I discovered I was pretty good at it,” Sarah admitted. “Once I started seeing some success, my interest in practicing and playing just kept growing.”
So much so that Sarah and her brother would spend hours together on the practice range while growing up, hitting bucket after bucket of balls, developing a passion for the game.
“Our family is into golf big time, and for years and years we’ve enjoyed it together, spending many of our vacations on golf trips around Michigan and the country,” Sarah related.
At Cranbrook, she was a four-year letterwinner, earning All-State honors her sophomore, junior, and senior seasons. As a two-time captain of the varsity squad, Nirenberg led Cranbrook to the state title her senior year in which she posted a 79.8-stroke average per round.
“It was a thrill to win the state (team) title, and I credit my parents for providing all the lessons and the support I needed to do well,” said Nirenberg, who played for three years on the varsity squad at Michigan State. “It truly was a team effort.”
In recent years, Sarah and Henry have made their golf presence known at various bar association and charity outings, regularly capturing top honors with eye-popping scores in four-player scramble formats.
“Golf is a mentally challenging game, and requires plenty of discipline and patience in order to succeed,” said Henry. “I told my kids early on that golf is a life-sport that can provide lessons for them to apply for good use in the business world. I think they both fully appreciate that fact now.”
Legal News
It’s seldom that a father and daughter are shareholders at one of the state’s most prominent and storied law firms.
It’s even more unusual that they share an athletic love and bond that has cemented their familial relationship to an even greater degree.
Attorneys Sarah and Henry Nirenberg sport more than 50 years of combined legal experience, much of which has been spent in the world of litigation where they have utilized the art of persuasion to build compelling narratives to sway judges or juries.
Their legal paths finally crossed earlier this year when the 68-year-old patriarch of the Nirenberg family joined Butzel as a shareholder in the firm’s Troy office, a place where Sarah has been an employment law specialist since 2020, representing employers in high-profile statutory claims and trade secret litigation.
While well known in the Metro Detroit legal community as a skilled litigator and as a trusted mediator and arbitrator, Henry acknowledged that he was the proverbial “new kid on the block” when he joined Butzel in January, opting to introduce himself to his new colleagues in a decidedly direct way.
“I found that the best way to introduce myself was to simply say, ‘Hi, I’m Henry, Sarah’s dad.’ That pretty much said it all, given how much Sarah is liked and respected around here,”
remarked Nirenberg, who has been more than happy to ride the coattails of his daughter as he settles in to his role with Butzel.
“It’s a joy to work with my daughter, to see how she has grown as a lawyer, and to have the opportunity to interact with her on a regular basis,” Nirenberg declared. “I’m very blessed.”
The feeling, not surprisingly, is shared by his daughter, a graduate of Michigan State University and Washington University School of Law in St. Louis.
“My father has been an incredible mentor to me, and has always encouraged me to excel in whatever I pursued,” said Sarah, a product of Cranbrook Kingswood, where she was a three-time All-State performer on the girls’ golf team for the Cranes. “It’s been great having him here and to have him part of the Butzel team.”
Butzel, which marked its 170th anniversary in 2024, began as a maritime law firm in 1854 when Detroit’s economy was largely based on the Great Lakes shipping trade. During the height of Detroit’s industrial growth, Butzel counted such corporate heavyweights as General Motors, Chrysler, the Dodge Brothers, The Evening News Association (forerunner of The Detroit News), and the Detroit United Railways among its long list of coveted clients.
Now – with eight offices in Michigan and a satellite in Washington, D.C. – the Detroit-based firm has grown to more than 260 employees and is headed by President and CEO Paul Mersino, who assumed the leadership role in 2023 and is a proud guardian of its down-to-earth culture.
That culture, and its history of being among Crain’s “Best Places to Work” in Southeast Michigan, helped attract both Nirenberg attorneys to Butzel, they each acknowledged.
Sarah made the move first six years ago after beginning her legal career in 2013 with the Oakland County Prosecutor’s Office, then headed by Prosecutor Jessica Cooper. Her first job came at the suggestion of her father.
“I initially wanted to go into Big Law after I graduated from law school, but my father said I would end up carrying a briefcase for a senior partner instead of learning how to try a case by myself,” Sarah related. “He was right, of course, as within a very short time of joining the Prosecutor’s Office, I was trying criminal cases – and a lot of them, in fact.”
She did much of her trial work in the courtroom of Judge Cynthia Walker of the 50th District Court in Pontiac, gaining valuable experience under the watchful eye of the longtime jurist.
“Judge Walker was another incredible mentor and I learned so much from her about how to handle myself in court,” said Sarah, who was first in her class as a 1-L at Wayne State Law School before transferring to Washington University School of Law. “I liked being an assistant prosecutor more than I thought I would, principally because of the variety of cases you get to try.”
Her work as a trial attorney caught the eye of Eric Pelton and Liz Hardy, named partners in the Birmingham-based firm now known as Kienbaum Hardy Viviano Pelton Forrest.
“I wasn’t looking to leave, but Eric came knocking on my door saying that they needed a litigator,” Sarah recalled of the opportunity to begin her career in private practice. “I did a lot of litigation work in the employment law field during my nearly four years there.”
Since joining Butzel in the COVID year of 2020, Nirenberg has seen her legal stature grow as an employment law litigator while also serving as Co-Chair of the firm’s Trade Secret and Non-Compete Specialty Team. In that role, she has advised the Michigan Legislature on non-compete reform and authored definitive legal treatises on Michigan restrictive covenants. It also has burnished her reputation in the state’s legal community, where Nirenberg has periodically presented programs to human resource professionals, attorneys, and business leaders on “evolving legal landscapes.”
By contrast, her father traveled an altogether different road to Butzel, one that began as a Canadian native who earned his bachelor’s degree from the University of Toronto where he met his future wife.
He and his wife, Pauline, were married in Canada, moving to the United States in the early 1980s to pursue a job opportunity.
“There was a real nursing shortage at the time and my wife was receiving regular job offers to work in the U.S.,” Nirenberg indicated. “She eventually took a nursing job at one of the Lansing hospitals, which led to other jobs in oncology units at various hospitals in Southeastern Michigan.”
Nirenberg, who long harbored dreams of becoming an attorney, then began his legal journey at Cooley Law School in Lansing, earning a juris doctor with honors before obtaining his LL.M. from Wayne State University.
Early in his career Nirenberg worked as a judicial staff attorney for the Oakland County Circuit Court before making the jump into private practice with the Southfield law firm of Seyburn Kahn. During his time there Nirenberg handled a wide range of complex commercial, employment, probate, and education law matters, while also serving as a mediator, arbitrator, receiver, special fiduciary, and sought-after speaker at local and state Continuing Legal Education programs.
At Butzel, he will continue his collaboration with a variety of medical practice groups, “advising on corporate governance, mergers and acquisitions, sales, management of ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs), hospital practice contracts, and succession planning.” Such work represents a “full circle” experience for Nirenberg, who spent the early years of his career helping young physicians navigate the sometimes-choppy waters of establishing a medical practice.
The work also was a reminder of the many sacrifices that his parents made on his behalf.
“My parents immigrated from Poland to Canada, surviving the war and the Holocaust as Jewish refugees,” he said in somber reflection. “The hurdles they overcame were many.”
Their indomitable spirit lives on, Nirenberg said, and is reflected in the success two generations of their family has achieved.
“They knew all about hardship, and believed strongly in the importance of education and the value of hard work,” said Nirenberg. “Those are memories and lessons we as a family hold dear.”
As parents, Nirenberg and his wife have felt a special obligation to keep their family tight-knit, providing a dependable emotional safety net for their two children, Sarah and Paul, both of whom excelled in sports during their school years.
Sarah, in particular, displayed an early talent for golf, opting to take up the sport after initially finding it “frustrating” and too time-consuming.
“Once I changed my attitude about golf, I discovered I was pretty good at it,” Sarah admitted. “Once I started seeing some success, my interest in practicing and playing just kept growing.”
So much so that Sarah and her brother would spend hours together on the practice range while growing up, hitting bucket after bucket of balls, developing a passion for the game.
“Our family is into golf big time, and for years and years we’ve enjoyed it together, spending many of our vacations on golf trips around Michigan and the country,” Sarah related.
At Cranbrook, she was a four-year letterwinner, earning All-State honors her sophomore, junior, and senior seasons. As a two-time captain of the varsity squad, Nirenberg led Cranbrook to the state title her senior year in which she posted a 79.8-stroke average per round.
“It was a thrill to win the state (team) title, and I credit my parents for providing all the lessons and the support I needed to do well,” said Nirenberg, who played for three years on the varsity squad at Michigan State. “It truly was a team effort.”
In recent years, Sarah and Henry have made their golf presence known at various bar association and charity outings, regularly capturing top honors with eye-popping scores in four-player scramble formats.
“Golf is a mentally challenging game, and requires plenty of discipline and patience in order to succeed,” said Henry. “I told my kids early on that golf is a life-sport that can provide lessons for them to apply for good use in the business world. I think they both fully appreciate that fact now.”
––––––––––––––––––––
Subscribe to the Legal News!
https://legalnews.com/Home/Subscription
Full access to public notices, articles, columns, archives, statistics, calendar and more
Day Pass Only $4.95!
One-County $80/year
Three-County & Full Pass also available
