PHOTO COURTESY OF MILLER CANFIELD
by Cynthia Price
Legal News
James Liggins, who has held so many leadership positions it is hard to keep track, says, “I kind of live, eat and breathe Kalamazoo.”
Raised there, a graduate of Kalamazoo Central High School, Liggins serves both small and large organizations in his home town, giving generously of his time and talent.
Career-wise, it was a matter of returning to the community he loved after leaving to obtain his education.
Liggins first attended the University of Michigan, where he was a student senator and an American Mock Trial Association Regional Winner.
He followed that by attending Michigan State University College of Law, where, unsurprisingly, he threw himself into the Wolverine Student Bar Association, the Student Bar Association, the All School Trial Advocacy Moot Court (where he was a champion, as well as winning the Best Brief Award in the Fredrick Douglass Moot Court Competition).
Right out of law school, he went to work in labor and employment law for a firm in Indiana, but upon his marriage wanted to move closer to home.
That led to a position in the general counsel office of Consumers Energy, based in?Jackson. There, he found his niche in litigation, as well as handling a variety of legal matters.
Even that was not close enough when he and wife Jyllian discovered a child was on the way eight years ago.?“We were just pregnant with my son, and both of our families were here. So I kind of floated the idea that I was available, and Miller Canfield happened to have a position that had just come open, so they approached me,” Liggins explains.
Liggins says he will always be able to remember when that was by his son Justin’s age. Since then, there have been two more additions with “J” names: Jasmine, 6, and Julianna, 3.
Though he spends much of his time in litigation, gradually moving from a construction focus to more real estate and property work, Liggins also puts a high value on counseling companies to avoid litigating.
Named a 2013 Michigan Super Lawyers Rising Star in Business Litigation, Liggins comments, “My specialty is litigation, but I spend an equal amount of time on clients’ other legal needs, helping them think through business issues. Litigation avoidance is huge, assisting them with avoid that expense and time.”
He also works with municipal clients on a variety of issues, which draws on his in-house experience at Consumers.
“I’ve also recently worked on partnership, corporate and shareholder disputes, which often takes me into real estate matters. It’s really kind of organic, it expands as you go,” he adds.
However, while in law school, Liggins recognized that a narrow focus on the law was not enough for him. “I realized that I needed to do more than just law to be happy. My first year it was all books, all study, I did really well but I wasn’t very happy,” Liggins says. “So my second year, I got very actively involved in extracurricular activities and community service. Once I added that, I became a lot happier with my career choice.
“And then about four or five years ago it clicked why that was so integral to me. At the core as a person I have a desire to be helpful and influential to my community, to the people who are less fortunate and tothose who are coming after me. My personal mantra now is helping people that help people.”
Among the Kalamazoo organizations benefiting from his generosity are the Kalamazoo Chamber of Commerce, the United Way — where a position on the campaign committee resulted in more than tripling the amount raised from the legal community — and the Douglass Community Association.
The last is a small non-profit on the north side of Kalamazoo in an economically challenged area. “It’s a safe haven for the children on that side of town, and provides a lot of resources there. It houses one of the public libraries and the Boys and Girls Club, and it also offer mental health services. They had some financial issues and I helped pilot them through some financial issues. We brought in new leadership, and then I was able to step away. I felt like it was a very important cause,” he explains, “and I’m glad we were able to get them back on good footing.”
More recently, he has begun serving on the Bronson Healthcare Board of Directors, as well as that of the Harold and Grace Upjohn Foundation.
On the legal side, he is the founder, and still serves as president, of the Charles A. Pratt Bar Association. Named after the first African-American judge in Kalamazoo, the specialty bar started out small but keeps growing.
“When I moved back to Kalamazoo, I began to fully notice that the legal industry is lagging behind with respect to diversity. Of the major law firms here, there were no African-American attorneys; when I came, there was one,” he says, grinning. “That’s been slowly changing, but I feel it’s important for us to help steer our younger generation towards the legal field. It’s also important for us to get the word out to people in the community that they have access to legal resources. Ultimately we need to be intentional about making sure our organizations reflect our communities. That’s why we started the Charles A. Pratt Bar.”
But that is not to imply that his involvement is limited to Kalamazoo. He also loves and serves his home state.
He has recently been appointed to a new State Bar of Michigan special committee to review and, potentially, propose revisions to the civil discovery Michigan Court Rules. On that committee, he will serve with current Grand Rapids Bar Association President, the Hon. Christopher Yates.
“James is a fine litigator and an asset to the firm,” Miller Canfield CEO Michael McGee commented at the time of his appointment. “His colleagues at Miller Canfield are tremendously proud that he is willing to do this work, which will help shape the future of the rules that govern our practices within the state.”
But perhaps his greatest passion is High School Mock Trial, fitting because it was his participation on his high school team that led him to choose to be an attorney.
“The way I got into the practice of law was through Kalamazoo Central’s high school mock trial. In my sophomore year I had a teacher who thought I might make a good person for her team. I tried out, got on the team, and lo and behold, the attorney coaches for that team were from Miller Canfield,” he says.
“Nobody in my family was in the legal field or in any professional field really, so it was kind of eye-opening for me,” Liggins adds. “They mentored me. During my summers in college Miller Canfield gave me a job as a messenger, and I came back as a paralegal during my law school years – so mock trial really is the reason why I’m on the law field.”
Liggins moved from being an attorney coach at Central to serving on the board of the Michigan Center for Civic Education, which manages the mock trial process. He makes no secret of his dream to bring the national mock trial competition to Michigan, particularly West Michigan.
He also notes that volunteers are still needed for the upcoming High School Mock Trial competition. The Kent County Regional Tournament is Feb. 25 and will be held in Grand Rapids.
Volunteers may register at www.miciviced.org/mock-trial/mhsmtt-volunteer-registration.
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