Appellate attorney elected president of legal organization

Hilary A. Ballentine, an appellate attorney at Plunkett Cooney, one of the Midwest’s oldest and largest law firms, was recently elected president of the Michigan Defense Trial Counsel (MDTC), a leading defense bar organization.

Ballentine, who was elected to the executive post during the MDTC’s annual meeting at the Atheneum Hotel in downtown Detroit, will serve a one-year term as president.

“We’re pleased that the MDTC has recognized Hilary’s leadership skills and excellence as a defense lawyer,” said Mary Massaron, who serves as Plunkett Cooney’s Appellate Law Practice Group Leader.

Ballentine is a member of the MDTC’s Legal Excellence Awards Committee, and she is a past chair of the organization’s Sponsorship Committee.  Ballentine served as a member of the MDTC’s Board of Directors in 2011 and co-chaired its Appellate and Amicus Committee in 2008. In 2012, she was named the MDTC’s Volunteer of the Year.

A member of Plunkett Cooney’s Bloomfield Hills office, Ballentine concentrates her practice exclusively in the area of appellate law.

Ballentine is a 2006 magna cum laude graduate from the University of Detroit Mercy School of Law and a 2003 graduate of the University of Michigan – Dearborn.