Justices Michael and Megan Cavanagh talk with Host Lauren Kissel about being the first father and daughter to sit on the Michigan Supreme Court.
Justice Michael F. Cavanagh earned his Juris Doctor from the University of Detroit Law School in 1966. Justice Cavanagh was elected to the Judicial District Court, where he served from 1973 until 1974. In 1975, he was elected to the Michigan Court of Appeals and served in that position until 1982. In November of 1982, he was elected to the Michigan Supreme Court and re-elected in November 1990, 1998, and 2006. Cavanagh served as Chief Justice from 1991 until 1995.
In addition to his professional career, Cavanagh has been a member of various legal and community organizations. He is a member of several bar associations and judicial committees. Cavanagh was on the Board of Directors for Cooley Law School, the American Heart Association, and the Lansing YMCA. He is a past president of the Incorporated Society of Irish-American Lawyers.
Cavanagh ties Big Four Justice James V. Campbell for longest service on the Michigan Supreme Court. He is the father of Justice Megan Cavanagh.
Justice Megan Cavanagh is a graduate of the University of Michigan College of Engineering and Wayne State University Law School. Before joining the Michigan Supreme Court in January of 2019, she had over fifteen years of experience as one of Michigan’s top appellate attorneys and was a shareholder at Garan Lucow Miller P.C. in Detroit.
Justice Cavanagh is the Supreme Court Liaison to Tribal Courts, Child Welfare Services, the Well-Being in the Law Task Force, the Attorney Grievance Commission, and the Judicial Tenure Commission. She also serves as the Co-Lead to the Child Protective Legal Representation Task Force and on the Attorney General’s Elder Abuse Task Force.
Justice Cavanagh has served as Chair of the Appellate Practice Section of the State Bar of Michigan, as a council person for the Negligence Section of the State Bar of Michigan, as co-chair of the Michigan Bench Bar Appellate Conference Foundation, and as a member of the Michigan Attorney Grievance Commission.
Prior to her election to the Court, Justice Cavanagh was rated as one of Michigan's Super Lawyers. She was honored by Michigan Lawyer's Weekly as Lawyer of the Year in 2006 and a Woman in the Law in 2017.
Justice Cavanagh and her husband have four children.
Lauren Kissel is an associate attorney at the Sinas Dramis Law Firm in Lansing, Michigan. She represents people in a wide variety of personal injury cases. Lauren plays a crucial role as part of the Sinas Dramis legal team in representing complex cases, such as the Andary case, which is a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the 2019 amendments to Michigan’s no-fault law on behalf of several motor vehicle accident victims, their families, and providers. She graduated from Michigan State University Law School.
Lauren is an active member of Michigan’s legal community and serves as the president-elect of the Ingham County Bar Association – Young Lawyers Section, the membership communications director of the Women Lawyers Association Mid-Michigan Region, an executive board member of the Michigan Association for Justice, and a member of the Coalition Protecting Auto No-Fault. In her free time, she enjoys reading, playing soccer, and going on walks with her husband and two dogs.
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