Miller Canfield Attorney Elected Chair of Michigan Women's Foundation
Beverly Hall Burns, a principal and the deputy CEO of the law firm of Miller, Canfield, Paddock and Stone, P.L.C., has been elected to a two-year term as chair of the Michigan Women's Foundation (MWF) board of directors. As board chair, Burns will lead the Foundation through its “Facing Change Campaign” to build its endowment and its annual giving.
Because women and girls continue to face significant barriers and challenges in reaching their full potential, the MWF promotes economic self-sufficiency by developing emerging women leaders and providing financial and technical assistance to nonprofit organizations, with an objective of creating skills and leadership opportunities for women. The Foundation is the only statewide foundation focused solely on women and girls.
Burns resides in the Detroit office and practices labor law wherein she represents private and public employers in NLRB and state employment relations matters; labor negotiations; contract administration; and arbitration. She also represents clients on employment discrimination matters before federal and state agencies and courts, wrongful discharge, Section 301 and other employment-related litigation, and general labor-related matters. She also is a member of the firm's Automotive Group.
She is a member of the Michigan Bar Association’s Labor Law Section, the American Bar Association's Labor Law Section and Committee on Law Firm Management; Detroit Metropolitan Bar Association; Michigan Council of School Attorneys and National Council of School Attorneys. She is past chair of the Grosse Pointe War Memorial Board of Directors, serves on the board of directors of the Economic Club of Detroit, and is a fellow of the Michigan Bar Foundation. She is admitted to practice in all state and federal courts in Michigan. In March 1997, she was named by Crain’s Detroit Business as "One of Detroit’s Most Influential Women" and as a finalist in their “2003 Executive Woman of the Year” search.
She has given live testimony before the Committee on Education and Labor, U.S. House of Representatives, Washington, D.C., and authored and published many articles dealing with such topics as “How to Comply with New Handicapper Protection Laws,” “Developing and Implementing Effective Policies against Sexual and Racial Harassment,” and “Current Developments in Fetal Protection in the Workplace.” Ms. Burns joined the firm in 1979, and left for a brief two-year period in 1981 when she was a Professor at Glassboro State College, New Jersey and a fellow in the Wharton School's Industrial Research Center at University of Pennsylvania. She rejoined the firm in September, 1983.
She received her law degree from the University of Michigan Law School, and her B.A., with honors, from Michigan State University.
She resides in Grosse Pointe, Michigan.
The 330-attorney law firm of Miller, Canfield, Paddock and Stone, P.L.C. was established in Detroit in 1852 and has offices in Ann Arbor, Detroit, Grand Rapids, Howell, Kalamazoo, Lansing, Monroe, and Troy, Michigan. Other offices are located in New York City, Pensacola, Florida, Washington, D.C., Windsor, Ontario, and in Gdynia, Katowice, and Warsaw, Poland.
