Super Lawyers - Michigan 2014

BRIEFS
DARCIE R. BRAULT EMBODIES THE MIDWESTERN QUALITIES OF MICHIGAN’S LABOR AND EMPLOYMENT BAR BY AMY KATES
SOMETHING MORE THAN CIVIL
Darcie R. Brault doesn’t keep many secrets
from her peers in Michigan’s labor and
employment bar.
“We are a small, close group,” she says.

“We have many events—I was president of
the section—and I have certainly had my
share of cocktails and divulged anything of
interest already. Although I did read once—
I know who admitted he had tattoos, and I
was very surprised. So, I can tell everyone I
don’t have any tattoos.”
The lawyer with McKnight, McClow,
Canzano, Smith & Radtke isn’t just
impressed with her fellow plaintiff’s
attorneys. She also has good things to say
about the defense. “I know I can count on
them,” she says. “The defense bar here
is something more than civil—they’re
trustworthy, academic. We’ve all learned
that we’ll see each other again, and that
It’s easy to see where Brault, who goes
to bat for both individual workers and
unions, got her inspiration.

“I grew up in a family with two working
parents in unions,” she says. Her father was
a patternmaker, a now obsolete occupation
in which workers made wood prototypes of
car parts; her mom was a teacher.

“From an early age, I was really
steeped in the idea that hard work was
important,” Brault says. “I was also
drawn to the idea that there’s this forum
or government entity in the courts and
in the justice system where you can take
your disputes and have them heard, and
heard fairly.”
She’s not in trial as much as she’d
like to be, and most of her union work
is done in an arbitration forum instead
of a court. “But in litigation, depositions
can get intense,” she says. “You’re taking
the depositions of people who aren’t on