Retaliated against in Ann Arbor? You need a lawyer who knows academic, tech, and biotech employment law.
Need an Ann Arbor employment lawyer? Here’s the local landscape. Ann Arbor’s economy is unlike anywhere else in Michigan — the University of Michigan anchors it, biotech and tech startups cluster around it, and research hospitals feed into both. The employment issues here reflect that.
Why Ann Arbor employment cases are their own category.
The University of Michigan is by far the largest employer in Washtenaw County. University employment is subject to layered protections: tenure systems, collective bargaining agreements, Title VII and ELCRA, state public-employee statutes, and academic-freedom considerations. Around the university sits a dense biotech and tech-startup ecosystem generating non-compete, trade-secret, and stock-option disputes, often involving founders, executives, and senior engineers.
Ann Arbor courts and service area.
Where your case is heard
State: Washtenaw County Circuit Court. Federal: U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan (Ann Arbor seat). University employment matters often involve parallel administrative processes (grievance, faculty governance, union procedures) that run alongside litigation.
Serving Washtenaw County and surrounding areas
Ann Arbor · Ypsilanti · Saline · Chelsea · Dexter · Pittsfield Township · Scio Township · Canton · Plymouth · Novi · Livonia — and the research-corridor cities between Detroit and Ann Arbor.
Case types I handle.
Non-Compete Defense
Cease-and-desist or lawsuit from a former employer.
FMLA Retaliation
Fired or punished after medical leave.
Pregnancy Discrimination
Demoted, denied accommodations, or fired after announcing.
ADA Accommodation
Denied an accommodation or punished for asking.
Race Discrimination
Title VII + § 1981 + ELCRA.
Gender Discrimination
Bostock + ELCRA + Equal Pay Act.
Sexual Harassment
Hostile work environment, quid pro quo, supervisor pressure. Reported it and got fired or pushed out? Title VII and Michigan law cover both.
Whistleblower
Michigan WPA, SOX, Dodd-Frank, FCA.
Age Discrimination
ADEA + ELCRA.
The Ann Arbor employment landscape
Ann Arbor’s employment base is unusual for Michigan. The University of Michigan and Michigan Medicine together employ over 30,000 people across academic, research, clinical, and administrative roles. The biotech, pharmaceutical, and medical-device sector clustered around the research university adds thousands more highly credentialed employees. Federal and state research funding flows through both the university and the surrounding institutions, which means a significant share of the workforce is on grant-funded or term-limited appointments where the rules around non-renewal, reduction-in-force, and protected-activity retaliation get complicated.
The employment cases that come out of Ann Arbor often involve highly educated employees — physicians, researchers, postdocs, faculty, software engineers — and the disputes tend to involve protected-activity retaliation (FMLA, ADA accommodation, whistleblower reports about research integrity or patient safety, complaints about discrimination or harassment) more than simple at-will termination. The fact patterns are sophisticated, the document trails are extensive, and the employers are well-counseled. Plaintiff-side cases here usually require a careful pre-suit investigation.
Where Ann Arbor employment cases get filed
Most Ann Arbor cases get filed in one of three venues — and the order of operations matters.
E.D. Mich.
U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan — for federal claims, with Ann Arbor cases assigned to the Detroit, Ann Arbor, or Flint divisions of the court depending on the assignment system.
Washtenaw County Circuit Court
For state-law claims, including ELCRA, PWDCRA, and WPA claims. The Washtenaw bench tends to move dockets briskly.
University of Michigan employment claims have their own procedural overlay — internal grievance procedures, the university’s HR investigations process, and the Michigan public-employee whistleblower framework can interact in non-obvious ways with deadlines for filing in court. The order of operations matters; getting it wrong can foreclose claims that would have been viable.
What to do in the first 72 hours after you’re fired in Ann Arbor
- Preserve your documents. Save every email, text, calendar invite, performance review, peer review, grant document, and HR communication related to your job and your firing. University and Michigan Medicine systems are revoked quickly after termination — copy what you need to a personal account before access is gone.
- Write down the timeline. Dates and the order of events matter more than impressions. Note the dates of the protected conduct and the dates of every adverse action that followed.
- Request your personnel file in writing. Michigan’s Bullard-Plawecki Employee Right to Know Act (MCL 423.501 et seq.) gives you access to your personnel file on written request, including evaluations and disciplinary records. Send the request promptly.
- Don’t sign anything. Separation agreements from Ann Arbor employers — universities and biotech alike — are usually drafted with broad releases of all employment claims. Do not sign until a lawyer has reviewed it.
- Call a lawyer before continuing any internal grievance process. Internal HR processes can foreclose claims or fix deadlines you didn’t know existed. Get advice before continuing.
Need a Ann Arbor employment lawyer? Let’s talk today.
Free, confidential 15-minute call.