Astbury Law represents Detroit-area employees in wrongful termination, discrimination, retaliation, and non-compete defense matters. I work with clients throughout Wayne County and the broader metro Detroit region — Oakland and Macomb counties included — from my office on Shelby Street, a short walk from the federal courthouse.

I’m Warren Astbury. I’m a Harvard Law graduate (2009) with 15 years of experience and 50+ trials to verdict. I represent Michigan employees — only employees, never employers.

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The Detroit employment law landscape

Metro Detroit is one of the densest employment-litigation regions in the Midwest. A few reasons:

A large, concentrated employer base. The Big Three automakers (GM, Ford, Stellantis) and their tier-one suppliers employ hundreds of thousands of workers across the region. Healthcare systems (Henry Ford Health, Corewell Health East, Ascension, Detroit Medical Center) are among the region’s largest employers, and healthcare workers file a disproportionate share of FMLA, ADA, and pregnancy claims because the workforce is large, majority-female, and health-care-intensive. City, county, and state employers (the City of Detroit, Wayne County, and the State of Michigan) add a large public-sector workforce with its own patterns.

Federal court jurisdiction. Detroit sits within the Eastern District of Michigan (EDMI) — the federal district court where most discrimination and retaliation claims with a federal component are filed. EDMI is also where most FMLA, ADA, Title VII, and Section 1981 cases in the region get tried. The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals (headquartered in Cincinnati) reviews decisions out of EDMI, and its published opinions set the framework for most employment law in Michigan.

Michigan state courts. Cases under Michigan’s Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act, Michigan’s Persons with Disabilities Civil Rights Act, and Michigan’s Whistleblowers’ Protection Act can be filed in state circuit court. In Detroit, that’s the Third Judicial Circuit (Wayne County).

Common Detroit-area fact patterns I see

Automotive and supplier workers

Workers at GM, Ford, Stellantis, and their tier-one suppliers often face patterns involving FMLA leave for injuries, disability accommodation requests tied to repetitive-motion issues, and age discrimination during restructurings. Many tier-one suppliers are thinly staffed at the HR level, which produces procedurally sloppy terminations — a pattern that often helps prove pretext in court.

Healthcare workers

Large healthcare systems employ tens of thousands of nurses, techs, and support staff, most women, with high rates of FMLA use (for their own conditions and for family care). The collision of shift-based scheduling, physically demanding work, and employer-driven attendance policies produces many FMLA-interference and ADA-accommodation cases. The Louisville-hospital cancer-treatment-termination pattern that appears in my case history is representative.

Public-sector employees

Employees of the City of Detroit, Wayne County, and state agencies have additional protections — including union rights, civil service rules, and broader whistleblower coverage under the Michigan WPA. Public sector cases often involve more documentary evidence (because government entities keep more records) and sometimes longer timelines.

Professional and corporate employees

Metro Detroit’s corporate headcount — finance, legal, consulting, executives at the auto companies — generates a steady flow of non-compete defense cases when professionals move between firms, as well as race and gender discrimination cases at the senior-professional level.

Practice areas I handle in Detroit

I represent Detroit-area employees in eight primary types of cases:

What to bring to a free case evaluation

If you’re in metro Detroit and thinking about calling, what I’ll want to know:

The timeline — when were you hired, what happened, when were you fired or pushed out
What you did in writing — emails, complaints, HR submissions, FMLA paperwork, accommodation requests
Your performance history — reviews, awards, written feedback (good or bad) before the adverse action
Your employment agreement — especially if a non-compete, non-solicit, or NDA is involved
Any written communications from your employer that relate to what happened

You don’t need to have everything organized before we talk. We’ll work through it.

Office and contact

Astbury Law, PLLC is located in downtown Detroit, on the seventh floor of 607 Shelby Street, steps from the federal courthouse, Campus Martius Park, and the People Mover. If you’re in the area, in-person meetings can be scheduled — otherwise, we can talk by phone or video call, whichever is easier.

Astbury Law, PLLC 607 Shelby Street, 7th Floor, #1115 Detroit, MI 48226 814-821-1140 · warren@astburylaw.com

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Past results do not guarantee future outcomes. The information on this page is for general educational purposes and is not legal advice. No attorney-client relationship is created by reading this page or submitting a form.