
Charles W. Borgsdorf
Phone: (734) 662-4426
Email:
Charles W. Borgsdorf is a 1969 graduate of the University of Michigan Law School. He joined the firm in 1976 after practicing in New York City and then teaching law for five years. His primary area of practice is in business and commercial law. He advises start-up businesses on choice of entity and in preparing all necessary documentation and advises established businesses on a wide range of legal matters including contracts, personnel matters, organizational and operational issues. He also advises non-profit organizations, and provides assistance in their formation and application for tax exempt status.
Mr. Borgsdorf is regularly involved in alternative dispute resolution processes. He has served as a case evaluator in the Washtenaw County Circuit Court for more than two decades, has acted as a single arbitrator or as a member of a panel of arbitrators in many cases, and is a Washtenaw County Circuit Court approved mediator. He has served as a mediator in over three hundred cases. Mr. Borgsdorf mediates cases when appointed by the court, when selected by private parties, and occasionally in matters in which a lawsuit has not yet been filed.
A former assistant Dean of the University of Michigan Law School, Mr. Borgsdorf also practices in the area of professional responsibility and ethics. As adjunct faculty at Michigan Law School for nine consecutive years, he taught a regular curriculum class on legal ethics. He currently advises law firms and lawyers on matters pertaining to professional ethics, and has served as an expert witness on behalf of both plaintiffs and defendants in legal malpractice cases.
Mr. Borgsdorf has been active in many community and non-profit organizations, including those providing free legal services to the poor, helping people with drug and alcohol treatment, and supporting the musical arts.
He is a member of the State Bar of Michigan Standing Committee on Professional Ethics. He has published several books and articles on business and corporate law. Mr. Borgsdorf has an A-V rating from Martindale-Hubbell and is listed in Best Lawyers in America and as a Michigan Super Lawyer. In 2010 he received a Champion of Justice Award from the State Bar of Michigan for his years of pro bono and community involvement and commitment to legal services for the poor. He is on the Board of the Michigan Advocacy Program, a 13-county program providing free legal services
Education
- University of Michigan, J.D. (1969)
- A.B., University of Michigan, A.B. (1965) J.D.
Admissions
- Michigan
- New York
Representative Community Activities
- Director, Michigan Advocacy Program
- Director, Kerrytown Concert House
- Director, Ann Arbor Hospice Foundation
- Chairman, Community Advisory Board, C.S. Mott Children's Hospital
- Board Counsel, Dawn Farm addiction treatment center
- Senate Member, Former Director, University Musical Society