The Michigan State Bar Foundation welcomed new Fellows Mark A. Wisniewski and John Paul Hessburg at the virtual annual Fellows Meeting on September 23^rd. Mr. Edward H. Pappas, President of the Michigan State Bar Foundation provided the welcoming remarks “Congratulations to our new Fellows who were chosen for their professional excellence and community service, without the contributions of the Fellows, many of the Foundation’s public service programs would not be possible.”

The Foundation’s Fellows program was developed in 1984 by thirty–two distinguished lawyers to sustain leadership and financial support for the Foundation and its charitable programs. Today, more than 1,500 attorneys and judges are Fellows, and their contributions to support the Foundation’s charitable work total over $1.9 million.

Since 2014, Mark Wisniewski has served as the Kitch firm’s Chair and Chief Executive Officer. Additionally, Mr. Wisniewski co-chairs the firm’s asbestos liability mass tort defense practices. Since joining the Kitch firm in 1990, Mr. Wisniewski has served as first chair in several multi-million dollar statewide property damage lawsuits, with a particular emphasis on cases involving asbestos. He has been called in by clients to assist local counsel as lead trial counsel in asbestos personal injury cases in multiple jurisdictions across the country. He has lectured to client and attorney groups on asbestos litigation and been the moderator of judicial panels regarding discovery and trial tactics. Mr. Wisniewski’s experience also extends to medical malpractice, products liability and premises liability defense.

John Hessburg leads the firm’s Post-Acute Care practice. He began his career with the Kitch firm as a law clerk in 1984. His experience extends to all aspects of state and federal regulation of Post-Acute Care Providers, national coordination of medical device liability cases and medical malpractice defense litigation. Since establishing the firm’s post-acute care practice, he has built a multidisciplinary practice that focuses on the myriad of challenges his clients face on a daily basis, which include general healthcare and regulatory compliance, corporate compliance, federal and state administrative law, defense of state and federal false claim actions, as well as professional negligence claims.

Mark A. Wisniewski and John Paul Hessburg Join Fellows of the State of Michigan Bar Foundation

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