Michelle H. Anthes

Besides leading McShane & Bowie as our managing partner, Michelle Anthes concentrates her practice in estate planning and corporate law, with a focus on physician practices and farming – an important constituency and backbone of the Michigan economy within which different legal needs often intertwine.

From the day they obtain their professional licenses, physicians encounter numerous legal issues, from entering into employment arrangements to starting into their own practices and forming business relationships. Michelle counsels doctors and physician groups at every stage, including employment agreements and restrictions, business entity selection and formation, leases and purchases of office space and equipment, vendor contracts, and dissolution. Physician clients also look to her for their estate planning, wealth transfer, and asset protection needs.

Farmers are an important constituency and backbone of the Michigan economy within which different legal needs often intertwine. Along with agribusinesses and other companies, they face complicated business and succession planning issues. Michelle acts as outside general counsel to these clients, serving as a trusted advisor to multiple generations and owners. This requires a broad perspective and familiarity with an even broader array of legal concerns, including labor and employment, immigration, insurance, financing, and real property matters.

Equally dedicated to the community in which she lives and works, Michelle sits on the Professional Advisory Committee for the Grand Rapids Community Foundation, and for the past two years she has chaired McShane & Bowie’s Charitable Committee, which each year researches and selects worthy organizations that the firm then supports financially and through volunteering.

Michelle is on the board of directors for the Ottawa County Chapter of the Children’s Advocacy Center (CAC), a consortium of agencies devoted to addressing the needs of sexually abused children and their families.

She is also actively involved with Out Side In, Inc., a non-profit that employs equine-assisted psychotherapy (EAP) as an alternative treatment for those who have been victims of trauma or who have other emotional or mental health issues; she a member of the board of directors for that organization as well.

Education:

• University of Detroit Mercy School of Law, Juris Doctor, 1996
• Michigan State University, Bachelor of Arts in Accounting, 1991

Bar Admission:

• Michigan

Professional Associations and Memberships:

• State Bar of Michigan
• Grand Rapids Bar Association
• American Bar Association
• West Michigan Estate Planning Council
• Inforum