Former Justice Kurtis T. Wilder is Of Counsel to Butzel Long and practices in Butzel Long’s Detroit Office. Justice Wilder concentrates his practice in litigation and appeals.
Justice Wilder was appointed by Governor John Engler as judge of the Washtenaw County Circuit Court in March 1992. In December 1998 Governor Engler elevated Justice Wilder to the Michigan First District Court of Appeals where he served four terms from 1998-2017. On May 9, 2017, Governor Snyder appointed Justice Wilder to the Michigan Supreme Court.
Justice Wilder holds memberships in the Sigma Pi Phi Fraternity, Gamma Rho Boule; Fellows of the Michigan State Bar Foundation; the Federalist Society, Board of Advisors, Lawyers Division-Michigan Chapter; the Association of Black Judges of Michigan; and the Wolverine Bar Association. He has served by appointment of the Michigan Supreme Court as a member of the Model Criminal Jury Instruction Committee, the Family Division Joint Rules Committee, and the Family Court Implementation Task Force. He is a Past President of the Michigan Judges Association and Past Chairman of the State Bar Judicial Conference.
Justice Wilder has been active in many civic and philanthropic endeavors during his career. He is a former vice chair of the State of Michigan Community Corrections Advisory Board, former board chair of the National Kidney Foundation of Michigan and Nonprofit Enterprise at Work, and former board member of The Sphinx Organization, Rotary Club of Ann Arbor, Ann Arbor Symphony, and American Red Cross, Washtenaw County Chapter. Justice Wilder currently serves on the Boards of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, The Children’s Foundation, and Interlochen Center for the Arts, and as a member of the Detroit Regional Dollars for Scholars Advisory Board. He was recently elected to the boards of directors of the Michigan Chamber of Commerce and the Alumni Association of the University of Michigan. He is an Elder and Chancel Choir member at First Presbyterian Church of Plymouth.
Justice Wilder graduated from the University of Michigan with an A.B. degree in Political Science in 1981, and from the University of Michigan Law School with a Juris Doctor degree in 1984.
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