Nancy Little Honored With Michael Irish Award

Nancy Little recently was honored at the State Bar of Michigan Probate & Estate Planning Section’s annual meeting with the Michael W. Irish Award. This award was created “to honor a practitioner, supported by recommendations from his or her peers, whose contributions to the Probate & Estate Planning Section and whose service to his or her community reflect the high standards of professionalism and selflessness exemplified by the late Michael W. Irish”. It is considered the most prestigious award in the Probate & Estate Planning Section of the Bar. Since its creation in 1995, it has been awarded to 18 people. It was especially meaningful to Nancy to follow her three mentors – the late Joe C. Foster, Jr., Everett R. Zack, and John E. Bos – in receiving this Award, and to have one of them, John Bos, present it to her. Nancy is a past Chair of the Probate & Estate Planning Section and has been the editor of the State Bar Probate & Estate Planning Journal for the past 18 years. She has received numerous awards and accolades over the years, including being named as a Fellow of the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel and Best Lawyers in America’s Lansing area’s “Lawyer of the Year” in Trusts and Estates in 2015 and in Trusts and Estates Litigation in 2012. Super Lawyers named Nancy as among the “Top 50 Women Lawyers in Michigan” and the “Top 100 Lawyers in Michigan”, and she was honored as one of 20 “Michigan Women in the Law” by Michigan Lawyers Weekly in 2011. She was named by db Journal as among “Detroit’s Top Lawyers” in 2017 and by Detroit Hour Magazine as one of the “Top Women Attorneys in Michigan” in 2018. In addition, she has served as a volunteer with many community causes, including serving as Chair of the Capital Region Community Foundation and the Lansing Community College Foundation, as a board member of the Capital Area Humane Society and the American Red Cross – Livingston County Chapter, and on the Finance Council of St. Mary Magdalen Catholic Church.