Since graduating from The University of Texas School of Law, one of the nation’s top law schools, Liisa Speaker has become well known for her excellent written and oral advocacy. Her appellate skills have helped clients obtain victories in appeals ranging from custody disputes to no-fault automobile insurance litigation to real property case and to probate appeals. Since, Liisa has focused her appellate practice on family law, adoption and child welfare cases.
She achieved the status of fellow in the American Academy of Matrimonial Attorneys, an elite group of family law attorneys and serves as the Chair-Elect for the State Bar of Michigan Family Law Section.
Liisa’s mission is to improve the landscape of Michigan family law by changing standards of appointment and election for family law judges, instituting dedicated family law courts and convincing judges to follow the law.
Liisa also published her first book in 2021, Kids Caught In The Middle: How Families Are Harmed When Judges Don’t Follow The Law.
Liisa has represented clients in the federal appellate courts (the United States Supreme Court, the Fifth, and Sixth Circuits) as well as the appellate courts of Michigan and Texas. She has been recognized by her peers for her appellate advocacy, receiving the 2009 Distinguished Brief Award, presented by the Cooley Law Review from among the briefs submitted to Michigan Supreme Court in the prior year. The award honored her writing efforts for the amicus curiae brief she submitted in the USF&G v Michigan Catastrophic Claims Association case in the Michigan Supreme Court.
Liisa drafted and submitted amicus briefs on behalf of organizations such as the Family Law Section for the State Bar of Michigan, the Family Defense Attorneys of Michigan, the Appellate Practice Section for the State Bar of Michigan, the Michigan District Judges Association. the Coalition Protecting Auto No-Fault, the Michigan Association for Justice, and Brain Injury Association of Michigan. These briefs aided the Court in drafting opinions or orders that had profound impacts on the law in Allard v Allard, Estes v Titus; USF&G v MCCA, Rowland v Washtenaw County Road Commission, Beaver v Barton Malow, U of M Regents v Titan Insurance, and McCormick v Carrier, to name a few.
She has also obtained favorable rulings for her clients, resulting in many published opinions. For example, in In re Keast she obtained a victory in a published opinion in the Michigan Court of Appeals in an adoption case which is now one of the most frequently cited cases in Adoption Law. In Rose v Rose, Ms. Speaker’s efforts led to a published opinion addressing whether a party who waived his right to modification of spousal support can obtain relief from judgment. In Glaubius v Glaubius, the Court of Appeals held that a couple’s divorce judgement did not bar the mother from later seeking a revocation of her ex-husband’s paternity. In Lieberman v Orr she convinced the Court of Appeals to overturn a trial judges so called parenting time decision because the new parenting time schedule actually changed custody. In In re MGR, she helped prospective adoptive parents finalize an adoption after years of litigation, multiple appeals and Supreme Court oral argument. She has achieved great success in obtaining the rarely-granted peremptory reversals for clients in the Michigan Supreme Court and the Court of Appeals. In Romans v Michigan DHS she obtained a reversal from the 6th Circuit of the trial court’s grant of summary judgment on an employee’s Family Medical Leave Act claim.
Through her written and oral advocacy, Ms. Speaker has demonstrated a passion for developing an appellate practice that gives her clients a voice, while contributing to the legal community. She is a council member and the current Chair for the State Bar of Michigan Family Law Section, as well as a fellow of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers (AAML). She was also previously appointed by the Michigan Supreme Court to two four-year terms on the Court Reporter and Recorder Board of Review. Liisa lives in Lansing with her husband, two daughters, a dog and a turtle.