Timothy Mulligan

Timothy Mulligan

Lead Appellate Attorney

A civil litigation and appeals specialist, Timothy Mulligan is Paletz Law’s Lead Appellate Attorney since joining the Firm in March, 2022. Timothy has over 25 years of experience in writing dispositive motions and obtaining successful outcomes in most of them, including two high-stakes cases involving seven-figure damages.

As an undergraduate, Timothy attended Kalamazoo College, where he received several academic accolades, including graduating Phi Beta Kappa. He earned a 4.0 GPA in his major field of study, political science, and received a formal award for being the top student in the department. He also worked, studied, and conducted formal research abroad during college — all in Spanish.

Timothy then studied law on a partial scholarship at Detroit Mercy Law, with his studies focused on civil litigation. He served on the Law Review for two years, including one year on the Editorial Board, and graduated in the top 10% of his class. He was also a member of his law school alma mater’s Alumni Association Board of Directors for six years.

After being a civil litigator for nine years, Timothy worked for over six years as a Judicial Attorney for a State Appellate Court, where he drafted over 200 appellate decisions in civil cases. Over two dozen of those became authoritative and binding published appellate decisions in Michigan law.

He is a published legal author, including in a Michigan appellate publication. He later worked for a Michigan Circuit Court for two years, including handling civil appeals from district courts. All of this experience has given Timothy useful skills, insights, and strategies for successfully persuading judges and their clerks, whether it be for procedural motions, dispositive motions, or appeals. Experience matters.

Bar Admissions:

• Michigan, 1996
• United States District Court, Eastern District of Michigan, 1998
• United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, 1999
• United States District Court, Western District of Michigan, 2023

Practice Highlights:

• Published legal author on issues in civil litigation, which includes liability insurance, tort reform, and causation law.
• Obtained summary disposition for an employer-defendant in a wrongful death case involving an electrocution.
• Awarded summary judgment in a Federal civil rights case negating a case evaluation of one million dollars.
• Successfully defeated tenant’s appeal to Kent County Circuit Court (2022). This was a termination of tenancy based on lack of approved occupancy, other violation notices, and a threat to another resident. Obtained a prompt and complete dismissal of the tenant’s appeal.
• Successfully defeated tenant’s appeal to Kenty County Circuit Court (2022).  This was a termination suit based on numerous violations of the lease and community rules. Appeal dismissed on jurisdictional grounds.
• Defeated tenant’s appeal to Kent County Circuit Court (2022). This tenant had been litigating against our client since 2015. Was able to put to rest the final stages of the tenant’s series of spurious claims and illegitimate defenses.
• Promptly defeated tenant’s attorney’s appeal to Macomb County Circuit Court (2022). Attacked the jurisdictional basis for the appeal as well as cited multiple procedural defects raised by opposing counsel.
• Drafted the appeal motion that successfully defeated an attempted appeal by the tenant to the Ohio Court of Appeals (2023). The tenant failed to comply with appellate rules. The dismissal was also based on mootness because the tenant failed to comply with a trial court order requiring deposits of rent.
• Defeated an appeal to Jackson County Circuit Court (2023). The appeal was defeated based on jurisdictional grounds; the circuit court did not even have to reach the merits (or lack thereof), of tenant’s appeal.
• Defeated an appeal to Oakland County Circuit Court (2023), based on jurisdictional grounds as well as successfully defeated tenant’s effort to be represented in the appeal by a non-attorney.
• Successfully defeated tenant’s appeal to Ottawa County Circuit Court (2024). This tenant, who attempted more than one appeal, had made numerous false claims in the underlying nonpayment of rent case.
• Defeated tenant’s appeal of nonpayment of rent case to Wayne County Circuit Court (2024). Significant parts of the decision on appeal were taken verbatim from the appeal brief that was filed in support of our appeal.
• Successfully defeated an appeal to Calhoun County Circuit (2024). In this nonpayment case, the tenant was misusing the appeal process to try to obtain additional time and to delay the conclusion of summary proceedings.

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