Fatima M. Bolyea

Fatima serves as Senior Counsel in our Commercial Litigation group. Fatima represents a wide range of business clientele, with a focus on small businesses, close corporations, family-owned companies, and their owners and executives. Her representation of these clients extends to all phases of the business life cycle, including drafting governing documents and contracts, providing guidance on general governance issues, and assisting with various employment matters (including drafting employment documents, protecting intellectual property and trade secrets, and guiding clients through contentious employment disputes such as breaches of non-competition and non-solicitation agreements).

Fatima provides effective representation and counsel to her clients during every stage of litigation, including in bet-the-company cases and for complex issues such as misappropriation of company funds, breaches of fiduciary duties, and contentious ownership disputes. Fatima also has significant experience assisting clients with business divorces, dissolutions, and breakups.

Fatima has successfully represented business owners in state court, federal court, Michigan business courts, and in arbitration, regularly obtaining verdicts and settlements recognized by Michigan Lawyers Weekly as the largest such recoveries in the state.

In 2017, Fatima was named an Up & Coming Lawyer by Michigan Lawyers Weekly. She has since been recognized as a Rising Star by Super Lawyers magazine in 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, and 2023. In 2022, Fatima was named an Influential Woman of the Law by Michigan Lawyers Weekly.

• Obtained $35.4 million arbitration award for clients in contentious shareholder breach of contract dispute following multi-day arbitration hearing.
• Successfully represented plaintiff in shareholder oppression case and obtained settlement valued at approximately $28 million (in stock redemption, damages, and property).
• Successfully represented plaintiff in jury trial alleging existence of partnership agreement, breach of partnership, and breach of partnership duties. Jury found that plaintiff was, indeed, partners with defendant despite no written partnership agreement. Jury ruled in favor of plaintiff, awarding damages.
• Obtained $23 million settlement for minority members of several companies. Settlement was one of the top five settlements in 2018 in the State of Michigan as reported by Michigan Lawyers Weekly.
• Successfully represented oppressed shareholder and secured $12.35 million settlement. Settlement was one of the top five settlements in the State of Michigan in 2018, as reported by Michigan Lawyers Weekly.
• Secured $9 million settlement for shareholders in breach of contract case, resulting in redemption of shareholders’ interests in three limited liability companies.
• Successfully defended client against retaliatory lawsuit, brought counterclaim for shareholder oppression, and obtained $8.2 million settlement for client which involved a buy-out of client’s interest in company. Settlement was one of the top five settlements in the State of Michigan in 2022, as reported by Michigan Lawyers Weekly.
• In 2020, obtained $6 million settlement in shareholder breach of contract case (as reported by Michigan Lawyers Weekly).
• Secured $3.3 million settlement for health organization client in breach of contract case (as reported by Michigan Lawyers Weekly in 2021).
• In 2020, obtained $1.3 million settlement for client in breach of contract and breach of fiduciary duty case (as reported by Michigan Lawyers Weekly).
• Secured $2.1 million settlement for oppressed shareholder that was removed from his position of management with the company, shut out of information from the business, and threatened with termination.

• [Upcoming] Author of New Chapter “Common Causes of Action Faced by Owners of Closely Held Businesses,” located in “Advising Closely Held Businesses” (book published by Institute of Continuing Legal Education).
• Co-author of “Attorney-Client Privilege and the Work-Product Doctrine in Michigan,” (book published by Institute of Continuing Legal Education).
• Co-author of chapter titled “Judgments” (Chapter 24) in “Michigan Civil Procedure, Second Edition,” (book published by Institute of Continuing Legal Education).
• Touring the Business Courts: An Interview with Judge David Groner, Michigan Business Law Journal, Spring 2022 (co-authored with Douglas L. Toering).
• Touring the Business Courts: An Insight at the State Level, Interviews with Justice Brian Zahra and Judge Milton L. Mack, Michigan Business Law Journal, Fall 2021 (co-authored with Douglas L. Toering).
• Shareholder Oppression Litigation—A National Perspective, Michigan Business Law Journal, November 2020 (co-authored with Gerard V. Mantese).
• Touring the Business Courts: Interviews with Judge T.J. Ackert, Judge Martha Anderson, and Judge Judith Fullerton, Michigan Business Law Journal, Spring 2020 (co-authored with Douglas L. Toering).
• Effective January 1, 2020: Adopted Amendments to the Michigan Court Rules, Michigan Business Law Journal, June 2019 (co-authored with Emily S. Fields).
• Operating Agreements, Partnership Agreements, and Shareholder Agreements: Business Contracts and Their Consequences, Journal of the Missouri Bar, February 2019 (co-authored with Gerard V. Mantese and Theresamarie Mantese).
• Shareholder Agreements, Operating Agreements, and Partnership Agreements: A Survey of Recent Caselaw, Michigan Bar Journal, September 2018.