By Donna MacKenzie, Michigan Injury Lawyer
Five attorneys at Olsman MacKenzie Peacock have been recognized on the 2026 Michigan Super Lawyers and Michigan Rising Stars lists published by Thomson Reuters.
Donna M. MacKenzie was named to the Top 5 in Michigan for Personal Injury Plaintiff work. It is the first year she has appeared on the Top 5 list and her 14th consecutive year on Michigan Super Lawyers. Emily Peacock returns to the Top 100 in Michigan. Jules Olsman was named for the 20th consecutive year. Ronda Little was named for the eighth year running. Chrissy Hagen was named a Michigan Rising Star.
A Full Michigan Personal Injury Practice
Our firm has represented injured people and grieving families in Michigan since 1969, and we handle the full range of personal injury work. Michigan clients come to us with cases involving:
- Car accidents, truck accidents, and motorcycle accidents
- Pedestrian and bicycle collisions, and boating accidents
- Premises liability, slip and fall injuries, and dog bites
- Construction site and workplace injuries
- Defective and dangerous products
- Dram shop claims against establishments that overserve drunk drivers
- Claims against governmental defendants, and police shootings and misconduct
- Sexual assault and sex trafficking claims
- Medical malpractice and birth injuries
- Nursing home, assisted living, and adult foster care abuse and neglect
- Wrongful death arising out of any of the above
We represent injured people only. We never represent insurance companies. Roughly 90 percent of our clients come to us on referral from other attorneys, and every case is handled on a contingency fee, which means there is no fee unless we recover.
What the Michigan Super Lawyers List Measures
If you are looking for a Michigan personal injury lawyer, it helps to know what a rating list does and does not tell you.
Super Lawyers is a rating service published by Thomson Reuters. Selection begins with nominations from other lawyers. Candidates are then evaluated against indicators that include verdicts and settlements, trial experience, bar leadership, and peer recognition, and a panel of previously selected lawyers in the same practice area reviews the finalists. No lawyer can pay to be included.
No more than five percent of Michigan lawyers are named to the list in a given year. The Top 100 and Top 50 lists are narrower, and a Top 5 designation within a practice area is narrower still.
What the Michigan Rising Stars List Measures
Michigan Rising Stars uses the same nomination, research, and peer review process for a different pool of candidates. To be eligible, an attorney must be either 40 years old or younger, or in practice for ten years or less. No more than 2.5 percent of Michigan lawyers receive the Rising Stars honor.
Why Peer Recognition Matters When You Hire a Michigan Trial Lawyer
No rating predicts a result. Every case turns on its own facts.
What peer review reflects is how a lawyer is regarded by the other lawyers who practice against them and watch them try cases. That judgment carries information a marketing budget cannot buy. Serious injury cases are expensive to bring, they are defended aggressively, and they often require experts across several fields. Lawyers in this work know which firms actually take cases to verdict and which ones do not.
That distinction matters to you as a client. Insurance carriers and defense firms track which plaintiff’s lawyers are prepared to try a case, and a firm’s willingness to try one affects what a claim is worth long before anyone walks into a courtroom.
The Attorneys Recognized
Donna M. MacKenzie, Top 5 in Michigan, Personal Injury Plaintiff
Donna MacKenzie has been named to Michigan Super Lawyers every year since 2013, making 2026 her 14th consecutive selection. She has been on the Top 50 Women list since 2014 and the Top 100 list since 2015. This year is her first on the Top 5 list for Personal Injury Plaintiff work.
She has more than 20 years of experience representing injured people and grieving families in abuse and neglect in long-term care, medical malpractice, and car and motorcycle crashes. Her results include multiple multi-million dollar verdicts and settlements, among them an $8 million settlement for patients of Farid Fata, M.D., who misdiagnosed patients with cancer, a $4.4 million verdict for a woman injured by a physician’s medication error, a $2.2 million judgment for the family of a 90-year-old woman who died after a fall in an adult foster care home, and a $1.5 million verdict for a resident sexually assaulted by another resident.
MacKenzie was the trial lawyer in Rowland v. Independence Village of Oxford, brought on behalf of the estate of Virginia Kermath, an 89-year-old woman who walked out a side door of an unlicensed independent living facility on a December morning, was locked out in freezing temperatures, and died of complications from hypothermia. The trial court and the Court of Appeals held that the facility owed her no duty of care. In 2022 the Michigan Supreme Court reversed, holding that the harm was foreseeable and that the facility owed its residents a common-law duty of care beyond that of an ordinary landlord. The decision reaches every independent and senior living community in Michigan that markets to older adults, and it has forced those facilities to reexamine door security, monitoring, and how residents summon help.
Best Lawyers in America named her Medical Malpractice Lawyer of the Year in Troy in 2016, 2018, and 2020. She received the American Association for Justice F. Scott Baldwin Award in 2015 and was named one of Crain’s Detroit Business Most Notable Women Lawyers in Michigan in 2017. She is a member of the American Board of Trial Advocates, past president of the Michigan Association for Justice, the 100th president of the Women Lawyers Association of Michigan, past chair of the State Bar of Michigan Negligence Law Section, and past chair of the American Association for Justice Nursing Home Litigation Group. She has testified before the Michigan Legislature against bills that would have granted hospitals and physicians broad immunity for negligent care.
Emily Peacock, Top 100 in Michigan
Emily Peacock returns to the Top 100 in Michigan for 2026. She has been named to Michigan Super Lawyers since 2019 and to the Top 50 Women list since 2023.
Emily represents patients injured by negligent medical care and residents harmed in nursing homes, assisted living facilities, and adult foster care homes. She has tried numerous cases to verdict and litigated claims involving wrongful death, spinal cord injuries, cardiac and stroke emergencies, brain injuries, choking deaths, and elopement. Her results include a $4.5 million settlement for the family of a resident who died from neglect at an adult foster care home, a $3 million settlement for a resident who suffered a traumatic brain injury because of inadequate supervision, a $1.98 million jury verdict for a woman who underwent improper breast surgery and received deficient follow-up care, a $1.25 million settlement for the family of a man who died after providers failed to timely diagnose and treat sepsis, and a $1 million settlement for a woman left paraplegic by a spinal injury.
She is a past chair of the American Association for Justice Women Trial Lawyers Caucus and serves on the American Association for Justice Board of Governors. She co-founded the Women’s Caucus of the Michigan Association for Justice and currently serves as an officer of the Michigan Association for Justice. She speaks and writes nationally on adult foster care and assisted living litigation, including at the American Association for Justice Annual Convention.
Jules Olsman, 20 Consecutive Years
Jules Olsman has been named to Michigan Super Lawyers every year since 2007, and to the Top 100 in Michigan from 2009 through 2016 and again from 2018 through 2021. He has been named to The Best Lawyers in America every year from 2007 through 2026 and was named Lawyer of the Year for Personal Injury Litigation in 2016 and 2024.
He has practiced personal injury law in Michigan for more than four decades, representing families in nursing home and assisted living negligence, medical malpractice, truck and car crashes, police misconduct, and wrongful death, and has recovered tens of millions of dollars for injured Michigan clients. His long-term care work spans pressure ulcers, fatal falls, medication errors, elopement of residents with dementia, physical and sexual abuse, dehydration and malnutrition, and choking deaths.
He represented the plaintiff in Bryant v. Oakpointe Villa Nursing Centre, the Michigan Supreme Court decision that still governs when a claim against a long-term care facility sounds in ordinary negligence rather than medical malpractice. Courts and lawyers on both sides of these cases continue to apply it.
Jules is a founding member and past chair of the American Association for Justice Nursing Home Litigation Group, a past president of the Michigan Association for Justice, and a past chair of the State Bar of Michigan Negligence Law Section. He is a member of the American Board of Trial Advocates, was appointed to the Governor’s Task Force on Elder Abuse, and has taught medical malpractice litigation as an adjunct professor at Michigan State University College of Law.
Ronda Little, Eight Years Running
Ronda Little has been named to Michigan Super Lawyers every year since 2019.
Her practice is concentrated in serious injury and death claims arising from medical negligence, including heart attacks and coronary artery disease, stroke, spinal cord and brain injuries, pulmonary embolism, cancer, surgical and anesthesia errors, and emergency room negligence. Her results include a $4.75 million settlement involving a federally funded clinic’s failure to diagnose and report child abuse, a $3.25 million settlement for a spinal cord injury, a $1.75 million settlement involving a negligent bypass of the 911 system, and a $1.6 million settlement for a failure to diagnose and treat eclampsia that led to a brain hemorrhage and death.
Chrissy Hagen, Michigan Rising Star
Chrissy Hagen was named a Michigan Rising Star for 2026. She was previously named a Colorado Rising Star in 2021, 2022, 2024, and 2025.
She represents families in fatal and serious truck and car crashes, traumatic brain injury cases, motorcycle accidents, dram shop claims, and wrongful death. She is board certified in Truck Accident Law by the National Board of Trial Advocacy, one of only two attorneys in Michigan and fewer than 2,000 nationwide to hold that certification. She co-chairs the Underride Committee of the American Association for Justice Trucking Litigation Group, is a past co-chair of the Women’s Caucus of the Academy of Truck Accident Attorneys, and lectures nationally on auditing driver logbooks and identifying hours-of-service violations. Her results include a $3.5 million settlement for the family of a person killed in a motor vehicle crash, a $1.98 million jury verdict, and a $1.21 million settlement for a family that lost a member to a drunk driver, including a recovery against the bar that overserved him.
Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome. Every case is different and depends on its own facts. As Michigan personal injury attorneys, we are committed to helping injured individuals and their families recover compensation when negligence or reckless conduct causes serious injury or death.
Where We Represent Injured Michigan Clients
Our main office is in Berkley, in the Detroit metropolitan area, with an additional office in Lapeer. We represent clients throughout Michigan, with a concentration in Oakland County, Wayne County, Macomb County, Kent County, Genesee County, Washtenaw County, Ottawa County, Ingham County, Kalamazoo County, Livingston County, Saginaw County, Muskegon County, St. Clair County, Jackson County, Monroe County, Berrien County, Calhoun County, Allegan County, Eaton County, Bay County, Lenawee County, Grand Traverse County, and Lapeer County, and we handle cases in Michigan state courts and in the United States District Courts for the Eastern and Western Districts of Michigan.
Frequently Asked Questions About Michigan Super Lawyers and Rising Stars
How are Michigan Super Lawyers selected?
Super Lawyers selections are made by Thomson Reuters through a multiphase process that includes a statewide survey of lawyers, independent research on each candidate, and peer review by practice area. Candidates are evaluated on indicators such as verdicts and settlements, trial experience, bar leadership, and peer recognition. Attorneys cannot pay to be selected.
What percentage of Michigan lawyers make the Super Lawyers list?
No more than five percent of the lawyers in Michigan are named to the Super Lawyers list in a given year, and no more than 2.5 percent are named to the Rising Stars list.
What is the difference between Super Lawyers and Rising Stars?
Both lists use the same selection process, but Rising Stars is limited to attorneys who are either 40 years old or younger or in practice ten years or less. Rising Stars also recognizes a smaller share of the bar.
Does a Super Lawyers rating guarantee a result in my case?
No. A rating is a measure of peer recognition and professional achievement, not a prediction. Every case depends on its own facts, the available evidence, and the applicable law.
How long do I have to file a personal injury claim in Michigan?
Most Michigan negligence claims must be filed within three years of the date of injury under MCL 600.5805. Medical malpractice claims generally carry a two-year period under MCL 600.5838a. Claims against governmental defendants and dram shop claims carry shorter notice requirements that can run in a matter of months. Because deadlines and their exceptions can be complicated, it is important to speak with an attorney as soon as possible.
What does it cost to hire a personal injury lawyer at Olsman MacKenzie Peacock?
Nothing up front. We handle personal injury cases on a contingency fee basis, which means there is no fee unless we recover for you. The initial consultation is free.
Talk to a Michigan Personal Injury Lawyer
Our firm holds a first-tier national ranking from U.S. News and World Report in Medical Malpractice Law for plaintiffs, and we have recovered hundreds of millions of dollars for injured Michigan clients across every area we handle. Registered nurses on our staff review medical records in-house on every case we evaluate.
Michigan law puts firm deadlines on injury claims, and evidence can become harder to obtain as time passes. If you were hurt or you lost someone because of another party’s negligence, call us. The consultation is free, and you owe no fee unless we recover for you.
Selections for Super Lawyers and Rising Stars are made by Thomson Reuters. A description of the selection methodology is available at superlawyers.com. Listing in these publications is not a guarantee of results in any particular case.