|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
At twenty-one, recent University of Michigan political science graduate Kyle Dufrane landed a job interview for a paralegal position at a big law firm in the nation’s capital. But he faced two problems. He had no law degree and no money to get to Washington, DC.
Still, the Detroit native and first-generation college student didn’t let those obstacles deter him. He signed up for an American Express card that gave new account holders two free airline tickets and used the perk to get to Jackson & Campbell. The firm’s leaders hired Dufrane as a legal assistant, and his legal career officially began.
Dufrane spent the next two years working under the tutelage of a devoted mentor at Jackson & Campbell. He learned the ins and outs of insurance coverage litigation as he helped partners and paralegals prepare documents, perform research, and manage a caseload. For a young man whose only knowledge of the legal system came from what he saw on TV, it was a foundational experience.
“There’s no TV show about a guy in a room writing contracts,” he jokes. “Working as a legal assistant taught me what it really looks like to be an attorney.”
His hands-on experience convinced Dufrane that he was on the right path. And “working as a legal assistant was a huge advantage because I entered law school knowing the terminology and processes that were foreign to a huge majority of my classmates,” Dufrane says. The head start he had at the University of Detroit Mercy School of Law helped him earn high grades and a scholarship that lowered the cost of law school.
Today, Dufrane serves as senior counsel for complex litigation at General Motors. He took the job in 2021 after logging more than twenty years at Dykema Gossett, where he became a partner. It’s where Dufrane first encountered GM while defending the automaker in product liability matters.
As senior counsel for complex litigation, Dufrane leads a team of twenty-two legal professionals who work on the front lines of litigation for a large nationwide breach of warranty docket. Managing thousands of cases that represent significant exposure to the company gives his position significant visibility all the way up to the C-suite. The team he assembled has reduced per case indemnity spend every year of Dufrane’s tenure.
In 2022, GM leadership asked Dufrane to take on another leading issue. He is now the GM litigator responsible for all litigation matters related to the electric vehicle battery joint venture known as Ultium Cells.
GM’s foray into producing its own batteries and tech platform is a departure from the strategy of other big automakers that get their batteries from numerous suppliers. The famed company is collaborating with LG Energy Solutions to manufacture the EV cells that will meet increasing demand and take GM to a zero-emissions future.
Ultium Cells has plants in Ohio and Tennessee that are up and running. When the Tennessee facility reaches full capacity, the two plants will be capable of supplying the batteries needed to power all GM EVs manufactured for the North American market. Currently, GM vehicles such as the GMC Hummer EV, Cadillac Lyriq and Escalade IQ, Chevrolet Blazer and Equinox EVs, and more all use electric vehicle batteries produced in these facilities.
For a veteran litigator like Dufrane, the events represent yet another opportunity to quickly master a new area of law. “Manufacturing batteries is a big undertaking for a company that makes cars. We usually make the vehicles, not the components,” he says. Like the engineers who designed the battery cells and the factory workers who assemble them, Dufrane and his team had to learn how to spot potential issues and possible problems while applying their skills and knowledge to a new sector of the auto industry.
Even though being a lawyer is nothing like what he saw on TV, the opportunity to learn and develop new skills is part of what keeps Dufrane engaged after more than twenty-seven years. “Every case may not be resolved by a jury and in forty-four minutes as seen on TV, but I get to grow alongside one of the most iconic companies in the history of America,” he explains. And now, he does so on the leading edge of next-gen automotive technology.
While many people go about their days without thinking much about their personal history or career paths, Dufrane has a constant reminder of how he got to where he is. It’s in his wallet. Whenever he needs to make a credit card purchase, Dufrane pulls out his trusty Amex. And each time he tucks it safely away, he reads one well-worn line scrawled in tiny black font on the lower right side: “Member Since ’93.”
