Court reverses trial judge; changes venue from lawyer's county to client's

Drew, Cooper & Anding represented a group of Osceola County companies in an Oakland County lawsuit that was later transferred to the Federal Court for the Eastern District of Michigan. The attorney-client relationship broke down and the law firm sued for fees in the Circuit Court for Kent County. The clients asked the court to move the case to Osceola County, arguing that it had no contacts in Kent. The attorneys argued that since they were retained in Kent County and all of the litigation-related contacts were in Kent County, the case should go forward in Kent County. The trial judge agreed, but the Court of Appeals reversed. It held that the litigation-related contacts with the lawyers did not constitute "doing business" in Grand Rapids, and that the lawyers would be required to sue the Nartron/Oldnar Corporation defendants on the clients' home turf.