WEST OLIVE, Mich. — The Ottawa County Board of Commissioners began the process of replacing their former corporate counsel at their first meeting of the year on January 3. At Tuesday's meeting, they approved a resolution to fully hire Kallman Legal at a meeting Tuesday.
Kallman Legal Group, a conservative law firm housed out of Lansing, was hired on at $225 an hour on Tuesday.
“I understand that not everybody is going to be happy that we're coming on as counsel, because they may disagree with us on political issues and things like that," attorney David Kallman told FOX 17 Tuesday afternoon.
"But, this really isn't political.”
Kallman made a name for himself and his firm working constitutional cases, as well as lawsuits related to personal and religious freedoms.
A few years ago, he worked with Keith Woods, a Big Rapids man who was charged criminally for passing out pamphlets near a courthouse regarding juror's rights.
Kallman once helped to sue Oakland County to eliminate COVID mask mandates, and also filed a lawsuit on behalf of four Western Michigan University soccer players who had religious objections to the COVID vaccine.
Kallman also represented Owosso barber Karl Manke who the state temporarily shut down due to alleged COVID mandate violations.
“Usually, we're suing the county governments or the school districts or things like that, you know, for various constitutional violations,” Kallman said.
But now they are working on the side of government and school administrators.
Kallman says their firm has taken on new staffers and attorneys to tackle the new load of county and district work, including Lansing attorney Jack Jordan who has experience in municipal law.
“And we have been contacted, there's some other counties around the state... I'm not going to name names right now, but there were a number of changes, there was like a sea change in local politics,” Kallman said Tuesday.
He says a large number of county governments and school districts have been in touch with his firm since November, looking for legal assistance. Some of those entities want to hire the firm for continued counsel.
