Mr. Springer is a 1998 graduate of the University of Michigan Law School. After graduating from Michigan Law, Mr. Springer worked as a litigation associate for a LaSalle Street law firm in Chicago for four years, after which he served as the lead conflicts counsel in Windsor County, Vermont for the State Defender General’s Office for two years. Brad then returned home to Grand Haven in West Michigan in 2004 to rejoin Scholten Fant, the first law firm for which he had clerked while he was in law school. He has been the chair of the firm’s Litigation section since 2007.

Mr. Springer has extensive experience in a range of litigation matters, including commercial litigation, municipal litigation, construction law and litigation, contract disputes, products liability and recalls, will and trust contest litigation, probate litigation, election law litigation, and constitutional litigation. He has also represented various school districts in a broad range of matters. His range of legal experience prompted him to become a court-approved mediator in 2020, having completed his SCAO-approved mediation training in 2019.  In addition to representing clients, Mr. Springer accepts requests to serve as a mediator in disputed matters.

A particular interest of Mr. Springer’s and a focus of his practice is representing individuals in connection with violations of their constitutional civil rights by state actors. Brad has represented individuals in civil rights matters involving violations of the First Amendment, Fourth Amendment, Fifth Amendment, Sixth Amendment, Eighth Amendment, and Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. These constitutional rights include the right to free speech, the right to be free of unreasonable searches and seizures (including unlawful arrest and excessive force), the right to constitutional protections during arrest and investigation, the right to basic needs and protection from harm while detained in jail pre-trial or while incarcerated post-conviction, the right to familial integrity such as during Child Protective Services (CPS) investigations, the right of equal access to community mental health services, and the right to Due Process and Equal Protection.

A federal statute, 42 U.S.C. Section 1983 (often referred to as “Section 1983”), permits an individual to bring a private cause of action to vindicate a deprivation of a constitutional right if the deprivation was caused by a person acting under color of state law (i.e., a government or “state actor”), and Brad has represented numerous individuals in this regard. Brad has represented individuals with cases involving issues of free speech retaliation, police misconduct, deliberate indifference to serious medical needs while in pretrial detention, physical abuse by corrections officers during pretrial detention, failure to protect from harm while incarcerated, and denial of community mental health care services. See, e.g., Carl v. Muskegon County, et al., 763 F.3d 592 (6th Cir. 2014). Brad has served on the Lawyers’ Committee for the West Michigan Branch of the ACLU since 2019.