Cord, Ginger

Elian Fichtner is an associate at Smith Bovill, P.C.  She joined the firm in 2005 as a law clerk and sat for the Michigan Bar Examination in February 2006.  She was admitted to the State Bar of Michigan in 2006, and is pursuing a practice in estate planning, municipal law, personal injury, medical malpractice and civil litigation.

Elian earned her Juris Doctorate in 2005 from Valparaiso University School of Law (VUSL) in Indiana.  In 2004, Elian clerked for the Honorable Judge Lee Preston, Cook County Circuit Court in Chicago, Illinois, and she worked as a summer law clerk at the Detroit law firm Kitch, Drutchas, Wagner, DeNardis & Valitutti, P.C. during 2003 and 2004.

During law school, Elian served as a teaching assistant in the Legal Writing and Research Department.  She volunteered with the IRS sponsored Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) program, providing federal and state individual income tax assistance to low-income and elderly individuals.  During her third year of law school, Elian provided pro bono work at the VUSL Legal Clinic specializing in civil and family law matters.

Elian, a Saginaw native, is a 1997 graduate of Arthur Hill High School.  In 2001, she earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in English with a Spanish minor from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.  Before beginning law school, she worked a year as a legal assistant to a U.S. Bankruptcy Trustee in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

Elian currently lives in Freeland with her husband Joseph Fichtner.