Congratulations to attorney Paul Fransway, pictured above right, who this week received the 2026 Saint Thomas More Award from the Catholic Lawyers Guild of the Diocese of Lansing for distinguished service to the law over the past 40 years.
“I wasn’t sure I should be the recipient. I thought some other people should have been the recipient, but it’s hard not to feel honored by this recognition,” said Mr. Fransway, with characteristic humility, upon receiving his award, October 6.
Paul Fransway received his honor at a dinner, pictured below, following the Catholic Lawyers Guild’s 41st annual Red Mass at Saint Mary Cathedral in Lansing, where Bishop Earl Boyea was the principal celebrant.
In his acceptance remarks, Mr. Fransway encouraged attendees to seek true happiness, which comes not from pleasure or status but from serving others and, ultimately, from pursuing God.
Professionally, Paul Fransway is of counsel in the Ann Arbor office of Dickinson Wright, where he concentrates his practice in franchise, distribution, trademark, and unfair competition law.
Personally, he is a widower, father, and grandfather. He has served Saint Patrick Parish in Brighton as a catechist for 20 years and as a procurator-advocate, and he has been a director of several Catholic nonprofits, including the Spitzer Center, Ave Maria Radio, and Ave Maria College.
“Paul is very humble, but he is also an extraordinary lawyer,” said Dick Thompson, pictured above left, the president and chief counsel of the Ann Arbor-based Thomas More Law Center, who introduced Mr. Fransway at the award dinner.
“He is one of those lawyers who does not use hyperbole but talks about the law as gentlemanly as he can all the time, not only to his clients but also to the other side, and that’s what makes him a great lawyer.”
Mr. Thompson also noted that Mr. Fransway helped incorporate the Thomas More Law Center and has served as its counsel since its founding.
Saint Thomas More was a 16th-century English statesman who served as King Henry VIII’s Lord Chancellor. Rather than compromise the indissolubility of marriage, More resigned his office and refused to deny the Pope’s authority over the Church. He was beheaded on July 6, 1535, and canonized by Pope Pius XI in 1935.
