Varnum partner Perrin Rynders has been recognized in Michigan Lawyers Weekly’s Hall of Fame Class of 2026. The award honors Michigan’s legal leaders with more than 30 years of experience and recognizes their successful careers and contributions to the community.
Rynders is an accomplished first-chair trial lawyer and leader of the Litigation and Trial Practice Team at Varnum. He specializes in high stakes claims and disputes, typically with many millions of dollars at stake. With extensive courtroom experience, he has conducted more than 40 jury and bench trials in both federal and state courts across the nation and has handled contested cases before arbitration panels and administrative tribunals.
For more than a decade, Rynders has been recognized for his leadership in some of Michigan’s most high-profile commercial and environmental litigation matters. He led the Varnum team representing more than 200 companies in a series of ERISA cases against the state’s largest health care claims administrator, the first of which secured a $6 million judgment that was unanimously affirmed by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit.
Rynders also represented more than 500 Rockford-area residents in 250 lawsuits against shoemaker Wolverine Worldwide and multinational chemical manufacturer 3M. The litigation arose from decades-old PFAS contamination of drinking water and involved claims related to exposure-associated illnesses, including multiple cancers, as well as property value loss.
Beyond his legal practice, Rynders is actively involved in professional organizations at the local, state, and national levels. His memberships include the American Bar Association, where he participates in the Business Law, Litigation, and Tort Trial and Insurance Practice sections, including as chair of the Trial Techniques and Ethics & Professionalism committees. He is also an active member of the Federal Bar Association for the Western District of Michigan, the Grand Rapids Bar Association, and the State Bar of Michigan.
Rynders has received widespread recognition for his trial and litigation accomplishments. He is a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers (ACTL), a preeminent organization of trial lawyers in North America. Fellowship is limited to lawyers who are widely regarded as the best in their state or province, comprising less than one percent of the total lawyer population.
Beyond his ACTL fellowship, Rynders is a member of the American Board of Trial Advocates and a Senior Fellow of the Litigation Counsel of America, and he holds a Martindale-Hubbell® AV Preeminent™ Peer Review Rating. He has been a Michigan Super Lawyers® honoree since 2011 and has been named by The Best Lawyers in America® for Commercial Litigation, ERISA Litigation, and Labor and Employment Litigation since 2013, with additional acknowledgment for Bet-the-Company Litigation in 2024. His accolades also include Grand Rapids Business Journal’s Newsmaker of the Year – Law, as well as consistent recognition by Grand Rapids Magazine and Leading Lawyers for his commercial litigation work.
Rynders and other Hall of Fame honorees will be recognized at a luncheon on March 27 and profiled in a special section of Michigan Lawyers Weekly.
