Hon. William J. Giovan
William J. Giovan
Grosse Pointe Farms,
Michigan
Hon. William J. Giovan is a retired chief judge of the Wayne County Circuit Court who serves as a mediator, arbitrator, special master, and visiting judge in civil disputes. He served on the Circuit Court for 33 years from 1976 through 2008, after having served on both the Recorder's Court of Detroit and the Detroit Common Pleas Court. In 1975 the Michigan Supreme Court (MSC) appointed Judge Giovan to the Committee to Review and Consolidate Michigan Court Rules and to the original Committee to Propose Rules of Evidence for Michigan. In 1986 he chaired the MSC's Committee to Evaluate Mediation. In 1999 the MSC appointed him as chair of its Advisory Committee on the Rules of Evidence, whose work resulted in several significant amendments to the rules of evidence. Judge Giovan was a member of the MSC Committee on Standard Civil Jury Instructions from 1982 until 2000 and was appointed chair of the reorganized Committee on Model Civil Jury Instructions in 2003 and served for an additional ten years. He returned to the practice of law for four years in 2009, and during that time he was appointed to the first Wayne County Ethics Board and served as its chair during his three-year term. Judge Giovan has lectured extensively to the bench and bar on matters of evidence and civil procedure to groups such as the National Judicial College, the American Academy of Judicial Education, ICLE, and the Michigan Judicial Institute. He has also written on these matters.
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