On March 6, 2008, Melvin Butch Hollowell was appointed by Governor Jennifer M. Granholm as Michigan’s first Automobile and Home Insurance Consumer Advocate. Mr. Hollowell, 48, is an attorney with national expertise in consumer, civil rights, and election law.

He began working on the issue of automobile insurance affordability and reform in 1986 as Chairman of the Detroit NAACP’s Auto Insurance Task Force. In this capacity he conferred with state legislators from both parties, and successive Insurance Commissioners, in offering recommendations for improvements to the system. Mr. Hollowell was the spokesman for a coalition of consumer groups organized to defeat state-wide ballot proposals “C” and “D,” which would have allowed insurance companies to raise rates even higher. He has been a featured presenter at consumer and industry forums across Michigan, and in other states, on insurance reform. And he has testified before the Michigan Senate Commerce Committee, and the Maryland Senate Finance Committee, on this issue.

Mr. Hollowell formerly served as General Counsel to the Detroit NAACP, and he has written and lectured around the country in the civil rights field. The Thurgood Marshall Law School at Texas Southern University, Law Review, will publish his analysis of equality of opportunity law in its Fall 2008 issue. For his work in the field of civil rights law, Mr. Hollowell received the Wolverine Bar Association’s 2008 “President’s Award,” the association’s highest honor.

In 2000, Mr. Hollowell served as counsel to Vice President Al Gore in the presidential recount. He is a former Chairman of the Michigan Democratic Party.

Mr. Hollowell is a graduate of the University of Virginia School of Law (J.D. 1984), Albion College (B.A. 1981; Gerald R. Ford Institute for Public Service), and the University of Detroit Jesuit High School and Academy (Diploma, 1977). He is a member of the U.S. Supreme Court Bar, a Life Member of the U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals Judicial Conference, and the Michigan State Bar Association.

Mr. Hollowell has traveled widely, is an avid tennis player, and loves to play his acoustic guitar.

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