Advocate Law Offices, PLLC
The Advocate Law Offices was founded in 1986 by attorney J. Portko as a outgrowth of the local law firm of Lawson, Marcus & Portko, a Grand Rapids partnership, since 1981. The Advocate Law Offices employs an office manager, Lynn, and a paralegal, Guadalupe, (se habla espanol) plus an intern and a legal secretary to handle almost all types of cases, legal issues, problem
s and litigation. Portko graduated from Grand Valley State University with a B.A. in Economics with high honors and Wayne State University Law School with honors and awards. He has been recognized by the city of Grand Rapids for his ten years of service to the city including as chairman of the GR Tax Assessor’s Board of Review, the International Relations Committee and as president of Grand Rapids Sister Cities, International. He initiated the official Sister-City relationship between Grand Rapids and Bielsko-Biala, Poland. Portko is a member of the State Bar of Michigan, the Grand Rapids Bar Foundation, the Western Michigan Debtor's Bar Association, and the Federalist Society and Acton Institute and Knights of Columbus 4th Degree. Portko was awarded the Gold Cavalier Officer’s Cross of the Order of Merit by L**h Walesa, the President of Poland in 1997. He has worked for the Washington National Opera and the U.S. House of Representatives for the House Judiciary Committee in Washington, D.C. and has served as the President of the Polish Heritage Society, on the Board of Directors of the Pulaski Days Patriotic Committee and as chief legal council to the National Polish Center in Washington. He has also served as trustee of Novi Township, Michigan, elected in 1978. He was awarded the honor for “Outstanding Community Service" by the U.S. Veterans of Foreign Wars in 1989 and proclaimed an honorary member of the Legion of Polish American Veterans, in 1990. He is a member and contributor to the Polish Genealogical Society of Michigan. He raised the funds to erect the GR City Historic Memorial Marker to GR's World Middleweight Boxing Champion, Stanley Ketchel in 1991. Since 1982 he has hosted a live local legal ask the lawyer radio show.