Fraser Trebilcock attorney Brian T. Gallagher has been appointed to serve as chair of the Employee Benefits Committee of the State Bar of Michigan Taxation Section. The committee is responsible for analyzing new documents in employee benefits law, preparing employee benefits articles for the Michigan Tax Lawyer, and hosting educational and networking programs for employee benefits practitioners across the State of Michigan.
In his practice, Gallagher helps employers navigate the complicated and ever-changing legal landscape of ERISA and the Tax Code. He was named one of the "10 Over the Next Ten" by the Lansing Regional Chamber and Grand River Connection, a "2014 Rising Star in Michigan" by Super Lawyers for Employee Benefits, and one of the "Top 5 Under 35" by the Ingham County Bar Association in 2013.
- - -
Jennifer Grieco, a partner at Neuman Anderson PC, a Birmingham-based business law firm specializing in complex commercial litigation, was sworn in as secretary for the State Bar of Michigan (SBM) for the 2015-2016 bar year at the SBM Annual Meeting on October 8.
Grieco concentrates her practice in the areas of complex commercial litigation, professional malpractice and coverage disputes. Her experience encompasses commercial disputes with a particular emphasis on business tort claims including professional malpractice, contract claims, construction litigation and coverage claims.
In addition to her position with SBM, Grieco serves as a member of the State Bar of Michigan Negligence Council, the American Bar Association, the Oakland County Bar Association, and the Michigan Association for Justice. She earned her undergraduate degree from the University of Toledo and graduated from the University of Toledo College of Law.
- - -
Butzel Long attorney R. Peter Prokop, has been invited to serve as a judge of the University of Michigan Law School's inaugural live transaction competition on October 30. The competition will select the team that will represent UM Law in the LawMeets competition in the next semester.
Prokop's practice, based in the firm's Bloomfield Hills office, includes corporate and commercial law, tax and estate and family business planning. His experience in corporate and partnership taxation, mergers and acquisitions, loan negotiations and compensation planning matters is valuable to privately-held business clients. As a result of his relationships with client advisors, he also has been able to assist accounting and law firms in their internal matters including acquisitions of other practices and development of internal policies and agreements. He has a strong interest and expertise in family business succession planning. He is a CPA as well as an attorney.
He is a member of the American Bar Association Task Force on Joint Venture Agreements (Editorial Committee, Model Joint Venture Agreement), Taxation Section, Business Law Section (Negotiated Acquisitions Committee), and Probate and Real Property Law Section and related sections of the State Bar of Michigan. Prokop is a former director of the Great Lakes Entrepreneur Quest and a Trustee of Loyola High School (Detroit).
Prokop has more than 40 years of federal tax experience. He and the Butzel Long Tax Group represent a number of non-profit, tax-exempt entities from a corporate governance and tax perspective. Included within the entities represented are hospitals and hospital-related foundations; privately funded schools; colleges and universities; and private foundations funded by individuals and families.
Prokop graduated from the University of Michigan Law School and the University of Detroit.
- - -
Honigman is pleased to announce that the firm has re-elected David Foltyn as its chair and CEO, a position he has held since 2008. Alan S. Schwartz was re-elected as the firm's vice chair, a position he has held since 2008. Schwartz served as Honigman's chair and CEO from 2003 to 2007. Both of their terms now extend to December 31, 2020.
In addition, Michael DuBay, Michael Hindelang, Jason Rosenthal, and Linda Wasserman have been elected to the firm's board of directors.
Foltyn, located in Honigman's Detroit office, counsels publicly and privately held businesses, boards of directors, and financial service firms in corporate mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, financial transactions, public offerings and private placements of securities and debt. He also advises clients on applicable state and federal corporate governance laws.
Schwartz, located in Honigman's Detroit office, advises family owned businesses on general business matters and succession planning; represents clients in acquisitions and dispositions; counsels companies regarding corporate governance, as well as state and federal compliance issues; and serves as general counsel to a number of the area's most prominent family businesses and other private companies.
DuBay, located in Honigman's Detroit office, is a leader of the firm's Private Equity Practice Group. He represents the needs of traditional private equity and venture capital sponsors, family offices and independent sponsors in their acquisition, financing, investment and disposition activities.
Hindelang, located in Honigman's Detroit office, is leader of the firm's Data Security and Privacy Litigation and its eDiscovery and Information Management practice groups. He is a commercial litigator with experience in the securities, corporate governance and corporate investigations arenas and in high-stakes cases where significant monetary amounts or prominent reputations have been implicated. Hindelang also advises business entities on data security issues, including responding to data breach incidents, and leads privacy litigation matters.
Rosenthal, located in Honigman's Chicago office, represents businesses in complex litigation with a particular emphasis on insurance recovery litigation and counseling. He will continue to serve the firm as its Chicago office managing partner.
Wasserman, located in the firm's Bloomfield Hills office, provides personalized and sophisticated estate planning and family wealth succession planning for high and ultra-high net worth individuals and families, focusing on tax planning in the context of accomplishing each family's unique goals.
Honigman also announces that John L. Mack has joined the firm as an associate in the Litigation Department. He will be located in the Detroit office.
Mack will assist with complex commercial litigation matters, including internal investigations and criminal defense matters. He comes to Honigman from the Chicago office of Jenner & Block. During law school, he served as an intern for the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Illinois. Mack is admitted to practice in Illinois and is applying for admission to practice in Michigan.
He earned a law degree from Northwestern University School of Law. He received a B.A. from Princeton University.
- - -
The fourth edition of a popular American Bar Association (ABA) book on civil rights law was recently released and includes important contributions by three attorneys from Plunkett Cooney.
Mary Massaron, a partner and the Appellate Law Practice Group leader at Plunkett Cooney, served as co-editor of the book, which examines civil rights laws and the federal statute 42 USC § 1983. Also contributing three chapters to "Sword and Shield: A Practical Approach to Section 1983 Litigation" are Plunkett Cooney partner Michael S. Bogren, attorney Rhonda R. Stowers, and Massaron. Attorney Edwin P. Voss Jr. also serves as co-editor.
"This treatise offers a practical resource for those handling civil rights cases at the trial and appellate levels," said Massaron. "Past editions have been regularly cited by parties to litigation as a persuasive authority in support of their position on appeal."
"Sword and Shield" offers a comprehensive review of the fundamentals and procedures of 42 U.S.C. Section 1983 litigation in state and federal courts and contains expert analysis regarding every issue that might be faced in such cases. Bogren, a member of Plunkett Cooney's Board of Directors and Governmental Law Practice Group, wrote two chapters, including Chapter 4: "Municipal Liability Under 42 USC 1983" and Chapter 5: "Attorneys' Fees in Section 1983 Litigation." Massaron and Stowers authored Chapter 6: "The Constitutional Rights of Public Employees."
A member of the firm's Bloomfield Hills office, Massaron served as president of the DRI in 2012 to 2013. She is a past chair of the Appellate Practice Section of the State Bar of Michigan, DRI's Appellate Advocacy Committee, and the American Bar Association's (ABA) Council of Appellate Lawyers, a division of the Appellate Judges Conference. A member of the American Academy of Appellate Lawyers, Massaron co-chairs the Michigan Appellate Bench Bar Conference Foundation, an organization of Michigan appellate judges and lawyers. She has an appellate practice on behalf of public and private clients including in state and federal courts around the country.
Bogren, who is the managing partner of Plunkett Cooney's Kalamazoo office, has experience representing municipalities in both state and federal courts in civil rights cases, police liability claims, first amendment law, due process claims, Open Meetings Act claims, FOIA claims, zoning matters and employment litigation. He is a member of the Kalamazoo County and American bar associations, as well as the Public Corporation Section of the State Bar of Michigan. Bogren is also a member of the International Municipal Lawyers Association, the Association of Governmental Risk Pools and the DRI - The Voice of the Defense Bar.
An attorney in the firm's Flint office, Stowers focuses her practice in the areas of general litigation, governmental law and title insurance law. Her governmental law practice includes advising and defending municipalities on a wide range of topics, including the Freedom of Information Act, the Open Meetings Act, federal and state constitutions, civil rights, zoning law, charter amendments, ordinance drafting, and employment-related issues. Stowers is a member of the Genesee County Bar Association, the State Bar of Michigan and the Michigan Association of Municipal Attorneys.
In addition, Michigan Super Lawyers magazine recently named 28 attorneys from Plunkett Cooney to its 2015 list of "Super Lawyers."
Two Plunkett Cooney partners received special recognition by the magazine. For the ninth consecutive year, Mary Massaron, Plunkett Cooney's Appellate Law Practice Group leader, was included among the state's top 100 attorneys and the top 50 women lawyers. D. Jennifer Andreou, the firm's Medical Liability Practice Group Leader, was also listed among the state's top 50 women lawyers.
Below is a list of local Plunkett Cooney's partners who have received the 2015 Michigan Super Lawyer designation:
Bloomfield Hills office members:
-Michael P. Ashcraft Jr. Professional Liability: Defense.
- Douglas C. Bernstein Bankruptcy.
- Charles W. Browning Insurance Coverage (10th year on Super Lawyers list).
- Henry B. Cooney Civil Litigation Defense (10th year on Super Lawyers list).
- Lawrence R. Donaldson Alternative Dispute Resolution (10th year on Super Lawyers list).
- Jeffrey C. Gerish Appellate.
- Robert G. Kamenec Appellate (10th year on Super Lawyers list).
- Mark S. Kopson Health Care.
- Theresa Smith Lloyd Employment Litigation Defense (10th year on Super Lawyers list).
- Stanley C. Moore III Employment & Labor (10th year on Super Lawyers list).
- Kenneth C. Newa Insurance Coverage.
- Anthony J. Rusciano Business Litigation.
- Scott H. Sirich Construction Litigation.
- Thomas P. Vincent Professional Liability: Defense.
- Michael D. Weaver Employment Litigation Defense.
Detroit office members:
- Loretta M. Ames Personal Injury Defense: General.
- D. Jennifer Andreou Personal Injury Defense: Medical Malpractice.
- James R. Geroux Workers' Compensation.
- Stanley A. Prokop Insurance Coverage.
- Mary Catherine Rentz Insurance Coverage (10th year on Super Lawyers list).
- Matthew J. Stanczyk Personal Injury Defense: Products.
Mount Clemens office member:
- Peter W. Peacock Government.
- - -
Maddin, Hauser, Roth, & Heller PC is pleased to announce that shareholder Alexander G. Domenicucci has been elected vice chair of the Taxation Section of the State Bar of Michigan and appointed chair of the Tax Committee of the Oakland County Bar Association (OCBA).
The announcement was made by firm President and CEO Steven D. Sallen.
In his role as vice chair of the State Bar of Michigan's Taxation Section, Domenicucci will be positioned to lead tax practitioners and educate the public to help achieve an equitable, efficient, and workable tax system. As chair of the OCBA's Tax Committee, he will lead monthly meetings discussing current developments in federal and state tax law, and lead efforts to educate members of the OCBA in that area.
A shareholder of the firm, Domenicucci specializes in the areas of federal and state taxation, counseling businesses and individuals on a wide range of transactional, planning, and controversy matters.
Domenicucci advises clients on complex business transactions including mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, cross-border transactions, real estate syndications, and tax credit transactions. In addition to counseling clients on transactional matters, Domenicucci assists public companies, closely-held businesses, entrepreneurs, and wealthy individuals with general tax planning, advising them of ways to structure their business affairs so as to minimize taxes and reduce potential tax exposure. He also handles audit and controversy matters and advises clients on the reporting of tax positions, serving as a resource on highly technical matters.
Domenicucci is a graduate of Wayne State University Law School.
- - -
Oakland County Circuit Court Chief Judge Nanci Grant was selected as an honoree of News/Talk 760 WJR's 2015 Class of "Women Who Lead." This program spotlights women across the Great Lakes Region who are leaders in their community and who are making a difference in people's lives.
WJR-AM 760's morning host, Paul W. Smith, recently interviewed Grant on-air about her accomplishments, in particular about founding the state's first Combat Veterans' Treatment Court, which Grant founded in 2013, and her passion to help those citizens who placed themselves in harm's way to protect our freedoms
Grant joined the Circuit Court bench in 1996 and is in her third consecutive term as chief judge.
She has served in several capacities, including president and chairperson, with the Michigan Judges Association and the Michigan Judicial Tenure Commission. Outside of the court, Grant serves on the Oakland County Coordinating Council Against Domestic Violence, is active with the Women's Law Caucus of Wayne State University, and volunteers her time with the Oakland County Youth in Government program.
- - -
Bowman and Brooke LLP is pleased to announce that it has been named to The BTI Consulting Group's 2016 "Honor Roll of Most Feared Law Firms." This is the third consecutive year in which BTI bestowed the firm with this honor.
BTI, an independent research group, studies how general counsel acquire, manage, and evaluate their law firms. The "most feared" firms were identified by corporate counsel and included in BTI's Litigation Outlook 2016. Research conducted by BTI depicts a large increase in bet-the-company work, prompting clients to seek out more fearsome firms.
Bowman and Brooke LLP, a nationally recognized trial firm with one of the largest product liability practices in the country, has offices in Minneapolis, Phoenix, Detroit, San Jose, Los Angeles, Richmond, Columbia, Dallas, Austin and San Diego.
Published: Mon, Oct 26, 2015