Legal People

Quinn Law Group

Quinn Law Group PLLC, an intellectual property law firm in Novi, announced that Matthew R. Mowers has joined the firm as a principal.  Mowers brings more than two decades of intellectual property counseling, procurement and enforcement experience to the firm to further expand Quinn Law Group’s intellectual property legal practice service offerings.

Mowers concentrates his practice on the preparation, prosecution, clearance, licensing and enforcement of U.S. and foreign patents and trademarks.  Mowers joins Quinn Law Group to offer specialized legal and business support to firm clients, including developing and managing global trademark portfolios, pre-litigation counseling and litigation support, intellectual property asset strategy and valuation, formulating joint development and technology agreements and due diligence support for business transactions involving intellectual property.

Mowers previously served in seconded roles as acting chief intellectual property counsel for Jaguar Land Rover and acting intellectual property counsel for the Global Seating Systems Division of Lear Corporation, a Tier I automotive supplier.  Prior to joining the firm, he worked as a partner in the Technology and Intellectual Property Group at Warner, Norcross, & Judd LLP.

Mowers earned a Bachelor of Science in mechanical engineering from GMI Engineering & Management Institute (now Kettering University) and a law degree from the University of Detroit Mercy School of Law. He is admitted to practice law in Michigan, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan, and the U.S. Court of Appeals, and is licensed to practice before the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
Mowers is a commissioner on the City of Northville’s Planning Commission.

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Plunkett Cooney

For the sixth consecutive year, Plunkett Cooney has been ranked as one of the 2016 “Best Law Firms” in the nation by U.S. News and Best Lawyers®.

Four of the firm’s offices received tier-one ratings in multiple practice areas.

Using a tiered rather than a ranked system, Plunkett Cooney was recognized in the following first-tier categories in Metro Detroit:

Appellate Practice

Construction Law

Employment Law - Management

Insurance Law

Labor Law - Management

Litigation - Construction

Personal Injury Litigation - Defendants

Personal Injury Litigation – Plaintiffs

Workers’ Compensation Law - Employers

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Professional Resolution Experts of Michigan (PREMi)

Professional Resolutions Experts of Michigan LLC (PREMi) is pleased to announce that several of its members have been honored by their peers on two lists.

Best Lawyers in America® has named Robert E.L. Wright “Lawyer of the Year” for Alternative Dispute Resolution in the Grand Rapids area. Wright and PREMi’s Richard Hurford have been included on Best Lawyers’ annual list since 2009, and PREMi’s Paul Monicatti has been selected every year since 2005.

Each year, Thomson Reuters names fewer than 5% of the lawyers in Michigan to its yearly list of Super Lawyers®. For 2015, the following PREMi professionals were selected – all have been recognized in multiple years:
Richard Bone (since 2010)

Gene Esshaki (since 2007)

Paul Monicatti (since 2006)

Jerome Rock (since 2014)

Martin Weisman (since 2007)

Robert E.L. Wright (since 2006)

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Dickinson Wright PLLC

Dickinson Wright PLLC is pleased to announce that the firm’s litigation practices and its attorneys were recognized in the 2016 edition of Benchmark Litigation.

Benchmark Litigation recognized Dickinson Wright’s litigation practices in Michigan and Arizona as “Highly Recommended.”

Also recognized in the Benchmark Litigation 2016 Edition are the following local Dickinson Wright lawyers:

Lawrence Campbell – Local Litigation Star

Kathleen Lang – Local Litigation Star

Thomas McNeill – Local Litigation Star

Edward Pappas – Local Litigation Star

Michelle Alamo – Future Star

Geoffrey Fields – Future Star

To learn more about Dickinson Wright’s litigation practice, visit www.dickinsonwright.com.

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Jaffe Raitt Heuer & Weiss, P.C.

Timothy O’Connell has joined Jaffe, Raitt, Heuer, & Weiss PC as an associate in the firm’s Litigation and Aviation practice groups. Jaffe CEO William Sider made the announcement.

As an associate in the firm’s Litigation and Aviation Practice Groups, O’Connell will concentrate his practice on aviation liability claims and litigation, representing airlines, aircraft manufacturers, component manufacturers, owners and operators of commercial, business, and general aviation aircraft, aircraft rental, leasing, and repair facilities, airports, and insurance carriers. In addition, O’Connell will leverage his expertise in complex civil litigation on behalf of Jaffe’s insurance and corporate clients.

Prior to joining Jaffe, O’Connell was an associate for a law firm in Chicago where his practice involved all aspects of complex civil litigation and insurance defense. This includes the defense of airports, government entities, product manufacturers and countless others.

O’Connell is an active member of the American Bar Association, the Illinois State Bar Association, the Chicago Bar Association, the Oakland County Bar Association, and the State Bar of Michigan. He earned his bachelor’s degree from DePaul University, his master’s degree from Northwestern University, and his law degree from Loyola University Chicago School of Law.

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Maddin, Hauser, Wartell, Roth, & Heller P.C.

Southfield-based Maddin, Hauser, Roth, & Heller PC is pleased to announce that shareholder John E. Jacobs was recognized as one of the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Detroit’s 2015 Distinguished Volunteers by the Association of Fundraising Professionals at its National Philanthropy Day Dinner, Nov. 12, at Cobo Center in Detroit.

The announcement was made by the firm’s president and CEO, Steven D. Sallen.

National Philanthropy Day® is a special day set aside to recognize the great contributions of philanthropy — and those people active in the philanthropic community — to the enrichment of our world. More than 30 Southeastern Michigan charities participate each year by recognizing their distinguished volunteers.

Jacobs has devoted himself to the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Detroit in countless ways. He has served on its Board of Governors, Real Estate and Property Management Committee, was co-chair of the Commission on Jewish Eldercare Services, chaired its Community Services Division, and is current co-chair of the Government Relations Oversight Committee and vice chair of JVS.  A past president of Jewish Family Service, he has also served on the boards of the Jewish Community Center of Metropolitan Detroit and Fresh Air Society. He was  also chair of the Michigan Anti-Defamation League and president of Temple Emanu-El.

A shareholder of Maddin, Hauser, Roth, & Heller PC, Jacobs specializes in real estate and other commercial transactions, including the purchase and sale of companies, residential mortgage banking, and finance. He is a graduate of Michigan
State University and the University of Michigan Law School. Jacobs is married to former State Senator Gilda Jacobs, who is currently president and CEO of the Michigan League for Public Policy.

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Miller Canfield

Two Miller Canfield attorneys, Richard Walawender and Justyna (Balcarczyk) Regan, recently addressed a high-profile conference at the Polish Parliament on commercialization of intellectual property.  The conference was organized by the Polish Government, and over 200 people attending from various Polish governmental agencies, universities and research institutes.

Walawender, principal of the firm and leader of its Corporate and Polish Practice Groups, instructed the conference on why universities in the United States are so successful in commercializing the intellectual property rights of their faculty and research staff.  He further explained how the U.S. model could be adopted by Polish universities and research institutes.  Regan, who recently joined Miller Canfield in its Chicago and Wroclaw offices, as she is licensed to practice law in both the United States and Poland, discussed intellectual property law and compared the Polish and U.S. systems.

Until the law was changed last year, Polish universities held all the intellectual property rights to any inventions of its faculty and staff.  A new Polish law now requires Polish universities to share any monetary gains they may earn from commercializing inventions with the faculty members who invented it.  “This will open the door to many more opportunities for Polish inventors to raise venture capital and sell their inventions”, said Walawender.  He added that “The new Polish law mirrors the system used by U.S. universities, which has been very successful.”

Miller Canfield already represents several Polish start-up technology companies raising venture capital and establishing operations in the U.S.  Thanks to the new law, the firm will also be working with Polish universities as they, together with their inventors, seek to commercialize their inventions in the U.S. 

“It is important for Polish companies, especially those in the software industry, to enter the U.S. market,” Regan explained, “because the U.S. is the most important market in which an entrepreneur needs to protect its intellectual property rights.”

Miller Canfield is also expanding its representation of Polish entrepreneurs looking to establish companies in the U.S.  Under a special program offered to select start-ups, the firm provides free legal representation involving incorporation and standard start-up documentation.  In order to encourage them to establish operations in the U.S., the firm is now offering this special program to Polish entrepreneurs born or living in the U.S.  For more information about the special program, visit the firm’s website at millercanfield.com/Polish/startup.

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Honigman Miller Schwartz and Cohn LLP

For the third quarter of 2015, Honigman, Miller, Schwartz, and Cohn LLP was ranked as one of the eighth most active law firms per number of private equity deals in the U.S. middle market by Pitchbook. The Seattle-based company provides proprietary data, analytics and technology to professionals in the private financial markets. According to Pitchbook, over the past few years, the U.S. middle market has become the dominant space for private equity investors.

The Honigman Private Equity Practice Group represents the unique needs of private equity funds in the financing, acquisition, operation and ultimate disposition of their portfolio investments. The firm’s private equity clients include traditional sponsors, family offices and independent sponsors managing billions of dollars. In the 2015 Chambers USA: America’s Leading Lawyers for Business, the publication describes Honigman’s Corporate/M&A practice as a “comprehensive practice with a particular focus on transactional work in the middle market” and “preeminent in the M&A arena and dominant in the state for private equity matters.”

Honigman’s Private Equity group is comprised of more than 40 attorneys with vast experience in mergers and acquisitions, senior and subordinated financing and restructuring, as well as being knowledgeable in tax, executive compensation, the Employee Retirement Investment Security Act (ERISA), real estate and intellectual property. While based in the Midwest, the firm’s Private Equity practice is national in scope.

In addition, Honigman pleased to announce that its partner Michael P. Hindelang will be recognized by Michigan Lawyers Weekly as one of 30 “Up and Coming” attorneys for 2015.

The attorneys will be honored at a luncheon at the Detroit Marriott in Troy on December 17.

Hindelang is a commercial litigator with substantial 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.  He also advises business entities on data security issues, including responding to data breach incidents, and leads privacy litigation matters. Hindelang counsels clients regarding information management issues, including
e-discovery planning and records retention, in both litigation and non-litigation settings. He leads both the Data Security and Privacy Litigation and the eDiscovery and Information Management practice groups

He has been named as a Michigan Super Lawyers “Rising Star” since 2008 and as a DBusiness “Top Lawyer in 2012 and 2015. Hindelang also is a member of Honigman’s board of directors.

He earned a law degree from Wayne State University Law School, an MBA from Wayne State University, and a B.A. in economics from the University of Michigan.

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Rockind Law

Neil Rockind, founder of Southfield-based criminal defense law firm Rockind Law, announces Noel Erinjeri has joined the firm as an associate attorney.

Erinjeri, a criminal defense advocate who has experience in the courtroom, joined Rockind Law from private practice in Livonia, the Law Office of Noel Erinjeri PLLC.
Prior to establishing his own firm, Erinjeri spent five years as an assistant public defender in Fulton, Mo., in the Missouri State Public Defender’s Office.  He was the attorney of record in nearly 1,800 cases, taking each from arraignment to
sentencing, and managing a workload of up to 300 cases at any given time.

Erinjeri received his law degree in May 2008 from the Thomas M. Cooley Law School in Lansing.  While in law school, he  interned at the Washtenaw County Public Defender’s Office in Ann Arbor representing clients in all phases of the criminal justice system.

Erinjeri earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Physics from the University of Michigan. Prior to starting his law career, Erinjeri led instruction at Kaplan Test Preparation in East Lansing teaching classes in biology, chemistry, physics and verbal and logical reasoning to prepare students for the Medical College Admissions Test (MCAT) and Law School Admissions Test (LSAT).

Erinjeri, who was born and raised in Flint, is currently a contributor to “Fault Lines” on Mimesis Law, a website that covers the business, practice and culture of law.  He has authored several posts about the pivotal issues affecting law in courtrooms across the country today.

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Howard & Howard Attorneys PLLC
Howard & Howard Attorneys PLLC is pleased to announce that attorney Evonne Xu has been named to Michigan Lawyers Weekly “Up & Coming Lawyers” Class of 2015.

Xu is a member of the Corporate Advisory Services Practice Group and concentrates her practice in the areas of automotive, manufacturing, technology and international law. She has been successful in uniting and providing legal services to Chinese and U.S. entities involving transactions in intellectual property commercialization, real estate transactions, foreign investments, joint ventures, mergers and acquisitions, and labor and employment. In addition, Xu deals with domestic and international general corporate issues and provides legal opinions for tax matters.

Prior to joining Howard & Howard, Xu’s work experience included working as In-House Counsel at a major Internet company in Shanghai, China and as a practicing lawyer in People’s Court in Ningbo, China.
Xu received her law degrees from Fordham University School of Law in 2012 and Shanghai University School of Law in 2011. She is a board member of the Detroit Chinese Engineers Association.  Xu is licensed to practice in Michigan and
New York as well as in the People’s Republic of China. 

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Hall, Render, Killian, Heath & Lyman, P.C.

Hall, Render, Killian, Heath, & Lyman PC has been named in U.S. News & World Report and Best Lawyers® 2016 “Best Law Firms” rankings. The firm received national first-tier ranking in health care law and metropolitan first-tier rankings in health care law in Colorado, Detroit, Indianapolis, and Milwaukee and in construction law in Louisville.