Warner, Norcross, & Judd LLP
Warner, Norcross, & Judd LLP recently announced that Katherine L. Pullen has been named a partner.
Pullen focuses her practice on complex commercial litigation, including class actions, trademark and copyright infringement cases, as well as automotive and healthcare litigation. She practices in the firm's Southfield office.
Pullen was recognized as a Michigan Super Lawyer Rising Star in 2016 and 2017, and is a member of the Federal Bar Association, State Bar of Michigan and Oakland County Bar Association. She is a member of Inforum and a graduate of its Executive Leadership Program and is currently participating in Leadership Oakland. She also serves as legal counsel for two OESA councils, volunteers on a committee for Alternatives for Girls and is a member of the Detroit Economic Club.
Pullen earned a bachelor of science from Michigan State University and her law degree from the University of Michigan Law School.
-----
Walsh College
Walsh College has named faculty member Richard Davidson to serve as the Taxation and Business Law department chair.
Marsha Kelliher, Walsh College president and CEO, made the announcement.
As chair of the academic departments, Davidson will be responsible for departmental activities, including managing faculty and staff, serving as the departmental representative to external stakeholders and advocating for the department to ensure the quality of programs and instruction.
Davidson is a practicing attorney who became a full-time faculty member two years ago. Before becoming an instructor, Davidson was senior tax counsel for FCA US, where he managed their federal tax controversy area and provided transactional guidance to FCA corporate staff.
-----
Honigman Miller Schwartz and Cohn LLP
Honigman, Miller, Schwartz, and Cohn LLP is pleased to announce that the firm's board of directors has elected the following local attorneys as partners, effective January 1, 2018.
Becky Friedrick Glitman (Detroit) is a member of the Corporate department and the Health Care practice group. Her practice focuses on assisting healthcare clients with day-to-day compliance matters, business transactions, and mergers and acquisitions. Glitman received her law degree from the University of Notre Dame Law School.
Grant Griffith (Bloomfield Hills) is a member of the Intellectual Property department and the Patent practice group. He concentrates his practice on patent prosecution and opinions in the areas of distributed storage systems (hardware and software), cloud computing, internet applications, electronics, cellular and optical networks, robotics, automotive, software, mechanical and electromechanical engineering, and apparel. He received his law degree from Western Michigan University Cooley Law School.
Mary Hennessey (Detroit) is a member of the Corporate department and Tax practice group. She advises clients on corporate and partnership taxation matters, including mergers and acquisitions, federal taxation of real estate transactions, entity structuring, income tax planning, and tax-exempt entities. Hennessey received her law degree from Wayne State University Law School.
Jessica Herron (Detroit) is a member of the Corporate department and the Securities and Corporate Governance practice group. She represents clients in mergers, acquisitions, financings, transactional matters, private and public securities offerings, and compliance and disclosure under Securities and Exchange Commission rules and listing standards. Herron earned her law degree from Michigan State University College of Law.
Paul Mardirosian (Detroit) is a member of the Real Estate department. He represents local and national developers, owners, and operators in real estate acquisitions, dispositions, financings, development and land use issues, organizational structuring, leasing, and other related matters. Mardirosian received his law degree from Wayne State University Law School and earned an M.A. in urban planning from Wayne State University.
Nick Pedersen (Detroit) is a member of the Corporate department. His practice focuses on mergers and acquisitions, private equity, securities transactions, and general corporate matters. Pederson received his law degree from the University of Michigan Law School.
Ryan Peruski (Detroit) is a member of the Insurance department. His practice focuses on captive insurance arrangements, cross-border transactions, tax controversies, and state and local tax planning matters. Peruski received his law degree from Michigan State University College of Law.
Grace Trueman (Bloomfield Hills) is a member of the Corporate department and the Trusts and Estates practice group. She focuses her practice on a spectrum of matters concerning nonprofit organizations, estate planning, and charitable giving. Her clients include: private individuals as well as public charities, nonprofits, and corporate trustees. Trueman received her law degree from the University of Detroit Mercy School of Law.
Adam Wenner (Detroit) is a member of the Litigation department. His practice focuses on a wide-array of complex litigation matters including class actions, securities fraud, and FINRA arbitrations. Wenner received his law degree from the University of Detroit Mercy School of Law, and clerked for two judges in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan.
-----
Shumaker, Loop & Kendrick, LLP
Shumaker, Loop, & Kendrick LLP, a full-service business law firm, is expanding into the Michigan market through a combination with the Miller IP Group PLC.
The Miller IP Group specialized in preparing and prosecuting patent applications, with significant experience for inventions relating to highly technical subject matters in the electrical and mechanical arts. Located at 42690 Woodward Ave., suite 300, in Bloomfield Hills, Shumaker, Loop, & Kendrick will take over half of the third floor in the current 3,000-square-foot space.
John Miller, an attorney that specializes in preparing and prosecuting patent applications for inventions, will continue to manage the Bloomfield Hills-based office as a partner with Shumaker, Loop & Kendrick. Michael Marra, a patent agent, previously worked at the Miller IP Group to complement and work alongside the firm's attorneys.
Miller's background also includes client counseling, drafting various intellectual property opinions, including patentability, freedom-to-practice and validity and non-infringement opinions. He routinely practices before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Miller is a member of the State Bar of Michigan and the Michigan Patent Law Association.
Prior to his career in law, Miller was a patent examiner with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, where he examined hundreds of patent applications for inventions relating to mass spectrometers, electron microscopes, ion implantation devices and many other technologies in the radiant energy classification.
The Michigan native earned a bachelor's degree in industrial technology from Eastern Michigan University and a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from the University of Michigan. He received his law degree from Wayne State University Law School.
"This combination creates the additional resources and support of a larger firm that will further benefit our current clients as they expand and grow within their respective industries while also ensuring the continued high-quality service they have come to expect," said Miller. "In the future, we look forward to expanding our size, reach and areas of representation, such as litigation and various other disciplines."
Marra prepares and prosecutes patent applications for inventions in a wide range of subject matter areas, including mechanical, aerospace, electrical, electronic, autonomous and other vehicle control systems, fuel cells, business processes and computer algorithms and software. He is licensed to practice before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office in patent cases and is a member of the Michigan Intellectual Property Law Association.
Before becoming a patent agent, Marra worked as an engineer in the automotive industry for over 20 years, where he designed and analyzed chassis, body and powertrain systems for vehicles. He received a bachelor's degree and a master's degree in mechanical engineering from the Missouri University of Science and Technology.
-----
Kerr Russell
Kerr Russell is pleased to announce that Robert S. Anderson, immigration law, and Kenneth R. Lombardo, corporate law, have been selected to become members (partners) of the firm, effective January 1.
Anderson has experience in the areas of employment-based immigration and the representation of local, national, and international companies in obtaining authorization for employees to work permanently or temporarily in the United States.
Anderson counsels and represents clients in the full spectrum of immigration legal issues as applied to their workforces and staff, including all aspects of the international movement of personnel (inbound and outbound work authorization status); formulating and implementing short-and/or long-term employment plans; obtaining appropriate immigrant (EB-1, EB-2, EB-3) and non-immigrant (H-1B, L-1, E-1 and E-2, O-1, P-1, R-1, TN) employment classifications; managing the Permanent Labor Certification Program (PERM); advising on immigration compliance including Forms I-9, E-Verify and LCA files; and obtaining temporary visitor and work visas for employment in foreign countries. Robert also conducts internal immigration audits and in-house training.
Anderson works with a wide range of companies, including Fortune 500 corporations, non-profit organizations, and start-up enterprises in a variety of industries, including biotechnology, pharmaceutical, healthcare, automotive, beverage, tier-one and tier-two suppliers, engineering, and information technology, among others.
Prior to joining Kerr Russell, Anderson served as a senior attorney in the Immigration Law Practice of Miller Canfield. Previously, he was the managing member of Robert S. Anderson & Associates, a law firm focused on immigration; and was previously associated with a regional immigration law practice. He earned law degrees from Western Michigan University Cooley Law School and Wayne State University Law School. His undergraduate degree is from Michigan State University.
Lombardo has more than 20 years of experience in all aspects of corporate and business law. He focuses primarily on mergers and acquisitions, business law, federal and state securities law, taxation and estate planning.
Lombardo's corporate and business law practice includes choice of entity and business formation, shareholder voting and buy-sell agreements, asset and stock sales, mergers, recapitalizations, joint venture agreements, joint development agreements, license agreements, corporate governance, regulatory compliance, and public and private equity and debt capital raising transactions.
Prior to joining the firm, Lombardo served for ten years as general counsel for a Nasdaq listed public company involved primarily in the automotive, trucking, and alternative energy sectors, and was also a member of the company's executive management team. As general counsel, Lombardo was responsible for ensuring the company's compliance with all aspects of the company's legal affairs.
Lombardo is also a Certified Public Accountant (Fellow) and, before beginning his law career, spent six years in the audit and tax departments at Deloitte & Touche. He earned a law degree from Wayne State University Law School, and his undergraduate degree is from Central Michigan University.
-----
Butzel Long
Butzel Long attorney and shareholder Jennifer Dukarski has attained the distinction of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) senior member status, the highest grade for which IEEE members can apply. To be eligible for application or nomination, candidates must be engineers, scientists, educators, technical executives, or originators in IEEE-designated fields. Senior members must be in professional practice for at least ten years and show significant performance over a period of at least five of their years in professional practice.
Dukarski focuses her practice at the intersection of technology and communications with an emphasis on emerging and disruptive issues: digital media, cybersecurity, infotainment, vehicle safety and connected and autonomous cars.
In her practice, she has negotiated contracts for autonomous vehicle components, reviewed contracts involving wireless updates to in-vehicle technology, assisted companies in achieving successful Petitions for Inconsequential Noncompliance with NHTSA and has addressed multiple vehicle component recalls. Dukarski has become a national leader in legal issues facing emerging automotive technology and is the leader of Butzel Long's connected car working group. She also has spearheaded the reporting efforts for two national data breaches and focuses on the threat vectors facing automotive component design.
A self-titled "recovering engineer," Dukarski serves as counsel to the OESA's Product Development Council and has spoken on First Amendment issues ranging from newsgathering in the digital age to the impact of the FBI iPhone strategy. She has been a panelist at the North American International Auto Show for the last two years, covering a broad variety of legal concerns focused on the autonomous and connected car. She has appeared on several television programs, including Autoline and AutoBeat, and in many print interviews (including CIO Magazine, PC World, Bridge Magazine, Computer World and Automotive News) discussing automotive technology and its related legal issues.
Prior to joining Butzel, she gained automotive manufacturing and design experience as a result of high-level quality management and engineering positions. She has worked extensively on successful automotive product launches, managing vendors and Tier One manufacturing facilities. A Six Sigma Master Black Belt, she applies her experience to create innovative approaches to the protection of IP assets and disruptive technology.
Dukarski has experience with field recalls and was a representative to the University of Michigan's CIREN (Crash Injury Research & Engineering Network) and UMPIRE (University of Michigan Program for Injury Research and Education). Working as a design engineer, she received multiple Record of Invention Awards for contributions to patents and trade secrets.
Further, she was named a "2016 Honoree for Michigan Women in the Law" by Michigan Lawyers Weekly. She also is among Michigan Super Lawyers "Rising Stars" and DBusiness "Top Lawyers." She is a member of the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). She is the IEEE Southeastern Michigan Vehicle Technology Society Treasurer and serves as a Working Group member with IEEE PAR 1912 (Privacy and Security Architecture for Consumer Wireless Devices) which is focused on setting standards for privacy and security protocols. She also coaches and mentors' women engineers.
She is a co-chair of the Women in Communication Law committee of the American Bar Association's (ABA) Forum on Communications Law and serves on the Forum's Governing Committee. Dukarski is an adjunct professor in the Paralegal Program, teaching Intellectual Property at Baker College.
She is a graduate of the University of Detroit Mercy School of Law (2010). She's also a graduate of the University of Detroit Mercy College of Engineering and Science (1996).
Published: Mon, Jan 08, 2018
