Legal People

Warner, Norcross, & Judd LLP

Alan T. Rogalski, a partner with the law firm Warner, Norcross, & Judd LLP, was named a Fellow of the State Bar of Michigan Health Care Law Section at a recent event.

The Fellows program recognizes individuals who have made continuing and outstanding contributions to the section and are generally considered as top health care attorneys in Michigan. Rogalski, who co-chairs Warner’s Health Law Group, was recognized for his nearly three decades of experience in counseling physicians, hospitals, health plans, pharmacies, universities and other healthcare providers.

A licensed clinical pharmacist, Rogalski has experience with the defense of federal and state fraud and anti-kickback investigations, drug enforcement investigations, federal and state false claims act investigations, the Stark Law, corporate compliance and corporate integrity agreements, licensing and regulatory matters, and health care business formations and contracts. He practices in the firm’s Southfield office.

Rogalski has been named to Best Lawyers in America each year since 2005 and was the Detroit Health Care Lawyer of the Year in 2017. He is consistently listed as a Top Lawyer by DBusiness, a Michigan Super Lawyer and was named one of the Best Lawyers in Detroit by Hour Media.

Active professionally, Rogalski is a member of American Health Lawyers Association and Michigan Pharmacists Association. He is a Fellow of the American Society of Pharmacy Law and Michigan State Bar Foundation and a member of the State Bar of Michigan and the American Bar Association. He also served on the American Dental Association Commission on Dental Accreditation. 

Rogalski earned a bachelor of science in pharmacy from Wayne State University College of Pharmacy and a law degree from the University of Detroit Mercy School of Law. He is a graduate of Leadership Detroit and is an adjunct professor at the Wayne State University Eugene Applebaum College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences.

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Maddin, Hauser, Roth, & Heller PC

Maddin, Hauser, Roth, & Heller PC is pleased to announce that R.J. Cronkhite has been elected to the Fellows of the American Bar Foundation.

Established in 1955, the Fellows of the American Bar Foundation is an honorary society of attorneys, judges, law faculty and legal scholars whose public and private careers have demonstrated outstanding dedication to the highest principles of the legal profession and to the welfare of their communities. Members are nominated by their peers, elected by the Board of the American Bar Foundation and limited to one percent of lawyers licensed to practice in each jurisdiction.

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

An associate in the firm’s Complex & General Litigation Practice Group, Cronkhite specializes in technology disputes, corporate governance litigation and competition law, including non-compete enforcement. In addition to his legal practice, Cronkhite is a board member of the Southfield Area Rotary Club and serves as Secretary of the State Bar of Michigan Litigation Section Governing Council.

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McKeen & Associates PC

The national legal rating service Super Lawyers recognized several McKeen & Associates attorneys to its 2018 Super Lawyers lists.

Brian McKeen, founder and managing partner of McKeen & Associates, was named to the 2018 Top 10 Michigan Super Lawyers and Top 5 Michigan Consumer Super Lawyers.

McKeen & Associates attorneys Richard Counsman, Terry Dawes, and Norman Rosen were recognized as Top Rated Medical Malpractice Attorneys and David Tirella was named a Top Rated Personal Injury Attorney. Andrew Kay, Kenneth Lee, and Erik Proulx were named to the Super Lawyers Rising Stars list.

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Pitt, McGehee, Palmer, & Rivers

Royal Oak attorney Michael Pitt was recently inducted into Wayne State University Law School’s Alumni Wall of Fame. Pitt is co-founding partner of Pitt, McGehee, Palmer, & Rivers, one of the state’s largest civil and employment rights law firms.

The Wayne Law Alumni Wall of Fame Award is the highest honor presented by the law school. It is awarded to alumni who have distinguished themselves by contributions they have made in their own field or work in the betterment of humanity, or to former faculty and staff who’ve had a significant impact on the law school.

Pitt’s firm currently represents Flint residents in high profile class action lawsuits arising from dangerous levels of lead-tainted water in the city’s municipal water system; thousands of state residents wrongly accused of benefits fraud by the Michigan Unemployment Insurance Agency; 21 survivors of Larry Nassar sexual assaults; and hundreds of current and former male prisoners who, as minors, were raped and sexually-assaulted by adult male inmates when they were housed together in Michigan state prisons.

Pitt is currently serving a one-year term as president of Public Justice, a Washington, D.C.-based public interest law firm which uses high impact litigation to accomplish social justice objectives.

In addition, the State Bar of Michigan has selected Pitt for its Champion of Justice and Distinguished Service awards. He has also been named to Leaders in the Law by Michigan Lawyers Weekly and named a Champion of Justice by the Michigan Association of Justice.

Pitt is a graduate of Wayne State University Law School and Michigan State University.

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The Law Firm of  John F. Schaefer

The national legal rating service Super Lawyers recognized John F. Schaefer, founder of The Law Firm of John F. Schaefer as a Top Rated Family Law Attorney. This will be his 13th consecutive year for this distinction. Schaefer was also included in its Top 50 Consumer Michigan Super Lawyers list.

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Butzel Long

Butzel Long attorney and shareholder David F. DuMouchel, who chairs the firm’s Corporate Compliance, Internal Investigation and Criminal Defense practice, will serve as a panelist during the 2018 Midwest Securities Law Institute Course at Michigan State University College of Law on October 12. He will participate in a panel presentation titled, “SEC Enforcement. Update.”

DuMouchel’s practice is limited to white collar criminal defense, defense of corporations and individuals in criminal and civil antitrust matters, professional licensure and criminal health care, IRS investigations of both taxpayers and professionals, SEC enforcement of corporate executives fraud, public corruption, as well as grand jury investigations, internal corporate investigations and compliance.

DuMouchel was recently elected to the first Board of Directors of the Federal Community Defender of Eastern District of Michigan.

DuMouchel is a recipient of the Leonard Gilman Award from the Federal Bar Association as the outstanding criminal law practitioner in the Eastern District of Michigan. He has been named by Best Lawyers as the “2010 Detroit Criminal Defense: White-Collar Lawyer of the Year.” Only a single lawyer in each specialty in each community is honored as the “Lawyer of the Year.” Notably, he has been listed in each edition of Best Lawyers in America since that publication began more than 30 years ago, including the most recent. Last year, and this,  he was one of two Michigan attorneys ranked Tier One in White Collar Crime & Investigations by Chambers USA—The Client’s Guide. DuMouchel also has been recognized as one of the Top 10 Lawyers in the state of Michigan by DBusiness magazine and he’s also listed in Michigan Super Lawyers.

He has served as a member of the Rules Advisory Committee, U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Michigan, and was a member of the U.S. District Court Committee on Magistrate Program Evaluation, and chaired the Federal Bar Association Criminal Defense Committee.

He was a member of the Advisory Committee which drafted the Restatement of Law Governing Lawyers of the American Law Institute, and is on the Member’s Consultative Group of the ALI Model Penal Code Sentencing Project.

In addition, he is a member of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers and was a director in 1981. He is a Master of Bench emeritus, American Inn of Court Ch. XI. He is a Fellow of the American Bar Foundation and the Michigan State Bar Foundation, as well as a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers and serves as a member of the Criminal Procedure Committee, and is a Fellow of the International Society of Barristers.

DuMouchel is a life member of the U. S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit Judicial Conference. He served as a member of the U.S. District Court Magistrate Selection Committee in 2014, and was a member of the Judicial Advisory Committee to evaluate applicants for the U.S. Attorney and federal judicial appointments in the Eastern District of Michigan in 2010 and 2012.

DuMouchel is graduate of Wayne State University Law School and the University of Detroit.

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Community Social Services  of Wayne County

On October 11, Community Social Services of Wayne County (CSSWC) will celebrate its 72nd anniversary and Wayne County Circuit Court Judge Virgil C. Smith, presiding judge of the Juvenile Division, will receive the Kristy Lynn Berkelbaugh Child Advocate Award.

Diana and Fred Berkelbaugh began the Kristy Lynn Berkelbaugh Memorial Fund benefitting children being served in Community Social Services of Wayne County’s (CSSWC) Child Welfare Program as a living legacy to their beloved daughter, Kristy Lynn, who passed away tragically. In tribute to the Berkelbaugh family and in honor of Kristy Lynn, in 2013 CSSWC created The Kristy Lynn Berkelbaugh Child Advocate Award to present to citizens and organizations that are exemplary child advocates.

Smith is deserving of that award. In 2004, Smith was appointed by Governor Jennifer Granholm to the Wayne County Third Circuit Court. He served in the Family Division – Juvenile Section as the presiding judge from 2004-2006. Smith served as the first African American chief judge of the Third Circuit Court from 2009-14, and at the end of his second chief judgeship term in 2014, returned to the Juvenile Court as the presiding judge.

Smith has spearheaded the court’s partnership with Casey Foundation and moved the needle forward in areas such as juvenile mental health, family reunification efforts, court appointed advocates for child in neglect cases, the creation of the clothes closet, and the faith-based and volunteer initiative to provide parenting time and support to families in the reunification process. The Casey Foundation recognizes the effort of Smith and his team as the model for the Juvenile system and praises how much they are able to get done with limited resources.

Smith will conclude his term on the bench at the end of this year.

Smith was born and raised in the Conant Gardens community of Detroit.  He attended Pershing High School, received his B.A. in political science from Michigan State University, and received his law degree from Wayne State University Law School in 1972.

Tickets for the gala event can be purchased through http://weblink.donorperfect.com/csswcgala or by contacting CSSW Development and Communications at abingham@csswayne.org.

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Wayne County Circuit Court

The For the Seventh Generation Thrive Award is presented to an organization that significantly contributes to the quality of life for children and families in the Wayne County Child Welfare system by providing resources needed for them to thrive in a safe, loving, and stable home and creating opportunities for these children to pursue their dreams and become productive members of our community.

This year’s recipient of the award was the Third Circuit Court’s Wayne County Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) Program.

So far this year under the leadership of Director Roland Smith, the Wayne County CASA 49 community-trained volunteers have zealously and effectively represented 100 youth in the most difficult cases heard in the Third Circuit Court. The Wayne County CASA is celebrating 21 years of speaking up for the best interest of children in and helping to ensure they have the opportunity to thrive in a safe and loving home.

Smith says, “The CASA program is successful because of ordinary men and women in the community who are compassionate about the safety and well-being of children. A successful CASA volunteer advocates for and ensures that all children have a voice in court proceedings and have a safe and permanent home as quickly as possible. Please join our team of specially trained volunteers. It takes a minimum of 8-10 hours per month to advocate for the children in foster care. Be among the finest and wear the honor proudly. Make a difference in a child’s life.”

Financial donations to support the efforts of the Wayne County CASA Program may be made through the Wayne County Friends of CASA, attn: Elena K., 1025 E. Forest, Bldg. B – Room 118, Detroit, 48207.