State Bar of Michigan announces 2011 election results

Five attorneys -- Margaret A. "Peggy" Costello, Richard L. Cunningham, Jennifer M. Grieco, Richard J. Siriani, and Gregory L. Ulrich -- won contested seats in this year's SBM Board of Commissioners elections. All will serve three-year terms expiring at the close of the 2014 Annual Meeting. The State Bar Board of Commissioners provides oversight to the various operations of the Bar, such as finance, public policy, and member services. Costello won in District H, representing Lenawee, Monroe, and Wayne counties. She is assistant clinical professor at the University of Detroit Mercy School of Law, where she was instrumental in establishing the Veterans Law Clinic and Project Salute. She has served on the SBM Board of Commissioners since 2005, she co-chairs the SBM Pro Bono Initiative, and was awarded the 2002 John W. Cummiskey Pro Bono Award for the work she did coordinating pro bono services at Dykema Gossett PLLC. Costello served on the SBM Representative Assembly from 1996-2002 and chaired the Drafting and Rules and Calendar committees. She is past president of the Women Lawyers Association of Michigan and the Detroit Metropolitan Bar Association, and currently serves on the Detroit Bar Foundation board. She is also a member of the Federal Bar Association, Wolverine Bar Association, and Incorporated Society of Irish American Lawyers. She was a member of Dykema's litigation department for more than 20 years and, before that, worked as a licensed psychologist. Cunningham also won in District H, representing Lenawee, Monroe, and Wayne counties. He currently serves as chief of the criminal division of the Michigan Department of Attorney General. He was first elected to the SBM Board of Commissioners in 2005. Cunningham is a fellow of the Michigan State Bar Foundation and served three two-year terms on the State Bar Representative Assembly, representing the Third Judicial Circuit. He is a former chair of the SBM Criminal Law Section and the Detroit Metropolitan Bar Association's criminal law section. Prior to working with the state attorney general, he spent most of his career working as a litigation specialist and served as associate counsel for the U.S. Veteran's Administration, staff counsel for the Michigan Attorney Grievance Commission, assistant Wayne County prosecutor, a criminal defense attorney in private practice, and a recorder's court judge. He has served on the boards of directors of Save our Sons and Daughters and the National Organization of Parents of Murdered Children. He is a military veteran. Grieco won in District I, representing Oakland County. She is a partner at Neuman Anderson PC, concentrating in complex commercial litigation and professional malpractice. This will be her first term on the SBM Board of Commissioners. She has just concluded her term as president of the Oakland County Bar Association where she spearheaded their Pro Bono Mentor Match program which pairs news lawyers with seasoned practitioners willing to mentor them through pro bono cases. She also co-chaired the OCBA Bench Bar Conference and the OCBA Public Service Committee, and was the inaugural chair of the OCBA New Lawyers Council. She is a fellow of the Michigan State Bar Foundation and the Oakland County Bar Foundation, and a member of the SBM Negligence Law Section Council. She also served as president of the Oakland County region of the Women Lawyer's Association of Michigan and on the executive committee of the Michigan Association for Justice. Siriani also won in District I, representing Oakland County. He is senior counsel in the Troy office of Miller, Canfield, Paddock and Stone, PLC, where he concentrates on probate and trust administration, probate and trust litigation, and estate planning. This will be his second term on the SBM Board of Commissioners. He is co-chair of the SBM Committee on Special Projects for the Probate and Estate Planning Section and a member of the SBM Committee for Practice Management, Specialization, and Certification. Before joining Miller Canfield, he spent 29 years in private practice and served as a special assistant attorney general in the collection division under Attorneys General Frank J. Kelley and Jennifer M. Granholm. He also served as an attorney in the estate and gift tax division of the Department of Treasury Internal Revenue Service and as an attorney in the trust tax department of National Bank of Detroit. Ulrich won in District H, representing Lenawee, Monroe, and Wayne counties. He practices law at Ulrich Law PLC in Grosse Pointe Woods, focusing on business, finance, and governmental litigation. This will be his seventh term on the SBM Board of Commissioners; he also currently represents the Third Circuit on the State Bar Representative Assembly and served as its chair in 1991. He is a member of the Bar Leadership Liaison Advisory Committee, a District H panel member of the Character and Fitness Committee, and a member of the American Bar Association House of Delegates. He is a past member of the SBM Judicial Ethics Committee and past chair of the Nominating and Membership Services Committee. Ulrich is a life fellow of the Michigan State Bar Foundation and a member of the SBM Real Property Law and Business Law sections. He co-chaired the Master Lawyer Section Planning Group, chaired the Young Lawyers Section, served on task forces focused on establishment of a law practice and gender and race/ethnic issues, and served on the councils of the Alternative Dispute Resolution and Information Technology Law sections. Two attorneys won uncontested races for the 32-member SBM Board of Commissioners. They are Donald G. Rockwell of Flint, who won in District B, representing eight counties in eastern Michigan's tri-cities and Thumb area; and David R. Brake of Lansing, who won in District E, representing nine counties in mid-Michigan. SBM Judicial Tenure Commission Nancy J. Diehl won re-election for a third term on the Judicial Tenure Commission. Diehl's three-year term will commence Jan. 1, 2012, and expire Dec. 31, 2014. She was first elected to the JTC in 2005. An independent legal services professional in Detroit, Diehl previously worked for 28 years in the Wayne County Prosecutor's Office, where she served as chief of the trial division, overseeing general trials, child and family abuse, homicide, auto theft, and major drugs charges. Diehl, who served as SBM president from 2004 to 2005, continues to be active on many SBM committees, and served on the Judicial Crossroads Task Force. She also served on the boards of directors of the Detroit Metropolitan Bar Association and Women Lawyers Association of Michigan. She devotes a great deal of her time to working on behalf of children and families, and serving on the Governor's Task Force on Child Abuse and Neglect, the Wayne County Kids-TALK Advisory Board, Archdiocese of Detroit Sexual Abuse Review Board, and co-authoring four booklets for children related to family violence. The JTC is a constitutionally created body that promotes the integrity of the judicial process and preserves public confidence in the courts. SBM Young Lawyers Section Executive Council Six attorneys -- Jennifer M. Harvey, Kara Hart-Negrich, Felicia O. Johnson, Donald Rencher, Lori Smith, and R. Paul Vance -- won contested elections in districts One and Three, representing all of Michigan's counties but Oakland County. Their two-year term expires in 2013. Syeda F. Davidson, Nicholas G. Even, Hope V. Shovein, and Dionnie S. Wynter won uncontested elections in District Two, representing Oakland County, for two-year terms expiring in 2013. The Young Lawyers Executive Council governs the members of the Young Lawyers Section, the State Bar's largest section. The section provides education, information, and analysis about issues of concern through meetings, seminars, public service programs, and newsletters. The section has won numerous awards for its public service and educational programs. Published: Mon, Jul 4, 2011

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