LEGALPEOPLE

Potestivo & Associates PC is pleased to announce the hiring of local attorney Mary K. Atallah. She joined the team of 21 attorneys on Wednesday, Jan. 18. Based in the firm's Michigan office, she will serve as an associate attorney supporting both the Landlord/Tenant and the Litigation department(s). Prior to her new role, Atallah has held several clerkships and internships of note, including working as a floating judicial clerk at Oakland County Circuit Court and serving as an intern for the U.S. District Court Chief Judge Gerald E. Rosen, Eastern District of Michigan. She earned her law degree from Thomas M. Cooley Law School and a B.A. in Economics, with a minor in Political Science, from Kalamazoo College. She graduated from Mercy High School in Farmington Hills. * * * Bradley W. Bidwell has joined the Bloomfield Hills office of Rader, Fishman, & Grauer PLLC as an associate attorney. Bidwell's practice encompasses all aspects of international and domestic trademark prosecution, including enforcement, protection and portfolio management. Bradley also has experience with domestic and international in-use investigations, and trademark prosecution before the United States Patent and Trademark Office. Bidwell holds a B.A. in Arts in Sociology and Anthropology, Cum Laude from Kalamazoo College and his law degree from Wayne State University Law School. He is a member of the State Bar of Michigan, American Bar Association, as well as the American Bar Association Intellectual Property Law, Science and Technology Law, and International Law sections. * * * Honigman, Miller, Schwartz, and Cohn LLP is pleased to announce that Amy M. Floraday has joined the firm as an attorney in its Commercial Law, Bankruptcy and Reorganization Department. She will be located in Honigman's Detroit office. Floraday will assist clients in due diligence matters and drafting of transactional documents for the purchase of distressed and non-distressed assets. Floraday earned her law degree from the University of Michigan Law School. In addition, she is a graduate of the John Nevins Andrews Honors Program at Andrews University where she earned a B.S. in Mathematics and a B.B.A. in Economics. She has been admitted to practice in Michigan, Illinois and the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. She joins Honigman from Latham & Watkins LLP in Chicago. Honigman is also pleased to announce that Emily J. Zelenock, a artner in the firm's Intellectual Property (IP) and Technology Practice Group, recently authored a chapter in the book "Protecting Rights in International Business Transactions" published by Aspatore, a Thomson Reuters business. Her chapter, titled "Understanding the Cultural Complexities of IP Issues in Cross-Border Deals," discusses a variety of issues that businesses and attorneys may encounter when negotiating and entering into international business transactions involving intellectual property. The book is part of the publisher's series for C-level executives and lawyers known as Inside the MindsTM. Zelenock concentrates her practice on patent, copyright and trade secret litigation and related counseling. She earned her law degree from the University of Michigan Law School and a B.S. from the University of Michigan. To purchase the book, "Protecting Rights in International Business Transactions," visit www.aspatore.com and search and click on the title for ordering information. Additionally, for the third consecutive year, Honigman ranked among the top three U.S. legal advisors for banks and thrifts, by number of deals. According to SNL Financial, a leading source for banking data and news, Honigman tied with Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher, & Flom LLP & Affiliates for third place in this national ranking just behind Luse Gorman Pomerenk & Schick PC and Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen, & Katz. Honigman was ranked first in the 2010 and third in the 2009 SNL list for number of deals. In the past three years, Honigman has represented banks in Arizona, California, Colorado, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Missouri, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, Texas, Washington and Wyoming. "It is a huge accomplishment for a Michigan-based firm to consistently attain this high national ranking," said Honigman's Chairman and CEO David Foltyn. "Phil Torrence joined our firm in 2008 and established our Financial Institutions Practice Group, which he quickly led to prominence and its ranking among some of the largest east coast firms." Honigman's Financial Institutions Practice Group offers clients a full range of legal services related to mergers and acquisitions, capital raising initiatives, complex regulatory issues, strategic planning and navigation through the financial services environment. The firm regularly serves the special needs of multi-bank holding companies, as well as individual community banks. * * * Harvey R. Heller, shareholder and member of the Executive Committee at Southfield-based law firm Maddin, Hauser, Wartell, Roth, & Heller PC, has been appointed by the Board of Commissioners of the State Bar of Michigan to serve on the State Bar District I Character and Fitness Committee. His position on the committee, which investigates and makes recommendations regarding the character and fitness of applicants for admission to the State Bar, is a two-year renewable term that began on Jan. 1. Heller is the chair of Maddin Hauser's Insurance Coverage and Defense Practice Group. As part of his involvement in the group, he created the Result Focused Case Management System®, which delivers cost-efficient, result-oriented legal services. He also focuses his practice on litigation. Heller has authored numerous articles about professional liability and has served as a featured speaker at professional liability seminars. In addition to his involvement with the State Bar of Michigan, he is a member of the Michigan State Bar Foundation Fellows, Michigan Defense Trial Council, American Bar Association Standing Committee on Lawyers' Professional Liability, the Defense Research Institute and the International Association of Defense Counsel. Heller earned his bachelor's degree from Michigan State University in 1973 and his law degree in 1976 from Detroit College of Law. * * * The board of directors of Legal Aid and Defender Association, Inc. (LAD), Michigan's oldest and largest provider of free civil legal services to low-income people, has elected the following new officers for 2012: * Chair - Joel D. Applebaum, member, Clark Hill PLC. * Vice Chair - John A. Taylor, professor, Thomas M. Cooley Law School. * Treasurer - Anthony R. McCree, principal, UHY Advisors LLP. * Secretary - Dr. Patricia A. Wallace, psychologist, Wallace & Associates. Other board members are: * Lois E. Bingham, corporate counsel, Yazaki North America, Inc. * Karen Chadwick, professor, Thomas M. Cooley Law School. * Arthur Dudley II, shareholder, Butzel Long PC. * Sherrie L. Farrell, member, Dykema Gossett PLLC. * Vance K. Jackson Jr., vice president, JP Morgan Chase. * Wayne County Probate CourtJudge Terrance A. Keith. * J. Russell LaBarge Jr., shareholder, Johnson, Rosati, LaBarge, Aseltyne, & Field PC. * J. Sherman Larkins, managing member, Access Consulting Group, LLC. * Roger Short, certified public accountant. * Muddasar Tawakkul, corporation counsel, Wayne County. LAD is Michigan's largest provider of free civil legal services to low-income residents. It serves metropolitan Detroit through its offices in Macomb, Oakland and Wayne counties. It also represents criminal defendants in Wayne County and the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan. Including brief consultations and comprehensive legal services, the public law firm handles some 15,000 legal matters yearly. * * * The law firm of Miller Canfield has re-elected Thomas W. Cranmer, Douglas M. Kilbourne, and John D. Leslie to serve two-year terms as managing directors, effective Jan. 1. They are part of a five-person management administration that works with the CEO to oversee the firm's offices in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Poland and China. Cranmer (Troy office) concentrates his practice in both civil and criminal litigation. With more than 35 years of courtroom experience, his practice focuses largely on white-collar criminal defense, complex commercial litigation and arbitration/facilitation matters. Over the years, he has repeatedly been recognized as one of Michigan's leading trial lawyers. He served as president of the State Bar of Michigan from 2005-2006. Cranmer is deputy chief of Miller Canfield's Litigation and Trial Group, as well as the co-leader of the Criminal Defense Group. Prior to joining the firm, he served as an assistant prosecuting attorney in Oakland County and an assistant chief of the Criminal Division of the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Michigan. Cranmer earned his law degree from Ohio Northern University and his B.A. from the University of Michigan. Kilbourne (Detroit office) has more than 30 years of experience in representing financial institutions and commercial businesses in a broad range of loan transactions and commercial, real estate and corporate transactions, as well as regulatory and compliance matters. He has handled general commercial and industrial credit and leasing facilities along with specialized financing transactions in the healthcare, real estate and technology sectors. The commercial and corporate side of his practice involves transactional and general representation of industrial and service companies in their commercial transactions, financing, acquisitions, divestitures and general corporate matters. Kilbourne earned his law degree from Detroit College of Law and his B.A. from Michigan State University. Leslie (Windsor, Ontario office) represents debtors, financial institutions, receivers, trustees, customers, suppliers and other creditors and stakeholders in major insolvency and restructuring proceedings. He also has experience in a variety of litigation matters relating to insolvency, bankruptcy, commercial fraud and general commercial and priority disputes. As leader of Miller Canfield's Canadian practice, he focuses on counseling inbound Canadian investment and businesses seeking to establish operations in Canada. Leslie earned his law degree from the University of Windsor School of Law and his B.A. from the University of Windsor. * * * On Jan. 20 at the 2011 Wayne County Employee Achievement Awards Ceremony held at the Guardian Building in Detroit, Brian Morrow, deputy chief of the Juvenile Division of the Wayne County Prosecutors Office, was recognized with the prestigious Anthony C. Wayne award for his work in creating a "Teen Court" program in Wayne County. Under Morrow's supervision, the Prosecutors Office began the Teen Court program in 2006 and currently operates four teen courts, one in the 34th District Court in Romulus and three which are held in Detroit Public School high schools (Denby, Southeastern and Central). The Anthony C. Wayne award is given to only one supervisor within Wayne County each year. In order to win the award, the supervisor must have demonstrated outstanding leadership qualities over a considerable period of time and/or must be responsible for implementing a project of major significance to the county. * * * Dykema Gossett PLLC announced recently the addition of Samantha L. Walls as an associate in the firm's Financial Industry Group. Walls will be resident in Dykema's Bloomfield Hills, Michigan office. During law school Walls interned with the U.S. Department of Agriculture - Rural Utilities Service in Washington, D.C. where she focused on helping rural utilities expand and keep up with advancing technologies such as broadband internet. Walls served as Rural Development liaison for the White House 'Cities in Transition" task force which included community visits to gather pertinent information for casework. Walls is a member of theState Bar of Michigan. She earned her B.A. in sport management from the University of Michigan and her law degree from the Georgetown University Law Center. Published: Mon, Jan 30, 2012