Legal People

Butzel Long
James S. Rosenfeld, labor and employment attorney, Butzel Long, discussed the “Ten Things Every Employer Should Know” during a Lunch & Launch program from 12 to 1 p.m. on Thursday, May 2, at the Macomb-OU INCubator at the Velocity Collaboration Center.
The workshop explored some of the most common labor and employment law mistakes, which involve wage and hour issues, discrimination statutes and recordkeeping. Seating is limited for this free program and registration is required.
Based in Butzel Long’s Detroit office, Rosenfeld serves as the manager of the firm’s Labor and Employment Practice Group and has experience in litigating a wide variety of labor and employment cases.
He has completed 40-hour General Civil Case Mediator Training and has served as an adjunct professor at Wayne State University Law School teaching alternative dispute resolution. He frequently lectures and conducts training for employers and supervisors on various employment issues.
Rosenfeld is a Fellow of the College of Labor and Employment Lawyers, is listed in The Best Lawyers in America and Michigan Super Lawyers in Labor and Employment, and has been ranked by Chambers USA. He is a winner of the 2013 Client Choice Awards, presented by the International Law Office (ILO) and Lexology.
Additionally, Butzel Long attorney Louis Theros was a featured speaker recently during the American Forest & Paper Association’s Annual Conference in Montreal. He gave a one-hour presentation on national labor relations entitled, “The NLRB and the Year of Uncertainty.”
Theros is a shareholder, vice president and serves on Butzel Long’s Board of Directors. He concentrates his legal practice in the areas of employment litigation, labor, advising and counseling clients on statutory employment compliance and gaming law.
He has more than 24 years experience, including first chair trial and appellate responsibilities, in employment discrimination and harassment matters and large class action lawsuits, throughout Michigan and the Midwest. Theros has served as counsel on various traditional labor issues, including organizational campaigns and collective bargaining agreement negotiations and implementation. He also has experience in handling arbitrations arising from collective bargaining disputes and unfair labor practice complaints.
Theros is listed in Best Lawyers in America and is named in Michigan Super Lawyers, both since 2007. He has received an “AV Preeminent” peer review rating from Martindale-Hubbell.
Committed to his community, Theros actively participates in a variety of organizations. He currently serves on the Grosse Pointe Farms City Council (2001-present), where he was mayor pro tem from 2005-2007. He also is vice president of the Michigan Ice Hawks Youth Hockey Club, and the treasurer of the Senior Citizen Housing Development Committee for the American Hellenic Educational Progressive Association (AHEPA).
He is a former president of the Detroit Metropolitan Bar Association (2005-2006), and currently serves as a trustee of the association’s charitable arm, the Detroit Metropolitan Bar Foundation (2006-present).
Theros is a graduate of Vanderbilt University School of Law (1989), and earned his undergraduate degree from the University of Michigan (B.A., 1985).

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Bodman PLC
Steven J. Fishman, chair of the Workplace Law Group at Detroit-based law firm Bodman PLC, presented a session on Michigan’s recently-enacted right to work legislation at the 2013 Michigan Health Care Human Resources Conference held April 25-26 at the East Lansing Marriott.
The statewide conference was jointly sponsored by the Michigan Health & Hospital Association Service Corporation and the Michigan Healthcare Human Resources Association.
Fishman, who has more than 40 years of experience in labor and employment law, provided a detailed review of the new law and its effect on Michigan workplaces, including which workplaces and workers are covered and which are excluded by the new law, its impact on organizing and bargaining rights, and strategies for informing workers regarding their new rights.
Fishman is a frequent speaker to employer groups on a broad range of labor and employment issues. On May 1, he presented a session on right to work at a seminar for business owners, HR officers, and C-level executives sponsored by the Michigan Chamber Alliance at the Boyne Mountain Grand Lodge in Boyne Falls. 
Fishman serves as the Special Labor and Employment counsel for the Michigan Chamber of Commerce, and on its board of directors. He appears in The Best Lawyers in America 2013 under Labor and Employment Law, Labor Law – Management, and Litigation-Labor & Employment. He is a member of the Federal Bar Association, Detroit Metropolitan Bar Association, Oakland County Bar Association, State Bar of Michigan (Labor Law Section), Illinois Bar Association, and State Bar of Indiana.

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Giarmarco, Mullins, & Horton, P.C.
Geoffrey Wagner of Giarmarco, Mullins & Horton PC gave a presentation on No-Fault Insurance Claims at the Spring Chapter Meeting of the Michigan Medical Billers Association. The presentation, which was held at the Bay Valley Resort and Conference Center in Bay City, focused on recent developments concerning Michigan’s No-Fault Law, as well as tips to help medical billers make their practices more efficient and profitable.
Wagner is an associate in the firm’s litigation group. He concentrates his practice in the areas of personal injury, health care reimbursement and commercial litigation.

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Dickinson Wright PLLC
Dickinson Wright PLLC is pleased to announce that the firm was named the Michigan Firm of the Year at Benchmark Litigation’s U.S. Benchmark Annual Awards.
“Trial practice has always been a significant part of Dickinson Wright,” says Daniel D. Quick, Practice Department manager for Commercial Litigation, Antitrust & Trade Regulation, Alternative Dispute Resolution and Sports & Entertainment.
“Our primary mission is to assist our clients through the litigation process and to win in the courtroom. We are blessed with outstanding trial lawyers at all levels of seniority, recognized as leaders in many areas of litigation. Our litigators have worked very hard for their sterling reputation as skilled advocates and we are honored to be recognized by Benchmark.”
With more than 120 lawyers engaged in Dickinson Wright’s litigation practice, its reach extends from their “home court” jurisdictions to federal, state and provincial trial and appellate courts, governmental bodies, specialty courts and international, national and regional arbitral organizations across the United States and Canada. For decades Dickinson trial lawyers have served at the forefront of business and tort litigation of every kind and manner for major corporations, middle market entrepreneurial and growth companies, closely held enterprises and individuals. 

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The Law Offices of Jermaine A. Wyrick PLLC
The Law Offices of Jermaine A. Wyrick PLLC is pleased to announce that attorney Jermaine A. Wyrick spoke at the D. Augustus Straker Bar Association meeting on the topic, “Pleading the Fourth: A Panel Discussion on Recent Developments in Unreasonable Search and Seizure.” The discussion focused on the recent oral argument before the United States Supreme Court on the Maryland v. King Case, which involved whether to use DNA evidence from arrestees.
Wyrick also spoke at the Communication and Media Arts High School National Honor Society ceremony on the topic, “Doing the Right Thing.” The inspirational speech focused on honorable behavior.
Wyrick has practiced law since 1997. His commitment to helping people is apparent by his chosen areas of practice which include criminal defense, family law, personal injury, and police misconduct.
He is currently a member of the Detroit Metropolitan Bar Association, the State Bar of Michigan, and the Oakland County Bar Association.
He has lectured for the Detroit Metropolitan Bar Association, Detroit Entrepreneurship Institute, Lorman Education Services, and the NAACP George W. Crockett Community Law School, and the Wayne State University Black Law Student Black History Month program.

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U.S. District Court
U.S. District Court Judge Nancy Edmunds has presided over numerous high-profile cases during her more than 20 years on the federal bench. And on May 13, she’ll share her wisdom with the 2013 graduating class of her alma mater, Wayne State University Law School, when she receives an honorary doctor of laws degree.
Edmunds is the keynote speaker for the Law School’s 2013 Commencement Ceremony, slated for 5 p.m. Monday, May 13, at the Max M. Fisher Music Center in Detroit.
The judge earned her law degree from Wayne Law in 1976. She also earned a master’s degree in education from the University of Chicago, and a bachelor’s degree from Cornell University. She began her law career as a judicial clerk to U.S. Senior District Judge Ralph Freeman, and spent 14 years as a private practice attorney with Detroit-based Dykema Gossett in its commercial litigation section.
President George H. W. Bush appointed Edmunds, a Detroit native, as a federal judge for the Eastern District of Michigan in 1992, and she assumed senior status for the court after serving on that bench for 20 years.
Along the way, the judge has presided over some newsworthy cases, most recently the 2013 federal case against former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick. Last year, Edmunds presided over the “Christmas Day Underwear Bomber” trial, and made several crucial decisions to ensure the defendant’s right to a fully fair trial would be protected despite his notoriety.
She made another critical decision in 2002, when she presided over Detroit Free Press v. Ashcroft, a case that arose in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Edmunds ruled that it was a violation of the First Amendment for the government to designate certain immigration hearings as “special interest cases” and close them to the public. Her decision was affirmed by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. That opinion, written by another Wayne Law alumnus, U.S. Court of Appeals Judge Damon Keith, contained the much-quoted statement, “Democracies die behind closed doors.”
Edmunds has served with distinction on the Law School’s Board of Visitors for many years, including four years as chair of that board, which is an advisory body to the dean. In 2012, she was presented with a Wayne State University Distinguished Alumni Award honoring her outstanding service to the university and her distinguished service in the field of justice.
She is active in a number of professional and civic organizations, and served on the board of trustees of Temple Beth El, on the board of governors for Cranbrook/Kingswood Schools, and as a board of trustees member of the Jewish Community Relations Council.

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Jaffe Raitt Heuer & Weiss, P.C.
Derek D. McLeod has been named partner at Southfield-based Jaffe, Raitt, Heuer, & Weiss PC. Jaffe CEO Bill Sider made the announcement.
A member of the firm’s Litigation, Franchising and Securities Litigation Practice Groups, McLeod joined Jaffe as an associate in 2011. In his diverse practice, he handles a wide array of commercial, franchise, employment and securities litigation matters. Prior to joining Jaffe, he served as a law clerk to U.S. District Court Judge Victoria A. Roberts, Eastern District of Michigan.
McLeod earned his undergraduate degree from The Citadel, The Military College of South Carolina. He then graduated from Northeastern University School of Law with his law degree.

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Fabrizio & Brook P.C.
Attorney Janetta Pittman has joined Fabrizio & Brook’s default litigation team in Troy. Pittman obtained her undergraduate degree from Michigan State University and her law degree from Michigan State University College of Law.
She is admitted to the U.S. District Court in the Eastern and Western Districts of Michigan and the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals.
Prior to joining Fabrizio & Brook, Pittman handled class action consumer litigation with the law firm of Lovell, Stewart, Halebian, Jacobson LLP based out of New York and with the corporate discovery management team of Michigan’s Miller, Canfield, Paddock, & Stone.  She speaks fluent French and Arabic.