Legal People

Dickinson Wright PLLC is pleased to announce that attorney Anna Maiuri has been selected for National Law Journal’s inaugural list of 50 Energy & Environment Trailblazers. She will be featured in the April issue of National Law Journal.

Maiuri is a member in the firm’s Troy office. She has experience in helping corporations, business owners and operators assess environmental liabilities when purchasing, selling or leasing assets both across the country and around the world. She is particularly experienced in helping utility companies and manufacturers achieve regulatory compliance through effective negotiations with governmental regulators that result in cost-effective strategies that fulfill both the client’s and the regulator’s needs. She is co-chair of the firm’s Diversity Committee and is a member of the State Bar of Michigan, Oakland County Bar Association, and the American Bar Association.

Maiuri is listed as a leader in her field by Best Lawyers in America and Michigan Super Lawyers. She received her B.A. from Wayne State University and her law degree from Wayne State University Law School.

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The Metropolitan Detroit Chapter of the Association of Legal Administrators recently won the new President’s Award of Excellence for 2015.  Forty-eight separate tasks were evaluated in this program to determine the award winning chapters.  This award is an updated achievement program of chapter awards that many former board members may have helped the chapter attain in the past.

The President’s Award of Excellence is a chapter performance guideline to encourage chapters to take effective and collaborative action in support of ALA’s mission to promote and enhance the competence and professionalism of legal administrators and all members of the legal management team; improve the quality of management in law firms and other legal service organizations; and represent professional legal management and managers to the legal community and to the community at large.

Congratulations went to last year’s ALA Detroit chapter board members who worked their respective sections of the award of excellence program to achieve this recognition.  Larry Halicki, past president, will accept the award at as part of the awards night celebration at the ALA National Conference in Nashville on May 20th.

The Metropolitan Detroit Chapter also celebrated its 40th anniversary as an ALA chapter in April.

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Denise J. Lewis, a partner in the Real Estate Department at Honigman, Miller, Schwartz, and Cohn LLP, has been named one of the 2015 Most Influential Black Lawyers by Savoy magazine. According to Savoy, the list is comprised of the “best of the best” of black lawyers who are partners within leading national law firms and corporate counsel for Fortune 1000 companies. Lewis is one of only three attorneys at law firms in Michigan to receive this recognition.

As founder of the firm’s Urban Redevelopment practice, Lewis leads a national practice engaged in representing developers in projects in major urban centers across the U.S., from residential projects in Chicago to a hotel development in Los Angeles to a regional shopping mall in Miami. She handles complex transactions that include public/private partnerships and mixed-use development. Lewis concentrates her practice in structuring multi-tiered transactions involving hotels, office buildings, apartment complexes and retail developments. She is recognized for her work with urban redevelopment projects that include historic preservation, zoning and tax incentive issues.  Lewis was the first minority in Michigan to be elected to the American College of Real Estate Lawyers and serves on the board of the national Real Estate Executive Council. A member of the firm’s Board of Directors for the past 7 years, she also leads initiatives as the firm’s Diversity Partner.

In addition, Richard S. Soble, a partner in Honigman’s Tax Practice Group, was named one of BTI Consulting Group’s Client Service All-Stars for 2015. He is one of only six Michigan attorneys to receive this designation.

Soble focuses his practice on advising individuals and businesses on a vast range of federal income tax issues, and counsels them in planning to minimize their taxation on day-to-day commercial operations and in transactions. He has more than 30 years of experience in structuring business ventures to accomplish clients’ business goals and representing their interests in adjudications, audits and appeals. Soble is the author and co-author of numerous scholarly articles and accounting professional journal columns, and his work on the taxation of partnerships and pension related claims in bankruptcy has been widely published.

He is a past council member of the State Bar of Michigan’s Section of Taxation and the past chair of the Committee on International Tax and Partnership Tax. The Best Lawyers in America has recognized Soble since 2003 and as its Detroit Tax Lawyer of the Year in 2012. In addition, Michigan Super Lawyers has recognized him since 2007.

Soble earned a law degree from Yale Law School and a B.A. from the University of Michigan.

Homigman is also proud to announce that two attorneys have joined the firm in its Detroit office. Robert Kiburz is a partner in the firm’s Corporate Department and Lyndsey K. Kitson is an associate in the firm’s Labor and Employment Department.

Kiburz focuses his practice on private equity matters and counsels investors and their portfolio companies on complex business transactions, including mergers, acquisitions, recapitalizations, dispositions, joint ventures, restructurings, and debt and equity financings. He was recognized as a “Rising Star” by Illinois Super Lawyers from 2012 to 2014. Kiburz is admitted to practice in Illinois and his admission to the State Bar of Michigan is pending.

He earned a law degree from the University of Michigan Law School. Kiburz received a B.A. in economics from DePauw University. 

He joins Honigman from Kirkland & Ellis LLP in Chicago.

Kitson concentrates her practice on labor and employment matters. She counsels clients on compliance under employment protection statutes, including the Taft-Hartley Act. Kitson is admitted to practice in Michigan.

She earned a law degree from Thomas M. Cooley Law School. Kitson received a B.S. in pre-law/political science with a minor in philosophy from Grand Valley State University. She is admitted to practice in Michigan.

She joins Honigman from Sullivan, Ward, Asher, & Patton PC in Southfield.

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Beginning May 1, the new offices of Rotter & Stone PC, specializing in matrimonial law, will be open at 32710 Franklin Rd. in Franklin. The phone number is 248-855-5200.

The two attorneys have much in common: Harriet B. Rotter is Nancy Stone’s aunt. Both are graduates of the University of Detroit-Mercy Law School, 20 years apart. The partnership is a family affair that arose out of Stone’s desire to change her career path and Rotter’s wish to leave a legacy in the field of law which has been such an important part of her life.

Rotter has been selected by her peers for the past 21 years for inclusion in the The Best Lawyers in America in the specialty of family law.  She has also been recognized as a Super Lawyer by Michigan Super Lawyers, in the area of family law, in addition to being named one of the top 50 women lawyers in Michigan.   Rotter has served on various Michigan boards and national commissions, including the Board of Trustees at Central Michigan University; The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and the President’s Commission for the Preservation of America’s Heritage Abroad. She is a member and past president of the Michigan Chapter of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers.

Stone’s 20 years of experience includes state and federal court litigation, with an emphasis on complex commercial disputes and business dissolutions.  She is a well-established negotiator, trial attorney and mediator with an understanding of complex property estates and contested business entity valuations.   Stone is skilled at leveraging the use of law firm technology and the discovery of electronically stored information during litigation.  Most recently, she was a partner with a large Detroit area law firm.  She brings her litigation and business experience to her practice concentrated in the areas of matrimonial and family law.