Secrest Wardle has proudly received multiple rankings on the U.S. News & World Report Best Lawyers 2017 "Best Law Firms" list in the following categories:
National Tier 3
- Land Use & Zoning Law
Metropolitan Tier 1
Troy
- Litigation Municipal
- Litigation Real Estate
- Municipal Law
Metropolitan Tier 2
Troy
- Commercial Litigation
- Family Law
- Litigation Land Use & Zoning
Metropolitan Tier 3
Troy
- Land Use & Zoning Law
- Personal Injury Litigation Defendants
- Real Estate Law
In addition, Secrest Wardle is proud to announce that six of the firm's Troy attorneys have been named to the "2017 Top Lawyers in Metro Detroit" list by DBusiness magazine:
Derk W. Beckerleg is an executive partner and managing partner of Secrest Wardle's Municipal Law Practice Group. Beckerleg is also a member of the Governmental Litigation and Real Estate Practice Groups, of which he also serves as chair. Beckerleg has been listed in the categories Land Use & Zoning, Municipal Law, and Tax Law.
William P. Hampton is a member of Secrest Wardle's Municipal, Commercial and Business Law, Governmental Litigation, and Real Estate Practice Groups. He developed the firm's Municipal Law Practice Group from its inception into the renowned municipal law practice group that it is today. Hampton has been listed in the Land Use & Zoning and Municipal Law categories.
Daniel P. Makarski is a senior partner and member of Secrest Wardle's Alternative Dispute Resolution Practice Group. Makarski serves as chair of the Group. He has been listed in the Mediation category.
Mark F. Masters is a senior partner and member of Secrest Wardle's Premises Liability, Commercial and Business Law, Construction, Malpractice/Professional Liability, Motor Vehicle Litigation, and Product Liability Practice Groups. He serves as chair of the firm's Premises Liability Practice Group. He is listed in the Product Liability category.
Mark E. Morley is a senior partner and co-managing partner of Secrest Wardle. He is a member of the firm's Alternative Dispute Resolution, Employment, Insurance Coverage, Malpractice/Professional Liability, Motor Vehicle Litigation, Trucking/Commercial Vehicle Litigation, and Product Liability Practice Groups. Morley serves as chair of the Malpractice/Professional Liability Practice Group. He has been listed in the Litigation Insurance category.
Bruce A. Truex is a senior partner, co-managing partner, and the current president of Secrest Wardle. Truex is a member of Secrest Wardle's Commercial and Business Law, Employment, Environmental and Toxic Tort, Intellectual Property/Advertising Injury, and Product Liability Practice Groups. He serves as chair of each Practice Group and has managed the Employment Practice Group since its inception. Truex has been listed in the Commercial Law, Environmental Law, and Product Liability categories.
- - -
Howard & Howard has been ranked in the 2017 "Best Law Firms" list by U.S. News & World Report and Best Lawyers® in the following local areas:
Metropolitan Tier 1
Troy
- Commercial Litigation
- Energy Law
- Litigation Patent
- Patent Law
- Trademark Law
Metropolitan Tier 2
Troy
- Bankruptcy and Creditor Debtor Rights / Insolvency and Reorganization Law
- Litigation Intellectual Property
- Trusts & Estates Law
Metropolitan Tier 3
Troy
- Corporate Law
- Labor Law - Management
- - -
U.S. News & World Report, in association with The Best Lawyers in America, has named Bodman PLC to its 2017 "Best Law Firms" list in multiple practice areas both locally and nationally.
Bodman PLC has been ranked in the 2017 U.S. News - Best Lawyers "Best Law Firms" list nationally in five practice areas and regionally in 38 practice areas.
U.S. News ranked Bodman as a leader in the following local areas:
Detroit market:
- Banking and Finance Law
- Bankruptcy & Creditor Debtor Rights / Insolvency and Reorganization Law
- Commercial Litigation
- Corporate Law
- Environmental Law
- Health Care Law
- Litigation - Banking & Finance
- Litigation - Bankruptcy
- Litigation Environmental
- Litigation- Intellectual Property
- Litigation - Trusts & Estates
- Non-Profit/Charities Law
- Real Estate Law
- Trusts & Estates Law
Troy market
- Banking and Finance Law
- Commercial Litigation
- Employee Benefits (ERISA) Law
- Employment Law- Management
- Labor Law Management
- Litigation- Banking & Finance
- Litigation- Real Estate
- Litigation - Trusts & Estates
- Municipal Law
- Real Estate Law
- Securities/Capital Markets Law
In addition, Bodman is pleased to announce that associate attorneys have joined the firm: Annalise A. Lekas, Ameena R. Sheikh, and Nicholas Q. Taylor.
The new associates are all based in Bodman's Detroit office and all were members of the firm's 2015 class of summer associates.
Lekas is a member of the Business Practice Group. She represents business clients involved in a variety of matters including corporate organizations, mergers and acquisitions, and other commercial transactions. Previously, she has worked as a corporate legal extern for an industrial aluminum manufacturer and for a nationwide voluntary health organization, and as an intern in the corporate counsel's office of a diversified global manufacturing company. She also worked in the office of U.S. Representative Tim Walberg in Washington, D.C. as an intern. She is proficient in both Spanish and Chinese.
Sheikh is a member Bodman's Litigation and Alternative Dispute Resolution Practice Group. She represents clients involved in complex commercial litigation matters. Before becoming an attorney, Sheikh represented the United States as an internationally and nationally ranked ice skater. She is active in pro bono and volunteer work, including the Family Adoption Program at Matrix Family Services and student mentoring with VIP Mentoring Inc.
Taylor works with both Bodman's High Net Worth and Tax practice groups. He represents individual clients in connection with estate planning, related tax matters, and the administration of complex trusts and estates. He also represents tax-exempt and charitable organizations in securing and retaining exempt status, advising on corporate governance issues, and counseling on general operational matters. Before joining Bodman, Taylor worked as a law clerk with a mid-size Detroit-area law firm, gaining experience in insurance litigation, eminent domain, and other areas.
- - -
Southfield-based Maddin, Hauser, Roth, & Heller PC announced that it has been ranked in the 2017 U.S. News - Best Lawyers® "Best Law Firms" list regionally in 15 practice areas, and nationally in one practice area.
"Maddin Hauser continuously strives to deliver responsive, expert, cost-effective solutions to clients in a myriad of legal practice areas." said President and CEO Steven D. Sallen. "Being recognized again this year in the top tiers in so many of these areas is an honor and a reflection of our firm's proficiency and dedication."
The firm's Detroit metropolitan rankings are as follows:
Tier 1:
- Employee Benefits (ERISA) Law
- Franchise Law
- Legal Malpractice Law Defendants
- Real Estate Law
Tier 2:
- Employment Law Individuals
- Insurance Law
- Land Use & Zoning Law
- Litigation - Land Use & Zoning
- Professional Malpractice Law Defendants
- Tax Law
- Trusts & Estates Law
Tier 3:
- Construction Law
- Corporate Law
- Litigation Construction
- Litigation Real Estate
The firm was also ranked nationally as a Tier 3 firm in Franchise Law.
- - -
FisherBroyles®, the cloud-based law firm that is revolutionizing the efficiency of the practice of law, is pleased to announce that Bloomfield Hills attorney Michael S. Khoury has been named the 2017 Information Technology Lawyer of the Year in Detroit by Best Lawyers®.
Khoury is a business lawyer with particular experience in information technology and technology transactions, as well as commercial, corporate, international and intellectual property law.
In addition, Khoury was recently honored again by DBusiness Magazine as a 2017 Top Lawyer in Information Technology and listed again in Michigan Super Lawyers® in the category of Technology Transactions for 2017.
Khoury said, "It is an honor to be recognized by one's peers, especially for work that gives me great satisfaction and excitement."
- - -
Plunkett Cooney recently welcomed former Michigan Court of Appeals Clerk Alex M. Petrik to the firm as the newest attorney in its Insurance Law Practice Group.
Petrik, who clerked for Michigan Court of Appeals Judge Christopher M. Murray, previously worked as a research attorney for the appellate court's Research Division.
A member of the firm's Bloomfield Hills office, Petrik represents property and casualty insurance providers in coverage litigation involving such complex issues as environmental contamination, construction defect and high-exposure product liability claims.
Petrik received his law degree from University of Detroit Mercy School of Law in 2014 and received his undergraduate degree from Valparaiso University in 2011. A member of the Detroit Metropolitan Bar Association, Petrik is also active in The Federalist Society and the State Bar of Michigan.
- - -
Nationally known family law attorney and author Richard S. Victor was selected to receive the first annual Professionalism Award in the practice of family law presented by the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers at its annual meeting in Chicago on November 4.
Victor, who is Of Counsel with Hertz Schram in Bloomfield Hills, was honored by the Academy in 2006 with the AAML's Fellow of the Year Award. A past president of the Michigan chapter of the AAML, Victor served on the Board of Governors of the Academy, as well as national CLE chair from 2003-07. He is a recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Family Law Section of the State Bar of Michigan, as well as the Champion of Justice Award from the State Bar.
Victor is the founder of the Grandparents Rights Organization and co-founder of the state and national SMILE (Start Making It Livable) parent education program. He has authored more than 75 articles and two books dealing with family law during his career.
Victor also is one of only 100 attorneys in the United States selected to be a Diplomate of the American College of Family Trial Lawyers.
Sixteen national fellows were nominated for the award and were reviewed by the national Professionalism Committee of the AAML, while five were selected as finalists. The Academy will hold a special dinner dance at its mid-year meeting in in March in Phoenix, where Victor will be honored for his commitment and work toward professionalism in the practice of law.
- - -
Brian McKeen, managing partner of McKeen & Associates of Detroit, was on the faculty of the American Association for Justice (AAJ) seminar, "Mastering the Medicine: Birth Trauma and Medical Negligence," which took place Nov. 4-5 in Atlanta.
The seminar focused on litigation issues including evidence discovery, deposition taking and closing argument construction. AAJ is a professional and educational association of trial attorneys that promotes a fair and effective justice system and supports trial attorneys committed to promoting safety, corporate accountability, a balanced civil justice system and community improvement.
- - -
Dickinson Wright PLLC is pleased to announce that attorney James Spica has been appointed by the Legislative Council of the State of Michigan to the State's delegation to the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws (also known as the Uniform Law Commission (ULC)).
By statute, the bipartisan, bicameral Legislative Council elects three members to the Michigan Commission on Uniform State Laws, the Commission that constitutes the Michigan ULC delegation. In addition to the three Council-appointed commissioners, the Michigan delegation comprises two legislators appointed by the Senate Majority Leader, two legislators appointed by the Speaker of the House, the director of the Legislative Service Bureau (or the director's designee), and any Michigan commissioner recognized as a Life Member by the ULC. The vacancy Spica's appointment fills was created at the ULC's 2016 Annual Meeting when Professor James J. White of the University of Michigan Law School was elected a Life Member in recognition of twenty years of distinguished service to the ULC.
Spica is a member in Dickinson Wright's Detroit office. He specializes in trust law and trust banking. He is the principal author of the Michigan Personal Property Trust Perpetuities Act of 2008 and of the multi-statute Michigan "trust decanting" regime enacted in 2012.
He is currently the American Bar Association (ABA) Advisor to the ULC's Directed Trust Drafting Committee and served on the ad hoc committee of the ABA Real Property, Trust and Estate Law Section that drafted the Section's response to the Treasury Department's request (IRS Notice 2011-101) for comments on the tax implications of trust decanting.
Spica is a Fellow of the American Bar Foundation, a Fellow of the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel (ACTEC), a member of the ACTEC State Laws Committee, a past member of the Council of the Probate and Estate Planning Section of the State Bar of Michigan (2006-2015), and a current member of the Probate and Estate Planning Advisory Board of the Michigan Institute of Continuing Legal Education.
He clerked for United States Tax Court Judge Richard C. Wilbur (1985) and taught jurisprudence, taxation, trusts, and decedents' estates as an assistant/associate professor of law at the University of Detroit Mercy School of Law (1989-2000, tenured 1996). His most recent article is "Rights and Rites: Understanding the Fiduciary Obligations of Designated Funeral Representatives," 62 Wayne L. Rev. (forthcoming Winter 2017).
As a Michigan commissioner, Spica will meet and confer with commissioners from other states to draft and promote the enactment of uniform and model acts in areas of law in which uniformity among the states is particularly desirable.
Since its inception in 1892, the ULC has been responsible for more than 200 acts, among them the widely adopted (and therefore highly influential) Uniform Commercial Code, Uniform Probate Code, Uniform Trust Code, and Uniform Partnership Act. To date, Michigan has adopted more than 113 uniform laws, beginning with the Uniform Acknowledgements Act in 1895. Bills currently before the Michigan legislature propose the adoption or amendment of five different uniform acts, including the Uniform Interstate Family Support Act and the Uniform Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act.
Dickinson Wright PLLC is also pleased to announce that attorney Michelle L. Alamo has been appointed chair of DRI's Intellectual Property Litigation Committee. Her one-year term is effective November 1, 2016.
Alamo is a member in the firm's Detroit office where she focuses on intellectual property and patent litigation, complex commercial & business litigation, and eDiscovery. She counsels clients in a wide range of industries including automotive, insurance, telecommunications, technology, and construction. She also assists clients in litigation matters involving, antitrust, trade secrets, RICO, False Claims Act, supplier contracts, tortious interference, business defamation, and more.
Alamo is a member of the Defense Research Institute (DRI), the State Bar of Michigan, the Federal Bar Association, the American Bar Association, and Litigation Counsel of America. She previously served as vice chair of DRI's Intellectual Property Litigation Committee. She is recognized as a leader in her field by Best Lawyers in America, National Academy of Jurisprudence (formerly the American Academy of Trial Attorneys), Michigan Super Lawyers, and DBusiness Top Lawyers. She received her B.S.E.E. from Kettering University and her law degree from the University of Detroit Mercy School of Law.
Published: Mon, Nov 14, 2016
