New BarnEs and Thornburg attorney Frank Mamat (left) stands with Grand Rapids Managing Partner Robert Stead in the firm’s Southfield office.
– Photo by Cynthia Price
By Cynthia Price
Legal New
The national law firm Barnes & Thornburg established its Michigan presence in Grand Rapids in 2003 and is now expanding to the Detroit area thanks to the addition of well-known labor lawyer Frank Mamat.
He will co-lead the new office with Robert Stead, who is also managing partner in Grand Rapids.
“Instead of going with acquisition of a firm, generally we go with acquisition of people,” Stead explained. “We ask who would be the best one to put into this particular market, and trust that they’ll know who’s really good in that market as we continue adding attorneys.
“And that’s why we’re excited we were able to structure something with Frank,” he added.
The office on the 24th floor of one of the Town Center buildings in Southfield may indeed soon be too small for all those who are expressing an interest in joining the firm, Mamat said.
Mamat brought an associate attorney, Toufic Saati, with him, and they have already added another lawyer — all in an office that comfortably houses only five.
Though the firm has 15 offices throughout the nation, was ranked 84th in the U.S. based on size by the National Law Journal’s 2019 NLJ 500, and is in the 2019 Am Law 200 ranking based on revenue, both Stead and Mamat say the name recognition in the Detroit area is currently somewhat limited.
“At the moment, there are a lot of people in Southeast Michigan saying, who’s Barnes and Thornburg? But in other states we’re such a well-known entity, and with the talent we’re already attracting, it’s not going to take long at all for that to change.” says Mamat.
A native of Syracuse, New York, Mamat attended the University of Rochester for his B.A, and the Syracuse University College of Law for his law degree. While he was in high school, a future Detroit Piston named Dave Bing was “scoring for the Orangemen.”
“I never thought I’d end up in the city where he was mayor,” Mamat said.
After spending time immediately out of law school with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) in Washington, D.C. – where he was the business agent for a federal attorneys’ union — he joined the D.C. office of New York firm Proskauer Rose. There he gained an expertise in OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration) law, on which he still draws to serve his clients.
In fact, he said he believes he has handled more workplace fatality cases for employers than any other lawyer.
“It’s not a bragging point, it’s not pretty... but everybody has a right to a defense,” Mamat said. “The ideal would be to counsel them in advance on workplace safety to avoid it, which we try to do, but often that doesn’t happen.”
Tired of having to shuttle back and forth from Proskauer’s New York office to Los Angeles, he sought another geographic market and ended up in Michigan.
Mamat worked at several firms in the Detroit area and was at the Southfield office of Foster Swift Collins & Smith prior to joining Barnes & Thornburg.
Mamat worked in the Reagan administration and was appointed to several positions by former Michigan Gov. John Engler. He had to turn down Engler’s first appointment, on the Safety Commission, because “I would have had to give up all my clients,” he said.
He then chaired the Michigan Construction Codes Commission for many years. U.S. presidents have offered him jobs and federal judgeships over the years, but he has declined them all for a variety of reasons — including the high cost of living in D.C.
Over the years, Mamat has been involved in a lengthy list of local, state and national organizations, including the Oakland County Republican Party, the Jewish Bar Association of Michigan, the Associated General Contractors of America, and the State Bar Attorney Grievance as well as Character and Fitness Commissions.
At Barnes & Thornburg, Mamat will continue his work in traditional labor law, including counseling on union avoidance and strikes, negotiating labor contracts and agreements, and the aforementioned OSHA counsel.
Mamat said some of his most exciting career moments have been helping draft the Right to Work Law for Michigan and settling the recent road builders’ strike as well as helping negotiate labor contracts for “every studio on the west coast.”
He was also the labor lawyer for Madison Square Garden and head litigator in the longest-running NLRB case against the United Automobile Workers in state history.
“Years ago, I kept the United Nations from being unionized; that was one of my first assignments,” he added.
The Southfield office will expand in the labor and employment practice, but will also seek corporate, environmental, intellectual property, and litigation attorneys in what Barnes & Thornburg calls the “burgeoning research, technology and innovation hub” of Detroit.
The Southfield presence augments the firm’s locations in such markets as Chicago, D.C., Atlanta, California, Minneapolis, and its original office in Indiana.
The Grand Rapids office is 27 attorneys strong, but according to Barnes & Thornburg, more than 200 practitioners firmwide support the clients served there, in industries from manufacturing and distribution to technology and health care.
The Grand Rapids office also serves companies in a variety of organizational and business tax matters, which is where Robert Stead’s expertise comes in. But he also recognizes the importance of a presence in the Detroit market.
“Detroit and the surrounding area have experienced an incredible economic rebirth in recent years, due in large part to the development of advanced manufacturing and engineering that supports the automotive industry and other sectors,” he said in a statement. “This is an opportune time to expand our presence in Michigan and attract additional talented attorneys who can build sustainable, outcome-driven partnerships with clients.”
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