Legal People ...

Harness Dickey is pleased to announce that Christopher Bond has rejoined its Metro Detroit office as an associate.

Bond brings nearly ten years of combined IP experience to his practice as a patent attorney. His knowledge includes an array of technology areas that include automotive hardware and software, imaging systems, consumer electronics, mechanical devices, and medical devices.

Bond earned a law degree and MBA from Wayne State University, a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Michigan-Dearborn, and a B.A. in German Language and Literature from the University of Michigan.

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Honigman LLP is pleased to announce that partner and board member Gabrielle Sims White has been recognized by Crain’s Detroit Business in its 2019 40 Under 40 program. Sims White was nominated by her peers for her continued dedication at the firm and for her commitment to helping women and minorities in the legal field.

The youngest-ever member of the firm’s board of directors, Sims White helped launch the Honigman Academy, the first law firm program of its kind in Detroit, to teach high school students basic legal concepts that could help them in academia and everyday life. She is also active in other service organizations in the city of Detroit, including the Youth Leadership Academy and The Links Inc., and is a board member of CARE House of Oakland County.

Sims White completed her bachelor’s in business administration at the University of Michigan and earned her law degree at Howard University School of Law.

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Butzel Long attorney and shareholder Paul M. Mersino has been named practice department chair of the firm’s Litigation Practice Group. Mersino will be responsible for the management and oversight of the firm’s Commercial Litigation attorneys who will report to him as well as for the strategic goals, budgeting, forecasting, and direction of the litigation practice group.

Mersino represents public and private companies, both as plaintiff’s attorney and defendant’s attorney, in a number of areas including complex commercial litigation, contract disputes, non-competition and trade secret disputes, automotive supplier disputes, construction litigation, and First Amendment litigation.

He represents and advises a number of startup companies, assisting them with their legal needs and matching them with potential venture capital funding. He also handles appeals in the Michigan Court of Appeals, the Michigan Supreme Court, and in federal courts across the country.

Mersino has been recognized as a Michigan Super Lawyer, as a Top Lawyer by DBusiness Magazine, as one of Oakland County’s Elite 40 under 40, and as an “Up and Coming Lawyer” by Michigan Lawyers Weekly.

Mersino is admitted to the State of Michigan, the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan, the United States District Court for the Western District of Michigan, the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals, the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals, the Supreme Court of the United States, and has been admitted on temporary basis in several state and federal courts across the United States.

He has written numerous guest articles and is a speaker in demand. Mersino serves on the Board of Directors of the Detroit Bar Association, has served as an advisor to the Michigan Institute of
Continuing Legal Education’s Litigation Advisory Board, and is a Trustee of the Butzel Long Charitable Trust.

Mersino is a 2008 graduate of Ave Maria School of Law. He earned his undergraduate degree in Business Administration from Northwood University in 2005.

In addition, Butzel Long attorney and shareholder Claudia Rast has been reappointed to serve on the American Bar Association (ABA) Cybersecurity Legal Task Force. To date, she has served six
one-year terms since this Task Force was created in 2012.

Task Force members are charged with examining risks posed by criminals, terrorists and nations that seek to steal personal and financial information, disrupt critical infrastructure, and wage cyberwar.

In 2017, Rast co-authored a chapter to the second edition of The ABA Cybersecurity Handbook. Her current ABA book project, for which she is a co-author, is due to be published in early 2020 and is titled, “Cyber Incident Response Handbook: A Resource for Attorneys, Law Firms, and Business Professionals.”

Rast, who serves as Butzel Long’s Intellectual Property Practice Department chair, blends her expertise in law, business, and science to assist companies in their strategic use of technology, counseling clients in the areas of privacy, cybersecurity, data theft, intellectual property licensing and registration, and the forensic preservation and analysis of electronically stored information.

Over the past several years, she has worked within both the IT entrepreneur community and the automotive supplier network to negotiate contracts covering innovative technologies associated with autonomous and connected vehicles, to address security, privacy, IP ownership, and new and potential regulations.

Rast is an experienced environmental lawyer, focusing on alternative energy and sustainability practices, including work on the development of a global Rule of Law Index for environment and energy with the World Justice Project. This past May she moderated an environmental rule of law panel in the Netherlands at The Hague sponsored by the World Justice Forum.

She is a frequent national speaker on matters ranging from cybersecurity, privacy, data breach, eDiscovery, and social media. In addition, she has published numerous articles including an online course for CPE credit.

Her memberships include the American Bar Association’s Section of Environment, Energy, and Resources, where she has been involved in the leadership of the Section since 1999, including chair of the section in 2008-2009, Ann Arbor’s New Enterprise Forum Board of Directors (2008-2017), the Michigan League of Conservation Voters Board of Directors (2008-2013), ICLE’s Technology Training Advisory Board (1998-2017), and the Children’s Leukemia Foundation of Michigan Board of Directors (2017-present). In 2001, she was the only lawyer named as a Technology Industry Leader in Crain’s Detroit Business, and in 2003 the Ann Arbor Chapter of American Women in Computing named her as one of twenty “Top Michigan Women in Computing.” In 2015, she was named by Michigan Lawyers Weekly as a “Leader in the Law.”

Rast is a graduate of the University of Michigan (B.S., Natural Resources) and the University of Detroit Mercy School of Law. In 2014, she successfully completed the four-week online program, “Tackling the Challenges of Big Data,” developed and taught by the faculty of the MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory in collaboration with MIT Professional Education.

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Jackson Lewis PC is pleased to announce three attorneys from the firm’s Detroit office have been listed in 26th Edition of The Best Lawyers in America.

Jackson Lewis PC congratulates the following attorneys named to the 2020 Best Lawyers in America list:

Principal Tiffany A. Buckley-Norwood (Employment Law – Management)
Principal Maurice G. Jenkins (Labor Law – Management; Litigation - Labor and Employment)
Principal Katherine J. Van Dyke (Employment Law – Management)

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Bodman PLC is pleased to announce that Felicia M. Thomas has joined the firm as director of diversity and inclusion.

Bodman was one of the first law firms in Michigan to form a standing Diversity & Inclusion Committee more than ten years ago and has conducted annual diversity training for legal staff, hosted nationally-recognized speakers on diversity and inclusion issues, and supported organizations that promote diversity in the legal profession, among other efforts.

Thomas is based in Bodman’s Detroit headquarters but will spend time in each of the firm’s five Michigan offices and will develop and lead firm-wide initiatives.

Thomas came to Bodman from Wayne State University Law School where she served in a variety of leadership roles since 2006, most recently as assistant dean of student affairs and director of diversity initiatives. She has more than a decade of experience developing and leading diversity and inclusion programs at Wayne Law, including, among others, annual Title IX training, the first year orientation program and Culturally Conscious Lawyers/Implicit Bias training, and diversity, equity, and inclusion sessions for clinic and externship students. She chaired Wayne Law’s Diversity & Inclusion Task Force (2015-16) and served on the Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Committee.

Thomas is a licensed attorney and an active member of the State Bar of Michigan’s Diversity & Inclusion Advisory Committee, Law School Workgroup and the Character & Fitness District H Committee. She is also a member of the American Bar Association-Young Lawyers Division Disability Rights Committee.

Thomas earned her law degree from the University of Michigan Law School. She also earned her undergraduate degree in English and African-American Studies at the University of Michigan. Before joining Wayne State University she worked for three years as a law clerk with the Wayne County Circuit Court.

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Javon L. Williams, an executive partner at Secrest Wardle’s Troy location, has been named to Michigan Lawyers Weekly’s “Up & Coming Lawyers” Class of 2019. A luncheon celebrating the 2019 Class of “Up & Coming Lawyers” will be held on December 5 at the Detroit Marriott in Troy.

Williams has been with Secrest Wardle since 2009. He joined the Firm as a law clerk and became an associate after passing the bar in 2010. Williams became a partner in 2014 and was elevated to the position of executive partner in 2019. He is a member of Secrest Wardle’s Motor Vehicle Litigation, General Negligence, and Premises Liability Practice Groups.

Since 2013, Williams has been named to the list of Michigan Rising Stars in Super Lawyers magazine, a designation recognizing no more than 2.5 percent of attorneys in each state. Williams is a member of the State Bar of Michigan, active in the Litigation and Young Lawyers sections. Williams was named to the Super Lawyers Michigan Rising Stars list in the area of Personal Injury General - Defense for 2019.

Williams is a champion of diversity issues within Secrest Wardle and the legal community. Williams is the youngest attorney, and also the first African-American attorney, to be named an executive partner at Secrest Wardle. He is the first member of his family to attend law school, and the first within his immediate family to attend college. Williams earned his law degree from the University of Detroit Mercy School of Law and received his Bachelor of Science degree from Tennessee State University in 2007.

Williams also balances his busy professional life with actively supporting causes he is passionate about. As a result of a close family member being diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (MS,) he proudly supports the National MS Society-Michigan Chapter. He has supported the MS Society by spearheading a Secrest Wardle Casual Day to fundraise for the local chapter. Each Friday,
Secrest Wardle sponsors a “Casual Day” to raise funds for a multitude of local and national charitable organizations. Employees may make a donation to wear casual attire on Fridays.

In addition to his support of the National MS Society, he is equally compassionate about the fight against breast cancer. Williams and his wife recently participated in Mix 92.3’s 20th Annual Sista Strut, a one mile walk through Downtown Detroit. All proceeds from the walk benefit the Karmanos Cancer Institute, Breast and Cervical Cancer Control Program. Sista Strut raises awareness for breast cancer—specifically in African American women.

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Dawda, Mann, Mulcahy, & Sadler PLC, a Bloomfield Hills-based law firm, has announced that Julie M. Hirsch has joined its growing team of attorneys. She will serve as a senior attorney at Dawda Mann, focusing her practice in the area of civil litigation.

Hirsch has spent the majority of her legal career working in the state judicial system, first as a prehearing attorney for the Michigan Court of Appeals and then as a judicial staff attorney at Oakland County Probate and Circuit Court. She has experience in the areas of probate, juvenile, family, civil, criminal and appellate law.

Hirsch graduated from the University of Detroit Mercy School of Law in 1996. She graduated from the University of Michigan in 1993 with her Bachelor of Arts in History. She is also a former representative of the State Bar of Michigan Young Lawyers Section.

Hirsch is a current member of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society-Michigan Chapter Board of Trustees and a member of the Community Connections committee. She is a founding member and Vice-President of Families Fighting Against MS (FAMS), a Michigan 501(c)(3) corporation.

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Varnum attorney Christopher Ballard was elected chair of the Probate and Estate Planning Section of the State Bar of Michigan. The section is one of the largest substantive law sections of the State Bar, serving approximately 3,200 members.

Ballard has been active in the section for many years, including serving as the organizer/director of the section’s largest event, the ICLE Probate Institute, which typically draws more than 500 attendees. For the past year, Ballard has served the section as chair-elect.

Ballard focuses his practice on estate planning, trust administration, nonprofit organizations, taxation and business planning. He is a Fellow of the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel and has an AV® Preeminent(TM) rating – the highest possible – from Martindale Hubbell. He is regularly recognized by Super Lawyers and Best Lawyers® for Non-Profit/Charities Law as well as Trusts and Estates.

Ballard serves as a legal officer for the Civil Air Patrol and on the Board of Directors for FIRST Michigan, which aims to support Michigan school students’ connection to STEM careers.

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The Michigan Supreme Court recently announced that attorney Cami M. Pendell has been named general counsel. Pendell has more than two decades of experience in both legislative and state government affairs and has received awards for effectively representing her clients. Pendell also has a track record working with the judiciary as executive director of the Michigan Judges Association.

Since 2009, Pendell has worked as a governmental affairs consultant where she represented the interests of Michigan’s judges and other clients. She previously served as the deputy chief of staff for the Michigan Senate Majority Leader and as a director in the Office of the President at Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan.

Pendell is a graduate of Central Michigan University, where she earned her B.S. in political science. She received her law degree from Michigan State University College of Law.

“My goal is to put my experience and knowledge to work serving the court and serving the people,” said Pendell. “That means helping Michigan’s judges and court administrators keep courthouse doors open to all, engaging the public to understand their concerns, and managing courts efficiently while treating everyone with dignity and respect.”

As general counsel, Pendell will provide legal advice to the Supreme Court, the Court of Appeals, and State Court Administrative Office. She will also serve as liaison to the executive and legislative
branches, representing the court on various policy and legislative issues. The General Counsel’s Office also supervises the Board of Law Examiners and manages the docket of proposed
administrative orders and court rules.

Pendell will begin serving as Michigan Supreme Court general counsel on October 21.