Legal People ...

Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer recently announced the following appointments to the Military Appeals Tribunal:

Robert C. Gardella is a private practice attorney with his firm Robert C. Gardell PLLC. He earned his law degree from Western Michigan University Cooley Law School.

Gardella is appointed to represent an individual licensed to practice law in this state for a term commencing May 1, 2020 and expiring April 16, 2024. He succeeds Thomas Bourque whose term expired April 16, 2020.  

Eric A. Jonker is a veteran and former Judge Advocate General (JAG) with the U.S. Army and is currently a volunteer reserve deputy sheriff for the Wayne County Sheriff’s office. He earned his law degree from the Western Michigan University Cooley Law School and Master of Laws in Military Law from the Judge Advocate General’s Legal Center and School.

Jonker is appointed to represent an individual licensed to practice law in this state for a term commencing May 1, 2020 and expiring April 16, 2024. He succeeds Gaetan Gerville-Reache whose term expired April 16, 2020. 

The Military Appeals Tribunal has appellate jurisdiction, upon petition of an accused, to hear and review the record in all decisions of a court-martial after the review
provided in the Michigan code of military justice.

These appointments are subject to the advice and consent of the Senate.

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Detroit-based land use, business, and denominational trust law firm Dalton & Tomich is pleased to announce that Adel Nucho has joined the firm as an attorney. 

Nucho has been a law clerk at the firm since 2018. He graduated from the University of Detroit Mercy School of Law in December 2019 and successfully completed the bar exam in February 2020.  The announcement was made by firm co-founder Daniel Dalton, who offered welcome remarks at Nucho’s virtual swearing in ceremony on May 4 before Wayne Circuit Court Judge David A. Groner.

At Dalton & Tomich, Nucho will focus his practice on religious property—both land use and zoning—including discrimination cases relating to the Religious Land Use & Institutional Persons Act (RLUIPA), and working with local churches who wish to leave their denomination and retain their property.

During law school, Nucho was a teaching assistant for the civil procedures class and he was a summer 2017 judicial intern for U.S. District Court Judge Robert Cleland, Eastern District of Michigan. In addition to his law degree, Nucho earned a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration and Management from Oakland University. 

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U.S. District Court Chief Judge Denise Page Hood, Eastern District of Michigan, recently announced that the court has selected Kimberly G. Altman and Curtis Ivy Jr. for appointment as United States magistrate judges for the Eastern District of Michigan.

Altman obtained her undergraduate degree from Michigan State University and her law degree from Wayne State University Law School. She is currently a career law clerk for Senior Judge Avern Cohn. Upon successful completion of a background investigation, Altman will sit in Detroit where she will fill the magistrate judge vacancy created by the retirement of Magistrate Judge Mona K. Majzoub.

Ivy obtained his undergraduate degree from Eastern Michigan University and his law degree from the University of Mississippi School of Law. He is currently senior litigation counsel for the United States Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Alabama. Upon successful completion of a background investigation, Ivy will sit in Flint where he will fill the magistrate judge vacancy created by the elevation to Article III judgeship by Judge Stephanie Dawkins Davis.

Altman was one of five persons recommended by a Court-appointed Merit Selection Panel from among more than 150 applicants. The panel members included Chair Alex L. Parrish, and attorneys Jeffrey G. Collins, David F. DuMouchel, Elizabeth L. Jacobs, Peter M. Kellett, Robert F. Kinney III, Saima Mohsin, Francisco Villarruel, Natasha Webster, and Rita White, as well as non-attorneys Phil Schloop, Linda Spight, and Dr. Patricia Wilkerson-Uddyback.

Ivy was one of five persons recommended by a separate Court-appointed Merit Selection Panel from among more than 150 applicants. The panel members included Chair Edward H. Pappas, and attorneys Audrey Forbush, George A. Googasian, Charles A. Grossman, David A. Koelzer, Jessica R. Mainprize-Hajek, Michael P. Manley, Michael Martin, Christopher McGrath, Glenn M. Simmington, and Trachelle White, as well as non-attorneys Reta Stanley and Cliff Turner.

Altman and Ivy’s names have been forwarded to the Administrative Office of the United States Courts in Washington, D.C. which will initiate the required background investigations by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Internal Revenue Service. Upon the successful completion of those investigations, they will be sworn in as magistrate judges.

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Bodman PLC is pleased to announce that the firm has been ranked as “Highly Recommended” for Trademark Law by the internationally-recognized journal Managing Intellectual Property.

Bodman is one of only four Michigan law firms to be ranked as “Highly Recommended” for Trademark Law, the highest level possible.

The journal also recognized Susan M. Kornfield, chair of Bodman’s Intellectual Property Practice Group and leader of the firm’s IP Brand Protection Team, as a “Trademark Star” and a “Copyright Star” for her extraordinary work in intellectual property.

In addition to Managing Intellectual Property, Kornfield has been listed as a distinguished IP practitioner in Chambers USA, and is listed in the current editions of The Best Lawyers in America, Michigan Super Lawyers, and DBusiness magazine’s “Top Lawyers.” She has been named on multiple occasions as a Best Lawyers in America “Lawyer of the Year” for Trademark Law and for Copyright Law. In 2017, the State Bar of Michigan Intellectual Property Law Section honored her with its “Excellence in Intellectual Property” Award.

Kornfield handles both transactional and litigation matters and has been selected as an expert witness, mediator, and arbitrator in intellectual property disputes. Her clients include organizations in the financial services, health care/medical, automotive, sports and entertainment, higher education, and technology industries, as well as cultural institutions and nonprofit foundations. She has been an adjunct professor of law at the University of Michigan Law School for more than 20 years, teaching Copyright Law, Intellectual Property Practice, and Entertainment Law.