Warner, Norcross, + Judd LLP
Warner Norcross + Judd LLP recently welcomed two experienced attorneys to the firm.
Jeremy J. Gajewski and Robin E. Yono, both of whom join Warner as senior counsel, bring diverse backgrounds and experiences to the firm. They will practice in the firm's Detroit office.
Gajewski spent nearly 20 years at Fildes & Outland PC in Grosse Pointe Woods as an intellectual property attorney focusing on patent and trademark matters for a variety of domestic and international clients. Prior to beginning his legal career, Gajewski leveraged his background in chemistry as a quality controller in the automotive coatings division of BASF in Detroit.
He earned his law degree from Wayne State University Law School. He earned a bachelor's degree from University of Michigan in chemical engineering as well as a bachelor's degree in psychology.
Yono has nearly 20 years experience as an attorney at Giarmarco, Mullins, & Horton and as a shareholder at O'Reilly Rancilio. He concentrates his practice on transactional law, including advising closely held companies on contract review, entity formation, commercial financing, stock and asset sales and general corporate matters. Yono works closely with the Michigan Liquor Control Commission and the Medical Marijuana Regulatory Agency on licensing transactions.
Yono also practices real property law, including real estate and construction transactions with a focus on commercial and residential transactions, leasing, surveys, titles, zoning issues, land contracts and environmental matters. He earned his law degree from Wayne State University Law School and his bachelor's degree from Walsh College.
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Miller Johnson
Miller Johnson welcomes Michael R. Nye, an Intellectual Property attorney and former principal with Harness Dickey, to the firm's Detroit office to help lead the firm's growing IP practice. His hiring marks the fourth IP move in recent months as the statewide firm aggressively builds a world-class IP team. With another addition in southeast Michigan, the firm's Detroit office features attorneys in practices ranging from business and corporate services, to mergers and acquisitions, education law, private client services, and litigation.
Nye represents clients in all aspects of intellectual property, including protection, enforcement, and monetization of patents, trademarks, copyrights, and trade secrets, with a particular focus on patents in computer- and electrical-related technologies. He also provides strategic advice on business transactions, providing diligence and analyses in pre- and post-closing matters on M&A transactions.
"I am thrilled to join Miller Johnson, where we are building a top-notch team to better serve the needs of brand new clients as well as clients who have relied on me for years. There are also opportunities to assist Miller Johnson's extensive client base in navigating patent and intellectual property issues around the world," said Nye. "Our clients' business and technology landscape is changing quickly and we strive to be equally nimble in leveraging technological and legal developments to serve their needs."
With more than 17 years of experience, Nye advises some of the world's most well-known companies, including those in the automotive, consumer electronics, software, IT, and telecommunications industries.
Nye has received numerous recognitions for his work on behalf of clients. Most recently he was named a Best Lawyers Patent Law attorney in 2021 and a Michigan Super Lawyers "Rising Star," Intellectual Property law from 2015-2019.
Nye earned his law degree from Michigan State University College of Law in 2006. He earned his M.S. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Michigan in 2001 and his B.S. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Michigan in 2000.
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Jaffe Raitt Heuer & Weiss, P.C.
Jaffe, Raitt, Heuer, & Weiss PC has welcomed attorney, Jeff Izzard to the firm. Izzard joins the firm's mergers & acquisitions (M&A) practice group as an associate. Jaffe CEO Jeffrey M. Weiss made the announcement.
As a skilled M&A law practitioner, Izzard has provided counsel for clients of all sizes from established businesses, private equity funds and automotive suppliers, to renewable energy providers, medical practice groups and early-stage ventures. He assists clients with mergers, sales and acquisitions, equity and debt-based fundraising and corporate reorganizations, as well as advising on intellectual property protections, software and trademark licensing, service and supplier agreements, employment and employee equity matters, business structure, and corporate documentation and governance.
Prior to joining Jaffe, Izzard spent more than 14 years with various corporate firms across Chicago, and over six years with another metro Detroit law firm advising on similar corporate law matters. While in Illinois, he also served as a lecturer on business corporations for the Illinois Institute of Continuing Legal Education.
Izzard earned his bachelor's degree in political science from the University of Michigan and a law degree from University of Michigan Law School.
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Plunkett Cooney
Thomas P. Vincent, president and chief executive officer of Plunkett Cooney, was recently named to the 2021 list of Marquis Who's Who.
Since 2017, Vincent has served as president and CEO of Plunkett Cooney. In this role, he dedicates a significant amount of his time to managing the firm's approximately 150 attorneys and 300 employees in 10 offices across Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio. He also focuses on achieving the firm's mission of providing world class service to clients, recruiting and retaining high-quality attorneys and staff, and giving back to the communities in which firm members live and work.
A former senior trial attorney with the Oakland County Prosecutor's Office, Vincent joined Plunkett Cooney in 1985 and became a shareholder four years later. In 1999, he was elected to serve as a member of the firm's Board of Directors, a position he was re-elected to six times before he was elected president and CEO.
Vincent is also one of the firm's most accomplished trial attorneys with clients ranging from Fortune 500 companies to financial institutions, as well as insurance providers. His litigation expertise includes commercial liability, complex disputes, class actions and employment liability.
Licensed to practice in Michigan's state and federal courts, Vincent's professional affiliations include the Oakland County Bar Association, State Bar of Michigan, American Bar Association, and American Association for Justice. He is a member of the board of directors for the Detroit Regional Chamber. Vincent received his law degree from the Detroit College of Law (currently Michigan State University College of Law) in 1981 and his undergraduate degree from Wayne State University in 1977.
Vincent has received numerous professional accolades throughout his career, including selection by DBusiness magazine as a Top Lawyer, inclusion on the list of Best Lawyers In America®, the Michigan Super Lawyer designation and Corp! magazine's Most Valuable Professional honor, as well as a rating of AV-Preeminent by Martindale Hubbell, a leading peer review rating service in the legal industry.
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Butzel Long
Butzel Long attorney, shareholder, and Vice President Geaneen M. Arends has been named a 2021 Diversity Business Leader Honoree by Corp! Magazine. Corp! recently announced its 14th Annual Salute to Diversity winners.
Arends concentrates her practice in mergers and acquisitions, business formation, general business and commercial real estate transactions.
Earlier this year, Arends was appointed to the Board of Directors of the Barbara Ann Karmanos Cancer Institute, (the parent organization of the Karmanos Cancer Center and Karmanos Cancer Foundation).
She also serves as first vice-chair of the Board of Trustees of the Detroit Historical Society (Detroit Historical Museum and Dossin Great Lakes Museum) and is a Trustee of the Detroit Educational Television Foundation/Detroit Public Television (Detroit PBS). She also serves on the Steering Committee for the Detroit Symphony Orchestra's Classical Roots Celebration.
Arends is a Fellow of the American Bar Foundation, serves on the Real Estate Advisory Board for the Institute of Continuing Legal Education, and is an alumna of Leadership Detroit, Class XXVII. She also is the chair of Butzel's Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee.
Arends is a graduate of Michigan State University (1994) and Boston College Law School (1998). Arends is admitted to the State Bar of Michigan and the United States District Court of the Eastern District of Michigan.
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Steinhardt, Pesick & Cohen PC
Jerome P. Pesick, managing shareholder of Steinhardt, Pesick, & Cohen PC (SPC), a Michigan-based law firm specializing in eminent domain and condemnation, commercial property tax appeals, commercial real estate litigation, and land use, has been named a 2021 Michigan Super Lawyer in the area of eminent domain law-a recognition he has received every year since 2006. In addition, Pesick ranked among the Top 100 Michigan Super Lawyers-a list comprising the attorneys who tallied the highest point totals during Super Lawyers' selection process. It is the sixth time Pesick has been noted in the Top 100 since 2008.
Possessing more than 40 years of legal experience, Pesick's achievements include serving as lead counsel on behalf of the property owners in the largest eminent domain verdict in Michigan history, rendering $25 million in a case that involved a 6.3-acre parcel on the Detroit River with an original government offer of $13.7 million.
He has successfully represented clients in nearly every major condemnation project in Detroit and Southeast Michigan, including the Gordie Howe International Bridge, Poletown, Detroit Waterfront Casino and Reclamation Project, Comerica Park and Ford Field, I-696, M-59 (Hall Road), M-5 (Haggerty Connector), Northwestern Connector, Van Dyke Highway, Detroit Metropolitan Airport Expansion, Wayne State University Welcome Center, Wayne County Pinnacle AeroPark, Ypsilanti Water Street Redevelopment, Eastern Michigan University Business School, and the Orchard Lake Road widening.
Recent projects include representing the interests of commercial shopping center clients impacted by the introduction of a large traffic circle on Orchard Lake Road in Oakland County.
In November 2018, Pesick was part of a legal team that achieved a major settlement for a client in protracted litigation against the City of Pontiac. Known for his collaborative approach in complex commercial real estate cases, Pesick was sought out by a prominent Michigan law firm to help handle the eminent domain issues specifically and to otherwise assist in the disputes between their client, the owners of a large office complex, and the City of Pontiac. He obtained a dismissal of the eminent domain case and assisted the legal team in negotiating a global settlement of several million dollars for the client.
Pesick also regularly represents clients in major property tax appeal cases concerning all types of business properties including commercial, office, industrial, agricultural, mixed-use, and vacant land. He has handled issues ranging from the valuation of properties worth millions of dollars to obtaining property tax exemptions for religious and charitable facilities, requiring the application of complicated statutory regulations and considerations.
In addition to his Super Lawyers accolades, Pesick was recently recognized as a 2022 Best Lawyer® and received a Best Lawyers® "Lawyer of the Year" title for the sixth time in the category of Real Estate Law-Troy, Michigan. Pesick was also selected as a member of Michigan Lawyers Weekly's Leader in the Law class of 2019.
Pesick is involved with a variety of professional organizations including membership in the American Bar Association's Section on Litigation-Committee on Real Estate, Condemnation and Trust Litigation. He is also involved in State Bar of Michigan as a member of the Sections on Litigation and Real Property and was a past chair of the Real Property Law Section, where he served as chair of the Eminent Domain Committee for seven consecutive years. He is also a member of the Real Property Law Section's Land Title Standards Committee. In addition, Pesick is a member of the Oakland County Bar Association. He has authored numerous articles on eminent domain and is a popular speaker at real property law and eminent domain conferences.
Pesick received his law degree from the University of Detroit Mercy School of Law and his undergraduate degree from the University of Michigan. His civic activities include serving on the Executive Committee and an officer of Adat Shalom Synagogue in Farmington Hills, and as a past board member of the National Bone Marrow Transplant Link.
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Fishman Stewart PLLC
Fishman Stewart PLLC, an intellectual property specialty law firm, is pleased to announce that Michael Stewart, co-founding member and managing partner, has received the 2021 Soaring Eagle award from Vistage Michigan. The Soaring Eagle award is presented annually in recognition of a member's overall success in the business community and also acknowledges the member's contribution to supporting and encouraging fellow Vistage Michigan members throughout the year.
"I'm grateful to Vistage Michigan for selecting me for the Soaring Eagle award and for the energy, insights and camaraderie I gain from my local peer group," Stewart said. "The traditional law firm model is quickly becoming unsustainable in the modern business world. Vistage peers have helped me shape my decision-making as a provider of professional legal services untethered to outdated law firm approaches."
The Soaring Eagle award comes as Stewart and co-founding member Michael Fishman lead the firm's 25th anniversary year. Fishman Stewart's growth mindset prompted early and consistent adoption of technology tools and practice innovations that have resulted in an expansion of both its domestic and global client base as well the ability to attract top legal talent from throughout the country.
In his legal practice, Stewart has experience managing, administering and conducting worldwide projects involving updating ownership records of large intellectual property portfolios and applies a comprehensive, cross-disciplinary approach to maximize the scope of intellectual property protection and beneficial usage. His litigation experience includes both trials and oral arguments before the federal Court of Appeals. He is also admitted before the United States Supreme Court.
Stewart is a frequent author, speaker and lecturer on intellectual property protection and enforcement for organizations including the International Trademark Association (INTA), American Intellectual Property Law Association (AIPLA) and Michigan Bar Association, as well as the United States Patent and Trademark Office, the National Science Foundation, and third-party organizations such as ARVO. He has also presented to engineering, business and law students at schools including the University of Michigan and Notre Dame University. He has been recognized by theState Bar of Michigan's "A Lawyer Helps"program for giving back to the community.
Prior to practicing law, Stewart was an engineer for a major automotive OEM and a systems engineer for the Computer Aided Engineering Network for the College of Engineering at the University of Michigan. He earned a law degree from the University of Michigan Law School and an M.S. in Aerospace Engineering, a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering and a B.A. in English, all also from the University of Michigan.
Stewart has received numerous legal honors throughout his career, most recently being named to the 28th edition of The Best Lawyers in America© in LitigationIntellectual Property; LitigationPatent; Patent Law; and Trademark Law. He was also named a Michigan Super Lawyer in 2021 and has been a recipient of both the Best Lawyers and Super Lawyers awards multiple times, as well as being named a DBusiness Top Lawyer and an IP Star by Managing Intellectual Property Magazine.
Published: Mon, Oct 11, 2021
