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The Oakland County 52nd District Court, 2nd Division of Clarkston, is pleased to announce that Judge Kelley Kostin has accepted an appointment from Justice Megan Cavanagh of the Michigan Supreme Court as the Michigan State Court Liaison to the Michigan Tribal State Federal Judicial Forum.

The Forum was created in 2014 to provide an ongoing venue for judges from all three jurisdictions (tribal, state and federal court systems) to convene jointly in order to improve relations and communication.  The work of the Forum is important to all Michigan citizens because it affects how our court systems best serve Michiganders.  It also addresses ongoing issues regarding jurisdiction among the three courts and how they can function cooperatively, enforcement of orders between them, and the transferring of cases to best serve the parties.

Kostin was elected to the 52nd District Court 2nd Division in November of 2004 and took office in January 2005.  She presides over two successful treatment courts: the 52-2 District Court Sobriety Court program and the North Oakland Regional Veteran’s Treatment Court.  She is also working with the other 52nd District Court judges to implement a regional Mental Health Treatment Court.

Kostin hopes that her knowledge gained from her work in therapy courts will be a benefit to the Forum.  “I would like to contribute to the Forum by bringing the expertise I have gained from my countless hours in therapy court—helping individuals learn the proper tools that enable them to develop the ability to achieve wellness, education, and to escape the criminal justice system.”

Kostin is a member of the State Bar of Michigan and the Oakland County Bar Association, a fellow of the Oakland County Bar Foundation, and currently serves as the vice president of the Oakland County District Judges Association.  She also serves on the Oakland County Community Corrections Advisory Board.
Kostin is a contributing author to the Institute of Continuing Legal Education publication “Michigan Drunk Driving Law and Practice, fifth Edition.”

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Attorneys with Detroit-based management side labor and employment law firm Nemeth Law PC have been making timely presentations during the fourth quarter of 2021 on labor and employment topics:

• On November 5, Nemeth Law founder Patricia Nemeth, now Of Counsel at the firm, was a panelist on “The Art and Value of Persuasion in ADR: Trials and Tribulations for Litigators, Mediators, and Judiciary” at the Michigan Defense Trial Counsel (MDTC) 2021 Winter Meeting in Novi.

• On November 5, Nemeth Law senior attorney Nicholas Huguelet presented the employment law update at the MDTC 2021 Winter Meeting in Novi.

• On October 12, Nemeth Law co-managing partner Terry Bonnette was the presenter for the American Society of Employers’ (ASE) Ask the Lawyer series, speaking on the Americans with Disabilities Act and determining reasonable accommodations in the post-pandemic era.

Separately, Nemeth Law co-managing partner Deborah Brouwer was awarded the Michigan Defense Trial Counsel Anita L. Comorski Volunteer Award at the MDTC 2021 Winter Meeting in Novi on November 5. The award was given in recognition of Brouwer’s generous contributions to the mission and goals of the MDTC, an association of the leading lawyers in the State of Michigan dedicated to representing individuals and corporations in civil litigation. Brouwer is long-active in the organization and currently serves as the MDTC board president.

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Laura L. Romeo recently joined Plunkett Cooney as a senior attorney and co-leader of the firm’s Environment, Energy and Resources Law Practice Group.

A member of the firm’s Bloomfield Hills office, Romeo has experience in the areas of environmental law, energy law, sustainability and related emerging topics in both the private and public sectors.

Romeo has addressed all environmental media, including compliance, regulatory, enforcement, remediation, legislative and emerging issues. She counsels clients on energy contracts and related utility rate proceedings, legislation, renewable energy and energy resiliency projects. She has reviewed, drafted and negotiated environmental and real estate contracts and lease agreements, and she has counseled clients on multi-million-dollar construction contracts.

A majority of Romeo’s legal career includes serving as a member of the legal staff at a global automotive company where she was involved with local, national and global environmental, energy and ligation matters. Her work included providing environmental compliance and regulatory counseling regarding facilities in multiple states, advising on water and sustainability initiatives, supporting innovative energy projects and delivering expertise on emerging topics such as per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances and polychlorinated biphenyls.

Romeo’s public-sector experience includes previous service as regional counsel for the U.S. Army’s Regional Environmental & Energy Office – Central and as Assistant Division Counsel for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Northwestern Division. In these roles, she handled environmental and energy matters that involved emerging state legislation, rulemaking, and policy development impacting military and civil works missions and programs, including energy and water resilience, electric vehicles and climate change.

Romeo received both her law and undergraduate degrees from the University of Michigan. Admitted to practice in state and federal courts in Michigan, she is a member of the State Bar of Michigan and the American Bar Association.

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Dickinson Wright PLLC is pleased to announce that it has been awarded a Top Workplaces 2021 honor by the Detroit Free Press.

“We are thrilled to be named a Top Workplace by the Detroit Free Press,” says Michael C. Hammer, CEO of Dickinson Wright. “We are proud that the firm is a leader among Am Law 200 firms in providing flexibility to our employees and a safe work environment as we return-to-work this year. The honor is a testament to our employees’ commitment to enhancing our culture of collaboration, flexibility and creativity across all of our offices.”

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Butzel attorney and shareholder Lynn McGuire has been named co-chair of the firm’s Education Industry Team. She joins Butzel attorney and shareholder Carey A. DeWitt in this leadership role.

Butzel’s Education Industry Team helps clients navigate the unique legal, operational and economic issues and relationships inherent to the industry. Butzel’s  education clients include nationally renowned public and private universities, colleges, independent schools, public school academies, public school districts, vocational and for-profit institutions, foundations, and education technology companies.

McGuire concentrates her practice in the area of employee benefits law. She regularly works with defined benefit pension plans, 401(k), 403(b) and 457(b) and (f) retirement plans, insured and self-insured group health plans, cafeteria plans, health reimbursement arrangements, flexible spending accounts, health savings accounts, qualified transportation fringe benefits, on-site clinics, wellness programs, employee assistance programs, group life insurance, STD, LTD, opt-out cash benefits, pre-tax premiums, tuition assistance benefits, vacation trusts, and non-qualified deferred compensation plans.

She frequently advises employers and plan service providers on the Affordable Care Act (Health Care Reform). She has experience in advising employers and other fiduciaries on fiduciary “best practices,” as well as ERISA and tax compliance. McGuire negotiates all types of plan service provider contracts, including investment agreements for separate segregated funds and pooled investment vehicles. She regularly drafts a variety of benefit plan-related documents, including plans, summary plan descriptions, policies and procedures, plan amendments, required notices, IRS determination letter applications, QDRO determinations, and QMCSO determinations.

McGuire has experience representing clients in Department of Labor audits and investigations. Over the years, she has represented a countless number of clients in IRS employee plan compliance resolution system filings and IRS determination letter applications. She provides strategic counsel on mergers, plant closings, benefit plan termination, and withdrawal liability associated with multiemployer fringe benefit funds.

Before joining Butzel, McGuire was a partner in a private practice, providing services to various fiduciaries including fringe benefit fund sponsors and Boards. She managed complex civil litigation matters, including ERISA-based fiduciary liability claims, prohibited transactions, and pension investment litigation.

McGuire has been named to the 2014 and 2017-2022 list of peer-voted “Top Lawyers” by DBusiness magazine. Notably, she is ranked in Chambers USA: America’s Leading Lawyers for Business, in the category of Employee Benefits & Executive Compensation, 2018-2021. She also has earned a Certificate in Global Benefits Management and a Certificate of Achievement in Canadian Benefit Plans from the International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans.

She is admitted to practice in the states of Ohio and Michigan. She is a member of the American Bar Association, the state bars of Michigan and Ohio, the Greater Ann Arbor Society for Human Resource Managers, and previously served on the Board of the Washtenaw Area Council for Children.

McGuire graduated from the University of Notre Dame Law School (1997) and earned a degree in Business Administration from the University of Michigan - Dearborn (B.A., 1993).

In addition, seventy-five Butzel attorneys have been named Top Lawyers in metro Detroit 2022 by DBusiness magazine. The list appears in the November/December 2021 edition. The local attorneys and their practice areas are listed below:

DETROIT OFFICE

Geaneen M. Arends, Corporate Law, Real Estate Law
Linda J. Armstrong, Immigration Law
Frederick A. Berg Jr., Litigation – Commercial, Litigation – Insurance
James C. Bruno, Arbitration, Commercial Law, Corporate Law
Joshua J. Chinsky, White-Collar Criminal Defense
Maura Corrigan, Appellate Law
Rebecca S. Davies, Labor and Employment Law, Litigation – Labor Employment Benefits
David J. DeVine, Construction Law
Arthur Dudley II, Corporate Law, Securities Law
David F. DuMouchel, White-Collar Criminal Defense
Eric J. Flessland, Construction Law, Litigation – Construction
Bernard J. Fuhs, Franchise Law, Trade Secrets
Cynthia J. Haffey, Litigation – Commercial
John P. Hancock Jr., Litigation – Labor Employment Benefits
Catherine M. Karol, Commercial Law
Amany Kasham, Immigration Law
Justin G. Klimko, Corporate Law, Mergers & Acquisitions Law, Securities Law
Phillip C. Korovesis, Litigation – Commercial , Trade Secrets
Mark R. Lezotte, Health Care Law, Nonprofit/Charities Law
Clara DeMatteis Mager, Immigration Law
Paul M. Mersino, Construction Law, Trade Secrets
Brett J. Miller, Franchise Law, Labor and Employment Law
Donald B. Miller, Product Liability
Donald V. Orlandoni, Franchise Law
Reginald A. Pacis, Immigration Law
James S. Rosenfeld, Labor and Employment Law, Litigation – Labor Employment Benefits
Bruce L. Sendek, Litigation – Antitrust
Angela Emmerling Shapiro, Information Management & Discovery Law, Information Technology Law
Ivonne M. Soler, Family Law
Nicholas J. Stasevich, Commercial Law, International Trade Law
John C. Valenti, Product Liability
Kurtis T. Wilder, Appellate Law, Arbitration
James E. Wynne, Product Liability
Mitchell Zajac, Intellectual Property and Patent Law,

TROY OFFICE

Jennifer E. Consiglio, Corporate Law, Mergers & Acquisitions Law
Carey A. DeWitt, Labor and Employment Law, Litigation – Labor Employment Benefits
George B. Donnini, Antitrust Law, White-Collar Criminal Defense
W. Patrick Dreisig, Banking & Financial Service Law, Corporate Law
Damien DuMouchel, White-Collar Criminal Defense
Theodore R. Eppel, White-Collar Criminal Defense
Geoffrey L. Gallinger, Land Use & Zoning, Real Estate Law
Debra A. Geroux, Health Care Law
Amy L. Glenn, Trusts and Estates
Beth S. Gotthelf, Energy Law, Environmental Law
David W. Hipp, Banking & Financial Service Law
Robert A. Hudson, International Trade Law
Laura E. Johnson, Corporate Law, Mergers & Acquisitions Law
Susan L. Johnson, Energy Law, Environmental Law
Thomas A. Kabel, Land Use & Zoning, Real Estate Law
Sheldon H. Klein, Antitrust Law, Litigation – Antitrust
William J. Kliffel, Product Liability,  
Bushra A. Malik, Immigration Law
Suzanne M. Miller, Tax Law
Max J. Newman, Bankruptcy and Creditor /Debtor Rights Law
Robert P. Perry, Trusts and Estates
R. Peter Prokop, Tax Law
Thomas B. Radom, Bankruptcy and Creditor/Debtor Rights Law, Litigation – Banking & Finance
Joseph E. Richotte, Appellate Law, White-Collar Criminal Defense
Robert H. Schwartz, Health Care Law
Thomas L. Shaevsky, Employee Benefits Law
Thomas C. Simpson, Litigation – Real Estate
Daniel B. Tukel, Labor and Employment Law, Litigation – Labor Employment Benefits
Roxana Zaha, Real Estate Law

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Detroit-based land use, business, and denominational trust law firm Dalton & Tomich is pleased to announce that Daniel P. Dalton, a founding partner of the firm, has been selected for inclusion in Crain’s Detroit Business’ inaugural list of Notable Real Estate Executives. Dalton, a nationally recognized real estate and religious liberty attorney, is among 30 real estate standouts who have made a substantial contribution to their industry and community, and who have distinguished themselves in the field by innovating, advancing and impacting the business of real estate.

A litigator in commercial land use, riparian rights, and zoning disputes, Dalton’s profile on why he receive the award includes reference to his work with American Tower, Northern Michigan water rights cases, religious property disputes and recent work with a large nonprofit planning to build affordable housing.

In his religious property practice, Dalton has an understanding of the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act of 2000 (RLUIPA). He has handled the business side of religious property for all faiths to protect the religious organization’s right to use its property within the parameters of its spiritual mission and has worked with hundreds of churches, synagogues, mosques, temples and almost all types of religious assembly use throughout the country to secure site plan approval or litigate claims in federal courts. Of the 35 RLUIPA cases filed nationally in 2020, Dalton and his team handled more than 35% of them, prevailing in 99% of the cases. Dalton also works with local churches seeking to separate from their mainline denominations while retaining their property using denominational trust clauses.

An accomplished legal writer, Dalton recently authored “Religious Property Disputes and the Law: House of God, Laws of Man.” Designed as a desk reference for pastors, lay church leaders and the attorneys who serve them, the book was published by the American Bar Association in August 2021. Dalton also wrote the award-winning “Litigating Religious Land Use Cases,” which was updated for a second edition in 2016. He wrote the 2020 e-book about protocols for the United Methodist Church separation titled “What the Proposed UMC Separation Means for Your Church,” and in 2017 he published the e-book “Navigating the United Methodist Church Trust Clause.”

Dalton adds the Crain’s Notable Real Estate Executive title to numerous accolades in both real estate and law. Among them, he was recently named a DBusiness 2022
Top Lawyer in land use and zoning and is a long-standing award winner of Michigan Super Lawyers in the same category, including 2021. In addition to being honored as a Michigan Lawyers Weekly 2021 “Go To Lawyer” for Real Estate and Condo Law, Dalton was named to the legal publication’s 2010 class of Leaders in the Law.

Dalton is also regularly sought out by the media for stories on his high profile cases or topical religious land use issues and has been quoted in The Atlantic, the Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, USA Today, Christianity Today, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and The Tennessean, among others.

Dalton is an active member of the State Bar of Michigan and the Federal Bar Association and is a lifetime member of the American Bar Foundation. Dalton earned a law degree from the University of Detroit Mercy School of Law and a Bachelor of Arts degree from Western Michigan University. Upon graduation from law school, he was a clerk for the Michigan Supreme Court.

He is actively engaged in his church, Trinity Church, an Evangelical Presbyterian Church located near Plymouth where he has held a variety of leadership roles. Dalton was also a citizen leader for the City of Plymouth, where he held roles on the city planning commission and zoning board and served three terms as an elected official on the city commission.

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Jaffe, Raitt, Heuer, & Weiss PC has welcomed new attorneys, Margaux Hyman and Molly Moss to the firm as associates. Hyman joins the firm’s real estate practice
group, while Moss joins the litigation team. Jaffe CEO Jeffrey M. Weiss made the announcement.

Hyman will support the efforts of the real estate practice group by providing expert legal counsel in the areas of commercial, industrial, retail, and residential real estate on behalf of private and institutional developers, builders, management companies, real estate brokers and individuals.

Hyman graduated from Tulane University with a Bachelor of Science degree in Mathematics and earned her law degree from Wayne State University Law School. During her time at Wayne Law, she was a judicial intern for U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Marci B. McIvor, Eastern District of Michigan.

As the latest addition to the firm’s litigation practice group, Moss will provide strategic insight on litigation and dispute matters to ensure the most favorable and efficient outcome is reached for her clients. Prior to joining Jaffe, Moss served as a law clerk for a boutique law firm and worked in the areas of commercial litigation and corporate restructuring, primarily receiverships and bankruptcy proceedings.

Moss is a graduate of Tulane University where she received a Bachelor of Science degree in psychology, with minors in Spanish and sociology. She earned her law degree from Wayne State University Law School.

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Intellectual property specialty law firm Fishman Stewart PLLC is pleased to announce that four firm attorneys have been named to DBusiness magazine’s annual Top Lawyers list for 2022.

The following attorneys were credited with excellence in the following Top Lawyers categories:

Maxwell Goss: 2022 Top Lawyer in “Intellectual Property & Patent Law” and “Litigation – Intellectual Property”

A litigation and trial lawyer, of counsel, Goss represents clients in intellectual property and business cases throughout Michigan and around the country.

John P. Guenther: 2022 Top Lawyer in “Intellectual Property & Patent Law”

Partner Guenther’s practice covers all aspects of IP law, including domestic and international patent acquisition and maintenance, trademark and copyright registration; intellectual property enforcement and litigation; trade secret protection; high-profile product and trademark clearances; large scale due diligence efforts; joint venture and commercial agreements; and licensing.

Douglas P. LaLone: 2022 Top Lawyer in “Intellectual Property & Patent Law”

A patent attorney and engineer, partner LaLone also serves as chair of the firm’s Strategic IP Practice Group, counselling portfolio companies, PE, VC and IB firms on intellectual property strategies, due diligence and portfolio management.

Barbara L. Mandell: 2022 Top Lawyer in “Litigation – Intellectual Property”

Partner Mandell has more than 28 years of experience in complex litigation. Her practice is focused on litigating, arbitrating and counseling her clients on patent, trademark and licensing matters as well as antitrust law.

In addition to DBusiness Top Lawyers accolades, all four attorneys were named 2021 Michigan Super Lawyers and 2022 Best Lawyers® earlier this year.

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Secrest Wardle is proud to announce that four of the firm’s attorneys have been named to the “2022 Top Lawyers in Metro Detroit” list by DBusiness magazine. All four attorneys recognized practice out of Secrest Wardle’s headquarters in Troy.

Thomas J. Azoni is a senior partner at Secrest Wardle. He is a member of the firm’s Amusement and Leisure, General Negligence, Motor Vehicle Litigation, Premises Liability, and Trucking/Commercial Vehicle Litigation Practice Groups. He serves as chair of the General Negligence Practice Group. Azoni has been listed in the Food and Beverage Law category.

Derk W. Beckerleg is an executive partner and managing partner of Secrest Wardle’s Municipal Law Practice Group.  He is a member of the Governmental Litigation and Real Estate Practice Groups, of which he also serves as chair. Beckerleg has been listed in the Municipal Law category.

Nathan J. Edmonds is a senior partner and co-managing partner of Secrest Wardle. He is a member of the firm’s Amusement and Leisure, Motor Vehicle Litigation, Premises Liability, and Property, Fire and Casualty Practice Groups. Edmonds has been listed in the Litigation – Insurance category.

Daniel P. Makarski is a senior partner and member of Secrest Wardle’s Alternative Dispute Resolution Practice Group.  He serves as chair of the Group. Makarski has been listed in the Arbitration and Mediation categories.