Legal People ...

The Kitch firm is proud that the hard work and dedication of the following attorneys has been recognized by their peers leading to their selection as Top Lawyers by DBusiness in their practice areas:

Karen B. Berkery – Labor and Employment Law
Gregory Drutchas – Health Care Law
Christina A. Ginter – Appellate Law
Katharine Gostek – Appellate Law
Andrew M. Harris – Real Estate Law
John Paul Hessburg – Health Care Law
Carina Kraatz – Construction Law
Donald B. Lenderman – Medical Malpractice Law
Meghan Kennedy Riordan – Immigration Law
John M. Sier – Construction Law
Michael J. Watza – Energy Law
Beth A. Wittmann – Appellate Law

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Kerr Russell is once again ranked as a “Best Law Firm” by U.S. News and Best Lawyers.  The ranked areas include the following:

Metropolitan Tier 1 – Detroit

• Construction Law
• Corporate Law
• Health Care Law
• Insurance Law
• Litigation – Antitrust
• Litigation – Construction
• Medical Malpractice Law – Defendants
• Personal Injury Litigation – Defendants

Metropolitan Tier 2 – Detroit

• Antitrust Law
• Land Use & Zoning Law
• Litigation – Bankruptcy
• Municipal Law
• Real Estate Law
• Tax Law

Metropolitan Tier 3 – Detroit

• Appellate Practice
• Bankruptcy and Creditor Debtor Rights / Insolvency and Reorganization Law
• Employee Benefits (ERISA) Law
• Employment Law – Management
• Immigration Law

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Harness IP is pleased to announce that it has been listed as one of the nation’s “Best Law Firms” in the 2023 edition of U.S. News – Best Lawyers®. This is the 11th year in a row the firm has been included in the publication’s list of the nation’s top firms.
The firm also received national recognition in five practice areas and is regionally ranked in 15 practice areas including:

National Tier 2

• Trademark Law

National Tier 3

• Copyright Law
• Litigation – Intellectual Property
• Litigation – Patent
• Patent Law

Metropolitan Tier 1 – Troy

• Copyright Law
• Litigation – Intellectual Property
• Litigation – Patent
• Patent Law
• Trademark Law

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U.S. News & World Report and Best Lawyers in America© have issued the 2023 edition of their “Best Law Firms” rankings and  Williams, Williams, Rattner & Plunkett is pleased to announce that it has once again been recognized in multiple categories.

For 2023, WWRP received Metropolitan Tier 1 honors for the following practice areas:

• Business Organizations (including LLCs and Partnerships)
• Commercial Litigation
• Corporate Law
• Eminent Domain and Condemnation Law
• Family Law
• Land Use & Zoning Law
• Litigation – Land Use & Zoning
• Litigation – Real Estate
• Real Estate Law

The firm was also named to the Metropolitan Tier 2 category for Employment Law – Individuals and Trusts & Estates Law and the Metropolitan Tier 3
category for Copyright Law.

In addition, Williams, Williams, Rattner & Plunkett is pleased to announce that eight attorneys at the firm have been included in the 2023 edition of
DBusiness Magazine’s Top Lawyers in Metro Detroit:

Alexander A. Ayar (Litigation – Commercial)
Robert S. Bick (Corporate Law; Mergers & Acquisitions Law)
William E. Hosler (Real Estate Law)
Robert B. Labe (Trusts & Estates)
Jerome P. Pesick (Litigation – Real Estate; Land Use & Zoning)
Richard E. Rassel (Land Use & Zoning)
Richard D. Rattner (Land Use & Zoning)
C. Kim Shierk (Real Estate Law)

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Sommers Schwartz proudly announces that Michigan Lawyers Weekly has named senior shareholder Matthew Turner to its annual list of “Leaders in the Law.” Turner and the other honorees will be formally recognized at an awards luncheon on December 2.

It’s been more than 30 years since Turner won his first trial. Over the past three decades, he has secured tens of millions of dollars in compensation for individuals and families harmed physically, mentally, and financially by others. He has tallied a near-constant string of victories, even as the pandemic pushed traditional litigation out of the courtroom and onto the internet.

Turner’s practice with personal injury verdicts and settlements have involved complex medical malpractice, birth trauma, wrongful death, and car crash, truck accident, and motorcycle injuries. He has also become a nationally known class action litigator, helping large groups of hourly workers recover unpaid wages and overtime from employers that unlawfully withheld their hard-earned pay.

Turner sits on the executive board of the Michigan Association for Justice and the State Bar of Michigan’s Judicial Qualifications Committee, and he is a frequent speaker and presenter on related topics. He has appeared repeatedly on the lists of Super Lawyers, Best Lawyers, Leading Lawyers, and DBusiness Magazine’s Top Lawyers. Two invitation-only groups—the American Board of Trial Advocates and the Litigation Counsel of America—inducted Turner as a fellow.

In addition, U.S. News & World Report and Best Lawyers in America© recently released their 2023 “Best Law Firms” rankings and Sommers Schwartz has been recognized in multiple categories.

Sommers Schwartz earned Tier 1 rankings – the highest honors in Metropolitan Detroit – in these areas of practice:

• Employment Law – Individuals
• Medical Malpractice Law – Plaintiffs
• Personal Injury Litigation – Plaintiffs

New this year, Sommers Schwartz received a Tier 2 ranking for its Appellate practice.

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Sixty-six Butzel attorneys have been named Top Lawyers in metro Detroit 2023 by DBusiness magazine. 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, Corporate Law, International Trade Law
Joshua J. Chinsky, White-Collar Criminal Defense
Maura Corrigan, Appellate Law
David J. DeVine, Construction Law
Arthur Dudley II, Corporate Law, Securities Law
Eric J. Flessland, Construction Law, Litigation – Construction
Bernard J. Fuhs, Franchise Law, Trade Secrets
Cynthia J. Haffey, Litigation – Commercial
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 LawLitigation – Commercial, Trade Secrets
Brett J. Miller, Labor and Employment Law
Donald B. Miller, Product Liability
Reginald A. Pacis, Immigration Law
James S. Rosenfeld, Labor and Employment Law
Bruce L. Sendek, Litigation – Antitrust
Angela Emmerling Shapiro, Information Management & Discovery 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, Litigation – Patents

Troy office

Jennifer E. Consiglio, Corporate Law, Mergers & Acquisitions Law
Rebecca S. Davies, Labor and Employment Law, Litigation – Labor Employment Benefits
Michael C. Decker, Construction Law, Litigation – Construction
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
Damien DuMouchel, White-Collar Criminal Defense
David F. DuMouchel, Antitrust Law, 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, Mergers & Acquisitions 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
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 and Finance
Joseph E. Richotte, Appellate Law, White-Collar Criminal Defense
Robert H. Schwartz, Health Care Law
Daniel B. Tukel, Labor and Employment Law
Roxana Zaha, Real Estate Law

In addition, Butzel attorney and shareholder Claudia Rast was a featured panelist during a free webinar titled, “Governance in the Cloud – Managing Data Regular,” on Friday, November 18. The program was part of the FinCloud Fridays webinar series.

Rast, who chairs Butzel’s Intellectual Property, Cybersecurity and Emerging Technology Practice Department, 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 security and governance, intellectual property licensing and registration, and the forensic preservation and analysis of electronically stored information.

Rast was appointed to a three-year term to co-chair the American Bar Association (ABA) Cybersecurity Legal Task Force in 2020. Prior to that, she had been appointed to successive one-year terms since 2013.

Rast also 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.

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Personal injury and civil rights law firm Moss & Colella is pleased to announce that firm co-founders David M. Moss and A. Vince Colella have been named 2023 DBusiness Top Lawyers.  Both attorneys were selected in the personal injury category.

Moss has spent his nearly 40-year legal career entirely devoted to his clients in personal injury law representing victims and their families in a variety of injury cases against insurance companies, national corporations, hospitals, municipalities, and individual defendants.  

Known for his courtroom and advocacy skills, Moss has successfully argued at the appellate level, both before the Court of Appeals and the Michigan Supreme Court. Because of his many legal accomplishments and varied courtroom experience, Moss is sought after by both plaintiff and defense attorneys seeking to retain outside counsel to advocate their cases.

Moss received his law degree from the University of Detroit Mercy School of Law.

For more than two decades, Colella has tried and won cases in state and federal courts throughout Michigan. His trial experience includes automobile negligence, police brutality and misconduct, premises liability, trucking accidents, insurance disputes, medical malpractice, sexual harassment, sexual assault, discrimination, and wrongful death.

In recent years, Colella has gained a reputation for his trailblazing litigation efforts in government liability, recreational accidents and civil rights cases.

Colella received his law degree from the University of Detroit Mercy School of Law, where he established in 2020 the A. Vince Colella Scholarship to support law students considering a career in civil rights.

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Foley & Lardner LLP has been named “Law Firm of the Year” in Health Care Law in the 2023 edition of U.S. News - Best Lawyers® “Best Law Firms” guide.

In addition, the firm achieved 29 National Tier 1 rankings and 135 Metropolitan Tier 1 rankings across 16 of its U.S. offices.

Foley’s National and local Tier 1 rankings include:

National Tier 1

• Bankruptcy and Creditor Debtor Rights / Insolvency and Reorganization Law
• Biotechnology Law
• Commercial Litigation
• Corporate Law
• Criminal Defense: White-Collar
• Employee Benefits (ERISA) Law
• Employment Law - Management
• Environmental Law
• Franchise Law
• Health Care Law
• Insurance Law
• Land Use & Zoning Law
• Litigation - Bankruptcy
• Litigation - Construction
• Litigation - Environmental
• Litigation - Intellectual Property
• Litigation - Labor & Employment
• Litigation - Mergers & Acquisitions
• Litigation - Patent
• Litigation - Real Estate
• Litigation - Securities
• Mergers & Acquisitions Law
• Patent Law
• Public Finance Law
• Real Estate Law
• Securities / Capital Markets Law
• Sports Law
• Tax Law
• Trusts & Estates Law

Metropolitan Tier 1 – Detroit

• Bankruptcy and Creditor Debtor Rights / Insolvency and Reorganization Law
• Commercial Litigation
• Corporate Law
• Eminent Domain and Condemnation Law
• Employment Law - Management
• Litigation - Labor & Employment
• Litigation - Mergers & Acquisitions
• Litigation - Tax
• Securities / Capital Markets Law

•           •            •

Nemeth Bonnette Brouwer PC (formerly Nemeth Law PC) is pleased to announce that Nicholas A. Huguelet has been promoted to partner at the Detroit-based management side labor and employment law firm. The announcement was made by Managing Partner Deborah Brouwer.

Huguelet, who has spent his entire legal career focused on labor and employment, represents clients before federal and state courts, administrative agencies, and arbitrators, in Michigan and Ohio. He regularly counsels and represents private and public sector employers in collective bargaining, labor disputes, and statutory and regulatory compliance. Huguelet also handles litigation and agency matters involving discrimination and harassment claims and has found particular success defending companies in arbitration hearings administered by the American Arbitration Association, Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, and others.

Since 2012, Huguelet has exclusively served private and public sector employers, including large and small employers, K-12 public school districts, community colleges, and charter schools. His work in labor and employment pre-dated law school when he worked for a law firm representing labor unions throughout Ohio. Huguelet first joined Nemeth Law in 2016 and after a brief hiatus at another firm, he rejoined the firm in 2020.  

Huguelet was named a Rising Star in Employment and Labor in 2019 and 2020 by Michigan Super Lawyers and honored by Michigan Lawyers Weekly as part of its 2018 class of Up & Coming Lawyers. He is co-chair of the Michigan Defense Trial Counsel Labor & Employment Section and is a member of the State Bar of Michigan, Labor and Employment Law Section and Litigation Section, and the Ohio State Bar Association. Huguelet also served as a member of the Board of Directors of Equity Education Detroit from 2016 to 2021 and was a contributing editor of “The Developing Labor Law.”

Huguelet is licensed to practice in Michigan state courts, Ohio state courts, U.S. District Courts for both the Eastern District of Michigan and Western District of Michigan, the U.S. District Court Northern District of Ohio, and the U.S. Court of Appeals Sixth Circuit. He earned a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science/Economics from Michigan State University in 2007 and a law degree from the University of Toledo College of Law in 2010.

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Dykema’s Rasul Raheem recently completed the Harvard University Vice Provost for Advances in Learning (VPAL) course, “Cybersecurity: Managing Risk in the Information Age.”

The course teaches attendees how to:

• Identify and communicate the detection of a security breach.
• Recommend optimal strategies for responding to a cyber attack and how to prevent further damage.
• Assess the vulnerabilities of an organization’s critical business systems, networks, and data.
• Identify the critical business systems, networks, and data, and their potential vulnerabilities.
• Ensure your organization remains compliant through an understanding of cyber law and the requirements that govern a business or sector.
• Design and implement a risk mitigation strategy for an organization.

Focusing his practice on cybersecurity, business transactions, regulatory, and banking law, Raheem helps clients develop and manage cybersecurity risk mitigation strategies, and finance and lending relationships, develop restructuring and recovery strategies, and resolve issues related to reputational risk, treasury services, bank policy, and credit.

Raheem earned his law degrees from Wayne State University Law School.

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DBusiness magazine recently named eight metro Detroit attorneys from Plunkett Cooney to its 2023 list of “Top Lawyers.”

Below is a list of the Plunkett Cooney attorney who received the 2023 DBusiness Top Lawyer honor:

Michael P. Ashcraft Jr. (partner, Bloomfield Hills) – Legal Malpractice Law
Douglas C. Bernstein (partner, Bloomfield Hills) – Bankruptcy & Financial Service Law
Stephanie M. Brochert (associate, Bloomfield Hills) – Insurance Law
Charles W. Browning (partner, Bloomfield Hills) – Insurance Law
Jeffrey S. Hengeveld (partner, Bloomfield Hills) – Legal Malpractice
Mark S. Kopson (partner, Bloomfield Hills) – Health Care Law
Kenneth C. Newa (partner, Bloomfield Hills) – Insurance Law
Scott H. Sirich (partner, Bloomfield Hills) – Litigation - Construction