Legal People (Aug 2)

Secrest, Wardle, Lynch Hampton, Truex & Morley PC
Secrest, Wardle, Lynch, Hampton, Truex, & Morley PC is pleased to announce that Drew Broaddus, an appellate attorney, recently joined the firm’s appellate department.

After obtaining his B.A. from Alma College, Broaddus attended Valparaiso University School of Law where he obtained his law degree in 2002.

Broaddus is a member of the State Bar of Michigan and the Michigan State Bar’s Public Corporation Law Section. His involvement with this section includes publishing two articles; one regarding exclusionary zoning as analyzed in recent decisions of the Court of Appeals and the other focused on the possibility of Michigan courts moving toward a “shocks the conscience” standard for land use claims.

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Oakland County Board of Commissioners
The Oakland County Board of Commissioners is pleased to announce that Family Law attorney Henry S. Gornbein has been appointed to serve as a member of the Friend of the Court Citizens’ Advisory Committee for a three-year term which began July 1 and will last through June 30, 2013.

Gornbein continues his Family Law practice, as well as shooting “Practical Law,” and doing podcasts on the Internet with www.divorcesourceradio.com.

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Jaffe Raitt Heuer & Weiss, P.C.
Peter Alter, partner with Southfield-based Jaffe Raitt Heuer Weiss PC has been appointed president-elect of the 2010 Oakland County Bar Association (OCBA) Board of Directors. Jaffe CEO Richard Zussman made the announcement.

Alter has also been re-elected to a three-year term on the OCBA Board of Directors that commenced in July 2010, and has completed a one-year term as vice president.

Alter is a member of the firm’s litigation practice group and his practice focuses in the area of complex commercial litigation, with particular expertise in real estate, banking, partnership, insurance law and shareholder disputes. He is a graduate of Brandeis University and a graduate of Columbia Law School.

Alter has been consecutively listed in The Best Lawyers in America and in Michigan Super Lawyers Magazine since 2007, as well as having been previously recognized in prior years. In addition, he was also named to the 2009 Michigan Super Lawyers Top 100 list. He currently serves as master emeritus and member of the Executive Committee of the American Inn of Court-Oakland County Chapter. He is also chairman of the Executive Committee and immediate past-president of the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Detroit.

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Honigman Miller Schwartz and Cohn LLP
Julie E. Robertson, Insurance and Regulatory Department chair and partner at Honigman Miller Schwartz and Cohn LLP, was featured in the South Carolina Captive Insurance Association’s (SCCIA) webinar entitled, “Captive Tax: Hot Button Issues for the IRS and How to Prepare For Them.” The interactive online presentation discussed the trends in recent IRS audits, including those challenging premium deductibility and addressing federal excise tax liability, as well as the steps necessary to prepare for these essential issues.

Robertson concentrates her practice in the area of alternative risk financing with 15 years of experience in representing taxable and tax-exempt organizations across the country in connection with alternative risk programs. Furthermore, she has experience with all aspects of captive insurance companies, self-insurance programs, risk purchasing groups, rent-a-captives and risk retention groups.

Robertson earned her law degree from the Wayne State University Law School. She earned her B.A. from the University of Michigan.

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Butzel Long
Butzel Long attorney Clara DeMatteis Mager has been elected president of the Italian American Bar Association of Michigan (IABAM). Previously, she served as vice president and a board member of the Association.

Based in Butzel Long’s Detroit office, Mager is the Practice Group manager of the firm’s Immigration Practice Group. She focuses her practice on business and family immigration issues including all aspects of the international movement of personnel, inbound and outbound work-authorized nonimmigrant (temporary) and immigrant (permanent) status, immigration consequences of mergers, acquisitions and corporate restructuring, employer sanctions, and immigration law audits (e.g. labor condition applications and I-9). Mager serves on the firm’s Strategic Planning Committee, is the chairperson of the firm’s Diversity and Retention Committee, and is a member of the firm’s Global Automotive Industry Group.

Mager is a frequent speaker on business immigration to professional, educational and business organizations. She also provides training sessions to clients on numerous topics including U.S. nonimmigrant visas, U.S. permanent resident processing and strategy building to streamline the process, Form I-9 completion and compliance training, outbound non-U.S. immigration general strategic planning, and workplace compliance related to immigration.

Mager has coordinated and presented numerous programs at Butzel Long and for organizations including the Federal Bar Association, Genesee Area Human Resources Association, the French American Chamber of Commerce, Wayne County Family Lawyers, and the Michigan Institute for Continuing Legal Education.

Mager is a member the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA), American Bar Association, Federal Bar Association (a co-chair of Immigration Committee), State Bar of Michigan (past chairperson of the International Law Section and previously held positions of chair-elect, secretary, treasurer, council member and chairperson of the Immigration Committee), Women Lawyers Bar Association and Italian American Bar Association of Michigan (current president). She also is active in Lex Mundi’s Immigration Group (regional chair and former chairperson), the J.D./L.L.B. Advisory Board, University of Detroit Mercy School of Law/University of Windsor Faculty of Law (board member and past chair), and the Italian American Alliance for Business and Technology (board member). Mager is a graduate of the Detroit Regional Chamber of Commerce Leadership Detroit XXII Class. She is listed in “The Best Lawyers in America” (Immigration) and “Michigan Super Lawyers” (Immigration). Mager is a Martindale-Hubbell featured AV Peer Review Rated Lawyer.

Mager is active with Cornerstone Schools and in the community working on pro bono immigration matters.

Mager is a graduate of the Detroit College of Law.

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Ackerman Ackerman & Dynkowski
Anthony Bologna, associate attorney with Bloomfield Hills-based Ackerman Ackerman Dynkowski PC has been elected vice-chair of the Condemnation Committee of the Real Property, Trust Estate Law Section of the American Bar Association. Managing Partner Alan T. Ackerman made the announcement.

Bologna will serve a one-year term as vice-chair that commences on Aug. 9.

Bologna is a 2004 graduate of the Michigan State University Eli Broad College of Business, and earned his law degree from University of Detroit Mercy Law School in 2008. In summer 2009, he took a temporary leave of absence from the firm to serve as a pro bono litigator for the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office, where he independently tried felony trials and returned a guilty as charged verdict on all eight jury trials.

In addition to his vice-chair position, Bologna is a member of the Real Property and Litigation Sections of the State Bar of Michigan, the American Bar Association and the Italian American Bar Association.

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Maddin, Hauser, Wartell, Roth, & Heller P.C.
“Chambers USA: America’s Leading Lawyers for Business” 2010 has recognized four attorneys at the Southfield-based firm Maddin, Hauser, Wartell, Roth, & Heller P.C. Real Estate practice recipients were Michael W. Maddin, president emeritus and founder; Mark R. Hauser, managing director and founder and Lowell D. Salesin, a shareholder and member of the Executive Management Committee. Charles M. Lax, a firm shareholder, was ranked in the Employee Benefits & Executive Compensation list.

Maddin was noted to be an extremely experienced practitioner in the field who has earned the respect and praise of his peers through his 45 years of corporate and real estate work.

Hauser was lauded as being an expert deal maker in real estate acquisitions, dispositions and financing. Salesin was said to be “a very bright younger lawyer, who is really coming into his own.”

In the area of Employee Benefits & Executive Compensation, Lax, a former member of the IRS’ Advisory Committee on Tax Exempt and Government Entities, was recognized for his assistance on 401(k) plans. His clients note that “his expertise is well documented and the results he produces have exceeded expectations.”