LEGAL PEOPLE

Honigman Miller Schwartz and Cohn LLP

Honigman, Miller, Schwartz, and Cohn LLP is pleased to announce that Lawrence D. McLaughlin, chair of the firm's Real Estate Department, was named co-chair of the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC) 2015 U.S. Law Conference, its 45th annual Law Conference, and will serve as chair of the Conference in 2016. McLaughlin has served on the Law Conference Program Planning Committee since 2004 and will be the second Honigman partner to serve as chair of the Conference.

McLaughlin will serve as co-chair with Chair Deborah Stear De Luca, co-chair of Holland and Knight's National Retail Development and Leasing Team, for the 45th annual Law Conference.

McLaughlin represents developers of commercial, industrial and residential real estate locally, nationally and internationally. He advises clients regarding acquisitions, land use, entitlements, development incentives, entity formation, joint ventures, financing, construction, leasing, taxation, sales, workouts and restructuring.

McLaughlin has been recognized in Chambers USA: America's Leading Lawyers for Business as one of a handful of "Star" performers since 2005. He also has been recognized by The Best Lawyers in America since 1991 and among the top 100 lawyers by Michigan Super Lawyers since 2006. In addition, McLaughlin has been named a "Leader in the Law" by Michigan Lawyers Weekly and recognized in the International Who's Who of Real Estate Lawyers. McLaughlin is also a fellow of the American College of Real Estate Lawyers and is a member of its board of governors.

He earned a law degree from Wayne State University Law School and a B.S.M.E. from the General Motors Institute.

Honigman is also pleased to announce that Tara E. Mahoney, a partner in the firm's Labor and Employment Department in Detroit, was elected to serve on the board of directors for SafeHouse Center. This nonprofit organization provides support for those impacted by domestic violence or sexual assault who live or work in Washtenaw County.

Mahoney counsels a wide range of employers on complex employment issues including workplace harassment and discrimination; employment agreements and non-competition agreements; workplace policies, handbooks and procedures; leave laws, terminations and layoffs. She also litigates these employment matters on behalf of employers and managers in federal and state courts and before federal and state administrative agencies. Mahoney has been recognized as a Michigan Super Lawyers' Rising Star since 2009.

Along with her board position with SafeHouse, Mahoney also serves on the board of directors for the Ann Arbor Learning Community Charter School.

She earned a law degree from the University of Michigan Law School and a B.G.S. from the University of Michigan.

In addition, Judy B. Calton, a partner in Honigman's Litigation Department and the Bankruptcy, Reorganization and Creditor Rights Practice Group, has been elected treasurer of the Business Law Section Council of the State Bar of Michigan.

Calton represents clients in negotiations, disputes and in insolvency and bankruptcy related litigation. She counsels banks, finance companies, manufacturers and other business clients in commercial law, corporate reorganization and transactions.

Calton serves on the Advisory Committee and the Rule Subcommittee of the Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Michigan. Calton chaired a committee which drafted revisions to MCR 2.622 on receiverships, adopted by the Michigan Supreme Court and effective March 1, 2014. Calton has been recognized by Michigan Super Lawyers since 2007 and among their top 50 women attorneys in 2009, 2012, 2013 and 2014 and by The Best Lawyers in American since 2010. Calton received the State Bar of Michigan Unsung Hero Award in 2012.

She earned a law degree from Wayne State University Law School and a B.A. from the University of Illinois.

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Warner, Norcross, & Judd LLP

A partner from Warner, Norcross, & Judd LLP has been elected to serve on the governing council of the State Bar of Michigan Environmental Section. Steven C. Kohl has been selected to serve a two-year term as a committee member.

Kohl is a member of the firm's Resources, Energy and Environment Practice Group. He focuses his practice on air and air quality issues.

Warner Norcross partner Kurt M. Brauer, also a member of the practice group, completed his term as chair of the council on Sept. 30.

In addition, four Warner, Norcross, & Judd LLP attorneys have been selected to participate in executive leadership programs in southeast Michigan.

The attorneys are:

Randall J. Peck, Leadership Detroit.

Patrick M. Gunton, Leadership Oakland.

Joseph R. Owens, Leadership Macomb.

Anissa C. Hudy, Inforum Executive Leadership.

Select business professionals and community and government leaders are chosen to take part in the nine-month Leadership Detroit, Oakland and Macomb programs. The classes will give current and emerging leaders the opportunity to explore emerging issues that will impact Macomb, Detroit, Oakland counties in Southeast Michigan, as well as the bottom line of their own organizations.

Inforum invites business professionals, non-profit executives and government leaders to participate in the four-month leadership program. The class will give personalized instruction and focused coaching that allows participants to explore their personal leadership style, understand what it takes to be an effective leader and receive personal coaching and feedback.

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Miller Canfield

José P. Ceppi, former assistant general counsel of Chrysler Group LLC, has joined Miller Canfield as Of Counsel in the firm's International and Automotive practices. He will be resident in the firm's Troy office.

Ceppi's practice is centered on international law generally, but he has especially focused on Mexico and Latin American markets. He has engaged in significant matters in virtually every major Latin American country over the past 20 years.

His practice specialties include international distribution, mergers and acquisitions, divestitures, corporate and commercial law, corporate governance, international transactions, joint ventures, franchising and complex U.S. legal regulations including export controls and the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.

He received his law degree (1981) from Georgetown University Law Center.

In addition, Nicole M. Baker has joined Miller Canfield as a senior attorney in the Troy office in the Corporate Group. She represents companies, investors, and lenders in a variety of business transactions, including corporate law, mergers and acquisitions, and commercial transactions.

Baker joins Miller Canfield as a senior attorney from Plunkett Cooney in Bloomfield Hills where she was an associate.

She received her law degree (2006) from the University of Detroit Mercy School of Law and her B.A. (1992) from the University of Michigan.

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Wayne State University Law School

Jocelyn Benson, dean of Wayne State University Law School, and three Wayne Law alumnae Oakland County Circuit Court Chief Judge Nanci Grant, Shirley Kaigler and Oakland County Circuit Court Judge Wendy Potts have been selected as four of 27 Esteemed Women of Michigan 2014.

The awards were presented Monday, Sept. 29, at the Royal Park Hotel in Rochester during a luncheon benefit for the nonprofit Dr. Gary Burnstein Community Health Clinic, the largest free health clinic in Oakland County.

Benson was named dean of the law school in June after serving as interim dean since December 2012. An expert on civil rights law, education law and election law, Benson, 36, is the youngest woman ever to lead a U.S. law school and has garnered numerous honors for her work.

In 2010, her book, "State Secretaries of State: Guardians of the Democratic Process," was published. It is the first major book on the role of the secretary of state in enforcing election and campaign finance laws. That same year, she was the Democratic candidate for Michigan's secretary of state.

Benson is founder and executive director of the nonpartisan Michigan Center for Election Law, which hosts projects that support transparency and integrity in elections. She also is founder and director of Military Spouses of Michigan. She earned her law degree from Harvard Law School.

Grant, Wayne Law class of 1989, was elected to the Oakland Circuit Court in 1996, and appointed chief judge in 2009. She is past presiding judge of the General Jurisdiction Division and past president of the Michigan Judges Association. She worked in private practice specializing in commercial litigation before joining the court.

She has earned many prior honors, including the Wayne State Alumni Association Headliner Award and Michigan Lawyers Weekly "Leader in the Law." She has been singled out by the Detroit Free Press for exemplary judicial attendance and selected by Crain's Detroit Business as one of the "40 under 40." She serves on numerous boards as a volunteer and also served as director of Wayne Law's honors program.

Kaigler, who earned her master of laws degree in taxation from Wayne Law in 1993, is a partner with Jaffe, Raitt, Heuer, & Weiss, specializing in probate and trust administration, estate, tax, retirement and business succession planning, as well as elder law, health care proxy and special needs law issues. She is president of the D. Augustus Straker Bar Foundation. She earned her bachelor's degree from WSU and her law degree from the University of Michigan Law School.

She is the author of several books on elder law and estate planning and has been honored numerous times for her work, including being named as a Michigan Lawyers Weekly "Leader in the Law," as a "Michigan Super Lawyer" by that publication and to Best Lawyers in America.

Potts, Wayne Law class of 1977, was appointed to Oakland County Circuit Court in 1997 and has been elected to the bench ever since. She served as chief judge pro tempore from 2002 to 2003 and chief judge from 2004 to 2009. She was a magistrate in 48th District Court from 1984 to 1995.

She has served through Michigan Supreme Court appointments on the high court's Model Civil Jury Instructions Committee and as trustee of the Michigan Supreme Court Historical Society. In addition, Potts has served various volunteer posts, including as president of the Natural Resources Trust Fund, a member of the Governor's Task Force on Domestic Violence, co-chair of the State Bar of Michigan Children's Justice Committee and member of the Board of Child Abuse and Neglect Council of Oakland County.

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Secrest Wardle

Krystal D. Hermiz, along with several other professionals from the Metro Detroit Chaldean Community, recently traveled to Washington, D.C. to attend the In Defense of Christians Inaugural Summit. The event took place September 9-11. Secrest Wardle sponsored Hermiz in her participation at the Summit.

Metro Detroit is home to one of the largest Chaldean communities in the United States, numbering approximately 150,000. Hermiz, a first generation Chaldean American and past president of the Chaldean American Bar Association, is actively involved in community efforts to help Christians in Iraq displaced by the present violence.

While attending the Summit the group worked to push Senate Resolution 530 which calls for humanitarian efforts, safe havens, and timely processing of visas. The push was successful as President Barack Obama met with patriarchs and bishops of the Assyrian, Chaldean, and Syriac communities to discuss the role the United States will play in creating and protecting the Nineveh Provence, a safe haven for the currently displaced Iraqi Christians.

Hermiz, along with her group, met with numerous congressmen, congresswomen, and senators. The group also had an opportunity to meet with Michigan representatives to thank them for their support of the Michigan Chaldean Community.

On September 19, 2014, SR 530 passed. Passage of SR 530 is recognized as the beginning of an ongoing commitment by both the legislative and executive branches regarding the severity of the events occurring in Iraq, specifically the violent displacement of minorities.

Hermiz received her Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from the University of Michigan in 2004 and her law degree from the University of Detroit Mercy School of Law in 2008. She is an active member of the State Bar of Michigan and Oakland County Bar Association. She has been named to the 2013 and 2014 Michigan Rising Stars list in SuperLawyers magazine. She has also been named to the 2014 list of the "Top Women Attorneys in Michigan" in Hour Detroit.

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Howard & Howard Attorneys PLLC

Howard & Howard Attorneys PLLC is pleased to announce that Crain's Detroit Business named Stephen P. Dunn to the 2014 Class of "40 Under 40."

The 2014 Class of "40 under 40," winners were profiled in the Oct. 6 issue of Crain's Detroit Business and will be honored at an awards event at the MGM Grand on November 19.

Dunn is a trial attorney. He prosecutes and defends business disputes on behalf of automotive suppliers, health care providers, financial institutions, real estate development companies, defense contractors, construction companies, and businesses in a wide variety of other industries. His significant business litigation experience includes supplier-focused automotive litigation, supply chain litigation, business ownership oppression litigation involving business stakeholders, and employment litigation involving non-competition and non-solicitation contract provisions.

Dunn served as an assistant prosecuting attorney for the Oakland County Prosecutor's Office prior to joining Howard & Howard. He is also a commissioned officer in the United States Army Reserve JAG Corps, where he has served as a prosecutor and military magistrate for an extended period on active duty. As a civilian and military prosecutor, Dunn was lead trial counsel on dozens of jury and bench trials, attaining convictions in the great majority. He has completed Army Airborne and Air Assault schools.

Dunn received his law degree from Wayne State University Law School in 2005 and his B.A. (Phil) from LeMoyne College in Syracuse, NY in 2002. He studied in Ireland at University College Cork.

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Wayne State University Law School

On Friday, Oct. 10, Nick Schroeck, a Wayne State University Law School assistant (clinical) professor, headed to China for a month of teaching at the Northwest University of Politics and Law in Xi'an. His visit will continue Wayne Law's efforts to build relationships with Chinese universities and encourage further faculty exchanges, he said.

Wayne Law this fall began offering a master of laws degree in U.S. law for foreign law students and lawyers. The Wayne Law program is in response to a growing market of foreign lawyers seeking advanced degrees in U.S. law.

Schroeck, who is director of the Transnational Environmental Law Clinic at Wayne Law and executive director of the Great Lakes Environmental Law Center, already has prepared a course for his Chinese law students.

"First, I will lecture on the history of modern environmental law, and then we will discuss various treaties and international agreements and accords," he said. "The course will also cover an introduction to U.S. environmental law and policy, including discussion of leading U.S. cases. Finally, I will lecture on emerging trends and themes in international environmental law and policy, including a discussion on climate change and new technological advances that are changing the game for renewable energy."

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Plunkett Cooney

Plunkett Cooney insurance coverage attorney Amy L. Felder was recently selected to chair the DRI The Voice of the Defense Bar's annual "Insurance Coverage and Claims Institute" (ICCI) conference one of only two conferences sponsored by DRI's Insurance Law Committee annually.

"It's an honor to be selected as chair of such a popular national conference," said Felder, who is an attorney at Plunkett Cooney. "It's a tremendous responsibility, and I look forward to working with the ICCI steering committee members, including two of my fellow Plunkett Cooney colleagues, to provide valuable insight and tools for those of us in the insurance coverage industry."

In her role as program chair, Felder is responsible for all aspects of the conference, including creating the program to deal with issues of timely importance and interest to DRI members, drafting the program brochure, confirming speakers, ensuring the program meets all continuing legal education and ethical requirements and managing a steering committee of over 40 other insurance coverage attorneys and insurance industry professionals. The ICCI is DRI's flagship conference for coverage counsel and insurance professionals.

Felder, who works in Plunkett Cooney's Bloomfield Hills office, represents insurance companies throughout the United States in a wide variety of complex insurance coverage disputes, including product liability, construction defects, environmental contamination, toxic torts, automotive and bad faith claims. Felder also routinely counsels clients through coverage opinions arising out of claims for bodily injury and /or property damage, personal and advertising injury, rescission and fraud and misrepresentation.

Felder received her undergraduate degree from Michigan State University in 1999, and she is a 2002 graduate of DePaul University College of Law. She is licensed to practice law in Michigan and Illinois. Felder is a member of the Insurance and Indemnity Law Section of the State Bar of Michigan, the Illinois State Bar Association and the American Bar Association. She serves as vice-chair of Retention for DRI's Insurance Law Committee's Membership Committee and is the Chair of the Insurance Law Committee's Long Tail and Toxic Torts Subcommittee.

In addition, attorney Warren J. White recently joined Plunkett Cooney as a member of its Insurance Law Practice Group.

A member of the firm's Bloomfield Hills office, White represents insurance companies in complex coverage matters, including claims related to environmental contamination, construction defects, product liability and claims involving allegations of bad faith, personal injury and advertising injury.

In addition to his insurance law practice, White has experience working in various areas of corporate and healthcare-related matters, including acquisitions, commercial development, privately-held stock purchases and sales, contract disputes and employment matters.

A member of the State Bar of Michigan, the Association of Corporate Counsel and the American Bar Association, White received his law degree from University of Detroit Mercy School of Law in 2009 and his undergraduate degree from Western Michigan University in 2006.

Plunkett Cooney also announces that Michigan Super Lawyers magazine recently named 29 of the firm's attorneys to the 2014 list of "Super Lawyers."

Mary Massaron, Plunkett Cooney's Appellate Law Practice Group Leader, received special recognition by the magazine for the eighth consecutive year with her inclusion among the state's top 100 attorneys and the top 50 women lawyers. In addition to being a member of the American Academy of Appellate Lawyers and numerous other honors, Massaron has the distinction of being a past president of the DRI The Voice of the Defense Bar, an international organization of defense attorneys and in-house corporate counsel.

Below is a list of Plunkett Cooney's partners who have received the 2014 Michigan Super Lawyer designation:

Bloomfield Hills office

- Michael P. Ashcraft Jr. Professional Liability: Defense.

- Douglas C. Bernstein Bankruptcy.

- Charles W. Browning Insurance Coverage.

- Henry B. Cooney Civil Litigation Defense.

- Dennis G. Cowan Land Use/Zoning.

- Jerome A. Galante Personal Injury Defense: Products

- Jeffrey C. Gerish Appellate.

- Robert G. Kamenec Appellate.

- Mark S. Kopson Health Care.

- Theresa Smith Lloyd Employment Litigation Defense.

- Stanley C. Moore III Employment & Labor.

- Kenneth C. Newa Insurance Coverage.

- Scott H. Sirich Construction Litigation.

- Thomas P. Vincent Professional Liability: Defense.

- Michael D. Weaver Employment Litigation Defense.

Detroit office

- Loretta M. Ames Personal Injury Defense: General.

- James R. Geroux Workers' Compensation.

- Stanley A. Prokop Insurance Coverage.

- Mary Catherine Rentz Insurance Coverage.

Mount Clemens office

- D. Jennifer Andreou Personal Injury Defense: Medical Malpractice.

- Lawrence R. Donaldson Alternative Dispute Resolution.

- Peter W. Peacock Government.