LEGAL PEOPLE

Howard & Howard Attorneys PLLC

Howard & Howard Attorneys PLLC is pleased to announce that Albert A. Abbou has joined the firm. He will practice out of the firm's Royal Oak office.

Abbou prepares and prosecutes domestic and international patent applications with an emphasis in the computer, electrical, and mechanical arts, as well as patents in the areas of business methods and electronic commerce. His practice and experience comprises a variety of industries, including the automotive, manufacturing, telecommunication, thermal, and medical industries. He also drafts validity and non-infringement opinions and provides litigation support to help enforce the intellectual property rights of a diverse group of clients.

Abbou received his B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Michigan State University in 2003. In 2008, he received his law degree from Ave Maria School of Law. Prior to attending law school, he worked as an engineer for DTE Energy Co. and Alcoa Inc. Abbou is licensed to practice in the State of Michigan and before the United States Patent and Trademark Office.

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Dickinson Wright PLLC

Dickinson Wright PLLC is pleased to announce that attorney Christopher A. Cornwall has been named a "2018 Client Service All-Star" by BTI Consulting Group. Cornwall is one of only 328 lawyers in the United States who were selected for this honor.

Cornwall is a member in the firm's Detroit office and focuses his practice on Commercial and Business Litigation and Construction Law. With a depth of experience in commercial and business litigation, he has represented corporations in a wide range of business disputes, including breach of contract, tortious interference, fraud, non-compete agreements, shareholder claims and buy-sell agreements. He has defended class actions and has counseled business and private owners in real estate matters, including adverse possession, eminent domain, zoning issues, restrictive covenants, variances, boundary disputes, title issues and nuisance claims. He has also represented national and local construction companies in construction disputes, including lien and bond claims, delays, scheduling, cost escalation, differing site conditions, defective design, cardinal change, extras, and cumulative impact claims, as well as claims involving Departments of Transportation.

Cornwall is a member of the American Bar Association's Forum on the Construction Industry, the Federal Bar Association, and the Detroit Bar Association. He is also recognized as a leader in his field by Best Lawyers in America. Cornwall received his B.A. from the University of Michigan and his law degree from Case Western Reserve University.

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Butzel Long

Butzel Long attorney and shareholder Linda J. Armstrong has been appointed chair of the firm's Immigration Practice Department.

Armstrong concentrates her practice in the area of business and family immigration law, including all aspects involved with the international movement of personnel; immigration consequences of corporate restructuring, mergers and acquisitions; employer and workplace compliance issues, including I-9 and H-1B public access file investigations; inbound and outbound work-authorized immigrant and nonimmigrant matters; and labor certification. At the same time, Armstrong is a member of the firm's Paralegal Committee and the firm's Global Automotive Industry Group.

She provides on-site training to business clients on numerous topics, including US nonimmigrant visas; US permanent resident processing; employer compliance issues, including I-9 completion and compliance and H-1B public access file compliance; and outbound general strategic planning. Armstrong is a frequent speaker on business immigration to professional and business organizations, including the International Law Section of the State Bar of Michigan, Michigan Infrastructure & Transportation Association, Walsh College, and the Original Equipment Suppliers Association (OESA).

Armstrong has helped organize and has presented at Butzel Long's full-day Immigration Seminar and/or the Butzel Long's Annual Labor, Employment and Immigration Law Forum for the past 20 years.

She is a member of the American Bar Association; Federal Bar Association, past Immigration Committee co-chair; State Bar of Michigan: International Law Section, past council member and chair, Immigration Committee; Detroit Bar Association; American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA); AILA Michigan Chapter and past Membership Committee chair and Department of Labor liaison.

Prior to joining Butzel Long, Armstrong was an associate at another major Detroit law firm, where her practice was concentrated in the area of immigration law. She also was employed as associate general counsel with Federal-Mogul Corporation where she had responsibility for legal matters relating to employment relations, product liability, advertising, political action committees, and immigration.

Armstrong is listed in The Best Lawyers in America (Immigration Law). She is a graduate of Madonna College and Detroit College of Law.

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Jaffe Raitt Heuer & Weiss, P.C.

Judith Greenstone Miller, partner at Jaffe, Raitt, Heuer, & Weiss PC, moderated the program The "New" (Not So New) Uniform Assignment of Rents Statute A Sign of Better Things to Come? during the American Law Association's Business Law Spring Meeting held April 12-14 in Orlando.

The program explored real estate financing, with particular attention to the current ways in which a lender may take a security interest in and perfect such interest in rents generated from the real property. It also covered how a lender effectuates its rights in the rents when the borrower defaults, and the impact and effect of the commencement of a bankruptcy case by a borrower on the lender's rights and remedies.

Greenstone Miller is a member of Jaffe's Bankruptcy and Insolvency, and Privacy and Datasecurity Practice Groups, specializing in creditors' rights and commercial litigation. Her practice involves representing debtors, secured and unsecured creditors, creditors' committees and trustees in bankruptcy proceedings, primarily involving Chapter 11 reorganizations.

She also represents parties in litigation in complex commercial disputes. She has testified numerous times on pending bankruptcy legislation before the National Bankruptcy Review Commission and the Judiciary Committees of the United States House of Representatives and the United States Senate. She is a prolific writer and lectures nationally on bankruptcy, ethics and creditors' rights issues.

In addition, Jaffe Partner Ingrid Szura will discuss real estate legal hurdles for M&A (mergers and acquisitions) transactions during the Association for Corporate Growth (ACG) Detroit's "10 Ways to Keep Real Estate from Killing the Deal" panel. The event will be held Thursday, April 19, at Colliers International in Southfield beginning at 7:30 a.m.

According to ACG Detroit, the panel highlights best practices for evaluating real estate involved in M&A transactions. Some of the topics to be covered include: environmental liabilities; cost optimization strategies; structuring of debt; disposition and sale of assets; sale/leaseback options; and overall ownership structures. Speakers will address some of the challenges they have seen during their careers in the real estate space and will also discuss ways to avoid such challenges.

Szura is deputy leader of Jaffe's Real Estate Practice Group, where she has an active practice representing owners, developers and investors in all aspects of commercial real estate transactions, including acquisitions, leasing and financing.

Published: Mon, Apr 16, 2018