LEGAL PEOPLE

The D.O.V.E. (Development of Vietnam Endeavors) Fund, whose mission is to provide humanitarian and development assistance to areas of Vietnam, recently recognized Brian McKeen and McKeen & Associates for its steadfast support of the children of Vietnam.

The D.O.V.E. Fund Board of Trustees acknowledged McKeen and McKeen & Associates on its 20th anniversary with a commemorative plague which read: "For your generous support for more than a decade and for your steadfast dedication and longstanding commitment to assisting the D.O.V.E. Fund pursue its humanitarian mission to bring the children of Vietnam a future filled with love, hope and opportunity."

McKeen & Associates supports the fund's Agent Orange projects. During the Vietnam conflict more than 50 years ago, Agent Orange, a powerful herbicide, was used to clear foliage. Agent Orange contained diozide, a deadly chemical which caused chromosomal damage and is still impacting residents today who suffer from birth defects, early onset cancer and other disabling ailments. Some of the projects the D.O.V.E. Fund has worked on through the years includes building homes and providing financial support for victims of Agent Orange and land mines and their families.

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Dickinson Wright PLLC is pleased to announce that Joseph R. Owens has joined the firm's Troy office as a member.

Owens advises businesses and individuals in trust and estate planning, tax planning, business succession planning and general business law.

He counsels high net worth clients regarding strategies to mitigate or eliminate federal estate, gift and generation-skipping transfer taxes through the use of gifting plans, irrevocable gift trusts, irrevocable life insurance trusts, charitable remainder trusts, grantor retained annuity trusts, family limited liability companies and family limited partnerships.

He advises clients on business succession planning through the use of gifting plans, recapitalization agreements, buy-sell agreements, employment agreements and deferred compensation agreements.

Owens is a member of the State Bar of Michigan, the Detroit Economic Club, the Financial and Estate Planning Council of Macomb County, the Macomb County Bar Association, and the Macomb County Probate Bar. He is recognized as a leader in his field by Michigan Super Lawyers "Rising Stars."

Owens received his B.A. from Oakland University and his law degree from Wayne State University Law School.

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Western Michigan University Cooley Law School Distinguished Professor Emeritus Otto Stockmeyer has been awarded the 2020 Cohn Prize for Law and Public Policy by The Michigan Academy of Science, Arts & Letters.

Stockmeyer was honored for his 2019 academic paper, "Three Faces of Restitution," which traces the evolution of restitution as a subject of law school study and summarizes its principal components and practical applications. The paper is to be published in the upcoming issue of the Academy's journal, Michigan Academician.

"My thanks go to WMU-Cooley Law School for its strong support of faculty scholarship, to the Michigan Academy for providing a means for sharing scholarship across disciplines, and to Judge Avern Cohn, whose generosity recognizes scholarship in the fields of law and public policy," said Stockmeyer.

Named after federal Judge Avern Cohn of Detroit for his patronage of legal scholarship and the Academy, The Cohn Prize recognizes the best scholarly paper on law or public policy.

Published: Mon, Mar 30, 2020