Butzel Long
J. Scott Martin, an intellectual property attorney, who recently joined Butzel Long as an associate, passed the registration examination for admission to practice before the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
Martin is a graduate of Stetson University College of Law and Wayne State University. While in law school, he was employed full-time as a proposal engineer with CAE USA Inc., a manufacturer of simulation technologies and training services to defense customers, airlines, aircraft manufacturers, mining companies and healthcare specialists.
As a lead proposal engineer for CAE USA Inc., Martin responded to U.S. and Foreign Military requests for proposals to deliver flight simulators and gained valuable experience identifying required intellectual property.
Martin is a member of The Florida Bar.
In addition, several Butzel Long attorneys and practice areas have been recognized by Chambers USA 2014 — America’s Leading Lawyers for Business 2014 — The Client’s Guide. The firm’s Immigration Practice received national recognition. Moreover, attorney and shareholder, David F. DuMouchel is ranked in the First Tier in White-Collar Crime & Government Investigations.
The firm’s Immigration Practice is led by Clara DeMatteis Mager, a shareholder who has been with Butzel Long for 29 years. Other local shareholders in the group include: Linda Armstrong, Reginald (Reggie) Pacis, Bushra Malik, and Elissa Noujaim Pinto. The practice also includes several very experienced paralegals. Butzel Long also received national recognition in the 2014 “Best Law Firms,” rankings by U.S. News Media Group, the publisher of U.S. News & World Report, and Best Lawyers®.
Additional Butzel Long practice areas included in Chambers USA are:
• Corporate/ Mergers & Acquisitions (Band 4).
• Labor and Employment (Band 3).
• Litigation: General Commercial (Band 3).
Other Butzel Long attorneys highlighted in Chambers USA 2014 include:
—Stephen A. Bromberg, Real Estate (Senior Statesman).
—John P. Hancock Jr., Labor and Employment (Band 3).
—Justin G. Klimko, Corporate/ Mergers and Acquisitions (Eminent Practitioner).
—Daniel B. Tukel, Labor and Employment (Band 3).
David F. DuMouchel is a shareholder practicing in Butzel Long’s Detroit office. He chairs the firm’s Corporate Compliance, Internal Investigations and Criminal Defense practice. DuMouchel’s practice includes white collar criminal defense, professional licensure and criminal health care, criminal IRS investigations of both taxpayers and professionals, SEC enforcement of corporate executives, public corruption, as well as grand jury investigations, internal corporate investigations and compliance.
Justin G. Klimko is president and managing shareholder of Butzel Long and serves on the firm’s Board of Directors. He is based in the firm’s Detroit office. Klimko has experience in securities regulation, corporate financing, mergers and acquisitions, corporate governance and general corporate matters, fields in which he has practiced since 1980. Klimko has experience in securities regulation matters for publicly and privately held companies.
Stephen A. Bromberg is counsel to Butzel Long and based in the firm’s Bloomfield Hills office. He served as a director and president of Butzel Long. Bromberg has represented borrowers and institutional lenders, purchasers and sellers, non-profit entities and contractors and owners in all kinds of office, commercial shopping center, apartment and subdivisions matters, major construction and zoning matters and workouts, reorganizations and foreclosures, with years of specialization in real estate transactions and litigation.
John P. Hancock Jr. is a shareholder based in Butzel Long’s Detroit office. His practice focuses on collective bargaining negotiations and arbitrations as well as counseling of both public and private employers. He also has performed employment litigation and OSHA litigation. Hancock has served as chief negotiator in numerous collective bargaining negotiations for public schools, municipal and public utilities as well as clients in various other businesses ranging from casinos to steel plants to hospitals and country clubs. A good portion of his practice is devoted to counseling clients on employment issues.
Daniel B. Tukel is a shareholder practicing in Butzel Long’s Detroit office and serves as chair of the firm’s Labor and Employment Law Department. His practice is devoted to representing both public and private employers in state and federal discrimination and wrongful discharge litigation, as well as traditional labor matters such as collective bargaining and union organizational drives. Tukel regularly counsels employers in all aspects of labor and employment law, in statutory compliance and in creating, implementing and administering employee handbooks and other personnel policies and practices.
Clara DeMatteis Mager is a shareholder practicing in Butzel Long’s Detroit office and serve as the Immigration Practice Group Leader. Mager focuses her practice on business and family immigration issues including all aspects of the international movement of personnel, inbound and outbound work-authorized non-immigrant (temporary) and immigrant (permanent) status, immigration consequences of mergers, acquisitions, and corporate restructuring, employer sanctions, and immigration law audits.
Linda Armstrong is a shareholder practicing in Butzel Long’s Detroit office. 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 non-immigrant matters; and labor certification.
Reginald (Reggie) Pacis is a shareholder based in the firm’s Detroit office. Pacis concentrates his practice in immigration law and has handled a variety of immigration matters including H-1B specialty occupation cases, L-1 Intracompany transfers, Labor Certification matters, Immigrant Visa Petitions/Adjustment of Status applications and interviews, TN Free trade cases, H-1B Department of Labor Investigations, I-9 employer verification compliance, and U.S. Port of Entry airport and land port interviews.
Bushra Malik is a shareholder based in Butzel Long’s Bloomfield Hills office. Malik practices in the area of immigration law, focusing on the representation of multinational and domestic clients’ inbound and outbound immigration needs.
Elissa Noujamin Pinto is a shareholder in the firm’s Bloomfield Hills office. She focuses her practice on Business/Employment immigration, representing local, national and international companies and their foreign national workforce in all aspects of business immigration. She also provides training and guidance to clients regarding immigration compliance issues.
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Fragomen, Del Rey, Bernsen & Loewy LLP
Fragomen, Del Rey, Bernsen, & Loewy LLP announced the promotion of Alexandra LaCombe to managing partner of the law firm’s Troy office. LaCombe replaces Scott Cooper who has transferred to lead the firm’s expanding Dubai office.
As managing partner, LaCombe is responsible for marketing, and organizational and operational administration of the Troy office. In addition, she will continue to provide senior counsel to international companies, universities, research institutions and individuals on employment-related immigration matters and compliance.
“I am honored the leadership of this firm has chosen me as managing partner at the very busy Troy office. We have extraordinarily skilled attorneys in Troy, and throughout the U.S., so for the leadership team to pick me as the best candidate to follow Scott is an incredible tribute,” LaCombe said. “We as a nation are in a very challenging time relating to immigration. Our client’s face a myriad of layered issues in today’s complex global business world, with ever-changing immigration laws. I am excited to lead the Troy team as we navigate our clients through these challenges.”
LaCombe handles all aspects of corporate U.S. immigration, including non-immigrant visas, permanent residence and compliance issues. She has experience representing a variety of industries including manufacturing, technology, financial institutions, health care, education and research, the arts and professional athletes. She is also experienced in handling extraordinary ability cases in the arts and sciences, outstanding professor and researcher matters, and all types of waivers.
LaCombe earned her bachelor’s degree from the University of Michigan and her law degree from Columbia University Law School, New York. She is admitted to the State Bar of Michigan and is a member of American Immigration Lawyers Association.
She serves as an adjunct professor at the University of Detroit-Mercy School of Law, teaching Immigration Law within the University’s innovative “Law Firm” practice curriculum. LaCombe continues to provide pro bono services to the Russian and Eastern European communities of the Metropolitan Detroit area.
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Honigman Miller Schwartz and Cohn LLP
A paper authored by Honigman, Miller, Schwartz, and Cohn LLP Chief Value Partner Carl W. Herstein and Associate Chief Value Partner Joseph R. Sgroi is featured in the American Bar Association’s new publication The Power of Legal Project Management. The paper appears as a section, titled “Increased Efficiency – A Key Goal of Project Planning.” It examines the meaning of efficiency in terms of Legal Project Management (LPM), with a focus on delivering clearly defined value to clients. The book also includes a case study of Honigman’s legal project management implementation efforts.
According to the authors in describing the firm’s implementation program:
“While many of our lawyers intuitively used informal LPM methodology, we felt that was insufficient and that a formal, firm-wide embrace of LPM was necessary. Our strategic plan recognized that it is not possible to provide top-end value to clients without first understanding how to internally improve processes to drive efficiency, consistency, and quality. We also believe clients need easily understandable options, both with respect to the terms of the proposed engagement and the strategy to achieve their goals. LPM is at the core of achieving both these goals.”
Honigman appointed the two value partners in 2012 and charged them with implementing specific value-oriented strategies, such as legal project management, process improvement and knowledge management, to help align legal services with the business goals of clients. Herstein and Sgroi lead the firm’s value initiatives, monitor and measure its progress, and conduct significant training for the firm’s attorneys. Through training with national leaders in these areas, ongoing benchmarking and sharing of experiences with other regional and national firms, Honigman is working to be a leader in the value-oriented legal initiatives at the center of the changing business
of law.
Herstein is a partner in Honigman’s Real Estate Department. He earned a law degree from Yale Law School and a B.A. from the University of Michigan.
Sgroi is a partner in the firm’s Corporate Department. He earned a law degree from the University of Michigan Law School and a B.A. from the University of Michigan.
In addition, Steven J. Migliore, a partner in the Corporate Department of Honigman, has been appointed president-elect of NEXTGen Detroit. This organization, which is a part of the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Detroit, attracts and engages the next generation of Jewish Detroiters through innovative programs and initiatives. Migliore is also a member of the NEXTGen executive board.
Migliore focuses his practice on representing private equity and venture capital funds and their portfolio companies in mergers, acquisitions, financings, investments and restructurings. He also advises companies on corporate governance and general corporate matters.
Migliore earned a law degree from Wayne State University Law School and an MBA from Wayne State University. He received a B.A. from Michigan State University.
Joshua S. Weinberg, an attorney in the Real Estate Department of Honigman, has also been appointed to the NEXTGen Detroit board.
Weinberg focuses his practice on commercial real estate transactions, including acquisitions, sales, financing and leasing matters. He earned a law degree from the University of Pennsylvania Law School and a B.A. from Yeshiva University.
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Plunkett Cooney
For the third consecutive year, Plunkett Cooney has been listed among the 350 largest law firms in the United States by the National Law Journal (NLJ).
“Having just celebrated the firm’s centennial anniversary, this designation reminds us that stability is a key to Plunkett Cooney’s success,” said Plunkett Cooney President and CEO Henry B. Cooney. “The firm’s management team continues to invest in attracting and retaining talented personnel as well as making sure that the firm has the expertise to meet our clients’ growing needs and concerns.”
For more than 30 years, the NLJ has published its list of largest firms. Plunkett Cooney, which was ranked 254 in 2012, moved 11 spots to 243 in the 2013 survey.
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Kerr Russell
Scott A. Clifford has joined Kerr Russell as a program manager for the immigration department. He has 10 years of experience in the immigration profession as a former officer with the Office of Field Operations of U.S. Customs and Border Patrol. Clifford possess knowledge, training, and experience with the United States’ customs and immigration laws, including the interpretation and application of NAFTA procedures and regulations.
Clifford’s certifications and specialty training includes certification from the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Training Academy/Federal Law Enforcement Training Center; the ISO Internal Auditor Training/NSF International; and Correctional Office Entrance Level Training from the Maryland Correctional Training Commission.
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Cardelli Lanfear P.C.
Anthony F. Caffrey III, a partner with the law firm Cardelli Lanfear PC, has been recognized with a 2014 Distinguished Brief Award from the Thomas M. Cooley Law Review. The co-authors of the article, R. Carl Lanfear Jr. and Paul Kittinger, were also recognized.
Caffrey received this year’s award for his authorship of an application for leave to appeal in Sholberg v Truman, a case submitted in the 2013-14 term to the Michigan Supreme Court. The plaintiff, Terri Sholberg, suffered fatal injuries when her car automobile struck a horse owned by Daniel Truman. Although Daniel Truman had owned and operated a farm for decades, his brother and sister-in-law — Robert and Marilyn Truman — had title ownership to the farm. At issue was whether the decedent’s estate could sue the Trumans for a nuisance that was created solely by Daniel Truman, and on property that was exclusively possessed and controlled by Daniel
Truman.
Truman.
Cardelli Lanfear persuaded the trial court to granted summary disposition, but the Michigan Court of Appeals reversed on the basis that ownership of real property alone justified potential liability for any nuisance arising therefrom.
The issue briefed to the Michigan Supreme Court was whether a mere owner of property could be liable for a nuisance that was created by another that was in exclusive possession and control of the property. The Supreme Court ordered oral argument on the application and ultimately reversed the Michigan Court of Appeals, reinstating summary disposition on the nuisance cause of action. (Sholberg v Truman, Mich; NW2d /No. 146725).
Caffrey is Cardelli Lanfear’s partner focusing on appellate and major writing projects for litigation at all levels. He has participated in more than 100 appeals. Before joining the firm, Caffrey clerked for Michigan Court of Appeals Judge Owens and was a prehearing attorney in Grand Rapids. He has been recognized by Michigan Super Lawyers for his appellate and litigation work.
Lanfear is a partner and trial attorney for Cardelli Lanfear. He has had successful defense verdicts in more than 30 jury trials.
Kittinger is a senior associate for Cardelli Lanfear, specializing in all aspects of litigation.
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Nawrocki Center for Elder Law, Special Needs & Disability Planning PLLC
Attorney Nancy Nawrocki has changed the name of her Brighton based firm to Nawrocki Center for Elder Law, Special Needs, & Disability Planning PLLC.
“Since we opened our firm in 1986,” Nawrocki said, “ my first interest has always been to help senior citizens in legal matters such as estate planning, trusts planning for family members with special needs qualifying for government paid benefits and so on, so we wanted the name of our firm to reflect what we actually do.”
The previous name of the Nawrocki firm was Nawrocki Center for Elder & Family Law.
“According to national statistics, 40 percent of seniors will end up in nursing homes, so it is important for the elderly and their families help plan their finances should they become ill,” Nawrocki said.
Nawrocki, earned a Bachelor of Arts Degree in secondary teaching from Oakland University, and obtained her law degrees from Wayne State University Law School and Stetson University Law School, Gulfport, Florida. In 2005, she was the first woman elected president of the Presbytery of Detroit. She is a member of the State Bar of Michigan.
Additional information is available at www.nawrockilaw.com.
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Miller Canfield
Michael K. Jackson II, an associate in the Detroit office of Miller Canfield, has been elected president of the D. Augustus Straker Bar Association.
Jackson is a member of Miller Canfield’s Employment and Labor Group. He assists both private and public employers in various aspects of labor and employment counseling and litigation, including advising public school district clients on a variety of issues, including special education. He also assists government contractors and subcontractors with enforcing and implementing Executive Order 11246. To that end, he drafts affirmative action plans, assists with implementing and/or revising existing affirmative action plans, and provides guidance and counsel with OFCCP audits and/or conciliation agreements.
He is a graduate of the Howard University School of Law (2009) and earned a B.S. and MBA from Florida Agricultural & Mechanical University.
