LEGAL PEOPLE

Honigman Miller Schwartz and Cohn LLP
Gabriel J. Edelson has joined Honigman, Miller, Schwartz, and Cohn LLP as an attorney in its Corporate Department. He will be located in the firm’s Detroit office. 

Edelson will focus his practice on corporate matters for public and private companies, as well as private equity firms. He also has experience in mergers, acquisitions and capital markets. He joins Honigman from the Chicago office of Latham & Watkins LLP. 

He earned a law degree from New York University School of Law. He earned a B.A. in history from the University of Michigan. Edelson is admitted to practice in New York and Illinois. His admission to the State Bar of Michigan is pending.

Honigman is also pleased to announce that Ahmad Huda, an attorney in its Litigation Department, has been named to the Lawyers of Color “Hot List” for the Midwest region. Huda is one of 100 early- to mid-career minority attorneys to receive this honor. A selection committee chooses the honorees based on a review of the nominations, bar publications and legal blogs. 

Huda, who joined Honigman in 2012, concentrates his practice on complex commercial litigation for corporations and private equity firms. He earned a law degree from the University of Pennsylvania Law School and a B.A. from New York University.

Lawyers of Color produces publications for lawyers of African American, South Asian American, Pacific Asian American, Hispanic, Native American heritage and other ethnic groups.

In addition, Honigman was ranked among the top 10 law firms in the county for intellectual property patent work in BTI Consulting Group’s report entitled BTI Intellectual Property Outlook 2015: Changes, Trends and Opportunities in IP & IP Litigation. Honigman was also named on the list of Most-Favored IP Departments, in which one of the primary factors is customer service.

“The ranking and recognition by BTI is a direct result of all the hard work of our IP team of attorneys and staff to provide high-quality, client-focused services,” said Jonathan P. O’Brien, IP Department chair. “It is gratifying to see that we are gaining stature among the IP firms throughout the country.”

Honigman’s IP Department serves clients nationally and internationally and consists of more than 75 legal professionals with experience in patent, trademark, copyright and trade secret services, including search, procurement, enforcement and anti-counterfeiting. 

The professionals in the IP Department serve clients from large corporations to start-up companies and have experience in numerous industries, including automotive (OEM and suppliers), advertising, banking, biotechnology, consumer products, e-commerce, electronics, fashion, food and beverage, gaming and hospitality, insurance, medical services and devices, pharmaceuticals, publishing (newspapers, books, magazines, multi-media), real estate, restaurant, retailing, software, telecommunications and transportation. 

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Wayne State University Law School
Samuel Kokoszka, who will start his second year at Wayne State University Law School this fall, has been awarded the Mark A. Miller Memorial Fund Scholarship.

The award is given each year by the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan to a summer intern of a judicial officer at the court. The scholarship honors the memory of Mark A. Miller who was a law clerk to U.S. District Judge George Caram Steeh. Miller, a Milford resident, died in 2010 at age 53 following serious health issues.

The award is a $1,500 stipend to offset out-of-pocket expenses during the intern’s tenure with the court.

Kokoszka, who lives in Detroit, said he loves the city and chose Wayne Law because of its urban location and because of the school’s extensive and involved alumni network.

“I’m not sure what I want to do when I graduate, but I think I want to work in a large Detroit firm, and I’m pretty sure I want to litigate,” the student said.

He earned his bachelor’s degree in political science from Central Michigan University with a minor in economics.

This summer, he’s an intern for U.S. District Judge Nancy Edmunds, a Wayne law alumna. He spent the summer before law school working for NOVA Environmental in Ann Arbor as a project manager. Kokoszka volunteers as a mentor for incoming students at Wayne Law and also served as a mentor to high school students from Detroit’s Cody Academy of Public Leadership for the “Why the D? Detroit Youth Offer Solutions” symposium in May at the law school.

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Detroit Metropolitan Bar Association Foundation
On Aug. 4, the Detroit Metropolitan Bar Association Foundation (DMBAF) announced that Rep. John Dingell will be the recipient of the 10th Annual Dennis W. Archer Award for Public Service.

Dingell, who announced his retirement in February of this year, is currently the longest-serving member of Congress and a veteran of World War II. During his long service he has been a champion of causes including labor, health care, and helping those in poverty. 

“As a soldier, lawyer, and a congressman for fifty-eight years, Congressman Dingell has lived the ideal of public service that the Archer Award represents,” said DMBAF Co-Chair E. Christopher Johnson, Jr. “We’re thrilled that he has accepted, and we look forward to celebrating and honoring his legacy of service during our award reception on Nov. 6.”

While the venue for this year’s award has yet to be decided, the Archer Award reception historically takes place in a Detroit landmark. 

In addition to honoring members of the legal profession that exemplify the Foundation’s core value of public service, the Archer Award event is also the DMBAF’s main fundraising initiative. Proceeds are used to fund access to justice programs including the Detroit Legal Services Clinic, the Pro-Bono Mentorship Program, and For The Seventh Generation (www.fortheseventhgeneration.org), which has matched donations of goods and services with 457 foster children, teens, and families in need in the first half of 2014 alone.

 For additional information about sponsorships contact DMBAF Executive Director Lorraine Weber at lweber@detroitlawyer.org or 313-961-6120, ext. 206.

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Reising Ethington PC
The Intellectual Property law firm of Reising Ethington PC is proud to announce that patent attorney William Kolakowski has joined the firm as Of Counsel. Kolakowski’s practice focuses on medical devices (including medical imaging systems, medical device position tracking and navigation systems, and electrophysiological mapping and ablation catheters), engine and motor control systems, motor architectures, data storage and retrieval, electronic interfaces, sensors, power transmission devices, and vehicle components. 

His experience includes serving as the lead intellectual property counsel on several mergers and acquisitions involving purchase prices exceeding $100 million; authoring more than two hundred original patent applications; and handling numerous appeals to the Patent Trial and Appeal Board. He also has experience litigating intellectual property disputes.

Kolakowski has written and co-written articles that have appeared in Inside Counsel magazine and The Detroiter, and he has been a featured speaker on the topics of The Power of Angel Investing, and The Intersection of Bankruptcy and Intellectual Property Law. 

He received a B.S. in Computer Engineering and a law degree from the University of Michigan. His interests include lacrosse, soccer and college football; he was a member of the University of Michigan’s Club Lacrosse Team.

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Bodman PLC
Bodman PLC attorney Michelle Thurber Czapski, who practices in the firm’s Detroit office, has been named one of the Top 250 Women in Litigation for 2014 by the internationally-recognized peer-review publication Benchmark Litigation. 

Czapski is one of only four attorneys in Michigan to be included in the Top 250 Women in Litigation.   

Benchmark Litigation is the only publication that focuses solely on the litigation market in the United States.  The Top 250 Women in Litigation is dedicated to honoring the accomplishments of America’s leading female trial lawyers and features female litigators from all 50 states plus the District of Columbia. 

Czapski, who chairs Bodman’s Insurance Team, has more than 20 years of experience representing major corporate clients in litigation and alternative dispute resolution proceedings. She has successfully represented insurance and financial service companies, Tier-1 automotive suppliers and other manufacturers, telecommunications companies, and pharmaceutical companies in matters involving product liability claims, Consumer Protection Act claims, insurance and ERISA disputes, contract matters, and a broad range of other commercial and business disputes.

Czapski’s trial experience includes serving as lead trial counsel and regional counsel for a leading insurer and its family of financial services companies, and as a case evaluator and commercial litigation panelist for Michigan’s two largest counties, Wayne and Oakland.

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The Health Law Partners, PC
Aaron Beresh has joined The Health Law Partners PC (The HLP) as an associate in their Southfield office. Robert Iwrey, a founding shareholder at The Health Law Partners, made the announcement.

Beresh practices in all areas of health care law with a specific focus on federal and state compliance as well as transactional matters, including HIPAA and state privacy laws, federal and state information data breaches, federal and state self-referral laws, Stark & Anti-Kickback laws and information technology issues. Beresh is a member of the Oakland County Bar Association, and has published articles that advise business and health care professionals on security breaches and federal compliance.

A graduate of Michigan State Law School, Beresh served as a federal judicial extern for the U.S. District Court Chief Judge Bernard A. Friedman, Eastern District of Michigan. Beresh completed his undergraduate degree at Michigan State University, receiving a bachelor’s degree in economics with a business cognate.