LEGAL PEOPLE

Doreen Hoffman, managing partner of Trott Recovery Services PLLC (TRS), a Farmington Hills-based debt collection law firm, was recently elected to the Michigan Association of Collection Agencies (MACA) board. As a board member, Hoffman will regularly convene with government officials and collections industry experts to discuss legislative issues in the collections space. She will also attend MACA board meetings to help drive the strategic direction of the organization. Her term as board member became effective May 2012 and will run through May 2013. "I'm honored to have been elected by my peers to represent MACA and my profession," said Hoffman. "I'm excited to begin my duties and hope to serve as an asset to the organization." * * * On June 8, Steve Hansen of Hansen IP Law PLLC presented "Strategies for Litigating Software Copyright Cases" at the University of Dayton School of Law's Annual Program in Law and Technology. This year's program was titled "Significant Developments in the Intellectual Property Law of Computers and Cyberspace." Hansen discussed the practical difficulties in applying the established judicial tests for software copyright infringement and approaches for overcoming them. He also discussed the recent decision from the Oracle v. Google case concerning the scope of copyright protection for application program interfaces. Hansen thanks Kathy Ossian of Miller Canfield and Kelly Henrici of the University of Dayton Law School for the opportunity to make this presentation. Hansen is a former partner of Quinn, Emanuel, Urquhart, Oliver, & Hedges in Los Angeles and Rader, Fishman, & Grauer in Bloomfield Hills. Hansen earned his B.S.E. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Michigan (1988) and his law degree from Harvard Law School (1998). Before attending law school, Hansen was employed as a chemical process engineer and process control engineer by Amoco Oil Co. He is registered to practice before the United States Patent and Trademark Office (1995) and is a member of the state bars of Michigan and California. In addition, he is admitted to the U.S. District Courts for the Central and Northern Districts of California and the Eastern District of Michigan. * * * For another consecutive year, Honigman, Miller, Schwartz, and Cohn LLP is the only Michigan law firm to receive the highest ranking for its Corporate/M&A and Real Estate practices in the 2012 Chambers USA: America's Leading Lawyers for Business (Chambers). Honigman also received the highest ranking for its Litigation practice, and 24 of the firm's attorneys-the most Michigan attorneys of all law firms-were recognized as "Key Individuals." Additionally, Honigman is the only law firm to be named as one of this year's Michigan's Economic Bright Spots by Corp! magazine. The list of 38 companies across Michigan to receive this honor appears in the recently published May/June issue of Corp! Honigman has received several workplace awards. The law firm was named a "Top Workplace" by the Detroit Free Press in 2011 and one of the "50 Best Law Firms for Women" by Working Mother magazine and Flex-Time Lawyers, LLC in 2008, 2009 and 2011. Honigman was named one of the "Metropolitan Detroit's Best and Brightest Companies to Work For" in 2004, 2010 and 2011 and "West Michigan's 101 Best and Brightest" in 2011 and 2012 by the Michigan Business & Professional Association. * * * Southfield-based Collins, Einhorn, Farrell, & Ulanoff PC announced attorney Jessica A. Jackson has joined the firm's Professional Liability Practice Group. Jackson practices with the firm's professional liability practice group, handling a wide range of professional and legal malpractice cases. The Rochester Hills resident also is experienced in general liability litigation, including construction defect claims, business and commercial litigation, employment litigation, representation of homeowners' associations and property management companies, and a variety of other complex civil litigation. Jackson graduated from Michigan State University College of Law, where she served on the Journal of Business and Securities Law. While at MSU, she also completed the school's two year trial advocacy program. She earned her undergraduate degree in 2005 from Lindenwood University in St. Charles, Missouri, graduating with a BA in Criminal Justice. She is a member of the Oakland County Bar Association and American Bar Association. * * * Gov. Rick Snyder recently announced the appointment of JoAnn Chavez to the Hispanic/Latino Commission. The 15-member commission works to develop a unified policy and plan of action to serve the needs of Michigan's Hispanic and Latino residents. Chavez is vice president and chief tax officer for DTE Energy. Previously, she served as director of taxation for Atlas Oil Co. in Detroit and as a tax partner for KPMG LLP's Detroit business unit. Chavez serves as a finance committee member for Detroit Cristo Rey High School and as an advisory member for the University of Michigan-Dearborn College of Business board of directors. She earned a bachelor's degree in business administration and a law degree, both from the University of Notre Dame. Chavez replaces Miguel Ramirez on the commission. She will serve a three-year term that expire Dec. 10, 2014. The appointment is subject to the advice and consent of the Senate. * * * Jackson Lewis LLP congratulates Detroit office Managing Partner Maurice G. Jenkins on being named to Human Resource Executive magazine's list of Most Powerful Employment Attorneys for 2012. * * * Intellectual property attorney Linda D. Kennedy has joined Butzel Long and is based in the firm's Detroit office. Kennedy concentrates her practice on intellectual property, including client counseling and opinion work, patent prosecution, patent litigation, trademark law, copyright law, and trade secret litigation. Kennedy has advised clients that develop cutting-edge technologies in the automotive and health care industries. Her patent opinion and prosecution work has included medical devices, industrial polymers, pharmaceuticals, nutraceuticals, diagnostic systems, cosmetics, electrolyte additives, pre-crash alert systems, fueling strategies and emissions reduction systems. She also has represented companies in patent litigation involving pharmaceutical compositions, semiconductor manufacturing methods, low-emissivity glass coatings and electronic trading software for commodity markets. Prior to joining Butzel Long, Kennedy worked at intellectual property boutique law firms and as in-house counsel for the Dow Chemical Company, where she managed products liability lawsuits in plaintiff-friendly venues throughout the country. Kennedy is a graduate of Michigan Technological University (B.S., Scientific and Technical Communication, 1991), the University of Minnesota (B.A., Chemistry, 1996), and of the University of Minnesota Law School (1998). She is registered to practice before the United States Patent and Trademark Office, in the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, the United States Supreme Court, and the State of Michigan. Kennedy is a member of the American Intellectual Property Association, the American Bar Association, and the Michigan Technological University Alumni Association, of which she is a past officer and board member. * * * The law firm of Miller Canfield announces that Stephen C. Rohr has joined the firm as a senior attorney in the Troy office. He focuses his practice on estate planning, business planning, tax litigation and trust and estate administration. Rohr has experience preparing estate and business plans, including drafting wills, revocable living trusts, credit shelter trusts, qualified terminable interest property trusts, qualified personal residence trusts, grantor retained annuity trusts, durable powers of attorney, durable powers of attorney for healthcare, buy-sell agreements and entity formation documents. He is a member of the State Bar of Michigan Estate Planning Section, Oakland County Bar Association and the Financial and Estate Planning Council of Metro Detroit. He earned his law degrees from Georgetown University,and Michigan State University College of Law and his B.A. from Miami University. Published: Mon, Jun 25, 2012