LEGAL PEOPLE

Potestivo & Associates PC is pleased to announce the hiring of Elizabeth J. Train, an associate attorney, who has joined the firm's Foreclosure Department in the Rochester Hills office. Train earned her B.S. in Psychology at Eastern Michigan University in 1998 and completed her law degree at Western Michigan University Cooley Law School in 2001. While earning her law degree, she also served as an extern at the Genesee County Prosecutor's Office. Train possesses experience in the real estate and finance industry. She worked as a solo practitioner before moving on to her most recent former position as quality assurance analyst for a local financial institution. In addition to being a licensed member of the State Bar of Michigan, Train maintains professional memberships in industry-related, non-profit organizations and enjoys volunteering for the United Way. - - - The Law Offices of Ball Johnson PC are honored to announce that Samantha J. Ball has been made partner. Ball is a graduate of Wayne State University Law School and 2015 marks her tenth year with the firm. She has devoted her practice to advancing the rights of disabled individuals in the field of Social Security law. Ball is also very active in the community and has helped host various free legal clinics around Detroit. - - - Rory M. Wellever has joined the Corporate Department at Honigman, Miller, Schwartz, and Cohn LLP. He is located in the firm's Detroit office. Wellever focuses his practice on transactions involving information technology and intellectual property (including the licensing and/or transfer of trademarks, copyrights, software and technology). He also counsels clients on information technology and intellectual property issues that arise in the context of mergers, acquisitions, private equity, and debt financing transactions and settlement agreements. Wellever has experience with outsourcing, data security and privacy issues, as well as media, advertising, music and entertainment. He is admitted to practice in Illinois and his admittance to practice in Michigan is pending. Wellever earned a law degree from the University of Michigan Law School and a B.A. from Michigan State University's James Madison College. He joins Honigman from Kirkland and Ellis LLP in Chicago. In addition, Ronald E. Whitney, a Corporate Department partner at Honigman, has been elected to the board of directors of the Chamber Music Society of Detroit. Whitney focuses his practice on general business law and transactional matters, helping clients buy and sell business operations (domestic and international) and advising them how to structure deals to achieve their long-term goals. He also helps clients negotiate business arrangements with their customers and suppliers, and assists in resolving disputes arising out of their business activities He represents public and private companies, their owners, directors and officers. Whitney earned law degrees from New York University and the Columbia University School of Law. He also earned an M.B.A. from George Washington University and a B.Sc. from the University of Nebraska. The firm also announces that Lawrence D. McLaughlin, partner at Honigman and chair of its Real Estate Department, has been named to the 2014 Commercial Real Estate Hall of Fame by Midwest Real Estate News. McLaughlin has been the chair of Honigman's Real Estate Department, which includes more than 50 attorneys, for the past 15 years. He has been a real estate attorney for more than a total of 35 years and represents developers of commercial, industrial and residential real estate. He advises clients regarding acquisitions, land use, entitlements, development incentives, entity formation, joint ventures, financing, construction, leasing, taxation, sales, workouts and restructuring. McLaughlin has been recognized by many independent sources as a leading real estate attorney. Chambers USA: America's Leading Lawyers for Business has named him as one of a handful of "Star" performers across the country since 2005. He also has been recognized by The Best Lawyers in America since 1991 and among the top 100 lawyers by Michigan Super Lawyers since 2006. In addition, McLaughlin has been named a "Leader in the Law" by Michigan Lawyers Weekly and recognized in the International Who's Who of Real Estate Lawyers. McLaughlin was recently named co-chair of the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC) 2015 U.S. Law Conference, its 45th annual Law Conference, and will serve as chair of the Conference in 2016. He has served on the Law Conference Program Planning Committee since 2004. In addition, McLaughlin has been a member of the American College of Real Estate Lawyers (ACREL) for nearly 15 years. He also is a member of its Board of Governors and its Program Planning Committee. He previously served the organization as chair of its Member Selection Committee. He earned a law degree from Wayne State University Law School and a B.S.M.E. from the General Motors Institute. - - - Banking and aviation law attorney Carla S. Machnik has joined Bodman PLC as a member. Machnik is based in Bodman's Detroit office. She represents financial institutions in Canada and the United States in cross-border lending and financing transactions. She also advises financial institutions seeking to expand operations across the border on applicable laws, regulations, and market dynamics. She earned law degrees from the United States and Canada and is licensed to practice in both countries. Her dual licensure allows her to structure complex transactions with unusual efficiency due to her understanding of laws and markets on both sides of the border. Machnik also devotes a significant part of her practice to aviation law, including aircraft financing, purchases, and sales, advising clients on domestic and international aircraft registration issues, and compliance with FAA regulations and the Cape Town Convention. She has completed more than 110 aviation finance transactions originating in multiple states and Canada with an aggregate value of more than $200 million. Machnik has been recognized multiple times by Michigan Super Lawyers as a Rising Star in banking law. She is a member of the International Law and Aviation Law sections of the State Bar of Michigan and is a former member of the International Law Section's governing board. Machnik earned law degrees from the University of Detroit-Mercy School of Law and the University of Windsor. She earned her undergraduate degree at the University of Windsor. Before joining Bodman she was a member of another large business law firm based in Detroit. - - - Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder recently announced reappointments to the Workers' Compensation Board of Magistrates. The 17-member board hears administrative claims for benefits and works to resolve disputes arising under the Workers' Disability Compensation Act. Local reappointees include: Brian Boyle who was appointed to the board in 2011 and has more than 34 years of experience working with workers' compensation issues. Boyle was a trial attorney at Phifer & White PC. He earned a bachelor's degree from Michigan State University and a degree from Western Michigan University Cooley Law School. David Grunewald who has more than 37 years of workers' compensation litigation experience. He served as a trial specialist for CNA Insurance Co. and as a workers' compensation litigation attorney for Vandeveer Garzia PC. Grunewald earned a bachelor's degree from Western Michigan University and a law degree from Detroit College of Law. Beatrice Logan who has more than 22 years of workers' compensation experience in private practice as an attorney for the Goodman, Eden, Millender, and Bedrosian law firm in Detroit and as a magistrate since 2006. She earned a bachelor's degree from Wayne State University and a degree from the Detroit College of Law. Members will serve four-year terms expiring Jan. 26, 2019. Their appointments are subject to the advice and consent of the Senate. - - - Quinn Law Group PLLC is proud to announce that Staci R. DeRegnaucourt has been recognized by World Trademark Review (WTR) for inclusion in its 2015 edition of WTR 1000-World's Leading Trademark Professionals. DeRegnaucourt concentrates her practice in the intellectual property areas of trademarks, patents, and copyrights with an emphasis on obtaining, policing, and enforcing domestic and foreign trademark registrations, as well as preparing trademark clearance and infringement opinions. Additionally, she routinely counsels clients on intellectual property portfolio management, brand protection, brand management, and anti-counterfeiting. DeRegnaucourt earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Civil Engineering from Michigan State University and earned her law degree from Michigan State University College of Law. - - - The law firm of Miller Canfield announces that Troy L. Harris, Of Counsel to the firm's International Dispute Resolution Section, has been listed in the 2015 global edition of Who's Who Legal: Construction 2015, to be published in April 2015 by Who's Who Legal (www.WhosWhoLegal.com). Harris is the only Michigan lawyer listed and only one of four American lawyers to be listed by the publication for both Construction and Arbitration in 2015. In addition to being Of Counsel to the firm's International Dispute Resolution Section, Harris is a full-time professor at University of Detroit Mercy School of Law where he teaches International Commercial Arbitration, Sales, Contracts and Construction Law. He has also served as the law school's interim dean. He is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators and co-authored a first-in-its-field, how-to practice guide, International Construction Arbitration Handbook, first published by West in 2008 and updated annually. He is listed in "The Best Lawyers in America" in the area of Construction Law and is a member of the American Arbitration Association's International, Commercial, and Construction panels of arbitrators. - - - Maddin, Hauser, Roth & Heller PC, a Southfield-based law firm, has named Rachel A. Hutton and Jesse L. Roth as associate attorneys. Hutton is a member of the firm's Corporate and Employment Practice Group. She focuses her practice on corporate, employment, and real estate matters. She received her Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Michigan in 2011, and received her law degree from Michigan State University College of Law in 2014. She is admitted to practice in the state of Michigan. While in law school, was a legal intern for U.S. Distrcit Court Judge Mark A. Goldsmith, Eastern District of Michigan. Roth is a member of the firm's Defense and Insurance Coverage Practice Group. In 2014, Roth earned his law degree from the University of Michigan Law School. He is admitted to practice in the state of Michigan. While in law school, he served in the chambers of a U.S. Magistrate for the United States District Court, District of New Jersey. Prior to law school, he worked for an educational startup company in Mexico and then for the Cleveland Indians baseball team. - - - Collins, Einhorn, Farrell PC is pleased to announce that attorney Nicole E. Wilinski has joined the firm's Insurance Coverage practice group. Wilinski will focus her practice in the area of insurance coverage litigation and has extensive experience in representing insurance providers in coverage cases throughout Michigan and the Midwest. In addition to her experience in insurance coverage litigation, Wilinski has represented insurance companies in complex insurance coverage disputes, including litigation in the areas of environmental and construction law. Wilinski received a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Michigan in 1997 and went on to obtain a law degree from Wayne State University Law School in 2000. Wilinski has received a number of professional accolades including being listed a "Top Lawyer Insurance Litigation" by DBusiness Magazine (2012-2014), "Rising Star" by Super Lawyers Magazine (2010), and "Up & Coming Lawyer" by Michigan Lawyers Weekly (2010). Wilinski is a member and past vice chair of the American Bar Association's TIPS Insurance Coverage Litigation Committee. She is a council member of the Insurance and Indemnity Law Section of the State Bar of Michigan. Wilinski is a member and past president of the Women's Bar Association, a member and past director at large with the Women Lawyers Association of Michigan, and a member of the Defense Research Institute. - - - Wayne State University Law School Professor Gregory H. Fox will return to his roots at noted international law firm WilmerHale as a scholar-in-residence in June. He'll be in the firm's London offices from June 1 through 19 researching an ongoing project, "The Multilateralization of Armed Conflict," which he is working on with Professor Kristen Boon of Seton Hall University School of Law in New Jersey. "Our project explores the view that the United Nations Security Council has brought deep and important changes to the law applicable to armed conflict," Fox said. "Most contemporary analysis of legal issues in armed conflict takes little or no account of the council's actions." Fox and Boon are studying 54 armed conflicts from 1990 to 2013. The security council was involved in 96 percent of new conflicts during that period, Fox said. WilmerHale's Scholar-in-Residence program allows academics to work with the firm's arbitrators and research facilities and offers other support services to researchers. Fox, who joined Wayne Law in 2002, began his legal career in the litigation department of Hale & Dorr (now WilmerHale) in Boston. Prior to joining the Wayne Law faculty, Fox was an assistant professor at Chapman Law School in Orange, Calif. He earned a bachelor's degree in history from Bates College and his law degree from New York University. He is director of Wayne Law's Program for International Legal Studies, is a widely cited authority on international law and international organizations and is a leader in a variety of academic and professional organizations. Fox is the recipient of a MacArthur Foundation/Social Science Research Council Fellowship in International Peace and Security. Much of his scholarship focuses on how international organizations such as the United Nations have brought changes to areas such as the worldwide spread of democracy, governance of national territory and resolution of armed conflicts. He is a member of the Executive Council of the American Society of International Law and the founding chairman of the Committee on International Human Rights of the State Bar of Michigan. In 2008, he became an expert consultant to the International Committee of the Red Cross for its project on the future of occupation law. - - - Richard S. Victor, a nationally known family law attorney and author, will be a featured speaker at the mid-year meeting of the National American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers, taking place in Panama City, Panama, March 8-13 at the Westin Playa Bonita Hotel. Victor, who is the national chair of the Academy's Professionalism and Collegiality Committee, will be speaking on "Promoting Professionalism through Better Communication Skills and Techniques." Joining him for the presentation will be internationally acclaimed communication expert Dan O'Connor, AAML Vice President Susan Myres, and AAML Fellow JoAl Cannon Sheridan. Victor, a former president of the Michigan chapter of the AAML, served on the National Board of Governors of the Academy, was national CLE chair of the AAML from 2004-07, and was named the Academy's National Fellow of the Year in 2006. Now Of Counsel with Hertz Schram in Bloomfield Hills, Victor is one of only 95 attorneys nationally to be elected a Diplomate of the American College of Family Trial Lawyers. - - - The former Annette J. Benson and Associates is now Annette Benson Law, and the company has launched its new website, www.annettebensonlaw.com. The firm is located in Bingham Farms, 30800 Telegraph Road, Suite 2720. Family law attorney Annette Benson and associate attorney, Amy Byer fully educate every person they represent about the legal process as well as all aspects of their particular case. "Annette Benson Law is an embodiment of my professional approach, which is to fully empower the men and women we represent and ensure they have an active role in the crucial decisions that will impact their lives," said Benson, who has practiced exclusively in family law for more than 20 years. "Everything is on the line for clients going through divorce and other family law disputes. It is profoundly challenging and extremely emotional to navigate the legal arena. What distinguishes us is that we always keep it real, keep communication flowing and work as a team with our clients." Unlike more traditional legal websites, the Annette Benson Law site is campy and unconventional, highlighting Benson's brand and personality. The home page features a powerful black and white photograph of Benson holding a briefcase and personalized boxing gloves with line drawings of identical, nondescript suits behind her. Benson, holding a lasso, and Byer, talking on a retro red telephone, are also superimposed in a sketched office space on the website's contact page. "I am completely comfortable bucking the status quo and forging my own path," said Benson. "Nothing intimidates me." Annette Benson Law specializes in family law, high asset divorce, custody, child support, alimony, property division, business valuation and paternity issues and offers complimentary initial consultations for new clients. Benson was voted Best Family Law Attorney in 2013 by readers of the Detroit Jewish News. Published: Mon, Feb 02, 2015