Varnum LLP
Varnum attorney Jailah Emerson has been named to The National Black Lawyers Top 40 Under 40, an organization dedicated to recognizing and highlighting Black legal excellence.
The organization’s mission is to grow a nationwide network of top Black attorneys, while facilitating the exchange of timely legal insights, empowering members to uphold their roles as professional leaders.
Emerson is a member of Varnum’s Litigation and Trial Practice Team, specializing in complex commercial, family law, tax and insolvency litigation. She represents clients throughout the litigation process including hearings, depositions, trial and appellate proceedings. She assists clients with a range of commercial litigation issues, ranging from standard breach of contract claims to complex real estate disputes.
Outside of her practice, Emerson serves as vice president of the Women Lawyers Association of Michigan-Wayne Region and is an active member of the Federal Bar Association, State Bar of Michigan, Wolverine Bar Association, and Detroit Young Professionals.
Before joining Varnum, Emerson served as a legal intern at the U.S. Dept. of Justice and in the general counsel office of DTE. She also served as a legal extern to U.S. District Court Judge Victoria A. Roberts, Eastern District of Michigan. Beyond her legal practice, Emerson volunteers with the Umoja Debate League, an organization that uses debate as a vehicle to teach Detroit youth ages 11-18 transferable life skills.
In addition, Varnum is pleased to announce that Sarah Weston has joined the firm’s Banking and Finance Practice Team as a partner in the Birmingham office.
Weston is experienced in managing the full life cycle of commercial real estate finance transactions. She counsels developers, property managers, senior housing owners, retail center owners and office building owners on a variety of matters including financing, acquisitions, dispositions, real estate mortgage loans, construction loans, development agreements, joint venture arrangements and related commercial transactions.
Weston was named to HOUR Detroit’s list of Top Women Attorneys in Michigan and earned recognition as a Michigan Lawyers Weekly Up & Coming Lawyer. She has also been recognized as a Rising Star in Securities and Finance by Michigan Super Lawyers.
Weston graduated from Michigan State University College of Law and earned her undergraduate degree from MSU. In addition to her legal work, she also serves on the Real Estate Committee for the Community Church of Birmingham.
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Foley, Baron, Metzger & Juip PLLC
Foley, Baron, Metzger, & Juip PLLC is pleased to announce the hiring of attorney Chloé C. Schumacher as a senior associate with the firm.
Schumacher concentrates her practice on representing physicians, mid-level medical providers, nurses, and pharmacists in medical malpractice and civil rights defense litigation. Her representation of clients in 42 USC 1983 civil rights defense litigation focuses on healthcare in county jails and state prisons.
Previously, Schumacher worked on medical malpractice defense matters at a Detroit law firm. Additionally, she served as associate labor counsel at one of the Big Three auto companies, where she had direct involvement in negotiations with the UAW at the national level and gained experience in alternative dispute resolution, including negotiating and arbitration.
She earned her law degree from the University of Detroit Mercy School of Law, and her B.A. in political science from the undergraduate arm of the same institution. During law school, she interned for United States District Court Magistrate Judge Mona K. Majzoub, Eastern District of Michigan.
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Plunkett Cooney
Ellen Bartman Jannette, a senior attorney at Plunkett Cooney, has been appointed the firm’s new director of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DEI).
Plunkett Cooney President & CEO Jeffrey C. Gerish recently named Bartman Jannette to the position after her many years of service as a member of the firm’s DEI Committee. In accepting the role, Bartman Jannette said she has been honored to lead related efforts over the years such as the Plunkett Cooney Women’s Leadership Committee and an award-winning firm centennial celebration in 2013 that focused on giving back to the community with over 100 Acts of Kindness performed by firm members.
“I look forward to fostering and promoting the inclusivity aspects of the firm’s DEI initiatives, focusing on remembering that we need to walk in the other person’s shoes to truly understand their perspective, to have a conversation about our differences and to work toward mutual understanding, compromise, and growth,” Bartman Jannette said.
A member of Plunkett Cooney’s DEI Committee since 2002, Bartman Jannette is now responsible for leading the firm’s efforts to create and retain a more diverse, equitable and inclusive workforce. She will work alongside the firm’s management team, diversity committee members and administrative department leaders to accomplish this goal.
Bartman Jannette, who graduated from the University of Pittsburgh in 1984 and Wayne State University Law School in 1988, joined the firm in 2001. Her practice includes the defense of clients in professional liability, premises and general liability, asbestos litigation, and insurance coverage litigation.
A member of the State Bar of Michigan and the American Bar Association, Bartman Jannette is admitted to practice in state and federal courts in Michigan.
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Butzel Long
Butzel attorney Daniel J. McCarthy was a featured speaker during the State Bar of Michigan’s Seventh Annual Business Law Section Symposium on Thursday, February 13, at the Gem Theatre in Detroit. He participated in a panel discussion titled, “Negotiation Technique.”
Based in Butzel’s Troy office, McCarthy focuses his practice in appellate and commercial litigation for both state and federal courts. He is sought after for appellate litigation as well as arbitration matters.
McCarthy has authored thousands of legal briefs during his career and has garnered many victories in the appellate and circuit courts, as well as multiple arbitration awards in favor of his clients.
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Bodman PLC
Bodman PLC is happy to share that Kelly M. Lockman, vice-chair of the firm’s Real Estate Practice Group, has been named a 2025 “Go To Lawyer” for Commercial Real Estate Law by Michigan Lawyers Weekly.
Based in Bodman’s Detroit office, Lockman represents banks and other financial institutions in real estate financing transactions and represents both buyers and sellers in connection with complex commercial and industrial real estate transactions. On top of her real estate finance practice, she also advises clients in the buying, selling, and leasing of real estate with an emphasis on commercial properties such as industrial buildings and warehouses.
Lockman has been recognized in publications including Michigan Rising Stars 2024 under Real Estate, DBusiness Magazine “Top Lawyers” 2025 under Real Estate Law, and The Best Lawyers in America: Ones to Watch 2025 under Real Estate Law and Banking and Finance Law.
Bodman is also pleased to announce that member Rebecca Seguin-Skrabucha has been appointed co-chair of the firm’s Workplace Law Practice Group, effective January 1.
Seguin-Skrabucha, along with co-chair John David Gardiner of the firm’s Grand Rapids office, succeed Aaron D. Graves who served as chair or co-chair for nearly ten years and remains an active member of the Group.
Seguin-Skrabucha is based in the Troy office and concentrates her practice in advising employers, including municipal governments and businesses of all sizes, on compliance with state and federal employment and labor laws. She handles a variety of employment matters and helps employers establish best practices for all stages of employment, including hiring and onboarding, disciplinary actions and termination procedures, and leave administration.
Seguin-Skrabucha also conducts workplace investigations and management training. She was previously the vice-chair of the Workplace Law Practice Group.
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Dickinson Wright PLLC
Dickinson Wright is pleased to announce its 2025 selections for the Leadership Council on Legal Diversity (“LCLD”) Fellows and Pathfinders programs.
Partner Deborah Germany (Detroit) has been selected as its 2025 LCLD Fellow. Germany maintains a multidisciplinary practice consisting of banking and finance, mergers and acquisitions, and corporate restructuring. She is experienced in various financing transactions and represents borrowers, banks, middle-market lenders, and non-bank lenders. She also serves as a member of the firm’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee.
Associate Najah Allaham (Detroit) has been selected as a 2025 Pathfinder. Allaham has years of experience assisting employers obtain employment-based immigrant visas, including PERM labor certifications, EB1, EB2, and EB3 immigrant visas, as well as various non-immigrant employment-based visas, including E-2, L-1, H-1B, H-2B, TN visas.
LCLD’s flagship Fellows Program engages managing partners of LCLD Member Firms and general counsel of major corporations to create an intensive, year-long leadership training, professional development, and networking program for diverse mid-career attorneys looking to become leaders within their organization. The LCLD Pathfinder Program is designed to provide early-career, high-potential diverse attorneys with practical tools for creating durable internal networks, foundational leadership skills, and career development strategies critical to their professional advancement.
Founded in 2009, LCLD is a national organization of more than 400 corporate chief legal officers and law firm managing partners dedicated to creating a more open and diverse legal profession. Dickinson Wright has been a member of LCLD since 2021.
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Miller, Canfield, Paddock and Stone
Miller Canfield is pleased to announce that Elizabeth Baker has been promoted to principalship. The announcement was made by CEO Michael Palizzi at the firm’s annual meeting in East Lansing.
Baker is a member of the firm’s immigration practice. She has experience in employment-based immigration, advising and counseling large, multinational clients regarding H-1B and LCA compliance, and conducting employer immigration training sessions. She represents and advises Fortune 500 clients, start-ups, and small business owners in the banking, utilities, IT, automotive, manufacturing, engineering, construction, and architecture industries.
Varnum attorney Jailah Emerson has been named to The National Black Lawyers Top 40 Under 40, an organization dedicated to recognizing and highlighting Black legal excellence.
The organization’s mission is to grow a nationwide network of top Black attorneys, while facilitating the exchange of timely legal insights, empowering members to uphold their roles as professional leaders.
Emerson is a member of Varnum’s Litigation and Trial Practice Team, specializing in complex commercial, family law, tax and insolvency litigation. She represents clients throughout the litigation process including hearings, depositions, trial and appellate proceedings. She assists clients with a range of commercial litigation issues, ranging from standard breach of contract claims to complex real estate disputes.
Outside of her practice, Emerson serves as vice president of the Women Lawyers Association of Michigan-Wayne Region and is an active member of the Federal Bar Association, State Bar of Michigan, Wolverine Bar Association, and Detroit Young Professionals.
Before joining Varnum, Emerson served as a legal intern at the U.S. Dept. of Justice and in the general counsel office of DTE. She also served as a legal extern to U.S. District Court Judge Victoria A. Roberts, Eastern District of Michigan. Beyond her legal practice, Emerson volunteers with the Umoja Debate League, an organization that uses debate as a vehicle to teach Detroit youth ages 11-18 transferable life skills.
In addition, Varnum is pleased to announce that Sarah Weston has joined the firm’s Banking and Finance Practice Team as a partner in the Birmingham office.
Weston is experienced in managing the full life cycle of commercial real estate finance transactions. She counsels developers, property managers, senior housing owners, retail center owners and office building owners on a variety of matters including financing, acquisitions, dispositions, real estate mortgage loans, construction loans, development agreements, joint venture arrangements and related commercial transactions.
Weston was named to HOUR Detroit’s list of Top Women Attorneys in Michigan and earned recognition as a Michigan Lawyers Weekly Up & Coming Lawyer. She has also been recognized as a Rising Star in Securities and Finance by Michigan Super Lawyers.
Weston graduated from Michigan State University College of Law and earned her undergraduate degree from MSU. In addition to her legal work, she also serves on the Real Estate Committee for the Community Church of Birmingham.
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Foley, Baron, Metzger & Juip PLLC
Foley, Baron, Metzger, & Juip PLLC is pleased to announce the hiring of attorney Chloé C. Schumacher as a senior associate with the firm.
Schumacher concentrates her practice on representing physicians, mid-level medical providers, nurses, and pharmacists in medical malpractice and civil rights defense litigation. Her representation of clients in 42 USC 1983 civil rights defense litigation focuses on healthcare in county jails and state prisons.
Previously, Schumacher worked on medical malpractice defense matters at a Detroit law firm. Additionally, she served as associate labor counsel at one of the Big Three auto companies, where she had direct involvement in negotiations with the UAW at the national level and gained experience in alternative dispute resolution, including negotiating and arbitration.
She earned her law degree from the University of Detroit Mercy School of Law, and her B.A. in political science from the undergraduate arm of the same institution. During law school, she interned for United States District Court Magistrate Judge Mona K. Majzoub, Eastern District of Michigan.
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Plunkett Cooney
Ellen Bartman Jannette, a senior attorney at Plunkett Cooney, has been appointed the firm’s new director of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DEI).
Plunkett Cooney President & CEO Jeffrey C. Gerish recently named Bartman Jannette to the position after her many years of service as a member of the firm’s DEI Committee. In accepting the role, Bartman Jannette said she has been honored to lead related efforts over the years such as the Plunkett Cooney Women’s Leadership Committee and an award-winning firm centennial celebration in 2013 that focused on giving back to the community with over 100 Acts of Kindness performed by firm members.
“I look forward to fostering and promoting the inclusivity aspects of the firm’s DEI initiatives, focusing on remembering that we need to walk in the other person’s shoes to truly understand their perspective, to have a conversation about our differences and to work toward mutual understanding, compromise, and growth,” Bartman Jannette said.
A member of Plunkett Cooney’s DEI Committee since 2002, Bartman Jannette is now responsible for leading the firm’s efforts to create and retain a more diverse, equitable and inclusive workforce. She will work alongside the firm’s management team, diversity committee members and administrative department leaders to accomplish this goal.
Bartman Jannette, who graduated from the University of Pittsburgh in 1984 and Wayne State University Law School in 1988, joined the firm in 2001. Her practice includes the defense of clients in professional liability, premises and general liability, asbestos litigation, and insurance coverage litigation.
A member of the State Bar of Michigan and the American Bar Association, Bartman Jannette is admitted to practice in state and federal courts in Michigan.
—————
Butzel Long
Butzel attorney Daniel J. McCarthy was a featured speaker during the State Bar of Michigan’s Seventh Annual Business Law Section Symposium on Thursday, February 13, at the Gem Theatre in Detroit. He participated in a panel discussion titled, “Negotiation Technique.”
Based in Butzel’s Troy office, McCarthy focuses his practice in appellate and commercial litigation for both state and federal courts. He is sought after for appellate litigation as well as arbitration matters.
McCarthy has authored thousands of legal briefs during his career and has garnered many victories in the appellate and circuit courts, as well as multiple arbitration awards in favor of his clients.
—————
Bodman PLC
Bodman PLC is happy to share that Kelly M. Lockman, vice-chair of the firm’s Real Estate Practice Group, has been named a 2025 “Go To Lawyer” for Commercial Real Estate Law by Michigan Lawyers Weekly.
Based in Bodman’s Detroit office, Lockman represents banks and other financial institutions in real estate financing transactions and represents both buyers and sellers in connection with complex commercial and industrial real estate transactions. On top of her real estate finance practice, she also advises clients in the buying, selling, and leasing of real estate with an emphasis on commercial properties such as industrial buildings and warehouses.
Lockman has been recognized in publications including Michigan Rising Stars 2024 under Real Estate, DBusiness Magazine “Top Lawyers” 2025 under Real Estate Law, and The Best Lawyers in America: Ones to Watch 2025 under Real Estate Law and Banking and Finance Law.
Bodman is also pleased to announce that member Rebecca Seguin-Skrabucha has been appointed co-chair of the firm’s Workplace Law Practice Group, effective January 1.
Seguin-Skrabucha, along with co-chair John David Gardiner of the firm’s Grand Rapids office, succeed Aaron D. Graves who served as chair or co-chair for nearly ten years and remains an active member of the Group.
Seguin-Skrabucha is based in the Troy office and concentrates her practice in advising employers, including municipal governments and businesses of all sizes, on compliance with state and federal employment and labor laws. She handles a variety of employment matters and helps employers establish best practices for all stages of employment, including hiring and onboarding, disciplinary actions and termination procedures, and leave administration.
Seguin-Skrabucha also conducts workplace investigations and management training. She was previously the vice-chair of the Workplace Law Practice Group.
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Dickinson Wright PLLC
Dickinson Wright is pleased to announce its 2025 selections for the Leadership Council on Legal Diversity (“LCLD”) Fellows and Pathfinders programs.
Partner Deborah Germany (Detroit) has been selected as its 2025 LCLD Fellow. Germany maintains a multidisciplinary practice consisting of banking and finance, mergers and acquisitions, and corporate restructuring. She is experienced in various financing transactions and represents borrowers, banks, middle-market lenders, and non-bank lenders. She also serves as a member of the firm’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee.
Associate Najah Allaham (Detroit) has been selected as a 2025 Pathfinder. Allaham has years of experience assisting employers obtain employment-based immigrant visas, including PERM labor certifications, EB1, EB2, and EB3 immigrant visas, as well as various non-immigrant employment-based visas, including E-2, L-1, H-1B, H-2B, TN visas.
LCLD’s flagship Fellows Program engages managing partners of LCLD Member Firms and general counsel of major corporations to create an intensive, year-long leadership training, professional development, and networking program for diverse mid-career attorneys looking to become leaders within their organization. The LCLD Pathfinder Program is designed to provide early-career, high-potential diverse attorneys with practical tools for creating durable internal networks, foundational leadership skills, and career development strategies critical to their professional advancement.
Founded in 2009, LCLD is a national organization of more than 400 corporate chief legal officers and law firm managing partners dedicated to creating a more open and diverse legal profession. Dickinson Wright has been a member of LCLD since 2021.
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Miller, Canfield, Paddock and Stone
Miller Canfield is pleased to announce that Elizabeth Baker has been promoted to principalship. The announcement was made by CEO Michael Palizzi at the firm’s annual meeting in East Lansing.
Baker is a member of the firm’s immigration practice. She has experience in employment-based immigration, advising and counseling large, multinational clients regarding H-1B and LCA compliance, and conducting employer immigration training sessions. She represents and advises Fortune 500 clients, start-ups, and small business owners in the banking, utilities, IT, automotive, manufacturing, engineering, construction, and architecture industries.
