Dickinson Wright PLLC
The State Bar of Michigan Board of Commissioners has elected Aaron V. Burrell to serve as Board secretary for the 2026-27 Bar year.
Burrell will be officially sworn into his new role at the Presidential Inauguration & Awards Luncheon on September 18 at the Detroit Marriott Troy. He will serve alongside incoming President Erika L. Bryant, President-Elect Thomas H. Howlett, Vice President David C. Anderson, and Treasurer Suzanne C. Larsen.
Burrell is a partner at Dickinson Wright PLLC in Detroit and Troy, where he co-chairs the firm’s Diversity Committee. He practices commercial law, labor and employment law, appeals, and minority business enterprises.
He received his undergraduate degree from the University of Michigan-Dearborn and his law degree from Cooley Law School. He was recently sworn in as the 94th president of the Oakland Bar Association, previously served as chair of the State Bar’s Representative Assembly, and serves on the Board of Directors of Cooley Law School.
Burrell is also a fellow of the Oakland County Bar Foundation, Michigan State Bar Foundation, and the American Bar Foundation. He is an active member of the Wolverine Bar Association and Detroit Bar Association.
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Collins Einhorn Farrell PC
Collins Einhorn Farrell PC is pleased to announce that Fred Elias has joined the firm’s Commercial Litigation Practice, bringing more than three decades of experience representing businesses in commercial disputes.
Elias advises clients across a range of industries, including construction, financial services, manufacturing, health care, hospitality, technology, and land development. His practice focuses on commercial litigation, construction litigation, and labor and employment law. He joins Collins Einhorn with an established commercial litigation practice. His experience spans shareholder disputes, breach of fiduciary duty claims, business torts, intellectual property disputes, construction litigation, and labor and employment matters.
“This move permits me to better service my clients through the dynamic support provided by the highly skilled attorneys and legal support staff at Collins Einhorn,” Elias said. “I appreciate the opportunity and look forward to working with the Collins Einhorn team.”
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Reising Ethington PC
Reising Shareholdaer Shannon Smith was appointed as Academic Liaison for the Intellectual Property Inn of Court Executive Committee. As Academic Liaison, Smith will help strengthen connections between the legal profession and academic institutions through an organization dedicated to promoting excellence, professionalism, and education in intellectual property law.
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Plunkett Cooney
Elaine M. Pohl, a partner of Plunkett Cooney, was recently inducted as a Fellow of the American College of Coverage Counsel (ACCC).
Established in 2012, the ACCC is an invitation-only organization composed of more than 470 insurance coverage and extracontractual counsel in the United States and Canada, representing the interests of insurers and policyholders.
Pohl maintains a national practice counseling insurers in complex litigated and non-litigated property and casualty disputes. Her coverage experience extends to claims involving professional liability, construction defects, bodily injuries, product liability, environmental contamination, personal and advertising injury, first-party property, and allegations of bad faith.
Pohl has been a member of Plunkett Cooney’s Board of Directors since 2024 and is also chair of the firm’s Shareholder Evaluation Committee.
Pohl’s has been named a Best Lawyer in America® for Insurance Law/Insurance Litigation for 2024-2026, a Michigan Super Lawyer Rising Star in Insurance Coverage, and an Influential Woman of Law in 2018 as determined by Michigan Lawyers Weekly.
Pohl is an active member of DRI’s Insurance Law Committee, serving as publications vice chair and co-editor in chief of the updated Duty to Defend Compendium. She is also a member of the State Bar of Michigan Insurance and Indemnity Law Section (past chair and former board officer) and the Michigan Licensed Beverage Association.
A graduate from the Indiana University School of Law in 1999, Pohl received her undergraduate degree from Villanova University in 1996. She is admitted to practice law in state and federal courts in Michigan, Indiana, and Ohio.
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Miller, Canfield, Paddock and Stone
Miller Canfield is pleased to announce that Hassan Ahmad has joined the firm as an associate in the Financial Institutions Group. He is based in the firm’s Detroit office.
Ahmad represents lenders and other participants in complex financing transactions, including construction, permanent and bridge loans for affordable housing developments utilizing low-income housing tax credits and federal and state historic rehabilitation tax credits. His experience includes drafting and negotiating loan documents, reviewing senior and subordinate financing arrangements, conducting project diligence and helping clients navigate multifaceted transactions involving debt, equity, real estate and tax credit considerations.
He also has experience representing lenders, investors and developers in renewable energy projects utilizing federal investment tax credits. His work has included project acquisition and leasing matters, construction and permanent financing, equity investments, tax credit transfers, power purchase agreements and other development-related documents.
Before joining Miller Canfield, Ahmad practiced in the real estate finance group of a Minneapolis law firm. He also served as a judicial intern to Senior U.S. District Judge John C. Coughenour in the Western District of Washington.
Ahmad earned his law degree from the University of Iowa College of Law and a B.A. in English and a B.S. in psychology from Wayne State University.
He is admitted to practice in Michigan and Minnesota and is fluent in Arabic. His pro bono experience includes assisting individuals seeking U.S. citizenship and representing a religious institution in connection with the construction and financing of a new building.
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Kitch Attorneys & Counselors
Kitch Attorneys & Counselors is proud to announce that attorneys John Sier and Meghan Kennedy Riordan have been selected for the Michigan Legal 250.
Sier serves as the head of Kitch’s Commercial Litigation and Construction Law Practice Group. He is recognized for his skill in complex contract negotiations, dispute avoidance, and alternative dispute resolution. This latest accolade adds to his history of honors which includes receiving the State Bar of Michigan’s Roberts P. Hudson Award.
Leading the Kitch Immigration Practice Group, Riordan brings more than 35 years of dedicated experience to her clients. She manages comprehensive inbound and outbound corporate migration, I-9 compliance audits, and employment-based legal strategy. She has previously been designated as a Michigan Lawyers Weekly “Leader in the Law” and “Influential Woman in Law.”
Kitch is also pleased to announce that Gregory Drutchas, Patrick Fishman, John Paul Hessburg, Richard Kitch, John Sier, Ralph Valitutti, Ronald Wagner, and Mark Wisniewski have been named to the list of the Top 250 Lawyers in Michigan by Leading Lawyers.
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Brooks Kushman P.C.
Brooks Kushman is proud to announce that Sangeeta Shah and Frank A. Angileri were both named in the latest edition of IAM Strategy 300: The World’s Leading IP Strategists by IAM.
Shah is the president of Brooks Kushman, leading the firm’s shareholders and driving the firm’s strategic vision and business administration. In her first year, she expanded the practice by bringing on several new attorneys and spearheading initiatives to strengthen the firm’s infrastructure, positioning it for long-term growth.
In addition to her leadership role, Shah maintains an active practice with more than 20 years of experience managing patent portfolios, PTAB matters, patent litigation, and opinions. As an early leader in inter partes review proceedings, she serves as co-chair of the firm’s post-grant practice and works closely with Fortune 500 clients, providing strategic counseling on post-grant matters and complex global intellectual property portfolios. Her expertise has earned national recognition from Managing IP, Best Lawyers, AIPLA, and the PTAB Bar Association, including being recognized as a member of IAM Strategy 300: The World’s Leading IP Strategists.
Pior to becoming president, Shah served as CEO of Brooks Kushman, where she guided strategic planning, advanced client-focused initiatives, and expanded the firm’s presence beyond Michigan to markets such as Silicon Valley, Chicago, Los Angeles, Germany, and Asia. She developed mentoring and training programs, built niche expertise in emerging areas, and implemented advanced technology and analytics tools to enhance client service.
Angileri is a shareholder in Brooks Kushman’s Intellectual Property Litigation practice, helping clients enforce and defend valuable intellectual property rights. He counsels businesses on litigation strategy involving patents, trademarks, trade secrets, and other competitive assets. Angileri’s experience is valuable for companies in innovation-driven sectors, including automotive and mobility, industrial manufacturing, and advanced materials.
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Butzel Long
Butzel attorneys and shareholders Daniel R.W. Rustmann and Mitchell (“Mitch”) Zajac will be featured presenters during the 2026 MEMA Commercial Vehicle Outlook Conference on Wednesday, August 26, in Livonia. Butzel is proud to sponsor and present the annual conference which offers industry professionals an opportunity to stay ahead of key developments shaping the commercial vehicle sector.
Rustmann and Zajac will present a practical, courtroom-tested guide to negotiating and living with OEM purchase terms. Drawing on real language from Daimler Truck North America (DTNA), Volvo, International, and PACCAR, an American Company that manufacturers heavy-duty trucks, they’ll show suppliers how to protect against cost increases, capital and tooling risk, aggressive force majeure, and unlimited warranty and indemnity – and what to do when already locked into a tough contract with no price relief.
Rustmann is a co-chair of Butzel’s Automotive Industry Team and the Global Automotive Coordinating Committee. For more than three decades, Rustmann has devoted his practice to helping clients solve complex business disputes, primarily in the automotive industry. He has represented clients in numerous substantive areas, including product liability defense, Uniform Commercial Code (UCC) warranty, and product defect/recall litigation, class action litigation, and other commercial contract litigation and arbitration.
Rustmann frequently serves as an arbitrator, mediator, and court-appointed special master in resolution of automotive industry and other commercial disputes and is a regular speaker and commentator on automotive industry legal issues.
Zajac counsels and represents professionals in a variety of sectors, large corporations, and entities of all sizes in automotive, intellectual property, regulatory and emissions compliance, to name a few. He is a registered patent attorney with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). Zajac counsels and represents clients in intellectual property (IP) matters such as complex trade secret, copyright, and patent litigation.
His experience encompasses IP administrative proceedings, including patent inter partes review (IPR) proceedings, patent prosecution in the USPTO, and advising on patent portfolio development and management. Before joining Butzel, Zajac was an engineer at a Detroit Three automaker.
