I have been a Crain's Detroit Business reporter since May 2007 for law, defense, non-automotive manufacturing, Oakland and Macomb counties.
04/16/12 Dozens of law firms have taken on clients in a federal price-fixing crackdown that the U.S. Department of Justice Antitrust Division calls the largest in its history — but few are local, and fewer still are positioned for a prominent role in the most visible cases.
U.S. District Judge Marianne Battani recently appointed a total of 10 law firms to serve as interim co-lead class counsel for the companies and buyers in a multi-district litigation lawsuit in Detroit against makers of automotive wire-harness systems. But none were from ...more »
04/13/12 I'm more than a little sheepish about the egg on my face this week. But I'll own it, completely.
A now-deleted blog I posted Wednesday said some data submitted for Crain's list of largest statewide law firms, in the April 9 issue, was intentionally inflated. It wasn't. That was wrong of me to say, and Crain's policy is always to take responsibility for any errors we make. I had hoped to make that clear before, but I didn't and I apologize.
I wrote the blog because errors in our surveying ...more »
03/19/12 Wayne State University could add a fourth master of laws degree program to its law school by this summer, adding a specialty in U.S. law for automotive and other industry attorneys from overseas with
The school's Board of Governors will consider a recommendation from Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs Ronald Brown on Wednesday, to add an LL.M. in United States Law to its current slate of master's degrees in tax, labor and employment, and corporate and finance law. ...more »
03/14/12 The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office will offer Detroit and its legal community much more than supplemental research space, or conference rooms to meet with patent examiners, when it opens in July.
You've probably read here by now about USPTO's five-year lease to occupy 31,000 square feet of the Stroh Brewery headquarters building at 300 N. River Place, where the Elijah J. McCoy United States Patent and Trademark Office is now set to open July 16. ...more »
02/22/12 Add the city of Holland to recent victors over Detroit-based Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, which has been accused of charging hidden fees to more than 30 self-insured public and private employers.
The west Michigan community won a jury verdict this week for $762,425 on top of a pretrial ruling for more than $830,000 in its favor, for nearly all of the $1.6 million in damages it had sought for breach of contract and fraudulent concealment over the Blues' controversial use of administrative service fees. ...more »
01/31/12 It was more than a casual comment this week when, outgoing Acting Assistant Attorney General Sharis Pozen in charge of the U.S. Department of Justice Antitrust Division let it drop to reporters that the "auto parts investigation is the largest antitrust investigation the (department) has ever pursued."
It's already bucking for that top spot right now, with just three companies taking pleas and agreeing to fines out of what is likely dozens of auto suppliers under investigation. Based on a history of the fines collected by ...more »
01/25/12 Detroit-based Kotz, Sangster, Wysocki and Berg is expected to change its legal name shortly to Kotz Sangster and Wysocki PC, after name partner Frederick Berg departed his firm of nearly 27 years to become a shareholder at Butzel Long PC.
The move could mean a sizable addition of business to the recovering Butzel. Berg's commercial litigation practice alone accounted for nearly 12 percent of all court cases nationwide for Kotz Sangster in late 2011, according to law firm data furnished to Crain's from ...more »
LEGAL
 01/18/12 Former Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox has resigned from Detroit-based Dykema Gossett PLLC, the law firm he joined as a senior attorney one year ago this week, to launch a suburban solo practitioner law firm, Dykema's former CEO confirmed today.
"Mike has decided he wanted to have a solo practice, that would let him have a little more flexibility in working with the law firm," said Rex Schlaybaugh, partner and Chairman Emeritus at Dykema who was managing the firm when Cox joined last January. ...more »
01/17/12 Miller Canfield Paddock and Stone plc could see a sizable book of business head just down the street in downtown Ann Arbor, along with a group of partners heading up the new local office of Chicago-based Schiff Hardin LLP.
Gregory Curtner said he and fellow Miller Canfield principals Robert Wierenga, Frederick Juckniess and Kimberly Kefalas all resigned from the 160-year-old Detroit firm last week to head up Schiff Hardin's eighth national office. The new digs are just a quarter-mile down Main Street from ...more »
01/05/12 For all you students and aficionados of irony, today's object lesson is the lawsuit brought by Macomb Township construction site equipment and personnel contractor L. D'Agostini & Sons Inc. against the city of Detroit.
On the surface, D'Agostini's allegations Thursday in federal court are straightforward enough. The company claims the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department Board of Water Commissioners violated its due process rights and federal law at a Dec. 21 special meeting when the board suspended the ...more »
|
