Wayne Law News

With 131 incoming first-year students, Wayne Law marks a 10 percent increase over last year’s 119 first-year students.

Two of three public service awards and a Champion of Justice Award given this year by the State Bar of Michigan will go to Wayne Law alumni.

The sixth annual An Evening at the Ballpark with Wayne Law on Thursday, Aug. 20, at Comerica Park introduced Wayne Law’s rising second-year and third-year students to the Michigan legal community. 

Wayne Law alumni working at Bodman PLC won the Law School’s Law Firm Challenge by pledging the most money and having the most participation for the fundraiser to benefit the Law School.

Nine of the 30 Michigan attorneys on the 2015 Women in the Law list recently released by Michigan Lawyers Weekly are alumnae of Wayne Law.

The 12th annual Mark Weiss Day at Comerica Park on Friday, Aug. 7, raised more than $6,000 for scholarships at Wayne Law.

Nedda Shayota, vice president of Sigma Associates Inc., is making a mark beyond the business world as a community and cultural leader.

This year’s Wayne Law Review Symposium will bring together a former associate U.S. attorney general, corporate counsel and academic experts Friday, Oct. 16, to discuss “Corporate Counsel as Gatekeepers.

The Levin Center at Wayne Law will present a half-day conference, “Congressional Oversight of Classified Programs – 40 Years after the Church Committee,” on Tuesday, Oct. 20, in Washington, D.C.

The Levin Center at Wayne Law joined forces with the Project On Government Oversight and The Lugar Center to sponsor an intensive training Aug. 11 and 12 on Capitol Hill for congressional staff to improve bipartisan, fact-based oversight investigations.

Two White House officials explained the nuclear deal negotiated with Iran during a presentation Wednesday, Sept. 2, at Wayne Law. The presentation was sponsored by the Law School’s Program for International Legal Studies.

Orientation Week activities for incoming first-year Wayne Law students included a New Student Convocation on Monday, Aug. 24.

Orientation Week activities for incoming first-year Wayne Law students included a program on Building a Culturally Conscious Community on Wednesday, Aug. 26.

Orientation Week activities for incoming Wayne Law students included a Taste of Detroit barbecue and Student Organization Fair on Wednesday, Aug. 26. 

Incoming first-year students, as well as some faculty and staff, from Wayne Law participated in a service project Thursday, Aug. 27, at the Michigan Urban Farming Initiative in Detroit.

Wayne Law concluded Orientation Week for new students Friday evening, Aug. 28, with a scenic cruise of Detroit’s riverfront aboard the Diamond Belle. 

Wayne Law Professor Peter J. Henning is co-author of the newly released fourth edition of "White Collar Crime: Law and Practice."

Old National Bancorp has elected Wayne Law Professor Katherine E. White to its Corporate Board of Directors.

Upcoming Events

Sept. 15 - Techonomy Detroit

Sept. 16 - Venture for America: City as a Startup 2015

Sept. 16 - Wayne Law Alumni Speaker Series - Leading Successful Law Firms

Sept. 17 - Debate on the Meaning and Interpretation of the United States Constitution

Sept. 17 - Book launch for Frank Kelley, The People's Lawyer

Oct. 7 - I. Goodman Cohen Lecture in Trial Advocacy (for law students)

Oct. 7 - I. Goodman Cohen Lecture in Trial Advocacy (public event)

Oct. 8 - Law School Alumni Reception during State Bar Annual Meeting

Oct. 15 - 23rd annual Bernard Gottfried Memorial Labor Law Symposium

Oct. 16 - Wayne Law Review Symposium

Oct 16 - Wayne Law Reunion

Oct. 20 - Congressional Oversight of Classified Programs – 40 Years after the Church Committee

More Events

Alumni Accomplishments

Timothy Bradley, '08, joined the intellectual property practice group at Carlson Gaskey & Olds PC, a firm recently ranked as one of the top 100 firms in the United States for patents.

Lori Buiteweg, '90, was elected president of the State Bar of Michigan for the 2015-16 bar year. She will be sworn in as president of the more than 44,000-member organization Thursday, Oct. 8, during the annual meeting in Novi. Buiteweg is a partner in Nichols Sacks Slank Sendelbach and Buiteweg PC.

Danielle Bullock, '08, joined law firm Colodny Fass as an associate. Bullock, a member of the Florida Bar, also is certified to practice law in all 15 member nations of CARICOM, also known as the Caribbean Community. During her tenure with another South Florida litigation firm, Bullock worked for the Office of the Attorney General for Jamaica, for which she provided counsel on complex commercial matters, governmental contracts and the inter-relationship of U.S. and Caribbean law.

Freddie Burton, '76, was named as the new chief justice for the Wayne County Probate Court to serve the rest of 2015 in the role. New chief justices for several courts in the state will be selected in 2016.  

Sean Cook, '95, was elected chair of the Board of Trustees for the Michigan School of Professional Psychology in Farmington Hills. He practices with Warner Norcross & Judd LLP.

Christopher Darrow, '00, launched an intellectual property law firm in Northville. Originally named The Darrow Law Firm, it since has been renamed Darrow Mustafa PC upon Nadine Mustafa, '08, becoming a partner of the firm. Several other Wayne Law graduates also have joined Darrow Mustafa PC.  Allen Pittoors, '03', joined the firm as a partner. Christopher Roelofs, '11, and Ryan Carnago, '13, joined the firm as associate attorneys. Dr. Alex Showalter, '13, is a technical advisor to the firm and Robert Okonowski works as a law clerk as he moves toward his expected 2016 graduation from Wayne Law.

Brian Einhorn, '67, was selected by his peers for inclusion in The Best Lawyers in America 2016. Einhorn was named Metro Detroit Lawyer of the Year for his work in Professional Malpractice Law-Defendants. He is with Southfield-based Collins Einhorn Farrell.

Zachary Fallstich, '06, opened The Little Free Law Library with law books on topics of widespread interest available in front of his law firm at 1207 Eureka Road in Wyandotte.

Diane Fears, '89, wrote "Tipping the Scales: Courting Diverse Judicial Clerkship Applicants," published in the September edition of the NALP Bulletin. Fears is director of career services and the Student Voluntary Pro Bono Program at Wayne Law.

Sandra Glazier, '82, a Lipson Neilson shareholder, accepted a position on the faculty of the 41st Notre Dame Tax and Estate Planning Institute planned Sept. 17 and 18 in South Bend, Ind. Glazier will co-present on the topic of "Undue Influence, Recognizing It, Insulating and Planning Against It, and Litigating It." Glazier and her co-presenters have gained national recognition for their expertise on this topic. They were featured presenters during the American Bar Association's 2015 Spring Symposia in Washington, D.C., and an article they co-authored is in the July-August 2015 issue of Bloomberg BNA's Tax Management: Estates, Gifts and Trusts Journal.

James Harlan, '00, joined InterDigital Communications as its director of standards and competition policy. His responsibilities include representing InterDigital across the globe before standards-setting organization IP policy committees and working groups regarding patent, standards-setting, competition and licensing policy matters.

Joseph Hart, '93, was named president and CEO of Dale Carnegie Training. He's a Dale Carnegie graduate and has worked closely with the company as a strategic partner for nearly 10 years.

Paul Isso, '11, launched a law firm in Phoenix, Ariz. The Isso Law Firm focuses on legal ethics; criminal defense; civil litigation; and entertainment, media and sports law.

Gary Kravitz, LL.M. '07, has joined Maddin Hauser Roth & Heller PC's real estate, corporate and business, and franchise practice groups. 

Kenneth Marcus, '84, a partner in the health care practice group of Honigman Miller Schwartz and Cohn LLP, has been named to the Life Members Council of the American Health Lawyers Association. Marcus played a key leadership role in establishing the council, which encourages association attorneys who have been members for more than 15 years to continue their involvement in the organization.

Daniel Matson, '68, retired after 45 years as city attorney for DeWitt. In private practice, Matson also has served as president of the Clinton County Bar Association, president of the Michigan Association of Municipal Attorneys and president of the Michigan Municipal League Legal Defense Fund. He also has served as chairman on the public corporations law section and the arts, communications, entertainment and sports law section for the State Bar of Michigan.

Patricia Nemeth, '84, is the founder of Nemeth Law PC, a Detroit-based labor and employment law firm that was named one of Metropolitan Detroit's 101 Best & Brightest Companies to Work For in 2015 by the Michigan Business and Professional Association. This is the 14th time Nemeth Law has received the award.

Lindsay Schmidt, '13, joined Garan Lucow Miller PC as an associate attorney.

Heather Simmons, '85, wrote Practical Magic: How the Ancient Art of Storytelling Can Make Us Better Lawyers for the August edition of the Michigan Bar Journal. She is an assistant professor of library service at the University of Illinois College of Law.

Steven Sonenberg, '79, was appointed as public defender in Pima County, Ariz.

Justin Spurlock, '13, was hired as an associate by Cantor Colburn LLP. Spurlock, an aerospace engineer, is a registered patent attorney with experience in preparing and prosecuting domestic and international patent applications in the mechanical, electronics and electro-mechanical arts. He also has experience in litigation matters, intellectual property licensing, and patentability and infringement opinions.


More Alumni Accomplishments

Faculty Accomplishments

Linda Beale is the new editor of the American Bar Association Tax Section's digital news magazine.

Jocelyn Benson was named as a 2015 inductee into the Michigan Women's Hall of Fame.

Charles Brower will be listed for the second straight year in the global edition of Who's Who Legal: Arbitration. He is one of only 120 in the United States and two from Michigan to be accorded the honor.

Blanche Cook gave an implicit bias training during Curriculum and Instruction Day at the Wayne State University School of Social Work.

Peter Hammer spoke about connections between Detroit's bankruptcy and structural racism at a town hall meeting. The event was sponsored by the Detroit Active and Retired Employees Association.

Kathryn Smolinski co-wrote a chapter, "Educating and training professional social workers in psycho-oncology," in the new third edition of Psycho-Oncology published by Oxford University Press.

Katherine White was elected to the Corporate Board of Directors of Old National Bancorp. White was a market board member for United Bank and Trust for 11 years, which was assumed into Old National Bancorp in 2014 as part of a cash and stock merger. She has since been serving on the Old National Bank Advisory Board for the central Michigan market.  


More Faculty Accomplishments

Professors in the News

Jocelyn Benson was cited in a Detroit Free Press editorial, Want to change Michigan politics? Here's how.

Peter Hammer wrote an article, Call Me Caitlyn: Expanding the Circle of Human Concern, for Jurist.

Peter Henning was quoted in a Reuters report, Promontory, by settling, bows to realities of legal challenges against regulators.

Carl Levin, with former U.S. Sen. John Warner, wrote an opinion column, Why hawks should also back the Iran deal, published in Politico magazine.

John Mogk was quoted in a Detroit Free Press report, What will happen to Cass Corridor homeless as arena district moves in?

Nick Schroeck was quoted in a Detroit News report, MDEQ sets SW Detroit emissions plan.

Robert Sedler was quoted in a Detroit News report, House has leeway in weighing Courser, Gamrat ousters.

Peter Hammer was quoted in a Model D report, Detroit groups work to develop young men of color into leaders.

Peter Henning was quoted in a Bloomberg Business report, For the SEC's In-House Court, a Question of Justice for All.

John Mogk was quoted in a Detroit News report, Ilitches bet big on land near MotorCity Casino Hotel.


More Professors in the News