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Congratulations to Kalamazoo attorney Leo Goddeyne, who has been named the recipient of Michigan Community Resources' Pro Bono Partner Brick Award. The award honors pro bono partners who have meaningfully contributed to MCR's mission of building strong nonprofits.
We are excited to congratulate Kimberly Scott, a principal in our Ann Arbor office, who will be awarded the prestigious State Bar of Michigan John W. Cummiskey Pro Bono Award, given annually to recognize outstanding pro bono service.
Since June 2017, Kim has worked on the widely publicized class action case Hamama v. Adducci, which she has done on a pro bono basis in cooperation with the ACLU of Michigan. The case has impacted some 1,400 Iraqi nationals who had been living in the United States for years, and even decades. Hundreds of them live in Southeast Michigan.
We are proud to be one of the law firms pioneering the Mansfield 2.0 rule to close the gap in leadership roles for women and minorities in law firm hiring. In 2017, we were among several dozen of the nation's leading firms to adopt the original Mansfield Rule, named for the first woman admitted to practice law in the United States, Arabella Mansfield.
We're very excited for the opening of The Corner Ballpark and the role we played in helping to revitalize the former site of Tiger Stadium. Thom Linn served on the Old Tiger Stadium Conservancy and along with David Mitchell played a crucial role in conceiving, funding and implementing the plans for the site.
Announcing the winners of the prestigious 2017 Richard J. Seryak Award in recognition of pro bono service: Cara Houck and Kimberly Scott.
The annual award was first given in 2015, in memory of Richard Seryak, who during his 40-year legal career at Miller Canfield exemplified the standard of pro bono service. Seryak’s widow Dr. Helene Dombrowski and children Elizabeth Seryak and Dr. Kaitlin Seryak established the award to recognize attorneys who continue Richard Seryak’s legacy. The Seryak family provides a stipend for the award winner to donate to the legal service organization of his or her choice.
Kimberly Scott has been named in Michigan Lawyers Weekly’s Leaders in the Law Class of 2018.
Scott, a principal attorney in the firm’s Ann Arbor, Michigan, office, is known for her work in complex and “bet-the-company” litigation that present unique challenges, such as novel issues or procedure of law. For the past year, she has also become known as one of the attorneys who was named as class counsel in the widely publicized Hamama v. Adducci. Scott is working on the pro bono case with the ACLU of Michigan, representing more than 200 Iraqi nationals who had been ordered to be deported without a hearing. The case is the first in a series of recent putative class actions nationwide urging federal courts to allow time for individual immigration hearings in light of changed conditions in the immigrants’ home countries.
The legendary football coach Vince Lombardi once said, “The quality of a person’s life is in direct proportion to their commitment to excellence, regardless of their chosen field of endeavor.”
His quote came to mind during the past few weeks as I have been taking stock of the past year and looking forward to 2018. In particular, I have been thinking about my colleagues who have been recognized for doing the kind of excellent work they always do. They don’t expect any fanfare or special recognition, but the kudos started coming in the form of awards and rankings for individual lawyers, teams and the firm.