Thank you to everyone who sent their news and updates to share! It's exciting to hear how our colleagues from the past are doing, both professionally and personally. 

Looking back over the year since we last distributed a Miller Canfield Connects newsletter, we have happily started returning to working face-to-face and enjoying in-person gatherings. At our annual principals' meeting, we were pleased to report that three fine attorneys—Conor Fitzpatrick, Christie Galinski and Eric Stein—had been elevated to principalship and four more—Alex Clark, Katrina Desmond, Q. Scott Kaye and Samantha Kopacz—were elected as senior principals. 

We are especially happy to have welcomed two alumni back to the Firm. Aaron Schwaderer was a member of our Financial Institutions Group from 2008 to 2015. He returned in 2021. Steve Rohr returned in March 2022 and has rejoined the Personal Services Group, where he previously practiced from 2012 to 2019. 

In November 2021, our office in Chicago moved to The Franklin at 227 West Monroe St., which is just blocks away from our former location in the heart of the Loop. 

Also in November, CEO Megan Norris was named on the prestigious Crain's Detroit Business 100 Most Influential Women in Michigan list, which is published once every five years. And in October 2021, Chair of the Managing Directors Amy Johnston was among Michigan Lawyers Weekly's Leaders in the Law.

We were very proud to announce in September that for the fourth year in a row, the Firm had earned Mansfield Plus Certification, which requires firms to affirmatively consider women and people from underrepresented groups when making decisions about lateral hiring, promotion and leadership roles and to demonstrate that women and people from underrepresented groups such as people of color, LGBTQ+ attorneys and attorneys with disabilities are represented in leadership roles. Only 92 firms in the country have earned this honor, and we are the only Michigan-headquartered firm to do so.

We have been very encouraged by the growing demand from clients who are developing and implementing their own Diversity, Equity and Inclusion plans, and in response, we launched a dedicated DEI consulting practice. 

We are also pleased to share some updates from alumni:

From The Great Lakes State to the Empire State

Emil Arca

During the five years Emil Arca spent at Miller Canfield, he says now the Firm often felt like family. He remembers fondly the fun he had playing on the Miller Canfield softball team and attending the summer associate barbecue at Thom Linn's home. But when the time came to decide whether to stay in Detroit or move to New York, where his then-fiancée was practicing, he headed for the Big Apple. Click here to read more about Emil and what he's been up to since 1990.

Success Doesn't Happen in a Vacuum

Lisa (Zigterman) Buursma

A lot has happened during the five years since Lisa (Zigterman) Burrsma left Miller Canfield's FITG Group to take an in-house position at BISSELL. The company has enjoyed significant growth, which created plenty of opportunities for Lisa's professional growth. She is now the Director — Corporate & Commercial Counsel and loves the fast pace of her work and the hectic pace of her family life since having children. Click here to read more about how life has changed for Lisa.

Reporting For Duty

Tom Turner left Miller Canfield in 2019 to join the U.S. Army as a Judge Advocate. 

Since his departure from Miller Canfield in 2019, Tom Turner's career and home life have taken many exciting turns. He's now working in South Korea, where he lives as a newly married man. He's looking forward to traveling and moving to his next duty station later this year. Catch up with Tom here.

Updates in Brief

Chuck Oxender was recently promoted to Senior Manager - Labor Relations for the Powertrain division at Stellantis (formerly FCA). In this role, Chuck is responsible for all labor teams and all labor issues at the company's eight North American Powertrain plants. Additionally, Chuck is part of the labor relations senior management team developing strategies for all company labor relations issues. 

Alyssa Hussein has been working as an associate immigration attorney at Deloitte in Toronto since February 2022 and volunteering at Al Otro Lado remotely as an immigration attorney assisting with asylum and humanitarian parole matters for asylum seekers. 

Dennis Loy let us know he is planning to retire later this year, 46 years after starting his career at Miller Canfield in 1976. He and his wife now live in Ann Arbor, and he reports that both of his children are attorneys. Daughter Maureen (Loy) Brenner is senior legal counsel, IP, at CVS Health in Boston and son Peter Loy recently joined Foley & Lardner's IP Litigation Practice Group in Chicago as an associate.

Alan Madry, who was an associate in the Birmingham, then Bloomfield Hills and Ann Arbor offices in the '80s, reached out to share the news that in December 2020, he retired from his position as a professor of law at Marquette University in Milwaukee, where he had been teaching for 31 years. He and his wife moved back to the Traverse City area where they have had had a cottage for many years. 

Frederick E. Ellrod III's science-fiction romantic comedy novella, "Time Signature" will be published by The Wild Rose Press in ebook form on May 10. 

Mark Boonstra recently released the first two volumes of a three-volume work titled "In Their Own Words: Today's God-less America . . . What Would Our Founding Fathers Think?" The book includes biographies of each of the 118 signers of our nation’s three founding documents—the Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation, and the Constitution of the United States—which focus on the religious lives and beliefs of the signers, followed up by a series of quotations from each signer that relate to issues of religion and its place in our society. Each chapter then also includes an example of an event from modern-day America and then asks the reader to ponder what that particular signer would think of where we are today in America. Mark's wife Martha, also a Miller Canfield alum, is a contributor to the book, which includes a tribute to her grandfather, Congressman Louis Rabaut (D-Mich), who authored the "Under God" amendment to the Pledge of Allegiance (which President Eisenhower signed into law in 1954). The books are available on Amazon and at Mark Boonstra – In Their Own Words (foundersownwords.com) 

Mark Boonstra book signing

Contact

Carol Lundberg +1.313.496.7778
lundberg@millercanfield.com

Thank you for your suggestions and ideas to capitalize on our Miller Canfield connections! Please contact me or Mike McGee anytime with all of your news about professional moves, awards and accolades, name changes or anything you would like to share. We are happy to make introductions to current colleagues - just ask! If you want to visit any of our offices, please let us know and we can make arrangements.

Stay in touch! Our alumni directory offers a great way to keep in contact with our former colleagues and friends. Thank you to everyone for keeping your contact information current. If you need help reaching someone who is listed in the directory, have a change in your information or know of a former colleague who needs their information updated, please contact Carol Lundberg.

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