James Brenner of Clark Hill PLC is a corporate defense attorney and head of the firm’s appellate practice department, specializing in insurance, commercial and benefits law. However, Brenner also works pro bono for the defense of death row inmates in states still utilizing the death penalty as punishment for crimes. He began his work in 1989 and has advocated for two defendants in the final stages of their respective appeals processes and had been denied adequate assistance of counsel. In a case taking 17 years to go through the appellate process, Brenner saved the man’s life by introducing important information his appointed counsel failed to present. Brenner has begun work on his third case this year.
Thomas Cranmer of Miller, Canfield, Paddock & Stone, P.L.C. won an acquittal in a federal, terrorism-related prosecution case involving former Assistant U.S. Attorney Richard G. Convertino and former U.S. State Department security officer Harry R. Smith III. Cranmer also was picked as part of Southfield attorney Geoffrey Fieger’s defense dream team after Fieger and law partner Vernon R. Johnson were indicted on charges of having conspired to make illegal campaign contributions to John Edwards’ 2004 presidential campaign. He has recently taken on a case representing a former FBI and CIA agent who pleaded guilty to faking a marriage to win U.S. citizenship, a case that will keep him busy into the New Year.
Patrick Daugherty of Foley & Larder LLP is accustomed to working with teams of as many as 80 attorneys around the globe, planning mammoth public deals worth billions of dollars and then closing them to comply with SEC regulations. Daugherty’s most significant work this year was his leadership on the $350 million merger of Troy-based Noble International Ltd. with the laser-welding division of ArcelorMittal in London, the world’s leading steel company. Daugherty and his team brought to the New York Stock Exchange several currency-based, exchange-traded funds, which are considered financial innovations and firsts in the world.
Edward Davison of Gault Davison, P.C. and Noreen Slank of Collins, Einhorn, Farrell & Ulanoff paired to fight for an end to the common law discovery rule and to restore a legislatively mandated statute of limitations in a case that dated back to 1986. This case involved Margarette Eby, the former University of Michigan-Flint provost, who was raped and murdered. The crime went unsolved for 16 years until investigators used DNA evidence to convict a man. Eby’s daughter sued the man, Davison’s client, relying on the common law discovery doctrine to argue that Eby’s wrongful death claim remained active until the killer’s identity was discovered. Davison disputed the argument, stating it didn’t apply to his client. Ultimately, he and Slank got the Supreme Court to overrule the common law discovery rule, maintaining that it only governs the accrual of the statute of limitations for tort claims.
Saul Green of Miller, Canfield, Paddock and Stone, P.L.C. fought to bring down a discriminating landlord and helped recover the largest settlement in Michigan history for a fair housing rental discrimination case. In Fair Housing Center of Metropolitan Detroit v. General Properties Company, et al., Green alleged the company and one of its owners engaged in a pattern of discrimination against prospective black tenants, instructing several management companies to find reasons not to offer them apartments. The almost three-year case settled in August. As a result, more than 20 people turned away from one apartment complex throughout several years will share $330,000 of the $725,000 settlement.
Michael Jacobson and Brian Shannon of Jaffe Raitt Heuer & Weiss, P.C. worked collaboratively to return the oversight of residential homebuilders to the proper authorities stemming from a misapplication of the Michigan Consumer Protection Act. Through the successful use of a bypass motion, these attorneys moved their case directly from the Oakland County Circuit Court to the Michigan Supreme Court, where the 2000 decision to include residential homebuilders within the definition of “trade or commerce” under the MCPA was overruled. This decision puts an end to the misuse of MCPA claims on straightforward contract or warranty disputes.
David McClorey of the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office, a champion for elders’ rights and preventing elder abuse, brought down an independent contractor, who swindled more than $1 million from unknowing seniors, in a massive reverse mortgage fraud case in 2007. McClorey was able to charge the defendant for crimes against six victims, yielding a sentence above guidelines. Though planning to retire in March 2008, McClorey served in the Wayne County Prosecutor’s office for 21 years and had been serving as the principal attorney of the Wayne County Elder Abuse Unit since being appointed in January 2004.
Michael Stefani of Stefani & Stefani is a former law enforcement officer who specializes in Whistleblower cases and took on one of the most contentious cases in Detroit’s history, the high-profile Brown, et al. v. City of Detroit, et al. In this highly publicized case, Stefani sought to prove that his clients had been unlawfully retaliated against for investigating and reporting wrongdoing within the ranks of Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick’s security detail. Stefani was able to use his expertise in the Whistleblower Protection Act and his experiences in law enforcement to secure a multimillion-
Richard White of Auto Club Group made his mark in Washington, D.C., by stressing the importance of attorney-client privilege. White addressed the Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism and Homeland Security on March 8, regarding the “McNulty Memorandums Effect on the Right to Counsel in Corporate Investigations and the Attorney-Client.”
Amos Williams of Law Offices of Amos E. Williams made a name for himself in 2007 with a win before the Michigan Supreme Court. In March, the former Detroit police officer and Vietnam veteran urged the Michigan Supreme Court to reverse the Michigan Court of Appeals ruling in Haynes v. Neshewat. In the case, the plaintiff, Dr. Gregory Haynes, alleged that because of his race, he wasn’t afforded the same staff privileges at Oakwood Hospital, and Williams won him a settlement. Although the trial court denied summary disposition, the Michigan Court of Appeals granted interlocutory leave and reversed the decision, citing that Haynes’ claims were not within the scope of ELCRA, which protects only members of the public. The Michigan Supreme Court disagreed and reversed the appellate ruling. In another large win in 2007, Williams convinced a Wayne County Circuit Court jury to award $1.9 million to Robert Shaw, Ecorse’s former police chief who had accused the city of age discrimination and not paying him his correct pension.
