Butzel Long President Justin G. Klimko appointed to TriBar Opinions Committee
Attorney is the only Michigan member of Committee comprised primarily of Wall Street law firms
DETROIT, Mich. – Justin G. Klimko, President and Managing Shareholder, Butzel Long, has been appointed to the TriBar Opinion Committee.
The TriBar Committee fosters national standards for legal opinions in business transactions through discussions, programs and a number of influential reports on issues relevant to opinion practice. It was originally composed of members of the Special Committee on Legal Opinions on Commercial Transactions of the New York County Lawyers’ Association, the Corporation Law Committee of the New York City Bar and the Special Committee on Legal Opinions of the New York State Bar Association. Membership of the TriBar Committee has been expanded to include attorneys from a limited number of additional jurisdictions. Mr. Klimko is the only member from Michigan.
Klimko, based in the firm’s Detroit office, has extensive experience in securities regulation, corporate financing, mergers and acquisitions, corporate governance and general corporate matters, areas in which he has practiced since 1980. He has received numerous awards and recognitions for business law matters and is ranked as one of Michigan’s leading corporate and M&A lawyers. He has also chaired the State Bar of Michigan Business Law Section’s Ad Hoc Committee on Legal Opinions, which has issued reports to address opinion issues in business transactions, including issues specific to Michigan law.
He previously taught corporation law as an Adjunct Professor at the University of Detroit Mercy Law School, frequently lectures and authors articles on business law subjects and has served as general editor of a treatise on Michigan Business Forms and as a contributing author for a treatise on Michigan contract law.
Klimko is a past chair of the Business Law Section of the State Bar of Michigan. He serves as Chair of the Section’s Corporate Laws Committee, which prepares amendments to Michigan corporate statutes for legislative approval to keep Michigan corporate law current with modern trends and developments.
He also is a member of the Legal Opinions Committee, the Negotiated Acquisitions Committee and the Federal Regulation of Securities Committee of the American Bar Association.
Klimko is included in the publication The Best Lawyers in America and enjoys an “AV” rating from the Martindale-Hubbell rating system. He is rated one of Michigan's top Corporate/M&A attorneys by Chambers USA Guide of America's Leading Lawyers for Business and is listed in Michigan Super Lawyers (Mergers and Acquisitions).
In 2016, Klimko received the Meritorious Service Award from the Association for Corporate Growth (ACG) Detroit. He is a Board Member and Secretary of ACG Detroit.
Notably, Klimko was the recipient of the 2009 Stephen H. Schulman Outstanding Business Lawyer Award from the Business Law Section of the State Bar of Michigan and was named Best Lawyers’ 2012 Lawyer of the Year in Detroit for Corporate Governance Law, 2014 Lawyer of the Year in Detroit for Corporate Law, 2015 Lawyer of the Year in Detroit for Corporate Governance Law and 2016 Lawyer of the Year in Detroit for Mergers and Acquisition Law.
