Butzel Long elects shareholders
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
DETROIT, Mich. – Butzel Long has announced the following attorneys were recently elected shareholders: Geaneen M. Arends, Joseph E. Richotte and Milton B. Whitfield.
Geaneen M. Arends
Based in Butzel Long’s Detroit office, Geaneen M. Arends concentrates her practice on general business law and commercial real estate.
She assists business clients with general business planning, entity formation and maintenance, mergers, acquisitions, private placements, woman-owned/minority-owned/disadvantaged business certification, insurance and risk management issues and general business contracts. Arends also has advised business clients on a variety of real estate transactions, including acquisition, development and leasing of multi-family residential, retail, office and industrial properties throughout the United States. She has represented both borrowers and lenders in multi-million dollar real estate financing transactions.
Arends serves as the Chairperson of the Board of Directors and President for Michigan Community Resources (formerly known as Community Legal Resources), a nonprofit organization that provides technical assistance and free legal services to nonprofit organizations revitalizing and bringing economic development to underserved communities in Detroit and throughout Michigan. She is an alumna of Leadership Detroit, Class XXVII. She also belongs to the Royal Oak Woman’s Club and is a Master Gardener.
She is an active member of the Butzel Long PAC Committee and Butzel Long’s Women’s Leadership Committee. Arends is a member of the Wolverine Bar Association and the Detroit Economic Club. She was recognized by DBusiness in 2014 as a Top Lawyer in the areas of Real Estate Law and Non Profit Law.
Arends is a graduate of Michigan State University (B.A., History, 1994) and of Boston College Law School (J.D., 1998). She is admitted to the State Bar of Michigan and the United States District Court of the Eastern District of Michigan.
Joseph E. Richotte
Based in Butzel Long’s Bloomfield Hills office, Joseph E. Richotte practices in the areas of white collar criminal defense, securities and business litigation, news media defense, and attorney discipline defense. He also is very active in the firm’s appellate practice, focusing on appeals in his practice areas.
Before joining Butzel Long, Richotte interned for the Honorable Avern Cohn of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan. He also has worked for the United States Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Michigan in the National Security Unit and for the Oakland County Prosecutor's Office.
Richotte was named a Rising Star in 2013 by Michigan Super Lawyers and received the Michigan Defense Trial Counsel’s (MDTC) Ninth Annual Golden Gavel Award. He is admitted to practice in Michigan, the Supreme Court of the United States, the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, and the United States District Courts for the Eastern and Western Districts of Michigan. Richotte is a member of the State Bar of Michigan, the American Bar Association, the Federal Bar Association’s Eastern District of Michigan Chapter, the Lex Mundi Business Crimes Group, the Lex Mundi Media, Sports, and Entertainment Group, and the Media Law Resource Center. Richotte also is a member of the Order of the Coif and Phi Beta Kappa.
Milton B. Whitfield
Milton B. Whitfield recently joined Butzel Long and is based in the firm’s Washington, D.C. office. He represents companies in complex corporate and technology transactions. He specializes in licensing and outsourcing of business processes, information technology, and related sourcing services.
Whitfield works closely with C-Suite and senior executives in advising, structuring, negotiating and documenting all aspects of domestic and international outsourcing transactions. He has led information technology and business process outsourcing transactions in various industries including, for example: consumer services, energy, financial, health care, hospitality manufacturing, telecommunications, transportation and waste management. He also advises several entities on technology transactions and licensing.
He served as a Special Assistant to Admiral H.G. Rickover, Director, Division of Naval Reactors in the Department of Energy. He led, in conjunction with private industry, the development, implementation and operation of a $100 million steam generator chemical cleaning program for the Nuclear Navy. As part of his practice, Whitfield advises companies on various energy regulatory and transactional matters.
He is a member of the American Bar Association, District of Columbia Bar and Virginia Bar Associations: Sections on Business, Energy, Science and Technology and International Association of Outsourcing Professionals In 2013, Whitfield was recognized by Washington D.C. Super Lawyers Business/Corporate, Energy & Natural Resources. He is a recipient of the District of Columbia Bar and ABA Pro Bono Awards.
Whitfield earned two B.S. degrees, Summa Cum Laude, University of Virginia in 1974. He received a J.D., from Georgetown University in 1979, where he was Editor of the International Law Journal, and an M.B.A., Beta Gamma Sigma, from George Washington University in 1984.
About Butzel Long
Established in 1854, Butzel Long is a full-service law firm with offices in Detroit, Bloomfield Hills, Lansing and Ann Arbor, Mich. New York, NY and, Washington, D.C., as well as alliance offices in Beijing, Shanghai, Mexico City and Monterrey. The firm is an active member of Lex Mundi, a global association of 160 independent law firms. Visit the Butzel Long website at www.butzel.com.
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Media Contact: Maribeth Farkas at Caponigro Public Relations Inc.,
(248) 353-3030, ext. 2114.
