Five Butzel Long attorneys named Best Lawyers® “Lawyer of the Year” 2014 in key practice areas
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
DETROIT, Mich. – Five Butzel Long attorneys have been named Best Lawyers® “Lawyer of the Year” 2014 in key practice areas. Only a single lawyer in each practice area and designated metropolitan area is honored as the “Lawyer of the Year,” making this accolade particularly significant. The attorneys include:
-- Robert A. Boonin – Employment Law – Management – Ann Arbor
-- Robert A. Hudson – International Trade and Finance Law – Detroit
-- Justin G. Klimko – Corporate Law – Detroit
-- Thomas L. Shaevsky – Litigation – ERISA – Bloomfield Hills
-- James J. Urban – Construction Law – Lansing
Lawyers being honored as “Lawyer of the Year” are selected based on particularly impressive voting averages received during the exhaustive peer-review assessments conducted with thousands of leading lawyers each year. Receiving this designation reflects the high level of respect a lawyer has earned among other leading lawyers in the same communities and the same practice areas for their abilities, their professionalism, and their integrity. Best Lawyers® began designating “Lawyers of the Year” in the U.S. in high-profile legal practice areas in 2009.
Since it was first published in 1983, The Best Lawyers in America® 2014 (copyright 2013 by Woodward/White, Inc. of Aiken, SC) has become universally regarded as the definitive guide to legal excellence. Because Best Lawyers is based on an exhaustive peer-review survey in which nearly 50,000 leading attorneys cast almost five million votes on the legal abilities of other lawyers in their practice areas, and because lawyers are not required or allowed to pay a fee to be listed, inclusion in Best Lawyers is considered a singular honor. Corporate Counsel magazine has called Best Lawyers “the most respected referral list of attorneys in practice.”
Robert A. Boonin
Boonin is a shareholder based in the firm’s Ann Arbor office. His law practice is largely concentrated in the areas of labor, employment discrimination and education law. He has represented public and private sector clients across the country, in more than 30 jurisdictions, in wrongful termination, employment discrimination, wage and hour, tenure proceedings and other employment-related lawsuits and claims, as well as in labor grievance arbitrations, labor negotiations, unfair labor practices and representational proceedings and labor strikes.
Boonin has been recognized by Best Lawyers® in America since 2012 in the following categories: Employment Law – Management Litigation – Labor and Employment.
Boonin is a Fellow of the College of Labor and Employment Lawyers Fellow and former President – Litigation Counsel of America Chair-Elect of the Michigan State Bar Association’s Labor and Employment Law Section and, Chair of the Wage and Hour Defense Institute. He also is listed as a top lawyer in Chambers USA and Michigan Super Lawyers.
Boonin is an honors graduate of The University of Michigan Law School (J.D. 1985) and the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania (B.S. Economics 1976). He also holds a Master’s Degree in Labor and Industrial Relations from Michigan State University (M.L.I.R. 1980).
Robert A. Hudson
Robert A. Hudson is a shareholder based in Butzel Long’s Detroit office and serves as Chair of the firm’s Corporate Department. He represents domestic and foreign public and private companies and high-technology companies in corporate finance, mergers and acquisitions, e-commerce and general business matters.
He has extensive experience in securities matters including numerous public and private equity and debt offerings, venture capital finance, compliance, reporting requirements, doing private transactions, investment management, the organization of hedge funds and corporate governance matters. He regularly assists foreign-based companies in connection with U.S. and cross-border transactions, joint ventures, distribution and sale arrangements and trade matters. His industry expertise includes manufacturing, high-technology including software, internet and computer services, financial services, automotive and real estate investment trusts. Hudson has been recognized by Best Lawyers® in America since 1997 in the following categories: Corporate Law International Trade and Finance Law.
Hudson is a graduate of Wayne State University (B.A. with Distinction, 1969 J.D., cum laude, 1972).
Justin G. Klimko
Klimko is Butzel Long’s President and Managing Shareholder and is based in the firm’s Detroit office. He has extensive experience in securities regulation, corporate financing, mergers and acquisitions, corporate governance and general corporate matters, fields in which he has practiced since 1980.
He taught corporation law for five years 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 a contributing author for a treatise on Michigan contract law.
Klimko has been recognized by Best Lawyers® in America since 1995 in the following categories: Business Organizations including LLCs and Partnerships Corporate Compliance Law Corporate Governance Law Corporate Law Mergers and Acquisitions Law Securities/ Capital Markets Law, and, Securities Regulation. He also was designated Best Lawyers’ 2012 Corporate Governance Law Lawyers of the Year for Detroit and received a Lexology Client Choice Award for Mergers and Acquisitions for 2013 and the 2009 Stephen H. Schulman Outstanding Business Lawyer Award from the Business Law Section of the State Bar of Michigan.
Klimko graduated from Duke University Law School (J.D., with distinction, 1980) and Ohio University (B.A., summa cum laude, 1977).
Thomas L. Shaevsky
Shaevsky is a shareholder based in the firm’s Bloomfield Hills office and is practice leader of the firm’s Employee Benefits Group. He advises large multinational corporations, physicians and other professional practices, hospitals and other nonprofit employers, as well as individuals, on compliance and planning issues pertaining to a wide range of retirement, pension, and welfare plan issues.
His experience includes counseling on fiduciary duty compliance, prohibited transaction avoidance and correction, reporting and disclosure issues, mergers and acquisitions due diligence, QDROs, as well as COBRA, HIPAA, and other benefits issues. Shaevsky represents clients undergoing IRS and U.S. Department of Labor audits.
Shaevsky is an adjunct professor of law at Thomas M. Cooley Law School.
Shaevsky has been recognized by Best Lawyers® in America – Employee Benefits (ERISA) Law Litigation since 2011.
Shaevsky is a graduate of the University of Michigan Law School (J.D., 1992, magna cum laude, The Order of the Coif Michigan Law Review: Contributing Editor), and the University of Michigan (B.A., with high distinction, Angell Scholar, 1989).
James J. Urban
Urban is Managing Shareholder, Butzel Long’s State Capitol office and Manager of the firm’s State Capitol Practice Group. His practice is focused in the representation of heavy construction infrastructure contractors and their trade associations in the public and private sectors.
Urban has been listed each year in Best Lawyers in America®, Construction Law Litigation-Construction and in Michigan Super Lawyers since 2007. He has published numerous articles and is a frequent speaker on public contracting and construction law issues.
Urban is a graduate of Michigan State University (B.A., 1977) and the Thomas M. Cooley Law School (J.D., cum laude, 1982).
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.
