Three Butzel Long shareholders elected to serve two-year term on firm's Board of Directors
4.21.2010
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Justin G. Klimko, Steven M. Ribiat and Jordan S. Schreier elected at firm's Annual Meeting
DETROIT, Mich. – Butzel Long has elected the following shareholders to serve a two-year term on the firm's Board of Directors: Justin G. Klimko, Steven M. Ribiat and Jordan S. Schreier.
Other members of the firm's Board of Directors include: Philip J. Kessler, Chairman, Butzel Long Carey A. DeWitt, J. Michael Huget and James E. Wynne.
Justin G. Klimko
Mr. Klimko is a Vice President and shareholder based in Butzel Long'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.
Mr. Klimko has substantial experience in securities regulation matters for publicly and privately held companies. This includes analysis of and compliance with Sarbanes-Oxley regulations public offerings (including IPOs) proxy statement preparation for annual meetings as well as for acquisition transactions involving public companies preparation and review of Form 10-K, 10-Q and 8-K reports preparation of Forms 3, 4 and 5 for reporting by certain insiders preparation of Schedule 13E-3 statements in connection with going private transactions analysis of Rule 144 issues for resales of securities acquired in non-public transactions Regulation FD compliance and general analysis and advice regarding registration, reporting and disclosure issues.
He also has extensive experience in private placements and secured and unsecured financing transactions, including experience in venture capital financing for early stage companies and co-venture transactions involving participation in pre-IPO private financing.
Mr. Klimko has substantial experience in planning, negotiating and implementing various types of merger and acquisition transactions, representing both acquiring and acquired companies, including sales of substantially all of a corporation's assets, straight mergers, reverse triangular mergers, share purchases, share exchange transactions and going-private transactions. He has represented companies making venture round investments in biotech and health care related companies as well as representing new companies in startup, general organization and operation and several rounds of venture capital financing.
Mr. Klimko also has experience representing committees of boards of directors. He also has advised standing board committees in the performance of their duties.
Mr. Klimko 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.
Mr. Klimko is a past Chair of the State Bar of Michigan Business Law Section. He co-chairs the Business Law Section’s Corporate Laws Committee, which monitors Michigan corporation laws and actively participates in their amendment from time to time. He chairs the Michigan Ad Hoc Committee on Legal Opinions of the the Business Law Section. In addition, he is a member of the Legal Opinions Committee, the Negotiated Acquisitions Committee and the Federal Regulation of Securities Committee of the American Bar Association and Association Advisory Board of the Working Group on Legal Opinions.
Mr. 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 Business Lawyers and is listed in Michigan Super Lawyers for Mergers and Acquisitions as well as in the publication's "Top 100" for all attorneys. He received the 2009 Stephen H. Schulman Outstanding Business Lawyer Award awarded by the State Bar of Michigan Business Law Section.
Mr. Klimko graduated from Duke University Law School (J.D., with distinction, 1980) and Ohio University (B.A., summa cum laude, 1977).
Steven M. Ribiat
Mr. Ribiat is a Vice President and shareholder based in Butzel Long’s Bloomfield Hills office. Mr. Ribiat is the former Business Litigation practice group leader. Mr. Ribiat has extensive experience representing clients in corporate business litigation, including shareholder and contractual disputes and real estate disputes. He has substantial experience in securities litigation, including regulatory enforcement actions, and internal corporate investigations and compliance issues. Mr. Ribiat also represents clients in professional responsibility matters and counsels on matters of ethics.
Mr. Ribiat is a Fellow of the Litigation Counsel of America (a national trial lawyer honorary society). He is a member of the State Bar of Michigan's Professional Ethics Committee (2005 – present), and in March 2006, Mr. Ribiat was appointed to a newly-formed State Bar of Michigan Task Force on Attorney-Client Privilege. He has been a speaker at seminars on a variety of topics, and is a member of the Federal and Oakland Bar Associations. He is listed in The Best Lawyers of America for commercial litigation.
Mr. Ribiat is active in several community organizations, including serving on the Board of Directors of Congregation Beth Ahm.
Mr. Ribiat is a graduate of Wayne State University Law School (J.D., magna cum laude, Order of the Coif, 1991), Oxford University, Sommerville College (Summer Program 1989), and the University of Michigan (B.A. 1988).
Jordan Schreier
Mr. Schreier is a Vice President and shareholder based in Butzel Long’s Ann Arbor office. Mr. Schreier was the practice group leader for the Employee Benefits Practice Group from 1995-2010. He represents clients primarily in the area of ERISA, employee benefits and compensation.
Mr. Schreier's practice primarily involves advising profit and nonprofit employers on planning and compliance issues involving all aspects of employee benefits, including welfare benefits, qualified retirement and other deferred compensation plans.
His experience includes counseling on executive compensation programs, controlled group planning, multiemployer benefits plans, consumer directed health care, ERISA reporting and disclosure issues, prohibited transactions, fiduciary compliance and best practices, flexible benefits, COBRA, FMLA, ADA, HIPAA and other benefits issues. He serves as legal counsel to numerous pension and 401(k) investment and administrative committees.
Mr. Schreier is a member of the State Bar of Michigan (Labor and Employment and Taxation Sections), the Washtenaw County Bar Association (Labor and Employment and Tax Law Sections) and the American Bar Association (Labor and Employment Section). He teaches a regular class on COBRA compliance for the American Society of Employers and is a frequent speaker on pension and benefit issues.
Mr. Schreier is a graduate of The University of Michigan (B.A. with high distinction, 1983 J.D., cum laude, 1987). Mr. Schreier is listed in The Best Lawyers in America (Employee Benefits).
About Butzel Long
Established in 1854, Butzel Long is one of America’s leading law firms. With 220 attorneys, it has offices in Detroit, Bloomfield Hills, Lansing and Ann Arbor, Michigan, New York City, Washington, D.C., Boca Raton and Palm Beach, Florida, as well as Alliance offices in Beijing, Shanghai, Mexico City and Monterrey. The firm is also a member of the Washington, D.C. law firm, Butzel Long Tighe Patton. Butzel Long represents clients from diverse industries on regional, national, and multi-national levels and is a 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.
Justin G. Klimko, Steven M. Ribiat and Jordan S. Schreier elected at firm's Annual Meeting
DETROIT, Mich. – Butzel Long has elected the following shareholders to serve a two-year term on the firm's Board of Directors: Justin G. Klimko, Steven M. Ribiat and Jordan S. Schreier.
Other members of the firm's Board of Directors include: Philip J. Kessler, Chairman, Butzel Long Carey A. DeWitt, J. Michael Huget and James E. Wynne.
Justin G. Klimko
Mr. Klimko is a Vice President and shareholder based in Butzel Long'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.
Mr. Klimko has substantial experience in securities regulation matters for publicly and privately held companies. This includes analysis of and compliance with Sarbanes-Oxley regulations public offerings (including IPOs) proxy statement preparation for annual meetings as well as for acquisition transactions involving public companies preparation and review of Form 10-K, 10-Q and 8-K reports preparation of Forms 3, 4 and 5 for reporting by certain insiders preparation of Schedule 13E-3 statements in connection with going private transactions analysis of Rule 144 issues for resales of securities acquired in non-public transactions Regulation FD compliance and general analysis and advice regarding registration, reporting and disclosure issues.
He also has extensive experience in private placements and secured and unsecured financing transactions, including experience in venture capital financing for early stage companies and co-venture transactions involving participation in pre-IPO private financing.
Mr. Klimko has substantial experience in planning, negotiating and implementing various types of merger and acquisition transactions, representing both acquiring and acquired companies, including sales of substantially all of a corporation's assets, straight mergers, reverse triangular mergers, share purchases, share exchange transactions and going-private transactions. He has represented companies making venture round investments in biotech and health care related companies as well as representing new companies in startup, general organization and operation and several rounds of venture capital financing.
Mr. Klimko also has experience representing committees of boards of directors. He also has advised standing board committees in the performance of their duties.
Mr. Klimko 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.
Mr. Klimko is a past Chair of the State Bar of Michigan Business Law Section. He co-chairs the Business Law Section’s Corporate Laws Committee, which monitors Michigan corporation laws and actively participates in their amendment from time to time. He chairs the Michigan Ad Hoc Committee on Legal Opinions of the the Business Law Section. In addition, he is a member of the Legal Opinions Committee, the Negotiated Acquisitions Committee and the Federal Regulation of Securities Committee of the American Bar Association and Association Advisory Board of the Working Group on Legal Opinions.
Mr. 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 Business Lawyers and is listed in Michigan Super Lawyers for Mergers and Acquisitions as well as in the publication's "Top 100" for all attorneys. He received the 2009 Stephen H. Schulman Outstanding Business Lawyer Award awarded by the State Bar of Michigan Business Law Section.
Mr. Klimko graduated from Duke University Law School (J.D., with distinction, 1980) and Ohio University (B.A., summa cum laude, 1977).
Steven M. Ribiat
Mr. Ribiat is a Vice President and shareholder based in Butzel Long’s Bloomfield Hills office. Mr. Ribiat is the former Business Litigation practice group leader. Mr. Ribiat has extensive experience representing clients in corporate business litigation, including shareholder and contractual disputes and real estate disputes. He has substantial experience in securities litigation, including regulatory enforcement actions, and internal corporate investigations and compliance issues. Mr. Ribiat also represents clients in professional responsibility matters and counsels on matters of ethics.
Mr. Ribiat is a Fellow of the Litigation Counsel of America (a national trial lawyer honorary society). He is a member of the State Bar of Michigan's Professional Ethics Committee (2005 – present), and in March 2006, Mr. Ribiat was appointed to a newly-formed State Bar of Michigan Task Force on Attorney-Client Privilege. He has been a speaker at seminars on a variety of topics, and is a member of the Federal and Oakland Bar Associations. He is listed in The Best Lawyers of America for commercial litigation.
Mr. Ribiat is active in several community organizations, including serving on the Board of Directors of Congregation Beth Ahm.
Mr. Ribiat is a graduate of Wayne State University Law School (J.D., magna cum laude, Order of the Coif, 1991), Oxford University, Sommerville College (Summer Program 1989), and the University of Michigan (B.A. 1988).
Jordan Schreier
Mr. Schreier is a Vice President and shareholder based in Butzel Long’s Ann Arbor office. Mr. Schreier was the practice group leader for the Employee Benefits Practice Group from 1995-2010. He represents clients primarily in the area of ERISA, employee benefits and compensation.
Mr. Schreier's practice primarily involves advising profit and nonprofit employers on planning and compliance issues involving all aspects of employee benefits, including welfare benefits, qualified retirement and other deferred compensation plans.
His experience includes counseling on executive compensation programs, controlled group planning, multiemployer benefits plans, consumer directed health care, ERISA reporting and disclosure issues, prohibited transactions, fiduciary compliance and best practices, flexible benefits, COBRA, FMLA, ADA, HIPAA and other benefits issues. He serves as legal counsel to numerous pension and 401(k) investment and administrative committees.
Mr. Schreier is a member of the State Bar of Michigan (Labor and Employment and Taxation Sections), the Washtenaw County Bar Association (Labor and Employment and Tax Law Sections) and the American Bar Association (Labor and Employment Section). He teaches a regular class on COBRA compliance for the American Society of Employers and is a frequent speaker on pension and benefit issues.
Mr. Schreier is a graduate of The University of Michigan (B.A. with high distinction, 1983 J.D., cum laude, 1987). Mr. Schreier is listed in The Best Lawyers in America (Employee Benefits).
About Butzel Long
Established in 1854, Butzel Long is one of America’s leading law firms. With 220 attorneys, it has offices in Detroit, Bloomfield Hills, Lansing and Ann Arbor, Michigan, New York City, Washington, D.C., Boca Raton and Palm Beach, Florida, as well as Alliance offices in Beijing, Shanghai, Mexico City and Monterrey. The firm is also a member of the Washington, D.C. law firm, Butzel Long Tighe Patton. Butzel Long represents clients from diverse industries on regional, national, and multi-national levels and is a member of Lex Mundi, a global association of 160 independent law firms. Visit the Butzel Long website at www.butzel.com.
* * * * *
Media Contact: Maribeth Farkas at Caponigro Public Relations Inc., (248) 353-3030.
