Supreme Court Appeals

• Mothering Justice v. Attorney General, No. 165325 (Mich 2023): Argued on behalf of the Michigan Manufacturers Association to defend the constitutionality of 2018 amendments to legislation that had enacted proposed wage and earned sick time ballot initiatives.
• MSSC, Inc. v. AirBoss Flexible Products Co., No. 163523 (Mich 2023): Persuaded the court to adopt landmark opinion requiring all blanket purchase orders to specify agreement to purchase the buyer’s requirements in order to be enforceable as a requirements contract.
• Comerica Inc. v. Dep’t of Treasury, No. 161661 (Mich 2022): Successfully advocated on behalf of the Michigan Bankers’ Association for that when a bank consolidates, it continues its existence in the new entity and loses none of its rights, privileges and interests, including tax credits as the first assignee under the Single-Business Tax Act (SBTA), MCL 208.1 et seq.
• Saugatuck Dunes Coastal Alliance v. Saugatuck Township (Mich 2022): Argued on behalf of the developer in favor of refining but otherwise preserving existing common law test to determine when third parties have standing to challenge a zoning permit decision.
• People v. Sammons (Mich 2020): Persuaded to create a new rule that a station-house show-up procedure violates due process as impermissibly suggestive and to set aside criminal conviction.
• Reaume v. Village of Spring Lake, No. 159874 (Mich 2020): Persuaded the court to overturn the Court of Appeals ruling that precluded all single-family dwellings from renting short term.
• People v. Vanderpool, No. 158486 (Mich 2020): Pursuaded the court to establish a new rule that the Michigan Constitution of 1963 requires a probationer be given notice and an opportunity to be heard on a probation officer’s petition to extend probation.
• Sejasmi Industries Inc v. Takumi Manufacturing Company, No. 156341 (Mich 2018): Argued for 18 amici curiae, including American Mold Builders Association, Canadian Association of Mold Makers, and Canadian Tooling and Machining Association on the question of whether the moldbuilder’s lien can be extinguished by paying someone other than the moldbuilder.
• Marlette Auto Wash LLC v. Van Dyke SC Properties, No. 153979, _ Mich _ (2018): Secured 7-0 opinion in Marlette Auto Wash’s favor reversing the Court of Appeals and holding that undocumented prescriptive easement that vested in a prior owner of the property had survived foreclosure sale and vested in Marlette Auto Wash.
• People v. Horacek (Mich 2017): Persuaded the court to hear oral argument on whether defendant’s arrest and search of the motel room violated his Fourth Amendment rights.
• Jae Lee v. United States, 137 S. Ct. 1958 (2017): Represented the prevailing appellant, Jae Lee, in persuading the Supreme Court to hold that he was denied effective assistance of counsel and entitled to withdraw his plea after counsel mistakenly advised him that pleading guilty had no deportation consequences, when in fact it required mandatory, permanent deportation.
• People v. Lance, No. 151612 (Mich. 2016): Successfully persuaded Michigan Supreme Court to reverse the Court of Appeals and remand to trial court for a Ginther hearing to determine if trial counsel provided ineffective assistance of counsel in failing to raise statute-of-limitations defense.
• National Wildlife Federation v. Department of Environmental Quality, No. 150121 (Mich. 2015): Represented Kennecott Minerals Company in convincing the Michigan Supreme Court to decline review of the first-ever permitting decision under Michigan’s newly minted, non-ferrous-metallic-minerals mining act.
• National Wildlife Federation v. Department of Environmental Quality, No. 150122 (Mich. 2015): Represented Kennecott Minerals Company in persuading the Michigan Supreme Court to decline review of its discharge permit under Part 31 of the Natural Resources and Environmental Protection Act.
• Gardner v. Dep’t of Treasury, Nos. 150293-95, _ N.W.2d _ (Mich. 2015): Persuaded the court to unanimously reverse the Court of Appeals’ interpretation of the State Real Estate Transfer Tax Act, MCL 207.526(u), and to hold client home-owners were exempt from the tax.
• Yono v. Michigan Dep’t of Transportation, 864 N.W.2d 142 (Mich. 2015): Represented the Michigan County Road Commission Self-Insurance Pool and County Road Association in persuading the court to grant leave to appeal the issue of MDOT’s governmental immunity for personal injury on a highway.
• Heien v. North Carolina, 135 S. Ct. 530 (2014): Represented the Association of Prosecuting Attorneys and other law-enforcement agencies as amici curiae on the issue of whether a police officer’s objectively reasonable mistake of law can provide reasonable suspicion sufficient to justify a traffic stop under the Fourth Amendment.
• Riley v. California, 134 S. Ct. 2473 (2014): Represented the Association of State Criminal Investigative Agencies and other law-enforcement agencies as amici curiae on the issue of whether the officers’ searches of a cell phone seized incident to petitioner’s arrest were lawful under the Fourth Amendment.
• Elmbrook School Dist. v. John Doe, 134 S. Ct. 2283 (2014): Represented the American Association of School Administrators and other educational associations as amici curiae on the issue of whether the Establishment Clause requires public schools to evaluate the religiosity of a facility before entering into a short-term lease to use the space for public events such as high school graduations.
• Huron Mountain Club v. United States Army Corps of Engineers, 134 S. Ct. 1792 (2014): Represented intervening mining company as respondent on the question of whether, absent any statutory obligation, a federal agency can be compelled to initiate environmental permitting proceedings that the regulated party has not requested.
• Badeen v. Par, Inc., 496 Mich. 75 (2014): Represented Fifth Third Bank as appellee on the question of whether Michigan’s Occupational Code requires licensing as a collection agency to merely manage the hiring of licensed repossession agents for lenders.
• State ex rel Gurganus v. CVS Caremark Corp., 496 Mich. 45 (2014): Represented the Michigan Chamber Litigation Center as amicus curiae on the question of whether Michigan’s generic drug substitution statute required pharmacists to pass along the savings from substituting a generic drug for an equivalent brand-name drug.
• Michigan Finance Authority v. Kiebler, 495 Mich. 895 (2013): As special assistant to the attorney general, represented the Michigan Finance Authority on emergency appeal in multi-million-dollar class action regarding student loans.
• Bailey v. United States of America, 133 S. Ct. 1031 (2013): Represented the State of Michigan and 23 other states as amici curiae on the question of whether police officers with a warrant to search the premises for contraband may detain an “occupant of the premises” after they see him leave the premises just before executing the warrant.
• King v. Kansas Judicial Watch, 132 S. Ct. 1715 (2012): Represented the State of Michigan and 17 other states on the question of whether a plaintiff who obtains a preliminary injunction before the case is mooted is a “prevailing party” entitled to attorney fees under 42 U.S.C. § 1988(b).
• Kyser v. Kasson Township, 786 N.W.2d 543 (Mich. 2010): Filed amicus brief on behalf of Michigan Aggregates Association in high-stakes challenge to constitutional zoning/mining standards that had not been reviewed by the Michigan Supreme Court in 25 years. (Amicus Brief)
• Benefiel v. Auto-Owners Insurance Co., 759 N.W.2d 814 (Mich. 2008): As amicus curiae, successfully persuaded the Michigan Supreme Court to reverse the court of appeals and hold that a plaintiff who suffers successive injuries has the burden of proving a current injury was caused by the subject accident, not an independent occurrence. (Amicus Brief)

Federal and State Appeals

• Jones v. IPX International Equatorial Guinea, S.A., 920 F.3d 1085 (6th Cir. 2019): Prevailed in the Sixth Circuit as counsel for IPX International against an employee’s breach of contract action by persuading the appellate court that the proper forum for the litigation was Equatorial Guinea, not the United States.
• Wilson v. 5 Choices LLC, No. 18-1493, _ Fed. Appx. _ (6th Cir. 2019): Represented 5 Choices LLC in successfully persuading the Sixth Circuit that the plaintiffs’ claims were properly dismissed because they were bound by forum-selection and arbitration clauses that required their action to be filed in a different forum.
• Tucker v. Laketown Township, No. 347726, (Mich. Ct. App. Mar. 26, 2019): Within 5 weeks of filing the application for plaintiff Tucker, successfully obtained a peremptory order reversing the lower court’s dismissal of plaintiff’s appeal.
• Magley v. M & W Inc., No. 340507, _Mich App _ (2018): Persuaded Court of Appeals to reverse the trial court’s summary disposition order and remand for trial on the issue of whether repossession of farm implements was a conversion.
• Seifeddine v. Jaber, No. 343411, _ N.W.2d _ (Mich. Ct. App. 2018): Successfully represented the ex-spouse in enforcing a mahr (in the Islamic faith, a gift of money or property made by a man to the woman he marries) as part of the lower court’s divorce decree.
• Southern-Owners Ins. Co. v. Moore, No. 14-15386, _ F.3d _ (11th Cir. 2017): Represented Southern-Owners Insurance in persuading the Eleventh Circuit to overrule its earlier misinterpretation of an exclusion in the standard Hired Auto and Non-owned Auto Endorsement in Southern-Owners’ corporate general-liability insurance policy.
• Lance v. Owners Insurance Co., No. E2015-00274-COA-R3-CV, 2016 WL 3092818 (Tenn. Ct. App. 2016): Represented Owners Insurance in successfully reducing $2.4 million judgment by $1.4 million through creative settlement negotiations and reversal of punitive-damages award.
• Charter Township of White Lake v. Ciurlik Enterprises, No. 324976, (Mich. Ct. App. 2014): Persuaded the Court of Appeals to grant immediate consideration of Ciurlik Enterprise’s interlocutory appeal and peremptorily reverse the lower court’s preliminary injunction as an abuse of discretion.
• Torres v. Torres, 2014 WL 4087927 (Mich. Ct. App. 2014): Persuaded the court to reverse a Domestic Relations Act arbitration award that declined to divide one spouses unvested military pension.
• Fed. Home Loan Mortg. Ass’n v Kelley, 2014 WL 4232687 (Mich. Ct. App. 2014): Persuaded the court to vacate its own decision on the question of whether a surviving bank in a bank merger succeeds to the property of the merging entities “by operation of law.”
• Triangle Associates, Inc. v. Bentwaters Partners, LP, 2014 WL 2931866 (Mich. Ct. App. 2014): Persuaded the court to order dismissal of $500,000 default judgment against garnishee Fifth Third Bank.
• Klein v. U.S. DOE, 753 F.3d 576 (2014): Persuaded the court to affirm the Department of Energy’s funding decision on the basis that the client’s cellulosic ethanol project would have no significant environmental impact.
• King v. Berghuis, 744 F.3d 961 (2014): As special assistant to the attorney general, persuaded the court to affirm denial of writ of habeas corpus on the question of whether the state imposed a plea deal entered into without defendant’s knowledge that sentences would be consecutive.
• Huron Mountain Club v. U.S. Army Corps of Eng’rs, 545 Fed. App’x 390 (6th Cir. 2013): Persuaded the court to affirm denial of preliminary injunction on the basis that Huron Mountain Club’s Clean Water Act and Rivers and Harbors Act claims were unreviewable under the Administrative Procedures Act, among other reasons.
• Donaldson v. Booker, 505 Fed. App’x 488 (2012): As special assistant to the attorney general, persuaded the court to affirm denial of writ of habeas corpus on the question of whether defense counsel’s decision not to investigate medical records and booking records was reasonable
• United States v. Huntington National Bank, 682 F.3d 429 (6th Cir. 2012): Persuaded the Sixth Circuit to reverse the district court’s order of forfeiture and order the government to release to Huntington $700,000 seized from a bank customer’s account which secured Huntington’s loans to the customer.
• Cooper v. Edgewater Bank, No. 296189, 2011 WL 2848782 (Mich. Ct. App. July 19, 2011): Persuaded the Court of Appeals to affirm the grant of summary disposition to Fifth Third Bank in a dispute with heirs over whether the bank properly changed the beneficiary designations on the decedent’s certificates of deposit.
• NDC of Sylvan, Ltd. v. Township of Sylvan, No. 2011 WL 1901805 (Mich. Ct. App. May 19, 2011): Successfully persuaded the Court of Appeals to reverse a $2.4 million judgment against Sylvan Township and to vacate a permanent injunction that would have cost Sylvan Township an additional $3.4 million, in a dispute over $8 million in special assessments.
• National Wildlife Federation v. Dep’t of Natural Resources, No. 293779, 2011 WL 1004525 (Mich. Ct. App. Mar. 22, 2011): Persuaded the court of appeals to affirm dismissal of public trust claims against leasing of state land and minerals for underground non-metallic mineral mining project.”
• Isom v. NE Lots LLC, No. 288378, 2010 WL 143470 (Mich. Ct. App. Jan. 14, 2010): Persuaded the Michigan Court of Appeals to affirm a declaration that the intestate heirs’ rights to share in the proceeds of a million-dollar estate through a settlement agreement with the testate heir were not conveyed in quit-claim deeds purporting to assign their rights to the proceeds of the estate.
• United States v. Huntington National Bank, 574 F.3d 329 (6th Cir. 2009): Persuaded the Sixth Circuit to reverse and remand an adverse decision in a three-quarter-million-dollar ancillary criminal forfeiture proceeding.
• Bill Smith Sand & Gravel v. Alamo Twp., No. 281936 (Mich. Ct. App. Mar. 5, 2008): Persuaded the Michigan Court of Appeals to expedite consideration and summarily affirm the dismissal of a local township’s challenge to the client’s mining project.
• Moore v. Detroit Entertainment, LLC, 755 N.W.2d 686 (Mich Ct. App. 2008): Obtained affirmation of a $600,000 jury verdict for false imprisonment.

Mineral Resource Administrative Proceedings + Litigation

• Huron Mountain Club v. United States Army Corps of Engineers, 134 S. Ct. 1792 (2014): Represented intervening mining company as respondent on the question of whether, absent any statutory obligation, a federal agency can be compelled to initiate environmental permitting proceedings that the regulated party has not requested.
• Mayhew v. Handy Township, No. 11-25965-AV (Mich. Cir. Ct. 2011): Persuaded the circuit court to affirm the Township’s decision to allow crushing reclaimed aggregate products as an accessory use authorized by the client’s special use permit.
• National Wildlife Federation v. Michigan Dep’t of Environmental Quality, No. 11-123-AA (Mich. Cir. Ct. Nov. 21, 2011): Successfully persuaded the circuit court to first deny an injunction against underground mine’s blasting operations pending appeal and then affirm the decision by MDEQ to grant a Part 632 non-ferrous metallic mineral mining permit.
• Aggregate Industries – Central Region v. Waterloo Township, 09-01248-AA (Mich. Cir. Ct. July 9, 2009): Persuaded the circuit court to grant an expedited appeal, reverse the township’s adverse zoning decision, and grant a special land use application to Aggregate Industries for mining.
• National Wildlife Federation v. Michigan Dep’t of Natural Resources, No. 08-263-AA (Mich. Cir. Ct. Mar. 3, 2009): Successfully defeated a third-party appeal of the State of Michigan land-lease to our client and achieved early dismissal of ancillary claims using cutting-edge theories of constitutional and jurisdictional law.