This year the State Bar of Michigan will launch a new event called SBM NEXT Conference September 27-29 at Cobo Center in Detroit.

Formerly known as the State Bar Annual Meeting and Solo & Small Firm Institute, the NEXT Conference will focus on the future of law practice by bringing Michigan lawyers together in a whole new way to learn, share ideas, make connections and more. The State Bar will give lawyers the tools to develop their dream careers, gain the most recent updated information about their law practice areas, learn technology tricks to streamline their practices and build better professional networks.

Lawyers can tailor the program to their needs by creating their own unique experiences. NEXT Conference offers lawyers the flexibility to sign up for two-day, one-day, and a la carte pricing options for education. So lawyers can attend a morning section meeting, network at lunch and catch an education session or two in the afternoon. Or they can focus strictly on education and networking, by attending all-day education programs and a new, inclusive all member networking lunch and reception.

Find out more or register for NEXT Conference.

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SBM members: today is your last chance to make your voice heard by choosing leadership for the State Bar of Michigan and Judicial Tenure Commission for the next few years. You have until 11:59 p.m. on today to cast your votes (or get your ballot in the mail to be counted).

There are contested races for the Judicial Tenure Commission, the Board of Commissioners in Districts B, E, H, and I, and the Young Lawyers Section Executive Council in District 3. Unless your address on file is in one of the districts where there is a contested race, you have only received a ballot for the Judicial Tenure Commission race.

All eligible members with an e-mail address on file with the State Bar may vote securely online. This can be done by one of two methods. The first way is to access the voting website via the member area of www.michbar.org, where you will need to sign in and click on the VOTE NOW button to be directed to the voting website.The second way is to access a secure link directly to the voting site  in the e-mail from sbmelection@electionservicescorp.com that was sent on May 26 with the subject line, "Vote now in the 2017 State Bar of Michigan election – e-ballot enclosed." 

If you have questions, contact Marge Bossenbery at mbossenbery@michbar.orgor (517) 346-6327, or contact Election Services Co. at sbmelection@electionservicescorp.com.

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Attention Lenawee, Monroe and Wayne County (District H) lawyers: This year four attorneys are running for three seats on the State Bar of Michigan Board of Commissioners. That means your vote matters more than ever in this race. You should have received an electronic ballot for the 2017 SBM elections via e-mail. If you don't have an e-mail address on file, you will receive a paper ballot. You have until 11:59 p.m. on June 15 to cast your votes (or get your ballot in the mail to be counted).

The District H Board candidates are James Heath, of Detroit, who serves as the city of Detroit's first ever inspector general, responsible for fulfilling the office's mission of "ensuring honesty and integrity in city government by rooting out waste, abuse, fraud and corruption;" Mark Koroi, of Plymouth, a general practitioner with a focus on litigation; Hon. David Perkins, of Detroit, a 36th District Court judge; and Gergory Ulrich, of Grosse Pointe Woods, who runs a law practice with a focus on business law, real estate law, finance, technology and litigation. 

To read full bios of all candidates, access the voting website via the member area of www.michbar.org, where you will need to sign in and click on the VOTE NOW button to be directed to the voting website.

If you have questions, contact Marge Bossenbery at mbossenbery@michbar.org or (517) 346-6327, or contact Election Services Co. at sbmelection@electionservicescorp.com.

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Attention Oakland County lawyers: This year five attorneys are running for two seats on the State Bar of Michigan Board of Commissioners. That means your vote matters more than ever in this race. You should have received an electronic ballot for the 2017 SBM elections via e-mail. If you don't have an e-mail address on file, you will receive a paper ballot. You have until 11:59 p.m. on June 15 to cast your votes (or get your ballot in the mail to be counted).

The Oakland County Board candidates are David Anderson, of Southfield, a shareholder at Collins Einhorn Farrell PC, with a practice dedicated primarily to defending Michigan lawyers and law firms against professional liability claims; Timothy Burns, of Clawson, a solo criminal defense attorney; James Low, of Southfield, managing partner of The Dollar Law Firm who concentrates his practice in representing medical providers in no-fault cases; Daniel Quick, of Troy, a trial lawyer with Dickinson Wright and national leader of the firm's commercial litigation practice; and Rasul Raheem, of Bloomfield Hills, an attorney at Plunkett Cooney in the Banking, Creditors' Rights, and Restructuring Group. 

To read full bios of all candidates, access the voting website via the member area of www.michbar.org, where you will need to sign in and click on the VOTE NOW button to be directed to the voting website.

If you have questions, contact Marge Bossenbery at mbossenbery@michbar.org or (517) 346-6327, or contact Election Services Co. at sbmelection@electionservicescorp.com.

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Attention young lawyers of every Michigan county excluding Wayne, Macomb and Oakland counties: This year six attorneys are running for four seats on the Young Lawyers Section Executive Council in District 3. That means your vote matters more than ever in this race. You should have received an electronic ballot for the 2017 SBM elections via e-mail. If you don't have an e-mail address on file, you will receive a paper ballot. You have until 11:59 p.m. on June 15 to cast your votes (or get your ballot in the mail to be counted).

The Young Lawyers Section Executive Council Candidates are Bobby A. Finklin Jr., of Lansing, who serves as managing attorney at The Ficklin Law Firm and primarily practices social security disability appeals, criminal defense, small business and nonprofit startup law; Jonathan D. Goslow, of Ann Arbor, an attorney at Hudson Legal, LLC, with a practice focused on employment-based immigration; Kara R. Hart-Negrich, of Lansing, who serves as a staff attorney at the Michigan State Housing Development Authority and the State Historic Preservation Office, where she practices everything from fair housing to cultural heritage law; Samantha J. Jonas, of Muskegon, an assistant prosecuting attorney for the Muskegon County Family Court Division; Amy S. Krieg, of East Lansing, assistant director of career development for Michigan State University College of Law; and Laura M. Kubit, of Caro, a civil legal aid attorney with Lakeshore Legal Aid, serving low-income and senior populations of Tuscola, Bay, Midland, Gladwin, Clare, Isabella, Gratiot and Saginaw counties. 

To read full bios of all candidates, access the voting website via the member area of www.michbar.org, where you will need to sign in and click on the VOTE NOW button to be directed to the voting website.

If you have questions, contact Marge Bossenbery at mbossenbery@michbar.org or (517) 346-6327, or contact Election Services Co. at sbmelection@electionservicescorp.com.

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Gov. Rick Snyder has appointed Kathleen Hemingway to the Kalamazoo County District Court.

Hemingway has served as assistant prosecuting attorney in Kalamazoo County since 2007, focusing on cases involving controlled substance and firearm offenses and violent crimes. She is the Kalamazoo Valley Enforcement Team prosecutor, playing a key role in launching the priority offender program, focused on prosecuting the most violent offenders. Hemingway serves on the boards of the Portage Community Center and Volunteer Kalamazoo. She was recently elected vice president of the Kalamazoo County Bar Association and she recently received the Kalamazoo Department of Public Safety Chief's Award of Excellence and the Carrie L. Klein Leadership Award. 

Hemingway earned a bachelor’s degree from Hope College and a law degree from Western Michigan University Cooley Law School.

She fills the vacancy created by the resignation of Judge Robert Kropf. She must seek election in November 2018 to fill the remainder of the term.

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Members: time to do your civic duty and vote for representatives to lead the State Bar of Michigan in the coming years. Today you will receive an electronic ballot for the 2017 SBM elections via e-mail. If you don't have an e-mail address on file, you will receive a paper ballot. You have until 11:59 p.m. on June 15 to cast your votes (or get your ballot in the mail to be counted).

There are contested races for the Judicial Tenure Commission, the Board of Commissioners in Districts B, E, H, and I, and the Young Lawyers Section Executive Council in District 3. Unless your address on file is in one of the districts where there is a contested race, you will only receive a ballot for the Judicial Tenure Commission race.

All eligible members with an e-mail address on file with the State Bar may vote securely online. This can be done by one of two methods. The first way is to access a secure link directly to the voting site  in the e-mail from sbmelection@electionservicescorp.com with the subject line, "Vote now in the 2017 State Bar of Michigan election – e-ballot enclosed." The first way is to access the voting website via the member area of www.michbar.org, where you will need to sign in and click on the VOTE NOW button to be directed to the voting website.

If you have questions, contact Marge Bossenbery at mbossenbery@michbar.org or (517) 346-6327, or contact Election Services Co. at sbmelection@electionservicescorp.com.

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Leaders in the delivery of pro bono legal services from across Michigan gathered in Lansing for the ninth Annual Spring Pro Bono Workshop on May 23. The workshop featured a full day of educational sessions, strategic collaboration and networking opportunities. 

Those in attendance got an update on fundraising and legal aid messaging from a statewide and national perspective; learned how law firms, corporate in-house legal departments and legal aid programs can strategically collaborate; challenges facing legal aid programs; effective responses to rapidly changing issues; tech tips; and updates on online free legal resources. State Bar staff demonstrated mi.freelegalanswers.org, a new pro bono opportunity launched in Genesee County that will soon go statewide. 

The workshop was sponsored by the SBM Pro Bono Initiative, which is responsible for encouraging and coordinating the delivery of pro bono legal services in Michigan. It also plays a critical leadership role in promoting policies and mechanisms to support lawyers in their effort to fulfill their ethical responsibility to assist in providing civil legal services to the poor. 

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Scribes – the American Society of Legal Writers – has honored long-time Michigan Bar Journal Plain Language Column Editor Joseph Kimble by renaming its Distinguished Service Award the Joseph Kimble Distinguished Service Award. Kimble, a former executive director and 15-year board member of Scribes, was surprised by the announcement while in the audience of the Scribes 2017 Continuing Legal Education Conference at the Oklahoma City University School of Law. The Scribes Board of Directors unanimously voted to rename the award in Kimble’s honor.

Kimble is a distinguished professor emeritus at Western Michigan University Cooley Law School, where he joined the faculty full-time in 1984. Kimble is senior editor of The Scribes Journal of Legal Writing and has published dozens of articles and two books about legal writing. He led the redrafting of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure and Federal Rules of Evidence. He is also past president of Clarity, an international association promoting plain language, a founding director of the Center for Plain Language, and a board member for the Legal Writing Institute.

He was named a “Plain English Champion” by the Plain English Campaign in England, received the first Plain Language Association International Award, received the Burton Award for Reform in Law twice – once for his work on the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure and once for his work on the Federal Rules of Evidence – received the American Law Schools Section on Legal Writing, Reasoning, and Research Award, and received the SBM John W. Reed Lawyer Legacy Award.

Scribes was founded in 1953 and is the oldest organization devoted to improving legal writing and honoring legal writers. The first recipient of the Joseph Kimble Distinguished Service Award was Kenneth Gartner, a New York-based commercial trial and appellate litigator.

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The State Bar of Michigan Real Property Law Section will host its Summer Conference, “Mission Possible: Traversing Michigan’s Real Estate Landscape,” July 19-22 at Grand Traverse Resort & Spa in Acme.

The conference will begin Thursday, July 19, with an expert panel discussion focused on the practical implications of common contract terms. Educational workshops on Thursday and Friday will address technology, insurance, tax incentives for agricultural and forested lands, leasing, alternative energy and the real estate implications of estate planning. An update on recent Michigan legislation and court opinions will be complemented by interactive roundtable discussions on topics like mineral rights, survey requirements, title objection letters and drones. The Saturday morning session will conclude with “Expecting the Unexpected: The Wild State of Politics Today,” a special presentation by Susan Demas, owner of Inside Michigan Politics, a biweekly newsletter analyzing political and policy trends.

The RPLS Summer Conference will also feature many networking events, including a welcome reception on Wednesday evening, a golf scramble on Thursday afternoon, a reception and casino night on Thursday evening, and roundtable discussions each morning.

Prior to May 14, the registration fee is $285 for RPLS members who are also first-time attendees, $325 for other RPLS members and $375 for non-section members. After May 14, the registration fee is $325 for RPLS members who are also first-time attendees, $385 for RPLS members and $430 for non-section members. Members of the Young Lawyers Section can register for $100 both before and after May 14. To register or learn more about the Summer Conference, visit the RPLS website.

For more information, contact Karen Schwartz at rplsks@gmail.com. For more information on other upcoming RPLS events, visit the RPLS website or become a fan of the section on Facebook.

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