James Taylor, an attorney in our Livonia office, recently attended The International Polymer Colloids Group (IPCG) Conference in Ontario, Canada. The conference is held every two years and aims to bring together the world’s leading researchers from both academia and industry to exchange the latest developments in the area of polymer colloids science, as well as discuss new directions and future challenges. Polymer colloid science is of particular interest to […]

In the course of running our businesses so many things demand our attention and resources that addressing “intellectual property” can be left on the back burner. Patents are among the most important types of intellectual property, yet common misconceptions often lead business owners to mistakenly regard patents as irrelevant or of limited importance in their particular business. This can lead to lost opportunities or expensive problems. In simple terms, a […]

Please join us in welcoming Kenneth M. Gonko to the Firm. He is an Of Counsel attorney in our Livonia office where he focuses his practice on labor law and employment relations in the public and private sector. As a labor and employment law attorney, he regularly appears as an advocate and litigator in disputes before the state and federal courts, the National Labor Relations Board, the United States Equal […]

Ryan Miller, a partner in our Riverside, CA office, recently successfully defended a CMDA client against an $8,000,000 Claim. A female Plaintiff worker claimed she was sexually assaulted by her supervisor. Her supervisor denied the Claim, but he was still sued, along with the Company, by the Plaintiff. The Plaintiff hired three law firms to try her case. The Company vigorously defended the Claim, and Mr. Miller conducted a thorough […]

Rapper Cardi B recently defeated a tort and intellectual property lawsuit for misappropriation of likeness and invasion of privacy for using a picture of a heavily tattooed man, without his permission, as the subject of her album cover picture. The creator of the album cover skewed and altered an innocent picture of Plaintiff Kevin Brophy, where he is simply showing off his tattoo, to create an entirely different scenario. Critically, […]

Joseph M. Ramirez, an attorney in our Kansas City office, successfully defended a corporate client housing complex against a breach of warranty of habitability claim. Notwithstanding an overly aggressive and unreasonable demand by the tenant, Mr. Ramirez leverage his knowledge of landlord-tenant law against the facts in the case to obtain a highly favorable settlement on behalf of our client in an amount less than 10% of the total exposure. […]

Norman “Gene” Richards, a partner in our Livonia office, recently obtained substantial mitigation of a penalty assessed against a client by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP). Plaintiff was issued a penalty of over $280,000 for an alleged wood packaging material violation. CBP states that all wood packaging material imported into the United States must have been treated at the place of origin and […]

CMDA is proud to announce that Christopher G. Schultz has been recognized as a “Go To Lawyer” for Business Law by Michigan Lawyers Weekly. The “Go To Lawyers” program identifies and recognizes the top 22 lawyers across the state in a given practice area. Christopher G. Schultz has broad and extensive experience of nearly 40 years in matters involving small and large businesses and related litigation. He has significantly grown […]

The Coronavirus Pandemic has unfavorably affected many Michigan businesses over the past several months. The loss of revenue associated with shuttering a business during this ongoing global epidemic is placing a strain on some commercial tenants’ ability to meet payment obligations under the terms of existing commercial leases. As a result, force majeure clauses contained in commercial lease contracts have increasingly come into play these days. The term “force majeure” […]

A common query posed to collection attorneys by their small business clients is whether, upon the default of a standard contract agreement, the client will receive the “benefit of the bargain” and be made whole as part of the collection process. Many business agreements have not been drafted in a comprehensive manner, nor with the aid of competent legal counsel. As a result, an often-raised question is whether accrued interest […]