FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
ANN ARBOR, Mich. – Butzel Long attorney and shareholder Robert A. Boonin has been elected to the Ann Arbor Area Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors. His term begins in January 2009. Over the years, he has served the Chamber in other capacities – most recently as a member of its Public Policy Committee.
Based in Butzel Long's Ann Arbor office, Mr. Boonin's practice is largely concentrated in the areas of labor, employment discrimination, public contract and education law. He has represented public and private sector clients across the country in wrongful termination, employment discrimination, wage and hour, tenure proceedings and other employment-related lawsuits, as well as in labor grievance arbitrations, labor negotiations, unfair labor practices and representational proceedings and labor strikes. His public sector clients include universities, community colleges, K-12 school districts, charter schools, as well as cities and townships.
He has negotiated more than one hundred collective bargaining agreements, and he has also successfully represented employers in over one hundred arbitration cases. Mr. Boonin also is well versed in NLRB issues, having extensively practiced before that agency.
Mr. Boonin is active in national and state bar association sections in labor and employment law and public contract law. He is an active member of the American Bar Association's Fair Labor Standards Legislation Committee and the American Employment Law Council. He also is a Fellow of the Litigation Counsel of America (a national legal honorary) and currently serves as its President, and was recently elected a Fellow of the College of Labor and Employment Law Lawyers (a prestigious and highly limited national honorary of employment law practitioners).
Mr. Boonin has been repeatedly recognized by his peers as a Super Lawyer in labor and employment law matters. His other professional services include being a member of the governing board of the Labor and Employment Law Section of the Michigan Bar Association, Past-President, Board member and a founder of the Michigan Council of School Attorneys, a member of the NSBA's Council of School Attorneys, a member of the National Association of College and University Attorneys, and a member of the local chapter of the Labor and Employment Relations Association (formerly IRRA).
Mr. Boonin is a past chair of the Washtenaw County Bar Association's Employment Law Section, and is current Co-Chair of its Trial Practice Section.
He frequently publishes articles and presents at conferences on various topics involving labor and employment law matters.
Mr. 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 Masters Degree in Labor and Industrial Relations from Michigan State University (M.L.I.R. 1980). Prior to law school, Mr. Boonin served on the labor relations staff of the Michigan Association of School Boards (1978-1982), representing Michigan school districts in their labor relations. Before graduate school, Mr. Boonin worked for the Legislators' Education Action Project of the National Conference of State Legislatures in Washington, D.C. (1975-76).
Mr. Boonin has been an Ann Arbor resident for more than 25 years.
About Butzel Long
Butzel Long was established in 1854 and is headquartered in Detroit. Butzel Long is one of America's leading law firms, with 240 attorneys and 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 represents clients from diverse industries on a regional, national and multi-national level and is the sole Michigan member of Lex Mundi, a global association of 160 independent law firms. Visit the Butzel Long website at www.butzel.com(http://www.butzel.com/).
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Media Contact: Maribeth Farkas at Caponigro Public Relations Inc., (248) 355-3200.