FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
ANN ARBOR, Mich.
Butzel Long attorney and shareholder Robert A. Boonin has been named a Charter Fellow of the American Academy of Trial Counsel. The American Academy of Trial Counsel is a lawyer honorary established to reflect the new face of the American bar. The purpose of the Academy is to recognize highly qualified lawyers, to provide additional sources for professional development, and to promote advocacy and ethical standards in the practice of law. Membership is limited, representing less than one percent of American lawyers and is by invitation only.
Mr. Boonin is based in Butzel Long's Ann Arbor office. His practice is largely concentrated in the areas of labor, employment discrimination, wage and hour matters, public contract law and education law. He has represented public and private sector clients across the country in wrongful termination, employment discrimination, wage and hour class and other actions, tenure proceedings and other employment-related lawsuits, as well as in arbitrations, labor negotiations, fact-findings, unfair labor practices and representational proceedings and labor strikes.
Mr. Boonin is active in national and state bar association sections in labor and employment law and public contract law, including the Fair Labor Standards Legislation Committee of the American Bar Association's Labor and Employment Law Section. He also is a past president and Board member of the Michigan Council of School Attorneys, a member of the NSBA's Council of School Attorneys and a member of the local chapter of the Labor and Employment Relations Association (formerly IRRA). Mr. Boonin currently co-chairs the Washtenaw County Bar Association’s Trial Practice Section, and is active with the Washtenaw Chapter of the American Red Cross. He is a past Chair of the Washtenaw County Bar Association's Employment Law Section, and recently completed six years on the Ann Arbor YMCA Board of Directors.
Mr. Boonin frequently publishes articles and makes presentations at conferences on various topics involving labor and employment law matters, including discrimination and wage and hour law. Among his publications and presentations are: "The Constitutional Constraints in Dealing with Drug Abuse in the Schools," Michigan Bar Journal (November 1989); "Wage and Hour Law for Michigan Public Employers," Michigan Public Employment and Labor Relations Law (MPELRA 1994); "Damages Recoverable in the Employment Case," Michigan Wrongful Discharge and Employment Law (ICLE 1994); and "Fair Labor Standards Act Update," (ICLE 2006).
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.A. 1976). He also holds a Masters Degree in Labor and Industrial Relations from Michigan State University (M.L.I.R. 1980). Mr. Boonin is a resident of Ann Arbor.
Butzel Long was established in 1854 and is headquartered in Detroit. Butzel Long is one of Michigan's oldest and largest law firms, with 215 attorneys and offices in Detroit, Bloomfield Hills, Lansing, Ann Arbor, and Holland, Mich., Washington, D.C. and Boca Raton, Fla., as well as Alliance offices in Beijing and Shanghai, China. 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 161 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) 355-3200.