Education & Credentials
Education
Michigan State University
B.A., 2007- With High Honors
University of Michigan Law School
J.D., 2010- With Honors
- Book Award, Legal Ethics and Professional Responsibility
- Scholarly Writing Award
- Contributing Editor, Michigan Journal of Law Reform
Bar Admission
Acknowledgements
- Best Lawyers in America®
- Insurance Law, 2023-2025
- Michigan Super Lawyers®
- "Rising Star," Business Litigation, 2016-2021
Representative Clients
- City of Grosse Pointe Farms
- City of Hudsonville
- City of Lansing
- City of Lowell
- City of Rockford
- CorePointe Insurance Company
- Michigan's Largest Health Care Company and Insurance Subsidiaries
- MSU Foundation
- MTL Insurance Company
- Pekin Insurance Company
- Webber Township
Prominent Assignments
Lansing is where I was born and raised. While at the University of Michigan Law School, I worked for the Michigan House of Representatives and the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality. I knew I wanted to focus on regulatory, constitutional, and government work, and so I started working in Dickinson Wright’s Lansing office straight after graduating in 2007. In my day-to-day practice, I assist both commercial and governmental entities in a variety of administrative and litigation contexts, with a focus on energy, municipal taxation, and insurance regulatory matters.
My prominent assignments include:
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Legislative drafting and government affairs counsel on successful projects to amend the Michigan clean energy laws, multiple chapters of the Michigan insurance code, and Michigan’s general insurance laws.
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Communications and government affairs counsel for clients seeking to provide input on the development of federal financing regulations and model laws by the National Association of Insurance Commissioners.
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Regulatory counsel to municipal energy utilities and generation resource owners including in proceedings before the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.
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Litigation and appellate counsel to lawmakers, their staff, and state agencies in connection with constitutional and other litigation before the Michigan Court of Appeals and Michigan Supreme Court.
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Amicus counsel for governmental associations, insurance trade groups, and political action groups in appellate matters.
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Compliance and litigation counsel for municipal and state agency clients on FOIA and Open Meetings Act matters.
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Litigation and regulatory counsel to dozens of Michigan municipalities throughout the state in administrative agency proceedings and appeals relating to property tax valuation, exemption, classification, and other disputes arising under the Michigan General Property Tax Act.
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Compliance and regulatory counsel to insurance carriers, health maintenance organizations, state guaranty funds, producers, managing general agents, third party administrators, premium finance companies, self-funded plans, captive insurers, reinsurers, Lloyds syndicates, and all manner of other and ancillary insurance entities in licensing, enforcement, product filings, transactional, and other matters before state departments of insurance and related agencies.
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Routinely assist in preparation and filings under the insurance holding company act (Forms A, B, C, D, E, and F), Corporate Governance Annual Disclosures, Group Capital Calculations, Annual and Quarterly Financial Statements, Risk-Based Capital Calculations, and a variety of related reports and notices.
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Obtained certificates of authority for P&C, Life, and Health carriers as well as surplus lines eligibility determinations in all 50 states and Washington D.C.
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Routinely assist producers in obtaining and maintaining licenses in all 50 states and Washington D.C., including surplus lines authorities.
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Obtained change of control approvals over the last decade for dozens of carriers and related entities domiciled in California, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, and Wisconsin.
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Obtained approvals for bulk reinsurance, assumption reinsurance, loss portfolio transfers, and other reinsurance transactions from state departments of insurance.
Professional Involvement
- Member, State Bar of Michigan, Administrative & Regulatory Law and Insurance & Indemnity Law Sections
- Member, Society for Evolutionary Analysis in Law
Publications/Presentations
- Business Interruption Insurance, Captives, and Coronavirus, Dickinson Wright Webinar, April 2020
- Who is the Beneficiary? The Answer May Depend on Whether State Law or ERISA Applies, 25 Mich. L. W. 375 (February 2011) (with Kimberly J. Ruppel).
- The "Enlightened Barbarity" of Inclusive Fitness and Wrongful Death: Biological Justifications for an Investment Theory of Loss in Wycko v. Gnodtke, 43 U. Mich. J.L. Reform 497 (2010).
- Integrating Kin Selection Theory and Corrective Justice, Presentation at Society of Evolutionary Analysis and Law Annual Conference, College of William and Mary, April 10, 2010.
- The Furloughing of Public Sector Employees, 27(4) Ill. Pub. Em. Rel. Rep. (Winter 2010).