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Five Bodman PLC Attorneys Named 2019 Lawyers of the Year by The Best Lawyers in America

By: Bodman PLC

08/27/18

The internationally recognized peer-review journal The Best Lawyers in America has named five Bodman attorneys “Lawyers of the Year” for 2019: Barbara A. Bowman, Timothy R. Damschroder, Susan M. Kornfield, Ralph E. McDowell, and Sandra Sorini Elser.


The Best Lawyers in America
is the nation’s oldest attorney-rating publication and one of the most respected peer-review journals in the world. Only a single lawyer in each practice area and designated metropolitan area is honored as the Lawyer of the Year, making this accolade particularly significant. Lawyers are selected based on unusually impressive voting averages received during the peer review assessments of their legal abilities, professionalism, and integrity.

Barbara A. Bowman was named 2019 Banking and Finance Law Lawyer of the Year for Troy. She represents clients in complex financial transactions and securities law matters, including acting as bond counsel and underwriter’s counsel in bond transactions at the state and local levels.  She has counseled clients on compliance with federal and state securities laws with respect to a variety of matters, including initial public offerings, secondary offerings, private investment companies, acquisitions and mergers. Bowman served in leadership roles with Michigan Women in Finance (past president and member, board of directors) and the Detroit Bar Association Foundation (past co-chair and member, board of directors).

Timothy R. Damschroder has been recognized as the 2019 Mergers and Acquisitions Law Lawyer of the Year for Ann Arbor, an honor he also received in 2017. He is the co-chairperson of Bodman’s Business Practice Group and specializes in middle market merger and acquisition transactions (typically ranging from $30 million to $1 billion) and corporate finance. Damschroder specializes in dealing with technology companies from start up to transactions involving intellectual property, to venture capital financing, to eventual sale. He serves as the chair of the Michigan Health Endowment Fund Board and is a former chair of the State Bar of Michigan Business Law Section. In 2016 he received the Business Law Section’s Stephen H. Schulman Outstanding Business Lawyer Award.

Susan M. Kornfield, the 2019 Trademark Law Lawyer of the Year for Ann Arbor, has been honored as Lawyer of the Year multiple times in the past for Copyright Law, Litigation–Patent, and Litigation–Intellectual Property. She assists clients in a range of intellectual property matters, including information systems acquisition, copyrights, trademarks, e-commerce, noncompete agreements and other post-employment restrictions, and protection against economic espionage. She has been selected as an expert witness, mediator, and arbitrator in intellectual property disputes, and serves on an Advisory Committee to Stanford University on matters involving libraries and academic information resources. Kornfield is a frequent speaker on IP issues to professional and academic groups and is active with national, state, and local bar associations and committees relating to computer law, intellectual property law, and entertainment law.

Ralph E. McDowell is the 2019 Detroit Bet-the-Company Litigation Lawyer of the Year. He is former Lawyer of the Year for Bankruptcy and Creditor-Debtor Rights and Litigation-Bankruptcy. McDowell is chairman of Bodman’s Executive Committee, which guides firm operations and business strategy. He assists clients primarily in the areas of commercial bankruptcy and related litigation, debtors’ and creditors’ rights, and workouts. He has represented the interests of banks and other financial institutions in pre-bankruptcy workout situations, commercial bankruptcy cases, and troubled credit situations. He serves on the University of Detroit Mercy Law School Dean’s Advisory Board, the Detroit Institute of Arts Audit Committee, Detroit Bar Association Debtor-Creditor Rights Committee, and the State Bar of Michigan Debtor-Creditor Rights Subsection (Business Law and Real Property Law Section).

Sandra Sorini Elser was named Real Estate Law Lawyer of the Year for Ann Arbor. She practices primarily in the area of real estate development and municipal law. She has particular expertise in the creation of traditional and site condominiums for residential and business projects as well as innovative use of the condominium concept in mixed use developments, senior housing and public/private partnerships. She handles multi-state real estate sales, purchases and refinancing for corporate clients. Sorini Elser is a frequent speaker on Real Estate issues to professional organizations and is active with the State Bar of Michigan Committee on Condominiums, Cooperatives and Planned Developments.

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