02.18.2015

At the recent annual business meeting of Plunkett Cooney – one of the oldest and largest law firms – partners Michael P. Ashcraft, Jr., Michael S. Bogren, Mark S. Kopson and Kenneth C. Newa were elected to the firm’s board of directors.

Re-elected to three-year terms were Ashcraft, Bogren and Newa. Kopson, who serves as the firm’s Healthcare Industry Group Leader, was elected to the board for the first time.

The managing partner of Plunkett Cooney’s Kalamazoo office, Michael S. Bogren has been a member of the firm’s board of directors since 2003 and has served as chair of the board since 2012. He is a member of Plunkett Cooney’s Governmental Law Practice Group, focusing his practice in the areas of municipal law, civil rights and labor and employment law.

A 1982 cum laude graduate of University of Detroit School of Law, Bogren has extensive experience representing municipalities in both state and federal court claims involving police liability, due process matters, first amendment issues, Open Meetings and Freedom of Information Act violations, zoning disputes and employment law.

Michael P. Ashcraft, Jr. is a partner in the firm’s Bloomfield Hills office who serves as the Plunkett Cooney’s Professional Liability Practice Group Leader and as secretary/treasurer of the board of directors. Ashcraft is one of the state’s leading professional liability attorneys, concentrating his practice primarily on the defense of attorneys and accountants in malpractice claims. He also represents insurance brokers and agents, securities brokers, real estate brokers and agents, investment advisors, officers and directors and notaries public in professional liability cases in state and federal courts.

Admitted to state and federal courts in Michigan and Nebraska, Ashcraft graduated, cum laude, from Detroit College of Law in 1992. He received his undergraduate degree from University of Michigan in 1987. Ashcraft is a member of the Oakland County Bar Association’s Negligence Section, the State Bar of Michigan’s Professional Ethics Committee and the American Bar Association’s Committee on Professional Responsibility and Liability.

Kenneth C. Newa serves as Plunkett Cooney Insurance Coverage Practice Group Co-Leader. He focuses his practice principally upon the representation of insurance companies in a wide variety of insurance coverage disputes, including complex, high-exposure coverage litigation relating to environmental, asbestos, toxic tort and construction defect claims.

A partner in the firm’s Bloomfield Hills office, Newa is a member of the State Bar of Michigan (Environmental Law and Negligence sections); numerous federal courts; the DRI – The Voice of the Defense Bar (Insurance Law Committee and Bad Faith and CGL Subcommittee); the Detroit Metropolitan Bar Association, the Association of Defense Trial Counsel and the American Bar Association (Tort and Insurance Practice Section). He received his law degree, cum laude, from University of Detroit School of Law in 1989 and his undergraduate degree from Michigan State University in 1986.

Mark S. Kopson represents healthcare providers and integrated delivery systems, payers and other managed care entities in Michigan and throughout the United States. He has extensive experience and expertise in the areas of managed care negotiation, contracting and dispute resolution and many other facets of corporate healthcare law.

A magna cum laude graduate of the University of Detroit School of Law in 1985, Kopson is a member of the State Bar of Michigan (Chair-Elect of the Heath Care Law and Business Law sections).  He also chairs the Payors, Plans and Managed Care Practice Group of the American Health Lawyers Association and is a member of the Business Law, Health Law, and Law Practice Management sections of the American Bar Association.

Established in 1913, Plunkett Cooney employs approximately 150 attorneys in nine Michigan cities, Columbus, Ohio and Indianapolis, Indiana. The firm, which provides a range of transactional and litigation services, has achieved the highest rating (AV) awarded by Martindale-Hubbell, a leading, international directory of law firms. Fortune magazine also recently named Plunkett Cooney among the top commercial firms in the United States.

For more information about Plunkett Cooney’s newly-elected board members, contact the firm’s Practice Development Manager John Cornwell at (248) 901-4008 or jcornwell@plunkettcooney.com.

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