Our first runners-up this week are defense lawyers at Willey & Chamberlain, Varnum LLP, Bursch Law PLLC and Chartier & Nyamfukudza who represent Nicolas Lyon, the former director of the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services. This week in a ruling the Associated Press called “an astonishing defeat” for Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel, the state’s high court knocked out criminal charges stemming from the Flint water crisis against Lyon and two other state officials. The court held that a trial court judge functioning as a one-person grand jury under rarely used state laws had no power to issue indictments, with Michigan Chief Justice Bridget Mary McCormack labeling the procedure “a Star Chamber comeback.” Ron DeWaard at Varnum LLP led strategy relating to attorney-client privilege issues. Chip Chamberlain of Willey & Chamberlain took the lead on briefing at the Michigan Supreme Court, with John Bursch of Bursch Law PLLC handling oral argument.

Runners-up honors also go to a Cooley team led by partner Matthew Brown. California’s First District Court of Appeal this week reversed a trial court finding, and held that client Turo Inc., an online, peer-to-peer car-sharing platform, is not a “rental car company” under California law. That issue is central to a lawsuit brought by the San Francisco City Attorney’s Office seeking to force Turo to get a rental car company permit to operate at San Francisco International Airport and pay related fees. The Cooley team on the matter also included partners Benjamin Kleine and Bethany Lobo with Ashley Corkery taking on the lead associate on the appeal phase of the case. Cooley’s Michael Rhodes and former partner Elizabeth Prelogar also contributed to the representation.

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