Women's Bar Association | Oakland Region of the WLAM

Join WBA Oakland's 🧵Crafting Community 🧶 Tuesday, May 20 at 6 PM! We will be having a bring-your-own Craft Night at The Needleworks (725 S Adams Rd Suite 178, Birmingham, MI 48009). Please RSVP to Rebecca.Tetreau@gmail.com.

Join WBA Oakland's Literary Ladies 📖 Book Club 🔖 Tuesday, May 7 at 6 p.m. to discuss The Waters by Bonnie Jo Campbell. The meeting will be held via Zoom: https://buff.ly/3TRlhyf Please RSVP to Janine.M.Plourde@gmail.com.

WBA Oakland cordially invites you to their annual dinner on Thursday, May 2 at 5:30 P.M. The dinner will be held at Birmingham Country Club, and will feature the winners of this year's WBA Awards and the swearing in of the 2024-2025 Board of Directors. Buy tickets here: https://buff.ly/4cC0qGq. If you are interesting in sponsoring the event, contact sbrochert@plunkettcooney.com.

Introducing WBA Oakland's Executive Board for 2024-2025! - President – Kristin Fernandez - President Elect – Elyse Culberson - Immediate Past President – Nicole Gettler - Vice President – Jacqueline August - Treasurer – Marissa Wiesen - Communications Secretary – Elizabeth Erickson - Recording Secretary – Kelley Donnelly - WLAM Rep 1 – Rebecca Tetreau - WLAM Rep 2 – Janine Plourde Congratulations to the incoming officers! The 2024-2025 Executive Board will be sworn in at WBA Oakland's Annual Dinner on May 2, 2024 at the Birmingham Country Club. Tickets are available here: https://buff.ly/4cC0qGq .

WBA Oakland cordially invites you to their annual dinner on Thursday, May 2 at 5:30 P.M. The dinner will be held at Birmingham Country Club, and will feature the winners of this year's WBA Awards and the swearing in of the 2024-2025 Board of Directors. Buy tickets here: https://buff.ly/4cC0qGq. If you are interesting in sponsoring the event, contact sbrochert\@plunkettcooney.com.

Announcing WBA Oakland's 2024 ✨Member of the Year ✨ Jennifer Cupples! Jennifer has been a staunch and consistent supporter of WBA Oakland Region for many years. She is a regular attendee of Literary Ladies Book Club meetings , WBA board meetings, bar briefs, and all sorts of events in between. She is a sponsor of this year's Annual Dinner. Jennifer is a graduate of the University of Detroit Mercy School of Law and has over a decade of experience handling complex commercial litigation, business law and transactions, real estate transactions, and estate planning/probate matters. Last year, she took the brave leap into private practice last year and opened her own law firm, Jennifer A. Cupples, PLLC. You can find her at jacuppleslaw.com.

This year's recipient of WBA Oakland's Inaugural Ally Award is the Honorable Jacob James Cunningham! Judge Cunningham was elected to the Circuit Court by in November of 2018. Prior to taking the bench, he served as the judicial staff attorney for the Hon. Mary Ellen Brennan and as the judicial clerk for the Hon. Wendy Potts (retired). He presented at the ICLE Family Law Institute in 2019 and 2020. Judge Cunningham graduated from Oakland University in 2007, and earned his Juris Doctor from Western Michigan University Thomas M. Cooley Law School in 2012. He is a member the Oakland County Bar Association, where he served as the chair of the Professional Development Committee from 2016 through 2018, and as the vice chancellor of the Inns of Court for 2021. His other professional association memberships include the American Judges Association, the Michigan Judges Association, the Incorporated Society of Irish American Lawyers, the Armenian Bar Association, the International Association of LGBTQ+ Judges, the Eastern District of Michigan Federal Bar Association, the Michigan Inter-Professional Association, and the Michigan Supreme Court's Child Welfare Leadership Workgroup.

Join WBA Oakland's Literary Ladies 📖 Book Club 🔖 Tuesday, May 7 at 6 p.m. to discuss The Waters by Bonnie Jo Campbell. The meeting will be held via Zoom: https://buff.ly/3TRlhyf Please RSVP to Janine.M.Plourde@gmail.com.

This year's recipient of WBA Oakland's Evelyn Forrest Distinguished Advocates Award is Ryan Kelly! Ryan Kelly has previously served as President of both WBA Oakland and the WLAM. The recipient of numerous awards for her work in family law, Ryan is also a member of the ICLE Family Law Advisory board and has made several legal contributions to the Institute of Continuing Legal Education. Ryan earned a Bachelor of Arts from Michigan State University in 2005 and graduated Cum Laude from the University of Detroit Mercy in 2008. Ryan’s practice focuses on all aspects of family law, including divorce, child custody and support issues, paternity, parenting time disputes and spousal support modifications. Ryan is a lifelong resident of Northville where she currently resides with her husband and their two young children. You can find her at buff.ly/49ScJeV.

This year's recipient of WBA Oakland's Joan Young Judicial Excellence Award is the Honorable Kameshia D. Gant! Judge Gant was appointed to the Circuit Court by Governor Gretchen Whitmer on April 30, 2019. She is the presiding judge of the Men's Adult Treatment Court. She was elected to the State Bar of Michigan's Board of Commissioners in District I on 2021, and was the Liaison for the Children's Law Committee in 2021 and the Family Law Committee in 2022. Judge Gant is a graduate of the University of Michigan, and earned her Juris Doctor from Wayne State University Law School. Judge Gant has spent her entire career in civil services: even before being admitted to the State Bar of Michigan in 2006, she served as a probation agent for the Michigan Department of Corrections and a Judicial Court Clerk at the Sixth Judicial Circuit Court. She also served as a consultant for the Neighborhood Legal Services of Michigan's Children's Justice Center from 2004 through 2019. Judge Gant has served on the Board of Directors for the WLAM, and is a member of the Oakland County Bar association, the Black Women Lawyers Association of Michigan, and the National Association of Women Judges, among her many other professional associations. She has also achieved extensive recognition for her contributions to the legal profession, including being receiving the D. Augustus Straker Bar Association Michal K. Lee Community Service Award in 2018, receiving the Northern Oakland County Branch of the NAACP's H. Wallace Parker Preservation of Justice Award in 2020, and being named Michigan Lawyers Weekly's 2021 Woman of the Year.