Michelle G. Novick has joined Arnstein & Lehr, Chicago, as a partner in the Bankruptcy, Creditors' Rights and Restructuring Practice Group. She will work closely with the recently formed Commercial Solutions Service Group.

A board member of the Chicago chapter of the Risk Management Association and frequent speaker, Novick was with Thompson Coburn.

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Edward F. Malone and Michael J. Towne have joined Barack, Ferrazzano, Kirschbaum & Nagelberg, Chicago, as partners. Malone, from Jenner & Block, is in the Litigation Practice Group, and Towne, from Winston & Strawn, is in the Tax and Business Planning Group.

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Greg L. Berenstein has joined the Chicago office of Barnes & Thornburg as a partner in the Business Department. Previously a partner in ReedSmith, he is an adjunct professor in intellectual property rights at the Chicago-Kent College of Law.

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Cook County State's Attorney Richard A. Devine, whose term expires in December, reportedly will join Bryan Cave in Chicago as head of its Litigation Department.

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Michelle Symank has joined Evans & Dixon in St. Louis as an associate in workers' compensation and trademark litigation. A member of the Illinois bar, she was a contract legal associate at T. Fritz Levenhagen.

Gerald Richardson has joined the firm's new Employment and Labor Law Division as of counsel. He was principal counsel at the Lowenbaum Partnership.

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Washington, D.C., attorney C. Willis Ritter has joined the Chicago office of Gonzalez, Saggio & Harlan as a partner and co-chair of its nationwide municipal finance practice.

Based in Milwaukee, the firm merged in 2007 with the Chicago-based firm of Burris, Wright, Slaughter & Tom and has six other offices. Tim Wright III and Elizabeth McDuffie are managing partners in Chicago.

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The new firm of Gori, Julian & Associates will relocate from Alton later this year to a renovated building across the street from the Madison County Courthouse in Edwardsville.

Partners are Randy L. Gori, formerly with Goldenberg, Heller, Antognoli, Rowland, Short & Gori, Edwardsville, and John Barry Julian, who was with Wise & Julian, Alton. Gori is a part-owner of Erato on Main, an Edwardsville wine bar.

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Hinshaw & Culbertson has elected three members of its Chicago office to capital partnership. They are Mary J. Hess (tort litigation, wrongful death and premises liability), Craig T. Liljestrand (toxic tort, products liability and environmental cases), and John E. Sebastian (fidelity and surety bonds, construction and commercial litigation).

Hinshaw & Culbertson also elected attorneys to partnership in four of it Illinois offices.

In Chicago: Anthony E. Antognoli (employee benefits, executive compensation and federal taxation), Robert J. Finley (workers' compensation defense, professional and premises liability), Corinne C. Heggie (municipal and civil rights defense), Kourtney A. Mulcahy (intellectual property transactions and litigation), and Todd B. Stelter (consumer law, legal malpractice and commercial litigation).

In Belleville: Chad A. Jennings (defense litigation in municipal law, medical malpractice, worker's compensation and toxic tort litigation).

In Rockford: Matthew F. Logan (commercial litigation in contracts, real estate, employment and corporate governance), and Lisa R. Munch (health care professional liability defense).

In Peoria: Ambrose V. McCall (professional liability, employment discrimination and civil rights violations).

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Lashly & Baer, a St. Louis-based law firm founded in 1912, has opened a Belleville office at 20 E. Main Street.

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Kenneth S. Strauss has joined Levin Ginsburg, Chicago, in litigation and real estate matters. He was a partner in Strauss & Watychowicz, Mount Prospect.

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John Brennan, a graduate of the DePaul University College of Law, has joined Microsystems in Downers Grove as senior account executive. He held previous sales leadership positions with LexisNexis and ELF Technologies.

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ISBA member Geri L. Dreiling, president of Legal Media Matters, has joined the legal management consulting firm of Olmstead & Associates in St. Louis as adjunct legal writer and publicist. A former investigative journalist, she is a 1992 graduate of the Washington University School of Law.

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The Kansas City-based firms of Polsinelli Shalton Flanigan Suelthaus - which has offices in Chicago, Edwardsville and St. Louis - and Shughart, Thomson & Kilroy are exploring a possible merger. Together, they have more than 480 attorneys.

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Paul L. Stephanides has been named a partner in the Joliet office of Robbins, Schwartz, Nicholas, Lifton & Taylor, practicing in municipal law areas of real estate, land use, zoning and construction.

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New attorneys at the Milwaukee firm of von Briesen & Roper include Alison E. Helland of the Business Practice Group, who has a master of laws degree from the Northwestern University School of Law, and Laurel Johnson of the Litigation and Risk Management Practice Group, a graduate of the Chicago-Kent College of Law.