7/24/02

Nancy J. Diehl, Lambro Niforos, and Hon. Cynthia D. Stephens of Detroit, Elias J. Escobedo, Jr., of Waterford, Edward H. Pappas of Bloomfield Hills, Randolph P. Piper of Flint and Kim Warren Eddie of Lansing have been elected to the State Bar of Michigan's Board of Commissioners. They will sit on the board for three-year terms expiring at the close of the Annual Meeting in 2005.

Diehl, Niforos and Stephens will represent Wayne County or District H. Escobedo and Pappas will represent District I, which includes Lapeer, Oakland and St. Clair Counties. Piper will represent District B, which covers Bay, Genesee, Huron, Midland, Saginaw, Sanilac and Tuscola Counties. Eddie will represent District E, which includes Barry, Clinton, Eaton, Gratiot, Ingham, Ionia, Livingston, Montcalm, and Shiawassee Counties.

Diehl is currently a commissioner and secretary of the State Bar. She is co-chair of the Bar's Access to Justice Campaign, chair of the Commission's Committee on Professional Standards, and serves on the Executive Committee and Representative Assembly. She was first elected to the Commission in 1996 and has served as treasurer, chair of the Finance, Rules and Nominating Committees, and as a member of the Client Protection, Legislative and Personnel Committees. She previously served on the Representative Assembly and as a board member of the Detroit Metropolitan Bar Association. Currently, Diehl serves on the Governor's Task Force on Children's Justice, the Board of Directors of the Guidance Center, and as chair of the Wayne County Council Against Family Violence. Appointed an Assistant Wayne County Prosecutor in 1981, Diehl is now the Chief of the Projects and Training Division. From 1987 - 2001, she was Director of the Child and Family Abuse Bureau and continues to lecture extensively on issues of family violence on a state and national level.

Lambro Niforos is a Supervisory Attorney with the Wayne County Corporation Counsel. She has litigated extensively in the areas of employment discrimination, personal injury, state and federal civil rights, elections, environmental law, and currently in public health. She was admitted to the U.S. Supreme Court in 1989. Niforos was elected twice to the Representative Assembly and served on the standing committees for State Trial Courts Administration and Judicial Qualifications. She also co-chaired the statewide biennial Invitational Bench/Bar Conference Planning Committee twice. She has been a member of the Civic Searchlight judicial review panel, and board member for Michigan Legal Services.

Cynthia D. Stephens has served as a member of the Board of Commissioners since 1996. She currently serves as a member of the Executive Committee, member of the Public Policy Committee and liaison to the Open Justice Commission and the Judicial Conference. She has previously chaired the Nominating Committee. She also chaired the Mediation Tribunal Association Board from 1999 until 2002. By Supreme Court appointment she has served on the Alternative Dispute Resolution Task Force, Race Ethnic Bias Task Force, Michigan Judicial Institute Faculty Advisory, Bench Bar Advisory Committee and the Prison Overcrowding Commission. She was elected to the 36th District Court in 1981 and later appointed to the Third Circuit Court bench. She has served as the Chief Judge Pro Tempore of that court from 1993 until 2002.

Elias J. Escobedo Jr. has been a practicing attorney for over 15 years representing clients in family, criminal and juvenile matters. He is president of the Oakland County Bar Association, a member of numerous bar associations, and a past president of the Hispanic Bar Association of Michigan. Escobedo served as a Trustee on the Board of Oakland Livingston Legal Aid and as a member of the Saginaw Valley State University Board of Control. He is a recipient of many honors and received two Purple Hearts during his service in the Vietnam War, the National Defense Service Medal and the Vietnam Campaign Service Medal.

Edward H. Pappas, a former president of the Oakland County Bar Association, has served on the Board of Commissioners of the State Bar of Michigan since 1999. He has chaired various committees including the State Bar Committee on Attorney Grievance from 1989 until 1992; the State Bar Long Range Planning Committee Goal Group on Independence of the Bench and Bar in 1997, and co-chaired the National Moot Court Competition Committee in 1974 and 1976. Pappas is a fellow of the Michigan State Bar Foundation and the American Bar Association Foundation. He currently serves as a master in the OCBA Inn of Court and formerly served on the Board of Trustees of the Oakland Mediation Center, Oakland Community College and Oakland Livingston Legal Aid. Pappas also chairs a panel for the Michigan Attorney Discipline Board.

Randolph P. Piper is an attorney practicing law in the mid-Michigan area with offices in Genesee County. Prior to serving two terms on the Board of Commissioners for the State Bar of Michigan, he served on the Representative Assembly. He currently serves as a member of the State Bar Finance Committee and has completed his term as president of the Genesee County Bar Association. He has been a member of the State Bar of Michigan for 29 years.

Kim Warren Eddie is currently the Assistant Executive Secretary of the Prosecuting Attorneys Coordinating Council in Lansing. In January 1997, former Attorney General Frank Kelley appointed him as Assistant Attorney General assigned to the Criminal Division. Prior to that, he spent 23 years in the Ingham County Prosecuting Attorney's Office where he became Chief Assistant Prosecuting Attorney in 1981. Eddie has been elected twice to the State Bar Board of Commissioners and to the Representative Assembly. He also served twice in the Bar's Criminal Law Section Council. He lectures extensively at various criminal law organizations and colleges in the Lansing area.

###