Varnum attorney Conor Boland has been selected for Trinity Health’s Up Next cohort, attorney Katie Duckworth has joined the board of Westminster Child Development Center (WCDC), and attorney Carolyn Sullivan now serves as President of the Young Lawyers Section (YLS) of the Grand Rapids Bar Association.
Conor Boland Joins Trinity Health Up Next Cohort
Up Next is a program designed to broaden and strengthen Trinity Health’s volunteer leadership base and support by engaging emerging leaders. As part of the cohort, Boland will gain insight into Trinity Health’s core service programs, such as the Trinity Health Lacks Cancer Center and the Trinity Health Hauenstein Neuroscience Center, and learn how the organization fulfills its mission of improving the health of its community.
Boland is a business and corporate attorney who advises private and family-owned businesses, family offices, and private equity funds. He offers strategic legal guidance on a range of business law matters, including mergers and acquisitions, regulatory compliance, and general corporate counseling. As part of his practice, Boland also advises Michigan corporations, officers, directors, and stockholders on governance issues. These include stockholder demand letters, breach of fiduciary duty claims, controlling stockholder transactions, minority stockholder oppression claims, special committee issues, and activist stockholder campaigns.
Katie Duckworth Joins Westminster Child Development Center Board
WCDC has provided quality childcare for infants to school-aged children for over fifty years. As a board member, Duckworth will help WCDC carry out its mission of providing quality-based, curriculum-centered programming in a Christian environment for families of varying socio-economic levels in Grand Rapids.
Duckworth is part of Varnum’s Energy, Environmental, and Natural Resources Practice Team. She has experience with U.S. laws and regulations affecting power generation, energy storage, and renewable energy, as well as wholesale energy and capacity markets. She represents energy companies in transactions, litigation, administrative proceedings, and regulatory compliance. She also advises renewable energy developers on managing complex regulatory regimes for major projects, including energy market rules and interconnection issues.
Carolyn Sullivan Elected Grand Rapids Bar Association Young Lawyers Section President
The YLS of the Grand Rapids Bar Association is a society of attorneys who are either younger than 36 years old or have been practicing in the Grand Rapids area for less than five years. As president of the YLS, Sullivan will help the organization provide opportunities to engage in networking functions with fellow members, feature distinguished speakers from local business and legal communities, and give back to the legal, professional, and local communities.
Sullivan is an experienced labor and employment attorney whose practice focuses on compliance with federal and state labor and employment laws and other workplace matters. She provides counsel on a variety of matters, including effective employee handbooks and policies, discrimination, ADA compliance, sexual harassment, MIOSHA, and wage-hour issues. She litigates and defends employers in federal and state courts, as well as on administrative charges, including unemployment and EEOC matters. Sullivan also has experience counseling on employee benefit plans, including 401(k) plans and Section 125 Cafeteria Plans.
