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Fighting For All

Attorney Mort Collins is honored with
Distinguished Career Achievement Award.

Linda Laderman | Contributing Writer

T

he Oakland County Bar
Association (OCBA) recently
recognized attorney Mort
Collins’ 50 years of personal and profes-
sional accomplishments when he was
presented with its Distinguished Career
Achievement Award.
Collins is a lifelong Detroiter, a mem-
ber of Temple Beth El in Bloomfield
Township and the founding member
of the 45-year-old Southfield law firm
Collins Einhorn Farrell.
Established in 2001, the award aims
to recognize an attorney whose career
exemplifies extraordinary achievement
in the ideals of the profession throughout
the active legal career of the recipient.
“The award came as a total surprise
and shock to me,” said Collins, 85, of
Bloomfield Hills. “It is the pinnacle of
success to be recognized by my peers at
my ripe old age. It felt very good to be
considered.”
As the parents of a child diagnosed
in infancy with developmental disabili-
ties, Collins and his late wife, Marilynn,
became active in organizations that
champion those with developmental and
intellectual disabilities.
Collins was an early member of JARC,
a non-sectarian, nonprofit organization
that aims to provide high-quality pro-
grams for individuals with developmen-
tal disabilities. He also has served on the
boards of the Jewish Community Center
as well as the St. Louis Center for Boys
in Chelsea, a Catholic residential com-
munity, and the Arc of Oakland County,
both dedicated to helping children and
adults with intellectual and developmen-
tal disabilities.
“I became involved with JARC in its
infant stages because we realized there
needed to be some kind of organiza-
tion available when we could no longer
take care of our son. We had to prepare
him for a life without us,” Collins said.
“JARC’s evolution is remarkable. JARC
has 19 residential houses. When I got
started, there was just one rented house
in Detroit. I think it’s pretty terrific.”

PROFESSIONAL CAREER
During his five decades as an attorney,
Collins said he has witnessed positive
changes in how Jewish members of the
legal profession are received into the

14 August 4 • 2016

Mort Collins receives the Oakland
County Bar Association’s Distinguished
Career Achievement Award from David
Carl Anderson, now past-president.

legal community at large.
“Back in the ’60s, few if any Jewish
lawyers were at the big firms,” Collins
said. “But that has fundamentally
changed for the good.”
Collins’ youngest son, Dan, a partner
at Collins Einhorn Farrell, credits the
example his father set with his own deci-
sion to go to law school.
“I went to law school because I real-
ized not everyone enjoyed their chosen
profession as much as my dad did. It
made me think maybe I should try this,”
said Dan Collins of Orchard Lake. “The
biggest lesson I learned from my father
was to keep fighting and defending your
clients’ interests.”
He said his mother worked alongside
his father as they fought for the rights of
children with disabilities.
“They were certainly a partnership,
particularly with all of her efforts to
advocate on behalf of individuals with
developmental disabilities, such as my
brother. My mom worked tirelessly
behind the scenes to ensure those with
developmental disabilities were always
part of the community. My dad then
took all of her efforts and pursued them
in a more public forum through his lead-
ership roles with JARC and various other
organizations.”
Of the OCBA award, Dan Collins said,
“My dad is the ultimate zealous advocate
for everyone he knows, whether it’s his
family, clients or friends. I’m extremely
proud of him, and throughout the firm
there is a great sense of pride in his
achievement. It’s been a pleasure work-
ing with him.”

*

Hunter Pasteur
Homes, a pre-
mier Southeast
Michigan-based
developer/builder,
has announced the
appointment of
Seth Herkowitz
Herkovitz
to partner. He
will continue his
operational respon-
sibilities and play a leading role in
the company’s sales, construction,
development and administrative
divisions. He also is a member of
the Homebuilders Association of
Southeast Michigan and co-chair of
the Harry N. Herkowitz Distinguished
Chair of Orthpaedics at Beaumont
Health System.

Forgotten Harvest,
Metro Detroit’s
only food rescue
organization, has
announced the
election of Hannan
Lis to a two-year
term as the non-
Lis
profit’s board
chair. Lis joined
Forgotten Harvest
as a board member two years ago
and most recently served as a mem-
ber of the organization’s executive
committee. Lis is active in a number
of organizations across the Detroit
area and Southeast Michigan, includ-
ing Farmington Hills-based the
WW Group Inc., Wixom-based the
Firebolt Group Inc. and HBR Labs.

Sara Voight has
joined SMZ as
director of finance
and administra-
tion. Voight was a
controller at Critical
Signal Technologies
Inc. Prior to that
Voight
she was controller
with Helm Inc.
Voight volun-
teers with many area organizations
including the Jewish Federation of
Metropolitan Detroit, Jewish Family
Service of Metropolitan Detroit,
Oakland Community College and
Sanctum House.

Rebecca Margolis
DeRaud had
the degree of
Doctor of Social
Work conferred
to her by the
School of Social
Work at Rutgers
DeRaud
University. She is
a resident of West
Bloomfield and
currently the director of social work
and bereavement at Angela Hospice
in Livonia.

Carl Manello, former Detroiter of Buffalo Grove, Ill., has
accepted the role of vice president of technology for Ameritas,
an insurance agency headquartered in Lincoln, Neb., and
will relocate. He will have responsibility for IT operations, IT
finance, IT portfolio management as well as business partner-
ship responsibilities for the marketing, planning and risk, and
audit functions of the company. In addition, Manello will help
Ameritas improve and mature business requirements capabili-
Manello
ties for the enterprise. He has been published, both solo and
collaboratively. He contributed to globally recognized thought
leader Dr. Harold Kerzner’s Project Management Best Practices
book, has written numerous white papers on PMO best practices, is an avid blog-
ger and last year published his first book, Delivery Effectiveness.

Olga Semenova received a scholarship to attend the 2016
COJECO RSJ Symposium in New York City in August, repre-
senting Jewish Family Service. She was invited to the sympo-
sium after her participation as a Fellow in the Brandeis Jewish
Leadership Incubator.

Semenova