PRACTICE AREAS

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Best Lawyers is the oldest and most respected peer-review publication in the legal profession, helping lawyers and clients find legal counsel in unfamiliar jurisdictions or unfamiliar specialties.

Best Lawyers compiles lists of outstanding attorneys by conducting exhaustive peer-review surveys in which thousands of leading lawyers confidentially evaluate their professional peers. In the U.S., Best Lawyers publishes an annual referral guide, The Best Lawyers in America, which includes 29,575 attorneys in 78 specialties, covering all 50 states and the District of Columbia.

Chambers just ranked ours as one of the country’s leading business law firms.

Awards aren’t everything in the legal profession. Still, when you have been selected as one of the country’s leading business law firms - as Dickinson Wright has - it tells you something. Especially when you consider that Chambers does such extensive research in every state to determine the best business lawyers in the country.

And when you consider that 11 of our lawyers achieved individual recognition in five featured practice areas, it just substantiates everything we have been known for since 1878 - credibility, creativity, depth of experience and intellectual firepower. Put our reputation to work for you and let us add value to your enterprise.

Super Lawyers is a listing of outstanding lawyers from more than 60 practice areas who have attained a high degree of peer recognition and professional achievement.

Super Lawyers is published as a special supplement in leading newspapers and city and regional magazines across the country. Super Lawyers magazine, featuring articles about attorneys named to the Super Lawyers list, is distributed to all attorneys in the state or region, the lead corporate counsel of Russell 3000 companies and the ABA-approved law school libraries.

Flash

Gaming

Expanded Description

Today's gaming marketplace demands sophistication in a wide variety of specialties that go well beyond gaming regulatory law. The Dickinson Wright Gaming Practice Group has a combination of expertise and depth that comprehensively meets the needs of today's gaming industry.

With offices throughout Michigan and in Washington, D.C., as well as an association with the Ramirez Law Firm in Macau, the Dickinson Wright Gaming Practice Group has expertise that covers the entire spectrum of today's gaming industry - commercial, Indian, lottery, international and internet - backed by 240-plus lawyers who bring to the table the wide array of legal talent and business expertise that a sophisticated gaming business requires.

Dickinson Wright lawyers were at the forefront of the entry of casino gaming into Michigan. They have drafted state and international country gaming laws and regulations; drafted and oversaw the successful voter approval of an amendment of the 1963 Michigan Constitution designed to protect Michigan's commercial and Indian casino industry from encroachment by the State; obtained the casino licenses for two of Detroit's three commercial casinos; negotiated tribal/state gaming compacts; protected casinos against environmental attacks; represented tribes seeking federal recognition; negotiated tribal/municipality gaming development agreements throughout the United States; represented a multitude of gaming companies (both operator and manufacturer) in regulatory proceedings; prosecuted patents and otherwise protected gaming intellectual property rights; successfully defended the gaming industry in litigation in state and federal courts on multiple occasions involving patron, labor and contract disputes; performed the broad range of legal tasks associated with the financing and construction of state of the art casinos; challenged wrongful taxation; and represented the industry in a broad range of human resource issues.

Great Lawyers, Great Law Firm is not just a catchy phrase - it is a reality at Dickinson Wright PLLC.

Administrative And Regulatory
  • Drafting Gaming Legislation

  • Drafting Gaming Rules

  • Drafting State Constitution Amendments

  • Eligibility and Suitability Requirements

  • Entity Licensing

  • Employee Licensing

  • Gaming Lab Approvals

  • Administrative Hearings

  • Supplier Contracting

  • State and Local Taxation


  • Indian Casinos
  • Tribal/State Gaming Compact Negotiations

  • Tribal/Local Government Development Agreements

  • Tribal/Developer Agreements

  • Federal recognition

  • Tribal Sovereignty

  • Taxation and State and Local infrastructure Payments

  • Gaming Equipment Manufacturer Agreements

  • Goods and Services Agreements

  • Development and Financing Agreements

  • Intergovernmental Agreements for Municipal Services

  • Drafting Gaming Ordinances

  • Licensing Gaming Suppliers, Vendors and Employees


  • Casino Development
  • Development Agreements

  • Site Acquisitions

  • Zoning, Site Planning, and Permitting

  • Project Financing (bank, private equity, bond)

  • Construction

  • Environmental Due Care and Remediation


  • Casino Operations
  • Human Resources and Employee Benefits

  • Immigration

  • Unions

  • Utilities

  • Procurements

  • Supplier Licensing and Vendor Certification

  • Insurance (Traditional, Captives and Self-Insurance pools)

  • Taxation (Local, State, Federal and Indian)

  • Compliance and Reporting Obligations


  • Gaming Equipment Manufacturers
  • Entity Licensing

  • Employee Licensing

  • Equipment Approvals

  • Intellectual Property Protection

  • Regulatory Compliance


  • Non-Gaming Suppliers and Vendors
  • Licensing

  • Employee Licensing

  • Regulatory Compliance


  • Litigation and Alternative Dispute Resolution
  • Commercial

  • Indian

  • Patron Disputes

  • Administrative and Licensing Hearings

  • Arbitration and Mediation

  • Gaming Tax Litigation


  • For more information, please contact:
    H. Scott Althouse
    Indian, Regula