Miller Canfield Lawyer Charged in Biker Gang Case to Resign Detroit Post
Updated: Before his orientation was even finished, a Detroit lawyer announced Wednesday that a member of the new city mayor’s volunteer crisis turnaround team has effectively been fired. Meanwhile, the mayor is taking it on the chin from a political opponent for his choice of Hatim “Tim” Attalla, who works as counsel at Miller Canfield Paddock and Stone.
Charged along with 73 other alleged associates or members of the Highwaymen Motorcycle Club in a federal racketeering indictment made public yesterday, Attalla will resign immediately, Mayor Dave Bing announced in a written statement provided last night to the Detroit Free Press.
Attalla, 49, has since been placed on paid leave from his job at Miller Canfield, the Detroit Free Press reports in a subsequent May 18 article.
Bing said he was “surprised and disappointed” by the charges against Attalla. Detailed in an earlier ABAJournal.com post, they include accusations both that Attalla acted as legal counsel for the enterprise in the case and that he participated in a claimed drug conspiracy.
“The indictment of Mr. Attalla on the third day of the Bing administration is not a good sign of things to come,” Tom Barrow—who plans to run against Bing in the August primary—said to the Free Press. “Mayor Bing has not only filled his team of advisers with outsiders, he is now relying on the advice of an indicted motorcycle gang consigliere accused of involvement with a drug gang.”
No comment from Attalla, who previously did not respond to a Free Press request for comment, is included in the article.
Bing, a businessman and former NBA player, was elected to serve out the unexpired term of former Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, who resigned last year as part of an agreement to a plea deal in a criminal case.
Related coverage:
Am Law Daily (May 18): “Indicted Lawyer Was ‘General Counsel’ to Biker Gang”
Detroit Free Press: “Bing’s crisis turnaround management team”
Detroit News: “Mayor Bing names Detroit’s ‘crisis’ team”
Detroit News: “Daniel Howes Detroit Mayor Dave Bing inherits a multitude of trouble”
Last updated on May 18 to add links to subsequent Am Law Daily and Detroit Free Press coverage.
