Contact:
Matt Bach
Michigan Municipal League
c: (810) 874-1073; [email protected]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: October 17, 2022

LANSING, Michigan – The Michigan Association of Municipal Attorneys (MAMA) has re-elected its president and vice president for 2022-23 and elected a new member to its board of directors.

The association re-elected Lauren Trible-Laucht, city attorney for the City of Traverse City, as president, and Steven Mann, Milan city attorney, as vice president. The group also re-elected board members and selected a new member to its board—Jill Humphreys Steele, municipal attorney for the City of Battle Creek. The elections for officers, for one-year terms, were made during the organization’s Oct. 13 annual meeting in Lansing. Board members serve three-year terms.

Lauren Trible-Laucht has severed the past year as MAMA president and was the board’s vice president. She is the city attorney for Traverse City where she has served since 2011. She earned her bachelor’s degree in German and Environmental Studies from Kalamazoo College, and her juris doctorate from Wayne State University Law School.

She started her career as an associate attorney at Jon H. Kingsepp PLLC in Rochester, Michigan as deputy city attorney for the City of Clawson. She is a past president of the Grand Traverse-Leelanau-Antrim Bar Association. Outside of the office, Lauren keeps busy spending time with her husband, Jan, and two boys, Willem and Sebastian.

Mann is a principal with the Miller Canfield law firm specializing in the area of municipal finance and representing public agencies as bond counsel. In addition to serving as Milan city attorney, he also is a former township supervisor and trustee for Plymouth Township Board of Trustees. He also is an adjunct professor in public/municipal finance law at Western Michigan University – Cooley Law School. He is a graduate of Cooley Law School and Cleary University.

His practice covers all facets of tax increment financing, special assessments, and economic development. He has also authored several amicus curiae briefs for both the Michigan Court of Appeals and the Michigan Supreme Court, arguing on behalf of public bodies and municipal associations in cases involving complex issues related to the Freedom of Information Act and the Open Meetings Act.

He has received numerous honors, including being named among the top lawyers in municipal law by DBusiness Magazine, 2021-present.

Humphreys Steele was elected Thursday and succeeds on the board Clyde Robinson, city attorney, Kalamazoo. Humphreys Steele has served as city attorney in Battle Creek since 2013 and previously was the city’s deputy city attorney, heading up civil litigation since 2009. She was elected to the State Bar of Michigan’s Government Law Section Council in September. She is also chair of the Hope Township Zoning Board of Appeals. She earned her law degree in 1996, cum laude, from Western Michigan University Cooley Law School after receiving a bachelor’s degree, magna cum laude, from Western.

Also included on the 2022-23 MAMA board are Thomas R. Schultz, immediate past president; Ebony Duff, city attorney, Oak Park, Suzanne Larsen, city attorney, Marquette; Amy Lusk, city attorney, Saginaw; Laurie Schmidt, city attorney, St. Joseph; Rhonda Stowers, city attorney, Davidson; and Christopher Johnson, general counsel, Michigan Municipal League, who is the organization’s secretary/treasurer.