Contact:
Matt Bach
Michigan Municipal League
c: (810) 874-1073; [email protected]
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: December 15, 2021
Lauren Trible-Laucht and Steven Mann to Lead Statewide Municipal Attorney Organization
Southwest Michigan Municipal Attorney Nick Curcio Selected to Board
LANSING, Michigan (Dec. 16, 2021) – The Michigan Association of Municipal Attorneys (MAMA) has elected its president and vice president for 2021-22 and re-elected members to its board of directors.
The association 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—Nick Curcio, a municipal attorney who represents multiple communities in southwest Michigan. The elections for officers, for one-year terms, were made during the organization’s Oct. 21 annual meeting in Lansing. Board members serve three-year terms.
Lauren Trible-Laucht spent the last year as the MAMA vice president and 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.
Curcio was elected to the board and replaces long-time MAMA member John C. Schrier, who is retiring and has served as Muskegon city attorney. Curcio serves as general counsel for the cities of Allegan, South Haven, and New Buffalo, as well as the villages of Decatur and Stevensville. He graduated from the University of Notre Dame Law School and worked for two years as a law clerk at the U.S. Court of Appeals in Atlanta, Georgia. Since that time, he has been in private practice focusing on municipal law, appellate law, and real estate.
Aside from his legal practice, Curcio serves as an assistant wrestling coach at West Catholic High School in Grand Rapids, and as the athletic director of St. Mary’s School in Spring Lake. Curcio enjoys spending the rest of his time with his wife Erin and five young children: Charlie, Ben, Michael, Jack, and Joni.
Included on the 2020-21 MAMA board are Thomas R. Schultz, immediate past president; Ebony L. Duff, City Attorney, Oak Park; Suzanne Curry Larsen, City Attorney, Marquette; Amy Lusk, City Attorney, Saginaw; Clyde J. Robinson, City Attorney, Kalamazoo; 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.
About the Michigan Association of Municipal Attorneys: The Michigan Association of Municipal Attorneys (MAMA) is a chartered section of the Michigan Municipal League, which is a Michigan nonprofit corporation. MAMA was established in 1935 as an affiliated organization of the League. The Association is governed by a board of directors elected by the member municipal attorneys. Membership consists of every city and village attorney who represents a member of the Michigan Municipal League, their deputies and assistants, and League staff members duly admitted to practice law in the state of Michigan. Any attorney admitted to practice law in Michigan who has a substantial interest in municipal law may become an associate member upon application and approval by the board of directors. Any student enrolled in a recognized law school may be a law student member upon application and approval by the board of directors.