Madelaine C. Lane

Experience

Trial Counsel

• Ryan Racing, LLC v. Paul Gentilozzi, et al., U.S. District Court, Western District of Michigan. Trial counsel for Ryan Hunter-Reay – professional race car driver for Andretti Autosport and the 2014 Indianapolis 500 champion. In 2005, when Mr. Hunter-Reay was an up-and-coming driver, he raced for a Michigan-based team, Rocketsports Racing, which is owned by Paul Gentilozzi. Mr. Gentilozzi terminated Mr. Hunter-Reay in violation of his contract and then set out to ruin Mr. Hunter-Reay’s reputation in the industry. Mr. Hunter-Reay arbitrated the wrongful termination with Mr. Gentilozzi and was awarded $2.7 million. After converting the award into a judgment, Mr. Hunter-Reay sought to collect, but Mr. Gentilozzi stymied his efforts by creating a sham company. Mr. Gentilozzi named the new company “RSR” and shifted assets to RSR, but claimed the $2.7 million owed to Mr. Hunter-Reay was a debt of the old company. Mr. Gentilozzi had run Rocketsports Racing over the years without regard to corporate formalities, benefiting himself and others at the expense of the company’s creditors. Mr. Hunter-Reay filed suit in federal court in Michigan to collect his $2.7 million judgment under theories of successor liability, fraudulent transfer, and piercing the corporate veil. 
      
  After a five day bench trial, Judge Robert Holmes Bell ruled in favor of Mr. Hunter-Reay.  In particular, Judge Bell pierced the corporate veil and held that Rocketsports was a mere instrumentality of Mr. Gentilozzi.  Additionally, the Court ruled that RSR was a successor of Rocketsports, and therefore was liable for payment of the arbitration award.  Judge Bell entered the $2.7 million judgment against Mr. Gentilozzi personally and RSR. Click here for the full text of Judge Bell’s Opinion and here for the article “Why an Indy 500 winner sued Lansing real estate tycoon Paul Gentilozzi.”

• Served as lead counsel in two federal criminal jury trials. Both cases culminated in week-long jury trials in the Federal District Court for the Western District of Michigan.

• Co-chaired a felony jury trial in Berrien County Circuit Court. The jury acquitted the defendant of the most serious charge.

• Co-chaired a three-day jury trial regarding defense of personal injury action. The jury returned a favorable verdict.

• Conducted more than five state court bench trials regarding both criminal and civil matters.

• Regularly prepares witnesses, including victims, for testimony at preliminary examinations, grand jury and trial.

Appellate

• Enjoyed victories in the Michigan Court of Appeals in both applications of interlocutory appeal and in merits briefing, including:

  • Authored the application for interlocutory appeal and merits brief, urging the Court to reverse the trial court's grant of summary disposition. The Michigan Court of Appeals granted leave to appeal and reversed the trial court. Spartan Graphics, Inc. v. Entermarket Corp., Case No. 292235.

  • Authored the appellee's brief on appeal of right where plaintiff was seeking reversal of trial court's decision to compel him to pay the marital-home expenses pursuant to a judgment of annulment and awarding his ex-wife attorney fees.

    The Court of Appeals denied plaintiff's appeal and recognized that plaintiff's argument was frivolous and "without legal merit." Hadley v. Huang, Case No. 293472.

  • Argued in the Michigan Court of Appeals on two occasions.

  • Argued in the United States Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals on multiple occasions.

• Filed two petitions for certiorari to the United States Supreme Court regarding a criminal sentencing issue.

Criminal

• Represents clients in defending a variety of misdemeanor and felony criminal charges such as tax fraud, health care fraud, mail and wire fraud, embezzlement, conspiracy, immigration offenses, environmental crimes, guns and drug cases, assault crimes, operating while intoxicated and minor in possession of alcohol

• Involved in all stages of criminal representation including, but not limited to, internal investigations, pre-charge negotiations, grand jury investigations, discovery, trial, supervised release/probation violations, appeals and petitions for post-judgment relief.

• Serving her second three-year term on the United States Federal District Court for the Western District of Michigan's Criminal Justice Act Panel. She was appointed to this position by the court's Criminal Law Committee. In that capacity, she routinely appears in front of all judges in the United States Federal District Court for the Western District of Michigan and has represented dozens of indigent criminal defendants on a variety of federal charges.

• Frequently appears in district and circuit courts throughout Kent, Ottawa, Muskegon and Allegan counties to represent criminal defendants at every stage of the criminal process.

• Regularly works with the United States Attorney's Office and state prosecutors.

• Conducts internal investigations.