Former Vice President and General Counsel of Johnson Controls' Automotive Operations Joins Butzel Long Law Firm; William J. Kohler Joins Firm as Senior Attorney

DETROIT--Sept. 20, 2006--William J. Kohler has joined the law firm of Butzel Long as a senior attorney practicing in the firm's Detroit office. He joined the firm after serving for six years as vice president and general counsel of Johnson Controls' automotive operations in North and South America. Johnson Controls is a $30 billion Fortune 100 company with operations throughout the world. While at Johnson Controls, Mr. Kohler was responsible for all legal, governmental and environmental affairs of the company's largest business unit.

Prior to joining Johnson Controls, Mr. Kohler was employed for 10 years at Chrysler Corporation and DaimlerChrysler AG, first as senior counsel on the international legal staff of the Office of the General Counsel, and then in positions of increasing responsibility within the Treasurer's Office and the Finance Department.

Mr. Kohler's practice includes leadership roles in three of the Firm's practice groups: Transaction and Finance Practice, Global Automotive Industry Practice and Global Trade and Transactions Practice at Butzel Long.

Mr. Kohler has extensive transactional experience, including domestic and foreign acquisitions, divestitures and joint ventures; international distribution arrangements; supply arrangements; supplier and customer workouts; and intellectual property arrangements such as joint development agreements and technology licensing.

Automotive Experience

Mr. Kohler's automotive experience includes transaction of the types described above, as well as:

-- Analysis of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) regulations and the Transportation Recall Enhancement, Accountability, and Documentation (TREAD) Act;

-- Negotiation of warranty sharing arrangements between customers and suppliers;

-- Development of comprehensive legal and business strategies in preparation for possible customer bankruptcies;

-- Development of directed supplier arrangements that delineate customer, supplier and directed supplier responsibilities;

-- Development of strategic business and legal responses to supplier shut-down threats;

-- Creation of state-of-the-art global Intellectual Property Owners (IPO) terms and conditions;

-- Analyses of legal risks relating to program awards, particularly with respect to intellectual property ownership, directed supplier responsibilities, warranty allocations and information confidentiality; and

-- Management of product liability lawsuits.

International Experience

Mr. Kohler's international experience includes:

-- Acquisitions, divestitures and joint ventures in Europe, Asia and Latin America;

-- General responsibility for Chrysler Corporation's and Johnson Controls' legal affairs in Latin America, as well as Chrysler Corporation's legal affairs in the Middle East and Africa;

-- Establishment of Chrysler Corporation's worldwide network of distributors, dealers and sales representatives, including major arrangements in Brazil, Argentina, Germany, France, Italy, Belgium, The United Kingdom, Puerto Rico and Japan;

-- Advice and counsel regarding export controls, the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and anti-boycott laws;

-- Advice and counsel regarding overseas and U.S. customs matters, including issues relating to Brazilian, Argentine and Japanese import regimes, North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), U.S. customs audits and the local content regulations of various countries; and

-- Tax-driven reconfigurations of corporate entity organizations in Mexico, Taiwan, Egypt and Venezuela.

Mr. Kohler has written and spoken on a variety of topics, including: U.S. Export Controls; the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act; U.S. anti-boycott laws; international distribution of goods; arbitration vs. litigation; the TREAD Act; and law department management.

By appointment of the U.S. Secretary of Commerce, Mr. Kohler is a member of the Michigan District Export Council. He is a past board member of the professional editorial board of the International Lawyer, which is the quarterly publication of the American Bar Association's Section of International Law. He is a founding member of the International Law Section of the State Bar of Michigan, for which he also served as a council member and as chairperson of the Western European Law Committee.

He is a trustee of the Friends School in Detroit, clerk of the Birmingham Friends Meeting (Religious Society of Friends), and Vice Chair of the Michigan Planned Giving Committee of ORT, a global vocational and technical training organization.

Mr. Kohler graduated from the Honors College of the University of Michigan (A.B., 1983, with High Distinction and High Honors in Economics) and the University of Michigan Law School (J.D., 1986). He also earned an MBA from the Eli Broad College of Business of Michigan State University. He is a resident of Huntington Woods.

Butzel Long was established in 1854 and is headquartered in Detroit. Butzel Long is one of Michigan's oldest and largest law firms, with 215 attorneys and offices in Detroit, Bloomfield Hills, Lansing, Ann Arbor, and Holland, Mich., Washington, D.C. and Boca Raton, Fla., as well as Alliance offices in Beijing and Shanghai, China. The firm represents clients from diverse industries on a regional, national and multi-national level and is the sole Michigan member of Lex Mundi, a global association of 161 independent law firms. Visit the Butzel Long website at www.butzel.com.