Miller Johnson Welcomes Three New Associates
Grand Rapids, MI – February 13, 2025 – Miller Johnson is pleased to welcome three new Associates in our Grand Rapids office: Elysia Avila-Reyes, Sydney Shaw and Akshita Verma. Elysia Avila-Reyes and Akshita Verma will join the firm’s litigation practice while Sydney Shaw is in the employment and labor practice.
Elysia Avila-Reyes will focus her practice on a broad range of complex commercial litigation, arbitration, class actions, and appeals for clients in the entertainment, insurance, manufacturing, financial, and transportation industries. While in law school, Elysia worked in the Michigan State Appellate Defender Office, where she was responsible for conducing legal research on the effects of Michigan Supreme Court decisions and working with incarcerated clients in the appeals process.
Elysia earned her Juris Doctor from Michigan State University College of Law in 2024, where she graduated magna cum laude. During her time there, she participated in MSU Law’s nationally ranked Moot Court program, competing at the John J. Gibbons Criminal Procedure Competition and the Hispanic National Bar Association Competition. She also was involved with the Geoffrey Fieger Trial Practice Institute, an intensive two-year certificate program focused on the intricacies of civil and criminal trials.
In 2019, Elysia received her Bachelor of Science in Criminal Justice from San José State University, cum laude.
Sydney Shaw will counsel employers on issues involving disabilities and accommodation, employee handbooks and personnel policies, employment discrimination, management and employee training, wage and hour, and workplace harassment. Sydney will also assist clients with issues related to collective bargaining, labor arbitration, unfair labor practice procedures, and more.
Sydney earned her J.D. from Notre Dame Law School in 2024. While in law school, she served as an editor for the Notre Dame Journal on Emerging Technologies and spent two semesters as a legal extern with Whirlpool Corporation in Benton Harbor, Michigan.
Sydney received her B.A. in Journalism and Political Science from the University of Iowa in 2019, graduating with high honors. While at Iowa, Sydney was a scholarship member of the women’s varsity soccer team for four years, was elected to Phi Beta Kappa, and was a Big Ten Distinguished Scholar.
Akshita Verma will counsel clients on a broad range of complex commercial litigation, arbitration, and appeals for clients in the insurance, manufacturing, financial, health, transportation, and construction industries. She also has experience with first amendment law, voting rights litigation, asylum applications, and holistic defense within the criminal justice system.
Akshita earned her J.D. from Wayne State University Law School in 2024, graduating cum laude. While in law school, Akshita was a research assistant specializing in freedom of religion and the constitution, a legal writer for an Immigration law firm and a policy writer and campaign manager of a U.S. congressional campaign.
She graduated from Michigan State University with her Post-Baccalaureate Degree in Medical Neuroscience in 2019. In 2016, Akshita earned her B.S. in Neuroscience and B.A. in Journalism from Michigan State University.
Miller Johnson is Michigan’s Law Firm providing legal counsel to businesses and individuals in corporate matters, employment and labor law, litigation, employee benefits, and private client representation including estate planning and family law. Since 1959, Miller Johnson has been Michigan-based and has served clients worldwide.
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