Leadership

Carl Lisman

President

Vermont Delegation

Carl H. Lisman has served continuously as a Uniform Law Commissioner from Vermont for more than four decades. Prior to his selection as President, he chaired the Executive Committee, the Committee on Scope and Program, and as Treasurer, Division Chair and chair or member of numerous ULC drafting committees.

Mr. Lisman received his A.B. from the University of Vermont and his J.D. from Harvard Law School. He is a Fellow of the American College of Real Estate Lawyers and a United States member of the Anglo-American Real Property Institute. He previously chaired the Board of Trustees of the University of Vermont and the Vermont Air Quality and Solid Waste Variance Board.

Dan Robbins

Chair, Executive Committee

California Delegation

Dan Robbins has served on numerous committees including drafting committees on the Division of Income for Tax Purposes, Choice of Courts Agreements Convention Implementation and Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets; study committees on Bad Faith Patent Demand Letters, anti-SLAPP and Right of Publicity and the Scope and Program, Executive and ULC History committees. He served as the Chair of Scope and Program from 2017 to 2019 and as ULC Secretary from 2015 to 2017.

Mr. Robbins serves as Senior Vice President and Associate General Counsel to the Motion Picture Association (MPA), where he is responsible for global competition and anti-corruption compliance, content security and legal technology issues. He also serves as the regional general counsel for Latin America and is deeply involved in MPA’s work in China. He also serves as general counsel to MovieLabs, an R&D joint venture of the major Hollywood studios.

Prior to MPA, Mr. Robbins worked at the firms of Graham & James and Pepper Hamilton, where he specialized in antitrust and intellectual property matters. He is a graduate of Vanderbilt University and the UCLA School of Law.

Bill Breetz

Vice President

Connecticut Delegation

Bill Breetz is a 1963 graduate of Dartmouth College. After two years active duty as an Army artillery officer, he graduated in 1968 from the University of Virginia Law School. Following a Reginald Heber Smith fellowship in Hartford, he taught for two years at the University of Connecticut Law School and then enjoyed a long and varied career in private practice. He later returned to UConn Law School to organize and manage a fee-for-service real estate clinical program until retirement in 2011. He chaired the Connecticut Law Revision for many years, and has served as President or board member of a variety of not-for-profit and governmental agencies in Connecticut and Vermont. He is a member of the American College of Real Estate Lawyers. Bill lives in Hartford with his spouse, Sheryl Breetz.

Bill was first appointed as one of four Reporters for the original Uniform Condominium Act in 1976; he subsequently served as the Reporter for the Uniform Planned Community Act and the Uniform Common Interest Ownership Act, including the several revisions to UCIOA. He was appointed to the Uniform Law Commission in 1991 and is a Life Member. He chaired the drafting committees for the Uniform Environmental Covenants Act and the Uniform Home Foreclosure Procedures Act, served as a Division Chair, and was a member of the Uniform Partition of Heirs Property Act and Uniform Manufactured Housing Act. He serves as co-chair of the Joint Editorial Board for the Uniform Real Property Act and now as Vice President of the Conference.

Marti Starkey

Secretary

Indiana Delegation

Martha T. Starkey, “Marti” is an equity partner at the law firm of Harrison & Moberly, LLP, in Carmel, Indiana, where she serves as the Chair of the Trust and Estate Practice Group. Marti has practiced law in the area of Wills, Trusts, Estates and Related Litigation for over 37 years, and during that time, she has faithfully served her clients with dignity, integrity, compassion and outstanding legal service.

In 1990, Marti was appointed by then Governor Evan Bayh to serve the State of Indiana on the Uniform Law commission (“ULC”). In 1993, Marti was named to serve as the Chair of Indiana’s ULC delegation. Marti also has served as a national Division Chair for two terms, on numerous ULC drafting committees, including the Uniform Trust Code, and as a member of the Joint Editorial Board for Uniform Trust & Estate Acts. Marti currently serves as a Trustee of the Uniform Law Foundation.

In addition to her law practice and her work with the ULC, Marti decided to start an entrepreneurial woman award, recognizing that many female business owners were doing heroic work and deserved to be honored. This year marks the 17th year of the Starkey Entrepreneurial Woman Award. This award is given each year to honor women business owners in the community, who show courage, tenacity and selflessness in starting and running their own business. Marti and her law firm also give Starkey Entrepreneurial Spirit Awards to individuals who exhibit courage, tenacity and selflessness in an endeavor.

Marti has received many awards throughout her years as a respected attorney, including being named the 2010 YWCA Woman of the Year in Law and a Distinguished Barrister in 2017; however, Marti would tell you that one of her greatest awards has been the response from people who have read her book, “The Blessing of Obedience.” The many people around the country, who have been profoundly encouraged by her writing, are a treasure to her.

Thomas J. Buiteweg

Treasurer

Michigan Delegation

Thomas J. Buiteweg is a partner in the Ann Arbor, MI office of the law firm of Hudson Cook, LLP. Mr. Buiteweg advises clients on motor vehicle and personal property financing and leasing and electronic financial services. He is also active in several rapidly evolving areas of the law affecting the delivery of financial services, including the regulation of virtual currency businesses, highly automated vehicles and smart contracts.

Mr. Buiteweg is an Adjunct Professor at the University of Michigan Law School where he teaches a course in sales and secured financing that focuses on dealer and consumer motor vehicle sales and financing. He speaks and writes frequently on financial services and vehicle-related topics, including electronic financial services, collections and repossessions, highly automated vehicles, the Uniform Commercial Code, and vehicle and personal property leasing.

Mr. Buiteweg currently serves as Chair of the Michigan Commission on Uniform State Laws and as the Treasurer and an Executive Committee Member of the ULC. He also chairs the ULC's Committee on Technology. His past ULC work has included the automated operation of vehicles, the regulation of virtual currency businesses, revisions to UCC Article 9 governing security interests in personal property, home foreclosure procedures, manufactured housing financing and motor vehicle titling.

Executive Committee

The Executive Committee is the ULC's governing board, and has the responsibility for implementing the policies adopted by the ULC at its meetings, and all the duties and powers prescribed by the Constitution and Bylaws.

Dan Robbins, Chair
Ryan Leonard
Jamie Pedersen
Paula Tackett
Carl Lisman, President
Bill Breetz, Vice President
Marti Starkey, Secretary
Thomas J. Buiteweg, Treasurer
Tim Berg, Chair, Scope and Program Committee
Steve Willborn, Interim Executive Director
Tim Schnabel, Executive Director
Steve Wilborn, Chair, Legislative Committee
Mark Glaser, Vice Chair, Legislative Committee
Anita Ramasastry, Immediate Past President