Namedropper 3-8-09

Robert M. Cook Sr.

  Yuma attorney Robert M. Cook Sr. has been ranked as the No. 1 legal firm in Yuma by Martindale Hubbell in its Bar Register of Preeminent Attorneys. His firm also was ranked No. 3,572 out of 195,030 law firms nationwide.

  A member of the Bar Register of Preeminent Attorneys since 1994, Cook served for several years on the Rules of Professional Conduct Committee of the State Bar of Arizona. He was appointed in 2001 to the Ethical Rule Rewrite Group and has been an ad hoc member of the Disciplinary Commission of the Supreme Court of Arizona.

  In addition, he was the 2006 recipient of the Arizona State University Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law Distinguished Achievement Award. Martindale Hubbell selected Cook as the original presenter on agricultural law matters on its Web site, Lawyers.com/Ask a lawyer.

  Cook was in the charter class of the ASU College of Law, graduating in 1970. He has been in private practice since 1980, from 1995 to 2002 in Yuma. He relocated to Phoenix, then in July 2008, he returned to Yuma and has an office at 219 W. 2nd St. His primary focus is on agriculture law, bankruptcies, and commercial and civil litigation.

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Angie Mitchell

  Angie Mitchell has joined the staff of 1st Bank Yuma as the manager of the bank's new Foothills branch now located in a temporary building at 11600 S. Fortuna Road. Construction is expected to start by the latter part of March on the permanent building at the same site.

  Mitchell brings more than 25 years of banking experience in the Midwest to the position. She grew up in Yuma and graduated from Yuma High School and Arizona Western College before moving to the Midwest, where she obtained a bachelor's degree in finance from Northwest Missouri State University and a master's of business administration degree from St. Mary University.

  "I'm happy to be rejoining my family in Yuma and looking forward to getting involved in the community," she said, adding that she is currently a member of the Leadership Yuma class and a member of the Foothills Rotary.

  She can be reached at 217-9950 or amitchell@ 1stbankyuma.com.

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Amanda Butz

  Amanda Butz, co-owner of Healthy Butz Fitness Club, has been named the spokesmodel for the supplement company Panthera Labs.

  She was featured in Oxygen Magazine's Fat Loss Issue in January and the April issue of Oxygen magazine and is on Panthera Lab's Web site at www.pantheralabs.com (click on "The Faction"). Butz also will be working in Panthera Lab's booth at the Arnold Classic, a huge professional bodybuilding show being held in Ohio.