DETROIT – Elias T. Xenos has been appointed to the position of administrative law judge with the U.S. Social Security Administration’s Office of Disability Adjudication and Review in Detroit.
As a federal judge, Judge Xenos holds hearings and issues decisions on appeals from initial determinations under Title II (Retirement, Survivors and Disability Insurance) and Title XVI (Supplemental Security Income) of the Social Security Act. The decisions he makes crucially affect the lives of claimants, some of whom are society’s most vulnerable and, in the aggregate, involve significant Social Security program dollars.
Judge Xenos is also an adjunct professor at Wayne State University, teaching courses in construction management law. Before his judicial appointment, he practiced law in Michigan for 13 years, representing clients in all stages of real estate transactions, civil litigation, business transactions, bankruptcy, corporate restructuring and immigration. He also represented claimants in proceedings before the U.S. Social Security Administration. After completing law school, Mr. Xenos served as an extern for 6th Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Richard Suhrheinrich and for Michigan Supreme Court Justice Clifford Taylor.
Judge Xenos is a founding member of the Ukrainian-American Chamber of Commerce of Southeast Michigan. He also helped organize the small business/non-profit law clinic at Michigan State University and served as a council member on the State Bar of Michigan Young Lawyers Executive Council.
Judge Xenos is a graduate of the Immaculate Conception Ukrainian Schools in Detroit and the School of Ukrainian Studies. After high school, he completed the Harvard University Ukrainian Summer Research Institute in 1996, and subsequently interned with the U.S.-Ukraine Foundation in Washington.
He graduated from the University of Michigan (magna cum laude) in 1998 with dual degrees in East European studies and political science, with distinction. He received his Master of Business Administration degree in 2002 and his law degree in 2003 from Michigan State University, where he was named a Dean Charles H. King Fellow.
Judge Xenos is a longtime member of the Ukrainian National Association and a former member of Plast Ukrainian Scouting Organization. Besides English, he is fluent in Ukrainian and Greek.
Judge Xenos and his wife, Julia, reside in Troy, Mich., with their daughters, Emelia and Ava. He is the son of retired Administrative Law Judge Oksana Xenos and Detroit-area businessman Theodore Xenos.