Listen Now

In this week’s episode of the Attorney Talk, Ken Thayer interviews Oscar Michelen. Oscar has been the senior trial specialist for the Corporation Councel’s Office for New York City, there he helped defend the city from high exposure, multi million dollar lawsuits. He is currently the managing partner of Cuomo, LLC, a Manhattan law firm. His practice represents small businesses and municipalities as well as artists, entertainers, and designers in intellectual property litigation. Main Questions Asked: What are some legal issues that small business owners could encounter? Is there a common problem most small businesses seem to run into? Why do you think people don’t want to talk to an attorney before they have a problem? What do you find to be the biggest hurdle for a lawyer trying to transition out of a big law firm? Key Lessons Learned: Small Business Clients Common reasons a small business owner may need legal help could be disputes involving the name of the business, sexual harassment cases, or hour and wage disputes. Most small businesses come to a law firm in a time of crisis. You need to manage their concerns and help them navigate the situation and avoid getting into the same issue again. Small business owners often need small services like forms and employee manuals created for them, things that are often overlooked at the creation of the business. A lack of planning at the beginning is the most common issue, many owners don’t realize what regulations they may need to work under when getting started. Ask your potential client what their business plan is, how is it structured, how many employees they’re going to have, how does their partnership work, etc. Doing a great job protecting your client’s interests can often lead to being referred and finding new clients. Lawyers and Publ

In this week’s episode of the Attorney Talk, Ken Thayer interviews Dr. Nancy Halpern. Dr. Halpern is a registered patent attorney that represents clients in intellectual property and veterinary pharmaceuticals. Nancy also represents animal owners, animal related businesses, veterinarians, animal research facilities, and non profit associations in the support of the interests in the humane use of animals. She is a licensed veterinarian in the state of New Jersey. She has also served as the Director of the Division of Animal Health for the New Jersey Department of Agriculture. During the show Nancy and Ken discuss animal law and the changes that animal rights activists are seeking, intellectual property, and the regulatory issues involving animal use in industry and agriculture. Main Questions Asked: Why did you complete law school as well as medical school? Why would the use of animals being eliminated be a concern? What does your law practice consist of? What does the humane use of animals entail? Who are the plaintiffs in some of these cases? Where do you see the future of animal law going? What do you think the biggest misconception about the legal field that people have is? Key Lessons Learned: Dr. Halpern’s Education Nancy saw a need within the State Department of Agriculture. She wanted to help draft regulations dealing with the care of large animals. Having an understanding of both the laws applying to animals and industry and the medical care of animals and given Nancy insight into both worlds. Animal Rights Activism Our inability to own and use animals would have considerable impact on many industries including food production and medicine. There is a movement to change the status of companion animals from ownership to guardianship.

In this week’s episode of Attorney Talk, Ken Thayer interviews Rob Schenk, who is a trial attorney that practices in Georgia, Tennessee, Florida, California, and New York. Since 2012, Rob has become one of America’s predominant wedding lawyers and is the editor of WeddingIndustryLaw.com. During the episode, Ken and Rob discuss what wedding lawyers do, liquated damages, how wedding law is different to business litigation, contract inclusions, WedForms, and dispute resolutions.   Main Questions Asked: What is a wedding lawyer? Is this a practice where you have to be a member of the bar in the particular state where your clients are located? Which states are more open to hybrid contract tort claims in wedding cases? Is there still a requirement that, if you are pleading out you suffered an emotional distress, it has to be backed up with medical evidence? Have vendors received pushback from clients? Are your adversaries attorneys who usually get involved with contract disputes after the alleged breach occurred? Talk about Web Forms. Do most of these contract disputes get litigated, or get resolved prior?   Key Lessons Learned: The Wedding Lawyer The wedding industry is a billion-dollar industry worldwide. Issues include venues being double-booked, photographers losing SD cards. A wedding lawyer represents the client or the vendor in lawsuits. The majority of Rob’s practice is defensive and on the preventative, which involves contracts. His clients include wedding professionals such as DJs and photographers.  Other lawyers represent the clients.  When it comes to the dispu

In this week’s episode of Attorney Talk, Ken Thayer interviews Debbi Klopman, who is a New York attorney that practices in the area of immigration law. Debbi handles migrant visas in employment and family-based categories; she also handles matters under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA). During the show, Ken and Debbi discuss immigration law, visa requirements, time restrictions, the two-step process, who makes the decisions, and what it’s like working as an immigration lawyer.   Main Questions Asked: What is immigration law? Why is there a visa requirement, and what is a visa? Why isn’t a passport considered enough documentation, and why is there a need to have a visa? What happens if someone is in the US and wants to stay permanently? What do you do to guide your clients through the visa process? Is there any litigation involved in immigration law, or is it more transactional? Who makes the final decision on what visas are approved or denied? How do you deal with the language barrier?   Key Lessons Learned: Immigration Law Immigrant visas are when people can stay permanently in the United States. This is known as the Green Card. Non-immigrant visas can be anything from an investor visa, students, tourists, H-1B workers (specialty visas that require a college degree). Deferred action is a promise from the government not to deport them for 2 years and they get work permission. The U visa is for victims and covers victims of a crime who are without status in the US, and does everything they can to bring the criminal to justice. ESTA is an online visa application for visa waiver countries, which al

In this week’s episode of Attorney Talk, Ken Thayer interviews Ari Marcus, who is the managing partner of the Marcus Zelman Law Firm. Ari’s practice is focused on individual and class action consumer protection litigation specifically involving the Fair Debt Collection Act and Telephone Consumer Protection Act classes. During the show, Ken and Ari discuss fee shifting, class actions, finding violations, and credit scores.   Main Questions Asked: What is consumer protection litigation? What is fee shifting? How would you describe your typical client? What are some of the rules that debt collectors have to follow? What are some of the penalties if debt collectors are in violation of not properly forming the notice? Are you finding violations on large scale that it comes up to the level of a class action? Talk about the Telephone Consumer Collections Act. What is the interplay between debt collectors and debt collection attorneys?   Key Lessons Learned: Consumer Protection Litigation & Fee Shifting Protect consumers against big businesses in federal court. Most of the work is fee shifting so the clients aren’t charged. Fee shifting is when an attorney keeps hours on the case and cost, but if the case is won or settled, the defendant will pay the fees. This doesn’t impact what the client gets at the end of the case.   The Typical Client Someone who is going through financial distress and has collection notices, letters or voicemails or foreclosures. A lot of clients come via credit repair companies, foreclosure defense attorne

In this week’s episode of Attorney Talk, Ken Thayer interviews Daniel Ritson, an attorney who practices in New York and New Jersey in the areas of employment law, council, and litigation. Daniel also handles employee benefits, executive compensation, and provides advice to employers on a myriad of employment-related matters including wage and hour compliance, family and medical leave policies and practices, independent contractor relationships and issues, the hiring and discharge of employees, and compliance with federal and state discrimination and retaliation laws. Daniel regularly practices before the federal courts with disputes against government agencies including the IRS, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the US Department of Labor and Fair Trading, and various other departments of state and labor. In this episode, Ken and Daniel discuss employee benefits and executive compensation, the Affordable Care Act, wages and hours issues, employer mistakes, employee benefits, preferred compensation, and retaining an attorney on a new employee contract.    Main Questions Asked: How does a lawyer fit into employee benefits and executive compensation? Is the tax element part of the practice? Is your legal representation for the employee or employer? What are the main issues or concerns when clients have to deal with employee benefits? Are there answers to the Affordable Care Act? Is the IRS being cooperative when questions come up with the Affordable Care Act? Is the heath care benefit the main sticking point when it comes to employee benefits? How do you interact with the other government agencies such as the Equal Opportunity Commission and Department of Labor? What are the wage and hours issues, and how is it audited? When do you get involved when the DOL announces an audit on an emp

In this week’s episode of Attorney Talk, Ken Thayer interviews Jesse Dresser, who is a lawyer at Frier Levitt and practices in the area of healthcare law. Jesse deals with co-payment collection practices, mail order issues, and insurance billing practices concerning the running of pharmacies. Jesse routinely lectures to pharmacies and provides guidance about proper submissions of claims to insurance companies and methods of growing a pharmacy business while avoiding scrutiny from both payers and regulators. During the show, Ken and Jesse discuss general healthcare law, proactive versus reactive, PBMs, compounding and specialty pharmacies, Obama Care, and the future state of pharmacy law.   Main Questions Asked: What is healthcare law, and how do attorneys fit in the spectrum of pharmacy businesses? Is yours more of a proactive position or after-the-fact where there are problems? What is a PBM? Are the PBMs gatekeepers for the insurance industry when it comes to pharmaceuticals? Where does your practice come in? What is the difference between compounding and specialty pharmacies? Does a PBM get involved in compounding and specialty pharmacies, or do they deal more with scheduled drugs? How do you get involved with compounding pharmacies? Where do the conflicts get resolved? Did your expectations of being a lawyer and reality meet up? What do attorneys in general healthcare law do? How has healthcare law changed in light of Obama Care? In the area of pharmaceuticals and the Affordable Care Act, is there more of a push toward preventative care? What is the future state of pharmacy law?   Key Lessons Learned:

In this week’s episode of Attorney Talk, Sam Gaylord interviews Justin Marchetta, who focuses his legal practices in aviation and governmental matters. During the show, Sam and Justin discuss getting into aviation law, aviation legal issues, the FAA, and litigation.         Main Questions Asked: Do governmental matters become more political depending on the changes? Is yours more of a transactional practice? Do you also handle aviation litigation?   Key Lessons Learned: Governmental Matters Justin’s firm does the traditional government representation. The firm is heavily involved in land use. Board approvals, governing bodies, advice to administrations.   Getting Into Aviation Law This is a personal passion for Justin, who began piloting before he went to law school. Justin approached AOPA regarding legal matters and representation. AOPA keeps a panel of qualified aviation attorneys who can field legal issues from the members. The practice grew from Justin not knowing whether there was such a thing as aviation law to being fully immersed in it and learning about it in CLE class. Through networking and casework, Justin started to meet charter operators and aircraft fleet managers and owners.   Aviation Legal Issues Common aviation legal issues include buying and selling airplanes, taxes, licensing, FAA dealings, and import/export transactions. Justin’s aviation legal practice is heavily transactional and advice-driven. Work includes structuring the holding company of the air company, tax implication, and what is the best business model to make the airplane give the most benefit for the least amount of cost.  Justin helps pilots understand the true costs long-term.   FAA Regulations The FAA is the ‘overlord’ of the aviation world. The regulations that govern aviation in the USA is Section 14 of the Code of Federal Regulations, and it is voluminous. A lot of the regulations, especially part 91 in the operating rules, came about due to a tragic disaster. The requirement that all aircraft have transponde

In this week’s episode of Attorney Talk, Ken Thayer interviews Colin Bell, who is a New Jersey attorney practicing in the areas of construction, civil litigation, and commercial law. Colin was an assistant prosecutor with the Atlantic County Prosecutor’s Office and has been recognized under the Greater Atlantic City ‘Top 40 Under 40,’ as well as the New Jersey Law Journal as a ‘New Leader of the Bar’ in 2015. Additionally, New Jersey Super Lawyers named Colin as a rising star in the field of business litigation from 2010-2015. During this episode, Ken and Colin discuss construction law, the bidding process, attorney involvement, defects, retainage, and bonds.     Main Questions Asked: What is your practice field in construction law?   What does bidding on a government project entail, and how do attorneys fit into that? Is the bidding process anonymous?  As an attorney, at what stage do you get involved with the bidding process? Once the bids are open, does that give everyone free reign to open bids? What is the end result your client is looking for? What work do you do from the contract aspect of construction? Do these all go into litigation, or can they be resolved pre-litigation? What does ‘prevailing wage’ mean? What is the statute of limitations on defects?   Key Lessons Learned: Construction Law Colin represents general contractors, as well as large subcontractors in the HVAC field on contract claims. This includes building schools, jails, and roadways.  At the end of a project, there are a lot of claims that go back-and-forth. Often, the firm will get involved at the bidding stage   Bidding for Contracts   Anytime you do a public works project where the government is the owner of the project. Examples include council, school district, county government, state college and community college. The above award contracts for construction on a bid basis. A request for bids that outlines the project is distributed. As long as you have answered all the important parts of the bid questionnaire the lowest bidder gets the job.  

In this week’s episode of Attorney Talk, Ken Thayer interviews Trippe Fried, who has been a practicing attorney since 1996 and represents businesses of all sizes in numerous industries including healthcare, technology, and financial services. Trippe’s practice, Outsource General Council, focuses on helping businesses assess and manage their risk and use of legal services in such a way they add value to the enterprise as opposed to losing profit and capital. During this episode, Ken and Trippe discuss legal intervention as the most efficient method possible, changes in the legal profession, transactional law and service bundling.   Main Questions Asked: What kind of reception are you getting from clients? Where does the non-lawyer mentality come from? Talk about service bundling. What is the biggest misconception the public has about lawyers?   Key Lessons Learned: Lawyers as Entrepreneurs Lawyers leverage the tools that the law provides, to protect businesses and let them thrive.   Solo Practitioners As a solo practitioner, you can put together a package of services for your client that meets all their needs without having to go to a big firm. Instead of outsourcing to a lawyer, the idea is to insource the lawyer into the business. The barriers to practice across states and disciplines are no longer there. As a solo practitioner, you can provide the services to the clients yourself, or for specialties, bring in other attorneys to work with your clients instead of sending the client away.   Reception of the New Model & Entrepreneurs Older entrepreneurs have been more reticent of the new model, whereas younger tech entrepreneurs have been very receptive.  The new mindset is that legal services are a value-added proposition. The more one spends on the bigger front end of legal, the bigger problems they have. Legal spend for entrepreneurs will increase over time, as the legal needs also increase over time. In the startup phase, an entrepreneur should have a fairly routine experience with a lawyer.   Changing the Legal Profession

In this week’s episode of Attorney Talk, Ken Thayer interviews Ryan Morrison, who is a practicing lawyer in New York and represents clients in the video game industry. During this episode, we discover what a video game lawyer does, the current state of the industry, issues in the gaming space and using standard vernacular, compare PC and mobile marketplaces, and hear about the legal concerns for gaming companies.   Main Questions Asked: What is a video game lawyer? What drew you to the video game industry? Who are most of your clients? What is the relationship like between developers and publishing houses? Why isn’t Apple getting into high-end gaming? At what stage do the clients come to you in the development of their games? Talk about taking a flat fee per transaction. What are the main legal concerns for a game company? Where is the line for using standard vernacular words such as ‘saga?’ Do negotiations have to work through Apple and Google?   Key Lessons Learned: Video Game Law Video games make more than movies, music, and TV combined. Video game law is essentially entertainment law, which is contracts, intellectual property, privacy, and internet law through the context of video games. A big hurdle is getting the video game industry to use lawyers and show them that attorneys can be an asset to the team. The attorney/client relationship is much more casual when it comes to the video game industry. Ryan’s law firm has adapted to the clients with regards to flat fees, client outreach, communication and services. The unique part of the video game industry is that so much doesn’t require a courtroom to cause major headaches and have legal weight behind it.   The Clients There are two types of clients: developers and publishers. In order to not conflict himself out of potential clients, Ryan tries to stick mostly with the developers as clients. 90% of Ryan’s clients who are game developers aren’t working with XBOX or Sony and have no desire to. Console gaming is actually turning into a niche field. From a client’s point of view, the future of gaming is PC-based and in mobi

In this week’s episode of Attorney Talk, Ken Thayer interviews Dominick Manco, who is a practicing attorney in Freehold, New Jersey. Dominick’s area of concentration is in residential and commercial real estate. He also does general practice, which can include anything from wills, trusts, and estates and personal injury work. During this episode, Ken and Dominick discuss commercial and residential real estate, using an attorney versus title companies, municipal practice, and how technology has changed real estate law.   Main Questions Asked: What is the difference between residential practice and commercial practice? Why is it important for individuals to seek legal representation if they are buying a house? What does it mean if there are ‘title issues’ on a property? If there are leans on a property, can the person who holds the debt force you out of the house and make you sell it? What are the pros and cons of attorney based negotiations and transactions versus title companies? Do attorneys charge a flat fee for most real estate transactions rather than an hourly rate? What is a timeframe for representation on residential? What does it mean to be a municipal or town attorney?

In this week’s episode of Attorney Talk, Ken Thayer interviews the Honorable Susan Sexton, who is a former prosecutor, defense attorney, and circuit court judge. Judge Sexton has tried and presided over thousands of cases including death penalty cases, medical malpractice, tobacco litigation, and end-of-life decision cases. During this episode, Ken and Judge Sexton discuss what it takes to become a judge, transitioning from the bar to the bench, what’s involved in having senior status, family court, criminal court, the mediation process, and advice for divorce cases.   Main Questions Asked: How does one become a judge, and what does it mean to become a judge? Once you become a judge, are you in the area you were practicing, or can you be thrown into different areas of the law? What was the biggest transition in coming from the bar and coming onto the bench? How long is the average stay for a new judge in the family court? When a judge is on senior status, do they put you where they need you, or do you have the luxury to pick and choose the courts you want to go into? How is the mediation process in divorce different than going before the judge? Talk about your upcoming 50 Shades of Divorce podcast.

In this week’s episode of Attorney Talk, Ken Thayer interviews Jeremy Byellin, who is an attorney that practices estate planning and family law in Minnesota. During the show, Ken and Jeremy discuss probate, wills for married couples, trusts, power of attorney, estate planning, and family law.   Main Questions Asked: How does family law tie in with estate planning? What is probate? Do you come across circumstances where a spouse didn’t know that the will existed and wasn’t happy with where the property is going? What happens if a person in a married couple passes and doesn’t have a will? What is a ‘trust’ and ‘power of attorney’? What happens to the ‘transfer on death deeds’ if a property still has a mortgage on it? What is the information documentation you need from clients to make the process smoother? Where do you direct your clients to go to regarding financial ramifications on these instruments?

In this week’s episode of Attorney Talk, Ken Thayer interviews Sam Gaylord, who is a senior partner of Gaylord Popp LLC and practices primarily in the area of workers compensation and disability. During the show, Ken and Sam discuss workers compensation and common client concerns, Social Security disability, and the different levels of pensions.   Main Questions Asked: If an individual is injured at work, what benefits are they entitled to? Talk about clients being concerned about retaliation from their employers. How do you handle situations where people need to claim but are afraid of their boss firing them? What happens in the circumstances when the temporary disability, medical treatment, and partial permanency award is not enough? Are there different levels of pensions? What are the main misconceptions about attorneys and the practice of law?   Key Lessons Learned:  

In this week’s episode of Attorney Talk, Ken Thayer interviews Debra Hamilton, who is an attorney in the state of New York and is a member and principal of The Hamilton Law and Mediation Group. Debra is licensed to practice in New York State and certified as a mediator and collaborative professional. She has worked with various court-based mediation programs in New York City and during the show discuss the role of the mediator, the mediation process, and mediation for people on conflict over an animal.     Main Questions Asked: What is mediation? How long is the mediation process? What is the final result in mediation? When mediations end, are both parties bound by a contract? If an agreement is rendered at the conclusion of mediation and one of the terms is broken, what is the recourse? Is the use of mediation confined to certain areas of the law or is it wide open for two parties or more with a dispute? How is your practice different from other practices when dealing with pet issues? Do you find that veterinarian malpractice cases end up coming to a settlement? How do you derive

In this week’s episode of Attorney Talk, Ken Thayer interviews Melissa Jaffe, who is an attorney in California and is also licensed in Oregon and Washington. Melissa predominantly practices in transactional and intellectual property law, which is geared toward creative individuals and businesses. Melissa has worked with international creative companies as well as startups and individual artists. Outside of the law, Melissa is a yoga instructor and practices meditation, which plays an important role in how she operates her law practice. During the show, Ken and Melissa discuss the concept and practice of holistic law, the role of technology, and how to approach dealing with creative clients.   Main Questions Asked: In what respect does online business allow for more creativity? How do you help a small business transition into the larger business they want to become? Why do you label it holistic law? How do you bridge the gap between creative people and the law? Where does the client’s trepidation come from with regards to contracting? How do your clients like the holistic approach? Talk about how yoga and meditation play into your practice of law. Why did you make the decision to go to law school?

In this week’s episode of Attorney Talk, Ken Thayer interviews Thomas Prol who is an attorney and partner with Laddey, Clark & Ryan in Sparta, New Jersey. Tom’s concentration in his legal work is in environmental law public entity representation, business litigation and government services. He is the vice president in the New Jersey Bar Association and president-elect.    Main Questions Asked: What is environmental law public entity representation? As an attorney, is it your job to make sure your clients are being compliant with the EPA rules?  Did you have a proper educational background in environmental sciences, or is this something you got into as you progressed through college and got into law school? How did you like your time as an adjunct? Talk about the New Jersey anti-bullying bill of rights that was drafted.   What is a state bar association, and what are some of the duties and responsibilities of the officers of that bar association?  What got you personally involved in the bar association to the point where you are now the president-elect?  Come next year when you take the mantle of the presidency, what are some of your issues that are going to be important and addressed by the association?  What is the biggest misconception non-lawyers have about lawyers and the legal profession in general?    Key Lessons Learned: A lot of attorneys get tripped up on wanting to sound smart, but the reality is that people want to know information in simple terms.   Clients are making major life decisions on the opinion or information provided by attorneys, so people want huge, complicated concepts broken down and simplified into core essentials.   Law students also learn a lot better when concepts are broken down into digestible information chunks.  Legal writing is unlike creative writing or any other writing, and is a way of presenting a coherent persuasive argument. A lot of college students have difficulty going from college into law school and learning how to write like a lawyer.   The state bar is a trade organization for attorneys that is also a voice of reason and council to legislative bodies on various laws. At the heart, it is about defending the constitution.  A lot of younger attorneys are becoming very adversarial, which is due to a co

In this week’s episode of Attorney Talk, Ken Thayer interviews Michele Raia, who is an attorney and practices in Cleveland, Ohio. Michele has been practicing for twenty-eight years and began her career in a small business law firm practice. She also has experience working as in-house council for large corporations and established her own law firm in 1995. Her practice areas include corporate and business services, labor and employment, real estate and wills, and probate. During the show, Ken and Michele discuss limited liability companies, labor employment law, exempt and non-exempt employees, and the biggest misconceptions about lawyers.   Main Questions Asked: What encompasses your practices in the areas of corporate and business law? Are there separate courts for workers compensation in Ohio? At what level does a business owner say “I need an attorney”? Is there any requirement as to the number of partners or employees you have for a limited liability company? How long is the process for setting up an LLC? How does labor and employment law come into play after the corporation is in place? Is the most important distinction between an employee and a contractor the tax ramifications? What is the difference between an exem

In this week’s episode of Attorney Talk, Ken Thayer interviews Brian Wilton, who is an attorney from Middletown, New Jersey. Brian’s area of expertise is personal injury law and workers compensation. During the podcast, Ken and Brian discuss the role of the law clerk, importance of contacts in law school, and what it’s like to run a law practice with a family member.   Main Questions Asked: Where did you go to law school, and why did you decide to become a lawyer? What do law clerks do? How did you obtain the law clerk position straight out of law school? How important do you believe making contacts are as opposed to getting A’s on exams? How was your firm set up, and how does your practice operate? Is there a certain area of cases you prefer handling over others? What is it about the cases you still remember 14 years later? How do you deal with extended time periods in cases? What is the dynamic of working with a relative? Does practicing law or running the business take up more time?