National Corporate Sponsors

National Life Insurance Company

www.nationallifegroup.com

The National Life Group is a dynamic family of financial service companies, unified in values and purpose but differentiated by specialty, structure and size. Affiliates and divisions within the National Life Group operate from locations throughout the United States and offer products and services to help a broad spectrum of individuals and businesses meet their financial goals.

The SBCA-NL Relationship

National Life’s commitment to small business in general and its small business customers in particular is demonstrated by National Life’s long-term support for SBCA. National Life not only contributes funds to SBCA as a corporate sponsor but also publishes SBCA’s quarterly ALERT. SBCA thanks National Life Group on behalf of its members.

 

Aflac Supplemental Insurance

www.aflac.com

AFLAC Incorporated is an international holding company. A Fortune 500 company, AFLAC insures more than 40 million people worldwide. It is the leading writer of supplemental insurance marketed at the worksite, offering policies to employees at more than 187,000 payroll accounts in the United States. AFLAC is the largest foreign insurer in Japan, insuring one out of four Japanese households. In January 2001, AFLAC was included in Fortune magazine’s list of “The 100 Best Companies to Work for in America” for the third consecutive year. In February 2001, Fortune magazine also named AFLAC as the fifth most admired company in the life and health insurance sector in its annual listing of “America’s Most Admired Companies.” Additionally, AFLAC is a component of the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index and has received an “A+ (Superior)” rating from A.M. Best.

Corporate and Contributing Sponsors

ProWealth One

www.prowealthone.com

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SBCA’s Primary Contact: Mitchell Rubin

Mitchell Rubin is CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ professional and ACCREDITED ESTATE PLANNER™, founder of ProWealthOne, an independent financial planning firm, with offices in New York, Houston and Palm Beach.

Mitchell has been an industry leader since 1997. He is quoted and consulted often by nationally-recognized media outlets such as Business Week, Smart and Best Life. He has written numerous published articles, had guest appearances on top financial radio programs, and taught Retirement Planning and Employee Benefits at Florida Gulf Coast University.

 

Brucker & Morra, APC
pensionlawyers.com

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Brucker & Morra, located in Los Angeles, is Southern California’s largest law firm practicing exclusively in Pension and Employee Benefits (ERISA—Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974). We serve businesses, business owners, non-profit organizations, attorneys, accountants, actuaries, pension administrators and consultants.

Brucker & Morra solves or prevents federal tax and fiduciary (ERISA) law problems related to employee pensions, executive compensation and welfare benefit plans, and has extensive experience with 401(k), ESOP, 403(b), and 409A plans, IRS and DOL tax and fiduciary controversies, QDROs, creditor protection, mergers, acquisitions, and business dissolutions and restructurings. Brucker & Morra’s attorneys serve as Expert Witness and Co-Counsel in ERISA litigation cases. 

Buffington & Aaron

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Buffington & Aaron is a boutique law firm with AV 5.0 Peer Review Rated partners specializing in employee benefits, tax and business law and estate planning.  Diane Aaron and George Buffington have been working together for over 25 years and take pride in their ability to find creative solutions to difficult problems.  As a firm, we are responsive, accessible, efficient and cost-effective.  Our expertise is enhanced by our relationships with other attorneys across the nation who are tax, employee benefits and business law specialists.

We advise clients on a wide range of business, tax, ERISA and estate planning matters, including business formation and succession, operations and acquisitions, tax-qualified retirement plans, executive compensation (including 409A compliance), equity and severance pay plans, and tax controversies.

Our clients are primarily small to medium sized businesses, including accountants, architects, attorneys, actuaries, third party administrators, banks, consultants, engineers, investment managers, physicians, real estate brokers and sales organizations.

 

 

Brust Retirement Consulting, LLC

www.cades.com

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We esteem teamwork over stardom and firm accomplishments over individual accolades. We endorse a collegial environment where everyone helps to deliver the best for our clients. There is an important symbiotic relationship between individual success and firm success.

With 95 years of dedicated legal service, Cades Schutte attorneys are some of the most sought after in the Pacific region for their dedication, tenacity and innovative perspective on the law.

We are a full-service law firm with over 70 attorneys, providing superior service in over 20 practice areas from our main office in Honolulu and offices in Kona, Waimea, Kahului, and Lihue. Since the founding of our firm in 1922, Cades attorneys have been called on to serve as counsel in some of the most notable cases and transactions in the State of Hawaii.

We offer a wide range of corporate and personal legal services with an emphasis on business counseling. We are proud to serve local, national, and international clients, and regularly handle estate planning, tax, and personal litigation matters.

Cades is organized into five departments—Corporate, Finance and Real Estate, Litigation, Tax, and Trusts and Estates—but departmental lines are fluid. Cades attorneys from different departments routinely collaborate on projects to benefit our clients.  This approach provides a full array of our firm’s expertise and experience.

Utilizing a ‘firm first’ mentality, we’ve adopted a democratic style of management in which the strategic direction and vision for the firm is developed by its partners, and headed up by its Management Committee.

Together, this Committee serves as the Firm’s key visionary, and is specifically charged with implementing the direction and mission of the stakeholders.

 

Neil Carrey,  Esq.

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Neil Carrey [B.S. in Economics from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and J.D. from Stanford Law School] is an Of Counsel member of the Tax Group of Baker & Hostetler, although he also specializes in ERISA and corporate matters. He is a Director of the Small Business Council of America and has taught the class on qualified retirement plans at the Paralegal School of the University of Southern California and lectured at the USC Dental School.

In addition to an active law practice, Mr. Carrey has devoted, and continues to devote, many hours to civic and charitable activities. He presently is a Recreation and Parks Commissioner for the City of Santa Monica, California, and is on the Board and is a past President of the Santa Monica Police Activities League; the President of several nonprofit organizations dealing with economically disadvantaged youth; a past President and on the Board of Padres Contra El Cancer and now serves in the position of President Emeritus, a Director or former Director of a number of nonprofit organizations, including , the Santa Monica Youth Athletic Foundation, the Santa Monica League of Women Voters; serves or has served on the Advisory Boards or acts as a volunteer consultant to a number of nonprofit organizations, including the Centennial Committee for the Santa Monica Pier, the Advisors Council for the Childrens Center for Cancer and Blood Diseases at Childrens Hospital Los Angeles, the California 33rd PTA District, the Santa Monica-Malibu Education Foundation, the Madison Theater of Santa Monica College and the University of Pennsylvania Women’s Sports Advisory Board. Mr. Carrey also Chairs the Parcel Tax Committee for the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District and over the years Chaired and served on many other advisory committees to the school district, including having been selected by the Superintendent to serve as one of four members of the select Financial Advisory Committee. In the past, Mr. Carrey also served as an officer of many additional nonprofit organizations, including serving for 8 years as the President of the University of Pennsylvania Alumni Organization of Southern California and the Santa Monica Little League and an officer of a Child Care Center. For 15 years, Mr. Carrey also coached a number of different youth athletic teams, including Little League, Bobby Sox Softball and American Youth Soccer teams.  Mr. Carrey is also a Member of the Country Music Foundation and Academy of Country Music.

Mr. Carrey has received a number of honors and awards from the University of Pennsylvania, the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District PTA and the school district itself, the Humanitarian of the Year Award from the Venice/Santa Monica Chapter of the League of United Latin American Citizens, the Henry Gilchrist Professionalism Award, the Connie Murdoch Award from the Small Business Council of America and a Special Humanitarian Award from the Small Business Council of America. He was also selected as one of the 103 most influential people in the Santa Monica/Venice and surrounding areas.

Danziger & Markoff Attorneys at Law

www.dmlawyers.com

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Danziger & Markhoff LLP is a business and tax-oriented law firm in White Plains, New York that has been representing clients in the New York metropolitan area for over fifty years.

The firm’s core areas of practice are pensions and employee benefits, ESOPs, trusts and estates and tax planning, corporate law, and healthcare and professional practices.  The services that the firm provides are interrelated, thus enabling the attorneys to provide sophisticated and creative solutions that extend beyond the issue at hand.

The firm works closely with accountants and financial advisors using a team approach to identify clients’ goals and produce practical and comprehensive business solutions.

Danziger & Markhoff LLP has been included in the U.S. News – Best Lawyers 2013 list of “Best Law Firms” in the country, with a Metropolitan “Tier 1” ranking in the area of Trusts and Estates Law.

Harris Markhoff, Esq.

Harris Markhoff, a founder of the firm, has a broad business and tax practice which includes counseling individuals, professional corporations, closely held and family-owned businesses on a wide range of corporate, tax and estate planning issues.   Harris has a close relationship with his clients, many of whom have worked with him for decades.

Harris is a graduate of Columbia College and Columbia Law School and is listed in Best Lawyers in America – Trusts and Estates and Corporate Categories, was named “Best Lawyer of the Year” 2013 in Trusts and Estates in White Plains, and has been listed in the Westchester Magazine list of top lawyers in the Trusts and Estates and Corporate categories.

He is a Past President of the White Plains Bar Association (1990), the Estate Planning Council of Westchester County, Inc. (1975-1976) and the Benjamin Cardozo Society – UJA Federation (1997-1999) and is a Past Chairman of the Sections on Taxation (1973-1974) and Trusts and Estates (1995-1996) for the Westchester County Bar Association, where he also served as a Director from 1989-1995. Harris was also a Director of the Estate Planning Council of New York City, Inc. (1989-1992) and a member of the Estate Planning Committee for the Trusts and Estate Section of the New York State Bar Association (1978-1979).

Harris is a member of the Board of Directors of the Westchester Holocaust Education Center as well as a member of the American Bar Association Sections on Taxation and Real Property, Probate and Trust Law.

Dyke Yaxley

www.dykeyaxley.com

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At Dyke Yaxley LLC, we are uniquely positioned to understand the opportunities, challenges and rising costs facing companies with international operations, as well as the complexity of planning and preparing taxes for individuals living and working abroad. With offices on both sides of the Atlantic, located in the UK and the US, our team of experienced professionals specialise in international tax planning and compliance.

We don’t just prepare your taxes. Instead, we begin our relationships with a strategic planning approach to put you in the best possible tax position for both the short and long term, while considering your specific situation holistically and offering practical solutions.

Whether you’re a UK or US expatriate, a dual citizen or owner of a small or midsize business, you can count on our commitment to providing an exceptional level of responsive and personal client service, pragmatic advice and a “no surprises” approach to fees.

Economic Group Pension Services, Inc.

Finestone Partners

FinestonePartners.com

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Finestone Partners is an independent Registered Investment Advisor and boutique financial advisory firm utilizing unconventional solutions for very successful individuals and companies. For almost three decades, business owners, professionals, entertainers, athletes and their families have come to us to design strategies for building, preserving and transferring wealth, estates and businesses. Our techniques for addressing the needs of our clients begins with the application of our Wealth Management Matrix® methodology, a comprehensive applied critical thinking approach to advising in all financial aspects of our clients’ lives. Attending to your financial life, so that you can successfully pursue your dreams and prosper is our passion.

Franz Ward Attorneys Logo

franzward.com

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Frantz Ward is a full-service law firm committed to providing clients with practical, responsive and cost-effective legal solutions. The firm serves a national client base, including Fortune 500 companies, small- and medium-sized businesses and individuals.

The firm’s attorneys and practices receive national recognition, including the highest bands in the prestigious Chambers USA: America’s Leading Lawyers for Business. Frantz Ward operates out of its contemporary office in downtown Cleveland and is home to nearly 70 attorneys.

Franz Ward’s primary contact with the SBCA is Matthew Kadish.

HW Premier Insurance Services

HWPremier.com

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HW Premier is a team of experienced insurance professionals offering a full range of financial planning and estate management. We provide a complete complimentary review of your current policies and evaluate your life insurance needs. We work towards solutions by providing expert guidance with a focused and detailed understanding of your financial position and ensure you obtain the best protection at the best rate.

Our knowledge and expertise allows us to strategically plan and design your individual solution. We help you protect your most valuable asset and give you peace of mind.

Kuperman, Orr & Albers, P.C.

www.koalaw.com

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Each of our attorneys has significant experience in one or more areas. We have a commitment to prompt, efficient and cost effective service.

These attributes have allowed us to have long-term relationships with clients ranging from Fortune 500 companies to small businesses and individuals. We also have relationships with other attorneys across the nation which allow us to associate them on our matters whenever necessary.

We offer the skill and experience of a large firm and the flexibility and fee sensitivity of a small firm.

Robinson Grimes CPA Firm in Georgia

http://www.robinsongrimes.com

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Robinson Grimes is the largest Certified Public Accounting firm in Columbus, Georgia and one of the largest CPA firms in the state of Georgia. The firm serves a wide variety of clients in the region, and has particular expertise in the areas of real estate, wholesale distribution, governmental, non-profit, construction, and health care. In 2017, Robinson Grimes celebrated the 85th anniversary of our founding. Our continued growth and success is the result of maintaining high standards of professional excellence and consistently delivering superior service to our clients.

Robinson Grimes is a full service accounting and consulting firm with an emphasis on personal attention and continuity in its relations with its clients. The firm is committed to the highest standards of technical competence, professional performance and ethical conduct. It is the firm’s goal to be large enough to offer our clients the widest range of professional service, yet small enough to maintain and nurture personal service. Our growth, continuity and financial success are a direct result of our ability to offer our clients superior services, provided by a uniquely integrated team who promotes the goals and objectives of the firm.

As an industry leader firm, we take an active role in our profession’s associations. Robinson Grimes is a member of both the SEC and Private Companies Practice Sections of the American Institute of CPAs. The firm is also a member of the Georgia Society of CPAs and American Institute of CPAs. Principals of the firm have served in leadership positions of these organizations on the local, state and national levels.

The philosophy of our business is to make our clients business a success by giving them the latest, most specialized and qualified services available anywhere in the world. To that end, we make available to our professional staff the expertise of thousands of other CPAs across the country and around the globe through our membership in CPAmerica International.

CPAmerica International is an exclusive international network of independent accounting firms who pool their resources to give clients the broadest base of service possible. We share our specialties and borrow from other CPAmerica International members to provide services wherever our clients do business. CPAmerica International’s membership includes 2,000 CPAs and extends from coast to coast in the United States and to more than 10,000 professionals in 85 countries around the world through its strategic alliance with Horwath International.

Robinson Grimes’ primary contact with the SBCA:

Charles D. Johnson, CPA, CGMA

Charlie Johnson is a partner of Robinson Grimes where he concentrates his practice in the areas of taxation, health care services, employee benefits, estate planning and accounting for individual and small business clients. His practice focuses on individual and small business tax planning including assistance with income, gift, estate and trust planning, and business succession issues.

Mr. Johnson graduated from Emory University where he earned his BS degree and Georgia State University where he earned his Master of Professional Accountancy degree.  He obtained his CPA certificate from the State of Georgia.  He is a member of the American Institute of CPAs (AICPA) and the Georgia Society of CPAs (GSCPA); Trustee, Treasurer and Past President of the Georgia Federal Tax Conference; Treasurer of the Small Business Council of America; and member of the Tax Section of the Georgia Society of CPAs. He is an active member of St. Paul United Methodist Church where he served as Treasurer or Chair of the Finance Committee for 19 years and currently serves on the Finance Committee and Administrative Council.  He also is a member, Director and Treasurer of the Rotary Club of Columbus.

Kushner & Company

www.kushnerco.com

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HR AND BENEFIT EXPERTS Our mission is straightforward: Optimizing organizational success through HR and benefit expertise. We achieve this on behalf of our clients in numerous ways, each approach tailored specifically to that client’s needs. By identifying the HR and benefit strategies that link to the client’s organizational goals and objectives, we elevate HR from a tactical to a strategic business leader. After all, for most every organization in any sector (for-profit, not-for-profit, and governmental) the key competitive advantage are having the right people in the right place doing the right things. In the benefits arena, we provide design and administrative services for both Health and Welfare (FSA/HRA/HSA, COBRA) and 401(k) and Retirement Plans.Our experience over more than three decades has helped our clients achieve organizational success by creating the right talent acquisition, talent management, and talent engagement strategies, and then putting them in place operationally and administratively.

Marana Group

McGovern Garry, LLC

www.mcgoverngarryllc.com

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McGovern Garry LLC offers a wide range of small business professional services, from tax planning to tax compliance / estate planning / consulting services / Financial statement audits, reviews and compilations. Your time is best devoted to your core business. Contact us for a free consultation on how we can assist you and your business.

 

Modrall Sperling

www.modrall.com

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Modrall Sperling is the counsel of choice for complex business, litigation and natural resources challenges anywhere in New Mexico. In many specialty areas of practice, we are retained to work on issues throughout the Southwest and across the nation.

To solve their key challenges, clients rely on our depth of experience of our legal teams, which are built across a wide range of practice areas. We offer well-developed legal niches involving schools, railroads, banks, mining, oil and gas development companies, Native American and public lands, energy and utilities companies, healthcare providers, and Native American law, among others.

Knowing our clients’ business – together with the regulatory and competitive environments in which they operate – enables us to spot developments that may affect them so that together we can take action.

Clients hire Modrall Sperling for our experience. They keep us for our counsel.

Ray, Quinney & Nebeker, PC

Retirement Plan Specialists

Shanley & Associates, P.A.

Starman Limited

The Rotgin Law Firm

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The Rotgin Law Firm is a boutique family owned law firm representing corporations, partnerships, limited liability companies and individuals.  Our cliental includes professionals such as healthcare providers and attorneys, as well as small businesses and their owners and key employees.  Our firm was established in 1970, and provides a range of legal services including trusts and estates, retirement and succession planning, estate administration, real estate, health care planning, health law, planning for individuals with special needs, establishing and servicing business entities, including corporations, partnerships and limited liability companies.

We are proud that our clients include multiple generations (both business and personal) which reflect the personal attention we give to each and every client, as well as our expertise and integrity.

We work closely with our clients’ other professional advisors, including their accountants, investment advisors and insurance advisors, and where appropriate, we will work with and/or refer matters to attorneys who practice in other jurisdictions and who concentrate their practices in specialties which are outside our areas of expertise.

The Rotgin Law Firm’s main contact with the SBCA:

Karen A. Rotgin

Karen A. Rotgin is a practicing attorney specializing in taxation, estate planning, estate administration, health care planning, planning for individuals with disabilities, qualified retirement plans, real estate, corporate law, health law, professional and business corporations, partnerships, limited liability companies and small business and professional practice representation.  

 

www.sirote.com

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From the firm’s founding in 1946, the people of Sirote & Permutt have approached the practice of law with a focus on uncompromising values: Integrity and trust. Selflessness, courage, and loyalty. Above all, excellence, passion, leadership, and commitment.

What sets Sirote apart is not just the experienced counsel we have provided throughout nearly 70 years of serving the community with distinction. It is also our unwavering belief in always being there for our clients, never satisfied until their goals are fully met, never sacrificing principles along the way.

The history of Sirote & Permutt began after World War II when Morris Sirote and Edward Friend, Jr. joined forces with James Permutt to establish a law office in Birmingham, AL. Karl Friedman soon joined the group, and together these men built one of the Southeast’s largest and most respected law firms across a range of practice areas.

Sirote has seen 88 of our attorneys recognized by The Best Lawyers in America, Chambers USA and Super Lawyers, among other accolades the firm has received. Eleven of our lawyers are current or former adjunct professors of law in Real Estate, Corporate/Securities, Tax, Estate Planning and Litigation.

Our professionals place a high priority on serving not only clients but also the communities in which we live and work. To that end, we established Sirote Supports, the firm’s charitable initiative that honors programs dedicated to health, education and the arts. The firm is also proud to be a consistent supporter and fundraising leader for the United Way of Central Alabama.

Sirote & Permutt is Alabama’s only member of the Law Firm Alliance, an international association of more than 50 law firms, which by membership gives the firm access to high quality legal professionals throughout the world.

The law firm of Sirote & Permutt proudly represents clients throughout the United States from our offices in Birmingham, Huntsville and Mobile, Alabama and Fort Lauderdale, Orlando and Pensacola, Florida.

 

Strategic Insurance Design Services, Inc.

 

West Feinberg

WestFeinberg.com

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West & Feinberg, P.C. provides legal services of the highest caliber to businesses, professional practices, individuals, estates and trusts.  We practice tax and business law, estate planning, and probate and estate administration.

In everything we do, we work with our clients to minimize their federal, state and local tax liabilities. Our attorneys have extensive education and experience in the practice of tax law and are admitted to practice before various state and federal tax courts.

Our attorneys also have experience teaching law and have spoken extensively at the national and local level to professional groups and trade associations.  In particular, they have taught courses at the Georgetown University Law Center and the Maryland Institute for Continuing Professional Education for Lawyers (MICPEL), and have lectured in front of the American Bar Association, the Maryland State Bar Association, CPA societies, medical and dental societies, major financial services and insurance companies, real estate industry groups and various not-for-profit associations.

Members of the firm are licensed to practice law in Maryland, the District of Columbia, Virginia and Florida.

 

Wickens Law

www.wickenslaw.com

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Our commitment to excellence has driven our growth and reputation over our initial 85 years of practice. With attorneys across two offices in northeast Ohio, many licensed to practice in Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Kentucky, and New York, we serve clients who expect and receive superior legal services.

The Firm, rich in history, tradition, and excellence, is the culmination of two law firms with strong and complementary practices.

The law firm that came to be Wickens, Herzer & Panza was founded, in 1932, by William G. Wickens. His son, William E. Wickens, joined the practice in the 1960’s. Arriving in 1970, David Herzer took the reins from William E. Wickens, who left to pursue a career in Washington D.C. In 1973, Richard Panza joined the Firm, thus creating Wickens, Herzer & Panza.

Similarly, the law firm of Cook & Batista was founded in 1938, when Dan K. Cook joined G.A. Resek in practice to form the law firm of Resek & Cook. Following the retirement of Mr. Resek, Daniel P. Batista joined Dan K. Cook’s practice in 1962 to form the law firm of Cook & Batista.

Wickens, Herzer & Panza and Cook & Batista merged to combine knowledge, experience, and expertise and to deliver unparalleled legal services to our clients.

On January 1, 2000, Wickens, Herzer & Panza merged with the law firm of Cook & Batista, and established Wickens, Herzer, Panza, Cook & Batista Co. On January 1, 2007, Wickens, Herzer, Panza, Cook & Batista Co. expanded the practice by establishing a second office in Sandusky, Ohio. These combinations of talent have increased the depth and breadth of the Firm’s reach in order to meet the needs of our clients. Wickens Herzer Panza is currently the largest law firm in the counties of Lorain and Erie.

Wickens Herzer Panza specializes in Corporations, Limited Liability Companies & Partnerships; Business Organizations & Tax, Family & Business Succession Planning; Employee Benefits & ERISA, including Pension, Profit Sharing, and 401(k); Commercial & Industrial Real Estate & Construction; Municipal & Public Law; all aspects of Civil Litigation, including Bankruptcy, Creditors’ Rights & Insolvency Litigation; Labor & Employment Relations; Personal Injury; Environmental; Securities; Workers’ Compensation, both Group Rating and Self-Insured; and Probate & Estate Planning.  The Firm has offices in Avon, Ohio, and Sandusky, Ohio.

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