Best Lawyers in Iowa, United States

Allison Abbott has been with Elverson Vasey since 1999 and has been a partner in the firm since 2006. Her areas of practice include civil defense, insurance litigation and defense, insurance subrogation, and family law. She is a member of the Iowa State Bar Association, Polk County Bar Association, Dallas County Bar Association, Iowa Defense Counsel Association and the Iowa Academy of Trial Lawyers. She is currently serving a term on the Dallas County Magistrate Nomination Commission. She ser...

Jeff has a business-focused practice specializing in the areas of corporate law, banking and financial services, commercial finance, real estate and land use law. He advises a wide array of clients in all phases of institutional lending, including loan structuring, negotiating and drafting credit transaction documentation. Additionally, he provides advice to a variety of business clients regarding general corporate transactions, including organizational, development, funding and start-up issu...

Ben has a business-focused practice specializing in the areas of banking and financial services, commercial finance, real estate and corporate law. He advises a wide array of clients in all phases of institutional lending, including loan structuring, negotiating and drafting credit transaction documentation. Additionally, he regularly advises commercial lenders and borrowers with regard to judicial and non-judicial foreclosure proceedings, UCC enforcement, bankruptcy, and has extensive experi...

Stacie maintains a diverse civil litigation and trial law practice. Her practice includes but is not limited to health law, professional liability and malpractice defense, professional licensing, employment law, products and premises liability, personal injury, insurance defense, insurance subrogation, and appeals. Stacie frequently represents clients in complex litigation, defends employers and individuals in employment related litigation, and provides employment related advice. A significan...

David advises clients, including small business owners and professionals, in a broad range of business and tax areas including corporate and business mergers and acquisitions, tax and employee benefits counsel and estate succession planning. This includes the preparation of wills, trusts and related documents. He also assists owners, professionals and executives in the formation and structure of their businesses including contract and compliance matters, and formation of corporations, limited...

Connie is a Fellow in the American College of Trial Lawyers and is currently serving as the President of the Iowa Academy of Trial Lawyers. In addition to healthcare litigation trials, she frequently appears before the Iowa Board of Medicine, the Iowa Department of Inspections and Appeals and the Office of Inspector General on issues related to licensing, EMTALA, HIPAA, Medicare/Medicaid Fraud and Abuse. She has also represented both facilities and professionals on issues of credentialing and...

Kevin is a Fellow in the American College of Trial Lawyers and a Fellow in the Iowa Academy of Trial Lawyers. Kevin has been listed in the Best Lawyers of America since 2008 and Chamber's USA: America's Leading Lawyers for Business since 2006. He was named "Des Moines Construction Lawyer of the Year" in 2015 and 2017 by Best Lawyers of America.Kevin maintains a trial practice in the area of professional negligence, in the defense of physicians, attorneys, architects and engineers, as well as ...

Cody leads Dickinson Law’s state and local tax practice and focuses on sales, use, and property tax controversy and litigation, multistate taxation , and general sales and use tax counseling. Cody has successfully represented before Departments of Revenue taxpayers of all sizes in industries including construction, manufacturing, health care, hospitality, technology, and agriculture. Mr. Edwards takes a creative approach to the practice of law, which includes utilizing the tools provide...

Todd was born in Storm Lake, Iowa and he has been a resident of the Des Moines area for approximately 40 years. Todd maintains his litigation practice in the areas of transportation, products liability, commercial, premises liability, legal malpractice and property rights. Todd has received defense verdicts in courtrooms throughout all parts of Iowa. Todd is recognized as a leader in Iowa in the defense of railroads and trucking companies. He is one of the only few railroad litigators whose o...

Brian is a trial lawyer born and raised in Iowa. Brian has dedicated his life to fighting for and giving voice to victims of medical malpractice, car crashes, defective products and other types of negligence or carelessness. Over the course of his career, Brian has recovered tens of millions of dollars for his clients through settlement and verdicts at trial. After obtaining his B.A. at Colorado College, a top tier liberal arts college in Colorado Springs, Colorado, Brian returned home to Iow...

Board-certified in both Business and Consumer Bankruptcy Law by the American Board of Certification, with practice devoted primarily to the representation of debtors, creditors, committees and trustees in bankruptcy and reorganization cases. Practice devoted primarily to Bankruptcy Law.

Howard Hagen practices primarily in banking law. For over 25 years he has counseled banks in virtually every Iowa county on such issues as regulation, acquisitions and various corporate and shareholder matters that have confronted banks in both good and troubled times. Howard also has served as counsel to the Community Bankers of Iowa for more than 20 years. He currently serves as a member of the American Bar Association Banking Law Committee. Earlier in his career, Howard served in the publi...

Jack is an elected member of the American College of Trial Lawyers. For more than 35 years his practice has focused on the defense of hundreds of civil cases in areas including: product liability, automobile liability, wrongful death, aircraft crash liability, defamation, premises liability, professional liability, drug and device liability, employment law, commercial liability and trustee and fiduciary liability. This exposure has resulted in more than 100 civil jury trials throughout the St...

Jill Jensen-Welch practices primarily in employment law and civil litigation. She serves clients ranging from small start-ups to large national companies in a wide variety of industries. Jill’s 16 years of human resources experience before law school informs her counseling of clients in contracts and restrictive covenants, policies and practices, employee relations matters, leaves, job analysis, pay structures, discipline, terminations, and training. In employment litigation, she handle...

Prior to returning to Iowa to join us in 2007, Rob was with the firm Wingert, Grebing, Brubaker & Goodwin, LLP in Las Vegas, Nevada and San Diego, California. He was a member of the University of San Diego Law Review. His primary practice area is professional negligence, including the defense of attorneys, architects and engineers. Rob is a member of the Lincoln Inn of Court and is listed in the Best Lawyers of America commencing in 2019.

Regular Speaker and Presenter for Continuing Legal Education on Estates, Trusts, Elder Law, Medicaid and Long Term Care Planning; Faculty for Iowa State Bar Association Bar Review Course On Probate, Estates and Trusts from 2000-Present Adjunct Professor Des Moines Area Community College Legal Assistant Program 1982-1984 Trust officer and bank counsel 1978-1980 Member, Iowa State Bar Association Section on: Probate

With over 20 years of experience, Darin Luneckas practices primarily in the areas of Workers' Compensation and Personal Injury law. When he takes on a case, Darin believes communication is key to helping his clients get the best results possible. "I have a unique approach, I want to make sure my client knows what's going on every step of the way." His past clients clearly appreciate his open demeanor. Darin and his staff care about their clients. They answer calls and emails in a timely manne...

Colleen MacRae practices with the firm's Business, Finance & Real Estate team. She represents both buyers and sellers in the negotiation and closing of mergers, asset purchases, and stock acquisitions. Colleen provides advice to businesses regarding formation, organization, restructuring, and contract negotiation. Colleen also regularly represents real estate developers, purchasers, and sellers in a variety of commercial real estate transactions. She assists landlords and tenants in lease...

Ron Mountsier is engaged in a general practice including but not limited to taxation, business law, corporate law, wills, trusts, estate planning and probate law. He advises clients on a wide range of taxation topics and represents many clients in tax audits, appeals and litigation, and collection matters. He also advises clients in general business and corporate law matters, as well as in estate planning and probate matters.

Sean started his career in private practice with the Bradshaw Law Firm in 1996. Prior to joining Bradshaw, he clerked for Justice David Harris of the Iowa Supreme Court. Sean has also served as an adjunct professor in Drake University's Undergraduate and MBA programs lecturing on business law. Sean’s practice focuses on consulting with insurers on all aspects of catastrophic property loss claims. He advises clients on first party and third party coverage issues. He also defends insureds...

R. Saffin Parrish-Sams is a trial lawyer, who solely represents plaintiffs (injured parties) in civil litigation. Her primary practice areas are in workers' compensation, wrongful death, workers compensation bad faith, and other personal injury litigation matters. Saffin has been working in civil litigation for over 20 years, and her clients benefit from her experience working with both plaintiffs and defendants. Early in her career Saffin worked for the very same insurance companies that she...

Clarifying complexities and approaching litigation from common ground. That’s Mollie Pawlosky’s foundation for building client relationships. “Clients don’t let their passions dictate their business decisions,” Mollie explains. “It’s my goal to ensure clients don’t let their passions dictate their decisions during litigation.” Through her commercial litigation practice, Mollie walks clients through complex litigation such as commercial for...

Amy’s practice includes corporate law, banking law, mergers and acquisitions, business formations, e-commerce, intellectual property law, and publishing law. Amy also assists clients with intellectual property, e-commerce law, and software licensing agreements. She serves as chair of the firm’s Mergers and Acquisitions Practice Group and currently serves on the firm’s Board of Directors. Amy earned her B.S. from the University of Minnesota in 1999 and her J.D. from Pepperdin...

Nicholas Pothitakis was born June 4, 1966, in Fort Madison, Iowa. He attended the Univesity of Iowa from 1984 through 1988, obtaining a degree in Finance and a degree in Economics with Honors and with High Distinciton. Mr. Pothitakis enrolled in the fall of 1988 at one of the top law schools in the country, the University of Texas School of Law in Austin, Texas. He received his Doctor of Jurisprudence in the summer of 1991. Since then, Mr. Pothitakis has practiced primarily in the areas of Io...

David practices primarily in the area of taxation. He provides a broad range of tax counsel to small businesses on topics including federal and state income tax planning, taxation of employee benefits, equity structure and mergers, and succession planning. He also counsels and advises clients with respect to the management of their wealth to minimize estate and inheritance taxes through the use of asset protection trusts, grantor trusts, powers of appointment, lifetime gifts, QTIP trusts and ...

Russell L. Samson practices primarily in the area of employment law, including traditional labor law, exclusively representing employers in the private sector. He advises clients in the areas of union representation, unfair labor practices, negotiating contracts and union grievances. He also counsels, advises and represents employers in personnel matters ranging from policy creation and documentation, restructuring of personnel to investigating, responding to and defending against claims of u...

Melissa Schilling represents public and private sector employers in labor and employment matters. In that role, she has successfully represented clients in state and federal cases involving a broad range of labor and employment laws, including Title VII, the American with Disabilities Act, and the Age Discrimination in Employment Act. Melissa also has extensive experience investigating and handling matters filed with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (“EEOC”) and related...

Bill Serangeli represents business clients, including real estate companies, banks and insurance companies, in commercial litigation and insurance defense matters. He currently serves as general counsel for various Boards of Realtors® and regularly lectures on legal topics to bar associations and trade organizations on professional compliance issues and ethics. Bill is also active in professional community organizations including the Iowa State Bar Association and the Polk County Bar Asso...

Bill Stiles advises clients in commercial real estate matters ranging from acquisition of income-producing properties to valuation cases involving the assessed value of real estate. His clientele in real estate has necessitated his representation in personal estate planning, wills and probate, as well as corporate, limited liability company and partnership entity issues and the attendant tax planning associated with these areas.

Dean was born in Madison, Wisconsin on March 5, 1964. Dean grew up in northern Wisconsin where he attended high school at Rhinelander High School, the Home of the Hodag. After completing college at the University of Wisconsin at Madison and attending law school at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa, Dean studied for, took, and passed the Iowa bar exam, moved to Washington, D.C., and then studied for, took and passed the Pennsylvania bar exam in Philadelphia. From 1989-1990 Mr. Stowers worke...

Jon was born in Sioux Falls, South Dakota in 1957. He attended the University of Iowa and graduated with a Bachelor of Business Administration degree in 1980. He earned his Juris Doctorate from Drake University in 1983 and was admitted to the Iowa State Bar that same year. Jon has received the highest possible rating in legal ability and ethical standards from Martindale-Hubbell, earning an AV Preeminent peer review rating. Jon is also included in Martindale-Hubbell’s Bar Register of Pr...

Mary Zambreno has extensive trial experience as a member of Dickinson's Litigation Group. Mary focuses her practice on serving clients who are either going through the emotional process of divorce or dealing with modifications to decrees after their marriages have already been dissolved. She is an experienced advocate for her clients, determined to reach the outcome that will best position them for a financially stable future. Mary handles complex custody and visitation issues, property divis...

With over seven years of experience, Regan is a Shareholder at Dickinson Law, practicing primarily as a family law and general civil litigation attorney. In her family law practice, she litigates actions concerning child custody and complex property disputes. In child custody actions, Regan’s approach is to zealously advocate for her client’s position while safeguarding the minor children involved. Regan also has experience in complex property disputes involving self-employment in...

Spencer joined Elverson Vasey in 2018 after earning her Juris Doctorate with Highest Distinction from the University of Iowa College of Law, graduating in the top 3% of her class. Her practice focuses on insurance defense and subrogation, coverage opinions, family law, and general civil litigation. Spencer was born and raised in Johnston, Iowa. In 2015, she graduated Summa Cum Laude from Drake University, where she also played on the women’s soccer team. During her time at the Universit...