Lane L. Vines

Bernard Kolodner is a partner in the Business and Finance Department and the Practice Leader of the Real Estate Group. He practices in the areas of development, design and construction, purchase and sale, leasing ( landlord and tenant representation), joint ventures and partnerships, financing, zoning, permitting, tax assessment appeals, and charitable exemptions. Bernie has extensive experience in developing shopping centers and other commercial developments, from acquisition through permitt...

For more than 40 years, Bernard Smalley, Sr. has devoted his legal career to advocating on behalf of victims of corporate or professional negligence. He has secured for his client’s scores of seven-figure recoveries through his combination of intellect, perceptiveness, and warmth. As a young man, Mr. Smalley cut hair in his father’s West Philadelphia barber shop, where he met William H. Hastie, the first African-American to become Chief Judge of a Federal Court of Appeals in the U...

Michael J. Heller is the chief executive officer of Cozen O'Connor. He serves on the firm's board of directors, management committee and heads the emerging business and venture capital practice. Michael approaches each situation with an entrepreneurial zeal, and his investing experience arms him with a unique ability to provide legal and business insight into a variety of complex corporate matters. He understands, first hand, the critical roles of modern executives. Michael is a recognized le...

Nadeem A. Bezar, a partner at Kline & Specter, is an accomplished and skilled attorney who has won scores of million-dollar-plus verdicts and settlements while also serving as an active member of the legal and educational communities. In roughly a one-year period alone, Bezar achieved more than $100 million in arbitration awards and settlements, mostly in matters involving sex trafficking and all concerning abuse of minors. In the most recent case, Bezar in February 2024 won an arbitratio...

Jill has a wide variety of experience in environmental and safety counseling and litigation. She has handled many Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) compliance and enforcement matters for clients across the country including matters involving fatalities and serious injuries, challenging Citations, advising on OSHA programs and procedures, and submitting comments on and challenging new OSHA standards. Jill’s environmental practice is equally varied and includes designin...

Andrew D. La Fiura is a principal and office litigation manager in the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, office of Jackson Lewis P.C. He has nearly 20 years of experience as an employment law litigator. Andrew represents clients involved in all types of employment actions in state and federal court and routinely handles administrative matters in front of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (“EEOC”) and the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission (“PHRC”). In addition...

Barbara Rittinger Rigo is a top attorney recognized by Best Lawyers in the practice area(s) of Employment Law - Management and Litigation - Labor and Employment. Barbara Rittinger, who practices law in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, has been recognized since 2018. This recognition is based on an exhaustive peer-review survey, reflecting the high esteem in which Barbara Rittinger is held by other top lawyers in the same geographic and legal practice area.

Robert A. Silverman joined the firm’s Philadelphia office in March 2009 as a member in the Business Law Department. For the period from September 1981 through his arrival at Cozen O'Connor he practiced in the Real Estate Department of another major Philadelphia law firm, where he was a partner since 1989. A member in the Real Estate Practice Group, Robert represents developers, lenders and owners in a variety of sophisticated transactions, including the development of office buildings, ...

Jennifer W. Karpchuk represents companies and individuals in various matters related to state and local taxation, with an emphasis on the minimization of state and local tax obligations. She has extensive experience handling state and local tax matters, including those related to: corporate income taxes, franchise taxes, gross receipts taxes, excise taxes, personal income taxes, sales and use taxes, business privilege taxes, and real estate taxes. Jennifer serves in a number of leadership rol...

Ellen C. Brotman began her career as a law clerk in the United States District Court, Southern District of New York. She has served as an Assistant Federal Defender in Philadelphia, PA and practiced in small, medium and large firms with a focus on criminal defense, appellate advocacy, professional responsibility and ethics. She has defended a wide variety of high-profile criminal cases, including political and public corruption, securities fraud, tax fraud, money laundering, currency structur...