William N. "Bill" La Forte

Erik Goergen is a litigator, based in Buffalo, who represents a diverse array of local, national and international clients in complex commercial disputes and product liability matters at both the trial and appellate levels. My focus My practice focuses on litigating disputes in a wide range of complex commercial litigation and product liability matters, representing international, national, and local clients in the aviation, healthcare, manufacturing, and commercial real estate industries. My...

Brian Kopp heads up Nixon Peabody’s Employee Benefits and Executive Compensation practice. He advises employers on the variety of legal issues that impact employee benefit plans and executive compensation programs. What do you focus on? My practice focuses on providing sophisticated, practical advice on issues affecting my clients’ retirement and welfare benefit plans and executive compensation programs. I have over 20 years of experience in helping publicly traded and privately h...

Daniel R. Santola Albany, New York Partner, since 1987 phone (518) 465-5995 (800) 540-8742 fax (518) 426-4012 email Email Me Daniel R. Santola is a senior partner and co-founder of Powers & Santola, LLP. His practice is limited to the representation of catastrophically injured individuals, the field of law in which he has over 25 years experience. After graduating from Albany Law School, he became an assistant professor at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. In 1987, he and longtime friend ...

Josh Steele serves as a representative for both private and public sector employers in Pittsford, New York, covering diverse employment law matters. His experience spans from tackling wage and hour class action lawsuits to managing litigation and administrative proceedings under pivotal regulations such as Title VII, the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, the Family and Medical Leave Act, and the New York Labor and Human Rights Law. Alongside his work i...

Taren Greenidge is a top attorney recognized by Best Lawyers in the practice area(s) of Litigation - Labor and Employment. Taren, who practices law in Rochester, New York, has been recognized since 2024. This recognition is based on an exhaustive peer-review survey, reflecting the high esteem in which Taren is held by other top lawyers in the same geographic and legal practice area.

Stephanie Seiffert blends her knowledge of trusts and estates law and experience with implementing investment strategies to develop sophisticated estate plans for individuals and their families as well as to provide fiduciary counsel to financial institutions. What do you focus on? My practice is focused on assisting families with the transmission and preservation of wealth for future generations as well as working with corporations and individuals to fulfill their fiduciary duties. Estate Pl...

Tenacious. Focused. Strategic. These are the core qualities upon which Steve Jones has built his employment litigation practice. Steve is a trusted advisor and experienced trial attorney representing employers of every size. Steve leads the firm’s Labor & Employment Class Action Team and is regularly called upon to defend “bet the company,” high-stakes litigation. His experience includes defense of over 50 class and collective actions under the Fair Labor Standards Act (...

Chris handles a broad range of administrative proceedings, medical malpractice cases, and commercial disputes on behalf of hospitals and other health care providers. He appears before the NYS Department of Health on behalf of clients, and has extensive trial and appellate experience before both federal and state courts. He also regularly counsels hospitals and other health care clients on risk management and regulatory compliance matters.

Christian Hancey is a partner in the firm’s Employee Benefits and Executive Compensation group. He focuses on designing, reviewing and implementing a wide range of benefit and compensation programs structured to suit businesses and nonprofit organizations. What do you focus on? I counsel employers on all types of traditional benefit plans, including defined benefit pension plans, 401(k) and 403(b) plans, multiemployer plans, medical benefit plans, cafeteria plans, disability plans and o...

Mike focuses on litigation involving high exposure and value civil cases involving toxic exposures, motor vehicle accidents, products liability, commercial disputes, labor law claims and construction accidents, premises liability, medical malpractice, and mass torts and industry-wide litigation. He represents Honeywell International, which named Harris Beach a Go-To Law Firm® for torts litigation in the In-House Law Departments at the Top 500 Companies as published by Corporate Counsel. M...