Best Lawyers in America for Alternative Dispute Resolution
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Ms. Londergan represents clients in all areas of family law. Her practice includes extensive experience in negotiating and litigating issues involving divorce, contested child custody, high net worth asset division, visitation rights, geographical restrictions, spousal and child support, prenuptial agreements, and modification and enforcement actions. She also handles matters of paternity, support, and custody of non-marital children. Ms. Londergan is a skilled and detail oriented negotiator ...
David Ackerman defends law firms in professional malpractice and legal ethics actions. A Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers, clients value his litigation experience and strategic insight in resolving disputes through trial and appeals, negotiation, or arbitration. Ranked by Chambers USA , where he is described as “an even-keeled, thoughtful and smart attorney,” he is repeatedly recognized by Florida Trend’s Legal Elite and included in The Best Lawyers in America...
Dale L. Kingman is a top attorney recognized by Best Lawyers in the practice area(s) of Insurance Law, Litigation - Construction, Litigation - Insurance and Mediation. Dale L., who practices law in Seattle, Washington, has been recognized since 2013. This recognition is based on an exhaustive peer-review survey, reflecting the high esteem in which Dale L. is held by other top lawyers in the same geographic and legal practice area.
Before joining the firm in 2013, Joel H. Brown was elected by his colleagues to serve as Chief Judge for the 11th Judicial Circuit of Florida in 2009. Joel was admitted to the Florida Bar in 1971 and had been practicing personal injury law as a civil trial lawyer prior to his appointment by former Governor Bob Martinez to the County Court in 1990. Following his appointment, Joel served as Associate Administrative Judge of the County Court, Criminal Traffic Division, and then served as Adminis...
Terence O’Toole is a Director of the Starn O’Toole Marcus & Fisher law firm. He manages the firm’s litigation department and has over 50 years of experience in the area of commercial and complex litigation. Mr. O'Toole has been recognized by The Best Lawyers in America ® , as a "Lawyer of the Year" in Honolulu in the practice areas of Bet-The-Company (2011, 2019, 2023) , Banking & Finance Litigation (2012, 2015, 2024) , Appellate Practice (2014, 2018, 2022, 2024)...
Jimmy Walter obtained his undergraduate degree from Washington and Lee University and his law degree from the University of Alabama. In law school, Jimmy was elected Editor-in-Chief of the Alabama Law Review, was a Hugo L. Black Scholar and graduated Order of the Coif. Upon graduation, he clerked for the Honorable Truman M. Hobbs, United States District Judge for the Middle District of Alabama. Jimmy has been listed in The Best Lawyers in America in the specialties of commercial litigation, s...
Serving as Office Managing Partner of Akerman’s Houston office, Scott Marrs is a formidable trial lawyer litigating high profile matters in state and federal courts as well as arbitrations in the United States, South America, the Middle East, and Europe. Scott focuses on legal issues in virtually all aspects of the energy sector, including oil and gas exploration, production, transportation, storage, power, chemical, petrochemical, energy marketing, and well service. He also litigates i...
Mark Franco is a seasoned litigator with more than 35 years of experience in state and federal courts, advocacy before government agencies, and alternative dispute resolution. He represents clients in a broad range of civil disputes and has specific expertise litigating in the fields of employment, municipal, construction, transportation, maritime, civil rights, defamation/slander, commercial disputes, real property, professional malpractice, personal injury, premises liability, auto liabilit...
Family law attorney with litigation and appellate experience handling complex financial matters arising from divorce, including: asset and business valuation, pension and retirement issues, and alimony and spousal support; as well as experience with issues involving children such as custody, visitation, and child support. Also experienced in premarital issues such as negotiating and drafting premarital agreements as well as post divorce issues such as modification of support obligations or cu...
Harold Stephens is a litigation attorney in the firm's Huntsville office. He began his practice in 1980 as an Assistant United States Attorney in Birmingham. For more than twenty years, he has handled a variety of civil litigation, both at the trial and appellate level. In his litigation practice, Harold has defended numerous products liability claims involving forklifts, chainsaws, logging equipment, medical devices, computer software and hardware, punch presses, farm equipment, electrical d...
Stew Cogan is in his thirty-first year as a full-time arbitrator and mediator, following twenty years practicing primarily business, corporate, and real estate law. Stew has arbitrated more than 300 cases and mediated more than 3,500 cases. He is listed in The Best Lawyers in America in both the Mediation and Arbitration categories, and is Ranked Tier 1 in both categories in the Metropolitan Seattle area. He was named by Best Lawyers as the Arbitration Lawyer of the Year in Seattle in 2016, 2...
Abbey Kaplan is a seasoned trial lawyer known for taking on complex cases and crafting creative strategies for tackling the most complicated legal issues in commercial litigation and business tort cases. A Founding Member of Kluger Kaplan, Abbey has extensive experience handling partnership and corporate breakups, real estate development disputes including banking and broker controversies, professional liability disputes, corporate finance issues, contract disputes and intellectual property. ...
Our Methodology
Recognition by Best Lawyers is based entirely on peer review. Our methodology is designed to capture, as accurately as possible, the consensus opinion of leading lawyers about the professional abilities of their colleagues within the same geographical area and legal practice area.
The Process
Best Lawyers employs a sophisticated, conscientious, rational, and transparent survey process designed to elicit meaningful and substantive evaluations of the quality of legal services. Our belief has always been that the quality of a peer review survey is directly related to the quality of the voters.