June 2023:
The MLO Minute: “40th Anniversary Gratitude Continued: Our Exceptional Teams”
By Dennis McAndrews, Esq., Founder and Managing Partner Emeritus
In my previous 40th anniversary expressions of gratitude, I highlighted our executive team and partners together with our Scranton office. Over the years, I have found that the best management practice is to hire individuals—persons of integrity, judgment, compassion, and diligence–not just based on resumes, but rather finding persons who are committed to the important work we provide to families. In our practice, we don’t just handle “cases” –we represent clients – people who need our help, and our special education and estates and trust teams are exceptional in meeting these criteria. Please allow me to re-introduce them to you below, together with other staff who bridge both departments, by providing their photographs and links to their biographies. I do so with my heartfelt gratitude for their skills, compassion, and loyalty.
Our Special Education attorneys and staff have compelling backgrounds and are exceptional and caring people. These talented professionals serve our clients with well over a century of collective experience in working with children, families, and schools. They have gained the universal respect and admiration of educational professionals, judicial officers, and opposing attorneys in all their work. The skill, dedication, wisdom, and decency that they bring to their tasks every day is inspiring. They thoroughly know educational practices and its legal underpinnings. They are always mindful that the children and families we serve have real needs that if properly met can provide invaluable opportunities for children to obtain critical levels of independence and self-sufficiency.
With my genuine gratitude, here’s our Special Education Department team:
(From Top Left To Bottom Right: Heather Hulse, Caitlin McAndrews, Michael Connolly, Katie Ryan, Jennifer Grobe, Kimberly Caputo, Jacqueline Lembeck, Daniel Woody, Jan Hardy, Michele Ford, Roseann Paul, Amy Hagan, Elisabeth Bissell Parks, Elizabeth Bleacher. More: Courtney High and Amanda Avery.)
Our Estates and Trusts attorneys and staff are called upon to address many diverse needs of our clients in estate planning, estate administration, and guardianship matters. Their work often involves significant challenges in creating plans to identify and protect the unique needs of family members–spouses, children, disabled, elderly, or incapacitated. Our Estates and Trusts team also collectively possess well over a century in estate planning, trust development, orphans court litigation, tax planning, guardianship, and related matters. They carefully assess the often–esoteric legal issues of our clients relating to the transfer of all types of property to another generation or contemporaries, and develop appropriate legal mechanisms to protect the interests of spouses, children, grandchildren, and vulnerable individuals, often from potentially designing persons or from legal/financial missteps. Over the years, a great many of our estate planning clients have left final meetings with us audibly breathing a sigh of relief with words of thanks for creating and explaining their estate plans or estate administration processes in understandable terms, and with the skill and diligence necessary to put these clients’ minds at ease, knowing that their important personal affairs are now finally in order.
With my deep gratitude, here’s our Estates and Trusts Department team:
(From Top Left To Bottom Right: Lesley Mehalick, Jennifer Simons, Jessica Wilson, Jillian Zacks, Kelly Hayes, Lindsey Conan, Elaine Gilmore, Meredith Steinhagen, Kristina Caban, Valerie Kelly, and Monika Hinterwaldner. More: James Graham.)
The work of our office could not function without our excellent staff who undertake our marketing, billing, IT issues, and client intake. Their work crosses the boundaries of each department in our firm. When I first started practicing law, I had no staff to assist me because I was a “Lone Ranger”, and each of these tasks was done by me alone.
As a result, I have a real understanding and appreciation for the importance of this work, and I extend my sincere gratitude to them as I introduce them to you:
(From Left To Right: Ally McAndrews, Tiffany Baker, and April Butler.)
And finally, it’s with personal gratitude that I recognize my longtime friend and colleague, Joe McGettigan, who does magnificent work in representing students and faculty members in Title IX and college discipline matters. Joe and I first worked together as co-prosecutors of John DuPont, the wealthiest man ever convicted of murder in the United States. This prosecution against a huge team of defense lawyers seemed like the longest 18 months of my life, but it was only tolerable due to collegiality, friendship, and consummate skill that Joe brought to the prosecution effort. After the trial and sentencing, I returned to my practice of education law and estate work, while Joe moved forward with his incredible prosecutorial career which culminated in his successful prosecution of serial child predator Jerry Sandusky. Months later, Joe joined us to address the unique world of Title IX and college discipline matters, which he handles brilliantly with his combination of litigation skill, sound judgment, diligence, and compassion. His unique abilities allow him to represent a wide variety of individuals who find themselves involved in these novel legal processes.
