Whether you need help growing a business, planning your estate or you just want to ensure you get a fair shake in court, this is the list for you — 346 of the valley’s top lawyers.
What makes them the top lawyers in their specialty? Professionalism, expertise, experience and a host of other factors. How did we determine who made the cut? This year, we turned to Avvo, a Seattle-based company that rates and profiles attorneys nationwide. Avvo’s proprietary algorithm rates all attorneys on a 10-point scale, factoring in peer endorsements as well as experience, education, training, speaking, publishing and awards. These dynamic ratings are continuously refreshed based on new information gleaned from attorneys, as well as from licensing and disciplinary authorities.
While the list in the pages that follow is wide-ranging and carefully researched, many good attorneys don’t appear on the list. This reference is best used as just one step in the careful journey toward finding the attorney who is right for you.
LAS VEGAS– James J. Pisanelli and Todd L. Bice, founding partners of the litigation firm Pisanelli Bice PLLC, were recently selected by their legal peers for inclusion in The Best Lawyers in America 2015, a prestigious nationwide peer-review publication. Managing Partner Debra L. Spinelli was also selected by her peers for the third consecutive year for inclusion in the publication.
For the first time, Best Lawyers listed Pisanelli in the category for bet-the-company litigation, a primary focus of the law firm. The publication also listed him in four additional legal categories, including: commercial litigation, construction law, litigation – construction, and litigation – real estate.
In addition, Best Lawyers listed Bice for the first time in the category for appellate practice, recognizing Bice’s successful practice in the appellate arena. The publication listed Bice in four more legal categories, including: commercial litigation, litigation – first amendment, litigation – land use and zoning, and litigation – mergers and acquisitions.
Bice was also named the Best Lawyers 2015 Land Use and Zoning “Lawyer of the Year” in Las Vegas. The publication recognizes a single lawyer as the “Lawyer of the Year” in each practice area and designated metropolitan area.
The law firm received additional recognition in the publication with Spinelli listed in the commercial litigation category.
LAS VEGAS – James J. Pisanelli and Todd L. Bice, founding partners of Pisanelli Bice PLLC, announced Michael R. Kalish has joined the firm as an associate attorney. Mr. Kalish primarily practices in complex commercial disputes, such as claims of breach of contract, fraud and misrepresentation, tortious interference and breach of fiduciary duties.
Prior to joining Pisanelli Bice, Mr. Kalish served as a judicial law clerk with the Eighth Judicial District Court of the State of Nevada. His experience also includes working as a legal intern at the University of San Diego Entrepreneurship Clinic and as a corporate counsel intern at One World Lab in San Diego, Calif.
A 2012 graduate of the University of San Diego School of Law, Mr. Kalish has received the CALI Excellence for the Future Award from The Center for Computer-Assisted Legal Instruction for international environmental law and for business planning.
Mr. Kalish received his undergraduate degree from the University of San Diego, graduating magna cum laude, in accounting in 2008.
North Las Vegas Councilman Wade Wagner won a legal judgment against the city Tuesday, collecting more than $70,000 in court-awarded legal fees to defray the cost of a three-year legal battle over his disputed 2011 election.
First-term Republican Wagner, who won his council seat by a single vote over incumbent Democrat Richard Cherchio, first took the city to court in June 2011, filing a lawsuit meant to block a planned special election aimed at settling Ward 4’s closely fought municipal race.
The city, faced with questions about a Ward 3 ballot mistakenly cast in Ward 4, had opted to hold a special election in lieu of recounting contested votes in Precinct 4306.
Wagner, who had already agreed to a recount, sued days later, arguing the city didn’t have the legal right to do anything more than canvass and recertify his narrow Election Day victory.
That lawsuit was upheld more than two years later by the Nevada Supreme Court, which found the councilman’s legal action “precluded the city from conducting an improper revote,” and saved city taxpayers the expense of holding a special election.
The December 2013 Supreme Court ruling reversed and remanded a District Court decision handed down by Judge Elizabeth Goff Gonzalez.
The Nevada Supreme Court should not permit a sore election loser such as Henderson’s Rick Workman to sandbag a duly elected official a year after the election, especially when he knew he could have brought a challenge earlier.
That’s the main thrust of a brief (posted below) filed by Henderson Mayor Andy Hafen’s attorney, Todd Bice, to a case in which Workman is seeking to remove Hafen from office, claiming he wasn’t eligible to be elected to his current term. The Nevada Supreme Court will consider the case, after Workman’s attorney, Stephanie Rice, has a chance to reply.
Rice is the lawyer who successfully argued the case of Lorton v. Jones, which held earlier this year that members of certain city councils — whether serving as a member of the council or serving as mayor — were limited to 12 years total, not up to 12 years as a council member and another 12 years as mayor. As a result, some term-limited members of Reno’s City Council were barred from running for mayor.
Workman later engaged Rice to challenge Hafen, who had reached his 12-year limit before running for and winning the Henderson mayoral primary last year. His action asks the Nevada Supreme Court to either allow him to challenge Hafen directly, in a proceeding known as quo warranto, or to force the attorney general to do so.
But Bice says Workman is out of luck, for several reasons.
