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Collective Efforts Effect Great Success
By Lisa Muscara
Things are not
always what they seem. Laura Johnson, Esq., Alison Goldenberg, Esq.,
David Tayman, Esq., and Gisele Booth, a committed team of colleagues
from Gordon, Feinblatt, Rothman, Hoffberger & Hollander, LLC, helped
earn the 2003 Law Firm of the Year Award from Maryland Volunteer
Lawyers Service (MVLS) for their perseverance and success with a case
which revealed itself to be much more than the simple bankruptcy they
originally set out to file.
Laura Johnson
accepted MVLS’s award on behalf of her firm and colleagues and talked
about this remarkable case. “We thought initially it would be a
straight bankruptcy case, based on what we were told by MVLS,” she
says. “Then, after some digging primarily done by Allison
(Goldenberg), we determined that it was much more than that.”
Johnson and her
colleagues discovered that their client was in fact a victim of
identity theft, and the perpetrator was her own daughter. “In 1998,
our client had given her daughter power of attorney to act as her
agent in the event that she should become incapacitated,” Johnson
recalls of what they learned about the situation. “The daughter’s
husband was also appointed as a substitute agent under that document,
and shortly after it was signed is when they actually started abusing
that power. They started using the power to open up all these credit
card accounts in our client’s name. In about a one-and-a-half-year
period, they racked up over $70,000 in debt on things such as trips,
cars, clothes, shopping sprees.”
Once they had
determined the extent of legal issues facing their client, the team
set to work to resolve the situation. Johnson explains that success in
this case was unquestionably the result of a powerful team effort. “I
handled the revocation of the power of attorney that gave the daughter
the right to act with respect to the client’s property,” says Johnson.
“I also handled the preparation of new powers of attorney and a will
for her. Alison Goldenberg, Esq., who is a member of Gordon Feinblatt
in the litigation department, handled creditor issues for the client,
and then David Tayman, who is an attorney in our bankruptcy
department, also handled creditor issues and kept them out of
bankruptcy. David also managed to renegotiate the mortgage on the
house, so that it’s on more favorable terms which the client can
afford, and kept the house out of foreclosure. A paralegal at the
firm, Gisele Booth, was also instrumental in working through all the
creditor issues, dealing with credit card companies and investigating
the fraud and that sort of thing.”
Far from being
deterred from additional pro bono work after facing the complexities
of this case, Johnson is inspired to become more involved in pro bono
efforts. “It was so refreshing and meant so much to see the client and
her son so appreciative about the help we gave them,” Johnson
explains. “She broke down in tears just when we said we thought we
might be able to help her. So it makes me realize the importance
of the service that MVLS provides, and I’m more apt to become more
involved in volunteer pro bono cases in the future because of my
experience with this and seeing what a difference it makes.”
This case
exemplifies the powerful impact pro bono legal services can render.
Johnson sums up her experience by noting, “It was a long road, but we
continued to work with the client to put her back on firm financial
footing, and have done a lot in that regard. She’s so much better off
now than she was before. It was beneficial both for the client and her
son and for all of us here.” |
