Author: JGL Law

Principal Jay Holland was recently quoted in The Hill magazine regarding the president’s travel ban. The article titled, “Agencies scramble to put travel ban in place,” discussed the challenges of implementing the ban, now that the supreme court has partially allowed it to take effect.

Nihad Awad, the national executive director for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, and Patricia Rojas-Ungár, vice president of public affairs for the U.S. Travel association were also quoted in the same article along with other professionals. 

To read the article in full visit (http://thehill.com/policy/national-security/339584-agencies-scramble-to-put-travel-ban-in-place) 

Principal Veronica Nannis wrote an article for the Daily Record’s Medical Law Report titled, “How the government targets medical necessity fraud.” The article covered common medical necessity fraud cases, how these cases can occur and how to prevent this from occurring. 

The article ran in the June edition of the Daily Record, and can be read by clicking below. 

Principal Jerry Miller sponsored a tournament team for Hope Connections’ event, Bowling For Hope. Hope connections is a nonprofit dedicated to providing free emotional support, wellness and educational programs to those fighting cancer and their loved ones. As a nonprofit, Hope Connections relies on fundraising events like this and generous donors to further their mission.

The event took place on Thursday at Bowlmor Lanes in Bethesda. 

He has been selected every year since 2013. Matthew M. Bryant is an attorney and senior counsel at Joseph Greenwald & Laake, PA, in Greenbelt, Maryland. Mr. Bryant has a general litigation practice and handles cases involving employment and labor law as well as estate and trust litigation. He represents clients in Greenbelt and throughout the District of Columbia metropolitan area.

Click below for more of Matthew.

Jason Sarfati was promoted to associate last week. The Washington Business Journal has recognized him in their “People on the Move” section. 

Principal Jerry Miller spoke at the Montgomery Count Council of PTA’s annual Spring Training event. The event included workshops geared towards different PTA roles and duties, like boardsmanship and child advocacy. Miller conducted a workshop for board members on their fiduciary obligations.

“A fiduciary,” Miller explained, “is a person who holds a position of confidence or trust, with or for another, such that the relationship creates a legal duty to act solely for the benefit of another.” 

Miller also reviewed the legal duties of board members, and how to satisfy those duties. He highlighted some common pitfalls,  and offered some best practices that board members could implement into their own schools.

The event was held this past Monday at Gaithersburg high school, and aimed to prepare PTA/PTSAs for success in the upcoming academic year.

Principal Timothy F. Maloney was a featured speaker at several educational sessions this past week at the Maryland State Bar Association’s Annual Meeting.

TRUMPING HOME RULE – IS THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY TAKING BACK HOME RULE PIECE BY PIECE?  Maloney examined the purpose of Home Rule for counties and municipalities in Maryland and discussed some recent examples of the narrowing of Home Rule by the General Assembly and the Courts through express preemption, conflict preemption, and implied preemption. 

SMALL FIRMS HANDLING CONSTITUTIONAL CLAIMS.  Maloney spoke alongside attorney Kathleen Cahill about constitutional torts, and its’ advantages and disadvantages. The session aimed to inform attending attorneys, as well as to open a debate on the topic.

LEGISLATIVE WRAP UP WITH TIM MALONEY. A classic, funny, and substantively compelling wrap up of current legislation and the impact on many practice areas. Everyone loved hearing Tim do his thing!

The annual meeting was held in Ocean City, MD and spanned the course of four days. The event also included a reception for new Maryland judges and several other educational sessions.

The United Health Services v. Escobar decision jolted False Claims litigation nationwide. Click below for Brian and other attorney’s opinions one year later 

He has been selected 10 years in a row. Only 5% of attorneys receive this honor each year. 

Walter Laake is a founding member of Joseph, Greenwald & Laake. A preeminent personal injury lawyer with more than four decades of experience, Walter has obtained millions of dollars in verdicts and settlements for injured clients. Among his recent victories, Walter obtained a $1-million recovery on behalf of a disabled father of four in a medical malpractice action, and a $4.5-million settlement with a DC hospital for the family of an infant who suffered brain injury due to a doctor’s negligence. Throughout his career, Walter’s work has established many important legal principles that protect the rights of injured people. For example, in the 1970s, Walter litigated the first case in Maryland that applied strict liability to a product liability case.

Click below for more on Walter. 

Only 5% of attorneys receive this designation each year. Steven has been selected 9 times. 

A principal in Joseph, Greenwald & Laake’s Civil Litigation Practice Group, Steve Pavsner has nearly four decades of experience in litigating a wide range of complex civil cases, including business litigation and professional negligence cases, such as medical, legal, architectural, accounting, engineering, and psychiatric malpractice. Steve is particularly passionate about his work in the area of legal malpractice. He believes the law is a noble profession, and takes it personally when attorneys betray their clients’ trust.

Click below for more on Steven.

 

 

The second-highest-ranking official of the Justice Department was a the subject of a Trump Tweet on Friday. Timothy Maloney was quoted on his potential next move. Click below for the full article. 

More and more frequently, lawyers for workers now say, employers are evading the legal requirement to pay overtime to their employees by choosing to pay them what they a salary instead of an hourly wage, and then telling the employees that they are not entitled to overtime because they have an “exempt” job title.

Brian J. Markovitz of Joseph, Greenwald & Laake in Greenbelt, Md. and his co-counsel in the case, R. Andrew Santillo of Winebrake & Santillo in Dresher, Pa., recently obtained judgements with Illinois-based Heartland Dental, LLC, on behalf of three plaintiffs – all of them workers who were improperly denied overtime pay by the company.

In June 2016, Markovitz and Santillo filed a civil lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland charging Heartland Dental with violating the law by denying overtime pay, which is normally “time-and-a-half” of their regular pay, to the salaried office managers that it hires to work in dental offices.

Heartland Dental is a company that provides office managers, marketing personnel, IT workers, and other support staff to dentists across the country. It works with more than 750 dental offices and pays the workers directly.

The lawsuit alleges that Heartland Dental violated federal overtime law by classifying so-called “S,” or salaried office managers in dental offices, as exempt from receiving overtime premium pay (or “time-and-a-half” pay) when they worked more than 40 hours in a week.

According to the complaint, the duties and level of supervision of the “S” office managers were precisely identical to those of other office managers who were being paid hourly and were receiving overtime pay. Accordingly, the lawsuit states, Heartland violated the federal Fair Labor Standards Act. The lawsuit seeks damages, penalties and litigation costs from Heartland Dental.

“We are very pleased that Heartland Dental chose to settle with three plaintiffs on satisfactory terms,” Markovitz said. “But there are many more office managers who were improperly denied overtime pay, and we hope they will come forward as well.”

The lawsuit was filed as a collective action on behalf of all people who worked as salaried office managers for Heartland Dental any time after June 16, 2013.