Kang Haggerty associate Tianna Kalogerakis was recently named to the Philadelphia Tribune’s annual “Philadelphia’s Most Influential African Americans” list. The Tribune, the nation’s oldest and greater Philadelphia’s largest newspaper serving the African-American community, honored this year’s recipients during a reception and awards program at the Pennsylvania Convention Center.

Kalogerakis was also featured in New Phila. Barristers’ President Stresses Legacy, Community Service, in ALM’s The Legal Intelligencer. In an extensive Q&A with reporter Max Mitchell, the newly-elected Barristers’ Association of Philadelphia president discusses the balancing act between heading the 1,000-member strong bar association and transitioning from judicial clerk to litigation boutique attorney at Kang Haggerty LLC.

In the September 2018 edition of the National Association of Minority and Women Owned Law Firms (“NAMWOLF”) Newsletter, Jacklyn Fetbroyt,  Member of Kang Haggerty, writes Firm FinCEN’s Customer Due Diligence Rule and Implementation.

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In 2016, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) issued its final rule on customer due diligence and beneficial ownership requirements (the “CDD Rule,” 31 CFR Parts 1010, 1020, 1023, et al.), promulgated under the Currency and Foreign Transactions Reporting Act of 1970, as amended by the USA PATRIOT Act of 2001 and other legislation, which legislative framework is commonly referred to as the ‘‘Bank Secrecy Act.” Notably, the Bank Secrecy Act lacks a requirement that financial institutions know the identity of the beneficial owners of their accounts – i.e., the individuals who control legal entity customers – which therefore allow a shield of anonymity for the beneficial owners. To address this perceived weakness and the limit the money laundering that it enabled, FinCEN issued the CDD Rule on May 11, 2016, and it became effective on July 11, 2016; however, covered financial institutions—including federally regulated banks, federally insured credit unions, mutual funds, brokers and dealers in securities, futures commission merchants, and introducing brokers in commodities—had until May 11, 2018, to come into full compliance with the CDD Rule. Continue reading ›

Philadelphia, PA (September 12, 2018): Kang Haggerty LLC is pleased to announce that attorney Tianna K. Kalogerakis was installed today as President of the Barristers’ Association of Philadelphia, Inc. The installation ceremony was held at Philadelphia City Hall and presided over by the President Judge of the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas.

TKK-Head-Shot-2018-e1525812187807-300x300“It is an honor to serve as President of this important organization,” said Ms. Kalogerakis. “This is a critical time to ensure that our members are not only properly represented in the legal community, but also to ensure that the Barristers’ Association is able to provide the resources, services and networks to our members and to the greater Philadelphia community. As a lawyer of color and a woman in the profession, I believe that the organization helps us be the best attorneys possible and amplifies our positive impact.”

Ms. Kalogerakis has been an active member of the Barristers’ Association since 2013, previously holding positions as President-Elect, Vice President of Administration, Chair of the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Annual Memorial Breakfast, Corresponding Secretary, and Young Lawyers’ Division Executive Committee Liaison.

In the September 6, 2018 edition of The Legal Intelligencer, Edward Kang, Managing Member of Kang Haggerty, and Tianna Kalogerakis, Associate of Kang Haggerty, co-authored “Borrowing Statute: NY’s Bar to the Unsuspecting, Out-of-State Investor.”

Despite the plaintiff-friendly pleading standards for securities fraud outlined by the Supreme Court in Merck & Co. v. Reynolds, 130 S. Ct. 1784 (2010), out-of-state investors need to be particularly vigilant in pursuing fraud-related common law claims in New York, being careful not to become blocked by the borrowing statute.

New York City is home to the world’s largest stock exchange, the New York Stock Exchange, and is host to financial service providers. This concentration of wealth and financial expertise has enticed many out-of-state investors to place their money in securities with New York-based financial institutions in the prospect of riches; however, coupled with the influx of these out-of-state investments is the potential for legal action by each dissatisfied or defrauded investor.  New York developed the “borrowing statute” to protect its residents and deter actions by nonresidents including out-of-state investors in securities and commodities. Despite the plaintiff-friendly pleading standards for securities fraud outlined by the Supreme Court in Merck & Co. v. Reynolds, 130 S. Ct. 1784 (2010), out-of-state investors need to be particularly vigilant in pursuing fraud-related common law claims in New York, being careful not to become blocked by the borrowing statute.

Kang Haggerty is proud to share that Jacklyn Fetbroyt will be presenting at the National Business Institute (NBI) seminar “Negotiating Business Contracts” on September 21, 2018. Jacklyn Fetbroyt will speak on the following topics and more:

Contract Risk Allocation Secrets: Safeguard Clients and Preserve Business Relationships

  1. How Key Risk-Shifting Provisions Interrelate

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Gregory H. Mathews

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Henry J. Donner

Kang Haggerty is pleased to announce that Gregory H. Mathews and Henry J. Donner have been selected for inclusion in The Best Lawyers in America© 2019.

While arbitration clauses are often a topic of concern in the consumer context, they can also be a major issue in sophisticated party transactions as well—the agreements where the arbitration clause is the least of everyone’s worries. In these transactions, whether they be in the employment context or otherwise, arbitration clauses are often treated as a throwaway for which a simple copy-and-paste will do. At that forward-looking time, arbitration seems like a sensible method of dispute resolution between two like-minded people, and it is given little emphasis. When the relationships break down later, as they often do, arbitration clauses become a major issue. Too often, one side wants to be in court while the other does not. They argue whether their dispute is subject to arbitration.

In the July 2018 edition of the American Bar Association’s Law Practice Today (LPT), Kang Haggerty managing member Edward T. Kang is featured in the Meet the Managing Partner column. LPT, a monthly publication of the ABA’s Law Practice Division, is distributed to nearly 500,000 lawyers and law students across the globe each month, including all members of the ABA. This month’s issue is devoted to the theme of diversity and inclusion. Learn more at www.lawpracticetoday.com.

In the June 21, 2018 edition of The Legal Intelligencer, Edward Kang, Managing Member of Kang Haggerty,  and Kandis Kovalsky, Associate of Kang Haggerty, co-authored “Self-Authentication of ESI Under Federal Rule of Evidence 902.”

In a recent annual Federal Bench Bar Conference in Philadelphia, a U.S. District Court judge warned of the perils of allowing clients to perform their own data and document collection.

In a recent annual Federal Bench Bar Conference in Philadelphia, a U.S. District Court judge warned of the perils of allowing clients to perform their own data and document collection. As the judge wisely pointed out, this can be problematic as the lawyers owe a duty to the court to represent truthfully and accurately. If, for example, a client performed the data collection without proper supervision, the lawyer could not accurately represent that all responsive documents have been collected and produced. The 2015 amendments to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 37 provide dire consequences for failing to preserve electronically stored information (ESI), including monetary sanctions, dismissal of a claim, judgment in favor of the prejudiced party, suppression of evidence and adverse inference instructions. The recent changes to Federal Rule of Evidence 902, which addresses self-authenticating evidence, and is routinely relied on by civil trial lawyers, raises additional concerns with clients performing their own data collection.

Self-authenticating evidence under Rule 902 is evidence that requires no extrinsic evidence to prove that it is what it purports to be. Common examples of self-authenticating evidence include newspapers, periodicals, signed and sealed public documents, and official publications. While the amendments to Rule 902 were created to address the unnecessary expense and inconvenience associated with having live testimony from multiple witnesses solely to authenticate electronic evidence, they also provide guidance on ESI collection and resolving authentication issues relating to ESI before trial.

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