BRENNAN, MANNA & DIAMOND - Key Persons
Aaron joined BMD's Columbus office in 2022 where he focuses his practice on appellate law, construction law, litigation, business and corporate law.
Job Titles:
- Partner
- Partner and Co - Chair, Employment & Labor Law Group
Adam Fuller is a partner practicing in BMD's Employment/Labor Law, Litigation, Business & Corporate Law and Education groups. He serves as the Co-Chair of the Employment & Labor Group and as the Deputy General Counsel for the firm.
His areas of experience include consulting and defending private and public employers in all areas of employment and labor law, including workers' compensation, unemployment compensation, non-compete law, FMLA, ADA, Title VII, ADEA, WARN, NLRA and FLSA.
Prior to joining BMD, Adrian spent seven years practicing with a private law firm in Toledo, Ohio, with a focus on business transactions and tax.
Adrian has experience in general business and tax planning matters. He has focused his practice on general corporate law governance issues, asset and stock purchase agreements, commercial real estate purchases and sales, commercial lease negotiations, and commercial loan workouts.
Alex has a proven track record as a successful advocate and advisor for clients on a variety of commercial, business, construction, real estate, municipal, and litigation matters, and has handled litigation matters in state and federal court, before arbitration panels, and administrative agencies.
As a trusted advisor, Alex's clients call on him to provide fast, practical and valuable advice. He is licensed to practice in Ohio, Michigan and Pennsylvania, is an eleven-time recipient of the Ohio Super Lawyers' Rising Stars award (only 2.5 percent of the attorneys in Ohio are named to the Rising Stars list each year), and is included in the Best Lawyers in America/Ones to Watch List.
Alicia is an Attorney in our Jacksonville, Florida office. Her practice includes, but is not limited to, commercial litigation related to real estate and real property, banking, business, and various contractual disputes. Alicia also has experience in probate actions and creditor's rights, including Chapters 7, 11 and 13 bankruptcies. Alicia has been practicing since 2015 and has appeared in both Federal and State courts. She is experienced with and takes pleasure in working with small and local businesses in the Jacksonville, Florida community.
Amanda is an attorney in BMD's Akron office, working to develop her practice in the areas of corporate and business law, real estate law, and healthcare law. After 8 years of education and 3 degrees, Amanda has returned to Northeast Ohio near her hometown of Tallmadge to build her practice and assist others in their legal matters.
Job Titles:
- Vice President
- Marketing and Business Development Chair
Amanda Waesch serves as BMD's Marketing and Business Development Chair. She operates a national healthcare practice, focusing primarily on healthcare, employment law, corporate law, and healthcare litigation. Ms. Waesch advises all types of employers, in particular healthcare providers, including, hospitals and physicians, on various matters.
She also chairs the firm's litigation team that is primarily responsible for handling all reimbursement audits and appeals for her firm's healthcare clients and heads up BMD's Provider Relations, Audit, Appeals and Negotiations Unit (PRAAN) which handles all-payer audits, appeals, overpayments and payment extrapolations.
Ms. Waesch has been practicing law since 2008 and is licensed in Florida, Ohio and Tennessee.
Located in BMD's Orlando office, Amy focuses her practice in Real Estate Law, primarily serving lenders and developers throughout the State of Florida. She has extensive experience in residential and commercial real estate transactions, secured loan transactions, and lender representation.
Anthony (Tony) Manna is the Founder and Chairman of both M7 Holdings, LLC, a family investment office, and Signet, LLC, a global investment firm. Tony has created collaborative partnerships for Signet, which now owns over 25 companies (10 of which have been startups) in the manufacturing, technology and service areas; and has also developed over $5 billion in real estate projects (mainly in healthcare and institutional student housing).
Anthony (Tony) S. Manna epitomizes the entrepreneurial spirit of our Firm. As both a successful business lawyer and businessman, Tony and his team of lawyers are able to appreciate client concerns from a business perspective and to devise a concrete plan to address those concerns within the applicable legal framework.
Located in BMD's Orlando office, Audrey focuses her practice in Real Estate Law, serving clients throughout the State of Florida. She has extensive experience in residential and commercial real estate transactions; secured loan transactions; lender representation; association creation and development; and landlord-tenant law. Her experience includes representing tenants and landlords in various foreclosure, evictions, and collection actions; managing all aspects of residential and commercial real estate closings; and more complex association matters. Audrey provides holistic assistance to her clients by providing clear advice, consistent communication, pragmatic solutions, and holistic evaluation of pending and possible issues.
Austin is a transactional attorney in BMD's Cleveland office. He assists clients with mergers & acquisitions, venture capital, real estate and general corporate matters.
Mrs. Ashley's practice focuses on real estate and transactional law.
During her 35+ years of practice in North Florida, Mrs. Ashley has focused on all aspects of commercial real estate and development and public law, including extensive representation of buyers, sellers, developers and lenders in complex acquisitions, dispositions, development, leasing and financing transactions.
Mr. Wu is an entrepreneurial minded attorney with extensive experience and expertise in the global manufacturing environment as both outside counsel and in-house executive with specialties in corporate, employment and international law. His expertise involves international business transactions, mergers and acquisitions, strategic alliances, corporate restructuring, corporate governance, stock and asset transactions, joint ventures, and venture capital transactions including IPOs of special purpose acquisition companies (SPACs), registration of securities with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and listing on the U.S. stock exchanges (NASDAQ). Mr. Wu has specific expertise in automotive, manufacturing with a focus in the developing green energy and electric vehicle industry. He has served as both outside corporate counsel and in house counsel with overall legal, compliance, and risk-management responsibilities. Supplementing his corporate expertise, Mr. Wu has also served as the top HR executive with experience and responsibilities for all facets of HR, employee relations (union and non-union), compensation, benefits, and Health & Safety in China, Europe and North America.
Bill Yang is a member working in Michigan and affiliated to BMD Cleveland office. Mr. Yang has extensive experience in advising international investment and international trade. He used to work as Trade Analyst at Italian Trade Commission (now ITA) - Italian government agency (2008), Foreign Investment and Foreign Affairs Advisor at Commission of Commerce, Tianjin China (2002-2007), and as Ocean Shipping Specialist at Mediterranean Shipping Company- MSC (2001). He has assisted over one hundred investors from the U.S., Japan, Korea and European countries invest in China mainland and Hong Kong.
With over 25 years of legal experience, Blake's practice focuses on commercial real estate, land use, construction law and business and corporate law, including development, zoning, construction documents, mechanics' lien law, commercial leasing, purchase and sale transactions, finance and loan documentation. He also advises small and medium-sized businesses on a multitude of issues, such as mergers and acquisitions, business formations, regulatory compliance, employment and non-competition issues, corporate and limited liability company governance, asset protection and litigation.
Brandon is a Member in the firm's Columbus office and counsels businesses, individuals, professional associations, and healthcare providers in areas involving business agreements, ownership disputes, cybersecurity, zoning and real estate transactions. Prior to becoming a lawyer, Brandon worked in corporate real estate finance for a Fortune 500 corporation based in Columbus, Ohio. Brandon strives to counsel clients with practical and sensible advice.
As a member of the International Association of Privacy Professionals (IAPP), Brandon has counseled multiple entities in response to cyber-attacks and assists clients in developing user-friendly cybersecurity compliance programs and auditing existing programs to proactively work with clients in improving policies, processes and training.
Brandon has been recognized by Ohio Super Lawyers as a 2019 and 2020 Rising Star. Rising Stars are selected by their peers as the top up-and-coming attorneys who are under 40 or who have been practicing for 10 years or less. Only 2.5 percent of the attorneys in Ohio are named to the Rising Stars list each year.
Brianna Sweeney is an attorney in BMD's Columbus office where she works diligently on commercial, business, and litigation matters. She draws on her various clerking experiences to develop effective solutions and reach desired goals.
Job Titles:
- Partner
- Partner and Co - Chair, Employment & Labor Law Group
Bryan Meek is a Partner in BMD's Health Law Department and Labor & Employment Department. Bryan counsels a wide range of health industry clients on issues such as contract disputes, government and private payor appeals and disputes, including audits, administrative appeals, and negotiations, compliance plans, credentialing, certification, Board investigations and suspensions, and fraud and abuse disputes. For those matters which warrant formal litigation, Bryan assists clients with filing or otherwise defending complaints in court or before an arbitrator.
Bryan also hosts and produces a YouTube Podcast Program titled Employment Law After Hours, which boasts over 1.4K subscribers.
Cassandra focuses her practice on estate planning and wealth management, and works with family-run business leadership teams to grow and strengthen a company as it prepares to transition from one generation to the next. In addition, Cassandra has extensive experience helping these companies acquire or sell businesses, manage their corporate governance, form and organize an affiliated entity, and negotiate and draft commercial leases.
Cassandra is the Chair of BMD's Empowerment & Opportunity (DE&I) Committee.
Chad maintains an active intellectual property legal practice in his counsel capacity with BMD, concentrating specifically on identifying, protecting and enforcing clients' brands and intellectual property and handling their marketing and advertising concerns. Chad also counsels on trademark and brand selection and clearance strategies in the U.S. Trademark Office and manages domestic and international trademark portfolios in the role of outside IP counsel for clients. His practice spans across a wide array of consumer and industrial/manufacturing goods and services. In addition to his IP practice, Chad is general counsel and Chief Financial Officer for Metallic Resources, Inc., an innovator and manufacturer of the world's purest solder and soldering products.
Christian is a Litigation and Business & Corporate Law attorney in BMD's Jacksonville office, where he represents a wide variety of clients. Additionally, he focuses on complex areas of Construction Law. Christian provides clients with comprehensive guidance and consultation on a broad range of business decisions and further represents them in litigation proceedings.
Chris advises insurers on handling difficult claims submitted under management and professional liability policies, primarily D&O and Employment Practices claims. As evaluation and adjustment counsel, he helps resolve disputes across the country concerning insureds in various industries. He also litigates unavoidable insurance coverage disputes and aids oil and gas companies with lease protection in foreclosure and bankruptcy proceedings. Chris is highly motivated and prides himself on finding workable solutions to even the most complex issues.
Cody L. Westmoreland is a commercial trial lawyer who has prosecuted and defended a variety of matters in both federal and state court as well as arbitration. She is experienced with handling complex litigation.
Job Titles:
- Professionals Association
Job Titles:
- Partner and Co - Chair, Business and Tort Litigation Group
Dan is a trial attorney concentrating his practice in the areas of employment and civil rights, general business and commercial litigation, appellate advocacy, governmental liability and public law. Dan has tried cases to verdict in both state and federal court and has argued before the Supreme Court of Ohio, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals, and several of Ohio's intermediate appellate district courts. He regularly defends individual, collective, and class action claims brought against employers, educational institutions, state agencies, and municipalities.
Daphne L. Kackloudis is a Member of the firm, she heads BMD Columbus' health care practice, and she was the co-founder and initial chair of BMD's Empowerment and Opportunity (DE&I) Committee. Daphne's success - and that of her clients - is rooted in the nexus between traditional health care legal services and health care public policy. She has broad and deep experience in health care operations, service delivery, payment systems, and compliance, as well as Medicaid, public policy, and government affairs. Daphne advises health care trade associations and health care providers as outside counsel and in-house as a member of her clients' senior leadership teams.
Darren joined BMD in 2013 after working in the Jacksonville offices of a national business law firm. Darren's practice focuses primarily on commercial litigation and real estate law. He has experience in a variety of civil actions in both state and federal court, including contract disputes, construction litigation, complex class action defense, real property disputes, employment and labor litigation, creditor's rights actions, and eminent domain and condemnation matters.
David is a business lawyer with an engineering background with an analytical approach to problem solving. He practices primarily in the fields of intellectual property, business law and environmental law. He helps individuals and businesses obtain, protect, monetize, enforce and defend their intellectual property including, patents, trademarks, copyrights and confidential information - the lifeblood of his clients' business.
Working collaboratively with his clients, David helps protect their intellectual property - what they worked so hard to create and build - in a cost-effective manner.
Job Titles:
- Managing Partner / Vice President, Columbus
- Managing Partner of Our Columbus
David Scott is the Managing Partner of our Columbus office and co-Vice President of the firm.
He applies his skills as a litigator, arbitrator, mediator, and negotiator to resolve all manner of business, healthcare, real estate, construction, and employment conflicts.
David won Central Ohio's largest jury verdict in 2011, he is rated "AV® Preeminent™" by Martindale-Hubbell® (signifying "the highest level of professional excellence"), he is a member of the Million Dollar Advocates Forum, and he is a LEED® Accredited Professional. He represents numerous NYSE-listed global enterprises, for which he has developed proprietary litigation systems to accelerate workflow efficiencies.
Don is a successful commercial litigator with over 30 years of experience providing high quality representation to individuals and entities such as sole proprietorships, small and mid-size businesses, municipalities, counties, agencies, institutions and the State of Ohio. By valuing diversity in people, opinions, and experience, he has dedicated his career to be a legal counselor that continually learns by listening.
Don has extensive experience in complex litigation. He was local counsel for Summit County, Ohio, a bellwether in the nationwide Opioid multi-district litigation and was engaged in the origination of The One Ohio Recovery Foundation opioid settlement structure and design. He also represented the State of Ohio as Special Counsel for the Ohio Attorney General in securities litigation and pharmaceutical pricing litigation.
A flexible and creative trial attorney, Don represents clients in the following practice areas:
Business and Commercial Litigation
Securities Litigation
Trade Secret and Non-competition Litigation
Business Owner Dispute Litigation
Donna focuses her practice on business and corporate services, estate planning and employment law. She had previously practiced law in Ohio and is the former vice president, general counsel and secretary of a NYSE, Fortune 1000 international manufacturing company. Her practice includes advising clients on domestic and international corporate issues, mergers and acquisitions, securities law and corporate governance matters, antitrust issues, intellectual property matters, employment law issues, real estate matters, loans and other financing arrangements, and estate planning.
Ms. Dhinojwala focuses her practice in the areas of immigration, bankruptcy and creditors' rights. She has represented clients in federal and state courts and has experience in mediation and arbitration proceedings. She also represents corporations, colleges, universities, governmental entities, as well as individuals, in all aspects of the immigration process by preparing and guiding them in all steps related to filing a petition with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS).
Ed is an attorney in the firm's Litigation Practice Group. As a litigation attorney, Ed has advised clients through numerous complex commercial cases.
Elizabeth is a partner in the Firm's Litigation and Business practice groups. Her practice includes representing clients in a range of business litigation, corporate advocacy and commercial matters in both state and federal court, including contract disputes, employment matters and class action and multi-district litigation.
Gary W. Spring, Esq. has joined the Akron office of BMD in an "Of Counsel" role after 20+ years as an Attorney and Partner with Roetzel & Andress, specializing in Labor and Employment law. Throughout his extensive career, he has represented not only major corporations but small businesses, nonprofits, and agencies in a variety of employment and commercial law matters, such as contract negotiations, litigation and dispute mediation. He also has experience acting as corporate counsel to numerous businesses and nonprofits.
Halie is an attorney in BMD's Cleveland office and is a member of the firm's Estate, Tax & Wealth Planning Group. She focuses her practice on estate planning, elder law, and estate and trust administration. As an estate planning attorney, Halie helps individuals set up powers of attorney, wills, and trust agreements. Beyond estate planning, Halie also assists clients with Medicaid planning.
Job Titles:
- Defense Research Institute ( 2007 - 2009 ), Member
Job Titles:
- Trust V. Levengood, 2014 - Ohio - 2922, 2014 Ohio App. LEXIS 2858, 2014 WL 2980948 ( Ohio Ct. App., Knox County, 2014 )