WEBSTER KAPLAN - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Partner
- Member of the Los Angeles County Bar Association
- Trustees
Amy is a partner at Webster Kaplan LLP and the Chair of the firm's Estates and Trusts Department. For over 25 years, Amy has represented individuals and families in the areas of estate planning, Probate and trust administration. In addition, Amy has extensive experience handling business transactional matters.
Amy works closely with her clients to design and implement estate plans that can be efficiently administered and are consistent with each client's values and objectives. Amy represents individuals and married couples with the preparation of various estate planning documents, from revocable trusts, advance health care directives and powers of attorney to more sophisticated wealth transfer methods such as, generation skipping trusts, irrevocable trusts, special needs trusts, grantor retained annuity trusts, and sales to intentionally defective grantor trusts.
Amy assists trustees of trusts in the administration of trusts and estates after the death or incapacity of the creator of the trust. Further, she has successfully probated estates in various courts throughout Southern California, including Los Angeles County, Orange County and Ventura County. Amy's clients consistently appreciate her patience and compassion.
Amy's extensive experience handling business transactional matters ranges from the formation of various entities, drafting contracts for these entities to dissolving the entities when necessary. This experience allows her to understand how the issues arising in business may affect the wealth transfer questions in her estate planning practice.
Amy is a member of the Los Angeles County Bar Association and the Beverly Hills Bar Association. She graduated from the University of Illinois College of Law and has attained an "AV" peer rating from Martindale Hubbell, the national directory of attorneys, indicating preeminent legal ability and the highest ethical standards.
Prior to joining Webster Kaplan LLP, Amy was a founder of Jacobs & Browning, Inc. and a shareholder of its predecessor entity, Glassman, Browning, Saltsman & Jacobs, Inc. a boutique law firm that was located in Beverly Hills from 1968 to 2016.
Andy is a partner at Webster Kaplan LLP and Chair of the Labor and Employment Law Practice Group. Andy works with employers in all phases of employer-employee relations. His practice includes union organizing efforts, collective bargaining, client counseling, and employment documentation. Andy litigates unlawful termination, discrimination, harassment, wage and hour (both class actions and individual claims) and other employment-related claims before federal and state, trial and appellate courts, as well as administrative agencies.
When not practicing law, Andy is a long distance bicyclist, having participated in three California AIDs Vaccine Rides, a 7-day, 570-mile bicycle ride from San Francisco to Los Angeles, to raise money for AIDS-related charities. He rode through subfreezing temperatures as part of the Alaska AIDS Vaccine Ride - six days, 510 miles from Fairbanks to Anchorage, and sloshed through five days of rain as he rode in the first ever European AIDS Vaccine Ride, a 7 day, 550-mile ride from Amsterdam to Paris. Overcoming a series of obstacles, including not learning to ride a bike until he was 21, not being able to drink water and ride his bike at the same time, a fall during a training ride which broke two ribs and punctured a lung, and a triple hernia repair, Andy has still raised over $50,000 for AIDS charities.
Michael, is the Managing Partner and one of the Founders of Webster Kaplan Sprunger in 2012, (Now known as Webster Kaplan LLP). He is the Chair of the firm's Family Law and Domestic Relations practice group.
Michael, who prides himself on being a creative problem solver, as well as a skilled litigator, is available for his clients on a 24/7 basis. He is a long-standing member of numerous local, state, federal and international associations, as well as professional organizations including but not limited to his induction into the Federation of Defense and Corporate Counsel (FDCC) in 1996 and his role as a member of the first Advisory Board, A Senior Fellow and a member of the Trial Law Institute and the Diversity Law Institute for the Litigation Counsel of America (Trial Lawyer Honorary Society) in 2006. He has lectured, conducted workshops, written on topics relevant to his practice areas and has been qualified and has testified as an expert witness in Family Law. In a quest to broaden and enhance his practice, Michael received a certificate in mediation training at the Straus Institute for Dispute Resolution at Pepperdine University School of Law in 2009.
Michael is "AV" Rated, the highest possible peer review rating for legal ability and ethical standards, under Martindale-Hubbell's Peer Review Process and since 2006 Michael has been continually named to the list of Southern California Super Lawyers by Los Angeles Magazine for his experience and expertise in Family Law. In 2015, Michael was admitted to the United States Supreme Court. Michael is a native of Los Angeles and has practiced in Southern California for over 45 years. With an extensive history of philanthropic activities, he divides his time amongst a host of community service organizations, education institutions, and charitable groups.
Michael received his J.D. degree from Loyola University School of Law in 1974, after attending graduate school and completing his training in the United States Air Force. He received two Bachelor degrees, cum laude, from California State University, Northridge, in 1970, one in political science and the other in European history. While earning his undergraduate degrees, Michael was a member and officer of the Phi Alpha Theta and Pi Sigma Alpha Honor Societies and was a candidate for a Woodrow Wilson Fellowship.
Prior to forming Webster Kaplan Sprunger, Michael was a shareholder and a member of the Executive Committee of Silver & Freedman, APLC, during the period 1998 until the firm ceased doing business in March of 2012 and prior to that, Michael was one of the founders of Frydrych & Webster, Inc. and practiced law with Jack A. Frydrych from 1980
Webster Kaplan LLP was founded in early 2012 by J. Michael Webster, Andrew Kaplan, and Richard Sprunger, all of whom had been partners in an earlier firm for over 14 years. Combining their litigation, family law, product liability, business, transactional, and labor and employment law expertise, the founding partners established a boutique law firm, principally serving as legal counsel for privately held companies, non-profit entities, and individuals. We are committed to success at all levels, focusing on growing strategically, maintaining our core values and culture, while providing our clients with superior legal services. Webster Kaplan LLP integrates the experience and expertise of attorneys from different disciplines to create multi-disciplinary solutions that meet the specific needs of our clients.
Webster Kaplan LLP lawyers have the highest level of academic and professional achievement and experience. With ten attorneys working in two Los Angeles area offices, we provide our clients with a viable option to the mega-law firms and law corporations that approach a legal engagement as just another opportunity to increase their bottom line.
Job Titles:
- Partner
- Member of the Los Angeles County
Michelle is a partner at Webster Kaplan LLP and a member of the firm's Labor and Employment Law Practice Group. Michelle represents employers in class-action and individual lawsuits in all areas of employment law including sexual harassment, wrongful termination, discrimination, breach of employment contract, unlawful business practices, non-solicitation, trade secret misappropriation, and wage and hour claims. Michelle litigates in federal and state courts, as well as before administrative agencies including the Department of Fair Employment and Housing (DFEH), the Equal Opportunity Employment Commission (EEOC), Department of Labor Standards Enforcement (DLSE) and the Workers' Compensation Appeals Board (WCAB).
To protect employer-clients from lawsuits, Michelle provides day-to-day counseling and conducts training classes on various topics including effective hiring and training, leaves of absence, disabilities in the workplace, disciplining and terminating employees, and maintaining a work environment free of harassment, discrimination, and violence. Michelle strategizes with employers and tailors their policies to fit their business needs while ensuring compliance with changing laws. Additionally, she conducts workplace investigations into employee complaints and wrongdoing and trains human resources personnel on how to conduct them.
Michelle received her J.D. from the University of California, Los Angeles School of Law in 2003, where she was the Chief Managing Editor of the Pacific Basin Law Journal. She received her B.A., with honors, in Political Science from Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles in 1999.
Michelle is a member of the Los Angeles County, Century City, and Philippine American Bar Associations. Michelle is an advocate for local business owners in the South Bay and, in doing so, she is an active member of local Chambers of Commerce. She is involved in local charities that benefit early childhood education as well as abused and neglected women and children.
Prior to joining Webster Kaplan LLP, Michelle was an associate with Silver & Freedman's Labor and Employment Law Department.
Monique Soudry Gorman is Senior Counsel at Webster Kaplan LLP with over 14 years of experience practicing in all aspects of family law. Monique's experience includes managing cases from inception to conclusion through depositions, mediations, custody evaluations, and court hearings.
The daughter of a long-time family law attorney, Monique knew her chosen career path from a very young age. Monique understands her clients are going through difficult times and is very sympathetic to their current situation. She strives to finish all cases amicably by helping guide her clients into making smart, informed decisions rather than emotional ones. Monique has a proven track record of fulfilling her client's needs and allowing them the best opportunity to move past this challenging time.
After being a founding partner of two law firms, Silver & Freedman, APLC, and Freedman Weisz, LLP, Neil happily reunited with several of his former partners and joined Webster Kaplan LLP in 2013. Neil is highly experienced in the practice of family law, having had over forty (40) years of experience in that field. He negotiates and drafts premarital and postnuptial agreements, cohabitation agreements, domestic partnership agreements, as well as handling all marital dissolution issues, divorce settlements, divorce trials and post-judgment matters. He also has experience litigating high conflict and/or complex financial issues, custody and support issues, breach of fiduciary duty and all other issues involved in a divorce. Neil works closely with his clients, which include high-profile individuals, entertainers, sports professionals, and others. He has been a member of Family Law Section of the Los Angeles County Bar Association for over 40 years and has served as a volunteer mediator of the Los Angeles Family Law Department.
Neil also has over 40 years of business litigation experience representing clients in both trials and at the appellate level. He has been actively involved in alternative dispute resolution, arbitration, and mediations, and has served as both a mediator and arbitrator. Neil has litigated business and commercial disputes by, between and among individuals, corporations and partnerships in matters involving contracts, business fraud, embezzlement, sales and acquisitions, guarantee and surety issues, leases, landlord and tenant disputes, and fraudulent conveyances. His clients range from national companies to individual professionals and business people. He has litigated matters on behalf of clients in retail sales, manufacturing, construction, food, medical services, healthcare, and in the professional service sector.
Neil has lectured in the field of business litigation and has conducted seminars on avoiding business litigation, as well as business dispute resolution. He is a member of the Los Angeles Trial Lawyers Association, the Los Angeles County Bar and Century City Bar Association. Neil has also been named to the list of Southern California Super Lawyers by Los Angeles Magazine and was named Litigator of the Year by the Century City Bar Association.
Neil was born in Los Angeles and received his J.D. from Loyola University School of Law, where he was a member of the Loyola Law Review. He received his B.A. in Political Science from the University of California, Los Angeles. Neil is rated "AV", the highest possible peer review rating for legal ability and ethical standards. He has practiced law in Century City for his entire career.
Neil has been happily married for over 44 years and has two children, a son-in-law, who also is a litigator and partner at a major California law firm, and two beautiful granddaughters.
Job Titles:
- Senior Legal Assistant / Paralegal