KI LEGAL - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Associate
- Associate ( Pending Admission )
Karen is an associate (pending admission) at KI Legal in the Litigation Department.
She graduated from SUNY Cortland in May 2016 where she majored in Political Science and Spanish Studies and played collegiate volleyball. Prior to starting law school, Karen began her legal career working as a paralegal in a boutique firm specializing in Family and Immigration Law. During those three years, sh e assist ed in the litigation and resolution of complex divorces and custodial matters. Thereafter, she attended St. John's University School of Law where she helped spearhead the school's Multilingual Legal Advocates club and was a Teacher's Assistant for Civil Procedure.
Having completed her graduate law studies in May 2022, she is currently pending bar admissi on.
Kyriaki Christodoulou is an associate at KI Legal in the Corporate and Bankruptcy Department. Specifically, Kyriaki is a restructuring lawyer, representing debtors, secured and unsecured creditors, and parties in bankruptcy litigation. She has worked hand in hand with business owners and executives at home and abroad, to craft unique legal solutions to complex business problems.
Kyriaki earned her J.D. from Hofstra University School of Law during which she worked for the New Jersey Office of the Attorney General, Bureau of Securities, as well as various corporate-oriented firms. In addition, she is a member of the Hellenic Lawyers Association where she shares her passion for law and the pride of this Hellenic heritage with like-minded legal professionals.
Job Titles:
- Counsel
- Counsel to KI Legal 's Litigation
Mathew Paulose Jr. is counsel to KI Legal's Litigation and General Counsel Department. With more than 24 years of litigation and general counsel experience, he has handled more than 200 cases in the federal courts of New York and more than 100 cases in New York state courts. He has serviced more than 1000 clients (some who have been with him for more than a decade) and has conducted jury trials in Westchester County, New York County, Kings County, Queens County, and Nassau County. Additionally, he has tried jury cases in both SDNY and EDNY in which the cases have ranged from civil rights to contract rights, from personal injury to labor disputes, from consumer law to employment law.
Mathew is a graduate of New York University Law School, Fordham University Law School, and the State University of New York at Binghamton. He is admitted to the New York State bar, along with the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York. Mathew is AV rated by Martindale Hubbell, a 2020 Top Rated Lawyer by ALM Media, and a current Super Lawyer in both the Metro New York and Westchester County. Furthermore, he has been quoted in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Village Voice, Forbes, and has been published in the New York Law Journal, the New York State Bar, and several New York law school journals.
Job Titles:
- Co - Founder
- Co - Founder, Transactions Managing Partner
Michael Iakovou is the co-founder of KI Legal. With a valuable combination of legal and business experience, he understands the specific needs and challenges of the New York business owner. This allows him to provide clients with the quality advice and guidance they need to make effective decisions for growing and supporting their business investments. Michael has the knowledge and expertise to effectively represent companies in every aspect of their business lives, from real estate and labor-related issues to business formation and asset protection.
With vast commercial real estate and business transaction experience, Michael has represented sellers, purchasers, and landlords in numerous transactions, including those related to development sites, multi-family properties, commercial parcels, commercial leases, ground leases, cooperatives, condominiums and private residences through New York City and Long Island. His experience also includes substantial commercial lending representation, providing counsel to numerous national and local lenders.
Michael's extensive business and legal skills were refined throughout his experience as a business owner in various unrelated business ventures. First-hand experience as both an investor and in-house counsel has allowed Michael to acquire a keen sense of any business owners' concerns regarding asset protection, day-to-day operations, partnership issues, and all matters related to company expansion. Michael has handled such business-related matters as negotiation of commercial leases, investor terms, incorporation, by-laws and vendor negotiations, as well as the routine review of all marketing and day-to-day procedures of the company. This experience gave him the skills and knowledge to provide effective general counsel to a variety of businesses.
Recently, Michael has been selected by Thomson Reuters® as a New York Super Lawyer Rising Star, an honor reserved for those lawyers who exhibit excellence in practice and only 2.5% of attorneys in New York Metro receive this distinction. Additionally, and along with KI Legal co-founder Andreas Koutsoudakis, Michael was inaugurated into the Greek America Foundation's 40 under 40 class of 2022, due to his concurrent professional and philanthropic excellence. Furthermore, he is a member of the Hellenic Lawyers Association where he shares his passion for law and the pride of this Hellenic heritage with like-minded legal professionals.
Job Titles:
- Associate
- Associate ( Pending Admission )
Olivia is an associate (pending admission) at KI Legal in the Transactions Department. She graduated Fairfield University, May 2019 Cum Laude, majoring in International Studies and Political Science. Soon after, she attended St. John's University School of Law where she held the position as Associate Managing Editor of the New York Real Property Journal and was the co-director of Fundraising for The Public Interest Center. Olivia is a recipient of the Catalyst Public Service Fellowship as well as a Fellow for the Mattone Institute for Real Estate Law. Having completed her graduate law studies in May 2022, she is currently pending bar admission.
Ralph E. Preite is a partner at KI Legal in the Bankruptcy and Litigation Department. Ralph concentrates on bankruptcy reorganization and related bankruptcy litigation including stay-relief, lease assumption, cash collateral usage, 363 sales, plan confirmation and other bankruptcy matters. Throughout his career, Ralph also handles non-bankruptcy matters including state court litigation, contract negotiations, securities transactions for public and private companies, and general commercial transactions.
Ralph has served as a NY government relations professional representing non-profit and for-profit organizations. He has represented trustees, banks, leasing companies, credit unions, hedge funds, brokers, dealers, non-profits, outdoor advertising firms, real estate developers, pharmaceutical companies, and other businesses.
Additionally, Ralph has served as a Judicial Law Clerk to a Federal Judge, a Trustee on the Board of a NY nonprofit educational foundation chairing several of its committees, a NYS Supreme Court Referee, a NYC Court Arbitrator, a volunteer lawyer for 9/11 victims' families, and a CLE lecturer on Legal Ethics & Technology. He has appeared as a television bankruptcy commentator on NBC and Law Line TV and has volunteered as a coach and judge in national and local student moot court competitions conducted by law schools and grade schools
He is admitted to the New York State bar, and U.S. District Courts & Bankruptcy Courts in New York and New Jersey, and the U.S. Court of International Trade. He is a graduate of New York Law School and New York University.
In his spare time, Ralph volunteers as a Little League softball and baseball coach and annually runs the local Cub Scout Pack's Pinewood Derby and woodworking events.
Sam Matthews is counsel to KI Legal, with nearly 20 years of legal experience coupled with 30 years of business and real estate experience. As an attorney, he has represented scores of clients in all aspects of the industry including buying/selling agreements, incorporation/formation, leaseholds, shareholder/member agreements, resolutions, asset protection, employee defense, vendor agreements, shareholder/partner disputes, government compliance, franchise agreements, management agreements, employee agreements, and overall general counsel. Sam has handled thousands of transactional closings representing buyers, sellers, landlords, developers, and lenders. He has represented and performed mortgage review work for several lenders involving residential and commercial loans and has also been involved in private real estate development. Furthermore, he is experienced in personal injury, workers compensation, family, estates, land use, immigration, and non-for-profit. His working knowledge of laws governing the hospitality industry, as well as the legal demands, has led him to successfully own and operate several hospitality operations.
Over the last three decades, Sam has been and remains very active in various philanthropic initiatives. Recently, he was elected to serve on the Board of the New Jersey Greek American Chamber of Commerce and has been appointed onto the University of Maryland Family Scholarship Committee. For over 30 years, he has served on the Board of The Greek Children's Fund in various leadership positions, and is currently the President of the organization whose mission is to provide financial assistance with the daily, non-medical needs of children of Hellenic descent and their families, who suffer from life threatening illnesses. In addition, he has been on the board of the Englewood Hospital and Medical Center, Hackensack University Medical Center, Schneider Children's Hospital, and the Metropolitan Cathedral of St. John the Theologian. Volunteering his time further, he has been a judge for various youth competitions and has been a chairperson for various community fundraisers serving local libraries, hospitals, youth sports leagues, community centers, school of dyslexia and veterans' groups. In 1998, Sam received recognition from the Mayor and Council of Bergenfield, Bergen County Freeholders, N.J. State Legislature and the U.S. House of Representatives. He is also the recipient of the lifetime achievement award from the Greek Children's Fund and the distinguished U.S. Flag from the United States Congress in recognition of his years of philanthropy and service.
A family man at heart, for years he coached his children's youth baseball and soccer teams.
Samantha Kluender is a paralegal at KI Legal in the Litigation Department, working alongside the paralegals and attorneys of the firm to provide superior service to our clients. Currently, she assists with all aspects of the firm's litigation, employment, and personal injury practice from inception to resolution including corresponding with all parties, assisting in the review of discovery, maintaining the firm's calendar, electronic filings with the courts, and effectuating service. Samantha received her bachelor's degree in history and political science from SUNY Oneonta.
Socrates Xanthopoulos is a partner at KI Legal in the Real Estate Transactions Department. He represents a diverse group of clients - including owners, developers, institutional lenders, family offices, asset, investment, and property management firms, closely held companies and individuals - in complex real estate and business transactions at all levels of the capital stack, and involving properties across all real estate asset classes throughout the nation.
Socrates regularly advises, counsels, and represents his clients in a broad range of transactional activities, including land acquisition and development deals, commercial real estate financing and re-financing transactions, purchases and sales of multi-family, mixed-use, office, hotel, and retail properties, as well as general corporate and organizational matters.
This past year, Socrates won Top Real Estate Attorney at the 2022 Real Estate Development Awards due to his dynamic and successful career thus far in NYC's real estate and construction communities and has been selected by Thomson Reuters® as a New York Super Lawyer Rising Star. In addition, he is member of the Hellenic Lawyers Association where he shares his passion for law and the pride of this Hellenic heritage with like-minded legal professionals.
Steven Milstein is an associate at KI Legal in the Transactional and Commercial Real Estate Department. He represents clients in various types of transactional matters and real estate lending institutions in commercial lending matters. His experience includes conducting extensive due diligence; drafting and negotiating loan documentation and terms for mortgage loans; and representing clients in leasing and other transactional matters. As of recent win, Steven successfully represented a borrower in connection with a closing of a $1.5M revolving line of credit loan secured by a first position lean on a commercial property located in Brooklyn, New York.
Steven also represents buyers and sellers in real estate purchases and sales, and the creation and governance of organizational entities and their documentation. Steven's past experience includes serving as a Legal Intern for the Queens County District Attorney's Office, multiple real estate internships, and serving as a Staff Editor for the Cardozo Arts and Entertainment Law Journal.
Steven Siegler is a partner at KI Legal in the Litigation Department. An experienced litigator and advisor focusing on employment law and business law, he has represented hundreds of clients from hourly employees to Chief Executive Officers and business owners. This breadth of experience gives him a unique understanding of issues that business owners, shareholders, partners, executives and key employees face, and the strategies needed to get his clients the best possible results.
A strong believer in preventing legal issues from arising in the first place, to this end, Steven works tirelessly for his New York and New Jersey clients with employment law needs, designing customized and cost-effective compliance strategies. This includes tailored handbooks, policies and procedures manuals, training programs, workplace investigations and responses to agency audits. If litigation becomes necessary, he has the trial experience and understanding to mount a vigorous defense. For entrepreneurs, start-ups and business owners, Steven provides honest and effective legal advice, compliance strategies and contract preparation, with a view toward maximizing business gains and minimizing future disputes. He also protects and asserts the rights of business owners in non-competition, trade secret, and business defamation claims.
Steven is a graduate of the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, where he was Supervising Editor of the Cardozo Law Review and won the graduating class award for Best Civil Advocacy Writing. After law school, he clerked for the Hon. Paul F. Chaiet, J.S.C., a New Jersey Superior Court Judge in Monmouth County, where Steven was born and raised. Eventually, he moved into private practice where he worked with some of New York's and New Jersey's finest employment and business dispute lawyers before opening and managing his own law firm in Princeton, NJ. In 2018, Steven became a member of the Million Dollar Advocates Forum, a prestigious group of trial lawyers whose membership is limited to attorneys who have won million dollar verdicts and settlements. Fast forward today, he is proud and happy to be part of KI Legal's growing employment and business law litigation practice.
Job Titles:
- Director of Marketing & Communications
Zoe Darmon is the Director of Marketing & Communications at KI Legal. On the marketing spectrum, she creates and oversees overall strategies across the firms' departments, and implements various efforts associated with the industry specific marketing plans. Furthermore, she undertakes market research, and coordinates initiatives across all digital and social media channels, as well as graphic design, and blog content.
In addition to marketing, Zoe aids the firm in its hospitality advocacy efforts. As an industry analyst, she stays up to date on all legislative developments affecting the hospitality industry to better create educational content for operators and clients. Collaboratively with KI Legal, she is the memberships manager of the Miami Hospitality Alliance, a new organization focused on advocating for the rights of restaurants, bars and clubs in Miami.
Outside of the office, she advocates for the hospitality industry alongside Co-Founder Andreas Koutsoudakis as part of their work for the Greenwich Village-Chelsea Chamber of Commerce.
Zoe received a BA from Wesleyan University in Government and International Relations.