Shustak Reynolds & Partners E-News – Summer 2017

Erwin Shustak Selected as One of the Best Lawyers in America for 2018

 We are pleased to announce that our partner and firm founder, Erwin Shustak, has been selected by his peers for inclusion in Woodward & White’s 24th edition (2018) of Best Lawyers in America®. This is the second year in a row that Erwin was selected for inclusion in this exclusive list of prominent attorneys, where he was recognized by his peers for his work in the field of Financial Services Law.

Best Lawyers in America® has been published for more than three decades, and is recognized world-wide by the legal profession, the media, and the public, as the most reliable, unbiased source of legal referrals anywhere. Selection into Best Lawyers in America® is based purely on a peer based selection and vetting process. Each year a list of outstanding attorneys is compiled by conducting exhaustive peer review surveys in which tens of thousands of leading lawyers confidentially evaluate their professional peers. If the votes for an attorney are positive enough for recognition in Best Lawyers, that attorney must maintain those votes in subsequent pools to remain in each edition. Lawyers are not permitted to pay any fee to participate in or be recognized by Best Lawyers.

Best Lawyers peer-reviewed listings are now published in almost 75 countries around the world and represent the top 5% of practicing attorneys in the United States. The 24th Edition of Best Lawyers in America® (2018) includes approximately 58,000 U.S. attorneys in 140 practice areas, covering all 50 states and the district of Columbia, and inclusion in this year’s publication is based on more than 7.4 million detailed evaluations of lawyers by other lawyers.

We congratulate Erwin on this impressive accomplishment!

It is a scenario we encounter often.  A financial advisor approaches our firm in a panic.  While in the midst of transitioning their client accounts to a new firm–a significant undertaking on its own–they are sued for alleged misappropriation of trade secrets.  Worse still, a court may have issued a restraining order or preliminary injunction banning any further communications with their clients, who likely have no idea where their trusted financial advisor went or how to reach them.  The transitioning advisor is now facing a complicated legal battle while their business and livelihood hang in the balance. 

When financial advisors move from one firm to another, there are many legal issues that should be considered.  Chief among them is determining the type of client information advisors are permitted to take upon leaving their prior firm–assuming they are permitted to take any information at all.  Equally important is evaluating when and how financial advisors may use that information to announce their new affiliation or solicit clients.  Despite many attempts to clarify and unify the rules governing an advisor’s use of client information during a transition–both by courts and financial firms–this remains a volatile area of the law and, in many cases, the legal battle rages on. 

Read the full article…