The Phoenix Law PA team has grown! New team members in Florida include Robert Lovett, Cindy Lastovica, Daris Baker and Melissa Downey. New team members in Michigan include Chris McAvoy, Dawn Travis and Gerry Calma. Gerry Calma is a new receptionist. Cindy Lastovica is a new bankruptcy processor. Dawn Travis is a new case manager. Daris Baker is a new office administrator. Melissa Downey is a new legal assistant. Robert Lovett and Chris McAvoy have joined their team of attorneys in the bankruptcy division. Welcome to the Phoenix Law team.

The Lee County Bar Association Technology Committee invited Chuck Phoenix to participate as a committee member to explore computer and other technology development affecting lawyers.

CBS affiliate WINK news aired Chuck Phoenix's bankruptcy interview April 25, 2008. Melissa Yeager was the reporter.

Phoenix Law has recently come together to help make the start of this school year at Michigan International Academy a little brighter! They recently collected together school supplies for one of the first grade classes at the school to help some of the children start out the school year with the necessities needed to start their educational journey.

Holly Bower and Chuck Phoenix participated in the WINK news "Call to Action" program on foreclosures April 21, 2008. Viewers called a bank of 6 attorneys, including Holly and Chuck, to ask questions concerning foreclosures. The program was very popular. WINK is the Fort Myers CBS affliliate.

WINK news reporter Melissa Yeager interviewed Chuck Phoenix 21 April 2008 on Florida foreclosure law. WINK is a Fort Myers-based CBS affiliate.

Phoenix Law announced their new Detroit office is open. The office is located at 37699 Six Mile Road, Suite 250, Livonia, Michigan 48152. (734)259-2947

The News-Press quoted Chuck Phoenix in its article "Victims of Lee bust opt for bankruptcy." The article focuses on the poor housing market forcing families into bankruptcy. The article published 23 Mar 08.

http://www.news-press.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080323/RE/80323018/1075&referrer=FRONTPAGECAROUSEL#pluckcomments

The Tampa Bay Business Journal quoted Chuck in an article about publicly-traded special purpose acquisition corporations based on his experience with a $450 million merger transaction in 2007. The article published March 14, 2008.

http://tampabay.bizjournals.com/tampabay/stories/2008/03/17/story2.html?b=1205726400^1604740&surround=etf

Rich Inglis was quoted on several occassions throughout an article written by Kathy Bishop with the Naples Daily News. The article appeared in the Saturday, February 2nd edition and the text of the article can be found at the following website: http://www.naplesnews.com/news/2008/feb/02/lawsuits-rising-pre-construction-buyers-want-out-d/

LexisNexis Martindale-Hubbell has recognized Chuck Phoenix with a Martindale-Hubbell Peer Review Rating. Chuck Phoenix was given a "BV" rating (the maximum rating a lawyer can receive who has been admitted to the bar from 5-9 years) from his peers, which means that he was deemed to have very high professional ethics and very high legal ability. Only lawyers with the highest ethical standards and exceptional qualifications receive a Martindale-Hubbell Peer Review Rating.

Martindale-Hubbell’s exclusive Peer Review Lawyer Rating System evaluates attorneys and law firms in the U.S. and Canada with its independent peer review process. To establish a rating, Martindale-Hubbell sends confidential questionnaires to other lawyers and judges within the same geographic location and/or practice area as the attorney or law firm under evaluation. Martindale-Hubbell staff also participates in the review process by conducting personal interviews with members of the bar who may be able to shed some light on the credentials of a specific attorney or law firm. Information obtained during the interviews is then combined with the geographic surveys.

Opinions are solicited from peers with direct, professional knowledge of the lawyers under review. All of the review materials are strictly confidential, enabling participants to provide completely candid assessments of their colleagues. On average, Martindale-Hubbell contacts hundreds of thousands of attorneys each year to establish or confirm ratings. To ensure impartiality, no single law firm can submit more than two evaluations for a particular lawyer. The number of attorneys rated annually varies depending on how many meet the high standards in a given year.

The confidentiality, objectivity and complete independence of the ratings process is what has made it a unique and credible evaluation tool for members of the legal profession. The legal community values the accuracy of attorney ratings because they are determined by their peers – the people who are best suited to assess the legal ability and professional ethics of their colleagues.

“Martindale-Hubbell Ratings were created in 1887 as an objective tool that would attest to a lawyer or law firm’s ability and professional ethics, based on the confidential opinions of other lawyers and judges who have worked with the lawyers they are evaluating,” said Mike Walsh, senior vice president of large and national law firm markets at LexisNexis. “The Martindale-Hubbell Peer Review Ratings have remained the most prestigious and widely respected lawyer rating system in the world for the past 119 years.”

In this highly competitive environment for legal services, the Martindale-Hubbell Peer Review Rating is often one of the only means to differentiate lawyers who are otherwise very comparable in their credentials. This is important on a variety of levels – from the in-house counsel trying to determine which one of his outside law firms should be assigned a new matter to the private practice attorney seeking to refer a case to another lawyer with the appropriate expertise in a specific area of practice.

Indeed, a Martindale-Hubbell rating can be one of the most important criteria that lawyers and clients use to evaluate an attorney when retaining a lawyer, or simply researching the background of co-counsel or opposing counsel. When referring matters to colleagues with specific expertise or looking for counsel in another jurisdiction, lawyers want to have confidence in the individual attorney under consideration. By reviewing the ratings, they can be guided to an attorney with very high ethics as well as the appropriate level of professional experience.

Please join us in congratulating Chuck Phoenix on this exceptional recent accomplishment!

Jason File was admitted to the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida in February 2008. Previously, he was admitted to the United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida. Please join us in congratulating him on this accomplishment!

Noelle Melanson was admitted to the United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida on August 7th, 2007. Please join us in congratulating her on this accomplishment!

Holly Bower was admitted to the United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida on August 7th, 2007. Please join us in congratulating her on this accomplishment!

Noelle Melanson has recently completed Leadership Lee County. Leadership Lee County is a program dedicated to “develop an informed and pro-active network of trustees” in Lee County.

Chuck Phoenix participated in his second HalfMoon LLC seminar entitled, "Florida Real Estate Title Issues," at the Embassy Suites Airport/Westshore in Tampa, Florida on November 9, 2006.

He led several discussions throughout the seminar. The first, "Understanding Easements,” explained the purpose of easements, easements as title exceptions, and insuring easements. His second discussion, "Using Title Insurance Endorsements," discussed survey, owner, lender, and special endorsements. Finally, his discussion, "Understanding Florida's Title Standards," reviewed the history and development of title standards, examining those standards, and current issues in the title industry.

Congratulations to Chuck on his continued success!

Noelle Melanson has recently participated in the Allocations Committee for the upcoming United Way fundraising campaign. United Way is a volunteer based organization “dedicated to improving the quality of life for all people in our community”. The Allocations process maintains program accountability for all companies receiving funds from United Way as well as reviewing the needs of services of the community, and keeping the communities needs always ahead of their own.

Phoenix Law PA oepened their newest office on September 1st, 2008. The new office is located at 780 5th Avenue South, Suite 200 in Naples, Florida.

Attorney Richard Inglis recently battled and won round one against The Residences at Coconut Point over broken contracts with Inglis’ client. Judge John Steele has yet to rule on three other charges filed by Inglis’ client regarding reimbursement of a large deposit on the newly built condominiums.
Other suits have been filed with the state and federal courts regarding the newly built condominiums with The Residences at Coconut Point.

Chuck Phoenix was recently quoted by the Fort Myers News-Press regarding the Presidents recently passed Mortgage-Relief Bill.

Noelle Melanson pulled the firm together to collect Teddy Bears along with Leadership Lee County for the Children’s Advocacy Center in Fort Myers- it is a center that deals with children in their darkest hours. The Children’s Advocacy Center believes that a teddy bear provides much needed comfort to a child that is in that type of a situation and makes sure that every child that is brought to the center receives a brand new teddy bear.

Noelle Melanson is at it again! She recently participated in a conservation project for J.N. Ding Darling National Wildlife Preserve on Sanibel; a fund dedicated to the restoration of Ding Darling’s ecosystem for native plants.

The Biolage Select Go GRE.E.E.N Conservation event included three local salons that collected recycled shampoo and conditioner bottles in the Biolage Bottle Back Campaign, and for each Biolage bottle collected, Biolage donated $3.00 to the preserve on Sanibel raising over $7,000! As part of the project, the three salons volunteered at Ding Darling to not only plant the native plants but also remove non-native vegetation that kills native plants. Thanks to all who participated in giving back!