Silver Spotlight – 25 Years of F&P

/0 Comments/in , /by Silver Spotlight – 25 Years of F&P

In honor of Franklin & Prokopik celebrating 25 years of business, early partners reflect on their time with the firm.

What has surprised you in the 25 years of F&P?

  • Tamara B. Goorevitz: How much we have grown in size and how our practice areas have grown. Also, how much Bert’s hairline has receded.
  • John J. Handscomb: How quickly the time has gone and the tremendous talent we have been able to recruit and develop.
  • Maija B. Jackson: How resilient the firm has been and how supportive we are of each other.
  • Albert B. Randall: I’m not sure that it’s necessarily a surprise, but what has impressed me the most is our Firm’s resiliency. We’ve overcome a number of significant challenges over the last quarter-century, and every time, the F&P team has not only withstood them, we have done so brilliantly.
  • David A. Skomba: If anything has surprised me (and it was not much of a surprise), it has been the sustained growth over the years. We had not planned to grow this way at the very start.

What goals has the firm achieved that you are proud of?/ Are there any goals that you hope the firm achieves in the future?

  • TBG: We have grown and flourished in the face of tragedy, stayed true to the firm’s founding principles, and developed strong and capable leaders, a significant number of whom are female.
  • MBJ: Continued staying power, organic growth, flexibility, and work-life balance are all attributes of the firm that I am proud of and hope to see continue in the future.
  • ABR: As our clients have grown, we have grown as well. We’ve always sought to meet our clients’ needs to the fullest extent possible, and we’ve done so by adding practice areas, office locations, and other services to better suit our clients.
  • DAS: I am very proud of the fact that our attorneys are recognized as smart, well-prepared, proactive, careful, and considerate in their practices. They balance the need to vigorously represent our clients’ interests with the obligations of being professional and civil to all. I am also very proud of the collegial and collaborative environment that the Firm has cultivated and grown.

What are your most memorable moments from your time at F&P?

  • TBG: Doing wheelbarrow races with John Handscomb, Sue Lawless, and Rebecca Gage in the hallway; Mary G’s birthday ice cream cake for breakfast; all the jury trials and victories with Dave Skomba; sitting next to Steve Marshall in federal court and trying not to laugh when Dave pronounced a witness’s name with an accent; all the Founders’ Days over the years.
  • JJH: For my 50th birthday, Bert Randall hired a guy in a potted plant costume to jump-scare everyone who came into my office. That was a day…
  • MBJ: Founders’ Day at Kara Miller’s Easton home. Bob Franklin’s prank of changing Mike Prokopik’s name tag on his office door to “Michael Porkpie”. (Our first spellcheck used to autocorrect Mike’s name to porkpie).
  • ABR: 1) Our first days, filled with construction, “party” telephone lines, carrying boxes of files in the summer heat and wondering, “How is this all happening?”; and 2) following the tragic loss of Bob Franklin, seeing the impact that he had through the outpouring of support of our collective family, friends, clients, and the legal community through their kind words, notes, and actions. It helped galvanize us going forward.
  • DAS: The “Founders’ Day” events through the 25 years are always good times with colleagues and their significant others. There also were several verdicts that were particularly satisfying both for us and the clients, in particular, the win in the ATS v. Kousa matter, a defeat of a $6 million claim against the client, and the recovery of an award of some $6 million in the client’s favor after an extended federal court trial.

What advice would you have given yourself 25 years ago?

  • TBG: If you meet the future version of yourself coming back to give you advice, you don’t need it. Everything that has happened in your life has made you who you are, and you turned out just fine!
  • MBJ: I would do it all again. Best decision I ever made was to join F&P at the outset in 1999.
  • ABR: Buckle up!
  • DAS: While we have to pay attention to the details, don’t sweat them; after all, we were/are all very capable and dedicated professionals.

Any other thoughts to share?

  • Ralph L. Arnsdorf: It’s been an honor and a privilege to work with Judy, Cathy, and Amanda for the past 20 years. I couldn’t do my job without them.
  • TBG: It’s hard to believe that Andrew and I have worked together leading the transportation practice group for so many years. I am grateful to have such a wonderful partner and friend. I am still amazed at his inability to properly pronounce words that start with a “TH,” but we love him despite his funny accent.
  • MBJ: I can always remember the age of the firm because my second son was born just days before we opened the doors.

 

A slideshow commemorating our Silver Anniversary can be viewed here. Photos from our 2024 Founder’ Day hosted at Urban Axes can be viewed here.

F&P Spotlight on Associate Melissa McGaunn

/0 Comments/in , /by F&P Spotlight on Associate Melissa McGaunn

What is your practice area and how did you choose it?
I primarily practice workers’ compensation defense. I had previously worked in a high-volume defense arena but was interested in exploring an entirely new area of law when I started at F&P in 2014. Taking that opportunity was well worth it. Ten years later, I’m still coming across unique circumstances and questions of law that give me a reason to wear my thinking cap each day.

What’s your favorite thing about working with your clients?
One of the unique aspects of workers’ compensation is that we as the attorneys get to work very collaboratively with our clients. I enjoy that I get to interact with my clients frequently. This allows me to not only get to know each individual personally, but also to get a feel for his or her preferred approach to litigation. There are many ways to achieve an end goal, but I like to think we are working together as a team who each took part in the strategic decisions and actions leading to our success.

What is your favorite aspect about working at F&P?
Definitely the people I get to work with. Everyone says it, but it’s true. We have a great group here.

What is your proudest accomplishment?
Personally: being a mom to my two amazing daughters. Professionally: passing the Maryland Bar Examination in 2011.

Tell us something about you that few of your colleagues and clients would know.
Prior to law school, I worked at an advertising agency in Baltimore and edited copy for print and online advertisements. I think I can still remember most of my proofreaders’ marks.

What do you like to do outside the office?
Outside of work, I spend as much time as I can with my family. We like to spend weekends out and about, usually checking out new parks and playgrounds. I’m a big reader and a loyal Grey’s Anatomy fan (twenty seasons is a commitment). I also started collecting indoor plants last year; one might say it was a fast-growing obsession.

Have you read any good books or seen any good movies this year that you would recommend?
Most recently, I finished the “A Court of Thorns and Roses” series by Sarah Maas. I am excited to start her other series.

What is the weirdest thing you have ever eaten?
Pigeon. I was studying abroad in Italy during college and one of the restaurants my group would frequent had a weekly rotation of “unusual” meats. It was an experience – but not one that I need to relive. I also tried frog legs on my honeymoon. Again, not going back for seconds of that particular delicacy.

Do you have any bizarre talents?
More random than bizarre, but I am surprisingly good at catching things. (Picture a “think fast!” type scenario). Nobody would call me athletically inclined, but you can sure bet I’m going to catch a tossed set of keys. Note: this is not an open invitation for my colleagues to start throwing stuff at me.

If you had an eighth day every week, how would you spend it?
That’s a tough one. At this stage of my life, I could use an extra day for laundry.

F&P Spotlight on Associate Pavel Glazunov

/0 Comments/in , /by F&P Spotlight on Associate Pavel Glazunov

What is your favorite aspect about working at F&P?
Franklin & Prokopik provides a wealth of hands-on experience opportunities and the freedom to pursue unique litigation strategies to help our clients. All while creating an atmosphere with constant mentorship in order to encourage professional development.

What’s your favorite food in Baltimore?
Ekiben is absolutely delicious, one of my all-time favorite places to eat.

What’s your proudest accomplishment?
My relationships with my loved ones.

Tell us something about you that few of your colleagues and clients would know.
In third grade, our teacher assigned the class a project to write an autobiography, one of the questions posed was “What do you want to be when you grow up?” I responded by stating that I wanted to be a professional soccer player or at the very least I could make it big on American Idol. But if neither of those options worked out I wanted to become a trial lawyer. To this day, my mom still hangs on to the autobiography. So, unless my current semi-professional soccer club (Baltimore City FC) rises up the U.S. Soccer pyramid into a professional tier, I will carry on with my dream of being a litigator.

If you could have lunch with anyone in the world who would it be?
Cristiano Ronaldo.

F&P Spotlight on Paralegal Elizabeth Hicks

/0 Comments/in , /by F&P Spotlight on Paralegal Elizabeth Hicks

What is your position and how did you choose it?
I am a workers’ compensation paralegal, a profession that actually chose me. I was hired in my first paralegal job back in 1996 by an attorney whose philosophy was that everyone should work in a law firm at least once in their life. He took a chance on me, and I found the profession I love. Thank you, Mr. Everett!

What do you like to do outside the office?
I am a crafter. I crochet. I think all babies born at F&P since I started have a baby blanket made by me, which are the most fun to create. I scrapbook. There is something about being able to include handwritten notes, thoughts, and trinkets to photos that is just more special than seeing the photos alone. My family and I also enjoy taking road trips – no specific destinations, we just pick a direction and go see what we can see.

What was the best news you ever received?
As a Veteran’s wife, getting the news that my husband was coming home unharmed from deployment.

What’s the weirdest thing you’ve ever eaten?
Alligator – once in New Orleans. Glad I did not know what it was before I ate it because it was actually very good.

If you could have lunch with anyone in the world who would it be?
Both of my Grandmothers, who have passed. I miss their insights into life, their witty senses of humor, hearing stories of their lives, and not to mention being able to pick their brains on cooking and flower gardens.

F&P Spotlight on Principal Neal Adkins, Jr.

/0 Comments/in /by F&P Spotlight on Principal Neal Adkins, Jr.

What is your practice area and how did you choose it?
My practice area is Workers’ Compensation, and I often feel like it chose me. Although the collegial nature of the practice and the smaller community in Maryland that make up the practice area keep me interested, engaged, and happy to stay in this corner of the law.

What is your favorite aspect of working with your clients?
Meeting new people is always exciting, but continuing the lasting relationships I’ve made over the past ten years is very rewarding. I especially enjoy the educational aspect of client interactions where I am able to facilitate forward-thinking actions at the employer level.

What is your favorite aspect of working at F&P?
Without a doubt, the people. F & P has always been able to point to their employees as hard workers who strive to do their best in all facets of representing our clients; but the reality is that the individuals who work here aren’t just good employees, they are very much great people. Coming to work is a lot more enjoyable when there is an environment of respect and cooperation.

What’s your proudest accomplishment?
Being a husband and dad.

Tell us something about you that few of your colleagues and clients would know.
I worked two summers in college as a garbage man, tossing trash and riding in the back of a truck with a 4:00 a.m. start to the workday. Few things provide the perspective necessary to remind you that even contentious settlement discussions aren’t that bad compared to the memory of the smell of the dump on a hot, humid morning in the summer – from the back of a garbage truck.

Have you read any good books or seen any good movies you recommend?
The Count of Monte Cristo, which is kind of cheating. I try to re-read it every few years and just finished it again in February. Great story, everyone should read.

Do you have any bizarre talents?
I can whistle and hum at the same time. Incredibly annoying for those who are listening.

What was the best news you ever received?
That’s an impossible question. I’ve been so lucky to have so many great things in my life, so there’s not enough room for me to name them all. If I’m answering for the best news I’ve received most recently, it’s definitely the call I received to say I’d been made a principal here at F&P.

F&P Spotlight on Principal Cindy L. Armstrong

/0 Comments/in /by F&P Spotlight on Principal Cindy L. Armstrong

What is your practice area and how did you choose it?
I focus solely on representing Employers and Insurance Companies in Workers’ Compensation matters. I took a Workers’ Comp class in law school and found it interesting. My first job out of law school was with a Workers’ Comp firm and I’ve been doing it ever since.

What is your favorite aspect about working at F&P?
I have two favorite aspects about working at F&P. The first is that I have the best support staff that I have ever had in 16.5 years of practicing law. The second is that someone is always willing to stop what they are doing to answer questions, brainstorm on a case, etc. Although I am the only attorney in the Hagerstown office, my colleagues in Baltimore and Easton let me know that they are available if I need help with anything.

What’s your proudest accomplishment?
In addition to passing the bar, my proudest accomplishment is completing the Frederick Half Marathon in 2014. I got up 5 days a week at 4:30 a.m. for 12 weeks to train with my next-door neighbor. All of the training was outdoors, including a 7-degree morning in February. My kids were 3 ½ and 6 months old when we started training. It was exhausting but completing the half marathon was something I am very proud of.

Tell us something about you that few of your colleagues and clients would know.
Few of my colleagues know that I am a diehard Baltimore Orioles’ fan, and have been since I was in middle school, when I would carry my parents’ portable AM radio throughout the house during games to make sure I didn’t miss a play. If I went outside to play, the radio came too. I have one tattoo, and it’s an Orioles’ tattoo.

Have you read any good books or seen any good movies that you would recommend?
I recently got back into reading books. Verity by Colleen Hoover and The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides are both very good books, with an unexpected twist at the end.

Do you have any bizarre talents?
I have a weird ability to remember numbers. I can see a number once or twice and never forget it-phone numbers, license plate numbers, etc. When I was in college, if my roommate needed to remember a phone number, she would just tell it to me rather than writing it down. I still remember my childhood phone number, and several neighbors’ phone numbers, from a neighborhood that we moved out of when I was 8.

F&P Spotlight on HR Director Tara L. Valenza

/0 Comments/in /by F&P Spotlight on HR Director Tara L. Valenza

How did you choose your profession?
I “fell” into HR. The company I worked for split into separate business units and an HR Coordinator was need to support the team and the HR Manager. I am very outgoing and it is easy for me to talk to people, so HR seemed like a natural fit. 24 years later….

What’s your favorite thing about working with your clients?
My clients are the people of F&P. I truly enjoy helping the team understand their benefits and policies.

What is your favorite aspect about working at F&P?
I love the culture at F&P. I feel as though I was given the opportunity really grow into my role and was very supported by the leaders.

What do you like to do outside the office?
I like spending time with my friends and going to concerts and shows.

What is your all-time favorite city or town, and why?
I like going to NYC. Each time I go, there is something new to see or experience. I go about 2 times per year and see play then explore.

What is the weirdest thing you have ever eaten?
Octopus – not calamari – real octopus and it was delicious!

F&P Spotlight on Principal Stephen J. Marshall

/0 Comments/in , /by F&P Spotlight on Principal Stephen J. Marshall

What’s your favorite thing about working with your clients?
When the phone rings at 3:30 a.m., it’s usually not good news, but working with clients through the really bad times and difficult cases makes the good results we obtain together extremely gratifying.

Tell us something about you that few of your colleagues and clients would know.
I had aspirations to be a classical singer.  I had six years of classical voice training, and as I was graduating high school, I passed up on a scholarship offer to be a vocal performance major in order to pursue pre-law.  Back in the day, I could carry a tune.

What do you like to do outside the office?
I’m actively involved in Stonewall Baltimore, a sports league that raises funds for local LGBTQ charitable causes. Travel, baking, checking out the exceptionally good food scene in Baltimore, and hanging out with my very bestest good boy Gus also keeps me pretty busy.

What is your all-time favorite city or town, and why?
At the very tip of Cape Cod, where the Pilgrims first landed after crossing the sea, sits a former Portuguese fishing village called Provincetown. The ocean, the beaches, the climate, the architecture, the food, the people – it’s just perfect.

What was the best news you ever received?
That I was going to be a big brother – twice.

F&P Spotlight on Associate Kara Parker

/0 Comments/in , /by F&P Spotlight on Associate Kara Parker

What is your practice area and how did you choose it?
Employment Law and Workers’ Comp.  I like the high pace of the Commission work and the “we must protect this house” aspect of employment law and defense litigation.

What’s your favorite thing about working with your clients?
I love the problem-solving aspect of what we do and working with my clients on strategies to meet their needs and limit exposure – Teamwork makes the dream work!

What is your favorite aspect about working at F&P?
Without a doubt, the teamwork and culture.  When I first started at F&P, I knew this was the place for me.  We have fun, work hard, and with the help of everyone from the partners on down work together to make each one of us better every day.  Truly.

What’s your favorite restaurant/show/event in Baltimore?
I love a sporting event – ESPECIALLY, a Ravens game.

What’s your proudest accomplishment?
Passing the bar!

Tell us something about you that few of your colleagues and clients would know.
My Frenchie’s name is “Taybur” after Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton – I’m an old movie freak.

What do you like to do outside the office?
I love being outside.  My fiancé and I do a lot of biking, hiking, and hanging out in bars watching international rugby (Go Wales!)

Have you read any good books or seen any good movies this year that you would recommend?
I read A LOT – If you like fantasy, I HIGHLY recommend the Fourth Wing series.  It’s excellent!

What is your favorite food?
Mashed potatoes.

What is your all-time favorite city or town and why?
B-More (Why B-less?).  I love Baltimore – I always have.  I think our city has a unique vibe and flavor that gets under your skin in all the best ways.  Plus, there’s nothing quite like the feel of a Purple Friday in this city during football season.

What was the best news you ever received?
The BEST news? That I was an Aunt (x2).  Shout out to Shiloh and Wyatt Saine for allowing me to live out my Auntie Mame fantasies.

What is the weirdest thing you have ever eaten?
Pickled pig’s knuckles – Don’t knock ‘em ‘til you try them!

If you could have lunch with anyone in the world who would it be?
This is a tough one.  Alive: Ray Lewis.  Dead:  Maya Angelou.

Do you have any bizarre talents?
I’m freakishly talented at claw games – The kind you see at the boardwalk or bowling alley.  Weird, I know.

 

F&P Spotlight on Maija Jackson, a Founding Firm Principal

/0 Comments/in , /by F&P Spotlight on Maija Jackson, a Founding Firm Principal

What is your practice area, and how did you choose it?
When I was in Law school at UB, I clerked for a Plaintiff’s law firm.  When one of their attorneys left the firm, I was asked to manage their workers’ compensation claims on a day-to-day basis to get them ready for hearings.  I took Richard LaFata’s workers’ compensation class at UB Law School at night.  After passing the Maryland bar, I became an attorney at that firm, but quickly realized that I looked at the claims from the defense perspective.  I moved on to defense work and have never looked back in almost 40 years.  I have been a founding principal at Franklin & Prokopik in the workers’ compensation practice group for the past 24 years.

What is your favorite aspect of working at F&P?
I love the people I work with.  I truly enjoy my clients.  The collaborative effort is so important.  I feel that we have built a firm that really tries to manage the work/life balance.  We have managed to weather the untimely passing of our principal Bob Franklin as well as the COVID-19 pandemic, and will undoubtedly face challenges in the future as our world changes and evolves.  But I am confident in the strength of the bond with my colleagues and the fact that we all have our complementary strengths and skills that we bring to the operation, management and development of the firm.  I am proud to be associated with F&P and look forward to many years ahead.

What’s your favorite restaurant/show/event in Baltimore?
I love the Kinetic Sculpture Race in May in Baltimore City!  One of my sons participated in the design, construction and racing of entries while he was in high school.  It’s a fantastic event which starts and ends at the American Visual Arts Museum on Key Highway and travels throughout Federal Hill, the Inner Harbor, Fells Point, Canton, and Patterson Park.  It’s a great way to spend a spring day and root on the competitors and engineers.

Tell us something about you that few of your colleagues and clients would know.
My parents met as pen pals and corresponded originally in French.

What do you like to do outside the office?
Exercise, martial arts, stamp collecting, caring for my two cats and my dog, and traveling with my family.

What is the weirdest thing you have ever eaten?
A Fig Newton doused in ketchup.  It was a 5th grade lunch dare, and while it was not awful, I have never repeated it.

If you could have lunch with anyone in the world, who would it be?
Wow, so many people come to mind, some living and some no longer with us.  I would love to have had lunch with Robin Williams, but I fear that I would never have gotten to eat because I would have been laughing too hard.  Emma Thompson and Queen Elizabeth II are but a few others.

If you had an eighth day every week, how would you spend it?
Relaxing, reading, and rejuvenating to face the new week.