Justia Legal Services & Lawyers Directory

Kimberly G. Finnigan is a bilingual attorney who focuses her practice on immigration, employment and labor law, and civil rights litigation. Ms. Finnigan is a graduate of William and Mary Law School, where she was a Jessup International Moot Court Team member, served as President of the International Law Society, and co-founded the LL.M. Student Assistance Program. Ms. Finnigan received honors in Appellate Brief Writing and was acknowledged as a Mary Siegrist Hinz Leadership Fellow and recipient of the Gambrell Professionalism Award. Ms. Finnigan was awarded her Bachelor of Arts in Spanish and Education, magna cum laude, from Middlebury College . She is a member of the Phi Beta Delta Honor Society for International Scholars.

Ms. Finnigan's prior experience includes the Clinton County Office of the District Attorney, the New York State Supreme Court, and Baker & McKenzie in Madrid, Spain. Prior to attending law school, Ms. Finnigan was employed as a human resources professional for a worldwide organization and wrote for the Chilean newspaper, El Mercurio.

Ms. Finnigan is a member of the American Immigration Lawyers Association, Capital District Women's Bar Association, New York State Bar Association, and Albany County Bar Association, Young Lawyers Committee. She serves as Secretary of the Board of Directors for Equinox Inc. and is a member of the Board of Directors of Senior Services of Albany. Ms. Finnigan is a lecturer on immigration and employment law topics.

My firm has offices both in Groton and in Ithaca, New York. We serve clients in Tompkins, Cortland and Cayuga counties. I am a lawyer with twenty years of practice experience in both state and federal courts. With an undergraduate honors degree from Brown University that included study at the London School of Economics, and a law degree from New York University and admissions to the bars of New York, Pennsylvania and Delaware, I have successfully advised both individuals and businesses in complex situations. Those successes include helping separating parents resolve their finances and create a stable environment for their children, helping clients win both civil and criminal trials, helping for investors recover losses suffered at the hands of wrong-doing corporate officers, helping families and investors buy and sell real estate, helping business owners plan for their future and helping clients appeal and overturn decisions rendered by trial courts.

My staff and I get to know our clients. We use our client's needs to help us give accurate answers tailored for our clients. We blend small-town service with high-tech attention to detail, using technology to produce accurate documents and finish our work in a timely manner. We work with our clients as a team focused on successfully resolving challenges, whether it is a unique solution to conflict or an innovative solution to a problem.

Mr. Evans concentrates his practice in commercial litigation, labor and employment litigation, and education law. His commercial litigation practice includes the representation of a variety of business clients regarding contractual disputes, injunctive relief, matters raising questions of constitutional due process, regulatory compliance, labor and employment issues, as well as risk management. Mr. Evans also represents a number of insurance carriers concerning coverage and compliance issues. He also provides extensive litigation support to utility clients concerning regulatory matters, including issues regarding compliance with the New York Public Service Law, the regulations of the New York Public Service Commission, and Utility Tariffs. He has represented a number of educational institutions regarding matters pertaining to disabled students, student discipline, constitutional law, labor and employment issues, regulatory compliance, collective-bargaining and labor arbitration, construction litigation, and several other areas, complimented by the firm’s full Practice Groups. His experience also includes insurance coverage and defense litigation, municipal law, and civil rights litigation. Mr. Evans is an Adjunct Assistant Professor of Education at Le Moyne College, where he teachers Masters level courses in education law, human resources, and collective bargaining.

JIM BARNA BRINGS A WEALTH OF EXPERIENCE TO EMPLOYMENT LAW REPRESENTATION.

Throughout his career, Jim Barna has focused his practice on employment law.

"When I was young, I always knew that my future was in the law; and from the time I entered law school, I knew that employment law would be where I would focus my practice.â"

Jim did his undergraduate studies at Syracuse University and Stony Brook University.

Jim attended law school at Washington University in St. Louis, a Top Twenty law school with an extensive employment law curriculum. In law school in St. Louis, Missouri, Jim had a number of experiences that paved the way to his career litigating employment law cases.

"It started with a law school faculty of committed litigators who were recognized employment law authorities. From them I learned to navigate the complicated regulatory framework of federal and state employment laws. I was very interested in employment law, and I earned high marks in all my employment law classes."

During law school, Jim interned with a Federal judge. "This allowed me to see the litigation process from 'behind the bench,' so to speak, which gave me insight into the motivations of judges and juries in the legal process.â"

As a first year law student, Jim won a legal writing contest that resulted in his first scholarly article being published by the law school. The article dealt with an employment law topic: Keeping the Boss at Bay â Post-Termination Retaliation Under Title VII: Charlton v. Paramus Board of Education, 25 F.3d 194 (3d Cir. 1994), 47 Wash. U. J. Urb. & Contemp. L. 259 (1995). Jim had two scholarly articles published while he was in law school, which was a significant achievement. Jim went on to become the Articles Editor of the law review, and edited several law review articles related to employment law.

While Jim was in law school, he had the opportunity to work for a national leader in employment law and womenâs rights litigation, Mary Anne Sedey. âFrom Mary Anne Sedey, I saw that big cases can bring big changes, and that a life devoted to seeking justice can coincide with success for clients and attorneys.â

After he graduated from law school in 1996, Jim spent ten years working for nationally recognized employment law firms in Memphis, Tennessee, a center of labor and employment law work. During that time, he handled litigation matters in 22 states, and the District of Columbia.

In 2002, Jim was associate counsel, and coauthor of the victorious merits brief, in the first Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) case to be heard by the United States Supreme Court, Ragsdale v. Wolverine World Wide, Inc., 535 U.S. 81 (2002). He is a member of the Bar of the United States Supreme Court.

Jim is holds law licenses in New York, Maine, Tennessee, and Mississippi.

Throughout his career, Jim has continued to litigate significant employment law cases, and he continues to speak and write about developing employment law topics.

"One of my first cases in New York involved a former employee of a specialty chemicals company who had been terminated after developing bipolar disorder and becoming unable to work. The company had complied with the legal requirements before terminating him, so there was no claim for disability discrimination. After interviewing the client, I discovered that for years the company had failed to pay him overtime, and that he was owed a large amount of money in unpaid compensation. Until I informed him of this, the client did not know that he was entitled to overtime. I brought a lawsuit in Federal court on his behalf, and I was quickly able to negotiate a settlement that put him in a much more positive financial footing. Sometimes to find justice you need to uncover claims and theories that arenât apparent at first."