Steven Taitz is the Managing Partner of the firm and was one of its founders. Although raised on Long Island, Steve left the area to attend The Johns Hopkins University and then the University of Miami School of Law.

Steve caught the trial bug in law school. He started his career as an Assistant State Attorney in Miami and had worked his way up to Felony Division Chief before being lured back to New York by family in 1989. Here, he concentrates his practice in state and federal litigation, commercial litigation, criminal court matters, commercial transactions and maritime law. While a trial lawyer at heart, Steve knows that the best way to serve his clients is to listen hard and give wise counsel as to when to litigate and when to compromise. Steve prefers working with his clients rather than just for them.

He also works hard to give back to the community. He is the President of the Rotary Club of Patchogue, a Director at Brookhaven Memorial Hospital Medical Center, a Director of the MacArthur Business Alliance, a member of the Board of Directors of the Bayport-Blue Point SEED Foundation, a former Trustee of the Bayport-Blue Point Library, a participant in the BrookhavenYouth Court, a volunteer for Camp Pa-Qua-Tuck special needs camp, and legal advisor to B’nai Israel Temple in Oakdale.

Professionally, Steve holds an AV rating from the Martindale-Hubbel Peer Review Ratings and has been designated a Super Lawyer in business litigation by the New York Law Journal. He is a member of the American Bar Association, a former Director of the Suffolk County Bar Association where he previously chaired the Criminal Court Committee and the Multi-Disciplinary Task Force, and was a member of the Federal Court Committee and the Judicial Screening Committee. He is a past Director of the Suffolk Academy of Law and a member to the Commercial Law League of America.

All of the foregoing responsibilities notwithstanding, Steve still manages to get out on his boat and enjoy some of the special pleasures of life on Long Island.

Education:

• The John Hopkins University (B.S., 1978)
• University of Miami School of Law (J.D., 1982)

Bar Admissions:

• Florida (1982)
• New York (1989)
• Second, Seventh and Eleventh Circuit Courts of Appeals. United States District Courts for  the Eastern, Southern, Western and Northern Districts of New York, the District of Connecticut and the Southern, Middle and Northern Districts of Florida.

Practice Areas:

• Litigation in State, Federal and Bankruptcy Courts
• Criminal Defense in State and Federal Courts.

Affiliations, Achievements and Honors:

• Director, Brookhaven Memorial Hospital Medical Center
• American Bar Association
• Suffolk County Bar Association (Director, 1998-2001); Past Chair of Criminal Court Committee,
• Federal Court Committee; Chair Multi-Disciplinary Task Force; Judicial Screening Committee
• Former Director of Suffolk County Academy of Law; Commercial Law League of America, Federal Bar Council; American Trial Lawyers Association and National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers
• Rotary Club of Patchogue
• Long Island Mid-Suffolk Business Association
• Brookhaven Youth Court
• Trustee for Bayport-Blue Point Library (1998-2001)

Lester P. Taroff has dedicated his career to serving creditors. As a young lawyer, he struck up a conversation with an attorney who did collections work, it piqued his interest, and the rest is history. Lester has now been a member of the Commercial Law League of America for 41 years and has sat on various of its committees, as well as the Eastern District Executive Counsel, of which he was Chair from 2014 to 2015.

He served on the League’s Board of Governors from 2015 to 2017. For ten years Lester held the position of Vice President of the Commercial Lawyers Conference of New York. He is the consummate lawyer’s lawyer.

Lester heads up the firm’s Collections department. His practice includes commercial debt collection, litigation, and judgment enforcement for creditors from around the country (and occasionally abroad) who are owed monies by New York defendants. Les works with New York creditors who are owed debts by out-of-state debtors through his wide network of colleagues in the Commercial Law League of America. As the founder and former Chair of the Suffolk County Bar Association’s Creditors’ Rights Law Committee, Les is a frequent lecturer on creditors’ rights issues.

Les is a graduate of Long Island University and Brooklyn Law School and was admitted to practice in the courts of the State of New York in1972. He is also admitted to practice before the New York federal District Courts, the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and the Supreme Court of the Untied States.

Education:

• Long Island University (B.A., 1968)
• Brooklyn Law School (J.D.,1971)

Bar Admissions:

• New York State (1972)
• United States Supreme Court;
• United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit;
• United States District Court for the Eastern, Southern, Northern and Western Districts of New York.

Practice Areas:

• Creditors’ Rights
• Commercial and Retail Debt Collection
• Commercial Litigation
• Judgment Enforcement

Affiliations, Achievements and Honors:

• Suffolk County Bar Association
• Commercial Law League of America; (Member Committees on the Federal Fair Debt
• Collection Practices Act; Forwarders and Receivers and Laws and Legislation)
• Commercial Lawyers Conference of New York (former Vice President)
• Founder and past Chair of the Creditors’ Rights Law Committee of the Suffolk County Bar
  Association (1996 to 1998, 2005 to 2007)
• Co-Chair and Founder of Bank-Attorney-Government-Agency Interface Committee
• Frequent lecturer on creditors’ rights matters.