April 18, 2008

Norris McLaughlin & Marcus, P.A.
P.O. Box 1018
Somerville, NJ 08876-1018
Contact: Edward C. Miller, Jr.
Chief Marketing Officer
(908) 722-0700, X-4224
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Norris McLaughlin & Marcus Continues To Expand in 2008

Somerville, NJ (April 18, 2008) – The Somerville law firm Norris McLaughlin & Marcus, P.A. welcomes four new attorneys in the month of April. Bryan Blaney joins the firm as a Member of the Litigation and Criminal—White Collar Groups; Jill Lebowitz as Senior Counsel with the Estate Planning & Administration and Taxation Groups; Brian C. Anscomb as an associate with the Intellectual Property Law Group; and Oren M. Chaplin as an associate with the Corporate Group.

Blaney will focus his practice on a broad range of commercial litigation matters, federal and state regulatory compliance counseling, and white collar—criminal defense. His practice involves advocacy and counseling on many complex litigation matters in state and federal courts, and has included representation in matters before the U.S. Department of Justice, the SEC, several U.S. Attorneys and state Attorneys General offices, and other federal and state regulatory agencies. His representation has also included counsel regarding responses to federal and state grand jury subpoenas. Blaney will work out of the firm’s New York City office.

In his work, Blaney has successfully defended a senior vice president of an international bank against allegations of bank fraud and violations of the Bank Secrecy Act; an investment broker against charges of mail and wire fraud; and the branch manager of a broker dealer firm against claims of improper trading. He has conducted internal investigations for corporate clients and provided counsel to publicly traded corporations on matters that concern compliance with Sarbanes-Oxley regulations. He also successfully represented an internationally acclaimed recording artist/actress against criminal charges and a multi-million dollar civil claim.

Early in his legal career, Blaney was an Assistant United States Attorney in New Jersey, where he conducted grand jury investigations and prosecutions of public corruption cases that involved racketeering, extortion, bribery, federal program theft and federal income tax fraud charges. Among his cases were the RICO prosecution of members of an organized crime family and officials of the Newark Department of Sanitation for crimes involving a multi-million dollar bribery/fraud scheme, and the RICO prosecution of senior officers of the West New York, New Jersey Police Department and other persons for crimes involved in a massive scheme of bribery in exchange for police protection of gambling and prostitution businesses. He also served as an Associate Counsel in the Office of Independent Counsel Lawrence E. Walsh during the investigations and prosecutions of offenses arising from the Iran/Contra Affair.

Blaney is a member of the New Jersey State Bar Association, the American Bar Association, the Federal Bar Association and the Garden State Bar Association. He is also a U.S. Criminal Justice Act Panel Attorney.

Blaney earned his B.A. from Yale University in 1984 and his J.D. from Harvard Law School in 1987. Upon graduation from law school, Blaney served as a law clerk to the Honorable A. Leon Higginbotham of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.

A resident of Watchung, Lebowitz devotes her practice to estate planning, trust and estate administration, and counseling tax-exempt organizations.

In the area of estate planning, Lebowitz has counseled high net worth individuals and families regarding federal and state income, estate, gift and generation-skipping transfer tax issues and the development of complex estate plans. She is experienced in drafting estate planning instruments and gift tax returns on behalf of her clients.

For clients seeking assistance with trust and estate administration, Lebowitz has prepared numerous federal and state estate and inheritance tax returns and handled estate and inheritance tax examinations. In addition, she is knowledgeable in drafting disclaimers and agreements regarding post-mortem planning, and preparing informal distribution agreements, formal judicial accounts and court proceedings to effect final distribution of estates and trusts. She also assists fiduciaries in transferring estate and trust assets and funding inter vivos and testamentary trusts, and she counsels individuals and financial institutions regarding their fiduciary duties as executors and trustees.

On behalf of tax-exempt organizations, Lebowitz drafts New Jersey, New York and Delaware nonprofit corporation documents and advises exempt organizations regarding nonprofit corporate governance. She also prepares federal applications for recognition of tax exempt status, state charitable registration filings and applications for property tax and sales tax exemption. She has extensive experience advising tax exempt organizations regarding executive compensation, excess benefit rules and intermediate sanctions, unrelated business income, domestic and international grant-making, private foundation excise taxes, scholarship programs, and fundraising issues for exempt organizations. She has also drafted numerous charitable gift agreements, pledge agreements and endowment agreements and advised individuals and institutions regarding charitable giving, including contributions of securities, real property and tangible personal property. Lebowitz regularly counsels individuals, family and corporate foundations and exempt organizations in this area.

Lebowitz earned her LL.M. in Taxation from New York University School of Law, her J.D. from Rutgers University School of Law—Newark and her B.A. from New York University. She is a member of the Newark Museum Council on Trustees and the NJN Professional Advisory Board.

A resident of New York City, Anscomb focuses his practice on patent prosecution matters. He is experienced in preparing and prosecuting numerous U.S. provisional and non-provisional, continuation-in-part, continuation, design, divisional reissue, and divisional patent applications in the chemical, mechanical, electrical and electronic arts. Specifically, he has extensive experience preparing and filing Information Disclosure Statements (IDSs), RCEs, Requests for Reconsideration, Amendments and Supplemental Amendments, 131 and 132 Declarations, Notices of Appeals, Pre-Appeal Brief Requests for Review, Appeal Briefs and Reply Briefs. In addition, Anscomb has conducted over one hundred telephone and personal interviews with United States patent examiners and renders non-infringement opinions.

Prior to joining Norris McLaughlin & Marcus, Anscomb managed more than 150 foreign patent applications extending from the nationalization of 12 international patent applications under the provisions of the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PTC). He also rendered many non-infringement opinions, patentability opinions and freedom-to-operate opinions. Anscomb regularly conducts trademark searches, renders trademark opinions and files trademark applications in the United States Patent and Trademark Office on behalf of his clients.

While in law school, Anscomb was a member of the Intellectual Property Law Society at DePaul University College of Law and Staff Writer for the DePaul-LCA Journal of Art & Entertainment Law. He was also a member of the American Chemical and Kapp Mu Epsilon National Mathematics Honors Societies at Central Michigan University.

Anscomb received his J.D. from DePaul University College of Law in 2001, a B.A. Accredited Certificate in International Intellectual Property Law from Tulane Center for EU & IP Law in 2000, and his B.S. in Chemistry from Central Michigan University in 1997. He is a member of the American Intellectual Property Law Association and the Intellectual Property Law Association of Chicago.

A resident of Metuchen, Chaplin focuses his practice on corporate and securities matters.

Chaplin has experience drafting merger, acquisition, and business planning documents and handling entity formation, corporate governance and due diligence matters. He is well versed in drafting and negotiating client referral, client services, consulting, employment and termination agreements, as well as internal compliance and supervisory policies and procedures. In addition, Chaplin regularly analyzes regulatory and compliance issues related to limited offerings, investment advisers, public and private investment companies, broker-dealers, insurance product agents and other financial industry entities.

Chaplin has represented financial firms before federal and state bureaus of securities, and managed the regulatory and compliance filing process for start-up and existing financial firms. He also has experience conducting on-site compliance audits and mock regulatory examinations.

Prior to his career in private practice, Chaplin served as Law Clerk for the Honorable Amy Piro Chambers, P.J.S.C., Superior Court of New Jersey, from 2001 to 2002.

While in law school, Chaplin served as Managing Editor for the New England Law Review. At the University of Delaware, he was a member of the Golden Key National Honor Society and the Alpha Kappa Delta Sociology and Criminal Justice Honor Society.

Chaplin received his J.D. from New England School of Law and his B.A. from the University of Delaware. He is a member of the American, New Jersey State, Pennsylvania State, Mercer County and Middlesex County Bar Associations. He has also written articles for and had speaking engagements with the National Association of Active Investment Managers, the Society of Financial Service Professionals, the Pennsylvania Institute of Certified Public Accountants and the American Cancer Society.

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