Bankruptcy

In 2012, Donovan was selected by Florida Super Lawyers as a “Rising Star,” an honor extended to only two and a half percent of Florida lawyers each year. Donovan Whibbs received his undergraduate degree from the University of Alabama in 1994. In 1997, he received his J.D. from Cumberland School of Law at Samford University, where he was Associate Editor for the American Journal of Trial Advocacy. He is a member of both the Florida and Alabama Bars. Mr. Whibbs is a member of the Workers’ Compensation Section of the Florida Bar, Association of Trial Lawyers of America, Academy of Florida Trial Lawyers and the Escambia-Santa Rosa County Bar Association. His practice focuses primarily on workers’ compensation and personal injury.

Robert Elrod, Jr. is a Jacksonville native who has practiced law since 1999. After completing high school at the Bolles School, he attended the University of Florida and graduated with a B.A. in History in 1994. He then attended law school at Cumberland Law School in Birmingham, Alabama and graduated in 1999. After becoming a member of Florida Bar in 1999, Mr. Elrod, Jr. practiced law with his father and law partner, Robert W. Elrod, Sr., until his father passed away in 2017. Mr. Elrod, Jr. primarily practices law in the areas of family law, including divorce, paternity, child custody and child support matters, bankruptcy, and other civil litigation including foreclosure and collections defense. He has represented clients throughout Northeast Florida both in state and federal court, in the First District Court of Appeals in Tallahassee and in the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta. Bob lives in Jacksonville and is active in his church. He is married and has a son and two daughters. He is continuing the family legacy of legal service to the Jacksonville community which dates back to 1966 when his father became a lawyer.

Attorney Michael “Mike” Ziegler represents consumers and business owners in resolving their difficult debts using bankruptcy, defending collection lawsuits, foreclosure defense, and suing lenders and debt collectors for illegal activities. Mike’s focus is to understand his client’s situation to find the right remedy for them – seeking a solution that is aimed to take the least amount of time, cost, and impact to resolve the problem in front of them

Jacqueline Salcines, Esq. was born and raised in Miami, Florida. She graduated high school from Our Lady of Lourdes Academy. She then went on to earn a bachelor’s degree in accounting, from the University of Miami Business School. Thereafter, Ms. Salcines attended and graduated from the University of Miami School of Law in 1998. She has been practicing law in South Florida for over 20 years. Prior to attending law school, Ms. Salcines worked for the family accounting practice as a bookkeeper since the age of 16, and later as an accountant for five years after graduating. That is when she decided to pursue her passion for business law, and enrolled in law school. Working as a paralegal in law firms during the day and attending law school at night, Ms. Salcines obtain her Juris Doctor degree in law in 1998. Ms. Salcines began her legal career interning at the Miami-Dade County State Attorney’s Office. Prior to opening her own law firm, she worked as an Associate at a federal/civil litigation, criminal defense and real estate law firm. Thereafter, she went out on her own and established Jacqueline A. Salcines, PA in the year 2000. She continued to practice real estate, litigation and business law. Since 2000, Mrs. Salcines’ practice has consisted primarily of real estate law, title and business law matters. With an emphasis on real estate transactions, debt settlement and corporate litigation, Ms. Salcines firm represents clients both locally and internationally.

Frank Kerney III is a managing partner of The Consumer Lawyers. Frank grew up in central New Jersey before moving to Florida to attend the University of South Florida. After graduation, Mr. Kerney attended Stetson University College of Law where he was inducted into the law school’s honors fraternity and awarded the William F. Blews pro bono service award at graduation. Prior to co-founding The Consumer Lawyers, Frank worked for Morgan & Morgan’s national consumer protection department where he represented consumers across the Untied States in a variety of cases, with a focus on consumer credit reporting and illegal debt collection. Frank has been named a “Rising Star” by Super Lawyers magazine every year since 2016. Only the top 2.5% of lawyers in each state receive this award. In 2020, Frank was named a Top Attorney Under 40 by Law360, and was one of only two Plaintiff’s lawyers to be included in that list. Frank has been interviewed as legal analyst by multiple publications, including Law360, ABC, NBC, and Fox, and stories about his cases have been featured all over the world.

Octavio “Tav” Gomez is a managing partner at The Consumer Lawyers. Previously he served as the Head of the Consumer Protection Department of Morgan & Morgan. He has represented Thousands of across the Nation. Mr. Gomez has earned a reputation for aggressive and dedicated representation in complex civil litigation. As an attorney, he is constantly striving to become a more educated and informed legal professional, and readily attends legal seminars and conferences to ensure his continuing legal education. Tav Gomez and his consumer team at Morgan and Morgan were recognized as “The Consumer Protection Group of the year” by Law360. Originally from Colombia, South America, Mr. Gomez moved to the United States as a child. He was raised in in Fort Lauderdale, FL and attended Florida State University for his undergraduate studies. After earning his Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science, he went on to earn his Juris Doctorate at the Florida State University College of Law. While attending law school, Mr. Gomez served as an intern with the Agency for Health Care Administration. After graduating law school, Mr. Gomez began working as a state prosecutor at the State Attorney’s office in Tampa, Florida. As a prosecuting attorney, he handled a multitude of felony cases, including habitual felony offender, 10-20-Life cases, grand theft, and trafficking cases. Mr. Gomez moved on from the State Attorney’s office in 2003 to become a named partner with Taracks, Gomez & Rickman, practicing primarily in the area of criminal defense and personal injury. During his tenure at the firm, he handled high profile cases including 1st-degree murder, vehicular homicide, complex mortgage fraud, extradition and tax fraud. Mr. Gomez has also handled civil and administrative cases involving the Federal Trade Commission, the Drug Enforcement Agency and the Internal Revenue Service. Mr. Gomez’s became the National Head of the Consumer Protection at Morgan & Morgan and focuses primarily on Federal Litigation, on the FCRA, FDCPA, TCPA, and other consumer issues. He uses this extensive knowledge and experience in the courtroom, all to the benefit of his clients. Mr. Gomez has developed an invaluable understanding of the discovery phase and trial preparation. He has represented high profile cases in both Federal and State Court. Mr. Gomez has been involved in some of the largest individual settlement agreements in FCRA and TCPA cases around the nation. He has a deep understanding of the policies and procedures employed by most banks and debt collectors and has mastered credit reporting as instituted by Congress in relation to the FCRA. Mr. Gomez is a member of the Florida Bar, the Georgia Bar, The Pennsylvania Bar and numerous Federal Courts throughout the Country. He is fluent in Spanish and has served as lead attorney in more than 60 jury trials and hundreds of bench trials, in both Federal and State Courts. With over 20 years of legal experience, he handles cases with strategic aggressiveness to maximize case results.

Ms. El Fadel is a Junior Partner with KS Attorneys at law and currently heads up our Firm’s business development, business structuring, business funding and commercial civil trial departments. As such, Ms. El Fadel is experienced in most all areas of commercial business development, commercial civil trial and appellate representation and is licensed to practice in the Federal and State Courts of Florida and the State Courts of New Jersey. Ms. El Fadel’s educational accolades range from graduating summa cum laude from the Shepard Board Law School at Nova Southeastern University to serving as the past Notes and Comments Editor for the Nova Law Review, to serving as the Chairperson for Problem Research and Development committee for the law schools moot court program. Upon entering into the practice of law with our Firm, Ms. El Fadel quickly distinguished herself as a respected and tenacious trial advocate for our clients and most recently is noted for overturning a local government ordinance through her thorough and effective constitutional law representation of one of our Firm’s clients. Accordingly, Ms. El Fadel’s primary focuses of practice are business representation, complex commercial trial, mediation and arbitration, corporate finance and structuring, corporate funding and banking, finance, corporate disputes, employment discrimination, real property litigation and insurance disputes, medical office operations, policies and organization, medical collections and insurance billing disputes, medical PIP claims and litigation, foreclosure defense and pre-bankruptcy planning as asset structuring, family law, divorce and pre and post estate litigation. On her personal time Ms. El Fadel enjoy spending time with her family, reading the latest bestselling novels and participating in community events and hot yoga. Ms. El Fadel is licensed to practice law in the States of Florida and New Jersey in addition to being a licensed attorney to practice before the Federal Courts of the Middle and Southern District Courts in Florida.

John M. Jorgensen is a fourth generation Floridian, who earned his Juris Doctor degree in 1982 from the University of Florida. Mr. Jorgensen joined Scott, Harris in 1982, and became a shareholder in 1992. He is currently the President and managing shareholder of the firm. He practices in the areas of civil litigation and trials, with emphasis on real property and business disputes, construction and land use litigation, landlord-tenant both commercial and residential, foreclosures, contract disputes, and appellate practice. He has over 40 years of civil litigation and trial experience, all of them with Scott/Harris. Mr. Jorgensen is a member of the Palm Beach County Bar Association, and represents clients in both state and federal courts throughout south Florida. He has done well over 100 civil trials in his career. Mr. Jorgensen has served as President of the North County Section of the Palm Beach County Bar Association, and was also a member of the Association’s Board of Directors. He also served as chair of the Palm Beach County Land Use Advisory Board. He has received the highest AV rating by the Martindale-Hubbell Law Directory.

Dear Friends and Community of South Florida, My name is Teisha A. Powell and for the past four years, I have had the privilege to serve as an attorney in the State of Florida and Broward County, Miami-Dade and Palm Beach. You have probably heard about me as I tend to be actively involved in the South Florida Community primarily in the area of Politics (I am an active Republican and also a community leader).In 2008, I expanded my Law Firm to focus mainly on defending residential foreclosures and suing developers for Recovery Deposits (from the Preconstruction Units). Please let me know if you have any questions regarding a Property in Foreclosure in South Florida. You can call, email, or write me if you like. All information is kept confidential. In closing, I want to remind people to stay encouraged and fight to keep their home. Your Friend, Teisha A. Powell, Esq.,

Former Assistant United States Attorney for 17th Circuit Court district and served as President of the Federal Bar Association, South Florida Chapter. Retired Military Judge and Magistrate. Our law firm provides a wide variety of professional legal services in the areas of Family Law, Wills, Healthcare surrogate, Durable Power Of Attorney, Probate Litigation, Criminal Law and Bankruptcy. We provide quality services at a considerably less rate than those charged by most attorneys or law firms. For more information or general inquiries, feel free to contact us today.