Meet Our Firm
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Mitchell T. Grayson |
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Samuel Gerstein |
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Andrew B. Cohen |
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Donald S. Levenson |
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Cynthia Levin |
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Peter M. Halden |
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Jeffrey S. Brenner |
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Brandon G. Johnson |
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Louise A. Watson |
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Zachary L. Grayson |
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Craig David Becker |
Mitchell T. Grayson
Mitchell T. Grayson is the managing partner of the firm. He is a skilled transactional and tax attorney with credentials that include a Masters of Law Degree in Taxation (LLM) and a license as a Certified Public Accountant (CPA). Mr. Grayson's legal, tax and accounting background enables him to provide pragmatic advice to clients and to structure business transactions so as to minimize federal and estate tax liability.
He is highly regarded among others in his profession, not only as an accomplished tax attorney, but also as an astute transactional attorney adept in handling sophisticated real estate, business and financing transactions.
Mitchell Grayson is a member of the American Bar Association Sections of Taxation, Real Property & Business Law, the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, the Estate and Financial Council of Southern New Jersey, the New Jersey Bar Association and the Society of Financial Planning Professionals.
mgrayson@gersteingrayson.com
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Samuel Gerstein
Samuel Gerstein, founder of the firm Gerstein Grayson & Cohen, LLP (formerly known as Gerstein, Cohen & Grayson) is semi-retired. He established the firm in 1985. Mr. Gerstein, upon graduation from Rutgers University School of Law - Camden, and admission to the Bar in 1973, served as a Captain in the United States Army Military Police Corps.
He has been a practicing attorney in the South Jersey area since 1966. Mr. Gerstein's particular areas of expertise are in Business and Commercial Law; Lending and Closings; Banking Law, Commercial Real Estate and Buying and Selling of Businesses.
He is admitted to practice before the Superior Court of New Jersey, the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey, the United States Court of Appeals--3rd Circuit and the United States Supreme Court.
His activities have included Chancellor, Rutgers Law School Alumni Association, Camden, New Jersey; lecturer in Commercial Law for the Continuing Legal Education Program of the Camden County Bar Association; Commercial Arbitrator, Superior Court of New Jersey and a Member of the Executive Counsel, Eastern District of the Commercial Law League of America.
Andrew B. Cohen
Andrew B. Cohen is a partner at the firm and head of the firm's Litigation Department. Mr. Cohen graduated from Temple University School of Law in 1992 and is licensed to practice law in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. He practices in State and Federal Courts, handling matters which include personal injury, business disputes, real estate, commercial collections and employee theft.
Mr. Cohen is a member of the American Bar Association, the Association of Trial Lawyers of America and the New Jersey Division of the Association of Trial Lawyers of America. Additionally, Mr. Cohen serves on the Personal Injury Law Committee of the Camden County Bar Association. Practice areas for Mr. Cohen include Personal Injury, Civil Litigation, Real Estate, Commercial Collections and Municipal Court.
Donald S. Levenson
Donald S. Levenson is Of Counsel to the firm. He graduated from Cornell University in 1965 and graduated from Rutgers University School of Law-Camden in 1968 where he was Editor of the Law Review. He served as President of the Burlington County Bar Association for the 1998-1999 term. He was a member of the New Jersey State Bar Association Judicial and Prosecutorial Appointment Review Committee.
He served for two years as Prosecutor of Evesham Township; he was an attorney for the Cherry Hill Township Planning Board for over 10 years. He has been a member of the Burlington County and Camden County Bar Associations for over thirty (30) years as well as serving on various committees in those associations.
He is admitted to practice before the Superior Court of New Jersey and the United States Supreme Court.
His principal area of concentration is family law. This includes pre-nuptial agreements, divorce, separation, custody, support and domestic violence cases. He also handles all types of real estate cases including, but not limited to, the buying and selling of homes, commercial real estate, leases and zoning and planning. Another area of his concentration is Municipal Court work which includes cases as simple as speeding tickets to serious DWI matters as well as minor criminal matters.
Cynthia Levin
Cynthia Levin is a member of the firm of Gerstein Grayson & Cohen, LLP and has been a member of the Pennsylvania and New Jersey Bars since 1975. She graduated from Temple University, magna cum laude and from Rutgers Law School, magna cum laude and received the Prentice Hall award for distinguished work in Taxation. She taught Business Law and Income Taxation at Stockton College and Rowan University. She practices in the areas of estate and trusts and elder law planning.
clevin@gersteingrayson.com
Peter M. Halden
Peter M. Halden has been a member of the New Jersey Bar since 1976. After graduating from Rutgers University in New Brunswick in 1968, Peter worked as a journalist, first in radio, then with the Associated Press and finally as an editor at the Courier-Post. He was the recipient of numerous journalistic awards during that time.
As a practicing attorney, Peter served as a Municipal Court Prosecutor, continuously and in the same town, from 1979 to 2007. He also served with the New Jersey Board of Bar Examiners from 1985 to 2007. During that time, he wrote 18 of the essay questions that appeared on New Jersey Bar Exams and personally graded more than 35,000 essay responses.
Peter’s practice focuses primarily on Family Law, including Divorce, custody and economic issues, as well as Municipal Court. He is a member of the Camden County and Burlington County bar associations, and serves on the editorial board of The Barrister, the publication of the Camden County Bar Association.
phalden@gersteingrayson.com
Jeffrey S. Brenner
Jeffrey S. Brenner is counsel to the Firm and concentrates his practice on corporate/transactional matters involving closely-held corporations, partnerships, limited liability companies and the start-up, purchase and sale of such businesses.
His principal area of concentration is in the restaurant and food and beverage industry and is a contributing writer to several area publications associated with the restaurant industry. Mr. Brenner is also regarded as an expert on the recovery of embezzled/diverted funds, employee theft and other fraud related matters. He frequently provides counsel to companies and their owners on legal and business issues pertaining to e-commerce and the uses and risks of the Internet and related technologies.
Mr. Brenner is licensed to practice in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. He graduated from Rutgers University School of Law - Camden in 1989 where he served as a staff member on the Rutgers Law Journal. Mr. Brenner is a member of the New Jersey Restaurant Association. He is also a member of the New Jersey State, Camden County and Burlington County Bar Associations, and a past attorney-coach for the Cinnaminson High School Mock Trial Team.
jbrenner@gersteingrayson.com
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Brandon G. Johnson
Brandon G. Johnson has been practicing civil defense litigation since 1992. Prior to joining Gerstein Grayson & Cohen, LLP, Mr. Johnson was employed for many years as a member of the Philadelphia staff counsel office of a major insurance company, concentrating his practice in commercial lines litigation. In this capacity Brandon represented numerous Fortune 1000 corporations as well as smaller businesses in the defense of premises liability, products liability and major property loss actions. He also has considerable experience in defending motor vehicle and uninsured/underinsured motorist claims for both commercial and individual clients. Brandon is an experienced courtroom attorney and has successfully tried many cases to verdict.
Mr. Johnson serves as a Judge Pro Tem for the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas and has been appointed as a special panelist for the Pennsylvania First Judicial District Compulsory Arbitration Program. He is also frequently selected by counsel to serve as an arbitrator in Alternative Dispute Resolution proceedings.
Brandon earned a B.S. in Computer Science from Shippensburg University in 1986 and a J.D. from Widener University School of Law in 1992. He is admitted to practice law in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New York, as well as the Eastern District of Pennsylvania and the District of New Jersey.
bjohnson@gersteingrayson.com
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Louise A. Watson
LuAnn Watson is an associate with Gerstein, Grayson and Cohen. She is a 1984 graduate of Rutgers University School of Law – Camden. She is admitted to practice in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, as well as the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey, the United States Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit, and the United States Supreme Court.
Although Ms. Watson’s initial legal experience was as a prosecutor in the Cumberland County Prosecutor’s Office, presently her primary area of concentration is insurance defense litigation. Having worked for both in house and independent clients, Ms. Watson has extensive experience litigating personal injury, property damage, products liability and construction defect cases.
Ms. Watson has served on the District Ethics Committee for the New Jersey Bar. She is currently the chairperson of the Gibbsboro Zoning Board of Adjustment and has been so for over 10 years. She has been a Court appointed arbitrator for Burlington, Camden, Gloucester and Atlantic Counties.
lwatson@gersteingrayson.com
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Zachary L. Grayson
Zachary L. Grayson is a former trial attorney in the Special Operations Unit of the United States Commodity Futures Trading Commission in Washington, D.C., and a former litigation partner at Wolf, Block, Schorr and Solis-Cohen. Zach has represented parties in some of the highest visibility litigation of the past decade and a half including the Hunt Brothers Silver Manipulation case, the multi-billion dollar tobacco growers settlement, the Swiss Bank Holocaust litigation, the Dead Sea Scroll copyright case, the multi-billion dollar CIGNA reorganization, multi-million dollar telecommunications slamming cases before the FCC, and the Pennhurst Contempt case. In addition, Zach has tremendous expertise in insurance company insolvency matters and has served as lead trial counsel in what were, until recently, the two largest insurance company insolvency cases in Pennsylvania – the $200 million Corporate Life Insurance Company cases and the $350 million Physicians Insurance Company cases. Zach has experience on both sides of the regulatory spectrum, having represented the four past Pennsylvania Insurance Commissioners, the Kentucky Attorney General, the Pennsylvania Department of Public Welfare, the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission as well as many private clients before various state insurance departments, public utility and telecommunications commissions, the F.C.C. the U.S. Attorneys Office, and state attorneys general across the country. Zach currently serves on the Board of Directors of various educational and charitable organizations. Zach has litigated or directed the litigation of matters throughout Pennsylvania and in New York federal and state courts, Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Hawaii, Illinois, Kansas, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey, Ohio, Texas, Virginia, Washington, Israel, Russia and the Isle of Man.
zgrayson@gersteingrayson.com
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Craig David Becker
Craig David Becker, Esquire is Of Counsel to the firm. He practices Education Law and Criminal Defense. He practices Special Education Law, representing students who have been denied an appropriate and effective education. He also represents students in disciplinary actions. In addition, Mr. Becker represents adults and juveniles in all facets of criminal defense. He represents clients throughout New Jersey and Pennsylvania.
Craig David Becker, Esq. received his law degree from the University of Pennsylvania, where he was the recipient of a James Wilson Merit Scholarship. Mr. Becker began representing individuals while still attending law school and won his first not guilty verdict and suppression motion prior to graduation.
He is a former Assistant Public Defender for Chester County, Pennsylvania, where he represented defendants in high profile felony cases and other serious offenses. Mr. Becker also worked in the Public Defender Office's Juvenile Division, where he represented minors in all facets of juvenile criminal law. After leaving the Public Defender's Office, Mr. Becker worked as an associate for top New Jersey and Pennsylvania law firms, including one firm that represented several New Jersey school districts.
Mr. Becker is licensed to practice law in New Jersey and Pennsylvania and in the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey and the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. He is a member of the Camden County Bar Association, the Burlington County Bar Association, the New Jersey State Bar Association, the Pennsylvania State Bar Association, the Pennsylvania State Bar Association's Legal Services for Exceptional Children Committee, the Cherry Hill Special Education Parent Teacher Association and the Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers of New Jersey. Mr. Becker and his family live in Southern New Jersey. He is actively involved in the South Jersey and Eastern Pennsylvania communities and with national and local issues regarding Special Education and Criminal Defense.
Mr. Becker has appeared as a guest on the television show Legally Speaking on the topics of Special Education Law and Criminal Defense.