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Meet David Gerszewski and Mike Albee of Citadel Law Firm PLLC in Chandler

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Today we’d like to introduce you to David Gerszewski and Mike Albee.

Attorneys David Gerszewski and Michael Albee met in law school at Arizona State University in 2014.  Both were mature students with very different backgrounds from most other law students.

Attorney David Gerszewski had a Wall Street career for almost 20 years, starting in New York at Merrill Lynch and after a year transferring to London to the global emerging markets trading group.  The group specialized in trading currency, debt, and derivatives in the emerging markets of Eastern Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. After almost 10 years working for investment banks, David joined a hedge fund based in London for the remainder of his career in institutional finance investing in similar markets for the fund’s clients.  After many years of 80+ hour weeks, David needed a change and left finance. He took some time off and applied to law school finishing in 2015 from the Arizona State University College of Law. He went into private practice shortly thereafter focusing on estate planning and probate law in the East Valley of Phoenix. Planning for intergenerational wealth transfers, tax minimization, and completing transfers quickly and efficiently upon the passing of a loved one blend several aspects of law and finance unique to both of David’s careers.

Attorney Michael Albee came to law school with a business and real estate background.  He has practiced family law since graduating from law school in 2014. Michael committed to family law because of his own unique family experience.  As a single father with full custody of his daughter, he desired to use his personal experience helping other families in the same or similar situation.  When dealing with a divorce, a child custody battle, or other family issues, emotions escalate very quickly. Especially in more acrimonious family law cases, Michael approaches cases to sooth emotions, encourage calmer discussions between parties, and ultimately arrive at solutions in less time with less expense for clients.  Michael also works as an independent mediator helping opposite sides of a dispute achieve amicable and cost-effective resolutions without heading to court.

Has it been a smooth road?
We have been very fortunate because we both knew which areas of law appealed to us from very early on in our careers.  Most young attorneys struggle with finding the right fit after law school whether that is a practice area, law firm, or even area of the country.  As more mature students coming to the field with extensive business backgrounds, we were able to tailor our law school experience to leverage our commercial knowledge and expertise.

We both started our law firms independently.  The excitement of launching a new business is very often tempered by the reality that one has few clients, a thin pipeline of future business, and monthly overhead to maintain.  Among the biggest issues for both of us running independent law firms was that we had to be small business managers as well as practicing attorneys. All the things you took for granted working in more developed companies fall on your shoulders as an entrepreneur.  We went to law school to practice law – not fix paper jams in copiers, set up IT systems, and create internal manuals for policies and procedures. Merging our practices into the Citadel Law Firm enables us to avoid administrative duplication and ultimately run our joint business more efficiently and pass those savings onto clients.

There is also a tendency among some small firm attorneys to practice “door law” – taking any case that comes in the door.  From early on we were both intent on building practices focused in our respective fields. We soon discovered the beauty of this approach for us was in developing referral networks with other like-minded attorneys.  By staying relatively focused on a few select practice areas, our business becomes more efficient. We can serve our clients more quickly and often less expensively because we build systems to process similar types of cases in the same manner.  And by referring our potential clients who do not fit into our practice areas to other attorneys focus on other areas of law, reciprocation builds inbound referral pipelines from those other attorneys. Most importantly, our existing clients and new clients are better served after approaching us because they can be confident they are working with an attorney who practices in the particular narrow area of law they require.

Please tell us about your business.
In 2019, we decided to merge our law firms and operate under a single brand, the Citadel Law Firm PLLC.  We completed this merger in the first quarter of 2020. Our goal is to continue to focus on our narrow practice areas and continue the efficient and value-driven service our clients expect.  But we’ve also realized the systems, procedures, and processes we are building for our practice areas would be valuable to some of our referral partners in other areas. To this end, we are refining our lead generation capabilities to help more and more clients reach the right lawyer for their particular needs.  We want to become the Google for legal services: potential clients can contact the Citadel Law Firm with a legal need and we will find the right attorney for them, whether the business can be handled internally or whether we need to refer it out. We believe if potential clients who approach us are ultimately well served, then our business will continue to prosper whether we service that business internally or not.

David Gerszewski’s practice is dedicated to estate planning, asset protection, probate, and some related tax controversy issues.  Estate planning develops legal and financial strategies for clients to efficiently manage their property as they desire if they become incapacitated by age or illness, care for their physical well being in similar circumstances, and prepare for the efficient transfer of businesses, property, and other wealth to future generations.  The strategies we employ often involve Wills, Trusts, and Powers of Attorney that are tailored to manage clients’ desires and risks specific to them and their family situations. Asset protection is an enhanced type of estate planning where we work with clients to protect their property from lawsuits, divorce, tax collectors, bankruptcy, and even nursing home expenses.  A well designed asset protection plan enables one to pass on these protections to future generations and preserve wealth from many know and unknown risks. Probate is the legal process of transferring property from a deceased person to future generations. And finally, tax controversy involves settling and hopefully minimizing tax obligations to the IRS or state tax collectors.

Michael Albee’s practice is primarily focused on family law and mediation.  A Family Law practice is extremely diverse and requires knowledge over a vast area of law.  The two broadest categories of family law are divorce and child custody. But these areas often overlap and involve investments, tax, income, debt, businesses, employment, and even movement within the state or across state lines. Mediation is one type of alternative dispute resolution, or “ADR.” The goal of mediation is to assist competing parties to resolve disputes privately without involving the court system. This oftentimes results in a compromise to which both parties in a dispute can agree, the agreement is reached with substantially less involvement of attorneys and is not restricted by the schedules of overburdened courts. Merging family law and mediation into one practice allows Michael to help his clients resolve differences often with less time and expense than a more litigation-focused family law practice.

Let’s touch on your thoughts about our city – what do you like the most and least?
We love Arizona. Michael has lived his entire life in Phoenix and when not practicing law is teaching yoga and hiking outdoors.  He loves raising his daughter with a healthy, wholesome, and active lifestyle. David loves the Arizona outdoors and can be found most weekends hiking in the parks and mountains throughout the state or paddle boarding with his wife, Anne, in area lakes.

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