Don’t Gamble on Ethics | “Beating the House” without Breaking the Rules
A Vegas Take on Ethical Estate Management

About Our Speakers

Brandon M. Carr
Buchalter

Brandon Carr is an experienced trial lawyer with Buchalter’s San Francisco office and handles complex commercial litigation cases and receivership matters. On the commercial litigation side, Brandon represents many Fortune 100 companies in cases involving fraud, contract, real estate, and intellectual property disputes. As far as receivership cases, over the past ten years Brandon has been counsel to many court-appointed receivers in both state and federal cases. Brandon is a Member of NAFER and admitted in California, New York and Washington DC.

Kyle Ewing
Greenberg Traurig, LLP

Kyle A. Ewing focuses his practice on complex commercial litigation and receiverships. Kyle’s specific areas of focus include representing Nevada businesses and their owners or management in a wide variety of business litigation; representation of equity receivers and other receivers; advising parties subject to receiverships; litigating commercial construction disputes and advising on transactional project matters; fraud and contractual liability litigation; and high-value post-judgment collection and asset recovery. He has represented receivers appointed in a wide range of litigation types; owners/developers and contractors in construction matters; investment and consumer banks; private equity, venture capital, and other investment funds; corporate officers and directors; start-ups and their management; and other investors in a wide-range of businesses and ventures.

Kyle’s litigation experience includes prosecuting high-value and complex commercial construction claims for defects, fraud, and delay; prosecuting and defending direct and derivative claims for breach of fiduciary duty and other corporate misconduct; defending securities fraud claims; pursuing post-judgment collection efforts on behalf of significant judgment creditors; defending financial institutions in consumer disputes; and other commercial litigation matters in Nevada state and federal courts, as well as the courts of various other jurisdictions. Kyle also advises on appellate matters related to these representations. Kyle’s receivership experience includes representing federal equity receivers appointed in regulatory enforcement actions regarding alleged Ponzi schemes and insurance frauds, as well as receivers appointed in state court in aid of other civil actions. 

Although litigation, receiverships, and trial work are his focus, Kyle also provides guidance to clients on transactional, regulatory, and other matters. Working collaboratively with GT shareholders with subject-matter knowledge in a broad swath of such matters, Kyle provides advice tailored to anticipate and protect the client’s rights with respect to potential disputes that may arise under the contemplated transactions. Kyle is thus able to guide clients through legal challenges they face inside and outside of the courtroom alike with the benefit of GT’s deep breadth of experience in business law. 

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Hon. Maria Gall
Clark County District Court

The Honorable Maria Gall serves on the Eighth Judicial District Court, Clark County, Nevada, and teaches pretrial litigation as an adjunct professor at Boyd. Following the nomination of the Judicial Selection Commission, Governor Steve Sisolak appointed Judge Gall to the bench in June 2022.  She later retained her seat through the 2022 election.  She has primarily a civil docket, with the following specialty dockets: business court, medical malpractice court, and problem gambling diversion court.

Judge Gall was raised primarily in and around Fort Knox, Kentucky, by her mother who immigrated from South Korea, and where her father and step-father were career U.S. Army. Judge Gall graduated cum laude from the University of Kentucky Rosenberg College of Law in 2006, where she served as production editor of the Kentucky Law Journal. In addition to her law degree, Judge Gall holds a Master of Science from the London School of Economics & Political Science and a Bachelor of Music from Vanderbilt University. 

Following law school, Judge Gall served as a federal law clerk to the Honorable Charles R. Simpson III, judge for the U.S. District Court, Western District of Kentucky. Judge Gall began her practice in New York City, as a litigator with Cadwalader, Wickerhsam & Taft, the oldest, continuously run law firm in the United States. Judge Gall left the practice of law for a short time to serve as a visiting assistant professor of law (VAP) at the University of Kentucky, where she taught business associations (corporations), international human rights law, and professional responsibility. Upon returning to practice, Judge Gall joined the law firm of Stoll Keenon Ogden and then Ballard Spahr in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Judge Gall became the first woman partner of Ballard Spahr’s Las Vegas office in 2019, where she practiced complex commercial litigation. She co-led Ballard Women, a business resource group for the firm’s 250+ women attorneys, and maintained an active pro bono practice, often partnering with the Legal Aid Center of Southern Nevada to handle challenging pro bono litigations and appeals. Judge Gall also served on the steering committee for the firm’s Racial Equality and Diversity Initiative and is a Legal Council on Legal Diversity (LCLD) fellow.

Judge Gall is committed to fairness and integrity on the bench and advancing diversity in the legal profession.

Kara B. Hendricks
Greenberg Traurig, LLP

Kara B. Hendricks has a broad range of experience in litigating matters as well as working with companies to resolve disputes outside of the litigation context. Kara is experienced representing businesses in all manners of contract disputes, litigating products liability matters, handling catastrophic injury cases, defending civil rights claims, litigating employment non-compete agreements, handling derivative suits, resolving property and construction defect disputes, assessing insurance coverage issues, and representing clients in adversary proceedings within the U.S. Bankruptcy Court. She also counsels charter schools and insurance clients regarding statutory and administrative issues and represents such clients in proceedings before Nevada regulatory bodies.

Prior to joining the firm, Kara served as General Counsel with the Nevada Insurance Guaranty Association. She also had a career in broadcast journalism.

Geoff Winkler (producer)
American Fiduciary Services LLC

Geoff Winkler is a founding member of American Fiduciary Services LLC based in Portland, Oregon and Las Vegas, Nevada. Mr. Winkler leads a team of legal and financial industry professionals who specialize in managing complex investigations, forensic accounting, fiduciary and insolvency services, and securities litigation. He has extensive experience testifying as an expert witness and has served as CEO, CFO, and CRO in dozens of State and District Court receiverships, corporate monitorships, chapter eleven bankruptcies, and in other cases as a fiduciary and insolvency expert. Mr. Winkler has lectured extensively on the topics of fraud, anti-money laundering, business law, fiduciary duty, and business ethics and has published dozens of articles on topics ranging from elder care abuse to SEC reforms and managing expert witnesses to fraud investigations and forensic accounting.

Mr. Winkler’s experience includes leadership in large and complex fraud investigations and forensic accounting efforts in numerous industries including manufacturing, financial services, healthcare, hospitality, capital leases, consumer services and retail sales. One large private fraud investigation involved the misappropriation of funds from dozens of high-profile, high net worth individuals by their investment advisor. Mr. Winkler and his team analyzed millions of banking transactions to determine the extent of the fraud and calculate damages. In another complex damage and suitability analysis case involving Real Estate Investment Trusts, Mr. Winkler oversaw the review of over 200,000 transactions and 6,000,000 data points over five years to determine if appropriate suitability guidelines were being followed, resulting in quantifying the financial damages to the transacting institution and state regulators.

Among his numerous regulatory enforcement engagements, Mr. Winkler led a receivership team in an SEC action against a large operator of retirement care facilities in 34 states that was accused of defrauding over 12,000 investors and creditors for over $2 billion. The restructuring effort resulted in spinoffs and a profitable sale, with most investors saw interest in addition to their capital investments returned to them.

Mr. Winkler is involved in several professional organizations, include the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners, the American Bar Association, the National Association of Federal Equity Receivers, which he serves as an officer and board member, the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association and the Turnaround Management Association.

Prior to forming American Fiduciary Services, Mr. Winkler was a Managing Director with Alvarez & Marsal, a global consulting firm, the Director of Fraud & Forensic Investigations at Bates Group, a litigation consulting firm, and the Director of Case Management for Grassmueck Group, a fiduciary and insolvency services firm.