LAS VEGAS – The law firm of Kummer Kaempfer Bonner Renshaw & Ferrario (KKBR&F) is pleased to welcome four new associates to its growing team. The firm now has 45 lawyers and more than 100 employees.

Jedediah R. Bodger recently joined the firm’s transactional and government affairs departments in the firm’s Reno office, which opened last year at 5250 South Virginia Street.

Prior to joining KKBR&F, Bodger served as a law clerk to Justices Miriam Shearing and James W. Hardesty of the Supreme Court of Nevada. He was also a summer associate at the Reno law firm of Beesley, Peck & Matteoni where he worked in the field of business bankruptcy with a focus on creditor’s rights. He is a member of the State Bar of Nevada, the American Bar Association and the Washoe County Bar Association.

A Reno High School graduate, Bodger received his bachelor’s degree at Saint Mary’s College of California and his law degree from Temple University’s James E. Beasley School of Law in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Tami D. Cowden will practice in the firm’s litigation department. Her expertise lies in the areas of business and commercial litigation. Cowden is a member of the State Bar of Nevada, the Clark County Bar Association and the American Bar Association. She is admitted to practice in Nevada and Colorado.

Before signing on to KKBR&F, Cowden practiced in the area of construction defect litigation, bankruptcy, and business and commercial litigation. She also served as a lawyering process professor at the University of Denver College of Law and as staff counsel for the Colorado Court of Appeals. She clerked for Edwin M. Ruland and Edwin Van Cise at the Colorado Court of Appeals. Cowden is admitted to practice before the state and federal courts of Nevada and Colorado, and before the 9th and 10th Circuit Courts of Appeal.

Cowden received a degree in history from Arizona State University in Tempe, Arizona in 1982 and her law degree from the University of Colorado, Boulder in 1987. A published author of four books, Cowden will release her first novel titled “Cruising for Love” in October.

With 24 years of experience litigating in the Las Vegas Valley, Mark Ferrario, a partner with Kummer Kaempfer Bonner Renshaw & Ferrario, has been involved in some of the areas highest-profile cases.

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Reno, Nev. – Kathleen M. Drakulich, an attorney with statewide law firm Kummer Kaempfer Bonner Renshaw & Ferrario, was recently appointed to the Renewable Energy and Energy Conservation Task Force’s Transmission Subcommittee, joining an esteemed group of business and governmental leaders working to develop innovative solutions to meet the state’s growing electricity requirements.

Drakulich was appointed to the post by Task Force Chairperson Mark Russell, who also serves as vice president and general counsel for The Mirage Casino-Hotel. The committee addresses electric transmission issues related to renewable energy sources and provides recommendations to Gov. Guinn’s energy advisor on how to best insure a reliable and adequate power transmission system throughout the state of Nevada.

She joins committee members Don Soderberg, chairman of the Public Utilities Commission (PUC); John Candelaria, PUC policy advisor on transmission; Carolyn Barbash, Nevada Power and Sierra Pacific’s director of transmission; Tim Carlson, president and CEO of Powered by Renewables; Dan Geary, director of advocacy services for Geary Interactive; Jeneane Harter, president of HiTech Communications; and Mark Russell.

Drakulich joined the law firm of Kummer Kaempfer Bonner Renshaw & Ferrario in August 2004. Immediately prior to coming to the firm, she served as associate general counsel for nearly 12 years for Nevada’s two largest electric utility companies — Sierra Pacific Power Company and Nevada Power Company. In this position, Drakulich served as lead counsel for the utilities’ general rate cases, large customer open access applications, environmental permitting applications, renewable energy initiatives and a number of other regulatory matters.

In addition, Drakulich served as lead in-house legislative counsel for both utilities and was actively involved in the 1999, 2001 and 2003 Nevada legislative sessions. She was also employed as a deputy district attorney for Washoe County from 1986 to1991, prosecuting major felony cases and trying 25 felony jury trials to completion. From 1991 to 1993, she was an associate in the law firm of Anderson Pearl Hardesty Lyle & Murphy.

Drakulich completed her undergraduate work at Oxford University in England and the University of California, Berkeley. She received her law degree from the University of the Pacific, McGeorge School of Law in Sacramento, Calif. in 1986.

Drakulich is a member of the Clark County and Washoe County Bar Associations, the Association of Trial Lawyers of America, the Nevada Trial Lawyers Association and the State Bar of Nevada. She was member of the Board of Governors for the Nevada Trial Lawyers Association from 1991-1994 and was the northern Nevada spokesperson for the Washoe County drug prevention “Zero Tolerance” program from 1989 to 1991. She currently serves on the Washoe Health Systems’ Hometown Health Board of Directors and the Board of Governors for the Economic Development Authority for Western Nevada (EDAWN). Drakulich was a municipal Judge Pro Tem for the City of Reno from 1993 to 1995 and has been a featured guest speaker at the Western States Utility Theft Association Annual Convention in 2000 and 2003, the State of Nevada Renewable Energy Symposium in 2002 and the Nevada Trial Lawyers “People’s Law School” in 1989, 1990 and 1991.

Kummer Kaempfer Bonner Renshaw & Ferrario (KKBR&F) is a prominent force in Nevada, serving local, regional, national and international clients in the real estate development, hospitality, gaming, manufacturing, service, high-technology, and energy and utilities industries. Founded in 1994, KKBR&F is one of Nevada’s largest law firms, specializing in complex corporate transactions, federal and state securities matters, commercial litigation, zoning and land use and regulatory law.

With offices in Las Vegas and Reno, KKBR&F’s lawyers provide counsel to top corporations, business owners, corporate executives and individuals. The Northern Nevada office opened in April 2004 and is led by State Sen. Mark E. Amodei. KKBR&F is the Las Vegas member of Meritas, an affiliation of outstanding business law firms that serve international customers worldwide. The firm’s attorneys are routinely rated among the best corporate, mergers and acquisitions, real estate and litigation lawyers in Nevada, including high-ranking recognition by the prestigious “Chambers USA – America’s Leading Business Lawyers” since its inception in 2003.

Two years ago, your client provided goods and services on a regular basis to a gaming software company until this company filed a Chapter 7 bankruptcy case. When it filed, the debtor company still owed your client $25,000. As a creditor, your client filed a proof of claim for the $25,000 in the bankruptcy case and is not holding its breath for a payment from the trustee after the debtor company’s assets are liquidated and distributions are made to creditors. Most likely, your wise client wrote off the debt and forgot about it. Out of the blue, as if to add insult to injury, your client is served with a complaint filed by the trustee for a “preference,” seeking to recover $50,000 in payments that the debtor made to your client within the 90 days prior to the debtor’s bankruptcy filing. Your client provided the goods and services and the debtor paid for them – this can’t be wrong, can it?
By Amy N. Tirre

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