Anton Kaminsky is not the type of attorney who agrees to represent every potential client who walks through the door. If he doesn’t believe in the prospective client’s case wholeheartedly or feels the individual has an ulterior motive in filing a lawsuit, he has no problem walking away.
On the other hand, when Kaminsky meets someone who has been truly wronged, he will gladly take the case, vigorously argue the case on their behalf, and stand by their side the entire way. When his efforts lead to a favorable outcome, which they often do, he says there’s no greater feeling.
One such case was resolved last December, just three years after Kaminsky Law’s founding. The rising-star firm, which has offices in Southampton and Philadelphia, celebrated one of its most significant victories to date when Kaminsky secured a multimillion-dollar verdict for his client in a shareholder-oppression lawsuit.
“I’ve had cases where the client tells you he’s the good guy, and then throughout the case you find out that person is not the good guy. I try to stay away from those cases,” Kaminsky says. “This was a case where a minority shareholder was being oppressed in the kind of business dispute that I see often, and we were able to get him vindicated. It was a win for the little guy who gets oppressed by a majority of people who say, ‘It’s our way or the highway.’ It shows that A, it can be done, and B, that the court system works.”
Kaminsky has been putting his faith in the system for nearly a decade after starting his career on Wall Street. He founded Kaminsky Law in 2020 with a focus on several practice areas, most notably complex business litigation.
The firm has made great strides in the time since and continues to expand into different specialties thanks to the team Kaminsky has built around him. Attorney Aubrie Linder focuses her practice on employment law, including the representation of employees who have been wrongfully terminated or discriminated against, as well as defending employers in business disputes. She also handles the firm’s increasing number of construction cases involving financial disagreements between contractors and homeowners, as well as disputes about construction defects.
Attorney Jake O’Donnell, the company’s newest hire, has become adept at drafting and overseeing operating agreements and other contracts for the business owners the firm represents, while also assisting with litigation. The work of Linder and O’Donnell allows Kaminsky to home in on his favorite part of the job – the lawsuit process, discovery, and preparing for trial, and then arguing in front of the court – and he is grateful for their contributions.
“Aubrie and Jake are young, they’re hungry, and they’ve gained a lot of experience in a short period of time,” he says. “They have allowed us to become more of a law firm that can advise you on various aspects of your small business and not just handle the litigation piece.”
Other key team members include the always dependable and knowledgeable paralegal Rebecca Belenky and law clerk Andrew Andrushchak, an attorney in his native Ukraine who is currently in law school in the United States.
“It’s really a great team for a small business to have on their side,” Kaminsky says.
Kaminsky says business owners can avoid costly litigation and headaches down the line by contacting legal counsel early on. While the start of a business might be a time of optimism, when entrepreneurs are focused on issues other than potential problems they might encounter in the future, it’s always wise to prepare for a worst-case scenario. It’s also a time to think through the business and how those might evolve or change over time while everyone is still on the same page.
“Having an ambiguous agreement that is not clear on what the people’s rights and responsibilities are is almost as bad as having no agreement at all,” he says. “We see a lot of agreements that don’t contemplate some of the issues these people might face in their business or in the way they’re structuring their business. They'll go online and download a one-size-fits-all contract, sign it, not think about it for three years. Then, all of a sudden somebody does something that makes them go back to the agreement – and guess what – the agreement doesn’t even speak to that issue. If they had a consultation with someone on day one, any competent lawyer would point out that it could be a problem in the future.”
When litigation is necessary, finding an experienced and aggressive lawyer is crucial. Kaminsky is happy to fill that role while being backed by the collaborative efforts of his team.
“If you’re a small business owner,” he adds, “litigation will absolutely destroy your business, because you’re distracting yourself from the thing that you’re best at, which is operating your business, and you’re adding the stress of having to deal with something that you don’t really understand. You need a team that you can rely on so you don’t have to worry.”
As a small business owner himself, Kaminsky understands the pressure one faces on a daily basis. He is proud of how far his firm has come in just four years, but admits there is much more he wants to accomplish.
“I think there’s a lot more room for growth and I’m still trying to expand, so mentally I’m not in a place where I can sit back, put my feet up, and say, ‘Look at what I’ve built,’” he says. “We’re getting there, but we’re certainly not there yet. We’re still looking for lawyers who can manage a book of business and want to join a growing firm where there is a ton of opportunity to be in at the ground floor, and be part of an exciting future.”
Kaminsky Law
(215) 876-0800
KaminskyLaw.com
207 Buck Road, Suite 2
Southampton, PA 18966
1601 Lombard St., Suite 2A
Philadelphia, PA 19146
Photo by Alison Dunlap
Published (and copyrighted) in Suburban Life magazine, September 2024.
