Lecturer Bios
Nicole I. Hyland, Esq.
Nicole Hyland is a partner in the Litigation Group and Professional Responsibility Group at Frankfurt Kurnit. Her practice focuses primarily on legal ethics, professional responsibility, and legal malpractice.
Ms. Hyland counsels attorneys and law firms on conflicts of interest, legal fee disputes, escrow issues, disqualification motions, multijurisdictional law practice, business transactions with clients, lateral transitions, law firm formation and break-ups, advertising and social media use, and other professional responsibility issues. Ms. Hyland also represents defendants and plaintiffs in legal malpractice and breach of fiduciary duty disputes.
In addition to her legal ethics and professional responsibility practice, Ms. Hyland has an active litigation practice, focusing on art, literature, and entertainment industry disputes. She handles copyright, trademark, right of publicity, and defamation claims, as well as disputes over financing, production, distribution, and talent agreements. She counsels art, literature, and entertainment industry clients on content issues, including copyright, trademark, right of publicity, television formatting rights, privacy, defamation, and fair use.
Ms. Hyland is Chair of the Committee on Professional Ethics of the New York City Bar Association (NYCBA). In that role, she oversees the City Bar’s ethics hotline, which provides ethical guidance to lawyers from all over New York State. She also oversees the drafting of informal and formal ethics opinions on a variety of topics, including: non-refundable flat fee arrangements, the use of Professional Employer Organizations by law firms, the ethics of using a virtual law office, ethical guidelines for accepting credit cards, and business arrangements between law firms and nonlegal organizations.
Ms. Hyland serves as Co-Chair for the Ethics Committees of the Women’s Bar Association of the State of New York (WBASNY) and the New York Women’s Bar Association (NYWBA) – WBASNY’s New York City chapter. For the past two years she has hosted the NYWBA annual meeting at Frankfurt Kurnit followed by an Ethics CLE program for NYWBA members and attendees.
Ms. Hyland serves on the Board of the Association of Professional Responsibility Lawyers (APRL) and is a member of the New York State Bar Association Committee for Standards on Attorney Conduct (COSAC). She is also a member of the American Bar Association’s Center for Professional Responsibility.
Ms. Hyland writes and lectures frequently on legal ethics and professional responsibility issues. She recently joined Professor Roy Simon as a co-author on his seminal treatise: Simon’s New York Rules of Professional Conduct Annotated (2015 ed.). She is on the editorial board of the New York Legal Ethics Reporter and contributes to the Legal Ethics Forum blog.
Follow Nicole on Twitter @NiHyland, connect with her on LinkedIn, “Like” her Facebook page, or view her documents on JD Supra.
Tyler Maulsby, Esq.
Tyler Maulsby is an associate in the Legal Ethics and Professional Responsibility and Litigation Groups of Frankfurt Kurnit.
His practice focuses on counseling and litigation matters in areas including: commercial disputes, legal malpractice, criminal defense, conflicts of interest, lateral transitions, disqualification motions, unauthorized practice of law, and professional discipline.
Mr. Maulsby currently serves as Secretary of the Committee on Professional Ethics of the New York City Bar Association and is a member of the Association of Professional Responsibility Lawyers. He is also a regular contributor to the New York Legal Ethics Reporter.
Prior to joining Frankfurt Kurnit, Mr. Maulsby was a criminal defense attorney at The Bronx Defenders, a holistic public defender office in the South Bronx. While at The Bronx Defenders, Mr. Maulsby acted as lead counsel in numerous hearings, jury and bench trials.
He is admitted to practice in New York state courts and federal courts in the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York.
Amelia K. Brankov, Esq.
Amelia K. Brankov is counsel to the Litigation Group and Art Group at Frankfurt Kurnit Klein & Selz, focusing on commercial dispute resolution, intellectual property law and art law.
Ms. Brankov represents businesses and executives in the advertising, art, entertainment, fashion and media industries, resolving disputes over copyrights, trademarks, motion picture rights, right of publicity claims and false advertising claims. She also represents high-profile corporate clients in the financial and insurance industries.
Ms. Brankov has authored articles and lectured on a number of dispute resolution and intellectual property topics, including copyright issues, litigation involving visual art, the drafting of arbitration clauses and the use of expert witnesses at trial. She is an Editor of Entertainment Law Matters, a Frankfurt Kurnit blog about disputes and developments in the film, television, publishing, theatre, music, art, gaming, and fashion industries.
Ms. Brankov is a member of the Committee on Fine Arts of the New York State Bar Association's Entertainment, Arts and Sports Law Section, MLRC's Litigation Committee, New York City Bar’s Women in the Courts Task Force and the Acquisitions Committee of the Guggenheim Museum’s Young Collectors Council. She also serves as an arbitrator in New York City Civil Court matters and is a mediator.
Prior to joining Frankfurt Kurnit, Ms. Brankov was an associate with Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP, where she represented clients in commercial litigation and arbitration. She was also active in pro bono matters and served as lead counsel in a trial where her client obtained political asylum from Cameroon.
Ms. Brankov received her JD with honors from the University of Texas School of Law (2002), where she was a member of the Texas Law Review and Order of the Coif. She also has an LLM degree with first-class distinction from the University of Cambridge, Clare Hall (2006). She holds a BA in Government from the University of Texas (1999, highest honors).
Ms. Brankov is admitted to practice in New York and Texas state courts and federal courts in the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York and in the Second Circuit Court of Appeals.
William Lawrence, Esq.
William C. Lawrence is an associate in the Litigation Group at Frankfurt Kurnit, where he focuses on intellectual property, advertising, white collar defense, legal ethics and professional responsibility work. He represents a wide variety of individual and corporate clients in the media, entertainment, retail, financial and legal industries.
Mr. Lawrence’s recent work includes prosecuting a false advertising case on behalf of a large online retailer, and defending copyright claims brought against major media organizations. He also recently represented two law firms in disputes with former partners, and a multinational corporation in a fee dispute against an Am Law 100 law firm.
Prior to joining Frankfurt Kurnit, Mr. Lawrence was an associate at Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP, where he defended large financial institutions and law firms against claims of securities fraud, legal malpractice, and in regulatory investigations.
Mr. Lawrence is admitted to practice in state and federal courts in New York.
