Our Practice

Fredric Chaiken's legal career has focused primarily on civil litigation. Since 1981, Mr. Chaiken has represented individual and corporate clients in a wide array of civil trial and appellate work in the State and Federal Courts in Georgia and elsewhere. Beginning in the early 1990s, Mr. Chaiken began to focus a significant amount of his active trial practice in the areas of business torts, ranging from trademark, trade dress and patent infringement, to trade secret violations, enforcement of restrictive covenants, corporate fraud, corporate governance and breach of fiduciary duties. Mr. Chaiken handles trust, estate and probate litigation, as well. He is outside general counsel for several corporations (profit and not-for-profit) and regularly serves as "local counsel" in Federal courts in Georgia for out of state corporations.

In addition to his business litigation practice, Mr. Chaiken will occasionally take on personal injury and wrongful death cases. In 2011, he was part of the trial team that won a $2,600,000.00 verdict in a wrongful death case, listed in TOP GEORGIA VERDICTS as the second largest wrongful death verdict in the State of Georgia in 2011.

Mr. Chaiken prides himself on his ability to assist in resolving legal disputes amicably through informal means or formal alternative dispute resolution proceedings and litigating effectively, efficiently and economically when necessary. He has served as an instructor in the National Institute of Trial Advocacy (NITA) program at Emory University School of Law since 1996.

Admitted: 1981, Georgia , U.S. District Court, Northern District of Georgia and U.S. Court of Appeals, Eleventh Circuit.

Law School : Emory University , J.D., 1981.

College: University of Florida , B.A., magna cum laude, 1978.

Member: Atlanta and American (Member: Intellectual Property Law Committee on Unfair Competition - Trade Identity; Sections on: Litigation and Intellectual Property) Bar Associations; State Bar of Georgia (Member, Sections on: Litigation; Corporations and Banking; Intellectual Property; Member, Fee Arbitration Panel); Georgia Trial Lawyers Association; Association of Trial Lawyers of America .

Biography: Phi Beta Kappa; Phi Kappa Phi; Phi Eta Sigma. Member, Emory International Law Moot Court Team. Instructor, Emory University NITA Trial Techniques Program, 1996-Present, Univ. of Florida Outstanding Alumni of the Year Award (2004).  President, Congregation B'nai Torah, Sandy Springs Georgia.

Born: Brooklyn , New York , December 20, 1956

Stephen R. Klorfein, LL.M. in Taxation, began his legal career practicing with the Office of Chief Counsel of the Internal Revenue Service in Atlanta, Georgia, where he was the Real Estate Tax Shelter Coordinator for the Southeastern United States. Mr. Klorfein is currently a member of the Board of Trustees and past President of the Atlanta Tax Forum, Atlanta’s oldest organization for tax professionals and serves on the Board of Directors for several 501(c)(3) charitable organizations. Mr. Klorfein was formerly a Member of the Board of Directors of the Tax Section of the Atlanta Bar Association where he was Chairperson of the Internal Revenue Service Liaison Committee. He was a Member of the Tax Committee for the Southeast Region and was a contributing author to the Current Developments Section of the American Bar Association periodical, Real Property and Probate. For the past 30 years, he provided transactional business planning for corporations, including non-profits and charitable organizations and individuals, as well as estate planning and representation before federal and state taxing authorities. He is a member of both the Georgia and Florida Bars and is licensed to practice in the United States Tax Court. Mr. Klorfein has represented numerous individuals and businesses before the Internal Revenue Service, the Georgia Department of Revenue and other state taxing authorities, including civil and criminal investigations. This representation includes assisting clients with the Internal Revenue Service’s Offshore Voluntary Disclosure Compliance Initiative. Mr. Klorfein was the attorney who developed the estate tax case of Namik v. Wachovia; 279 Ga. 250 (2005); the only Georgia Supreme Court case that deals with estate tax consequences of investments for non-resident aliens. Mr. Klorfein has guided closely held companies and their owners in succession planning, as well as providing counsel in both taxable and nontaxable “capital events”. He currently serves on the Board of Directors of the Georgia Chapter of the Exit Planning Institute, an international organization of professionals who assist business owners with exit strategies. He takes pride in providing professional legal representation of his clients while taking a “common sense” approach to problems and issues that face the average business owner. For the past several years, Mr. Klorfein has been honored in Atlanta Magazine as one of the top estate planning attorneys in the Atlanta Metropolitan area. He has again been recognized as a Georgia Super Lawyer, an honor bestowed only among the top 5% of all attorneys.

Admitted: 1981, Georgia and U.S. Tax Court; 1982, Florida

Law School : Emory University , LL.M., in Tax, 1984; University of Florida , J.D., with honors, 1981

College: Emory University , B.A., 1978

Member: Atlanta (Board of Directors, Tax Section; Chairperson, Liaison Committee with the Internal Revenue Service) and American (Section on Taxation) Bar Associations; State Bar of Georgia (Member, Tax Committee for Southeast Region, 1988-1992); The Florida Bar; Atlanta Tax Forum (Past President and Trustee).

Board of Trustees: Friends of North Springs High School, Inc. and The Seed Center of Atlanta

Biography: Real Estate Tax Shelter Coordinator. Office of Chief Counsel, Internal Revenue Service, Atlanta, Georgia, 1981-1985. Contributing Author: "Current Developments," Real Property and Probate, 1988-1989.

Born: Fort Meade, Maryland, December 2, 1956