Legal Services & Lawyers

In today's technology driven marketplace, intellectual property (IP) plays a critical role in business strategies and transactions. Intellectual property can significantly impact business success or failure. The Innovation Law Office protects your ideas to further your business strategies and successes. Our legal services obtain, protect, license, and enforce your IP rights, so you can maximize your investment in innovation. The Innovation Law Office also provides legal services relating to aviation, business formation and transactions, e-commerce, legal disputes, and technology.

John Forest Bymaster is an experienced bankruptcy attorney. His goal is to put YOU first by offering high quality service at the best fees available. Contact John Forest Bymaster with confidence that he is the right choice to help you get out of debt.

I handle appeals in all federal and Indiana state appellate courts, in both civil and criminal proceedings. Besides Indiana courts, I also practice regularly in the the United States Courts of Appeals for the Seventh and Eighth Circuits, and have also worked on appeals in most of the other federal circuits as well as the United States Supreme Court.

Appealing a case requires different skills than preparing for a trial. On appeal, the court does not hear new evidence but looks only at the facts that were presented to the trial court. It decides the case based on the established facts guided by written briefs and sometimes a short oral argument.

It is therefore critical that your appellate attorney be an excellent writer and a strong logical thinker. You need an appellate lawyer who can carefully examine the established factual record, determine which legal theories are supported by those facts, and present those theories in a clearly written brief. Finally, you need an attorney who understands the possibilities and limitations of the appellate process and who has a working knowledge of the rules of appellate procedure.

Appeals are my principal practice area, and have been a major part of my practice throughout my career. I have litigated appeals in both state and federal court on topics ranging from family law and commercial torts to criminal and habeas corpus to free speech and election law. Besides basic appeals I have also been handled relatively unusual procedures such as en banc rehearing, petitions for certiorari, injunctions pending appeal, and petitions for appellate attorneys fees.

I am also available to prepare legal research or briefs for other attorneys.

Rabeh M. A. Soofi is an attorney at Ice Miller LLP. Rabeh practices in the areas of general civil and business litigation, insurance coverage disputes, and estate/trust/probate litigation and controversies.

Civil and Business Litigation
Rabeh's civil and business litigation experience involves helping clients resolve a variety of disputes, including:

Business Contracts and Agreements, including purchase, performance, employment, service agreements, and other contract;
Protection of Business Data, including the misappropriation of sensitive and proprietary business information, data, and trade secrets;
Securities/FINRA Litigation, involving agent/broker liability;
Managers, Directors and Officers Liability Claims, alleging breaches of fiduciary duty, self-dealing, negligent controls, inadequate oversight, depletion of corporate assets, and other mismanagement of corporate affairs;
Property Litigation, including real estate, ownership/title, landlord/tenant disputes quiet title actions, and mechanic's liens;
General Defense and Prosecution, of business and personal tort claims, including personal injury, fraud, negligence, employee misconduct, slander/defamation actions and others.

Insurance Law and Regulation
Rabeh's experience with insurance law and regulation includes working with policyholders, carriers, and regulatory agencies on litigating or otherwise resolving a variety of disputes. Rabeh has represented clients and litigated coverage issues under commercial general liability, business owners policy, directors and officers, personal lines, auto, disability/accident, title insurance, and excess/umbrella policies. Rabeh has experience with various types of claims including agent/broker liability, first and third party property loss, casualty, fire loss, environmental/long tail, theft/embezzlement, personal injury, products liability, construction defect, faulty workmanship, directors/officers liability, errors/omissions, toxic tort, reinsurance, subrogation, and extracontractual/bad faith claims. Rabeh is involved with the American Bar Association's Insurance Coverage Litigation Committee, was a speaker for the 2009 Mid-Year meeting, and is a member of the Planning Committee for 2010.

Estate, Trust, and Probate Litigation
Rabeh's estate, trust, and probate litigation practice consists of assisting institutions, testators, settlors, grantors, trustees, beneficiaries, and other fiduciaries with a variety of trust/probate disputes, including:

Estate Litigation, representing both beneficiaries and estate executors, representatives, administrators, and other fiduciaries in claims alleging mismanagement of estate assets, will contests, intermeddler claims, breaches of fiduciary duty, and other alleged misdeeds;
Trust Litigation, representing institutions and trustees in claims alleging breaches of fiduciary duty, negligent administration, imprudent investment, improper asset diversification, hedging, and collaring, self-dealing, fiduciary fee disputes, trust liquidation, trust reformation. Rabeh has experience litigating Revocable/Irrevocable Trusts, Life Insurance Trusts, Property Trusts, Charitable Remainder Annuity Trusts and Unitrusts;
Guardianships and Conservatorships;
Beneficiaries' Remedies, and other similar matters.

Background
Rabeh is active in the Indianapolis community and is involved with various organizations. Rabeh is Chair of the Indianapolis, Indiana Chapter of The List Project, an organization providing resettlement assistance to Iraqi refugees providing services to U.S. forces and allies in the Gulf.

Rabeh has devoted over 300 hours to pro bono matters, and in May of 2008, Rabeh was named as an "Up and Coming" Lawyer by the Indiana Lawyer. In April of 2006, Rabeh was also named on the Indianapolis Bar Association's "2006 Hall of Fame."

As an immigrant from her native country of Iran, Rabeh earned her Bachelor of Arts in political science and history from the University of Michigan, and her Juris Doctorate from the University of Notre Dame School of Law where she was Managing Editor of the Notre Dame Journal of Legislation.

Rabeh is admitted to practice law in the State of Indiana as well as the United States District Court for the Northern and Southern Districts of Indiana.