Legal Services & Lawyers

W. Edward Riley, IV is a trial lawyer. He is admitted to practice law in all state and federal courts in Virginia, and has argued before the Supreme Court of Virginia and the United States Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals. Mr. Riley has dedicated his entire career to successfully practicing criminal and traffic defense.

Mr. Riley has tried over 150 jury trials in federal and state courts across the Commonwealth, holds the highest national legal rating with Martindale Hubbell, and has been recognized by his peers as one of the Legal Elite as published by Virginia Business Magazine, and has been selected for inclusion in 2009 Virginia Super Lawyers. He has appeared on WTVR CBS News Channel 6 and in the Richmond Times- Dispatch, as well as other media outlets, as a criminal law commentator for high profile criminal cases, and has lectured on criminal law, DUI law, and traffic law to other lawyers and judges over the last decade.

Mr. Riley's involvement within the legal community is extensive. Currently, he serves on the Virginia Trial Lawyer Association's (VTLA) Board of Governors, is Co-Chairman of its publication committee, and is a Member of both their CLE and Amicus committees. Mr. Riley is Chairman of the Virginia Fair Trial Project, a Member of the Virginia State Bar's specially created Indigent Defense Task Force, and a Member of the Supreme Court of Virginia Chief Justice Leroy Hassell's Indigent Defense Training Initiative. He also serves on the Steering Committee for the Virginia Criminal Justice Commission and is the legislative liaison between the Virginia Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (VACDL) and the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. Formerly, Mr. Riley served on the VACDL's Board of Directors, was the past Chairman of VTLA's Criminal Law Section, and served on its Legislative Committee, Litigation Support Committee, Death Penalty Committee, and Young Lawyers Leadership Committee.

Wayne M. Zell, Esq. Is the President and founding shareholder of Zell Law. He has spent his legal, public accounting and business advisory career counseling clients in a broad range of industries, including technology companies of all types and investor groups. His clients also include for-profit and non-profit executives, service providers and high-net worth individuals.

Wayne has extensive experience in representing clients in complex estate planning and business planning matters. On estate planning matters, Wayne routinely advises clients in structuring and preparing intricate revocable and irrevocable trusts, family limited partnerships and limited liability companies, life insurance vehicles, charitable giving arrangements (including charitable lead and remainder trusts), private and public foundations and grantmaking programs, asset protection planning, joint ventures with tax-exempt organizations, and compensation and equity incentive plans for executives.

On business planning matters, Wayne represents the owners of closely-held businesses on general business, tax and succession planning, mergers and acquisitions, private equity fund formation and operation, equity and debt investments and executive compensation matters. He also represents key employees of publicly traded and privately held entitites in planning for the receipt and disposition of stock options and restricted stock.

Prior to forming Zell Law, Wayne practiced as an attorney and as a CPA with a variety of law firms and public accounting firms. He also served as General Counsel and CFO of YellowBrix, Inc., an internet content provider and enterprise software developer. Previously, he was a partner with Mintz Levin; Powell Goldstein; Freedman, Levy, Kroll & Simonds; and O'Connor & Hannan. He also was a Senior Manager in the Washington National Tax Service Office of Price Waterhouse, specializing in tax-exempt organizations and flow-through entities, including partnerships, limited liability companies and trusts, and has practiced as a CPA since 1980.

Wayne is admitted to practice as an attorney in Virginia, Maryland and the District of Columbia. In 2006, Wayne was named one of the Washington, DC area's "Legal Elite" by SmartCEO Magazine. He is a frequent lecturer on estate and business planning topics and hosts a popular educational radio talk show - Blueprint for Wealth every Saturday from 7:30-8:00am on AM 1500 and AM 820. From 1991 to 2005, he served as an Officer and a Member of the Board of Directors of the Children's Charities Foundation, Inc. in Washington D.C., which hosts the annual BB&T Classic Basketball Tournament. He is a member of the Exempt Organizations Committee of the Tax Section of the American Bar Association, as well as the ABA's Real Property and Probate and Business Law Sections.

Russell ("Russ") Haynes graduated magna cum laude from the School of Law at George Mason University in 2011, with a concentration in tax law. An attorney at the tax firm founded by his father, Burton J. Haynes, in Burke, Virginia, Russ handles a wide variety of civil and criminal tax case.

Employment tax cases currently comprise a large percentage of his work, most including multi-million dollar tax delinquencies, unfiled returns, and assessment of the Trust Fund Recovery Penalty against responsible persons. Russ also handles many cases involving unfiled tax returns and unpaid tax liabilities, both federal and state. He has experience in criminal tax cases involving charges of tax evasion, willful failure to pay, willful failure to file, and false returns. Russ has participated in negotiations with the Tax Division of the U.S. Department of Justice in connection with negotiated plea arrangements. Trained by his father, a former IRS Criminal Investigation Division Special Agent, Russ is well-versed in accounting and tax issues, including forensic accounting reconstructions often necessary in criminal and civil cases.

Prior to admission to the bar, Russ was a paralegal for the firm, working on civil and criminal tax controversises with the IRS and various state tax agencies. Russ is a member of the Virginia State Bar ("VSB"), the VSB Section of Taxation, the Virginia State Trial Lawyers' Association, the American Bar Association ("ABA"), the ABA Section of Taxation, and the ABA Committee on Civil and Criminal Tax Penalties.

Besides work at the firm, Russ was once a talented musician, receiving a Master of Music degree from the Cincinnati Conservatory and a Doctor of Musical Arts from the University of Texas at Austin. In addition, Russ is an accomplished golfer, a former assistant pro in Austin, Texas. Now an amateur again, Russ enjoys playing in charity tournaments across Maryland, Virginia, and Pennsylvania.

Attorney with emphasis in start-up and venture business law, small business law, taxation, wills, trusts and estate planning.

Computer Scientist with extensive experience in web based application development, databases, data mining, information retrieval and distributed systems.

I enjoy working with small and start-up technology businesses and advising them both on technology and law, where appropriate.