The Firm
Firm Overview & History
Sessions, Israel & Shartle, LLC, most often referred to as The Sessions Firm, has roots dating back to 1997. The Firm steadily grew over the years through the leadership of David Israel. David expanded the Firm’s geographic footprint from one New Orleans office to a total of 12 offices spread throughout the country. Today, the Firm is co-managed by David and Bryan Shartle. Bryan started his legal career with the Firm as a law clerk and is now considered one of the premier consumer defense attorneys in the country.
With 12 offices and attorneys licensed in 14 additional jurisdictions, we service clients on a nationwide basis. Although the Firm’s practice is broad, we focus primarily on Consumer Defense; Compliance & Regulatory; Employment Law; Business & Transactions; Licensing; Securities Litigation; Bankruptcy Law; Commercial Litigation; and Appellate Practice.
The Consumer Defense Section is overseen by Bryan Shartle and Dayle Van Hoose, along with guidance from David Israel. This group of attorneys is the largest practice group in the country dedicated to representing the financial services industry, including collection agencies, creditors, banks, debt buyers, student loan servicers, telemarketers, and other financial institutions.
Led by James Schultz and David Israel, the Compliance & Regulatory Section has extensive experience dealing with the federal and state regulators on behalf of our financial services clients. This practice group provides a wide range of services, including legal advice, policies and procedures development and review, regulatory responses, and representation in enforcement actions.
Kevin Barreca and David Israel manage the Employment Law Section, where we provide legal guidance to employers on workplace issues, draft and review employment policies and procedures, and represent businesses in employment and wage and hour disputes.
Michael Plunkett heads our Business & Transactions Section, where we assist clients with corporate work, contracts, and business transactions.
With a large team of paralegals and several attorneys, the Licensing Section is directed by David Israel and Lilian Wise. This group assists our financial services clients in obtaining required business licenses, including debt collector, debt buyer, and student loan servicer licenses.
David Clouston manages our Securities Litigation Section, where we represent clients in claims involving broker-dealers, investment advisors, financial planners, clearing firms, and brokers before self-regulatory agencies, state and national regulatory agencies, and in customer disputes and shareholder class actions.
The Bankruptcy Law Section, led by Bryan Shartle, handles a myriad of different bankruptcy-related disputes, such as defending adversarial proceedings brought by debtors against creditors.
The Commercial Litigation Section, overseen by Bryan Shartle, Kevin Barreca, and James Schultz, is responsible for handling all sorts of commercial disputes.
The Appellate Practice Section, headed by Bryan Shartle, David Clouston, and Dayle Van Hoose, handles state and federal court appeals throughout the country.
We are a bold, dynamic, and innovate law firm! And we are proud of our success and diversity as a law firm in serving our clients over the past 27+ years!