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.
James Mariani, Esq.
James Mariani is an associate in the Privacy & Data Security Group.
Mr. Mariani handles regulatory, operational, and transactional matters related to data privacy, security, and incident response. He advises on a wide variety of technology -based and digital media issues at the crossroads of business, law, and technology. For instance, Mr. M ariani is currently counseling clients regarding compliance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the forthcoming California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), coordinating correspondence among client business, design, IT, management, and legal teams. This work can range from managing the practical effect of gaining user consents on UI/UX to assessing risk in strategy when creating processes for handling data subject access requests (DSARs).
In his data security incident response practice, Mr. Mariani draws on his investigative background as a former cybercrimes prosecutor to help clients navigate forensic investigation and regulatory requirements including notification requirements. Mr. Mariani also assists clients on the preventative side of data breach by drafting information security policies and incident response plans.
Mr. Mariani earned a Master of Laws at Cornell Tech focused on the intersection of product development and law in technology transactions such as IP licensing and data ownership, high growth corporate transactions related to VC funding, and product development including privacy by design, security by design, product management, and UI/UX design. He deploys this expertise in advising on data transfer, data and IP licensing, consent flows, consumer interaction and protection, regulatory enforcement, and pre-litigation investigation and dispute strategy.
Prior to joining Frankfurt Kurnit, Mr. Mariani worked as an Assistant District Attorney at the Kings County District Attorney’s Office, where he prosecuted cybercrime and complex fraud — leading multiple long-term investigations to indictment and arrest. His practice included investigation and litigation focused on computer intrusion, identity theft, finance, healthcare, labor, and real estate. He has tried bench and jury trials in criminal, supreme, and federal court.
Mr. Mariani is certified as an Information Privacy Professional in U.S. specific laws (CIPP/US) as well as that of the European Union (CIPP/E), and is admitted to practice in New York.
