Tiveron Law PLLC

Focus and practice areas

The firm groups its work into departments, and the list runs wide across civil and criminal matters. The site names personal injury and medical malpractice, matrimonial and family law, estate planning and elder law, real estate, civil litigation, corporate and business law, Social Security disability, criminal defense, and vehicle and traffic law. One firm covering that many areas means a client can bring a divorce and the sale of a marital home to the same office, and find a business lawyer down the hall from the litigator who handles the dispute that follows.

Within those departments the site points to concrete work. Real estate covers residential home sales and purchases, title insurance, and landlord-tenant disputes. Family law covers divorce, custody, and adoptions. Estate work covers wills and estate administration. The litigation and defense side names DWI defense, class actions, and bankruptcy. As a reviewer, the pairing across departments is worth noting: a real estate closing can sit near the litigation a property dispute produces, and a family matter can sit near the estate planning that follows it. For a household going through one large legal event, that overlap keeps related work under one roof.

How the team is built

The firm says it has been operating for more than 50 years, though the site does not state a founding year. It lists more than 35 attorneys, backed by paralegals, IT staff, healthcare professionals, and other support staff. Healthcare professionals on the payroll fit a firm that handles medical malpractice and personal injury, where medical records carry much of the work and someone has to read them closely. That mix of legal and non-legal staff points to a firm built to keep several kinds of matter moving in-house.

The team page names attorneys with their titles, which shows how the departments are led. Diane R. Tiveron is Managing Partner and chairs Business Law. Steven M. Cohen chairs the criminal and litigation work. Doreen E. Letty chairs Real Estate Law. The roster also includes Frank R. Gerber and J. Michael Kelleher as Senior Counsel; Lee J. Fabiatos, Randy H. Gugino, and Leonard G. London as Special Counsel; and Tasha D. Frazie, Douglas E. Gawel, Ashley N. Keavney, and Renee L. Lauer as Counsel. With more than 35 attorneys in total, these named lawyers sit within a larger group, and each main department has a lawyer whose title marks them as the lead. That structure makes it easier for a client to see who owns a case.

Where the firm works

Tiveron Law keeps five offices spread across three counties in Western New York. The main office is in Amherst, on North Forest Road, in the Buffalo suburbs of Erie County. Buffalo and Lancaster add two more Erie County locations. Lockport sits in Niagara County to the north, and Ellicottville sits well to the south in Cattaraugus County. The Lancaster office runs by appointment only. When a real estate or family matter draws in courts and records from more than one county, offices in several of them save clients a long drive.

The spread also matches the work. Property, family, and estate matters tend to be filed where the people and the land are, so a firm with a foot in Erie, Niagara, and Cattaraugus Counties can meet clients closer to the courthouse that will hear their case. That geographic reach is one of the more practical things the firm offers, since it lowers the effort of getting to a meeting or a filing.

Real estate, business, and clients from further afield

The firm puts real estate and business work near the center of what it does, and it reaches past Western New York for some of it. The site says its attorneys work with national and international investors on New York real estate and business transactions. It also offers virtual consultations for clients outside the region, including people across the United States and in Canada who have New York legal needs. A buyer in another state or country can meet by video while the New York filings, the title work, and the contracts stay handled by lawyers admitted here.

That setup answers a common problem. Out-of-state and foreign buyers often own property or run a business in New York without living nearby, and they still need counsel who knows the state's rules on deeds, title insurance, and entity formation. Pairing local real estate lawyers with remote consultations lets the firm serve those clients without asking them to travel for every step. The corporate and business department covers the entity work that often sits alongside a commercial purchase, so the deal and the company behind it can be handled together.

What client feedback points to

Client comments about the firm settle on a few steady themes. In my opinion the clearest is responsiveness: timely replies to questions and calls, and follow-up that continues after a matter closes. Real estate transactions come up often in that feedback, which lines up with the firm's stated work in home sales, purchases, and closings. The convenience of several office locations also shows up as something clients notice. These are modest signals, and they line up with the picture the firm's own pages paint.

How some of these matters generally move

Social Security disability claims in New York usually start with an application to the Social Security Administration, and a denial can move on to a hearing before an administrative law judge. Real estate closings run through a title search, a title insurance commitment, and a stack of signed documents at the closing table, and an attorney reviews the contract and the title work before any of it. Estate administration goes through Surrogate's Court, where the court appoints an executor and supervises the estate's debts and distributions. This general shape holds across firms, and it explains why work in these areas runs on defined steps and set timelines.

The family and criminal work follows its own well-worn routes. A contested divorce in New York is filed in State Supreme Court, where the court can rule on custody, support, and the division of property before it grants the judgment. DWI and other vehicle and traffic charges run on two tracks at once: a criminal case in court, and a separate license matter that the Department of Motor Vehicles decides. Each track carries its own deadlines, and the two do not wait for each other.