The Martindale-Hubbell® Peer Review Ratings™ attest to a lawyer's legal ability and professional ethics, and reflect the confidential opinions of members of the Bar and Judiciary. For over a century, lawyers have relied on the Martindale-Hubbell® Law Directory for authoritative information on the worldwide legal profession. The Martindale-Hubbell® Peer Review Ratings™ play an integral role in this service to the legal community.

The lawyers are: Donald J. Brown, Bruce I. Campbell, Frank J. Carroll, David M. Erickson, Robert A. Gamble, Kent A. Herink, Thomas J. Houser, Becky S. Knutson, Gene R. LaSuer, Sharon K. Malheiro, Stephen W. Roberts, John D. Shors, David A. Tank, Deborah M. Tharnish, Stanley J. Thompson, Mark D. Walz, and Jo Ellen Whitney.

Super Lawyers invites more than 800,000 lawyers nationwide to participate in a survey. They ask the lawyers to nominate the best attorneys they've personally observed in action. Only 5 percent of the total lawyers in the state are selected for inclusion in Super Lawyers.

Behnaz was recognized June 4 as one of the YWCA of Greater Des Moines Women of Achievement and was notified last week that she would receive the Iowa State Bar Association Rollie Grefe Public Service Award. On June 10, she was honored posthumously with the Polk County Bar Association Volunteer Lawyers Project 2008 Pro Bono Award.

She was born in Iran in 1969. During her senior year of high school she was blinded when a bomb from an Iraqi attack exploded outside her home. In 1987, she moved to the United States with her family. She earned a Bachelor of Arts Degree with highest distinction from the University of Iowa in Computer Science and French in 1993, a Masters degree from the University of Iowa in French Literature in 1995, and traveled to France as a lecturer and taught interpretation and translation at the University of Poitiers, France, during the 1995-1996 academic year. She received her Juris Doctorate with distinction from the University of Iowa College of Law in 1999, and served as Judicial Law Clerk for the Seventh Judicial District.

She joined Davis, Brown, Koehn, Shors & Roberts, P.C., in 2000, and in addition to her law practice, provided her services pro bono to benefit women and the community. She worked to empower her clients to resolve domestic problems and helped many women retain their homes during catastrophic financial situations. Despite her failing health, Behnaz continued her work on these cases up until her death.

In 2003 she was diagnosed with breast cancer. In 2005, it returned and metastasized. She was being treated in Iowa City for bone cancer.

She was honored in 2004 with both the Polk County Bar Association and Iowa State Bar Association Pro Bono awards. In 2006 she was named to the Des Moines Business Record Forty Under 40. She was a board member of the Iowa Organization of Women Attorneys, served on the Commission for the Blind Board, and was active in raising money for breast cancer research.

Behnaz was respected for her positive attitude, her genuine desire to help her clients, and her perseverance through many challenges. She was an inspiration to people she worked with, people she represented, and people she came into contact with. Her example of facing life’s challenges in an upbeat way, and her refusal to give up, despite daunting odds, provide inspiration to all she touched.

Behnaz is survived by her husband, Jeff Cordts, her parents, Firooz Soulati and Mihan Amidzadeh, and her brother and sister-in-law, Ali Soulati and Zuleika Ghodsi.

Memorial services will be held at Lensing Funeral Home, 605 Kirkwood Avenue, in Iowa City at 11:00 a.m. on Saturday, June 14. The family will be present to greet visitors at the funeral home at 10:00 a.m.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests memorials be directed to the Iowa Department for the Blind – Des Moines, Iowa, The Susan G. Komen for the Cure or the Behnaz Soulati Memorial Fund.

The award will recognize Lori's Outstanding Service in Preparing for ICE Large Scale Enforcement Actions.

This is Lori's second AILA Presidential Award.

The Des Moines Business Record featured the Davis Brown Law Firm in the article "Best Places To Work in Central Iowa - 2008". Click to view the entire article at the Business Record website.

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The article was a recent feature in the Arab Times - Kuwait. 

Lex Mundi, the world's leading association of independent law firms provides access to more than 20,000 lawyers practicing in 160 elite law firms throughout the world. Lex Mundi is the mark of excellence for legal services globally.

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The tower is the first major office building to offer new leased downtown office and retail space since 801 Grand was built more than a decade ago.

RDG Planning and Design, LADCO Development and Ball Construction are partners in the project. 

Click Here to view the SlideShare show of the interior of the new Davis Brown Tower exterior and proposed interior. SlideShare is a free resource to share presentations on the web.

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Success Story
For the past several years, Davis Brown has been involved in most major tax legislation passed in Iowa. For example, we helped a major Iowa health care system obtain a sales tax exemption in connection with their hospital operations. However, this exemption was not intended to cover hospital construction projects. Later on, two separate Iowa hospitals obtained informal letter opinions from the Iowa Department of Revenue stating that construction purchases were not subject to sales tax. Subsequently, the Department reversed itself, but not before the two hospitals initiated projects without taking sales tax into account. Since the exemption could not be expanded, legislation was carefully drafted to specifically correct the inequitable result retroactively for the two hospitals in question, without expanding the exemption to other hospitals. This effort involved a combination of legal and lobbying expertise, which included constitutional, statutory, bonding, and contract matters as well as the explanation and marshalling of support for passage of corrective legislation. In summary, the client benefited from the firm’s “one stop”  service—Davis Brown resolved the legal issues and used its lobbying expertise to secure legislative relief.

Overview of Government Affairs Practice
Davis Brown represents clients in the Iowa State Legislature on a wide range of legislative matters, including rule making. We also represent clients before various state agencies involving areas such as tax, environmental law, transportation, and utilities. In addition, we provide counsel relating to the passage of federal legislation. The firm has the current Democratic Party State Chair and the former Republican Party Chair among its members.

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Inside Counsel Magazine, September 2007 edition. www.InsideCounsel.com