Team

Michael Epstein, Chief Executive Officer, President and Founder, is a visionary whose business success is the result of building strong relationships and confidence both within FRS and with its strategic partners. Michael has been in the asset recovery business for over a decade and, in that time, has built FRS from a 3-person startup into a mature two-office, forty plus employee company that has become one of the leading privately held asset recovery and cost savings consulting companies in the U.S. Michael honed his skills through hands-on performance in several managerial positions from which he learned that an organization's success centers on customer service, quality performance and motivated staff. The core team of highly skilled professionals that he has assembled has enabled FRS to succeed through internal growth and strategic partnerships. FRS has hundreds of talented professionals serving clients, which range from startups to "Fortune" multinational conglomerates.

Jeffrey Leibell, Chief Legal & Financial Officer, joined FRS in June 2014 with more than 35 years of experience litigating class and other actions; providing expert legal advice concerning class action settlements and their administration and distribution; managing corporate risk and compliance; and auditing “Fortune” and other companies. Before joining FRS, Jeff spent over 6 years as the Vice President of Class Action Services at Garden City Group (“GCG”), which, prior to its acquisition by Epic Systems, was one of the nation’s leading claims administrators, having been appointed by thousands of courts in cases throughout the U.S. and international’s to design, implement, and oversee notice and claims administration programs in class actions that collectively involved tens of billions of dollars and tens of millions of class members. Jeff regularly advised GCG’s executives and class counsel on, and developed and presented to lawyers across the U.S. continuing legal education programs regarding, complex legal issues concerning class action settlements and their administration and distribution. In connection with GCG’s administration of the $20 billion Gulf Coast Claims Facility, Jeff supervised and developed protocols and procedures for the “Attorney Team,” a group of approximately 125 lawyers who addressed all legal representation and related issues in connection with over 350,000 putative claimants. Jeff also managed GCG’s risk and compliance matters, including, as reported by GCG’s independent auditor, designing the controls for GCG’s claims administration system to be compliant with all HIPAA security and privacy standards and, as set forth in the Service Organization Control (SOC) 2 report issued by GCG’s auditor, to meet all five Trust Services Principles - Security, Availability, Processing Integrity, Confidentiality and Privacy - established by the AICPA. Prior to joining GCG, Jeff spent 5 years as a litigator at Ropes & Gray before joining Bernstein Litowitz Berger & Grossman, one of the nation’s leading class action law firms, where for 12 years he prosecuted complex class and other actions; was the partner responsible for negotiating the terms of, documenting, administering and developing the allocation plans for over $16.4 billion of class action settlements, including for 5 out of the 10 largest securities class action settlements in U.S. history; and became recognized as a leading authority on class action settlement - and distribution-related legal issues. Before attending Columbia Law School, where he was a two-time Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar and the Senior Notes Editor of the Columbia Business Law Review, Jeff was a litigation consultant and a Senior Manager at Deloitte & Touche, where he spent over 12 years auditing and providing litigation consulting for “Fortune” and other companies in a variety of industries.

Robin Niemiec, Chief Operating Officer, joined FRS in 2015 from Rust Consulting, a leading class action claims administrator that, for over 40 years, has designed, implemented or managed more than 6,500 time-sensitive projects of all sizes and types. Robin, who is an attorney, managed Rust’s over 30-person Florida office and ran Rust’s consumer and antitrust claims administration practice. With 10 years of managing antitrust class action settlements under her belt, Robin was among the most experienced (if not the most experienced) manager of antitrust class action settlement administrations anywhere in the U.S. She has overseen over 160 direct purchaser and indirect purchaser antitrust class action settlements – including some of the largest, most complex and data intensive in U.S. history – many of which involved hundreds of thousands of class members and collectively involved settlement funds of over $15 billion and the processing of 6 million proofs of claim. Robin distinguished herself from other claims administrators by going out of her way to engage as often as possible with class members to understand their needs and struggles and identify how to best address them. As a result, those administrations were very successful, and Robin became an invaluable resource to class counsel, by whom she was regularly sought out for advice on project design, and with whom she frequently consulted on submissions for court approval.

Gail Becker, Chief Administrative Officer of FRS, has been with FRS since 2014. Prior to joining FRS, Ms. Becker was the President & Chief Legal Counsel of Labor Relations Specialists, working with Management, Unions and Employees in all areas of labor disputes. Additionally, Ms. Becker served as a Mediator & Arbitrator during this period, facilitating resolutions in contractual disputes in the areas of business and employment law. Ms. Becker had worked for many years as General Counsel and Executive Vice President for a Department of Defense manufacturing company. There she served to oversee all operations and additionally held the position of Security Officer for both the business and the facility. Ms. Becker also has experience in banking and finance having worked as Lead Counsel & Banking Liaison for a mortgage bank. Ms. Becker’s years of executive leadership has made her an essential part of FRS’s day to day operations.

Michael Koppy, Executive Vice President, has held senior positions that, at a host of well-established financial consulting and recovery organizations, involved leading large teams of professionals. Over the past 12 years at FRS and for 6 years before that at a third-party claims filer, Mike combined his in-depth understanding of his clients’ businesses with a keen focus on class action eligibility requirements to assure that they participate in all settlements for which they were eligible, and to enhance their recoveries. As a result, many clients have recovered millions of dollars that, without Mike’s efforts, they would have forfeited.

Norman Jung, Executive Vice President of New Initiatives, is experienced in class action claims administration and claims management. Before joining FRS, Norman was Vice President of Operations at a multinational class action claim recovery company where he oversaw securities and antitrust class action claims management for institutional investors and numerous “Fortune” companies, was responsible for client recoveries of over $200 million, and successfully implemented systems to efficiently gather and process transactions totaling over $10 billion. As a class action settlement administrator with Heffler, Radetich & Siatta, a pioneer in class action claims administration, Norman established and managed fraud protection systems for processing class action proofs of claim, and oversaw the administration of settlements that involved settlement funds of over $500 million and the processing of over 10,000 claims, including in the Asbestos School Litigation Fund, the first class action settlement to be fully administered over the Internet. Norman also spent two years in the U.S. Peace Corps working with small businesses and, with the assistance of the U.S. Agency of International Development and the European Union’s PHARE Program, developed a micro lending program for a non-governmental agency in Slovakia.

Harris Love, Executive Vice President – Revenue, is an attorney with over ten years of experience in asset recovery and cost savings, mainly related to class action claim management, tax recovery, telecommunications, and HR and benefits costs. Harris’ insight and experience led to improvements in client onboarding and enhanced FRS’s ability to identify for each client settlements that matter to them.

Rich has been with FRS since 2013. Since that time, Rich has witnessed first-hand, and been an integral part of, FRS’s tremendous growth and continued leadership in class action settlement recovery consulting. As FRS’s Deputy General Counsel, Rich provides legal and strategic guidance to our operation and sales divisions, and works with many of our Fortune 500 clientele. Before joining FRS, Rich successfully practiced law at New Jersey-based firms, where he managed caseloads of diverse legal matters. Prior to that, Rich was an Associate at Seeger Weiss LLP, a leading class action plaintiffs firm, where he managed teams of attorneys and paralegals in class action settlement claims filing and mediation and arbitration hearings, and assisted in class action and mass tort litigation. Rich received his J.D. from the Benjamin Cardozo School of Law, where he was the Articles Editor for the Arts and Entertainment Law Journal, one of the top journals in the field, and has his B.A. in History from Yeshiva University.

Jamie Toddings, Senior Vice President of Business Development, joined FRS in 2014. Mr. Toddings brings a wealth of sales and leadership experience, with a successful background of over a decade in Institutional Sales & Trading, with extensive and diverse experience across all verticals within the Financial Markets. Jamie utilizes his advanced leadership skills to consistently achieve objectives, maximize performance, and improve bottom-line profitability for all team members. Furthermore, possessing excellent customer relationship management skills, he has successfully demonstrated an innate ability to establish, develop and maintain long-term, high profit committed client relationships. Mr Toddings is a graduate of Princeton University and is married with three children.

Dan Coggeshall, Senior Vice President of IT, joined FRS in 2015 after spending 8 years at Rust Consulting where he fulfilled roles both in information technology and in antitrust class action claims administration project oversight. In particular, Dan led Rust’s Pharmaceutical Team, which administered over 40 multimillion-dollar projects that, in just 3 years, distributed a total of over $1 billion. Dan also led multiple large-scale data projects that involved, and in which he developed comparison algorithms for, hundreds of millions of records. Under Dan’s supervision, FRS has implemented access controls and processes to improve IT security; boosted system reliability with cloud technology; and streamlined FRS’s CRM with new architecture and data standards after collaborating to define business processes. Dan received his MS in IT from Rochester Institute of Technology, and his B.S. in Business Management from Palm Beach Atlantic University. He also has earned his PMP certification and Six Sigma Green Belt.

Sandra Peters, Senior Vice President of Processing, who came to FRS in 2015 from Rust Consulting, manages FRS’s Processing Team. Sandy began her Rust career in 2006, and while there, led some 35 projects, including regulated and SEC settlements, Department of Justice Remissions, and almost $11 billion of consumer and antitrust class action settlements that involved the processing of 5.7 million proofs of claim. Before Rust, Sandy achieved the rank of Chief Petty Officer in the U.S. Navy where, as a paralegal, she conducted for litigation purposes investigations of military claims, served as the adjudicator for military personnel claims, and was the command legal advisor.