Leadership

Larry Kahn spent many years as a practicing attorney in Washington, DC and later in San Diego. During that time, he received professional recognition, as well as national print and electronic media recognition, for the results he achieved in certain cases. In 1991, Larry left his law partnership in Washington, DC to form Negotiated Solutions — an innovative legal firm comprised of nine attorneys with affordable fees and with its sole focus to resolve matters out of court. During his years in law practice and since, Larry has conducted seminars, taught courses, given presentations on negotiation techniques to a variety of civic, business, professional, and academic groups around the country.

In 2004, Larry established Help Now! as a non-profit corporation in Oregon and with the IRS. With his history of innovative legal work, he recognized the gap that existed between the “legal world” and the help the average person needs when in a crisis. His idea was to bring advocacy, previously only available to the wealthy in our society, to individuals and families in crisis but lacking the means (e.g., mental, physical, financial, cultural) to resolve those crises on their own. And Help Now! would not charge clients for its services but instead would rely on other sources of funding to support its work. Larry’s inspiration to form Help Now! was also personal. Larry has a severely disabled son who has benefited greatly from Larry’s ad hoc advocacy on his behalf over the years.

Because of the national uniqueness the services Help Now! provides, in 2020 and inspired from the crises created for millions of Americans by Covid and frequent natural disasters, Help Now! began the process of making its services available on a national level. Help Now!’s expansion has been featured in articles in a number of publications, the ABA (American Bar Association) Journal among them.

Besides forming Help Now! Advocacy, Larry has a history of volunteering his time to vulnerable members of society. While in the District of Columbia, he volunteered as a mentor in the District of Columbia Public Schools’ Mentors Program for at-risk youth. In San Diego, among other boards, Larry served as a member of the Board of Directors of the San Diego Urban League. In Oregon, Larry served three terms and twelve years on a county mental health board which oversaw services provided to mentally ill county residents. He was also selected to serve on a state board with oversight of distribution
of health services in southern Oregon.

Larry holds a bachelor’s degree in honors economics taken at The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, a master of science in education also from Penn, and a law degree from the University of Michigan Law School.

Ted Sachs spent his career in commercial finance, bank lending and financial consulting in Chicago. Major employers included GATX, CIT, Sanwa Business Credit/Bank of America, DKB Bank/Mizuho Group. He was also involved in secured lending and consulting to mid-sized private businesses during his professional career.

For 30 years, Ted was a board member with Youth Guidance, a non-profit working with high-risk youth in Chicago. Today Youth Guidance is nationally known for its Being A Man (BAM) program that gained the support and involvement of President Obama.

Ted holds a bachelor’s degree in economics from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. He also holds an MBA in finance at the University of Chicago’s Booth School. Prior to earning his MBA, Ted served as anti-submarine officer aboard a U.S. Navy destroyer. After receiving his MBA, Ted also became licensed as a CPA.

Stuart M. Widman is an attorney who is a nationally-recognized arbitrator, mediator and litigator. Stu has practiced law for almost 50 years. For the past 36 years, he has served as an arbitrator or mediator to resolve over 300 domestic, international commercial disputes with claims totaling over $4 billion. He consults various organizations on mediation and arbitration and also serves on panels of the most prestigious dispute resolution organizations in the country, among them the American Arbitration Association.

Stu is also a prolific author, including numerous articles and chapters of books on mediation, arbitration, and ethics, and has given speeches and taught at law schools in this country and overseas. He also has served as both an elected and appointed official in the Chicago area.

Stu holds a finance degree from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School and
law degree from Northwestern University. Stu’s emphasis on dispute resolution in his many years of professional practice aligns well with Help Now! Advocacy’s mission.

Eric Fidel is a New York–licensed attorney whose professional work has focused on structured finance, securitization, and regulatory compliance.

Eric began his legal career advising public and private companies across a broad range of industries before transitioning to structured finance law. He spent several years at Hunton Andrews Kurth LLP, representing major market participants in complex financial transactions involving residential and consumer asset-backed securities. He currently serves as Vice President Counsel at one of the world’s leading private label securitization and asset management firms, where he oversees legal aspects of securitizations, portfolio acquisitions, and regulatory strategy, and advises on the firm’s flagship trust program.

Eric remains committed to financial transparency, ethical governance, and strategic growth, and brings this perspective to his advocacy and board service with Help Now! Advocacy. Prior to his current board service, Eric has provided pro bono legal assistance to military veterans, asylum seekers, and small businesses.

Eric holds a dual Bachelor of Arts, cum laude, from SUNY Binghamton and earned his Juris Doctor from the University of Michigan Law School.

Nancy D. Rich is a nationally recognized nonprofit executive and strategist with more than 25 years of experience developing and scaling mission-driven programs focused on improving outcomes for children and families.

She was the founder and former president of First Signs, a national nonprofit organization dedicated to the early identification and intervention of autism and developmental disorders, and has held leadership roles with Autism Navigator and Florida State University’s Autism Institute. Her work has included partnerships with healthcare systems, universities, federal agencies, nonprofit organizations, and community stakeholders, as well as large-scale public education, training, and advocacy initiatives.

In addition to her nonprofit leadership experience, Nancy held an executive position within a large regional bank in the New England area, where she led strategic communications initiatives. She also led corporate communications for global companies in the technology and high-tech manufacturing sectors.

Through this work, Nancy developed extensive expertise in organizational leadership, communications, partnership development, public education, and community-based program implementation.

As Executive Director of Help Now! Advocacy, Nancy is focused on strengthening organizational growth, strategic partnerships, public visibility, fundraising development, and scalable multi-state systems-navigation initiatives, all designed to expand the organization’s reach while maintaining the quality and effectiveness of its services. Nancy is a graduate of Boston University’s College of Communication.

 

Bob Marmor is a retired attorney having practiced law in California for more than forty
years.  During his years in active practice, Bob was certified as a Family Law Specialist. 

In the later years of his practice, he emphasized collaborative practice and
was the president of a local collaborative practice group.  Bob handled settlement
conferences for the local court, and, from time to time, served as a mediator and arbitrator.

Bob has served on bench-bar committees and has, for many years, been active in his
community, having served on the boards of multiple non-profits.  He chaired the board
of the local Red Cross chapter and, for nine years, chaired the board of a local hospital.
Bob is a graduate of UC Berkeley and of University of the Pacific, McGeorge School of
Law.

During his tenure at Help Now! Advocacy, Bob has assisted in resolving hundreds of
crises for clients, including some, as Bob puts it, reached “the outer realms of the
universe” because the client’s situation and predicament was so unusual.  The expertise
Bob has gained allows him to share it by helping other, more junior, advocates
strategize resolutions to client crises.

Peter Fechheimer has had two significant professional careers.

Starting in 1970, Peter was involved in the early days of the cable television industry spending 18 years managing cable systems around the country. In his last position, he was responsible for building and managing a state-of-the-art cable system that was among the first to use fiber optics. Peter was also involved with pay TV in the early years of that industry, helping both HBO and Showtime add their first subscribers.

Peter’s second career was in California’s Silicon Valley, where he worked with a number of large and small technology companies as their in-house recruiter. During that very competitive time in the industry, Peter helped his employers find and hire many highly-skilled software engineers.

Since retiring in Nashville, Peter has performed volunteer work as a Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA), is a member of the Davidson County Juvenile Court Review Board, serves on the board of his homeowner’s association and is an advisor to Help Now!

Peter received a bachelor’s degree in English from Roosevelt University in Chicago.