Six Lakes Collections Lawyers

Originally a teacher, W. Jay Brown became a lawyer in 1998 and has been in practice in the Great Lakes Bay Region ever since. Mr. Brown graduated first in his law school class and joined Midland’s largest law firm as a litigation associate. While with the firm, Mr. Brown embarked on his litigation career and was soon promoted to member of the firm. In 2009, W. Jay Brown left the law firm to start his own practice based on his vision for the practice of law – where technology and innovation are leveraged to provide clients superior customer and...

About half of my practice consists of local government representation. The remainder is real estate, estate planning, probate, collections and general business matters. We strive to provide prompt and professional services with personal attention and care.

B.A., International Relations, James Madison College, Michigan State University. J.D., University of Michigan Law School, 1986. Practice concentrated in bankruptcy, commercial law, business law, workouts, real estate and complex situations.

I specifically practice in the fields of criminal law, property law, civil litigation, personal injury, collections and construction law, including construction liens and foreclosures. In my practice I believe that an attorney has to be overly prepared and be ready to go to trial in order to adequately represent their clients. This includes extensive legal research and investigation into all legal theories and defenses. In addition to being admitted to practice law in Michigan, I am also admitted to practice law in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan and the US District Court for the Western...

Ray's practice is mainly involved with divorce, custody, alimony and collections. Raymond Pater was born in the Netherlands and is one of eight children. After his family immigrated to the United States, and although of modest means, six of his siblings attended college and two went on to obtain PhDs, later becoming college professors. An older sister never attended high school, but was admitted to college because of a nearly illegible transcript and ironically went on to become a high school teacher. While attending grade school and high school, Ray worked in the family business selling eggs and chickens...

Mr. Smith has practiced as a trial attorney since graduating Notre Dame Law School in 1992. He has litigated cases across the country including cases from Ventura County, California to Middlesex County, New Jersey. He practices in both State and Federal courts.

In 2017, he began representing Michigan cities and counties in what has shaped up to be one of the largest pieces of litigation ever in the history of our federal court system. The majority of Northern Michigan and Upper Peninsula counties retained Mr. Smith and his team to represent their interests in MDL 2804, in RE: National Prescription Opioid...

Barry Shoults is a graduate of Lapeer Public Schools. He received his Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science from the University of Michigan - Flint and then received in 1981 his Juris Doctorate from the Detroit College of Law, now the Law School at Michigan State University. He was admitted to the practice of law in Michigan Courts in 1981 and in Federal Court in 1984. He worked his way through college and law school at various jobs including selling building supplies for Church’s Lumber. He started his legal career working for Legal Services of Eastern Michigan in Flint which provided legal...