The practice:

Lighthouse Legal operates in multiple state and federal jurisdictions. Our litigation team and pro bono legal aid work operate under Lighthouse Litigation Group, LLP, while our transactional work is under Lighthouse Legal, LLC. Coming soon, our legal nonprofit – yet to be named.

At Lighthouse Litigation Group, we work with legal aid as well as legal plans and insurance plans in multiple states to provide legal services to consumers who are sued in court, or who are facing abusive practices by corporate entities or creditors, or are individuals or small businesses facing civil litigation or damages of some kind. We are passionate about protecting people from bad actors.

While we can’t always make debts go away or fix every problem, we can respond to law suits and ensure that cases are responded to in ways that protect the rights of the individual involved, we can file a lis pendens to prevent a quick sale of a property out from under an owed contractor bill to ensure payment out of closing, or file a complaint for damages where someone or some entity has caused harm.

We also occasionally assist consumers with state and federal suits against debt settlement companies (and those behaving as such, despite what they may call themselves) who are not behaving ethically towards consumers. These organizations are also heavily regulated but frequently do not act appropriately – they may, for instance, promise performance, credit improvement, or that payments are for settling debts when they are actually just going into somebody’s pockets (ask about “earned performance fees” and similar). The reality is that every law suit is distinct, and nobody can promise anybody any outcome; stopping paying on debts causes defaults that DO result in litigation. The typical savings of a debt repair org is 3% – THREE. And, that’s after your debt has significantly ballooned due to purposefully missing payments are the instruction of that debt repair org. You’re better off filing bankruptcy – less damage to your credit, and for less time (the average credit dip with a debt repair org is 96 points vs bankruptcy at 20 points, for instance). These orgs are big business and they make lots of money off debtors, so they tend to get away with a lot until large three-letter orgs get involved.

The leadership:

Our managing attorney is Melissa Lynn-Purcell, who is an experienced private and corporate multijurisdictional litigation and compliance attorney. Her tenure includes more than 14 years with global Fortune 500 company JPMorgan Chase, after serving big-four giant KPMG. Today she serves exclusively as general counsel and managing partner for national litigation firm, Lighthouse Legal, since 2011, as well as founder and director of the board of nonprofit Little Whiskers Rescue.

Ms. Purcell is a Harvard-trained data privacy and information security legal and compliance specialist with deep passion and understanding of privacy laws and issues, coupled with consumer protection laws at the state and federal levels. Her work in contracts is exhaustive, whether it be with consumer contract breaches or complex software agreements with data privacy addenda and exhibits. Her ability to navigate litigation is top tier, with a keen ability to weigh risk and probability and take a bigger picture approach in considering how and when to avoid costly litigation and when to address it with aggression, head on.

She holds multiple post-graduate degrees, including a privacy law specialty program at Harvard Business School; a doctorate degree in law from Ohio Northern University; an MBA from The Ohio State University where her undergraduate degrees are also held, and a Masters of Science in Information Technology from Purdue. She teaches law occasionally for state bar programs and for non-lawyers in areas related to contracts, credit protection and debtor/creditors’ rights, real estate, landlord/tenant rights, as well as some ADA-and-FHA-related laws for Service Animals, in both English and Spanish.

Ms. Purcell is a leader in technology and consumer protection compliance; she serves occasionally as an expert witness, interim general counsel, and compliance consultant and specialist for firms from medium to large sizes. She delights in sharing knowledge and learning from others who share similar passions and is known for being an outspoken advocate and mentor.

In addition to her private practice, Ms. Purcell is a volunteer cooperating attorney for the EFF (Electronic Frontier Foundation), and she provides pro bono services for the Charleston Housing Court, South Carolina Legal Services, the Legal Aid Society of Columbus, the Ohio Legal Aid Foundation, and South East Ohio Legal Aid.

In recent years, Ms. Purcell has operated 501(c)(3) animal rescue org Little Whiskers Rescue out of Charleston, South Carolina, where she and her team work to save neonatal felines too medically compromised for local shelters; due to the astonishing costs of basic healthcare for these animals, she has chosen to return to medical school to pursue her doctorate of veterinary medicine. Her nonprofit, once she is a licensed veterinarian, will convert to a public facing clinic, which will offer free annual healthcare and vaccinations for the life of the pet, for local residents who adopt pets from local shelters as well as conducting extraordinarily needed trap-neuter-release clinics on a regular basis to benefit Charleston and surrounding counties. The org will partner with local Trident Tech and Penn Foster so Vet Tech students can use the org as their externship programs. Ms. Purcell will continue the practice of law but oversee the org and its operations and intends to become more active and enter into leadership roles in county, city, and state legislative arenas around animal welfare and the needs of local rescue shelters, which are greatly struggling.

Melissa is also currently battling cancer (endometrial adenocarcinoma) and has been in and out of remission; she speaks publicly about life with and after cancer and its impact on mental health as well as its impact on practicing as a professional. Please feel free to reach out if you need a compassionate ear on this subject – she feels strongly that we are all connected and that nobody should have to fight it alone.  Melissa faces some disabilities as a result of her aggressive cancer treatments, and although she cannot have children, she has three large, goofy retrievers which serve both as her service dogs as well as her favorite “good boys.” While she has very little down time, you may find her some early mornings trying to surf off the coast of Folly Beach; a pastime that is a labor of love, which, she admits with a knowing smile, she will never master. She has faced professional obstacles and is experienced in ADA, FHA, and EEOC compliance and complaints as a result of her own medical circumstances and is always happy to lend a hand.

Ella habla español, y le gustaría ayudarle a Usted con cualquier problema de derechos que tenga.