Legal Team
Richard A. Weintraub J.D. Founder and Managing Partner
Richard A. Weintraub is the Founder and Managing Partner of Weintraub Law Group PC. Practicing law for 40 years, Rick is an ’AV’-rated attorney by Martindale Hubble. He has been Lead Counsel in more than 500 public and private offerings and more than 200 mergers and acquisitions. Rick has extensive experience in the negotiation and structuring of hundreds of business transactions. He specializes in the formation of business entities; venture capital transactions; mergers, acquisitions, and divestitures; public and private offerings, and debt financing.
Rick represents clients in a wide range of industries, including but not limited to, computer technology, biotechnology, medical services, finance and investment, communications, marketing, transportation, and real estate development. These transactions have been accomplished through such entities as corporations, limited liability companies, REITS, REMICS, business trusts, and limited partnerships.
Rick is an expert in the CrowdFunding. Spurred on by the enactment of the JOBS Act of 2012, Rick co-founded CommunityLeader, Inc., a firm specializing in creating portal platforms for the offer and sale of securities in a cloud-based eco-system. Rick has presented at several conferences, seminars, and meetings addressing issues in the CrowdFunding area. Weintraub Law Group PC has prepared a significant number of private placement memoranda for the offering of securities using CrowdFunding.
Rick is in the process of filing two (2) public offerings of cannabis companies, one under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and the other pursuant to Regulation A.
With significant hands-on working knowledge of the relevant issues in his specific practice areas, Rick is often called upon to provide expert testimony in some of the most complex and challenging cases. He is uniquely qualified in the San Diego area to assess hypothetical fact patterns that may be analogous to actual areas of testimony and provide keen insight of how the application of the law applies to those fact patterns. Rick prides himself on providing superior services in an expeditious manner for a reasonable price. He has recently supplied testimony about (i) Rule 144 issues, (ii) Regulation D preemption over state law under Section 18 of the Securities Act of 1933, (iii) the demand futility in shareholder derivative actions and (iv) unregistered broker-dealer determination. provides expert witness services in the areas of corporate and securities law.
He also has considerable experience in the representation of hedge funds and private equity funds. Currently, he represents hedge fund offerings exceeding $200 million.
Rick earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from University California Los Angeles in 1975 and Juris Doctorate degree from Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles, in 1978. He was admitted into the U.S. Claims Court in 1984; the U.S. Tax Court in 1985; the U.S. District Court, Central District of California in 1993; and the U.S. District Court, Southern District of California in 1994. Rick has also been an instructor of tax and securities law courses at UCLA, University California San Diego, and the University of San Diego. He has instructed a course entitled “Securities Law Implications for the Emerging Growth Business” at UCSD. Rick is a periodic presenter for continuing legal education for NBI.
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Education
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Noteworthy Experiences
- Developed the structure for a national real estate syndicator for the marketing of low-income tax credits that is the used as the predominant model in the industry today
- Negotiated and closed a complex corporate financing transaction and acquisition of a government telecommunications firm to form a publicly traded company
- Lead attorney on a public offering of common stock for a mortgage finance company
- Represented a business consulting firm in connection with the financing of several emerging growth companies
- Negotiated and closed the acquisition of a health care company
- Represented a registered investment advisory firm in connection with the formation and operation of a private equity firm
- Developed the structure of a blank check company and the registration of common stock on form S-1
- Co-founded CommunityLeader, Inc., a company formed to develop software and services for the offer and sale of securities under the JOBS Act of 2012
- Co-founded ValueScape Analytics, Inc., a company offering appraisal solutions in a cloud-based environment
- Drafted hundreds of PPMs for the syndication of residential, commercial and industrial real estate and mortgage-backed securities
Debra M. Van Alstyne
Debra Van Alstyne received her Juris Doctor degree from the UCLA School of Law. She graduated in the top 10% of her class and is a member of the Order of the Coif. She served as a Comment Editor of the UCLA Law Review, where she published a Comment, Environmental Decision Making Under CEQA. Before attending law school, Debra graduated from the University of California, Irvine, with a B.S. degree in Biological Sciences. After law school, Debra served as the sole law clerk for the Honorable Harry Pregerson in the U.S. District Court, Central District of California. Debra is a member of the State Bar of California and the District of Columbia Bar.
After completing her federal court clerkship, Debra became a lawyer in private practice in Los Angeles. She practiced with and became a partner of Hufstedler Miller Carlson & Beardsley and then McKenna Conner and Cuneo (now McKenna Long and Aldridge), where she first handled litigation matters and then corporate, real estate and securities matters. She then became “of counsel” to Sachs and Phelps, where she continued her corporate and securities practice, with a particular emphasis on private placements of real estate securities.
Upon moving to the Washington DC area, Debra joined the Division of Corporation Finance of the Securities and Exchange Commission, where she served as Senior Counsel for nearly four years and was responsible for reviewing the publicly filed securities documents of existing and newly public companies. After leaving the Securities and Exchange Commission, she became Deputy General Counsel for HealthCare Financial Partners, a newly public company in Chevy Chase, Maryland that provided secured receivables financing (primarily Medicare and Medicaid receivables), real estate financing, and debtor-in-possession financing for companies operating in the healthcare industry.
Debra then joined Fannie Mae in Washington, DC as an Associate General Counsel. At Fannie Mae, Debra was responsible for the preparation and continuous revision of the securities disclosure documents for the company’s single-family and multifamily mortgage-backed securities. Debra also managed the ongoing legal aspects of the mortgage-backed securities program. Debra spent a large portion of her time working with securities that were backed by multifamily properties located throughout the United States.
Debra was an Adjunct Professor of Law at Georgetown University Law School from 2007 through 2012, co-teaching a class on “Disclosure Under the Federal Securities Laws” in the Securities Law LLM program. From 2015 to 2018, Debra served on the Board of Directors of Shepherd’s Table in Silver Spring, Maryland, a non-profit organization that provides daily meals to those in need.
Aaron J. Dikos
Aaron Dikos is a corporate attorney who focuses on corporate, commercial and business transactions, mergers and acquisitions, entity establishments, corporate structuring and the federal tax implications of multi-jurisdictional corporate structures.
Aaron graduated with honors from Michigan State University in 2001, where he earned a Bachelor of Arts in Business Administration with pre-law emphasis. He received his Juris Doctor from Michigan State University School of Law in 2006 and an LL.M. in Tax Law, with distinction, from Georgetown University Law Center in 2018.
After earning his Juris Doctor, Aaron joined DLA Piper where his practice focused on cross-border corporate transactions, mergers and acquisitions and multi-jurisdictional corporate structuring. In 2015, he joined Al Tamimi and Company where he continued to expand his experience in international corporate, commercial and financial transactions and corporate structuring.
Aaron has represented large banking, financial and commercial institutions on a variety of corporate, commercial and banking transactions and matters, including the draft and negotiation of complex transactional agreements, due diligence on target entities and assets, in-bound and out-bound tax structuring and tax treaty analysis.
Aaron is admitted to practice law in Michigan, Minnesota, the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan and the United States Tax Court.
Rita Abro
Rita Abro has extensive experience in matters of taxation, including international, federal, and state and local tax matters. Her tax experience includes both planning and controversy work, and she has represented clients at every level of the tax controversy process, including audit, IRS Appeals Office, and litigation phases.
Rita also has experience in general corporate, finance, and real estate law. She has represented both public and private companies in U.S. and cross-border mergers and acquisitions, including stock and asset acquisitions and dispositions, and corporate reorganizations, and has represented issuers and underwriters in structured security and bond offerings.
As an active member of the pro bono community, Rita has devoted considerable time assisting organizations with obtaining tax-exempt status and representing low-income taxpayers in their disputes with the Internal Revenue Service and the Illinois Department of Revenue. She has also worked with the Ladder Up organization assisting low-income taxpayers in filing their returns.
Rita obtained her Juris Doctor from the University of Michigan Law School in 2006 and her B.A. from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor in 2002.
Rockne Krebs
Rockne has worked in the legal field since 2016 and has a varied background consisting of experience in corporate governance, securities and antitrust class action litigation. Since 2021, Rockne has been part of Weintraub Law Group, handling state and federal securities filings, entity formations and corresponding corporate compliance.
Contact Information
- Phone: (858) 566-7010
- Fax: (858) 566-7015
- Email: rock@weintraublawgroup.com