Attorneys

Mark Tulis is a partner in Tulis Wilkes Huff & Geiger and has been a practicing attorney since 1975. Mr. Tulis' specialty is real estate and health care cases. He is a federal bankruptcy panel trustee and an expert in real estate tax and municipal finance. As a bankruptcy trustee, he has supervised thousands of consumer and business Chapter 7 and 11 cases.

Mr. Tulis’ present real estate tax clients include Consolidated Edison Company of New York, Inc., United Water-Suez, and the Long Island Power Authority. Mr. Tulis tried Con Edison’s special franchise cases, which were among the largest cases ever tried in New York. His municipal clients include the Towns of Rye, Ossining, and Clarkstown, and he has represented the County of Westchester, villages of Port Chester, Briarcliff Manor, and Haverstraw. On behalf of private clients, he has negotiated municipal issues with almost every Westchester County municipality.

Mr. Tulis has previously served as a Councilman and Supervisor of the Town of New Castle and as a Westchester County legislator, and is responsible for the construction of the North County Trailway in New Castle and Yorktown. He is a founding board member of the Westchester County Healthcare Corporation, which presently operates ten hospitals in the Hudson Valley. Since 1997, Mr. Tulis has either been Chairman (nine years), Vice Chairman (six years) or Treasurer of the Corporation. Under his watch, the hospital has evolved from a county hospital operating in the red to a profitable provider offering top-notch health care throughout the entire Hudson Valley and beyond.

Mr. Tulis is Treasurer of the Westchester Parks Foundation and is also a frequent lecturer for the New York State Bar and Westchester County Bar Associations. He is a graduate of New York University School of Law (1975) and Brandeis University (1972). He is an avid cyclist.

David C. Wilkes concentrates his practice in property tax assessment, valuation disputes, and the creation of land rights legislation in the developing world. He is a Fellow of the London-based RICS, and a designated Counselor of Real Estate. He is the former Chairman of The Appraisal Foundation, the Congressionally-appointed source of U.S. appraisal standards. He is a Director of the International Property Tax Institute and co-founder and Vice Chairman of the National Association of Property Tax Attorneys (NAPTA) and its New York representative. He is a New York Metro Super Lawyer.

David is Editor-in-Chief of the New York State Bar Association’s flagship magazine, the Journal, and served as Editor-in-Chief of Real Estate Review, the prominent academic quarterly published by New York University’s Real Estate Institute. He is chapter author for books on taxation and eminent domain, and author of numerous articles on law and tax for professional publications.

Mr. Wilkes is the recipient of the 2003 International Association of Assessing Officers’ Distinguished Real Estate Research and Development Award; the Counselors of Real Estate’s Ballard Award for Best Article of 2005; and the 2008 APEX Award for Property Tax Reform.

Mr. Wilkes received a Master’s degree in real estate finance from New York University’s prestigious Real Estate Institute, and a law degree from the Boston University School of Law.

David is an avid rock climber and licensed guide; he is an airplane pilot and avid motorcyclist and photographer.​

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Jean Smiertka Huff concentrates her practice in tax certiorari, municipal defense, exemption proceedings and equalization rate litigation.

She has served as Special and Trial Counsel to various municipalities, including the Cities of Mount Vernon, New Rochelle and White Plains, Towns of Mount Pleasant and Greenburgh, and Village of Bronxville, as well as additional Westchester County municipalities on equalization rate and special segment equalization rate proceedings.

Ms. Huff has varied trial and appellate experience in the New York State Court of Appeals, the Appellate Division, First and Second Departments and the Supreme Court. She has assisted major law firms in their defense of municipal and school district tax assessments. She has lectured for the New York State and Westchester County Bar Associations on the representation of municipalities and school districts in tax certiorari matters.

Ms. Huff received her law degree from Brooklyn Law School, and a Bachelor of Arts from Fordham College. She is a member of the National Association of Property Tax Attorneys (NAPTA), the Westchester County Bar Association and the New York State Bar Association.

Ms. Huff is a Co-Facilitator and a member of the Steering Committee, PFLAG Westchester County, White Plains, New York.

Thomas M. Geiger, an accomplished transactional attorney, heads the firm’s transactional law department. With over thirty-five years experience in the state courts and in the commercial and residential transactional arena, Mr. Geiger brings a wide range of experience to the transactional law department which handles matters as varied as real estate sale and acquisition, business sale and acquisition, leasing, licensing, commercial contracts, shareholder and partnership agreements, and loan transactions.

Additionally, Mr. Geiger has extensive experience in the electric utility field, having represented affiliates of major energy companies such as Caithness Energy LLC and El Paso Energy. Other major clients include M&T Bank and Tappan Zee Constructors, LLC (the builder of the new Tappan Zee Bridge). Over the last thirty-five years, Mr. Geiger has represented thousands of clients in the purchase, sale and financing of commercial and residential properties, as well as other business related transactions.

Mr. Geiger has served as the Chairman of the County of Westchester Public Utility Service Agency, and is engaged in various civic and charitable endeavors. He holds a J.D. from the Columbia University School of Law (1971).

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Richard L. Koral is an AV-rated attorney whose practice concentration is in bankruptcy and bankruptcy litigation and related areas that include debt restructuring, business reorganization, mediation, as well as corporate and transactional law.

Mr. Koral has taught continuing legal education programs for the N.Y. County Lawyers' Association, the New York State Bar Association, the Brooklyn Bar Association and the Westchester County Bar Association. He is the author of multiple published works including "Bankruptcy Proceedings Related to Real Estate" in Bergerman and Roth: New York Real Estate Forms and "The New Bankruptcy Reorganization Law in France - Ten Years Later" for The American Bankruptcy Law Journal.

Mr. Koral is admitted to New York State courts, the federal courts of the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York and the Second Circuit Court of Appeals. He holds a B.A. from New York University and a J.D. from New York Law School.

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Having practiced in commercial real estate in prominent New York City law firms, first as an associate and then as a partner/member, Kenneth Ray has a broad experience representing both landlords and tenants in the leasing of retail, office, warehouse and manufacturing facilities. He also has extensive experience in the development, financing, acquisition and sale of shopping center properties and other commercial properties.

He has previously represented a discount department store chain in its national and international lease and acquisition of leasehold estates and sale of excess properties. Additionally, he has represented a major New York City landlord in its office and retail leasing. He also has represented banking and corporate clients with their leasing for headquarter premises and retail/service centers.

Most recently, Mr. Ray has represented a major developer of retail shopping centers (many anchored with Wal-Mart stores), a Fortune 50 company, as well as several international and startup corporations in their NYC office and retail leasing. Mr. Ray holds a B.A. from The City College of New York and a J.D. from Brooklyn Law School.

Nick is an Associate Attorney at Tulis Wilkes Huff & Geiger. His principle area of practice is real estate tax litigation, where he represents commercial property owners and municipalities throughout New York State in all aspects of taxation, real property valuation, and assessment related issues. He also handles tax foreclosure litigation, residential and commercial real estate matters, Article 78 proceedings, and related areas of municipal law.

Nick is a graduate of the Pace University School of Law (J.D., cum laude, 2010), where he was the Executive Articles Editor of the Pace Law Review. He currently serves as the Associate Editor of the New York State Bar Association Journal.

Before joining the firm, he spent time in the judicial chambers of The Honorable Mark C. Dillon in the Appellate Division, Second Department, and in the chambers of The Honorable Laura Taylor Swain in the United States District Court, Southern District of New York.

He co-wrote “Discovery, and Its Absence, in Tax Certiorari Proceedings,” which was published in the May 2010 issue of the NYSBA Journal.

He is admitted to practice in the states of New York and New Jersey, and is a member of the American Bar Association, New York State Bar Association, and Westchester County Bar Association.

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