The DebtCollect Recovery System^™ was developed by Maryland attorneys for Maryland businesses. Through their business-focused law firm, Wagonheim & Tucker, LLC, Eliot Wagonheim and Steve Tucker have become keenly attuned to the needs of their small to medium-sized business clientele. They poured their knowledge and experience into The DebtCollect Recovery System.

Eliot M. Wagonheim
Eliot graduated from Duke University in 1984 and from the University of Maryland School of Law in 1987, thereby confining his academic experience solely to the Atlantic Coast Conference. During his academic career, Eliot founded two successful start-up businesses, including one of the first legal temporary services on the East Coast while in his second year of law school.

Since the inception of his practice in 1987, Eliot has focused solely upon the representation of businesses. In 1995, Eliot became one of the youngest attorneys in Maryland to receive the coveted AV Rating (excellent to pre-eminent) for legal ability and ethical values from Martindale-Hubbell — the most comprehensive attorney rating system in the country.

In 1996, Eliot published The Art of Getting Paid: The Business Owner's Guide to Managing Receivables and Collecting Debts in Maryland. The Art of Getting Paid sold out three printings prior to being picked up and published nationally by HarperCollins Publishers in February, 2000. That same year, the District Court of Maryland hired Eliot to draft its small claims literature in order to make the system more accessible to the Maryland general public.

In September, 1999, after having advised countless businesses across a wide spectrum of industries and experience, Eliot decided to take a break from general practice and broaden his corporate experience by becoming Chief Operating Officer and General Counsel to a $20MM software development firm. In this way, Eliot continued to ensure his capacity to base his legal counsel on real world experience and workable, practical business solutions, rather than solely upon what lawyers often mistakenly view as business reality.

Back in private practice, Eliot has maintained his focus on business, acting as general counsel to a wide variety of businesses, providing contractual and transactional services, as well as working extensively in commercial and construction litigation.

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Stephen E. Tucker
Steve spent the first seven years of his legal career practicing in New York City, including several years representing investment banks and Fortune 500 companies at firms such as White & Case LLP and Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson, two of the country's largest and most prominent multinational law firms. His focus has been in the areas of corporate and transactional law, including securities regulation and corporate finance, mergers and acquisitions, venture capital, secured transactions and bank lending, and real estate. He has also counseled and advised a wide variety of small businesses in such diverse matters as corporate entity formation, joint ventures, franchising, intellectual property, and government contracting. Steve continues to focus on these areas at Wagonheim & Tucker while assisting the firm's clients with other areas of their businesses as well.

Steve received his B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, and earned his law degree from Syracuse University College of Law in Syracuse, New York, where he graduated magna cum laude and was a Senior Editor of the Syracuse Law Review.

Steve is admitted to practice in New York, the District of Columbia, and Maryland.

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