BALLSTON SPA — The Speckled Pig Brewing Company opened its doors just under six months ago, and business has been strong for the local brewers.

Located at 11 Washington Street in the Village of Ballston Spa, Speckled Pig offers a variety of beers, seltzers, and pizzas, all of which are produced in-house.

Larry Heid, a partner at Speckled Pig, said the first six months have gone “better than we had expected,” noting the strong response from local community members.

“The Village of Ballston Spa, the residents here have been so warm,” said Heid. “They were super receptive to having a brewery. It’s become kind of like a home base for the village. We’re very happy with how it’s progressing.”

That progression has gone quickly, as Speckled Pig has already ventured into the distribution market, partnering with Saratoga Eagle to offer kegs of their beers at local bars.

“To be six months in and doing that is insane,” said R.J. Elliott, a partner at Speckled Pig. “So it’s been hectic, brewing as fast as humanly possible to keep up.”

The brewery is registered as a New York Farm Brewery, meaning that 60% of grains and hops used in the making of their beers must be sourced from within New York State. All of their beers and pizza are made on-site, with Elliott saying, “Local is kind of the name of our game.”

“Everything we do, we tie back to the people around here, supporting local businesses,” Elliott said, noting the Speckled Pig has a partnership with Coffee Planet, and has hosted a variety of fundraisers for booster clubs from Ballston Spa High School.

Elliott, a graduate of Ballston Spa High School, said it is meaningful to be able to establish a business in the village.

“It’s all anyone talks to me about now, ‘How’s the Pig?’,” Elliott said. “It’s the first thing that’s on everyone’s mind.”

Heid said the brewery is seeing “a lot of repeat customers.”

“On any given day, I will know, like, at least half the people that are here from just coming back,” said Heid.

The local support can be easily observed inside the brewery, as a wall across from the bar is covered with the names of members of the Speckled Pig’s ‘Founders Club.’ The Founders Club hosts private events and offers tastings of new beers, among other perks. Elliott said over 300 people signed up for the club within the brewery’s first two weeks of opening.

“And we capped it at that,” said Elliott. “We had a lot of people still asking us to join, but we stopped it because we want to be able to, on the Wednesdays that we do open for Founders, have them all get a seat when they come in.”

It has been a drastic turnaround for the property, which sat vacant for many years before Elliott’s family purchased it. However, they initially did not have any plans for a brewery.

“We just wanted to clean it up for the village,” Elliott said. “That was the only goal. For years, it had sat here. You’re talking 15 to 20 years without anything in it.”

Then Larry and Mary-Jo Heid came into the picture. Looking for a brewery in the area, they connected with Kelly Delaney-Elliott, R.J.’s mother and a real estate broker. 

“We had no brewery intention in mind until we met the Heids,” said Elliott. “A year later, we were open. So it happened fast. It still feels like it was yesterday.”

The brewery came flying out of the gate, offering 11 beers and a seltzer on their first day of business, which Elliott said was “crazy.”

“Nobody told us we weren’t supposed to do that, we just kind of went for it,” said Heid.

“To do that right off the bat meant literally as fast as you could possibly turn the tank, we’re brewing the next cycle,” added Elliott. “For the first couple weeks, you’d look at the menu and you’d see a line through like three of them, because we just kicked the seven kegs we had, and we had three more days until we got the tank. Now, it’s a pretty huge achievement that we’ve got all our beers on tap and we’re ahead of it.”

The brewery also has big plans as the weather gets warmer, with Elliott saying the Speckled Pig is looking to open a rooftop deck in the summer. Currently, the brewery operates solely on the top floor of the building (roughly 4,500 square feet).

Looking further into the future, Speckled Pig also plans to deepen their roots in distribution. Heid said the company hopes to start selling cans of their beer “within a year.”

Ultimately, Elliott said being able to share the brewery with the people of Ballston Spa is “one of the coolest feelings.”

“I just get a ton of pride being able to do it in Ballston Spa,” said Elliott. “It’s my hometown, and it’s nice to be able to create a business that can manufacture right here.”

SARATOGA SPRINGS — Saratoga National Bank and Trust Company has announced the promotion of Leslie D’Angelico to Business Development Sales Manager.

In this new role, Ms. D’Angelico will be responsible for day-to-day management of the Business Development Team with a focus on developing, growing and deepening new and existing relationships across the bank’s footprint and business lines. She will also continue to support the bank’s Retail Branch teams.

Ms. D’Angelico has more than 20 years of experience in banking, 12 of which have been spent with Saratoga National Bank and the Arrow Family of Companies. In that time, she has successfully held leadership and individual producer roles within retail banking. 

Ms. D’Angelico attended SUNY Adirondack and has completed several courses from the American Institute of Banking. She lives in Queensbury and is active in the community serving on two boards, Big Brothers Big Sisters of the Southern Adirondacks and Queensbury Community Scholarship Association.

SARATOGA SPRINGS — Continuum Wealth Advisors, an SEC-registered investment advisor with offices in Saratoga Springs, has announced the addition of James T. Cox, CFP®, ChFC®, BFA™ to the firm’s wealth management team.

James has been working in the financial industry for more than 12 years and is excited to bring his skillset to a fast-growing firm. As a Certified Financial Planner™, he provides clarity to his clients’ financial lives.

“I am excited to join one of the premier boutique financial planning firms in the Capital District. I am impressed with the passion, knowledge, and experience that Tim, David, and Jen use to serve their clients. I believe my experience and focus on financial planning will be a strong fit with this firm that will help propel us forward,” Cox said about the move.

“We are very excited to welcome James to Continuum Wealth Advisors. With James joining our team, we will be able to expand the scope of our services and help more families in the Capital District,” said Tim Smith, who founded Continuum Wealth Advisors in 2010.

CORINTH — The Women Presidents’ Organization (WPO) recently announced the election of Sue Commanda, Chief Executive Officer of Hudson River Community Credit Union (HRCCU), as the newest member of its Board of Directors. Commanda will serve as a Board Observer in 2023 before officially joining the WPO Board of Directors once existing board members reach their respective term limits.

Commanda is the CEO and Chief Information Security Officer of Hudson River Community Credit Union, a not-for-profit financial cooperative headquartered in Corinth with more than $350 million in assets.

As the WPO’s governing body, the Board of Directors guides the organization toward a sustainable future led by sound, ethical, and legal governance and financial management policies, while ensuring the organization is equipped with the necessary resources to advance its mission.

ALBANY — George de Piro, the former chief brewing officer at Druthers Brewing Company, has filed a lawsuit against the company, according to a petition filed in the New York State Supreme Court in Albany.

De Piro is a shareholder of all four Druthers locations, according to the petition. The petition states that de Piro is aiming to examine the company’s books and records in order to determine “the financial condition of the entities.”

Druthers has locations in Saratoga Springs, Albany, Schenectady, and Clifton Park. de Piro owns 13 to 15% shares of each Druthers location, according to the petition.

The petition states that “a dispute arose” between de Piro and other members of the company in March 2021.

The petition claims de Piro has made requests for various records in recent months and has not received them, claiming that Druthers “have provided incomplete responses focusing on the breakdown of the relationship and failing to turn over necessary documents.”

The petition states that de Piro is seeking information regarding “potential self-dealing,” in the selection of construction contracts, the use of company-owned apartments and vehicles, and “no-show jobs.” de Piro also alleges the Druthers Board of Directors has not held annual meetings “for in some cases well over a decade.”

De Piro sent a demand letter to Druthers on Nov. 25, 2022, asking to inspect corporate documents. The petition states that Druthers’ CEO Chris Martell told de Piro’s lawyers on Dec. 15 via email he would “respond comprehensively” by the second week of January.

According to the filed petition, de Piro has not yet received the documents. de Piro also requested that the company purchase his shares, citing “other disputes,” which was refused, according to the petition.

Neither Martell or de Piro returned requests for comment for this report.

De Piro is represented by Matthew W. Lizotte and Donald J. Feerick, Jr. of Feerick Nugent MacCartney, PLLC in Nyack. de Piro is asking the court to permit he and his attorneys to receive and inspect the requested documents, that a referee be appointed to supervise “the provision of access and disclosure by Respondents,” and awarding costs and fees associated with the prosecution.

I have a confession to make: in the past I’ve “self-diagnosed” a medical issue by searching Google before going to the doctor.

Inevitably when I went to the doctor I was shocked to learn that my self-diagnosis was not correct, for reasons that were very obvious to the doctor upon hearing the entire context of my situation but that were overlooked during my research.

Go figure, and I’m sure I’m not alone in this.

So it goes with legal problems as well.  

It’s very common that a potential new client will come in to meet with me having done their own research.  This is great; in fact, we prefer to work with engaged clients who do research before reaching out to or hiring a lawyer.

Where this becomes less beneficial, however, is when the person says something to the effect of: “well, I read online that this person in Florida won _____ million dollars for the exact same thing.”  Or, “my friend/spouse/sibling told me that based upon their research I should expect to get _______ outcome.”

It’s human nature to wonder about the future, and about the potential outcomes of a problematic situation.  Legal matters are very stress inducing, so it’s no surprise that they would be ripe for this sort of thinking.  These days this inevitably leads most people to online research and/or discussions with friends.  

The beauty of the internet is that essentially all of the information in the world is available to everyone.  One of the downsides, however, is that all of the information in the world is available to everyone.  Much of it without context, which leads most of us to form conclusions based upon surface level information.  For better or worse, however, in the legal profession context matters.  A lot.

When a person comes to a lawyer with a legal problem, the lawyer will typically approach the situation using the framework below (this is what’s taught in most law schools): 

1. What are the relevant facts of this situation? (Note: what the client thinks are relevant and what the lawyer thinks are relevant are not always the same). 

2. What legal issues do these facts raise?

3. What is the relevant law(s) applicable to these facts and issues?

4. How does that law apply generally?

5. What facts make this case similar or different from the general application of the law?

6. What intangibles impact the potential outcome based upon the general application of the law?  These include (but certainly aren’t limited to):

    a. Location of the matter;

    b. Witnesses;

    c. Credibility of parties;

    d. Potential public interest;

    e. Etc. 

#’s 5& 6 are critical, because in our experience online searches and discussions with friends/family often overlook both the details that make cases unique, as well as the intangibles that can have a substantial impact on the outcome.   An easy example of intangible “a”: someone who suffers a broken leg in a car accident in Kings County, NY will very likely have a different outcome than someone who suffers the same injury in Saratoga/Warren/Washington or other upstate New York counties.  In that context, location matters. 

I thought of this just this week, when I read an article about a settlement in the case involving the family of Kobe Bryant, who settled multiple claims against Los Angeles County for close to Thirty Million Dollars.  The facts of the claim were fairly straightforward and included allegations that deputies who arrived on scene took unauthorized photos and shared them.  

Of course the case was anything but usual, and involved a) a public figure and case of massive public interest; b) in a jurisdiction that has a history of substantial jury verdicts and settlements; and c) what appeared to be significant credibility issues on the defense side.  So, while a reasonable person could see that settlement and think, “my case should be worth that much or close to it,” this would more likely than not be incorrect for the reasons I mentioned.

The point is, if you find yourself with a legal (or medical, accounting, engineering, plumbing, etc.) problem it absolutely makes sense to do your own homework and educate yourself about the process.  Be cautious, however, about reaching conclusions about how things might go based solely on articles online or conversations with friends, keeping in mind that what you read often lacks the relevant context, which can make all the difference.