Association of Progressive Rental Organizations | America’s Champion for Rent-to-Own

2021 VIRTUAL LEGISLATIVE CONFERENCE

Our industry’s protection is as important as ever, while building and sustaining our political relationships is harder than ever. APRO hosted this virtual conference to help inform and prepare you — APRO members and state association leaders — for this new political landscape.

Nothing is more important to the well-being of your business than making sure lawmakers understand and trust what we do and how we do it.

Explore the Event Album

Access to rewatch the virtual Legislative Conference sessions is now closed. To request materials from the event’s presentations, please contact us at legcon@rtohq.org.

Session Highlights: Legislative and Legal Updates

Learn from our resident RTO experts on all things legal and legislative, including:

State legislative roundup – recent state issues, bills introduced, and the status of theft laws;
Bankruptcy code revamp and what it could mean for dealers;
Telephone Consumer Protection Act and its implications for RTO;
Limitations on charging fees, convenience fees, and others for the industry;
Employment law priorities to expect from the new administration; and
Classification of workers as employees vs. contract.

**Brian Farrington**
**Wage & Hour Attorney**

Brian Farrington is a Shareholder at Cowles & Thompson. His practice consists of advising and representing management concerning employment law. His areas of expertise are the Fair Labor Standards Act and Equal Employment Opportunity laws, government contracts labor standards (Davis Bacon Act, Service Contract Act), OSHA 11(c), and state wage payment laws.

Ed Winn, longtime APRO General Counsel, has unsurpassed knowledge of the rent-to-own industry. He is a partner at the law firm of Martinec, Winn, & Vickers P.C. in Austin, Texas, and helped found the Association of Progressive Rental Organizations in 1980. Winn is a regular contributor to RTOHQ: The Magazine, and has presented numerous seminars relating to the RTO industry for many years.

Session Highlights: Challenges in a New Administration

Our industry’s protection is as important as ever, while access to our legislators is more difficult than ever. We anticipate a challenging legislative environment for our industry in the next four years. Robbie Kamerschen and Demetrius McDaniel will be our featured keynotes in this session.

Robbie Kamerschen recently joined global law firm Greenberg Traurig, LLP, as a Shareholder. His vast expertise includes compliance, risk management, government relations, privacy, and more. Previously, Kamerschen served as Executive Vice President, General Counsel, Chief Administrative Officer, and Corporate Secretary at Aaron’s. Prior to joining Aaron’s, Kamerschen served as United States General Counsel, Senior Vice President of Government Affairs, and Chief Compliance Officer at Equifax.

Demetrius McDaniel is Chair of Greenberg Traurig’s Texas Government Law & Policy Practice and Co-Chair of the firm’s Washington, D.C. Federal Government Law & Policy Practice. Demetrius counsels and provides advocacy for clients on federal, state, and local legal and public policy matters. His broad knowledge of federal and state government and long tenure in working with officials has provided him with exceptional skills to collaboratively develop strategies to help clients address complex problems that have a government origin.

Session Highlights: State Issues — Lobbyist Panel

This is your chance to ask questions to those on the legislative frontlines. Hear directly from several of our state association lobbyists about:

COVID-19 liability protections for businesses,
Virtual advocacy and the current climate for meeting with legislators,
Relationship building with minority caucuses, and more.

P.J. Cimini is a founder and principal of Capitol Strategies Group, LLC. He is an attorney and lobbyist with over 23 years of experience assisting clients in their positions through policy-making proceedings before the Connecticut General Assembly, the Governor’s Office, state agencies, and municipal governments.

Mike founded Drexwood Partners LLC, and has over ten years of government and political experience and ten years of finance and real estate experience. Before founding Drexwood, Mike served as Executive Vice President at All-Circo, Inc, a full-service government affairs and lobbying firm.

Corinne Mixon
Sr. Dir. of Gov. Relations

Corinne is a registered professional lobbyist with 15 years of experience representing clients’ state governmental interests. Corinne is the Senior Director of Government Relations at Rutledge Ecenia, PA, where she represents a broad client base with a particular emphasis on health care practitioners, education, business, and regulated industries. She has been instrumental in passing myriad legislation and killing bills that would have negatively impacted her clients.

Thank You to the
2021 Virtual Legislative Conference Sponsors