Chat With a Lawyer

Check out this episode with Attorney Dolores Dorsainvil on Ethics for Lawyers and how to report unethical lawyers.

Check out this episode with Attorney J. Wyndal Gordon who discusses his criminal defense work with the Sniper Case, high profile Prince George’s County cases such as the bottle bomb or the Accokeek Drag racing case.  There was also a segment on knowing your rights with police.

Check out episode with Abiola Afoloyan, founder of Not On Our Watch Advocacy, on efforts to internationally and nationally combat human trafficking.

Meet Mel Franklin, Esq.

Mel Franklin (D-District 9) was elected to his first four-year term on the Prince George’s County Council in the November 2, 2010 General Election. Council Member Franklin represents the 9th Councilmanic District of Prince George’s County that includes the constituent areas of Accokeek, Andrews Air Force Base, Aquasco, Baden, Brandywine, Camp Springs, Cheltenham, Clinton, Croom, Eagle Harbor, Fort Washington, Piscataway, and Upper Marlboro. Born in Cheraw, South Carolina (11/30/1975), Mel grew up in rural South Carolina, his parents life-long educators: his mother recently retiring after 40 years; his father – a former teacher himself – and still a school administrator today.

Mel earned his B.A. degree in political science from the University of South Carolina, in 1998.

In 2001, when Mel graduated from Duke University School of Law with a Juris Doctor degree, he was also admitted to the Maryland Bar. Beginning in 2001, Mel served for over four years as a Federal Attorney with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) where he fought against the kind of illegal business practices that threaten to raise the prices of groceries, health care, prescription drugs, job services, and many other goods and services most American’s budget for carefully.

Following two years at the private law firm Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal LLP, Mel returned to public service as an Assistant Attorney General for the State of Maryland, working with two state agencies (the MHCC & MCHRC) to improve the quality of health care and get resources to communities in need.

Franklin is married and currently resides in Marlton community of Upper Marlboro, Maryland with his wife, Monekia, and their two children. They attend Mt. Ennon Baptist Church in Clinton, Maryland.

Contact Info:

Council Chair, Mel Franklin, Esq.
Chair, County Council (Democrat)
County Council
County Administration Building, 2nd floor
14741 Governor Oden Bowie Drive, Upper Marlboro, MD 20772 – 3070

Phone:     (301) 952-3700
E-mail:    mfranklin@co.pg.md.us

Check out my interview with Lobbyist Len Lucchi who discusses various Maryland laws and their impact such as Minimum Wage, Firearms, State Budget, Transportation, Police Brutality and more.

Meet Leonard (Len) Lucchi

Leonard L. Lucchi is a registered lobbyist who represents business owners, trade groups, and County and City governments before the Maryland General Assembly and the United States Congress.  Mr. Lucchi’s scope of representation includes lobbying, tracking pending or proposed legislative activities and analyzing the effects of those pieces of legislation on client matters, drafting legislation, organizing and mobilizing coalitions in support or opposition to pending or proposed legislation, effectively utilizing media outlets to support client initiatives, and testifying on behalf of clients before various legislative committees.

During his thirty years as a legislative advocate, Mr. Lucchi has helped to shape legislation on behalf of his business and corporate clients that creates or enhances the marketplace for their goods and services.  For example, Mr. Lucchi persuaded the Maryland General Assembly to pass a law requiring the installation of carbon-monoxide detectors in new residential construction.  The passage of this bill created a new market for his client, a major manufacturer of carbon monoxide detectors.  In addition to his representation of business owners, Mr. Lucchi has represented trade groups such as solar power manufacturers, mobile home park owners, and food delivery franchisees and has helped to guide them through the legislative process.

Contact Info:

Leonard L. Lucchi
Principal, Administrative Law & Government Relations Practice Group
O’Malley, Miles, Nylen & Gilmore, P.A.
11785 Beltsville Drive, 10^th Floor, Calverton, MD 20705

Phone:    301.572.1934
Fax:         301.572.6655
Email:     llucchi@omng.com

Check out the episode with Alex Bernshteyn on Immigrants rights and the issues with Central American children crossing the US Border.

Meet Alex Bernshteyn

Alexandra is a staff attorney with Immigrants First, PLLC. Her desire to work in immigration law stems for her experience as an immigrant from Russia. She now works exclusively in immigration law and focuses on removal defense, representing immigrants with criminal convictions, in both their removal proceedings and in securing immigration bonds. She also has expertise representing asylum seekers and petitioners under the Violence Against Women Act, for U visas, Special Immigrant Juvenile Status, adjustment of status, and naturalization.

Alexandra graduated cum laude from American University, Washington College of Law in 2011. During law school, she traveled abroad and working on behalf of refugees in Johannesburg, South Africa and child laborers in Hyderabad, India. She found her passion for immigration law as a law student in the International Human Rights Clinic where she successfully represented a homosexual and HIV positive asylum seeker and spoke before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights on the United States’ deportation policies.

Before joining Immigrants First, PLLC, Alexandra lived in Denver, Colorado. In Colorado she worked as a legal fellow for the Rocky Mountain Immigrant Advocacy Network (RMIAN), where she represented immigrants in the Immigration Detention Facility and gave Know Your Rights legal presentations to detainees. She then worked as a staff attorney for the law firm of Hernandez & Associates, P.C., in Denver, Colorado where she represented immigrants before immigration, criminal, and family court.

Alexandra is an active member of the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) and is currently serving on its Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Liaison Committee. She helped found AILA’s Colorado Asylum Project, offering pro bono legal assistance to refugees in Colorado. She is also a member of the Virginia Women’s Attorney Association.

Alexandra’s travels and personal and professional experiences have motivated her to ensure that the voices of her clients are heard. She is personally committed to stand by her clients’ sides throughout their entire immigration process in order to ensure they receive the best possible results and do not have to face their battles alone. Alexandra is proficient in Spanish and Russian.

Contact Info:

Alex Bernshteyn
Staff Attorney
Immigrants First, PLLC.
9117 Church Street, Manassas, VA 2011

Phone:    703-335-2009
Fax:         703-335-5755

Check out my interview with Professor Susan Carle, American University, Washington College of Law on her new book, Defining the Struggle: National Organizing for Racial Justice, 1880-1915 on the early civil rights movement and leaders such as W.E.B. Du Bois and Booker T. Washington.

Meet Susan Carl

She teaches and writes about civil rights legal history, employment discrimination, labor and employment law, legal ethics, and the history and sociology of the legal profession. She is the author of Defining the Struggle: National Organizing for Racial Justice, 1880-1915, published by Oxford University Press in 2013. In 2014 she received the Organization of American Historians’ Liberty Legacy Award for “the author of the best book by a historian on the civil rights struggle from the beginnings of the nation to the present.”

She has published numerous articles examining lawyers’ conceptions of their professional obligations to further the public interest in journals including the Cornell Law Review, Fordham Law Journal, Florida Law Review, Harvard Journal of Gender and the Law, American University Law Review, and Stanford Journal of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties. She is also editor ofLawyers’ Ethics and the Pursuit of Social Justice (NYU Press Critical America Series 2005), which collects work in the emerging field of critical legal ethics scholarship.

Ms. Carle attended Yale Law School, where she served as an editor of The Yale Law Journal. She worked as an appellate attorney in the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice and at the leading union-side labor and employment law firm of Bredhoff & Kaiser. She was W.M. Keck Fellow in Legal Ethics at Georgetown University Law Center from 1995-97, and in 2006 served as Visiting Professor of Law at the Harvard Law School.   After graduation she clerked on the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.

Contact Info:

Susan Carle
Bredhoff & Kaiser
1000 Connecticut Ave #1300
Washington, DC 20036

Check out my interview with Delegate Aisha Braveboy, 25th Legislative District and the foreclosure process in Maryland.

Meet Aisha Braveboy

Delegate Aisha Braveboy is an accomplished lawyer with over twelve years experience.

In 2006, Ms. Braveboy was first elected to represent the 25^th Legislative District in the Maryland General Assembly, and then again in 2010.   She was assigned to the House Economic Matters Committee, where she serves as Chair of the Consumer Protection Subcommittee, and member of the Business Regulations and the Banking, Economic Science and Technology Subcommittees.

Ms. Braveboy has received numerous recognitions for her work as a lawyer and as a legislator.   She received the 2011 Rising Star award in Super Lawyers Magazine, a publication that features lawyers who have made significant contributions in their field.   She has also been honored by the NAACP, the Family Crisis Center, the Washington DC Building Trades Council, the Women Business Owners of Prince George’s County, and many other organizations.

Ms. Braveboy currently serves as Chair of the Legislative Black Caucus of Maryland, and is also a member of the Women’s Caucus.

Legislative highlights include: raising the drop out age in the State from 16 to 18; providing strong, but balanced, criminal justice laws; championing equality in higher education, strengthening homeowner and condo associations, assisting families facing foreclosure, empowering victims of domestic violence; supporting the immigrant community; advocating for workers’ rights, including raising the minimum wage; growing women and minority business opportunities; promoting sustainable growth and economic development; and defending consumer and civil rights.

Ms. Braveboy is a graduate of the University of Maryland at College Park, where she joined the Eta Beta Chapter of Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority, Inc.   She is also a graduate of Howard University School of Law.

Contact Info

Aisha Braveboy
Delegate
Friends of Aisha Braveboy
3060 Mitchellville Road,
Suite 216 Bowie, Maryland 20716

Phone:  (443) 595.7922
Email:   contact@aishabraveboy.com

Attorney Andrew Sowell provides helpful advice on legal issues that small business owners should consider while developing and operating their businesses.

Meet Andrew Sowell

Andrew M. Sowell primary focus is small and medium size businesses and people involved in contract disputes. His practice ranges from business formation development to dissolution and acquisition. Andrew  completed his undergraduate studies in cognitive development at the University of Arizona before receiving a Masters of Arts degree at American University in International Peace and Conflict Resolution.

Andrew Sowell is a practicing attorney in the Washington, DC area. He is originally from North Carolina and has been in DC for 11 years. He received his BA from the University of Arizona and worked several years in behavioral management before receiving his MA in International Peace and Conflict Resolution from American University. In an effort to continue serving people he received his JD from the University of the District of Columbia. Andrew is the managing member of Andrew M. Sowell, PLLC where he focuses on civil litigation.He is an experienced negotiator and mediator, and is actively involved in the community supporting cross-cultural communication and alternative dispute resolution.

contact Info:

Andrew M. Sowell, PLLC
419 7th Street, NW
Suite 401
Washington, DC 20004

Phone: (202) 559 7893

State Senator Victor Ramirez discusses current Maryland State Legislation and Immigrations issues.

Meet Victor Ramirez

Victor R. Ramirez is the current State Senator for District 47 in Prince George’s County, Maryland. He was born in San Salvador, El Salvador, in 1974. His family soon after moved to the United States and he lived in Mount Rainier, Maryland.

Democrat, District 47, Prince George County. Grew up in Mount Rainer . As a child Victor attended Thomas Stone Elementary School and Hyattsville Middle School. He attended Northwestern High. He received his B.A. from Frostburg State University in 1996 and his J.D from St. Thomas School of Law in Miami in 2001.

Since 2003, Victor has worked  diligently in behalf of District 47, eight years as a delegate and now a State  Senator.

Contact Info:

Victor Ramirez
State Senator / Democrat
P.O. Box 166
Mt. Rainer, MD 20712

Phone:  (301) 858.3745
Email:   victor@victorramirez.com