THE ADVOCATE
VOLUME 37, NUMBER 3 - Spring 2023
EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE
Kerri Smith,
Lauren Lake, Chair-Elect
Rima Kikani, Treasurer
Emily Greene, Secretary
Genna Hoy, Member At-Large
Jessica Gorsky, Past Chair
BOARD OF GOVERNORS REPRESENTATIVES
Josephine Bahn
Heather Krick
Christian Noble
Kerri Smith
STANDING COMMITTEES
ACTIVITIES CO-CHAIRS
Ashley Fellona, Rachel Samakow & Megan Micco
ABA REPRESENTATIVE
Chris Jennison
DISASTER RELIEF CHAIR
Valerie Desroches
DIVERSITY CO-CHAIRS
Jasmine Caesar-England & Dania
Ayoubi
EDUCATION CO-CHAIRS
Chaitra Gowdra, Kaitlin Corey & Jon
Huddleston
FAMILY FRIENDLY CO-CHAIRS
Elizabeth Rosen & Lisa Fishelman
LAWYER WELLNESS CO-CHAIRS
John Thompson & Ashley Bond
LEGISLATIVE CHAIR
Grason Wiggins
MEMBERSHIP / LAW STUDENT OUTREACH CO-CHAIRS
Divya Potdar, Manny Fishelman & Sara Lucas
NOMINATING CHAIR
Jessica Gorsky
2 TABLE OF CONTENTS 3 Message from the Chair 5 Committee Updates 5 Nominating Committee 6 Strategic Planning Committee 6 Diversity & Inclusion Committee 10 ABA Update 12 Riding the Circuits 12 Anne Arundel City 12 Baltimore County 13 Frederick County 14 Howard County 14 Montgomery County 15 Prince George’s County THE
Lawyers Section Council Maryland State Bar Association
ADVOCATE Young
Chair
POLICY CHAIR
Lauren Lake
PRO BONO / WILLS FOR HEROES CO-CHAIRS
Alex Raby, Bill Kiniry, & David Scull
PUBLICATIONS CO-CHAIRS
Heather Krick, Sonjay Singh
PUBLIC SERVICE CO-CHAIRS
Garrett Mannchen, Christian Noble, & Amy Rappole
SOCIAL MEDIA CHAIR
Letam Duson
STRATEGIC PLANNING COCHAIRS
Lauren Lake & Elizabeth Howard
TECHNOLOGY CO-CHAIRS
TJ Keilty III & Joseph Kavanagh
YLS SUMMIT CO-CHAIRS
Greg Waterworth & Lauren Lake
CIRCUIT REPRESENTATIVES
Jeff Sadri, Anne Arundel
James Robinson, Baltimore City
Alexis Holiday, Baltimore County
William Sasse, Carroll
Spencer Cropper, Lower Shore
Clark Adams, Frederick
Tyler Brown, Howard
Leslie Miller, Montgomery
Meagan Allen, Prince George’s
David Arnold, Western Maryland
Ernesto Villasenor, UB Law
Margaret (Meg) Tippett, UMD Law
The Advocate is published quarterly by the Young Lawyers Section of the Maryland State Bar Association, 520 West Fayette Street, Baltimore, MD, 21201.
The opinions exercised in this publication are those of the authors and should not be construed to represent the opinions of the Young Lawyers Section or the Maryland State Bar Association ©2022 Maryland State Bar Association, Inc.
MESSAGE FROM THE CHAIR THE YLS GIVES BACK TO THE COMMUNITY
By Kerri Smith
Happy spring, young lawyers! One of the YLS’ many goals is to provide opportunities for young members of the MSBA to give back to the community. The YLS takes pride in organizing and investing in Maryland’s local communities in a variety of ways and has a long history of making a difference in the community through public service and public education. Over the last few months, the YLS has participated in several community events.
On February 4, 2023, the YLS participated in the Polar Bear Plunge benefiting Maryland Special Olympics at Sandy Point State Park.
On Friday, April 21, 2023, the YLS hosted its annual Charity Event benefiting Athletes Serving Athletes at Gertrude’s at the Baltimore Museum of Art. Athletes Serving Athletes is committed to elevating the quality of life for individuals with limited mobility by empowering them to train for and participate in mainstream running events. ASA is a champion of inclusion and works to break down barriers or inaccessibility in our communities.
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The next morning, on Saturday, April 22, 2023, YLS members volunteered with Athletes Serving Athletes at RunFest, the organization’s annual fundraiser in Hunt Valley. You can learn more about ASA HERE.
On May 8, 2023, the YLS will partner with the Maryland Pro Bono Resource Center to sponsor a Pro Bono Estate-Planning Clinic. This free estate-planning clinic helps community members age in place, preserve intergenerational wealth, provide security for families, and protect the rights of homeowners. Volunteer attorneys will help prepare wills, advance medical directives,
and financial powers of attorney for community members at Bon Secours Community Resource Center.
As always, please consider joining the YLS for a project that interests you! We are also interested in hearing new ideas for public service and public education projects from our members.
Please also consider joining the YLS at the MSBA Legal Summit and Annual Meeting in Ocean City, Maryland from June 7-9, 2023. The YLS will be hosting a Welcome Happy Hour at 45th Street Taphouse Bar & Grill on June 7, 2023 at 4pm, and I hope to see many of you there!
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COMMITTEE UPDATES
PUBLIC SERVICE COMMITTEE
By Christian Noble, Co-Chair
On Saturday January 7th, members of the Young Lawyer’s Section gathered in the cold to volunteer with the Capital Area Food Bank at the Rosedale Recreation Center. Attorneys packed and distributed potatoes, carrots, chicken, onions, and other food to over 175 families.
The Young Lawyers Section attended the Maryland State Police Polar Bear Plunge on February 4 at Sandy Point State Park. This year we raised $1,045 for the Maryland Special Olympics.
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Co-Chair Amy Rappole packing apples
Co-Chair Amy Rappole distributing food
Future MSBA Member Alexis Mosser cleaning up
COMMITTEE UPDATES
NOMINATING COMMITTEE
By Jessica Gorsky, Chair
On behalf of this year’s Nominating Committee of our Young Lawyers Section, please join me in congratulating the following members of YLS on their election to the following officer positions for the next upcoming bar year:
Chair-Elect: Rima Kikani
Term: June 2023 through June 2024
Treasurer: Emily Greene
Term: June 2023 through June 2024
Secretary: Jeffrey Sadri
Term: June 2023 through June 2024
MSBA Board of Governors Young Lawyer Representative:
Christian Noble
Term: June 2023 through June 2024
MSBA Board of Governors Young Lawyer Representative: Jasmine England-Caesar
Term: June 2023 through June 2025
MSBA Board of Governors Young Lawyer Representative: Kayla Vossler
Term: June 2023 through June 2025
As Chair of this year’s Nominating Committee, it has been my pleasure to work with all of this year’s committee members including Meghan Allen, Elizabeth Howard, Kiernan Waters, Aminah Muhammad, Amelia Marsden and Lauren Lake.
I want to take a moment to thank the entire committee for all their efforts this year. We are confident that the in-coming officers will serve our Section proudly and enthusiastically for the benefit of all of our state’s young lawyer members. Thank you also to the Section for allowing me to serve as Chair of this committee this year, it has been an honor to participate in the process of selecting our next generation of leaders.
Thank you all,
Jessica M. Gorsky Chair of the 2022-2023 YLS Nominating Committee
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COMMITTEE UPDATES
STRATEGIC PLANNING COMMITTEE
By Lauren Lake, Co-Chair
The MSBA YLS is looking for section member feedback! Please take a few minutes to fill out this survey by May 31, 2023, so that we can continue improving the section’s value to you and focus our goals and future initiatives.
If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to reach out to Lauren Lake, Chair Elect, at llake@gfrlaw.com or Angela Munro at angela@msba.org.
Thank you in advance for your time!
DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION COMMITTEE Braving the Dialogue
By Jasmine R. England-Caesar, Co-Chair
On Wednesday March 22, 2023, the MSBA YLS Diversity and Inclusion Committee held the group discussion, Dialogue Over Debate: Building Community Through Difficult Conversations. The discussion was hosted by Miles & Stockbridge’s Baltimore Office, and was led by Christa Schmidt, PhD and Danice Brown, PhD from the Towson University Psychology Department.
If attorneys are known for anything, it is for argument, debate, and zealously advocating for a particular position. However, while effective in the courtroom, these traits are seldom helpful in non-adversarial discourse or interactions with others. In those situations, it is better to heed the sage advice of our trial advocacy and mediation professors, to learn the other side’s position, with one caveat: learning the other side’s position should be done to build a bridge for further dialogue, not to load an arsenal for debate.
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COMMITTEE UPDATES
In order to have fruitful dialogue about the topics that affect the constituents of the legal profession, and our clients, such as race, religion, gender, class, sexuality, and meaningful, equitable representation, it is necessary that more than a few people – more than a few groups of people –participate and prioritize the community that we all share. The fact remains that conversations on these topics are indisputably difficult to have no matter where you fall in the “diversity spectrum.” What is also true, being the point and purpose of the Dialogue Over Debate discussion, is the fact that our growth, our goals, and our dreams for the legal community are not realized in a comfort zone or a safe space. Rather, they are realized and come to fruition in a BRAVE SPACE. It takes bravery to have difficult conversations, share personal experiences, and listen to others’ experiences for the purpose of understanding instead of responding. It takes bravery to admit there are things you hold implicit biases about. It takes bravery to learn something new, and have that knowledge change your perspective and approach. It takes bravery to effect change in a community and profession steeped in tradition. And it takes bravery to engage in dialogue over debate.
The YLS Diversity and Inclusion Committee charges our legal community to become more active and participatory in dialogues, and to create more opportunities for dialogues that can further build, restore, and advance our community in diversity, inclusion, and equity.
A special Thank You to: Dr. Schmidt and Dr. Brown for their expert facilitation of the discussion; Jernee Bramble and her team at Miles & Stockbridge for providing the space and refreshments for the discussion; to all of the participants who came to the discussion with open minds and prepared to do the work of having a dialogue; to the MSBA Diversity and Inclusion Committee to supporting the idea of this event, and to the following Bar associations for co-sponsoring this event: The Alliance of Black Women Attorneys, Inc., APABA MD, Bar Association of Baltimore City, Maryland Hispanic Bar Association, the Women’s Bar Association, the Monumental City Bar Association.
Disclaimer: The statements in this article reflect the thoughts, reflections, and opinions of the author and should not be construed as the official position or policy of the author’s employer, or any organization the author may hold membership or affiliation.
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A Panel Discussion produced by the Bench-Bar Section of the MARYLAND STATE BAR ASSOCIATION
MAY 24, 2023 |
The shift from bar to bench
Work/life balance on the bench
Upsides, downsides, & surprises and more
Administrative Law Judge Rachael Barnett
Maryland Office of Administrative Hearings & MSBA
Bench-Bar Section Chair
Panelists
Justice Angela M. Eaves Supreme Court of Maryland
Judge Dan Friedman Appellate Court of Maryland, At Large
Judge Douglas R. M. Nazarian
Appellate Court of Maryland, 2nd Appellate Judicial Circuit (Baltimore County & Harford County)
Judge Steven I. Platt (former)
Prince George’s County Circuit Court
Judge Lisa Hall Johnson
Prince George’s County District Court
Magistrate Kevin R. Hill
St. Mary’s County Circuit Court
MSBA Bench-Bar Section Members Students with Registration MSBA Members Non-Members FREE FREE $5 $10
5:00PM
A panel of judges will discuss the realities of: Moderator 6:30PM | ZOOM
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REGISTRATION
ABA REPORT
By Chris Jennison, Representative
The ABA Young Lawyers Division met February 2-4, 2023, in New Orleans, LA, and was well represented by the MSBA. There were eight members of the Young Lawyers Section in attendance to represent District 8 (Maryland and Virginia) at the ABA Young Lawyers Division Assembly — Chris Jennison, Elizabeth Rosen, Kerri Smith, Desiree Luckey, Valerie Desroches, Lauren Lake, Sara Lucas, and Heather Krick.
Some of the most contentious debates at the meeting dealt with the LSAT and ethics for the Supreme Court. A proposed revision to a law school accreditation standard that would remove an entrance exam requirement was passed by the Young Lawyers Division in a nonbinding vote, but then was rejected by the ABA House of Delegates on Feb. 6 at the organization’s midyear meeting in New Orleans. Resolution 300 was brought by the ABA Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar and called for cutting the test requirement in Standard 503. Even though it was voted down, it has already been refiled for consideration again at the August meeting.
Pictured (left to right): Chris Jennison, Elizabeth Rosen, Kerri Smith, Desiree Luckey, Valerie Desroches, Lauren Lake, Sara Lucas, Heather Krick
ABA REPORT
By Chris Jennison, Representative
The YLD also approved by consent a resolution saying that the U.S. Supreme Court should adopt a binding code of ethics for its justices that is akin to the code of conduct that the Judicial Conference of the United States adopted for other federal judges. The House of Delegates agreed and adopted the resolution. Resolution 400, which was submitted by the King County Bar Association in Seattle, also urges all other bar associations to pass their own resolutions calling for the Supreme Court to adopt a code of judicial ethics that is binding on its justices.
During the assembly we learned Maryland State Bar Association’s Young Lawyers Section received a Star of the Quarter Award for the Mindfulness Event our Lawyer Wellness Committee recently organized.
The YLD Assembly will meet on August 4 and 5, 2023, in Denver, CO. If you’re interested in attending as a delegate and representing the MSBA, please email Chris Jennison at chris.s.jennison@gmail.com.
RIDING THE CIRCUITS
ANNE ARUNDEL COUNTY
By Jeffrey Sadri, Circuit Representative
During the weekend of March 11, 2023, the Anne Arundel Bar Association held their Washington Getaway, a weekend of connection and networking for AABA members, which was hosted at the JW Marriott Hotel in Washington, D.C.
The AABA hosted a Charity Pub Quiz Night on March 30, 2023, from 6:30-9:30pm at Galway Bay Irish Restaurant and Pub in Annapolis, MD. The AABA recently hosted the inaugural “Battle of the Bars”, pitting nine teams from bar associations around the state against each other for an evening of friendly trivia competition and seasonal Irish fare to raise funds for the Maryland Food Bank.
Congratulations to the winning team from the Bar Association of Montgomery County and bravo to the Prince George’s County Bar Association teams for bringing the flair with custom team shirts!
Which African animal has red sweat? The Hippopotamus!
What is the longest English word with only one vowel? Strengths!
BALTIMORE COUNTY
ByAlexis Holiday, Circuit Representative
The Baltimore County Circuit Court is now offering Pendente Lite Hearings to unmarried parents. That request should be made at the Scheduling Conference.
On February 16, 2023, at the Stated Meeting, Laurie Wasserman was presented with the J. Earle Plumhoff Professionalism Award.
On January 26, 2023, the BCBA held its 101st Annual Black Tie Banquet at Martin’s Valley Mansion. It was well attended with over 400 members dressed in their finest.
Save the Date: Saturday, June 3, the Young Lawyers Section is having its Family Field Day Fundraiser.
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RIDING THE CIRCUITS
FREDERICK COUNTY
By Clark Adams, Circuit Representative
On March 9, 2023, BAFC YLS hosted the YLS Spring Happy Hour at Frederick Social as its first event of the year. The happy hour was well attended, and YLS members enjoyed catching up with old friends and colleagues and getting to know some new faces.
On April 21, 2023, BAFC YLS hosted a Pendente Lite Hearing Preparation Seminar with honorary speakers Magistrate Raymond and Magistrate Minner of the Frederick County Circuit Court.
Upcoming BAFC Event — On May 18, 2023, the BAFC will host a Dinner with the Judges & Magistrates celebrating the 100 year anniversary of the BAFC at Dutch’s Daughter in Frederick. BAFC members will be joined by members of the Frederick County bench, as well as members of the judiciary from across the State. We are looking forward to the return of this favorite event!
Upcoming BAFC YLS Event — On June 29, 2023, BAFC YLS will host a Summer Bash as Frederick’s Fourth Dimension Fun Center.
RIDING THE CIRCUITS
HOWARD COUNTY
By Tyler Brown, Circuit Representative
On Sunday, April 16, 2023, the HCBA participated in the Red Shoe Shuffle 2023 5k Run & Walk to benefit the Ronald McDonald House.
On Friday, April 21, 2023, the monthly meeting included Chief Justice Matthew Fader, Judge Kathryn Graeff, and Judge Andrea Leahy as guests who addressed membership.
SAVE THE DATE — Thursday, May 11, 2023 at 5:30 p.m. — Retirement celebration for Judge Bernhardt and Judge McCrone. Details to follow.
MONTGOMERY COUNTY
By Leslie Miller, Circuit Representative
On March 22, 2023, the New Practitioners Section sponsored a trivia night at World of Beer in Bethesda.
The week of May 15 is the Annual Law Week Celebration featuring various educational programming, a day of service on May 18, and a New Practitioner’s Happy Hour on May 19th at 2:15pm at the conclusion of the week’s events. More information is forthcoming.
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RIDING THE CIRCUITS
PRINCE GEORGE’S COUNTY
By Meagan Allen, Circuit Representative
PGCBA Trivia Night Friday, February 17 at Calvert Brewing Company. Winners advanced to the State Bars Competition.
The retirement celebration of Judge Tillerson Adams was held on Thursday, March 30 at Hotel at University of Maryland.
The Honorable Melaine Shaw and Adam L. Van Grack, Esq. spoke at the Brown Bag Lunch “Delivering Oral Arguments to the Courts” on Thursday March 2, 2023.
Upcoming Event — PGBA Golf Classic Tournament at Oak Creek Golf Course on Friday May 12, 2023 from 8:00am to 3:00 pm.
Seeking Submissions
The Advocate is seeking submissions for our next issue.
Are you looking for a publication opportunity? Do you have an interesting story to share about your practice - a lesson learned or a practice pointer? Have you been trying to spread the word about your last pro bono case? Or do you just have an article that you would like to get published? The Advocate is your opportunity to shine!
Is there an upcoming event you would like other young lawyers to know about?
Is there an unsung hero in your legal community whose story you want to share? Submissions can be any length…from a blurb of a few sentences to a scholarly article. The only requirement is that the subject relate to young lawyers in Maryland in some way.
We look forward to your submissions!
The deadline for the next issue is June 2, 2023. Please direct all questions to Heather Krick at hlkrick@gmail.com.
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