Top best Civil Rights Lawyers in Baltimore near me

Sharon Krevor-Weisbaum is a passionate and forceful legal representative for individuals with disabilities and their families who require services or supports from state or federal government and for those who require accommodations from employers or service providers. She aggressively advocates for special education and support services for children and their families and for developmental and mental health services for adults. Sharon has represented college and university students with disabilities in Americans with Disabilities Act litigation to ensure that they have equal access to their curriculum and other services offered by the universities. Sharon also represents parents with disabilities in child protection proceedings and other family law matters. She is also a kind and gentle advocate for seniors and their families.. Sharon serves as counsel or in an advisory capacity to disability advocacy organizations throughout the State of Maryland and is often asked to speak at annual conferences and training programs. She has served on the faculty of The National Leadership Consortium on Developmental Disabilities at the University of Delaware and speaks regularly for the Maryland Association of Community Services (MACS).. Sharon is equally passionate and forceful in her representation of non-profit and for-profit entities that provide supports and services to individuals with disabilities and the elderly, whether serving as a proactive general counsel or as an aggressive advocate for her corporate clients. In her representation of community-based mental health and addiction service providers, organizations that provide housing and support services to individuals with developmental disabilities, senior care providers (including nursing homes and assisted living), and providers of personal home care and durable medical equipment, Sharon understands and appreciates the difficult balance her clients must achieve as business entities and service providers.. As a former Assistant Attorney General for the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, Sharon has built the knowledge, experience and relationships with regulators that allow her to counsel and defend health care providers effectively in actions involving licensure and regulatory compliance. She also uses this experience to represent individual health care practitioners before professional disciplinary boards and to represent parents who find themselves the subject of abuse and neglect accusations by local departments of social services.. In partnership with others at Brown, Goldstein & Levy, Sharon works to provide her clients with the legal talents that will best serve their needs, whether through advocacy, education, litigation, or negotiation. Sharon considers it an honor to serve as a member of the legal community and to serve her clients with compassion and a sense of pride in her work.. Sharon looks forward to continuing to share her extensive experience, passion, and sense of justice with her clients and welcomes others to consider her as their legal advisor.

Regina Kline joined Brown, Goldstein & Levy in February 2017. Co-leader of Inclusivity, BGL’s Strategic Consulting Group, Gina is nationally known for her litigation and policy work in advancing the rights of people with disabilities to move from sub-minimum wage and segregated employment to competitive integrated employment.. Prior to joining the firm, Gina served as Senior Counsel in the Office of the Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights at the United States Department of Justice (DOJ), where she provided legal and policy counsel regarding efforts to implement the Americans with Disabilities Act and Olmstead v. L.C.’s mandate for community integration in employment, education, law enforcement/criminal justice, homelessness, and health care. She was co-lead on multi-agency efforts to address federal policy developments and law enforcement in disability employment programs nationwide. She provided counsel and advice and collaborated across the federal government, regarding the ADA, Fair Labor Standards Act, Medicaid Act, the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA), and the False Claims Act. She also contributed to significant guidance issued by the Civil Rights Division; provided public testimony on behalf of the Department; and represented the Department on the President’s Committee for People with Intellectual Disabilities.. As a Trial Attorney at the Civil Rights Division’s Disability Rights Section, Gina’s responsibilities included conducting investigations, complex civil litigation, settlement negotiations, and monitoring to enforce the rights of individuals with disabilities to receive services in the most integrated setting appropriate.  She filed two of the Department’s first cases challenging unnecessary segregation of people with disabilities in state-funded employment programs and reached the nation’s first statewide settlement agreements to transform employment programs to serve people with disabilities in competitive integrated employment. She also helped develop and file the Department’s first challenge to a segregated school system for students with behavioral disabilities.  Gina received two prestigious Attorney General’s awards for her work.. After law school, Gina clerked for the Honorable Linda K. Davis of the District of Columbia Superior Court.  She researched and drafted opinions related to the family division and the criminal division and supported Judge Davis as the judge presided over the Criminal Mental Health Diversion Court Program.. During law school, Gina was a legal intern at the Washington Legal Clinic for the Homeless, served as a Clinic Legal Intern at the National Health Law Program, worked as a Public Policy Project Law Clerk at the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, and was a Public Benefits Unit Legal Extern at the Legal Aid Society of the District of Columbia. At these positions, Gina assisted the homeless; lobbied members of Congress, drafted legal complaints, amendments, and proposed legislation; and provided free legal assistance to the District of Columbia’s poorest residents.. While attending law school, Gina was also awarded The Order of the Barristers, which honors ten students who excel in trial and appellate advocacy, and the Joseph Bernstein Prize for legal writing. She was the Articles Editor of the Journal of Race, Religion, Gender & Class, chaired the Moot Court Board, was a member and grant recipient of the Maryland Public Interest Law Project, and served as an Academic Achievement Program Teaching Fellow.. When a family member with disabilities was targeted with discriminatory charges of harassment in a Title IX school disciplinary proceeding, Gina got the charges dropped and the student’s academic record cleared. The client’s family wrote, “Gina’s extraordinary professional talent and brilliance was obvious, beginning with our first conversation and all the way through to the exact resolution that we had so fervently hoped for. Working with Gina was much more than glowing results. The way Gina treated my family during this extremely difficult time was absolutely invaluable. She was extraordinarily sensitive, respectful, empathetic, and supportive in every way at a difficult time in our lives. I will never forget the encouraging, motivating, and respectful way that she spoke to us and the enormous impact that her words had on us. Although we were in two different states, that never hindered my access to Gina or her responsiveness.”

Jessie Weber’s practice includes cases involving disability rights, civil rights, housing discrimination, wage and hour violations, and appeals. Jessie’s successes include winning an arbitration award of more than $250,000 on behalf of an African-American former Hooters server who was fired from her job because of Hooters’ racially discriminatory image policy and securing an injunction requiring the Maryland Board of Elections to make its online ballot-marking tool available to voters with disabilities. She also helped obtain a $1.25 million settlement for a class of Baltimore City school bus drivers and attendants who were wrongly denied overtime and regular pay for all hours worked.. Jessie represents clients in appellate courts throughout the country and has argued in the Fourth, Sixth, and D.C. Circuits.  She has also handled LGBTQ rights cases involving discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expression in contexts ranging from employment to health insurance discrimination to students’ exercise of their First Amendment rights.. Since 2014, Jessie has been chosen annually for inclusion on the Super Lawyers‘ Maryland Rising Stars list, an honor reserved for those lawyers 40 years old or younger or in practice for ten years or less, who exhibit excellence in practice.  Only 2.5 percent of the attorneys in Maryland are named to the Rising Stars list each year. Jessie was also chosen to receive The Daily Record’s 2017 VIP Award, given to professionals 40 years of age and younger who were selected on the basis of professional accomplishments, community service, and commitment to inspiring change. In 2013, Jessie was given The Daily Record’s Leading Women Award, which honors 50 women, who are 40 years of age or younger, for the accomplishments they have made so far in their careers.. A client of Jessie’s recently wrote on Avvo, “My organization, KIPP DC, hired Jessie in an administrative matter with civil rights implications. Jessie’s work ethic, intellect, and work product were unparalleled. Jessie accomplished more in a short period of time than a team of attorneys could have managed in twice as long, so it’s unsurprising that Jessie’s excellent work led to a favorable outcome. Notably, numerous individuals within my organization read Jessie’s brief in our matter and commented that it was the best written product they had read in a year. I also appreciated Jessie’s responsiveness — I never had to question our progress on any front. You can’t find a better attorney than Jessie.”. Prior to joining the firm, Jessie served as the 2010-2011 Francis D. Murnaghan, Jr. Appellate Advocacy Fellow at the Public Justice Center in Baltimore, where she represented clients and authored amicus briefs in federal and Maryland appellate courts on a variety of civil rights and anti-poverty issues.. After law school, Jessie clerked for the Honorable Catherine C. Blake on the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland.. During law school, Jessie served as a Submissions Editor for both the Yale Law & Policy Review and the Yale Journal of Law & Feminism. She worked extensively in the area of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) rights as co-director of Yale’s LGBT Rights Litigation Clinic and as a legal intern with the ACLU LGBT and HIV/AIDS Rights Project and the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force. Jessie also volunteered with the D.C. Employment Justice Center’s Workers’ Rights Clinic and Loyola Law School’s Hurricane Katrina Legal Clinic.. As an undergraduate, Jessie won the Spirit of Princeton Award in recognition of her leadership in campus activism.

Jan Berlage’s practice focuses on general business litigation, ranging from commercial disputes to bankruptcy () to intellectual property (). Jan has extensive experience in trials, arbitrations, mediations, and administrative hearings, including arguments before the Maryland Court of Appeals and the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. He has secured major jury verdicts and large settlements for both businesses and individuals, including most recently a $1.6 million and a $900, compensatory damage awards for copyright clients and a nearly $1 million settlement for a surviving heir in a wrongful death lawsuit. He has also successfully defended against multimillion dollar claims in both state and federal court. Prior to private practice, Jan served as law clerk to the Honorable E. Stephen Derby, U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Maryland. He has taught pretrial litigation practice at the University of Maryland School of law, served on the Board of Governors for the Maryland State Bar Association and the United States Commission on Civil Rights, Maryland State Action Committee, and is a co-author of the book, Maryland Equine Law: A Legal Guide to Horse Ownership and Activities (). He is a fellow of both the American and the Maryland State Bar Foundations, presents regularly at CLE courses, and has chaired numerous committees at both the national and state level. Based on his experience and client reviews, AVVO ranks Jan as “Superb” with a perfect 10 rating, and is a business litigation Super Lawyer.. Mr. Berlage along with his partners were the 2013, 2014 and 2015 Editor’s Choice recipients of Corporate INTL’s Commercial Dispute Resolution Law Firm of the Year Award in Maryland, and its IP Law Firm of the Year and Bankruptcy Law Firm of the Year for 2014 and 2015.. Some of Jan’s representative matters are. Some of Jan’s representative speaking engagements are:

In February 2017, Eve Hill, one of the nation’s leading disability rights attorneys, joined Brown, Goldstein & Levy, where she continues to pursue her devotion to civil rights.  Her wide-ranging experience complements the firm’s dedication to high-impact disability rights cases and its advocacy on behalf of individuals with disabilities and their families.. From 2011 to January 2017, Eve served as Deputy Assistant Attorney General of the U.S. Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division, where she was responsible for oversight of the Division’s disability rights enforcement, educational civil rights enforcement, Title VI interagency coordination, and the American Indian Working Group.  She was part of the negotiating team for the Marrakesh Treaty to Facilitate Access to Published Works for Persons Who are Blind, Visually Impaired or Otherwise Print Disabled; testified before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to support ratification of the U.N. Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities; enforced accessibility requirements for websites and other digital technology; implemented Olmstead community integration requirements in employment and education; and enforced disability rights in education, testing, and health care.. Eve is the former Senior Vice President at the Burton Blatt Institute of Syracuse University, where she was responsible for the Institute’s work on the Americans with Disabilities Act, disability civil rights, and communications issues.  Her legal advocacy included representing the National Federation of the Blind with respect to the accessibility of information and communication technology, such as the Amazon Kindle and Adobe Digital Editions.  She also worked on matters involving transportation accessibility, procurement preferences for disability-owned businesses, affirmative action for people with disabilities, best practices for inclusive corporate culture, segregated and subminimum wage employment, and the intersection of ADA community integration requirements and fair housing law.. Preceding her employment at the Burton Blatt Institute, Eve was the District of Columbia’s first Director of the Office of Disability Rights, responsible for ensuring compliance with the ADA throughout District government.  This position gave Eve an insider’s view on investigations of complaints, informal dispute resolution, litigation consultation, training, and disability policy development.. As the Executive Director of the Disability Rights Legal Center at Loyola Law School, Eve managed all aspects of this non-profit disability rights organization and supervised all major programs, including the Civil Rights Litigation Project, Disability Mediation Center, Cancer Legal Resource Center, Community Outreach Program, and Education Advocacy Project.. Eve’s experience in many facets of organizations and government with respect to disability issues allows her to assist disability advocacy groups in enforcing rights to accessibility and employment and in breaking down other barriers.

Al Elia joined Brown Goldstein & Levy as a Disability Rights Fellow in September 2015. His practice focuses on disability rights and other civil litigation.. Prior to joining the firm, Al clerked as an intern for the Honorable Timothy S. Hillman on the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts, where he researched and wrote bench memoranda, proposed opinions, and orders.. During law school, Al served as a legal intern at the Massachusetts Office of the Attorney General, Civil Rights Division; the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Civil Division; and the National Federation of the Blind. He also served as a legal intern for the Centre for Disability Law and Policy in Galway, Ireland, where he assisted an international disability rights advocacy group in comparing the development of technology access law in the U.S. and E.U. At Harvard University, Al assisted the Director of Intellectual Property at Harvard Business School Publishing in teaching a course on intellectual property and lectured on areas of developing intellectual property law.. Prior to law school, Al worked as an information technology product development director and consultant for a medical research company and for a company that consulted with the health care sector.  Al also served as a senior technical consultant to KPMG in The Hague, Netherlands.

A civil rights law firm with offices located in Baltimore and Montgomery County, Maryland, representing clients throughout the state of Maryland.  We provided legal services and advice in the areas of special education law, suspension and expulsion hearings, juvenile justice, criminal defense, and civil and disability rights.   Our education law practice includes special education (IDEA), section 504 plans, suspension and expulsion issues, and post secondary education issues such as obtaining needed accommodations.  We also represent clients with respect to juvenile law, civil and disability rights issues and criminal defense matters.