Member Spotlight

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The District of Columbia Bar. While headquartered in our nation’s capital, our members span the world, reaching all 50 states and more than 80 countries. From Atlanta to Seoul, from Switzerland to San Juan, our work as attorneys, professors, judges, business owners, advocates, and even as chefs and artists, pull us together in a shared global legal community.

We give voice to those who struggle to be heard. We help invigorate our towns and innovate ways to advance our professions. We practice law. We teach. We learn.

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Deborah Kelly

Looking over the trajectory of Deborah Kelly’s career, one might assume that Kelly got to where she is today through a series of calculated and purposeful decisions.

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Marnie Hammel

Marnie Hammel’s typical day as a D.C. attorney is quite hectic. Learn how Marnie achieves her lofty goals.

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Stuart Newberger

Most litigators have a certain amount of swagger. Stuart Newberger has that swagger.

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Nicole M. Cober

Attorney. Entrepreneur. Author. Nicole M. Cober discusses how her greatest professional setback “forced me to be authentic.”

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Fabrice Coles

Despite his legal degrees, Fabrice Coles says the best education he has received has been through his work on Capitol Hill.

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Bill Eskridge

It’s not an understatement to say that Bill Eskridge has changed American history.

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Brian Rohal

He’s called himself a serial career-changer, but it finally seems as if D.C. lawyer Brian Rohal has found a place to settle.

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Tristia Bauman

Tristia Bauman has always known which career path she would take—even as a young child she was sensitive to equality and fairness and fought for the underdogs.

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Krystyna Colantoni

Krystyna Colantoni first fell in love with technology when she was a little girl. She says she faced adversity but proved her detractors wrong.

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Anita Earls

Anita Earls wants to be a North Carolina Supreme Court justice. To get there, the civil rights lawyer has to win an election in North Carolina.

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Jon Decker

Jon Decker’s recent achievement might be hard to top. He became the only daily member of the White House press corps with a law degree.

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Catalina Martinez

When Hurricane Irma struck in 2017, the Small Business Administration put out a call for employees willing to go to Florida to help.

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Geetanjali Bhushan

For Geetanjali Bhushan, founder and chief executive of Solstrat Solutions, success did not come easily, or happen on first try.

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Timothy Finch

Timothy Finch has worked as a bike messenger, worked in a bike parts factory, toured the country as a improv actor, and prosecuted violent crimes against women.

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Carroll Savage

If it weren’t for his important role in helping institute a new era of retirement plans, this could be seen as a story of a lawyer who found another calling in sailing.

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Jim Wang

Jim Wang has been a citizen of China and Canada, but it is his American citizenship of which he is most proud.

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Alyssa Senzel

Soon after graduating from law school, Alyssa Senzel took on a pro bono case with a colleague for a transgender woman who wanted to adopt her foster child.

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Jeff Feinstein

Attorney-turned-teacher Jeff Feinstein applies his belief about a lawyer’s job of “not to argue but to persuade" to his students.

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Kate McKnight

D.C. Bar member Kate McKnight discusses finding the ultimate career satisfaction in standing up for her clients.

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Jennifer Maisel

A lawyer who chooses a career path inside a boxing gym might be seen as a bit pugilistic. But Jennifer Maisel is actually a soft-spoken, careful IP attorney.

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Michele Zavos

Throughout her career, Michele Zavos has witnessed monumental societal change, working during the height of the AIDS crisis and at the forefront of LGBT issues.

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Sirine Shebaya

Sirine Shebaya, a senior staff attorney with Muslim Advocates, realized she “wanted to be working with people and having an immediate impact.”

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Herbert Dubin

Herbert Dubin, now 77, has been in solo practice since 1983 and still loves the different challenges of practicing law.

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Jade Wu

Read about how rule-of-law expert Jade Wu has learned to navigate cultural differences to make a difference abroad.

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Claudio Gnocchi and Paolo Gnocchi

Immigrants often have a hard time in court. English is often not their first language, and misunderstandings are rife.

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Bryan Webster

Bryan Webster was sitting at a bar in Seattle after a job interview, thinking it was for a position in Washington, D.C., where he lived at the time.

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Sharra Greer

When Sharra Greer first met her wife, D’Arcy Kemnitz, they got into a “heated” conversation about the Millennium March on Washington in 2000.

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Kathleen Mueller

Lawyers who are looking for a work-life balance plus a flourishing career might start by looking at what Kathleen Mueller has done.

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Thomas Lenz

When Thomas Lenz decided to focus on labor law, he was told it was a “dead area.”

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Vanessa Sophir

As the D.C. Bar celebrates Mother’s Day, we spotlight Vanessa Sophir, a former public defender who took a 10-year break to raise her three children.

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Michael Allen

Michael Allen is a family man, a lawyer who chose the law after an epiphany in Jamaica, and a political junkie.

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Jim Markwith

When Jim Markwith graduated college, he had two choices: law school or flight school.

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Dennis Archer

By all standards, Dennis Archer, a D.C. Bar member since its founding in 1972, has had quite the career.

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Shannon Nash

The lawyer, tax specialist, certified public accountant, and entrepreneur has taken her peripatetic life and fashioned it into a series of jobs and other ventures.

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Keith M. Harper

After years working as U.S. representative to the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva, Keith Harper has returned to private practice.

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Harry Johnson

Harry Johnson says, “If you crack a door open, I’ll kick it open.” And kick he did, launching a career full of firsts.

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Judge Harry Storm

Judge Harry Storm talks to the Bar about a range of topics from the importance of civility in the practice of law to his view from the bench.

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Timothy C. Hester

"My proudest moment as a lawyer came when I was able to successfully argue for a last-minute stay of execution for a client."

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Monty Cooper

“There are all sorts of new and interesting areas that are on the horizon. Cybersecurity is an example.”

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Elina Hum

“I was fortunate to be unfortunate in having difficulty in finding a job after law school in 1982, when there were very few opportunities for public interest work, which is my passion.”

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Regina DeMeo

“When I began practicing, I was very clinical in my work. I viewed all of my cases like a surgeon dealing with a cancerous growth.”

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Jill Yu

“I assisted in starting the D.C. chapter of the National Filipino American Lawyers Association.”

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Dave Calabrese

“I became interested in the legal profession because as a nonlawyer I always enjoyed getting into the minutiae of regulations and laws.”

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Andrew C. Dye

“I had worked in many different career fields before choosing to go to law school, and each of those jobs touched on the legal world in some way.”

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Naza N. Shelley

“[After] law school, an unexpected opportunity came to teach abroad. Initially I was reluctant. Professionally, I thought it was a step back.”

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Gregory Lipper

“My first courtroom hearing was in a pro bono asylum case on behalf of a journalist and that journalist's family.”

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Miriam A. Valoy

“After experiencing my own real estate loss during the financial crisis and getting laid off, I signed up for an Outward Bound wilderness expedition.”

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