Washington, District of Columbia, United States
Trial-Level and Appellate Attorney with 9+ years of experience engaging in the practice of law and legal scholarship; pleadings, briefs, and oral arguments in administrative, trial-level, and appellate tribunals.
Launched and operates a sole proprietorship while providing legal assistance on a contracted basis to outside firms, including Harvath Law Group, LLC in St. Louis. Researches, writes, argues orally and on briefs while consulting strategically on plaintiff-side litigation before state and federal courts, including both appellate and trial level. • Experienced in many practice areas including ERISA, Title IX, divorce, child-support, and constitutional (“§ 1983”) violations. • Presented solo oral argument in front of the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. • Conducted 400+ hours of document review, materiality, and privilege tagging, including personal injury and antitrust second-request matters.
Attorney for office that holds FOIA-advisory/sunshine-enforcement authority over 200+ city entities. Conducted extensive and detailed research and advised Director of Open Government on existing laws and regulations and proposed amendments, including the Freedom of Information Act of 1976, the Open Meetings Act, their rulemakings, and their federal counterparts. Wrote and recommended changes to existing law. • Created and edited materials, including PowerPoint slides, to train stakeholders and the public on transparency policy and parliamentary procedure. • Wrote opinions to decide urgent and often confidential complaints about public bodies.
Attorney for office that holds FOIA-advisory/sunshine-enforcement authority over 200+ city entities. Conducted extensive and detailed research and advised Director of Open Government on existing laws and regulations and proposed amendments, including the Freedom of Information Act of 1976, the Open Meetings Act, their rulemakings, and their federal counterparts. Wrote and recommended changes to existing law. • Created and edited materials, including PowerPoint slides, to train stakeholders and the public on transparency policy and parliamentary procedure. • Wrote opinions to decide urgent and often confidential complaints about public bodies.
Charged with analyzing confidential case materials to research and draft memoranda regarding pre-trial and trial strategies for litigants whose cases turned on linguistic evidence. Applied the science of linguistics to issues of the law and conducted in-depth, multi-level analysis on many types of language evidence. • Engaged in the internship while attending Hofstra University for master’s degree in forensic linguistics.
Recruited to serve in a small, nonpartisan office and edit and publish the U.S. Code, the codification of general and permanent federal statutory law. Read new laws to determine which provisions should appear in the Code while updating the Code to reflect new laws and amendments to existing laws. Wrote concise editorial notes to explain amendments, effective dates, references within the text to other laws, and other legislative annotations. • Responded to Congressional drafting errors through editorial notes. • Prepared notes to explain the probable intent of the drafters. • Performed senior review on two complete titles; ensured execution of amendments and verified substance and style of editorial work. • Proofread and updated cross-references to provisions that were reorganized, repealed, or omitted by the codifications of Titles 41 (Public Contracts) and 51 (National and Commercial Space Law).
Assigned multiple cases simultaneously and prepared memoranda for distribution to the Court in advance of oral argument or submission-on-briefs. Attended oral arguments associated with assigned cases as well as other cases of interest and importance. Collaborated with the Justice on the preparation of opinions and performed cite checks on the Court’s opinion and orders. • Acted as a dedicated ghostwriter to the Justice while analyzing trial and agency record and appellate briefs. • Researched and drafted 40+ dispositions while overseeing the daily operations of an extern.