Giving Together: Power 100 DC 

By Catherine “Katie” Bertram 
Bertram & Murphy 

 

As a practicing attorney who has raised her family in Washington, D.C., I've always believed in the power of networking. The opportunity to combine this passion with philanthropy came together when Lisa DiMonte, Chair of Planet Depos, and I started a local chapter of Power 100-DC, a remarkable giving circle, where the simple act of showing up and giving back has a significant impact on our local charities. 

Power 100-DC was created with a straightforward but powerful mission: to bring together professional women from all walks of life and regions around D.C. to create a giving circle. The Power of 100 events bring together powerful professional women to ignite change in our community. On a quarterly basis, these women engage in networking to support each other in their careers and continue to “pay it forward” to local charities. 

The concept is beautifully uncomplicated. At our events, each member writes down the name of their favorite local charity and places it into a bowl. Out of these submissions, three names are randomly chosen. The selected women then "pitch" their chosen charities, sharing their passion and the significance of the cause. Any local charity that has held a 501(c)(3) status for 12 months or more is eligible. After the presentations, all members cast their votes, and the chosen charity receives a collective donation in the form of $100 from each member. It's amazing how, with the power of a network and the spirit of giving, we can make a substantial impact on our community. 

What sets Power 100-DC apart is the diverse group of women who come together to make this concept a reality. Together with my fellow co-chair, Lisa DiMonte, and our other founding members, Elisabeth Hayes, Jen Jackman, Kelly McLaughlan, Liz Rogan, Candace Smith-Tucker and Natalie Walker, we created a supportive and inclusive community of like-minded individuals, all dedicated to uplifting those in need. It's not just about the financial aspect; it's also about the collective goodwill and the strength of unity. The inclusivity of the organization ensures that a wide range of charities, each addressing unique needs, have the chance to receive support. 

It’s an empowering feeling to know that small, regular contributions can create a ripple effect that benefits our local community. I have a say in where our collective resources can make a difference. In my time with Power 100-DC, I've witnessed firsthand the transformative power of collective giving. It's heartwarming to see how our modest contributions, when combined, can make a significant impact on local charities, allowing them to continue their vital work. I've also grown personally by connecting with inspiring women who share a common commitment to philanthropy and networking. 

If you're a professional woman in the D.C. area looking to make a difference and build meaningful connections, I wholeheartedly recommend joining the Power 100-DC giving circle – a network that turns your passion into action. 

 

Critical Advocacy After Ours Concludes: Disability Rights Maryland 

By Ryan S. Perlin
Bekman, Marder, Hopper, Malarkey & Perlin 

 

As plaintiffs’ lawyers, we are often honored to represent people who are forced to live with disabilities because of the negligence of others. We fight for our clients in the courtroom, but our representation ends when the case ends. Our clients, though, are often just learning how to adjust to their new lives and disabilities. It is for this next chapter that Disability Rights Maryland (DRM) exists, and I am proud to have served on DRM’s board for six years, including the last two as President of the Board.  

Federal regulations create a system in which one organization in every state is designated as the state’s Protection & Advocacy agency (P&A). DRM is Maryland’s P&A, and it is federally mandated to advance the civil rights of people with disabilities. DRM is a public interest law firm that provides free legal services to Marylanders of any age, with all types of disabilities (including developmental, intellectual, psychiatric, physical, sensory, and learning disabilities, as well as traumatic brain injury), who live in facilities or in the wider community, or who are homeless. 

DRM engages in direct representation, handling individual cases for people with disabilities, and impact litigation on broad disability-based issues, such as access to transportation, compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act, educational support for students with disabilities, and treatment of mental health needs in institutions and the community. 

DRM also provides referrals, advice, outreach, education, facility and institutional monitoring, investigations, training, policy work, coalition building, and other means of support for self-advocacy.  

DRM’s mission says it all: “DRM envisions a world where people with disabilities are fully included in the workplace, neighborhoods, and all aspects of community life. We help people with disabilities pursue opportunities to participate fully in all aspects of community life, and champion their rights to self-determination, dignity, equality, opportunity, and freedom from discrimination and harm.” This is a mission all plaintiffs’ lawyers should know about for the benefit and support of their clients.                 

 

Giving Our Time on Company Time 

By Jared Silberzahn 
The Law Office of Jared Silberzahn, LLC 

 

We feel blessed to be able to support various causes with financial donations, and we try to support a wide variety of efforts, both in the local community and beyond. There are so many worthy organizations that don't get enough attention that do wonderful work for those they serve.  

 But we also felt as though, while we were giving hard-earned money to these causes, we weren't donating our most valuable asset: our time. Since that realization, we've made efforts to physically assist with various efforts, including the MAJ Women's Caucus' well-run backpack stuffing event that supported Weekend Backpacks, a great group that helps ensure food-insecure children in Baltimore schools have nutritious meals over the weekends. We also sponsor a family in need for Christmas, taking care of the shopping for the parents and their kids through a wonderful organization called Mitch Bricks (started by a local young man when he was just 8 years old). We have a great time bonding as a team, selecting gifts we think the family will enjoy and then wrapping everything. More recently, we took a day out of the office to help First Fruits Farm in Freeland stuff thousands of pounds of potatoes into bags destined for families in need of simple grocery items that many of us are fortunate enough to take for granted. We were glad to have our Bmore Attorney team along for the latter two efforts, and it is truly a privilege to run a business that permits us to take some time away from the office to help out others in need. An obvious ancillary benefit is getting some time out of the office, away from the everyday stressors we encounter and overcome, to realize – together – how good we have it, even on our worst days.  

Consistent with that goal, we instituted an office policy this year where each team member receives an extra few hours of PTO every month to use specifically to donate their talents to any cause they hold near and dear to their hearts. It's just another small way to encourage others to get involved and help those in need.  

I will admit that I struggle with the decision to publicize any charitable efforts we commit to, whether on social media or in an esteemed publication like this. I was taught to not let the left hand know what the right hand was doing when giving. My justification in doing so is that others may gain exposure to worthy charitable organizations that had previously gone unnoticed. Further, I was motivated to do so more publicly after a close friend told me that he'd followed some efforts we'd undertaken and was himself motivated to organize a large event to raise funds for the Special Olympics. I was beyond humbled to learn our small efforts had snowballed beyond what we'd initially invested and became more motivated than ever to find opportunities to help - and spread the word to hopefully encourage others to find ways in their lives where they can help others who are less fortunate.  

 

Making SMAWL Miracles Happen 

By Kathleen M. Werner 
The Dorsey Law Firm 

 

My journey in animal rescue started many years ago when I was a relatively new attorney. That fateful day my boss (now partner) called me and another associate into his office and told us we needed to get involved in the community. I’m not sure if he regrets telling me that, but I took it to heart and became involved with, among other organizations, the St. Mary’s Animal Welfare League, more commonly known as SMAWL. We were incorporated in 1990 and became a 501(c)(3) in 1993.  

I started as a dog foster and there have been many adventures and a few heartbreaks along the way. I continue to foster dogs for SMAWL but now I do so much more. In 2009 I joined the SMAWL Board of Directors, and since 2010 I have had the honor to serve as its President. We primarily rescue companion animals (dogs and cats), but in the past we have had horses as well. We also have several community outreach programs, including providing food to families in need, providing emergency medical care, a robust Spay and Neuter Your Pets (SNYP) program through a grant from the Maryland Department of Agriculture, and vaccination clinics providing low-cost rabies, distemper, and microchipping in conjunction with the St. Mary’s County Department of Health. 

In 2012, we opened our Cat Castle Rescue Center in the Callaway Village Shopping Center. In 2022, we expanded and remodeled that facility. The Cat Castle houses most of our adult cats.  All of our dogs and kittens are in foster homes.   

Life in animal rescue can be quite interesting – like the time I walked into the living room and my foster dog was standing on my sofa pulling fluff out of the cushions. Another foster was obsessed with his ball and if it happened to roll behind that same sofa, he would grab the skirt and pull it out so he could get his ball. Needless to say, after they were adopted, I got a new sofa.   

There was also the time, during Snowmegeddon when a foster slipped out of the house. I went after him while still in my pajamas and slippers (no coat, no gloves or boots). As I was about to go home (couldn’t go any further because the snow was so deep) and call the dog coordinator to let them know I had lost their dog, he came bounding up to me – he just wanted a romp in the snow! I have many more stories of my adventures in fostering. I also keep in touch with many of the families who adopted my fosters and it’s so wonderful to see how they thrive when they get into loving homes. 

None of this would be possible without the many wonderful volunteers we have. They foster animals, work our events, coordinate SNYP grants, and go to the Cat Castle at least twice a day to scoop, feed, water and socialize with our cats. 

 

Both Sides of the Bars: Opportunities to Assist Asylees and Prisoners 

By Patrick A. Thronson 
Janet, Janet & Suggs, LLC 

 

With the United States experiencing a record number of asylum applications, there has never been a time of greater need for representing asylum seekers, especially unaccompanied migrant children, who often have no one to speak for them. If represented, asylees are more than two-and-a-half times more likely to succeed in obtaining asylum.  

I have had the privilege of working with Kids in Need of Defense (KIND), a Baltimore-based organization, in successfully representing pro bono an unaccompanied minor who fled Guatemala as a result of physical and sexual violence. My client was repeatedly sexually abused by her grandfather. When she reported the abuse, he held her hands on top of a grill. She could not write for a year. She escaped and made the extremely hazardous journey north through Mexico, and was arrested and briefly incarcerated in Texas. 

We took her case, and I received hours of valuable training and support from KIND. In close collaboration with KIND, a paralegal of Guatemalan origin, and a professional translator, we were able to prepare an asylum application and represent our client at an interview with an asylum officer. We were fortunate to obtain asylum for her in early 2020, while 71 percent of applications that fiscal year were denied.3 She now has permanent residency and lives with her siblings and mother in a safe neighborhood in the DC suburbs and is an honors student in high school.  

Even with the current asylum case backlogs, applying for asylum can help unaccompanied minors access valuable benefits, such as employment authorization and a wide range of services through the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Refugee Resettlement. As we all know, ensuring a child’s safety by obtaining justice for them can provide lawyers with a lasting sense of fulfillment. 

Those behind bars also have a serious need for representation, not only with respect to claims related to their conditions of confinement (which I have litigated), but also in proceedings challenging the constitutionality of their trial and sentencing. This is particularly true given the structural racism that permeates the criminal justice system. According to the most recent statistics available, those who identify as African-American represent less than 30 percent of Maryland’s population, but over 63 percent of its prisoners.4 Among many grievous disparities, people who identify as African-American or Hispanic sentenced under the state sentencing guidelines have a disproportionately higher mean offender score when compared to White prisoners.5 The median overall non-suspended sentence length for Black inmates is double the length of that for their White counterparts.6 

Structural error of a constitutional dimension—such as constitutional violations during arrest and detainment before trial, ineffective assistance of counsel at trial, and serious defects in indictments and sentencing procedures—can often taint trials, convictions, and sentencing of Maryland residents. Under the Uniform Post-Conviction Act, constitutional errors can be challenged in post-conviction proceedings that seek a new trial, after direct appeals have been exhausted. The highly talented and capable lawyers of the Appellate Division of the Maryland Public Defender do not have the capacity to take on even a fraction of the meritorious challenges that exist.  

Under the auspices and with training and advice from the Public Defender’s Office, I have had the opportunity to represent pro bono an inmate in a post-conviction proceeding, challenging the constitutionality of his trial and 40-year sentence (with no history of violent offenses) for robbery and constructive possession of a firearm. Among other serious errors, our client was convicted and sentenced on a firearm charge for which he was not indicted, which is unlawful. His robbery conviction was legally inconsistent, which is not permitted. And, at the first pretrial conference, before any evidence was introduced, the presiding judge promised to put my client away for a “long, long time” if he were convicted. His counsel, who gave no substantive opening statement and called no witnesses, challenged none of these errors (nor were they challenged on direct appeal). After a poor ruling from the trial judge on the post-conviction petition, we will soon argue the case to the Appellate Court of Maryland. 

These opportunities have been immensely rewarding and provided me an opportunity to learn about substantive law, aspects of the legal system, and parts of the world I likely would not have encountered in my civil plaintiffs’ work. Please reach out anytime if you would like to discuss these opportunities. Working together, MAJ lawyers can make a phenomenal difference well beyond the scope of their practices.