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Announcements

Marshall Dennehey Warner Coleman & Goggin brought in its 7th consecutive class of Cristo Rey Philadelphia High School students to the firm. Cristo Rey is an independent Catholic college preparatory school for students of all faiths who cannot otherwise afford a private education.

Beginning now and throughout the 2019-2020 school year, four students will share a position at the firm, each working one day per week. In return, the firm pays a portion of each student's high school tuition.

Additions

Pond Lehocky Stern Giordano announced that the advocacy group added Alexandria Baland as a Social Security disability associate.

Baland focuses her practice on providing legal assistance to disabled individuals.

Before joining Pond Lehocky, Baland worked as an associate at a New Jersey law firm, assisting disabled children and their families with matters including guardianship and special needs trusts.

She also frequently speaks to groups for parents of disabled children regarding Social Security disability, special education and other related topics.

She also served as a staff attorney at a New Jersey nonprofit that provides free legal services to indigent clients, handling Social Security, housing and other civil matters.

In addition, she worked as a document review attorney, assisting a large Philadelphia law firm in pharmaceutical injury litigation.

Baland graduated from Syracuse University College of Law's disability law and public policy joint-degree program, earning her Juris Doctor and a master's degree in disability studies.

She is fluent in both English and Spanish.

Speakers

Maryellen Madden, a transgender Montgomery McCracken Walker & Rhoads attorney and board member of Philadelphia's William Way LGBT Community Center, and Bob Skiba, curator at the John J. Wilcox Jr. Archives at Philadelphia's William Way LGBT Community Center, are slated to discuss the legal and cultural barriers that suppress transgender expression, the development of the vocabulary used to distinguish and describe transgender people, the interaction of the transgender community with other members of the LGBT community, the continuing plight of trans people of color, and the impact of medicine, culture, technology, politics and science on acceptance of transgender people.

Previously presented as part of a seminar at Duke University Law School in 2017 and 2018 and at the Keystone Conference, this presentation uses the legal landscape over time as a backdrop for the changing response of transgender persons to institutional repression and covers historical events including the Civil War, the era of cross-dressing balls, the Pansy Era, the riots at Cooper Donuts and Compton Cafeteria, the sit-in at Deweys and then the response to the police raid at Stonewall.

Although not a focus of the seminar, the presenters will explore the place Philadelphia holds in this narrative.

CLE credit will be provided.

Immediately following the seminar, there will be a cocktail hour with light hors d'oeuvres, cocktails and refreshments.

The event is scheduled to be held from 4:30 to 7:30 p.m. Oct. 2.

For questions or to register, please contact [email protected].