Author: JGL Law

On May 18^th, JGL attorneys Levi Zaslow, Maritza Carmona and Tim Maloney won nearly $260,000 in damages for their client, Mamoun Ashkar, who faced ethnic discrimination within his community of Riverdale Park in Prince George’s County. The Daily Record has since published an article about this case as it has meaningful impact on not just the Prince George’s County town but also for broader communities.

Mr. Ashkar, a Palestinian-American, became the owner of Greg’s Towing in January of 2015. Greg’s Towing is the only tow company in the Town of Riverdale Park in Prince George’s County and, for 30 years, it was the exclusive tow service provider for the town and its police department. Once Mr. Ashkar took over Greg’s Towing, he contacted Town representatives, including the police dept., to continue the company’s long standing relationship with the Town, but he was denied the by the Town, its employees and the police department through numerous instances that included derogatory language, name-calling and discriminatory statements.

“Local government cannot discriminate against its citizens and this case is about fairness, justice and equality and this verdict speaks to that,” Levi S. Zaslow told The Daily Record on Tuesday May 22^nd. “We are very open to sitting down with the town and speaking about these practices and ensuring a fair and equitable process going forward.”

Joseph, Greenwald and Laake, P.A. is proud to continue its longstanding tradition of providing a voice to victims of discrimination, such as Mr. Ashkar.

To read the full story, click on The Daily Record logo below.

 

Earlier this week Jerry Miller, a principal in Joseph, Greenwald & Laake’s Business Services Group, sponsored a junior golf team at the Doctors Community Hospital Foundation’s 23^rd Annual Golf Invitational. Miller’s team was a group of students from from the Southern Maryland Junior Golf Association (SMJGA) in Upper Marlboro. SMJGA is a non-profit association that is dedicated to providing educational, developmental, and life skills to Southern Maryland youth.

The Doctors Community Hospital is a non-profit community based facility that has served residents of Prince George’s County for 43 years. This golf tournament is one of the facility’s largest fundraisers of the year and has raised over $1 million dollars to date. Money raised from this event goes to health programs such as their mobile health clinics, which travel to various locations to provide no-cost medical services to the communities it serves. This year’s golf event marked its 23^rd anniversary and was held at the Queenstown Harbor Resort in Queenstown, Maryland. Over 200 people attended the event and enjoyed lunch, a closing reception, awards ceremony and various auctions.

 “I am proud to be a part of such wonderful organizations that help people in Prince George’s County,” stated Miller. “The team of junior golfers had a great time and enjoyed the event to its fullest. This annual event is certainly a celebration of the entire community.”

As a principal in Joseph, Greenwald & Laake’s Business Services Group, Jerry has years of experience serving business leaders. He excels not only in the legal side of business, but brings a honed business acumen to his clients’ sides. Jerry’s hands-on approach has been invaluable to his clients, many of whom have stayed with him for years.

Companies often give their employees a more relaxed dress code during the hotter summer months. While this allows for a more comfortable atmosphere in which to work, it can often create an environment of confusion around what is appropriate to wear. JGL’s Brian Markovitz recently spoke with Law360 to discuss the parameters of a summer dress code and corporate best practices.

“As it heats up, people wear less clothing, it’s important to remind people to keep it professional,” Markovitz states in the Law360 article. “Have your human resources person just reiterate what the policy is as far as appropriate length of clothing, coverage of clothing and what is and isn’t inappropriate clothing to wear.”

Law360 continues this discussion with direction for companies to follow. To read the full article, click the image below. 

As principal in Joseph, Greenwald & Laake’s Labor and Employment and Civil Litigation practice groups, Brian has extensive experience representing clients in labor cases. He has won his clients numerous highly profitable settlements and has been honored as one of the nation’s top 100 trial lawyers for his work.

On the evening of May 18, JGL attorney Eleanor Hunt and the Maple Lawn Women’s Networking Group, hosted a networking event that included a special Yin Yoga session featuring a live harpist for attendees at The Pearl Spa in Maple Lawn, Fulton, MD.

Hunt is a sponsor of the event and a very involved member of the Maple Lawn Community. “These events bring women together in a local setting to provide a comfortable environment to network and to tryout new experiences such as Yin Yoga,” says Hunt. This event also featured the music of a live harpist. Hunt continues, “We come together as a community at these events and that is what is most important.” The Maple Lawn Women’s Networking Group has regular meetings in the community with various themes, activities and speakers.

Eleanor Hunt serves as senior counsel in JGL’s Family Law practice. She represents clients in divorces, adoptions, adoptions, child custody and visitation disputes, domestic violence proceedings, drafting qualified domestic relations orders, and child and spousal support matters. While Eleanor is skilled in trial and willing to go to bat for her clients, she is also a caring and cool-headed advisor who can get clients good results through negotiated resolutions.  

On May 17, Joseph, Greenwald & Laake principal Jerry Miller worked at the Bowie Business Innovation Center (Bowie BIC) with Bowie BIC clients and entrepreneurs from the Prince George’s County business community. During the event, Miller answered any legal questions attendees had in relation to expanding their business operations. Specifically, Miller advised participants on choosing proper corporate structures for their businesses and the legal challenges of owning and operating a growing business. He also advised on how to address the complex issues that confront modern entrepreneurs.

Miller and Bowie BIC have held these helpful sessions many times over the past few months. Together, Jerry and the Bowie BIC hope to accelerate the innovation, growth and job generation capacity of companies in Prince George’s County for the benefit of entrepreneurs and employees alike.

As a principal in Joseph, Greenwald & Laake’s Business Services Group, Jerry has years of experience serving business leaders. He excels not only in the legal side of business, but brings a honed business acumen to his clients’ sides. Jerry’s hands-on approach has been invaluable to his clients, many of whom have stayed with him for years.

On May 16^th, Ayuda celebrated its 45th anniversary. Ayuda is an organization that strives to assist immigrants in the Washington, DC. metropolitan area overcome obstacles to becoming a part of their surrounding community. Joseph Greenwald & Laake was a sponsor of the gala event and partner Veronica Nannis, a new Ayuda Board member, spoke at the event as well. “I am so proud of Ayuda and what the organization, the staff and the supporters have done,” Nannis said. “The immigrants in our communities cannot be forgotten or abandoned. Ayuda has long been a champion for immigrants’ rights and that is why I stand with it.”

The anniversary event, also attended by JGL staff and attorneys, included a reception and awards program to honor the dedicated men and women who have contributed to the organization’s success. Ayuda states, “We dedicate Ayuda’s 45th anniversary celebration to our community of immigrants. This event marks the beginning of a new era of strategic growth – taking us to our half-century milestone with a solemn promise that we will always help vulnerable immigrants in our community overcome barriers and achieve their dreams.”

Since it’s inauguration in 1973, Ayuda has been committed to helping low-income immigrants in and around Washington, DC It has helped over 100,000 immigrants from 104 countries by providing legal, social and language services. Nannis and other attorneys and staff from JGL recently partipcated in one of Ayuda’s free legal clinics, which helped some 50 individuals learn their immigration rights.

Nannis is a member of Ayuda’s Board, and has a history of working with the organization. Last year she hosted an educational welcome breakfast and co-sponsored Ayuda’s 44th Anniversary event.

Joseph Greenwald & Laake congratulates Ayuda on another successful year!

JGL is please to announce Levi Zaslow has been named a Rising Star by Super Lawyers Magazine and Thomson Reuters. Only 5% of attorneys receive this honor each year. Congratulations Levi! 

As senior counsel in Joseph, Greenwald & Laake’s Civil Litigation practice group, Levi Zaslow focuses his practice on Employment Law, Commercial Litigation, Government Litigation, and Appellate Litigation in Maryland and the District of Columbia. A skilled and experienced litigator, Levi enjoys the variety of work his fast-paced litigation practice provides, including drafting motions and conducting legal research, taking depositions, and performing in court and at trial.

Click below for more on Levi. 

Tim Maloney recently served as host for a special event to discuss a memoir by his good friend and colleague former Maryland Senator Joseph D. Tydings. Tim has known Tydings since he campaigned for Senate in Prince George’s County in 1964. At the event, Tim Maloney included some his own memories as he teed up questions for Joe Tydings and his co-writer and former Sun reporter, John W. Frece. The memoir, “My Life in Progressive Politics: Against the Grain,” is surprisingly timely. Tydings looks back on a life of public service, from the Maryland General Assembly to chief federal prosecutor in Maryland and ultimately to the United States Senate.

The celebration took place at the University of Maryland’s Samual Riggs IV Alumni Center and included about 80 attendees. “It was a true honor to be a prominent part of such a remarkable event,” stated Maloney. “Tydings has had a wonderful influence on both my personal and professional life,” he continued.

Tydings’ book, titled “My Life in Progressive Politics: Against the Grain,” was published in late April and documents his career as he fought for progressive issues like gun control, healthcare and environmental protection.

William F. Zorzi provides a detailed and personal description of the celebration in an article found on Maryland Matters, a website that delivers news about Maryland government and politics. In this article, he shares, “The session was anything but a melancholy occasion; it was at times hysterically funny, rather than some sort of lament for the past.” To read more about the event, click here.

(Photo cred: Washington Post)

Joseph Greenwald & Laake is pleased to announce the hiring of our newest associate attorney, Michael Joseck. Michael will join the firm’s Estate and Trusts practice, and will provide counsel to individuals on matters in estate planning, estate and trust administration, and estate and trust taxation issues.

Michael is a proud graduate of the Western Michigan School of Law. While in law school, he was a member of the Moot Court, the Tax Law Society, and he volunteered in preparing tax returns for low-income individuals through the VITA program. Before joining JGL, he was the Chief Auditor for the Howard County Register of Wills. While there, he oversaw the estate audit department and the unique Maryland Inheritance Tax. He has also worked for a Delaware trust company and an accounting firm.

“We are proud to have hired an associate with such strong experience as Michael,” managing director Burt Kahn said. “We are very excited to add him to our Estates and Trusts team.”

Please join us in welcoming Michael to the JGL team.

           

The prominent legal practice and management report Of Counsel recently interviewed several attorneys, including Joseph, Greenwald & Laake principal Brian J. Markovitz to discuss the current trends of class action litigation. While Northern California is currently seeing an uptick in employment class action suits for wage-and-hour and equal employment opportunity, Markovitz shared that he is experiencing a growing number of labor and employment class action suits in the Washington, DC area, especially in the construction industry. In these cases, Markovitz says that employers tend to hire workers of Hispanic descent and do not pay them correctly or at all.

“Many construction companies hire them to do the work and then flat-out don’t pay them,” Brian told Of Counsel. “Given the current political climate, a lot of these employers think it’s easy to leverage them.”

Of Counsel also captured Brian’s perspective on class action suits in the information security sector, given the recent prevalence of high-profile data breaches. “We think there will be an explosion of lawsuits for negligence involving data breaches,” Brian predicted. “There are various state-law statutes that allow people to be what they call ‘private attorneys general’…It’s an up-and-coming area. We are gearing up for that and intend to be on the forefront of it.”

As principal in Joseph, Greenwald & Laake’s Labor and Employment and Civil Litigation practice groups, Brian has extensive experience representing clients in labor cases. He has won his clients numerous highly profitable settlements and has been honored as one of the nation’s top 100 trial lawyers for his work

To read the article in full, please click the Of Counsel logo below.

On May 7, Joseph Greenwald & Laake principal attorney Timothy Maloney argued in the Maryland Court of Appeals regarding whether or not a state agency supervisor’s personal notes about an employee are required to be disclosed to a worker under the Maryland Public Information Act. The Court heard competing slippery-slope arguments about the case.

Maloney argued that the MPIA’s transparency would be violated if supervisors could place their personnel information in a private folder and exempt them from disclosure by labeling them as private. However, the opposing side argued that compelling disclosure would invade privacy of supervisors.

The issue stems from the case of Bernadette Lamson, an employee of the Montgomery County attorney’s office, is entitled to the personal notes her employer kept in her personal moleskin journal. The Montgomery County Circuit Court and the intermediate Court of Special Appeals have upheld the denial of Lamson’s MPIA request

Maloney said, “There is only one reason she took those notes. She was acting a public government supervisor.”

Maloney is a preeminent trial lawyer who has obtained millions of dollars in recoveries for his clients in a wide variety of matters, including civil rights, employment discrimination, whistleblower actions and high-stakes business litigation. He is a committed advocate for the public good who has held leadership roles with many civic and charitable organizations.

To read the article, click here.

 

Joseph Greenwald & Laake principal attorney Timothy Maloney spoke at the Court of Appeals on May 7 regarding a case in which the General Assembly withheld the salaries of acting Health Secretary Dennis R. Schrader and former acting Planning Secretary Wendi Peters. Maloney represents both secretaries, and was quoted in the Maryland Daily Record.

The case asks whether or not Maryland’s top court believes Governor Larry Hogan used recess appointments in an acceptable way following the withdrawal of their nominations from Senate consideration. Assistant Attorney General Julia Doyle Bernhardt argued that the executive branch does not hold the sole power to appoint, because it is a shared power between the executive and the Senate. However, Maloney argued that Hogan was within his rights to appoint both Schrader and Peters.

Maloney told the court, “If the General Assembly can do this, if they basically can chop off their heads, if you will, budgetarily by simply placing language on Cabinet members it doesn’t want to appoint, here it would be recess appointments and next week it could be something else. It really deprives the executive of the inherent executive authority to make recess appointments.”

Maloney is a preeminent trial lawyer who has obtained millions of dollars in recoveries for his clients in a wide variety of matters, including civil rights, employment discrimination, whistleblower actions and high-stakes business litigation. He is a committed advocate for the public good who has held leadership roles with many civic and charitable organizations.

To read the article, click here.