November, 2003

The Daily Record named the Hon. Steven I. Platt the recipient of its 2003 “Innovator of the Year” award.

	Thomas J. Sessa and Cheri H. Dorsey have become Associates in the Tax & Estate Planning Group of the law firm of Gordon, Feinblatt, Rothman, Hoffberger and Hollander, LLC.
Thomas J. Sessa		Cheri H. Dorsey

Charles T. Dillon has joined the Baltimore office of McGuireWoods LLP as an associate in the law firm’s Financial Services Department.

	J. Matthew Gilmore has joined the law firm of Severn, O’Connor & Kresslein, P.A., as an associate.
J. Matthew Gilmore

Lisa Y. Settles has joined the law firm of Hodes, Ulman, Pessin & Katz, P.A., as In-House Special Education Counsel.

Paul K. Casey	Paul K. Casey, a partner with the law firm of Ballard Spahr Andrews & Ingersoll, LLP, has been elected Chair of the Governing Committee of the American Bar Association’s Forum on Affordable Housing and Community Development Law, while Ballard Spahr partner Jon M. Laria has been named Chair of the External Advisory Board for the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, Department of Public Policy. Ballard Spahr associate Jan I. Berlage has been appointed Chair of the Bankruptcy Law Committee of the Young Lawyer’s Division of the American Bar Association.	Jan I. Berlage

Governor Robert L. Ehrlich, Jr., has appointed Saul Ewing associate Roberto N. Allen to the board of commissioners of the Maryland Commission on Human Relations.

Kathleen A. Morse, senior litigator with the Civil Division of the Office of the Attorney General, has relocated from Baltimore to Vail, Colorado, where she will open The Alpine Writer, an Internet-based legal consulting and writing practice.

Rockville attorney Steven Van Grack has been elected President of the Maryland Institute for Continuing Professional Education of Lawyers.

Carmen J. Morgan has joined Shulman, Rogers, Gandal, Pordy & Ecker, P.A., as associate to the Rockville-based law firm’s Immigration, Nationality and Consular Practice Group.

Steven R. Smith has joined Ober Kaler as a principal in the law firm’s Washington, D.C., Health Law practice.
	Steven R. Smith

Robyn C. Scates, a partner in the Baltimore office of Scates & McGuire, has been elected President of the Alliance of Black Women Attorneys.

	Melissa K. Mineo has joined the family law firm of Weinberg & Schwartz, L.L.C., as an associate.
Melissa K. Mineo

Larry Bulman, principal in the law firm of Bulman, Dunie, Burke & Feld, Chartered, took home the top two trophies and a first in class at this year’s Governor’s Cup Yacht Race, sponsored by St. Mary’s College of Maryland.

The Law Office of Kimberly Talbert Myers, P.A., raised more than $1,000 for the National Capital Area Alzheimer’s Association when the California, Maryland-based Office Team (with Myers acting as Team Captain) participated in the sixth annual “Calvert-St. Mary’s Memory Walk” on September 20 in Solomons, Maryland.

	Michael E. Ellison has become an associate member of the Thatcher Law Firm, LLC, of Greenbelt, Maryland, where he will practice in the areas of employment litigation, family law and elder law.
Michael E. Ellison

The Women’s Bar Association of the District of Columbia has named Sandra Robinson a “Star of the Bar”.

The law firm of Ober Kaler marked its centennial with its “100-Year Anniversary Celebration,” held October 9 at the American Visionary Art Museum in Baltimore.