Et Alia

MSBA Immediate Past President Alison Asti has joined the Real Estate and Business Law Practice Group at Gordon, Feinblatt, Rothman, Hoffberger & Hollander, LLC.

Diane Festino Schmitt, a principal at Ober Kaler, has been selected to serve on the Judicial Selections Committee of the Women’s Bar Association of Maryland.

Several attorneys at Paley Rothman have been selected to national and state positions. They include Paula A. Calimafde, elected a Fellow of the American College of Trusts; Paul G. Marcotte, Jr., selected to the Maryland Section of Taxation Council; Patricia M. Weaver, elected to MSBA’s Alternative Dispute Resolution Council; James R. Hammerschmidt, chosen as Treasurer on the Board of Governors of the Maryland Chapter of the Federal Bar Association; J. Max Barger and Jeffrey A. Kolender hosted a “Dinner & Discussion” program on estate planning and asset protection for the Montgomery County Medical Society; and Deborah A. Cohn is slated to discuss international estate planning at DeVry University in Bethesda, Maryland, for the Maryland Institute for Continuing Professional Education of Lawyers.

The CEO for Ober Kaler’s Baltimore Office, John A. Wolf, was elected chair of Business Volunteers Unlimited Maryland’s Board of Directors, while Ethan J. Blank, a principal of the firm’s Finance Group, was appointed to the Board of Directors for CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocate) of Baltimore.

The Honorable J. Frederick Sharer, Court of Specials Appeals of Maryland (Ret.), has joined The McCammon Group, an ADR organization that provides mediation, arbitration and consulting services.

Kevin C. McCormick, a partner and co-chair of Whiteford, Taylor & Preston’s Labor and Employment Section, presented the breakout session “Traps for the Unwary Employer: Protected Concerted Activity Even When No Union Is Around” at the 13th Annual Advanced Employment Issues Symposium in Las Vegas.

Creative Dispute Resolutions, a Maryland-based ADR group, has added James M. Greenan, The Honorable Edward G. Ketchen, John Noble, Robert C. Park, Jr., Don F. Ryder, Jr., Suzanne M. Snedegar and James S. Wilson as mediators.

Abbey G. Hairston has become a partner at the Thatcher Law Firm, where she will continue her employment and labor practice.

The Equipment Leasing and Finance Association has chosen Edward Gross of Vedder Price, P.C., as the recipient of its 2008 Distinguished Service Award.

Ballard Spahr Andrews & Ingersoll, LLP, welcomes back real estate entrepreneur and finance attorney Sophie Dagenais.

Steven A. Loewy, P.A., has moved to 12820 Wisteria Drive, Suite 200, Germantown, Maryland 20874; (240) 252-3387.

Gessner, Snee, Mahoney & Lutchie, P.A., received the Harford Award in the service catagory due to its community contributions. It is the first law firm to win in the award’s 17-year history.

To celebrate its 30th anniversary, Stein, Sperling, Bennett, De Jong, Driscoll & Greenfeig, P.C., has donated $30,000 to various charities in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area. The donation goes towards covering a year’s worth of expenses for The Storybook Project, funding scholarships for The Round House Theatre’s summer program and more.

Jeffrey S. Glaser has joined Saul Ewing, LLP, as Special Counsel in the Baltimore Office’s Personal Wealth, Estates and Trusts Department.