EDUCATION | Georgetown University Law Center, Washington, DC Juris Doctor, May FloridaAgricultural andMechanicalUniversity,Tallahassee,FLBachelor of Science, with distinction in Political Science, May Concentration in Public Administration |
TRAINING | Relevant Coursework in Property Law, Civil Rights Law, Administrative Law and Lawmaking & Statutory Interpretation. |
LAW LICENSE | Maryland licensed since District of Columbia licensed since |
COMPUTERS | Automated legal research utilizing Westlaw, Lexis Nexis and other electronic research tools. |
EXPERIENCE | Attorney Advisor. The District of Columbia Department of Human Resources, Police and Firefighters’ Retirement and Relief Board, th Street NW, Washington, DC (/ – present). - Serves as an attorney-advisor to the Administrative Law Judge for the District of Columbia Police and Firefighters’ Retirement and Relief Board.
- Renders professional legal advice and assistance to the Administrative Law Judge in pre-hearing development and preparation of cases for hearing, post-hearing development and other post-hearing actions.
- Analyzes, researches and develops cases, formulates comprehensive decisions and,acts on requests for hearings held under title V of the D.C. Code, as amended.
- Participates fully and assists the Administrative Law Judge in the formulation of the case decision.
- Reviews Qualified Domestic Relations Orders that are submitted to the Police and Firefighters’ Retirement Board for legal sufficiency.
- Conducts extensive legal research and prepares legal memoranda on general topics of employment law at the direction of the General Counsel for the DC Department of Human Resources.
Litigation Project Analyst. Covington & Burling, Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington, DC (/ – /). - Reviewed and analyzed documents of an international pharmaceutical corporation in response to a subpoena issued by the Department of Justice.
- Scrutinized the documents for privileged material to determine if they had been properly shielded under attorney-client privilege.
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| Associate. The Law Offices of Michelle D. Smith, Kennedy Street NW, Suite , Washington, DC (/ – /). Law Clerk (/ – /). - Conducted extensive legal research on issues involving bankruptcy, evictions, foreclosures and contracts.
- Assisted in trial preparation and attended pretrial hearings.
- Drafted legal memoranda, complaints, answers, motions, demand letters, opinion letters, discovery requests, responses to interrogatories, articles of incorporation, articles of organization, bylaws, operating agreements, settlement agreements, praecipes, notices and orders.
- Prepared bankruptcy petitions, wills and probate petitions.
- Attended individual habilitation plan meetings for mentally disabled clients and performed scheduled home visits.
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| Summer Intern. The Advancement Project, L Street NW, Suite , Washington, DC (/ – /). - Conducted research and presented memoranda in the areas of voters’ rights, police accountability and education reform to assist in developing the organization’s legal advocacy initiatives.
- Presented reports on right wing media tactics, redistricting and the affects of reapportionment on the national legislative make-up.
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| Legal Researcher for Sen. Richard Lugar. The U.S. Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry, A Senate Russell Office Building, Washington, DC (/ – /). - Conducted extensive research on food safety issues involving E. coli and Mad Cow Disease outbreaks, the deaths caused by contaminated foodstuffs and which regions were most affected.
- Maintained record of correspondence between meat producers and the U.S. Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry.
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| Research Assistant. University of Florida, Levin College of Law, Center for Governmental Responsibility, Bruton-Geer Hall
P.O. Box , Gainesville, FL (/ – /). - Conducted comparative research on the educational requirements contained in several state constitutions and those contained in the Floridastate constitution. The research contributed to the article, Revision of the Education Article of the Florida Constitution, by Jon Mills, director of the Center, and Timothy McClendon published in the October issue of Florida Bar Journal.
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| Contract Attorney/Ad Hoc Positions. Washington, DC - Worked on several short-term project-based assignments gaining an opportunity to learn about a variety of industries and their legal requirements.
- Assisted with corporate closings and mergers by performing due diligence, indexing documents and preparing closing binders.
- Provided transactional support to corporate departments reviewing financial documents.
- Reviewed documents for attorney/client and work product privileges and worked on privilege review teams.
- Ably used various online databases such as Concordance EX, Kroll OnTrac, Nmatrix and Applied Discovery.
- Worked on electronic and manual document review projects in the telecommunications, insurance and transportation industries.
- Performed PC-based second request document review for antitrust litigation concerning the government contract of a large software provider.
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