Alumni Updates - Where Are They Now?

Wynter Allen has continued to work in the Legal Department of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters in Washington, DC since her Peggy Browning fellowship there in 2005.

Damarr Butler, 2007 Peggy Browning Fellow, graduated from Howard University School of Law in 2008. He took the Maryland bar exam in July 2008 and has secured a position at the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation in Washington, DC.

Tracy Bortnick, 2004 PBF fellow, graduated from Catholic University in May 2005. She is now working for Solomon Malech & Cohen in Bethesda, MD.

Paul Burke, 2002 PBF Fellow at the NLRB Region One. After graduating from Northeastern University School of Law, Paul worked as an Attorney-Advisor for the U.S. Department of Labor, Office of Administrative Law Judges in Boston, MA until fall, 2004, when he began working for a nonprofit agency, the AIDS Action Committee, in Boston. Paul reported, “While my new position is not specifically labor law oriented, the training I received through my previous labor law experience, and more specifically through my participation in the Peggy Browning Fund Fellowship, has been invaluable in making me a much more effective advocate for individuals in need. Programs like the PBF offer a great opportunity for law students to turn their passion for helping others into the skills necessary to become successful public interest lawyers. I am grateful that I had the chance to participate in the PBF. Thank you and keep up the great work!”

Angie Cowan, 2004-2005 Peggy Browning Fellow at the Chicago Newspaper Guild, graduated from Chicago-Kent College of Law in May 2005 and began working at Allison, Slutsky & Kennedy in Chicago, IL. At our reception honoring Tom Balanoff and Gil Cornfield in Chicago in November, 2005, Angie spoke eloquently about her experiences as a summer fellow.

George Faraday, 2003 PBF Fellow at the AFL-CIO. George started working in September 2004 on the staff of NLRB Member Dennis Walsh. He reports, “I’m sure my PBF experience was a major selling point, so thanks for making it all possible.” George spoke on behalf of the Fund at our spring 2005 event honoring Washington DC attorney Larry Cohen.

Parisa Fatehi, 2005 PBF fellow, will graduate from University of Texas in 2007 with a JD and Masters of Public Affairs.

Mark Floyd, 1999 Peggy Browning Fellow, continues at Mierzwa and Associates, P.A., in Lakeworth, Florida, where he has been since July 2003 He practices traditional union-side labor law and represents public sector unions, particularly fire fighters. Prior to moving to Florida, he had worked for two years at Previant, Goldberg, Uelman, Gratz, Miller & Brueggeman in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where he primarily represented private sector unions. As a Peggy Browning Fellow, Mark clerked at the Chicago Newspaper Guild Local 34071.

Clarissa Gaff, 2005 PBF fellow, graduated from Washington University of Law in May 2006 and has accepted a job with Land of Lincoln Legal Assistance Foundation as a staff attorney doing family, housing and consumer law.

Autumn Gonzalez, 2004 Peggy Browning Fellow at UNITE HERE – When we heard from Autumn in November 2005, she was working as a field rep/internal organizer at UNITE HERE on the California Indian Gaming campaign while preparing for the bar exam and keeping her eyes open for legal jobs.

Josiah Groff, 2005 PBF fellow, has been working at the union-side law firm of Allison, Slutsky & Kennedy PC since he moved to Chicago in June 2006.

Matthew Gruber, 2004 Peggy Browning Fellow at the Major League Baseball Players Association – Matt graduated in 2005 and took a job as Assistant Counsel with the National Treasury Employees Union in Washington, DC.

Andrew Hamilton, 2004 Peggy Browning Fellow at the UAW – After graduation in the spring of 2005, Andrew began working in the research department of SEIU/District 1199 in Ohio. He reported that this draws heavily on his legal training and prior labor movement experience. He recommends that young lawyers who care about the future of the labor movement should consider strategic campaign research as an alternative to traditional labor law practice.

Cecilia Isaacs-Blundin, 2004 PBF fellow, graduated Order of the Coif in May from George Washington University. She is working at Ballard, Spahr, Andrews & Ingersolls in Philadelphia.

Burt Johnson, 2005 PBF fellow, was hired (pending passing the bar exam) to be the in-house counsel to the Carpenters Regional Council for Minnesota and the Dakotas. He is looking forward to being active in the labor law community for many years to come.

Jennifer Kaufman, 2003 Peggy Browning Fellow at the NLRB’s Contempt Litigation and Compliance Branch – In March 2005, Jennifer joined another of our alumni, George Faraday, as an attorney on the staff of NLRB Member Dennis Walsh.

Michelle Kelly, 2005 PBF fellow, graduated from Rutgers Law Newark in May 2006. She is currently clerking for the Honorable Claude Coleman in Essex County, NJ.

William Massey, 2002 Peggy Browning Fellow, spoke at our Dinner Dance in March 2003 about his experience at The Workplace Project. During the summer of 2003 he worked at the New York City law firm of Semel, Young and Norum, which represents the CWA. Since graduating from CUNY School of Law he has been practicing labor law at Gladstein, Reif & Meginniss in New York City.

James McDermott, 2001 PBF fellow, is helping the Texas Rio Grande Legal Aid start a public defenders office in rural southwest Texas. He was staff attorney in Austin at the Texas Third Court of Appeals for three years (2003-2006).

Anjetta McQueen, 2006 PBF fellow, as been hired as an Associate at the union-side labor law firm of Geffner & Bush, soon to be Bush, Quinonez, Gottlieb, Singer, Kohanski, Lopez, Adelstein & Dickinson in LA. The firm practices traditional private and public sector labor representation, ERISA, wage & hour class actions, and insolvency/UCC Article 9 work for unions in the motion picture industry, journalism, and the public sector, such as firefighters and teachers.

Celine Mizrahi, 2003 PBF fellow, is an Associate at Cahill, Gordon and Reindel in New York.

Linelle Mogado, 2003 PBF Fellow at Greater Boston Legal Services. Linelle re-located to San Francisco during the summer of 2004 and began working for UNITE HERE Local 2 as Headquarters Coordinator, dealing with the logistical problems of supporting picketers at 14 hotels where workers were locked out.

Jeff Nieznanski, 2005 PBF fellow, accepted a staff attorney position with Southern Tier Legal Services, a division of Legal Assistance of Western New York in the winter of 2007. LAWNY is a not-for-profit law firm which provides civil legal services to low-income clients in a fourteen county region in western New York. STLS serves a four county region providing representation in the areas of housing, public benefits, health, education, consumer, and family law. The service area is primarily rural and clients face many challenges associated with rural poverty. His primary area of specialty is in representing clients denied Social Security disability benefits and SSI.

Melanie Orhant, 2001 PBF Fellow at the DC Employment Justice Center. In the spring of 2004, Melanie reported that she received an Equal Justice Works and Frederick B. Abramson Fellowship to establish PATIRN (Program to Assist Trafficked Individuals’ Rights and Needs) at Ayuda, Inc. in Washington, DC.

David Peterson, 2005 PBF fellow, is in his third year at NYU. This past summer, he worked in San Francisco at the Office of the Federal Public Defender.

Amanda Schneider, 2005 PBF fellow, graduated from Indiana University-Bloomington School of Law in May 2006. She moved to St. Louis where she is working for Legal Services of Eastern Missouri in their Children's Legal Alliance division. She has had a chaired position there for three years.

Elizabeth Schumacher, 2005 PBF fellow, graduated from the University of Maryland School of Law in May 2006. She is working at the Employee Benefits Security Administration for the Department of Labor doing ERISA in Washington, DC.

Illia Milasich Schwarz, 2002 PBF Fellow at the AFL-CIO. After graduation, Illia worked as an Assistant General Counsel at the United Steelworkers of America in Pittsburgh, PA where, in addition to her other duties, she served as a Mentor for another PBF Fellow. She subsequently left that position to re-locate to another state.

Amaryllis Seabrooks – One of the first PBF Fellows, in 1998 Amaryllis worked at the NLRB, Office of Appeals. She is now in-house counsel at the Screen Actors Guild in Los Angeles, CA.

Gobind Singh Sethi, 2001 PBF Fellow at the AFL-CIO. In June, 2004 Gobind reported that he was working as Assistant Corporation Counsel for the City of New York.

Jason Valtos, 1998 Peggy Browning Fellow, is a Principal at Osborne Law Offices in Washington, D.C., where he has worked since August 2001. Previously he worked at Davies Roberts Reid in Seattle, Washington. Jason handles traditional areas of labor law, including representing labor unions and trust funds; he has also done pension fund work. Jason has remained active with the Fund and says, "The Peggy Browning Fund opened all the right doors."

Gloria Yu , 2000 PBF Fellow who interned at HERE Local 2 in San Francisco. By the fall of 2004, Gloria was a staff attorney with the Pennsylvania Health Law Project in Philadelphia, PA.

If you are a former PBF Fellow, let us hear from you! If you know any of our Alumni, encourage them to get in touch with us.