FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 11, 2011
Contact:
Patricia Chiriboga-Roby, Esq.
World Relief Baltimore Immigration Legal Clinic
proby@wr.org
410-244-0002
Maryland Hispanic Bar Association Attorneys to Provide Free Legal Advice to the Community
(Annapolis, MD – April 11, 2011) – The Maryland Hispanic Bar Association, in collaboration with the Maryland Immigrant Rights Coalition, is organizing a legal fair, which will be held at Bates Middle School located at 701 Chase Street in Annapolis, Maryland from 1:00 to 4:00 p.m. on May 15, 2011. Members of the Maryland Hispanic Bar Association will provide free legal advice to members of the public.
The May 15 clinic will cover a wide variety of topics including immigration, employment, landlord/tenant, criminal law, family law, and consumer rights. The Maryland Hispanic Bar Association is an organization of attorneys practicing or living in the State of Maryland that seeks to to facilitate the administration of justice by increasing access to equal justice. For additional information, contact Patricia Chiriboga-Roby, Esq. at (410) 244-0002. Information on the Maryland Hispanic Bar Association is available at www.marylandhispanicbar.com.
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT:
OCTOBER 26, 2010 Diego Rojas
Patricia Chiriboga-Roby Named Maryland Hispanic Bar Association
Pro Bono Honoree
Rockville, MD – Patricia Chiriboga-Roby will be honored as the Maryland Hispanic Bar Association “Pro Bono Star” at the Pro Bono Resource Center’s 20th Anniversary Benefit Gala on November 13, 2010 in Baltimore. She will be recognized at the event along with Special Honorees Governor Martin O’Malley, Chief Judge Robert M. Bell and the Court of Appeals of Maryland, DLA Piper, and the Maryland Legal Services Corporation.
The Maryland Hispanic Bar Association is honoring Ms. Chiriboga-Roby for her exemplary service and commitment to providing pro bono service to needy members of the immigrant community in Maryland. Ms. Chiriboga-Roby, an attorney at World Relief Baltimore Immigration Legal Clinic, is a pro bono leader in Maryland for her work to increase access to justice for the state’s underrepresented immigrant community. The Maryland Hispanic Bar Association applauds Ms. Chiriboga-Roby for her extraordinary pro bono service.
Since the Court of Appeals has been tracking pro bono service hours, Maryland lawyers have donated over one million hours of free legal services annually to the state’s poor who cannot afford representation in critical civil legal matters. Ms. Chiriboga-Roby will be honored with other “Pro Bono Stars” named by local and specialty bars from across the state who exemplify this commitment of Maryland’s lawyers to social justice and the fulfillment of their obligation to serve the public.
The Pro Bono Resource Center of Maryland is the statewide coordinator and clearing house for pro bono services in Maryland and the pro bono arm of the Maryland State Bar Association. The Pro Bono Resource Center’s 20th Anniversary Benefit Gala will be held at the Cylburn Arboretum Vollmer Center, 4915 Greenspring Avenue, Baltimore, MD, 21209, on November 13, 2010 from 7:00 – 11:00 pm. For more information or to purchase tickets, visit www.probonomd.org or call 410-837-9379.
# # #
Contact:
Diego Rojas
(301) 340-2020
Sylvia Ontaneda-Bernales
(443) 414-4473
Maryland Hispanic Bar Announces
2010 Award Recipients
Alexander M. Sanchez, Secretary of Labor, Licensing, & Regulation to be Keynote Speaker at the Maryland Hispanic Bar Association's Seventeenth Anniversary Gala
(September 14, 2010) The Maryland Hispanic Bar Association has announced the 2010 award recipients, which will be presented at the Seventeenth Anniversary Gala. The Leadership Award will be awarded to Judge Audrey Creighton of the Montgomery County District Court. Judge Creighton served as the eleventh MHBA President from 2003-2004, and continues to serve as a current member of the Association's Board of Directors. She is the MHBA liaison to the Montgomery County Bar Association and has served on the MHBA Gala Committee, among others. As an Assistant Public Defender from 1990 to 2010, Judge Creighton has tried virtually every kind of criminal case. Prior to working for the Office of the Public Defender, she was an Assistant Attorney General in the Criminal Appeals Division of the Maryland Office of the Attorney General. She also clerked for the late Honorable Richard P. Gilbert, Chief Judge of The Court of Special Appeals of Maryland, and worked in civil litigation for the law firm of Rabineau & Peregoff.
The Outstanding Achievement Award will be presented to Judge Ricardo Zwaig of the Howard County District Court. Judge Zwaig a long-time member and supporter of the MHBA, was a partner of Zwaig and Zwaig, P.A., where he specialized in criminal law. Prior to joining his brother Michael in private practice, he devoted 19 years of his career to public service in both State and federal public defenders' offices. He also served as an Assistant Branch Chief with the Administrative Office of the United States Courts. Ricardo has served on the Board of Governors of the Federal Bar Association. He was on the Criminal Justice Act Panel of attorneys for the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland. He has been on the faculty of the National Institute for Trial Advocacy (NITA) for nearly 20 years. He also serves as Lecturer to University of Baltimore Law School third-year students and as pro-bono faculty for the Washington Council of Lawyers where he teaches Litigation Skills.
This year the MHBA honors two remarkable advocates of immigrants and their rights. The Public Service Award will go to the Maryland Immigrant Rights Coalition and to Professor Maureen Sweeney. The MIRC is a non-profit organization dedicated to the coordination and enhancement of pro bono representation of low-income immigrants; community education, and advocacy on behalf of immigrants. Professor Sweeney, a founding and current board member of the MIRC, assists Maryland immigrants through the Immigration Law Clinic she directs at the University of Maryland School of Law, serves as an emeritus member of the board of directors of the Baltimore-based non-profit Advocates for Survivors of Torture and Trauma, and has published numerous articles.
The 2010 Gala will be held on Thursday, September 16, 2010 from 6:00 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. at Martin's Crosswinds in Greenbelt. Gala attendees include representatives of the Maryland and federal judiciary, the state government, specialty bar associations, community organizations and state and local Hispanic Chambers of Commerce, among many others. For more information, reservations, and sponsorship opportunities, please visit the MHBA at www.marylandhispanicbar.com.
# # #
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 19, 2010
Contact: Sylvia Ontaneda-Bernales, Esq.
(443) 414-4473
sylvia@ontaneda-bernaleslaw.com
MARYLAND HISPANIC BAR ASSOCIATION AND CO-SPONSORING ORGANIZATIONS TO HOLD RECEPTION ON AUGUST 23 TO CELEBRATE APPOINTMENT OF TWO LATINO JUDGES
Delegate Joseline Peña-Melnyk to Make Remarks
(Baltimore, MD - August 18, 2010)
The Maryland Hispanic Bar Association (MHBA), the Hispanic National Bar Association, the Howard County Bar Association, and Casa de Maryland will hold a reception to celebrate the appointment of two Latino attorneys to judgeships in Maryland. The MHBA will congratulate Audrey A. Creighton for her appointment to the Montgomery County District Court and Ricardo D. Zwaig who has been appointed to a judgeship for the District Court of Howard County. Governor Martin O'Malley's made the appointments on Friday, July 23rd. The appointments double the number of Hispanic judges in Maryland.
Ms. Creighton served as the eleventh MHBA President from 2003-2004, and continues to serve as a current member of the Association's Board of Directors. She is the MHBA liaison to the Montgomery County Bar Association and has served on the MHBA Gala Committee, among others. As an Assistant Public Defender since 1990, Ms. Creighton has tried virtually every kind of criminal case, including several murder cases, and has represented indigent criminal defendants before Montgomery County courts. Prior to working for the Office of the Public Defender, she was an Assistant Attorney General in the Criminal Appeals Division of the Maryland Office of the Attorney General. She also clerked for the late Honorable Richard P. Gilbert, Chief Judge of The Court of Special Appeals of Maryland, and worked in civil litigation for the law firm of Rabineau & Peregoff.
Mr. Zwaig , a long-time member and supporter of the MHBA, is a partner of Zwaig and Zwaig, P.A., with offices in Ellicott City and Baltimore City, where he specializes in criminal law. Prior to joining his brother Michael in private practice, he devoted 19 years of his career to public service in both State and federal public defenders' offices. He also served as an Assistant Branch Chief with the Administrative Office of the United States Courts. Ricardo has served on the Board of Governors of the Federal Bar Association. He is on the Criminal Justice Act Panel of attorneys for the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland. He has been on the faculty of the National Institute for Trial Advocacy (NITA) for nearly 20 years. He also serves as Lecturer to University of Baltimore Law School third-year students and as pro-bono faculty for the Washington Council of Lawyers where he teaches Litigation Skills.
MHBA President, Sylvia Ontaneda-Bernales, remarked that Ms. Creighton would be the only judge of Hispanic descent on the District Court in a county where the Hispanic population is greater than 15% and Mr. Zwaig is the first Hispanic male appointed to a judgeship in Maryland, which currently has a Hispanic population of approximately 7%.
“We commend Governor O'Malley for diversifying the Judicial Commissions in the State, for opening the doors to eligible minority candidates, and for appointing to the bench Ms. Creighton and Mr. Zwaig, two superbly qualified Latino attorneys who have devoted their professional careers to excellence and service to the Hispanic community and the state. We, at the MHBA, are confident that both Audrey and Ricardo will contribute their depth of experience and diverse backgrounds in the proper exercise of their judicial positions,” said Ms. Ontaneda-Bernales. “Both Ricardo and Audrey are trailblazers in their own right and we rejoice at their extremely well-deserved appointment, but we also look forward to the day when Latinos and Latinas ascending to any judicial bench in our richly diverse State will be a common-place event,” she said.
The reception will take place at CASA de Maryland’s Multicultural Center located at 8151 15th Avenue in Hyattsville on Monday, August 23 at 6:30 pm.
The Maryland Hispanic Bar Association is a non-profit professional organization that serves the public interest by cultivating the science of jurisprudence and, among other mandates, promoting reform in the law and judicial procedure on behalf of the Hispanic/Latino community; facilitating the administration of justice; and, providing a forum for the consideration of issues and resolutions of concern to the members of the legal profession. With a membership of nearly 200 active attorneys, students and paralegals, the Association conducts open Board of Directors meetings every third Tuesday of the month at various locations around the State. Further information on the MHBA can be found on Facebook and at www.marylandhispanicbar.com
# # #
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 28, 2010
Contact
Elizabeth Leight, Esq.
MHBA Communications Committee
301-651-7757
Sylvia Ontaneda-Bernales, Esq.
Law Office of Sylvia Ontaneda-Bernales
(443) 414-4473
sylvia@ontaneda-bernaleslaw.com
Maryland Hispanic Bar Association commends Governor O'Malley for
diversifying the Judicial Bench by appointing two Latinos to Judgeships
BALTIMORE, MD The Maryland Hispanic Bar Association (MHBA) is proud to
announce the appointment of two Latino attorneys to judgeships in
Maryland. Governor Martin O'Malley's made these appointments on Friday,
July 23rd.
The MHBA congratulates Audrey A. Creighton for her appointment to the
Montgomery County District Court and Ricardo D. Zwaig who has been
appointed to a judgeship for the District Court of Howard County.
MHBA President Sylvia Ontaneda-Bernales remarked that Ms. Creighton
would be the only judge of Hispanic descent in District Court in a
county where the Hispanic population is greater than 15% and that Mr.
Zwaig is the first Hispanic male judge appointed in the State of
Maryland, which currently has a Hispanic population of about 7%.
Ms. Creighton served as the eleventh MHBA President from 2003-2004, and
continues to serve as a current member of the Association's Board of
Directors. She is the MHBA liaison to the Montgomery County Bar
Association and has served on the MHBA Gala Committee, among others.
As an Assistant Public Defender since 1990, Ms. Creighton has tried
virtually every kind of criminal case, including several murder cases,
and has represented indigent criminal defendants before Montgomery
County courts. Prior to working for the Office of the Public Defender,
she was an Assistant Attorney General in the Criminal Appeals Division
of the Maryland Office of the Attorney General. She also clerked for
the late Honorable Richard P. Gilbert, Chief Judge of The Court of
Special Appeals of Maryland, and worked in civil litigation for the law
firm of Rabineau & Peregoff.
Audrey grew up speaking both English and Spanish at home, since her
Ecuadorian maternal grandmother lived with her family and did not speak
English. She was raised in Montgomery County, Maryland, and graduated
from Thomas S. Wootton High School in 1978. She received a Bachelor of
Arts Degree in English from The University of Maryland in 1982, and
earned her Juris Doctorate Degree from the University of Baltimore
School of Law in 1986. Currently, she is an adjunct professor at the
American University Washington College of Law, where she teaches Trial
Advocacy Skills.
Mr. Zwaig , a long-time member and supporter of the MHBA, is a partner
of Zwaig and Zwaig, P.A., with offices in Ellicott City and Baltimore
City, where he specializes in criminal law. Prior to joining his
brother Michael in private practice, he devoted 19 years of his career
to public service in both State and federal public defenders' offices.
He also served as an Assistant Branch Chief with the Administrative
Office of the United States Courts. Ricardo has served on the Board of
Governors of the Federal Bar Association. He is on the Criminal
Justice Act (CJA) Panel of attorneys for the United States District
Court for the District of Maryland. He has been on the faculty of the
National Institute for Trial Advocacy (NITA) for nearly 20 years. He
also serves as Lecturer to University of Baltimore Law School
third-year students and as pro-bono faculty for the Washington Council
of Lawyers where he teaches Litigation Skills.
Ricardo has worked raising funds for high-school scholarships as a
member of the Columbia Foundation and has served on the MHBA's Judicial
Selections Committee. He is a member of the Federal Bar Association,
Maryland Chapter and of the Maryland Criminal Defense Attorney's
Association. A native of Buenos Aires, Argentina, Ricardo obtained his
BA at UMBC in 1977 and his JD from the University of Maryland School of
Law in 1982.
The appointments of Mr. Zwaig and Ms. Creighton double the number of
Hispanic judges in Maryland, with the other two currently sitting
judges being the Honorable Marielsa Bernard of the Montgomery County
Circuit Court and the Honorable Audrey J. S. Carrion of the Baltimore
City Circuit Court. Judge Bernard and Judge Carrion assumed the bench
in 1998 and 1999, respectively.
"The MHBA applauds Governor O'Malley's appointment of two of our most
respected and accomplished members, Ricardo Zwaig and Audrey Creighton,
into judgeships for the District Courts of Howard County and Montgomery
County," said Ms. Ontaneda-Bernales.
"We commend Governor O'Malley for diversifying the Judicial Commissions
in the State, for opening the doors to eligible minority candidates,
and for appointing to the bench Ms. Creighton and Mr. Zwaig, two
superbly qualified Latino attorneys who have devoted their professional
careers to excellence and service to the Hispanic community and the
state. We, at the MHBA, are confident that both Audrey and Ricardo
will contribute their depth of experience and diverse backgrounds in
the proper exercise of their judicial positions," she said.
"These appointments are historic in their own right and at the MHBA, as
well as within the Latino Community in Maryland, we rejoice with the
same pride we felt last year when Congress confirmed on August 8,
2009, Sonia Sotomayor, as the first Latina Supreme Court Justice," Ms.
Ontaneda-Bernales added.
The Maryland Hispanic Bar Association is a non-profit professional
organization that serves the public interest by cultivating the science
of jurisprudence and, among other mandates, promoting reform in the law
and judicial procedure on behalf of the Hispanic/Latino community;
facilitating the administration of justice; and, providing a forum for
the consideration of issues and resolutions of concern to the members
of the legal profession. With a membership of nearly 200 active
attorneys, students and paralegals, the Association conducts open Board
of Directors meetings every third Tuesday of the month at various
locations around the State. Further information on the MHBA can be
found on Facebook and at www.marylandhispanicbar.com
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 15, 2010
Contact:
Patricia Chiriboga-Roby, Esq.
World Relief Baltimore Immigration Legal Clinic
proby@wr.org
410-244-0002
Maryland Hispanic Bar Association Attorneys to Provide Free Legal Advice to the Community
(Gaithersburg, MD – July 8, 2010) – The Maryland Hispanic Bar Association, in collaboration with the Maryland Immigrant Rights Coalition, is organizing a legal fair, which will be held at Ascension Episcopal Church located at 205 South Summit Avenue in Gaithersburg, Maryland from 1:00 to 4:00 p.m. on July 18 and July 25, 2010. Members of the Maryland Hispanic Bar Association will make presentations on legal issues on July 18 and provide free legal advice to members of the public on July 25.
The presentations on July 18 will cover a wide variety of topics including immigration, employment, landlord/tenant, criminal law, family law, and consumer rights. At that time, members of the community will also have the opportunity to sign up for an individual consultation with an attorney on the following Sunday. The Maryland Hispanic Bar Association is an organization of attorneys practicing or living in the State of Maryland that seeks to serve the public interest by providing access to legal counsel to immigrants and members of the community. For additional information, contact Patricia Chiriboga-Roby, Esq. at (410) 244-0002. Information on the Maryland Hispanic Bar Association is available at www.marylandhispanicbar.com.
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August 6, 2009
Baltimore City,
Maryland –
MHBA
Announces Keynote Speakers
Maryland Lieutenant Governor Anthony G. Brown and Thomas
A. Saenz, President & General Counsel
Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund
(MALDEF), will be Keynote Speakers
next September 24, at the Maryland Hispanic Bar
Association’s Sixteenth Anniversary Gala.
Anthony G. Brown was inaugurated as Maryland’s 8th
lieutenant governor on January 17, 2007.
Lieutenant Governor Brown has a distinguished career in
public service. Governor Martin O’Malley appointed Mr. Brown
as Chair of the Governor’s Base Realignment and Closing (BRAC)
Subcabinet. The Lieutenant Governor plays a leading role in
the Administration’s efforts on higher education, veterans’
affairs, domestic violence prevention, workforce creation
and health care. Prior to his election as Maryland’s 8th
lieutenant governor, he was a member of the Maryland House
of Delegates, where he served as the Majority Whip. Brown
also served four years on the
Board of
Trustees at Prince George’s Community College before joining
the House of Delegates.
Lieutenant Governor Brown is a Harvard-educated attorney.
As Second Lieutenant in the United States Army, Mr. Brown
served a tour of duty in Germany as a helicopter pilot with
the 4th Combat Aviation Brigade, 3rd
Infantry Division. In 2005, Lt. Governor Brown deployed with
the 353rd Civil Affairs Command in support of
Operation Iraqi Freedom, serving with distinction in
Baghdad, Fallujah, Kirkuk and Basra. He continues to serve
in the United States Army Reserves. In December 2007, Mr.
Brown was promoted to the rank of Colonel in the United
States Army Reserves and commands the 153rd Legal
Support Organization.
Thom
as
A. Saenz was named President and General Counsel of the
Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund on July
14, 2009.
In August
2005, Mr. Saenz became Counsel to the Mayor of the City of
Los Angeles, serving as a member of Mayor Antonio
Villaraigosa’s executive team and providing legal and policy
advice to the mayor until he takes over his new position at
MALDEF.
Previously, Mr. Saenz practiced civil rights litigation at
MALDEF, a national organization dedicated to securing and
promoting the civil rights of Latinos in the United States.
Mr. Saenz joined
MALDEF as
a staff attorney in 1993; he became Los Angeles Regional
Counsel in 1996, National Senior Counsel in 2000, and Vice
President of Litigation in 2001.
As Vice
President of Litigation, Mr. Saenz oversaw MALDEF’s civil
rights litigation efforts nationwide in the areas of
educational equity, employment discrimination, political
access and voting rights, immigrants’ rights, and public
resource equity. For example, he served as MALDEF’s lead
counsel in successfully challenging California’s Proposition
187 in court; as such, he presented extensive written and
oral arguments on numerous occasions in three different
cases involving the anti-immigrant initiative. He was also
MALDEF’s lead counsel in two court challenges to Proposition
227, the English-only education initiative that voters
enacted in 1998, and he successfully challenged several
ordinances barring day laborers from soliciting employment.
Mr. Saenz
was born and raised in southern California. He graduated
summa cum laude from Yale University and received his law
degree from Yale Law School. He was law clerk to the
Honorable Harry L. Hupp of the U.S. District Court for the
Central District of California and to the Honorable Stephen
Reinhardt of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth
Circuit. For eight years, Saenz taught “Civil Rights
Litigation” as an adjunct lecturer at the U.S.C. Law School.
He currently serves on the Los Angeles County Board of
Education, and has previously served on the Los Angeles
County Commission on Human Relations.
MHBA
members are attorneys, law students, and paralegals of
Hispanic/Latino descent or who have an interest in the
issues that affect the Hispanic/Latino community in the
State of Maryland and are dedicated to serve the public
interest by cultivating the science of jurisprudence,
promoting reform in the law, facilitating the administration
of justice, fostering respect of the law among the
Hispanic/Latino community, advancing the standing of the
legal profession, preserving high standards of integrity,
honor, and professional courtesy among attorneys, and
establishing closer relationships among Hispanic/Latino
attorneys and those legal professionals who have an interest
in the Hispanic/Latino community.
Typically, MHBA Gala audience includes representatives of
the Maryland and federal judiciary, the Maryland state
government, specialty bar associations, nonprofit community
organizations and the state and local Hispanic Chambers of
Commerce representatives, among many others.
The 2009 MHBA Gala
event will be held on Thursday, September 24, 2009 from 6:00
p.m. to 9:30 p.m. at
Martin’s Crosswinds, Greenbelt, Maryland.
A Tango dance performance and Silent Auction will be
featured.
For more
information, reservations, and sponsorship opportunities,
please visit the MHBA,
http://marylandhispanicbar.com or contact Sylvia
Ontaneda-Bernales,
sontaned@ober.com.
