Staff

Frederick Braunstein, Legal Intern

Fred is in his first year at The University of Michigan Law School.  At Michigan, he has been active with the Outlaws, helping to coordinate trainings on transgender issues; he also participated in the Latino Law Students Association’s annual Mr. Wolverine fundraiser for public interest students. Fred received his undergraduate degree in Women's Studies and Government from Skidmore College. Prior to starting law school, he taught courses in English and American Culture in China.

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Brittany Brown, Intern

Brittany enjoyed ten years in New York as an actress before deciding to explore a new career. After years of volunteering and advocating for equality, she is now preparing for law school and plans to pursue a career in public interest law. Brittany was born and raised in Bloomington, Indiana, and graduated from The University of Michigan’s Musical Theatre Department.

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Emily B. Chaloner, Staff Attorney

Emily is a native of New Jersey and a 2010 graduate of UCLA School of Law. During her time at law school, she was a managing editor for the UCLA Law Review, and she spent a semester working as an intern at the National Center for Lesbian Rights in San Francisco. Her student comment on copyright law and feminism will be published in the spring/summer 2010 issue of I/S: A Journal of Law and Policy for the Information Society at Ohio State University, Moritz College of Law.  She spent her summers interning for a judge in the Central District of California and at Proskauer Rose LLP in New York City. Emily graduated Phi Beta Kappa from the University of Michigan with a B.A. in Women's Studies and Creative Writing.

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Aiden Cotter, Legal Intern

Aiden is a first-year student at Brooklyn Law School. Before attending law school, he lived in Northampton, Massachusetts and attended Smith College, where he double-majored in the Study of Women and Gender and Sociology. While at Smith, he conducted research related to many issues facing the LGBT community, with a special focus on transgender issues.  Aiden is excited to intern at TLDEF and learn more about the ways in which the law can be used to advocate for the transgender community.

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Joseph Gallagher, Intern

Joseph is a native of Bethel, CT and is in his final semester in the CUNY Baccalaureate for Unique and Interdisciplinary Studies program where he is studying Political Journalism with an emphasis in gender and sexuality.  Joseph began his undergraduate studies in Musical Theatre and went on to perform on Broadway and off.  For the past year, he has been writing for the Hunts Point Express, a small, community newspaper in the South Bronx.  Joseph hopes to pursue his law degree this fall and is excited to learn about the ways the transgender community can achieve justice through the law.

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Patricia Harrington, Legal Intern

Patricia is a native New Yorker. After graduating from Queens College with a B.A. in Physics and Mathematics, she had a twenty year career as a programmer and medical physicist at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. She entered Pace Law School in 2006. During the summer of her first year she interned with the Westchester County Law Department assisting child abuse and neglect attorneys in Family Court. At Pace, she was active in the Public Interest Scholarship Organization, Lambda Law Students, and the Women’s Association of Law Students. Prior to entering law school, Patricia spent a year as a volunteer tutor at the Hetrick-Martin Institute. She is committed to eliminating the discriminatory obstacles facing transgender people in daily life.

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Lauren Jones, Legal Intern

Lauren is a first year student at New York University School of Law, where she is actively involved with OUTLaw, the HIV Law Society, and the Domestic Violence Advocacy Project. Lauren graduated Phi Beta Kappa and magna cum laude from NYU with a B.A. in Politics and Spanish, and a minor in Mathematics. She has previously interned at the Brennan Center for Justice, Gay Men’s Health Crisis, and Live Out Loud.

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Noah E. Lewis, Staff Attorney

Noah is a Pittsburgh native and a graduate of Harvard Law School. There he received the Dean's Award for Community Service for his work with the Harvard Transgender Task Force, Lambda, and the Student Animal Legal Defense Fund. His work included assisting with the campaign that added gender identity to Harvard's nondiscrimination policy and achieving improvements in insurance coverage for transgender health care. Noah also graduated magna cum laude from the University of Pittsburgh with a B.S. in chemistry and a B.A. in the history and philosophy of science. While at Pitt he helped lead a successful campaign to get domestic partner health benefits at the university. Prior to joining TLDEF, Noah worked in animal advocacy. He is a long-time vegan.

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Sara Lubetsky, Intern

Sara is a junior at New York University’s College of Arts and Sciences, where she is majoring in Gender and Sexuality Studies and minoring in South Asian Studies.  Sara is interning at TLDEF through the Gender and Sexuality Studies department at NYU, and will receive credit towards her degree for her work at TLDEF.  Sara looks forward to continuing her advocacy for the rights of transgender people while interning at TLDEF.

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Rita Petite, Bookkeeper

Rita is TLDEF’s bookkeeper.  She also works as a bookkeeper for other non-profit organizations and teaches QuickBooks.  Prior to joining TLDEF, she was in charge of accounts payable and payroll for the town of Darien, CT and then used her masters degree in music education to teach.  She taught band and orchestra for over ten years before playing the trombone for national Broadway tours and on cruise ships.  Rita settled in New York City in 2000 and has been performing as both an instrumentalist and actor.  She is a past president of Crossdressers International and is an avid supporter of TLDEF.

Brian Richards, Legal Assistant

Brian graduated from The College of Staten Island with a B.A. in Cinema Studies and English. He recently acquired a Certificate In Paralegal Studies from Long Island University, and is excited to use it to help TLDEF's attorneys and their clients accomplish their goals.  He lives in Staten Island with four cats and a wardrobe completely devoid of color (except for the shirt in the picture :-)).

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Michael D. Silverman, Executive Director

Michael has been a member of TLDEF’s Board of Directors, as well as its Executive Director, since it was founded.  He has worked as an attorney in the LGBT civil rights movement since 1994.  In addition to his work at TLDEF, Michael is Adjunct Professor of Law at Earle Mack School of Law at Drexel University, where he teaches courses on gender, sexuality and the law.

As a cooperating attorney with Lambda Legal, Michael worked on a number of groundbreaking cases, including Baehr v. Miike, one of the earliest challenges to restrictions on the freedom to marry, and Boy Scouts of America v. Dale.  In that case, Michael represented a coalition of religious organizations opposed to the Scouts’ exclusionary policy, and his brief  (cover, tables, brief) submitted to the United States Supreme Court on their behalf was cited in the opinion of the dissenting justices.  While on a Georgetown University Law Center Women’s Law and Public Policy Fellowship, Michael taught in the law school’s domestic violence clinic and worked in the legal department at NARAL Pro-Choice America.

Immediately prior to joining TLDEF, Michael worked for four years in New York Lawyers for the Public Interest’s Access to Health Care Program and Disability Law Center.  In that capacity, he provided technical assistance to numerous community groups seeking to end discrimination in access to health care on the basis of race and ethnicity.  He also successfully prosecuted large scale litigation in conjunction with the United States Department of Justice against hospitals for violations of, among other things, the Americans With Disabilities Act.  He is thrilled to be back in the movement for transgender equality.

Michael is a graduate of Vassar College and The University of Michigan Law School.

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Rachael Therien, Intern

Rachael  transitioned in 2004 and has been a member of the Transgender Evening Progam at Housing Works for the past two years.  Most recently, she has been a member of the Rainbow Heights Club, which provides support and advocacy for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender mental health consumers. Rachael worked for 19 years in the food and beverage industry and now is very involved in advocacy for the transgender community.

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Laura Vogel, Brooklyn Law School Post-Graduate Public Interest Law Fellow

Laura recently graduated from Brooklyn Law School, having received the Platinum Public Service Award, as well as the Brooklyn Law Students for the Public Interest Award, recognizing significant contributions to legal public interest work during her time at BLS.  Throughout law school, Laura was an executive board member of Brooklyn Law Students for the Public Interest, OutLaws, National Lawyers Guild, and Brooklyn Law School Democrats.  She held internships at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission under Administrative Judge Nadine E. Lewis and Senior Trial Attorney Sunu P. Chandy.  Laura graduated from New York University in 2007 with a B.A. in Philosophy and Anthropology.  While at NYU, Laura was an active member of Students Creating Radical Change, with which she worked on progressive educational events.  Laura is a former TLDEF intern and a current recipient of a Brooklyn Law School post-graduate public service fellowship, which is allowing her to return to TLDEF as an attorney.

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Kimberly Walters, Legal Intern

Kimberly is a rising second-year student at Columbia Law School.  At Columbia, she has been active with the Outlaws and Law Students for Reproductive Justice, and is on the editorial board of the Columbia Journal of Gender and Law.  She received her undergraduate degree in Philosophy and Government at the College of William & Mary in Virginia.  She enjoys running and vegetarian cooking.

Click to contact Kimberly.