LeGaL Association Board

Officers

Carlene Jadusingh - President: Carlene is an attorney with a general civil and immigration practice in New York City. In addition to serving as the president of LeGaL, she is also the chair of LeGaL's Solo & Small Law Firm Practitioners' Committee and sits on the NY City's Bar's Housing Court Committee.

Frank Martinez - First Vice President: Frank Martinez is a solo law practitioner in New York representing and counseling management and individuals in employment matters. He worked as outside counsel at the law firms of Proskauer Rose, Wilson, Sonsini, Goodrich & Rosati, and Littler Mendelson, and as senior in-house counsel with BMG Music, Pitney Bowes, and L'Oreal USA. Frank is licensed to practice law in New York and California, holds music degrees in voice performance from Indiana University-Bloomington and UMass Amherst, and graduated from Boston University School of Law.

Caprice Bellefleur - Secretary & Second Vice President: Caprice Bellefleur is a retired attorney, who also had a 25 year career as a mainframe computer programmer/analyst, working for major financial institutions. An advocate for transgender rights, she was a founder of the West Village Trans-Legal Clinic, and is now on the steering committee of the NY State GENDA Coalition. She resides in Manhattan with her wife of 23 years.

Karl Riehl - Treasurer: Karl C. Riehl is the attorney in charge of professional development & training and legal recruitment at Epstein Becker & Green, PC.  Karl also serves on the Board of Advisors for the NJ Law and Education Empowerment Project (NJ LEEP) a diversity pipeline program.  He is admitted to practice in NY & NJ and is a graduate of Seton Hall University School of Law.

Directors

Edward Augustine: Edward is a solo practitioner with practice areas in residential real estate transactions, estate planning and second-parent adoptions. He is a new member of the LeGaL Association Board but has been a member of LeGaL since he attended law school at Rutgers.

Hon. Arlene Bluth: Arlene is an Acting Supreme Court Justice in New York County. She is a graduate of Cornell University and Cardozo School of Law. Arlene is married and has a toddler son, Jonah.

Hon. Paul Goetz: Paul was elected to the Civil Court of the City of New York in November, 2010, and currently sits in Bronx County Family Court. Prior to taking the bench, he was a Senior Counsel at the New York City Law Department in the Commercial and Real Estate Litigation Division and was an Adjunct Professor of Law at New York Law School where he taught Contract Drafting. Judge Goetz has also served on the New York City Bar Association, LGBT Rights Committee. He is a 1995 graduate of Temple University School Law where he was Co-Chair of the student group Law Students for Lesbian and Gay Rights.

Donna Levinsohn: Donna is Counsel to the firm of Warshaw Burstein Cohen Schlesinger & Kuh, LLP where she works on a wide variety of complex matters, including general commercial litigation, real estate and securities fraud litigation, and class action litigation. Donna has six years of experience to date as an active member of two New York City Bar Association committees (the LGBT Rights Committee from 2005-2008/2011 - Present and the Sex and Law Committee from 2008-2011). She is a 1975 Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Yale University (B.A. magna cum laude). She received her J.D. from Harvard Law School in 1979.

Thomas Maligno: Tom has been a public interest attorney for over 35 years. He was the executive director of Long Island's civil legal services program and is currently the director of Touro Law School's nationally recognized Public Advocacy Center. He is past president of LeGaL and the Long Island's LGBT Center.

Jaime Piazza: Jaime is an attorney with the City's Administration for Children's Services. She is a former President of LeGaL who began her affiliation with the organization as a Hank Henry Fellow. Jaime is a graduate of Hofstra Law.

Ken Sanchez - Ken is a Senior Manager at Bloomberg Law, where he has worked for the past 5 years. He is a current resident of Long Island City and has served as President of Log Cabin Republicans of Massachusetts and as a National Trustee. He is a graduate of Boston College Law School and Fordham University.

Brad Snyder (ex officio): Brad Snyder is the Executive Director of LeGaL and a former president of the organization. Prior to assuming his current role, Brad was a Senior Counsel at the New York City Law Department. He is a graduate of Tufts University and New York University School of Law.

Law Student Liaison - Alex Levy (NYU '14): Alex Levy is a first-year student at New York University School of Law. Before law school, he worked in Washington as a speechwriter and legislative aide to U.S. Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY). While on Capitol Hill, he served as Chair of the Gay and Lesbian Senate Staff Caucus.

LeGaL Foundation Board

Officers

Carlene Jadusingh - President (see bio above)

Caprice Bellefleur - First Vice President (see bio above)

Hon. Charles McFaul - Secretary: Charles D. McFaul was appointed last year to the New York City Civil Service Commission after serving for many years as Chief and Deputy Chief Administrative Law Judge at the Office of Administrative & Hearings. He is a trustee for the Lawyer Assistance Trust and a long time director of the LeGaL Foundation. He is a graduate of the SUNY at Buffalo School of Law and Hofstra University.

Karl Riehl - Treasurer (see bio above)

Directors

Joseph Evall: Joe Evall is a litigation and intellectual property partner at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP, in NY, where he specializes in representing pharmaceutical and biotech companies. In 2010, Joe was honored by the LGBT Rights Committee of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York. Joe received his AB in Chemistry (summa cum laude) from Harvard College in 1982; his Masters in Physical Chemistry from Harvard; and his JD (magna cum laude) from Harvard Law School in 1990.

Russ Korins: Russ Korins has served on the board of the LeGaL Foundation since 2007. He works in internal corporate communications at TD Ameritrade. His professional experience includes marketing and communications for law firms as well as for technology companies. Admitted to practice in New York, Russ has also practiced corporate, securities, and technology law. He has a J.D. from NYU Law School and a B.A. from Yale.

Thomas Maligno (see bio above)

Frank Martinez (see bio above)

Matthew Merrick: Matt Merrick is an in-house attorney with Axiom Legal specializing in general commercial litigation and electronic discovery.   Matt is also chair of the In House Corporate Counsel Committee of LeGaL. He has been a member of the LeGaL Foundation Board since 2008.

Jaime Piazza (see bio above)

Richard Socarides: Richard Socarides is Of Counsel at Brady Klein Weissman LLP, where his practice focuses on litigation, family law and LGBT rights. He served as White House Special Assistant to President Bill Clinton, where he worked on legal, policy and political issues and was President Clinton's chief advisor on gay rights. One of the highest ranking openly gay persons ever to serve in the federal government, Socarides has written extensively on political and legal topics, including for The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal and The New Yorker, and is a frequent commentator on television.

Law Student Liaison - Maria Roumiantseva (CUNY '13): Maria is in her second year of study at The City University of New York School of Law. Maria is an avid juvenile rights advocate and intends to specialize in issues affecting LGBT out-of-home youth. Currently, she is an intern with the Legal Aid Society: Juvenile Rights Practice, LGBT Law and Policy Initiative.