Attorneys

When you become our client, you can relax. We stand ready to use our extensive legal knowledge, our broad experience, our commitment to protect your rights, and to vigorously pursue justice on your behalf.

R. Scott Oswald, Principal
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Mr. Oswald represents executives, many of whom have uncovered corporate wrongdoing, in state and federal courts and administrative tribunals. Mr. Oswald has tried more than a dozen cases to verdict, and since 2002 has recovered more than $10 million for his clients in judgments and settlements. Notably, Mr. Oswald was Sheila Kalkunte's lead trial counsel in the ground-breaking SOX whistleblower case Kalkunte v. DVI, which remains one of the few SOX whistleblower cases in which the complainant prevailed at the trial level.

Mr. Oswald also represents senior executives and political appointees in the federal government in misconduct and security clearance suspension and revocation investigations. He lectures frequently before the D.C. Bar on employment related topics. Mr. Oswald is a board member of the Metropolitan Washington Employment Lawyers Association and a member of the National Employment Lawyers Association's Executive Compensation and Whistleblower Committees.

Adam Augustine Carter, Principal
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Adam Augustine Carter represents clients in civil and criminal litigation matters before federal and state courts, both at trial and on appeal. He regularly advocates for his clients before arbitration panels, as well as legislative and regulatory bodies. Mr. Carter is very experienced in cases involving wrongful termination, employment discrimination, securities, investment banking, health care, Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX), trademarks and trade secrets, insurance, antitrust, software development, construction, defamation, associations and telecommunications. He represents employees who bring claims against their employers for age, race, religious, ethnic, disability or sex discrimination, for violations of USERRA, SOX, FMLA, for retaliation, and for violations of other federal and/or state civil rights laws. Mr. Carter also has significant experience defending individuals in white collar criminal cases and investigations, and also represents qui tam whistle-blowers and witnesses in cases brought under the False Claims Act. Also, he regularly advises executives on contractual matters, during compensation negotiations, and regarding both termination and non-competition restrictions. Most recently, Mr. Carter helped a client win a significant discrimination case against her employer resulting in a considerable raise, various court ordered job protections for the employee, and a 100% fee recovery awarded by the court.

Mr. Carter is a graduate of Georgetown University and Georgetown University Law Center. He served as law clerk to the Honorable Oliver Gasch of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia. He is admitted to the bar in the District of Columbia, Virginia, and Maryland. He is a member of the Barristers and he is an active participant in the Archdiocesan Pro Bono Legal Network.

Nicholas Woodfield, Principal
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Nicholas Woodfield is a seasoned trial attorney specializing in civil litigation and appellate advocacy. Mr. Woodfield started his career in Birmingham, Alabama practicing in Alabama's and Florida's state and federal courts, and in 1999 he matriculated at the University of Oxford in Oxford, England, where he undertook an academic course of study as a Visiting Postgraduate Student in Law. His research focused upon the common law defense of sovereign immunity and led him to Washington, D.C. in the fall of 2000, where he practiced law with the law firm of Watson & Renner. While at Watson & Renner, Mr. Woodfield expanded his practice by representing electric utilities, manufacturers, telecommunications and other industries in cancer claims, toxic torts and environmental exposure claims. He also handled and tried medical malpractice cases for the firm. In 2002 he joined the Washington, D.C. law firm of Hughes & Bentzen, PLLC as a partner, and by 2003 he limited his practice to employment matters. At the same time he committed himself to representing only employees who had been treated unfairly by their employers, and so he joined forces with The Employment Law Group, P.C. in 2003.

Mr. Woodfield focuses his practice on Fair Labor Standards Act wage non-payment and misclassification claims, state law wage non-payment claims, Sarbanes-Oxley whistleblower complaints, False Claims Act (quit tam) claims, and discrimination and retaliation cases. He regularly tries cases for The Employment Law Group, P.C. in Montgomery County, Prince Georges County, the District of Columbia, and the Eastern District of Virginia, and in addition to bench trials and administrative hearings in EEO and MSPB matters he regularly tries three to four week long trials per year in state and federal court. The Employment Law Group, P.C. believes that its clients best interests are best served by aggressively litigating all claims with the expectation that they will go to trial, and from the moment Mr. Woodfield starts working on a clients case he begins preparing it for trial.

Mr. Woodfield is admitted to practice law in the state and federal courts of Alabama, Maryland, Virginia, and the District of Columbia, and in 2005 he was admitted to practice before the United States Supreme Court.

Jason Zuckerman, Principal
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Recognized by Washingtonian magazine as a “Top Whistleblower Lawyer,” Jason Zuckerman litigates whistleblower retaliation, qui tam, civil rights, wrongful termination, discrimination, and non-compete actions in federal and state courts. He has lectured extensively on whistleblower law and employment law, especially on Sarbanes-Oxley and False Claims Act actions, and has written several articles on whistleblower protections and co-authored a chapter on litigating whistleblower cases for Whistleblowing: The Law of Retaliatory Discharge (BNA Books).

Mr. Zuckerman has appeared on radio broadcasts and has been quoted in various newspaper articles and legal periodicals, including the Financial Times, the National Law Journal, BNA's Daily Labor Report, HR Magazine, TaxAnalysts, Richmond Times-Dispatch, Houston Chronicle, and other print and electronic media. Recently, a federal judge cited an article by Mr. Zuckerman concerning the scope of protected conduct under the whistleblower provision of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. Mr. Zuckerman has helped draft whistleblower protection laws and works with various advocacy organizations to strengthen and expand whistleblower protection laws.

Mr. Zuckerman serves as Co-Chair of the National Employment Lawyers Association’s Whistleblower Committee and Co-Chair of the Whistleblower Committee of the District of Columbia Bar’s Labor and Employment Section. In addition, Mr. Zuckerman was elected by his peers to serve on the Steering Committee of the District of Columbia Bar’s Labor and Employment Section, and is active in the American Bar Association Section of Labor and Employment Law's Subcommittee on the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, the Metropolitan Washington Employment Lawyers Association, and the Prettyman-Leventhal American Inn of Court.

Mr. Zuckerman graduated Phi Beta Kappa and magna cum laude from Georgetown University and received his law degree from the University of Virginia, where he served as Articles Editor of the Virginia Journal of Law and Technology. In law school, he received the University of Virginia School of Law's Pro Bono Award for his advocacy on behalf of prison inmates and mentally disabled individuals. He is admitted to practice before the District of Columbia, Maryland and Virginia bars, the United States Supreme Court, the United States Court of Appeals for the Second and Fourth Circuits, the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, and the United States District Court for the District of Maryland.

David H. Martin, Of Counsel
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Mr. Martin serves as Of Counsel to The Employment Law Group, P.C., lending his experience and expertise to the organization. Mr. Martin has significant legal and government service experience, including serving as Chief Counsel to the United States Secret Service during the Nixon and Ford administrations, Director of the Office of Government Ethics from 1982 to 1987, and President of the Legal Services Corporation under the Bush Administration. Mr. Martin is a partner with Canfield, Smith and Martin. Mr. Martin is a graduate of the George Washington University Law School, and has a degree in economics and history from Western Maryland College. He is admitted to practice law in the state and federal courts of Maryland, Virginia, and the District of Columbia.

Dave Scher, Of Counsel
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Dave Scher affords The Employment Law Group's clients the benefit of over fourteen years of diverse legal experience. Mr. Scher also serves The Employment Law Group's clients by providing them with unparalleled electronic discovery expertise and a strong background in complex litigation.

A graduate of Cornell University and Fordham Law School, Mr. Scher began his career in New York and New Jersey practicing in the field of corporate commercial litigation. He then worked as in-house counsel for several major corporations, including Sony Electronics, Pearson PLC and USWeb, where he specialized in Silicon Valley, California during the high point of the Internet "boom" in technology transactions, intellectual property and commercial law. In 2003 Mr. Scher combined his legal and technical expertise to work as a legal consultant for Kroll On Track, providing electronic discovery consulting, services and support to top 200 law firms in Washington, Philadelphia and Pittsburgh.

During his career, Mr. Scher has negotiated multi million dollar alliance and joint venture transactions, settled numerous cases with minimal impact to his clients, managed an eight person in-house law department, and developed the first licensing agreements for the Sony VAIO and the first hosting and application service agreements for USWeb. Over the past two years with The Employment Law Group, Mr. Scher developed and drafted appeals in immigration matters that resulted in the invalidation of regulations potentially affecting hundreds of thousands of immigrants. Mr. Scher has also guided the electronic discovery process in several employment cases, and in one case won an adverse jury instruction sanction that resulted in the firm's success in the case. Mr. Scher is also engaged in several employment and whistleblower cases and has assisted the firm in successfully defeating numerous dispositive motions.

Mr. Scher has been admitted to the bars in New Jersey, New York and California, and he is presently admitted to practice in Virginia and the District of Columbia. In sum, Mr. Scher is known for his ability to step into any case and do what needs to be done for his clients.

Katherine Brouwer Araus, Associate
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Ms. Brouwer joined The Employment Law Group, P.C., in September, 2006. After obtaining her Juris Doctor from George Mason University School of Law in May, 2005, Ms. Brouwer clerked for the Honorable M. Langhorne Keith at the Fairfax County Circuit Court. Prior to law school, Ms. Brouwer was a product development analyst for a telecommunications software company. Ms. Brouwer received her undergraduate degree in Government & Foreign Affairs from the University of Virginia in 1998. Ms. Brouwer is admitted to practice law in the Commonwealth of Virginia.

Subhashini Bollini, Associate
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Ms. Bollini joined The Employment Law Group in 2004 as a legal assistant. She earned her J.D. at the American University Washington College of Law in 2007, and in law school she was a semi-finalist in the Alvina-Reckman Myers Moot Court Competition and excelled in criminal trial advocacy as a student of Maryland Attorney General Doug Gansler.

Prior to joining The Employment Law Group, Ms. Bollini worked in a congressional office as a legislative assistant for foreign affairs, trade, and defense. She also worked in communications for a presidential campaign and performed for several years as a solo violinist and chamber and orchestral musician in the U.S. and Europe.

Ms. Bollini received her bachelor's degree in biology and music from the University of Southern California, where she was admitted as Dean's Scholar in the honors program. She studied international conflict resolution at Georgetown University and completed additional graduate coursework at the University of Chicago. Ms. Bollini is admitted to practice law in Maryland.

Greg Sharma-Holt, Associate
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Mr. Sharma-Holt earned his J.D degree, with honors, in 2005, from City University of New York Law School, where he was a member of the New York City Law Review. He was a student intern in the one-year Immigrant and Refugee Rights Clinic where he represented immigrant workers claiming wage and hour, discrimination, and labor law violations. Mr. Sharma-Holt received a Bachelor in Science degree in Accounting from the State University of New York College at Oswego in 1989. Prior to law school, Mr. Sharma-Holt worked with 1199/Service Employees International Union for seven years rising to the position of Vice President. He has worked extensively with a wide range of workers from Physicians’ Assistants to housekeeping workers on workplace violations and contract negotiations. After law school, he worked with American Rights at Work as the Director of Strategic Alliances advocating for the rights of workers to form and join unions. Mr. Sharma-Holt is a member of the Maryland Bar and is pending admission into the District of Columbia Bar.

Tom Harrington, Associate
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Mr. Harrington earned his J.D. degree at the George Mason University School of Law in 2007, where he was a Senior Staff Member of the Federal Circuit Bar Journal and a Writing Fellow. He joined The Employment Law Group in 2004 as a legal assistant. Prior to joining The Employment Law Group, Mr. Harrington worked as an analyst for The Nasdaq Stock Market. He received his Bachelor of Arts degree in English Literature from the University of California at Los Angeles. Mr. Harrington is admitted to practice law in the Commonwealth of Virginia.

Key Staff

The Employment Law Group, P.C. recognizes that a law firm cannot function without a highly competent and knowledgeable staff. The following individuals are the people behind the scenes at The Employment Law Group, P.C. who interact on a daily basis with the clients, provide support for the attorneys, and work to make certain that each and every client's case is handled like it is the only case in the firm:

Kellee Kruse
Legal Assistant
Ms. Kruse is pursuing her law degree at the George Washington University Law School and plans to graduate in 2009. She received her Bachelor's of Science in Management Information Systems from North Dakota State University. Prior to joining The Employment Law Group, P.C., Ms. Kruse worked for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security in the Transportation Security Administration. Email Me

Stephanie Johnson
Legal Assistant
Originally from Dallas, Texas, Ms. Johnson is currently pursuing her law degree at George Mason University School of Law and expects to graduate in 2010. She received her Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science from Brigham Young University in 2003. Prior to joining The Employment Law Group, P.C., Ms. Johnson worked in the U.S. House of Representatives for the Committee on Ways and Means. Email Me

Cynthia Smith
Legal Assistant
Ms. Smith is pursuing her law degree at American University, Washington College of Law and plans to graduate in 2008. She received her Master of Arts degree in Spanish Studies with an area focus in International Development from American University and her Bachelor of Arts degree in Spanish Studies from Gettysburg College. Prior to joining The Employment Law Group, Ms. Smith directed civil society and governance programming for Partners of the Americas. She has also coordinated legal services and immigrant rights programming with the Catholic Legal Immigration Network and has directed women’s rights programming with the Guatemala Human Rights Commission/USA. More recently, Ms. Smith has worked as a student attorney with the International Human Rights Law Clinic at the Washington College of Law. Email Me

Michael Vogelsang
Legal Assistant
Originally from Los Angeles, California, Mr. Vogelsang is pursuing his law degree at American University, Washington College of Law and expects to graduate in 2008. He received his Bachelor of Arts degree in International Studies from American University's School of International Service in Washington, D.C. in 2004. Prior to joining The Employment Law Group, Mr. Vogelsang worked as a legal assistant for The Nature Conservancy and as a project assistant for Jenner & Block LLP. Email Me

Andrea Downing
Legal Assistant
Originally from Cobleskill, New York, Ms. Downing is currently pursuing her law degree at George Mason University School of Law and expects to graduate in 2010. She received her Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science from Plattsburgh State University of New York in 2005. Prior to joining The Employment Law Group, P.C., Ms. Downing worked for the District of Columbia Superior Court in the Probate Division. Email Me

Kathy Valerin
Legal Assistant
Originally from Washington, D.C., Ms. Valerin received her Bachelor of Arts degree in Sociology from Dartmouth College, in Hanover, New Hampshire. Before joining The Employment Law Group, P.C., Ms. Valerin worked as an Immigration Manager at the Corporate Executive Board where she managed day to day inbound and outbound immigration activity with primary responsibility for U.S. and International Immigration, Relocation, and Expatriate assignment management. Prior to joining TELG, Ms. Valerin also worked as a Business Immigration Paralegal at Maggio & Kattar, where her caseload included Petitions for Nonimmigrant Workers (H-1B, L-1B, L-1A, E-3, & TN visas), Employment-Based First and Second Preference Immigrant visa petitions exempt from labor certification (Extraordinary Ability, Outstanding Researcher, Multinational Executives), and Applications for Labor Certification. Email Me

Karuna Johnson
Legal Assistant
Originally from Deerfield, Illinois, Ms. Johnson is currently pursuing her law degree at George Mason University School of Law and expects to graduate in 2011. She received her Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics and International Relations from Mount Holyoke College in 2005. Prior to joining The Employment Law Group, P.C., Ms. Johnson worked as a healthcare economist for Global Insight, Inc. Email Me

Tadena Simpson
Legal Assistant
Originally from South Florida, Ms. Simpson is currently pursuing her law degree at George Mason University School of Law and expects to graduate in 2011. She received her Bachelor of Arts degree in Mathematics from Duke University in 2005. Prior to joining The Employment Law Group, P.C., Ms. Simpson worked in both the insurance and real estate development industries. Email Me

Franklin Wagner
Legal Assistant
Mr. Wagner is pursuing his law degree at the George Washington University Law School and plans to earn his Juris Doctor in 2009. He received his Bachelor's of Science in Psychology as well as a degree in Education from the College of William and Mary in Virginia. Prior to joining The Employment Law Group, P.C., Mr. Wagner has been a middle school teacher in Stafford County, Virginia, worked as a real estate office manager in D.C., and served as the assistant to the executive director of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a non-profit organization. Email Me

Administrative Staff

India Hall
Controller
Mrs. Hall joined The Employment Law Group, PC in 2008. Prior to her employment with TELG, Mrs. Hall was Controller of The District of Columbia Sports and Entertainment Commission during the construction of the new Washington Nationals Baseball stadium, a project known for being on time and on budget. Mrs. Hall is a proud graduate of George Mason University with a Bachelor of Science in Integrative Studies and Accounting. Mrs. Hall grew up in the small town of King George, VA. Email Me 

Shaquita Wilson
Client Services
Ms. Wilson joined The Employment Law Group, P.C. in 2001 as an executive assistant. She earned both an AAS as a legal assistant and a Bachelor's degree in Political Science from the University of the District of Columbia, and she plans to attend law school in the fall. Email Me 

Dionne Kinch
Client Services Assistant
Ms. Kinch joined The Employment Law Group, PC in 2008. Prior to her employment with The Employment Law Group, PC, Ms. Kinch worked for FEMA helping victims of Hurricane Katrina apply for Federal disaster aid. Ms. Kinch has also worked at several large law firms. Ms. Kinch received a Bachelor of Arts in Communications from the University of Nebraska/Omaha in 1998, and she earned her Juris Doctor from Creighton University in 2003. Email Me

Ruben E. Baca
Administrative Assistant
Originally from Peru, Mr. Baca served as an officer in the Peruvian Navy before immigrating to the United States. He attended Universidad Inca Garcilazo de la Vega, a law school in Lima, Peru. After he arrived in Washington, D.C. Mr. Baca worked at Christ House as a translator for Hispanic patients. While working at Christ House Mr. Baca attended University of the District of Columbia, where he received his bachelor’s degree in political science. Mr. Baca is responsible for the monthly client billing and other administrative issues. Email Me

Lori Kalikstein
HR Generalist
Originally from White Plains, New York, Ms. Kalikstein graduated from the University of Maryland at College Park in 2006 with a B.A. in Government & Politics. She joined The Employment Law Group, P.C. in October of 2007, and most recently she worked as a Legal Recruiting Assistant at Covington & Burling LLP in Washington, D.C. Email Me

Keesha Green
Project Assistant
Hailing from Norfolk, Virginia, Ms. Green joined The Employment Law Group in March of 2008. Ms. Green graduated in 2007 from Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, VA, where she served as a senator in the Student Government Association. Ms. Green plans to attend law school and pursue a career in the legal field. Email Me 

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