Warnken, LLC, Newsletter for December 2006

The Firm’s Recent Successes

Recently, the Firm succeeded in having a life sentence reduced to a 30-year sentence in the Circuit Court for Anne Arundel County. This was the fifth life sentence that the Firm has had reduced in the last year and a half. After reduction, each sentenced ranged from 25 years (that client already went home) to 50 years.

In Seay v. General Motor, the Firm defeated General Motors 3-to-0 in the Court of Special Appeals of Maryland and 7-to-0 in the Court of Appeals of Maryland. As a result, the appellate courts reinstated his $500,000 judgment for being wrongfully discharged seven years earlier. He was fired because he filed a valid workers’ compensation claim. Nonetheless, after remand from the Court of Appeals, the trial court granted General Motors a new trial. The Firm is now in the Court of Appeals for the second time in the same case.

The Firm currently has eight appeals – two in the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, three in the Court of Appeals of Maryland, and three in the Court of Special Appeals of Maryland.

The Firm’s Internship Program

Each summer, Professor Byron L. Warnken invites the top students from his Criminal Law class to become two-day-a-week volunteer interns for ten weeks. This year, the Firm established a new record, taking eight summer interns and four fall interns. The summer interns were Caroline Baker, Michael Gaches, Hae-in Lee, Erinn Maguire, David Nowak, Kimberly Pasacrita, Jack Terzui, and Erin Valenti. They joined the Firm on May 15 and concluded their internships by August 1. The fall interns are Adam Ruther, Shannon Beamer, Alyssa Friedman, and Katrina Wallace. They will join the Firm on August 28 and conclude their internships by November 6. As a “thank you” to the interns, the Firm took all 12 interns to the Orioles game against Seattle on August 2. The interns met key Orioles personnel, including General Manager and “Cy Young Award” winner, Mike Flanigan, while they feasted on a fabulous spread and watched the game from Peter Angelos’ suite.  The Firm just started its first “winter/spring” internship program, taking on 11 new interns for the winter break and spring semester.

The Firm’s Two New Law Clerks

The Firm’s Internship Program enables law students to gain great experience at the Firm and enables the Firm to evaluate potential law clerks “up close and personal” before making a hiring decision. At the end of the summer, the Firm announced that it was hiring two full-time law clerks and was of the opinion that six of the interns were ready to become law clerks. The Firm then made an offer of full-time employment to Erinn Maguire and to Erin Valenti. Both accepted, switched to the evening division on August 21, and joined the Firm as full-time law clerks on August 29.

The Firm’s Trip to the National Constitution Center

About five years ago, the National Constitution Center opened on Independence Mall, in Philadelphia, near Independence Hall, the Liberty Bell Center, the United States Mint, and the Betsy Ross House. The Center brings to life the story of the Constitution from its founding to today. There is a 17-minute, award-winning show, titled “Freedom Rising,” featuring a live actor in a 325-seat, 360-degree, surround-screen theater. The Center has more than 100 interactive multimedia exhibits, film, text, photographs, and artifacts. There is a “Bill of Rights” show. There is a Singers’ Hall, where you walk among life-size bronze statutes of the Constitution’s 39 signers and three dissenters. The Center has one of the few existing original copies of the Constitution. The Firm will take a trip to the National Constitution Center on Saturday, September 30.

Personal News about the Firm’s Personnel

Byron Warnken and his family (wife Bonnie, son Byron B., daughter Heather, and her fiancé Mike Vallarelli) went on a one-week Caribbean cruise. Son Byron B. started an on-line reverse mortgage referral business (Eldervantage, LLC, and Reverse Mortgage Page) in St. Paul, Minnesota. Daughter Heather and son-in-law-to-be Mike live in Boston, where Heather started law school, at Suffolk Law School, on August 15.

Mike Lytle joined his high school classmates for a 20-year high school reunion in Utah and traveled to Greece to celebrate his brother Tom’s wedding. Mike’s significant other, Erin Walsh, just passed the exam to become a Registered Nurse.

Jack Miller’s daughter Heather just got married.