Mr. Read has been the
General Counsel of Justice at Work (Friends of Farmworkers, Inc.) for more
than 39 years and has been practicing labor and employment law in New York,
New Jersey and Pennsylvania since receiving a J.D. from NYU Law School more
than 45 years ago in 1976. Since 1979, Mr. Read’s practice has almost
entirely focused on the representation of limited English proficient (LEP)
clients in cases before federal and state courts, and before federal and
state administrative agencies, including unemployment compensation claims and
extensive practice before the Pennsylvania Labor Relations Board. His
litigation on behalf of LEP clients has been principally on behalf of Spanish
and Haitian Creole speaking clients and has included mass and class action
cases tried before juries. Beginning in 2018, Mr. Read undertook issues of
behalf of a Cameroonian Pidgin English speaking asylum detained asylum
applicant as to rights of Limited English Proficient persons in immigration
proceedings. In 2000, Mr. Read testified before the Pennsylvania Supreme
Court Committee on Racial and Gender Bias in the Judicial System and
thereafter became a member of the Limited English Proficient Litigants
Workgroup which produced Chapter One “Litigants with Limited English
Proficiency” in the March 2003 Final Report of the Committee. Since 2003, Mr.
Read has helped lead advocacy efforts through the Pennsylvania and
Philadelphia Bar Associations as well as through the Pennsylvania Immigration
and Citizenship Coalition (PICC) for implementation of the Committee’s 2003
recommendations for LEP litigants. He is a member of the Pennsylvania Bar
Association (PBA) House of Delegates, a former co-chair of the PBA Civil and
Equal Rights Committee, and an active member of several PBA committees. Mr.
Read has been a trainer and course planner for numerous continuing legal
education events including those sponsored by the National Legal Aid and
Defender Association and the Pennsylvania Bar Institute. 

Before she started The Law Office of Rosina C. Stambaugh in York, Ms. Stambaugh was an associate at The Law Office of Christopher A. Ferro, LLC, where she handled the firm’s immigration services and a variety of criminal cases, many of which included complex immigration issues. She focuses her practice on removal defense in the detained and non-detained settings. Ms. Stambaugh has extensive experience with all forms of relief from removal and has successfully litigated cases in different Immigration Courts throughout the U.S., the Board of Immigration Appeals and the Third Circuit Court of Appeals. She also represents individuals and families applying for affirmative benefits with U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Services. The daughter of Italian immigrants, Ms. Stambaugh understands the importance of immigration and its effects on all aspects of a person’s life. Ms. Stambaugh is a member of the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA), the Pennsylvania Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (PACDL), the Pennsylvania Bar Association (PBA), the PBA Immigration Law Committee, the Pennsylvania Bar Association (PBA) Unauthorized Practice of Law and Immigration Law Committees and the York County Bar Association (YCBA). Ms. Stambaugh is also a member of the York County Bar Association Board of Directors. Ms. Stambaugh is admitted to practice before the Pennsylvania Superior Court, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit and the United States Supreme Court. Ms. Stambaugh was selected as a Rising Star for 2019, 2020 and 2021 by Super Lawyers for immigration law in Pennsylvania. She also was the recipient of the Pennsylvania Bar Association Pro Bono Attorney of the Year in 2017 as well as the York County Bar association Pro Bono Attorney of the Year for 2020. In 2016, she received the Light of Liberty Attorney of the Year by the Pennsylvania Immigration Resource Center (PIRC), and she was selected as a Susquehanna Valley’s Select Lawyer for Immigration Law  in York in 2014 and 2015. Ms. Stambaugh received her B.A., Summa Cum Laude, in Political Science from York College of Pennsylvania and her J.D. from Widener University School of Law in Harrisburg, where she received the Nancy & Howard Finkelman Scholarship, awarded to deserving, advanced-standing and extended-division students who have demonstrated scholastic excellence in the area of trial advocacy. While attending Widener, Ms. Stambaugh worked full-time at the Pennsylvania Immigration Resource Center (PIRC) as a legal secretary and a Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) Accredited Representative. She worked with the detained immigration population at the York County Prison and represented several immigrants going through removal proceedings at the York Immigration Court. Ms. Stambaugh was also a legal volunteer intern at the York Immigration Court, where she provided legal research and writing assistance to the immigration judges. Ms. Stambaugh speaks Spanish, Italian and conversational French.  She lives in York County with her husband and three children.  She and her family enjoy outdoor activities and traveling.

Wendy Castor Hess, a Partner in the Immigration law firm of Landau, Hess, Simon, Choi & Doebley (LHSCD), has been practicing Immigration & Nationality Law exclusively for over 43 years. She offers strategic and practical non-immigrant and immigrant immigration law solutions to businesses and individuals – particularly in the medical, university, pharmaceutical and IT communities – including in I-9 related compliance matters, as well as in family immigration matters. Fluent in Spanish, Wendy serves as trusted counsel to the Mexican Consulate in Philadelphia. A frequent national/local speaker and author on immigration matters and a long-time member of the American Immigration Lawyers Association (“AILA”), where she has served in numerous leadership roles, including as a Chair of AILA Philadelphia and National AILA committees, Wendy has also served in leadership roles locally within both the Philadelphia and Pennsylvania Bar Associations as a member of the Board of Governors of the Philadelphia Bar Association, as Chair of the Philadelphia Bar Association’s Immigration Committee and as Chair of the Pennsylvania Bar Association’s Immigration Committee. She is a past President and current Board member of HIAS Pennsylvania, and recipient of the Pennsylvania Bar Association’s President’s Award, the Pennsylvania Bar Association Immigration Law Pro Bono Award, the Pennsylvania Bar Association’s Special Achievement Award, and the City of Philadelphia and the Philadelphia Bar Association award for exceptional service through “Take Action Philly Immigration Clinics”. A graduate of SUNY Binghamton, with a B.A. in History, and a J.D. from George Washington University, Wendy has continually been listed in Super Lawyers,in Best (Immigration) Lawyers inAmerica (including in 2024, 2018 and 2014 as Best Lawyer of the Year), and in The International Who’s Who of Corporate (Immigration) Lawyers. LHSCD is listed in Chambers USA.

Mark graduated from Upper Darby High School (1983), the University of Pennsylvania (1987) and Temple University School of Law (1990). He began his legal career as a law clerk at PMA Insurance Company (1988), became staff counsel upon admission to the Bar (1990), started a solo practice (1994), joined Vasil Kirifides to open Schmidt & Kirifides (1997), and later added George Rassias to become Schmidt, Kirifides & Rassias. As a Certified Specialist, he has dedicated his practice to Workers’ Compensation for over 30 years, arguing numerous cases before the Commonwealth and Supreme Courts of Pennsylvania; presented CLE Seminars for the Pennsylvania, Philadelphia and Delaware County Bar Associations, and Pennsylvania Bar Institute; and has appeared on television, radio and podcasts on several occasions to speak about Workers Compensation issues. He has been named a Super Lawyer since 2007, earned the Martindale-Hubbell Client Distinction Award, and carries the AV Premier Rating, among other Peer, Judicial, and Client recognition awards. Mark is a member of the Pennsylvania Bar Association, the Pennsylvania Association for Justice and the Delaware County Bar Association, becoming Co-Chair of their Workers’ Compensation Committee in 2022. Having suffered a severe, work related low back injury himself in 2008, and again in 2017, Mark is truly sympathetic to the pain each of his clients must go through, as well as the frustration they experience with the Workers’ Compensation “system.” He is uniquely qualified to show compassion and understanding to his client’s needs and concerns.

Ms. Auerbach is a partner in the Philadelphia firm of Astor Weiss Kaplan & Mandel, LLP, where she concentrates her practice in the area of family law. She received her B.A. from the University of Michigan in 1989 and her J.D. from Rutgers University School of Law in 1992. Ms. Auerbach is admitted to practice in Pennsylvania and New Jersey. She is a member of the Pennsylvania Bar Association, where she is a past member of the Council of the Family Law Section and currently serves on the certification and legislative committees. Ms. Auerbach is also a member of PBA’s Women in the Profession. She has written extensively on a variety of family law topics for the Legal Intelligencer, Pennsylvania Family Lawyer and the Philadelphia Bar Reporter. Ms. Auerbach has made several television appearances on Law Journal and CN8 Money Matters. She has lectured for the Pennsylvania Bar Institute, the Delaware County Bar Association and the Philadelphia Bar Association. Ms. Auerbach’s non-profit activities include participation in the Women’s Resource Center legal direct program in Wayne and serving as a board member of the Supportive Older Women’s Network.

Daniel Cortes is a lawyer whose work focuses on the intersectionality of immigration and social justice. Cortes was born in Colombia and migrated to the United States at a young age with his family. His personal experience as an immigrant has shaped his passion in advocating for an equitable immigration system. His legal career has focused on a holistic centered approach and community empowerment. He is passionate about advocating for creative and systemic solutions to immigration issues. Cortes directs the Clinic for Asylum, Refugee and Emigrant Services (CARES), where he teaches the clinic seminar and supervises student advocates working on asylees and their families. Prior to clinical teaching, Cortes was an immigration rights attorney at Community Justice Project, specializing in the intersectionality of immigration and collateral civil issues ranging from housing, public benefits, licensing, employment and administrative law. His practice focused on a holistic legal aid model, aimed at educating and meeting multiple client needs. Prior to Community Justice Project, Cortes was a staff attorney at Legal Aid of Southeastern Pennsylvania, focusing on expungements, housing, unemployment and community education. He is a graduate with honors from Florida International University College of Law, where he was the Student Bar Association president. Prior to law school, Cortes was a 6th grade math teacher under Teach for America in North Miami, Florida.

Maraleen D. Shields is Executive Director of the Interbranch Commission for the Pennsylvania Interbranch Commission for Gender, Racial, and Ethnic Fairness (“Interbranch Commission”). The purpose of the Interbranch Commission, which was established by all three branches of Pennsylvania government in 2005, is to promote equal application of the law. The Interbranch Commission fulfills its purpose by implementing the recommendations from a 2003 study by the Supreme Court Committee on Racial and Gender Bias in the Justice System (“Committee”), investigating and implementing new initiatives that may not have been addressed by the Committee, suggesting ways to reduce bias in all three branches of Pennsylvania government, raising both public and professional awareness of its work, and increasing public confidence in Pennsylvania government. Ms. Shields is a frequent speaker on diversity, equity, and inclusion, litigation, and healthcare matters. She has been recognized throughout her career with accomplishments that include Lehigh Valley Business Woman of Influence (2021); National Black Lawyers Top 100 List (2020-present); PBA President’s Award (2018); the Lynette Norton Award (2020); PA Super Lawyers list (2021-present); PA Super Lawyers – Rising Stars list (2008, 2010, 2012-2018); Lehigh Valley Business Journal’s Forty Under 40; and being recognized as a Lehigh Valley Magazine Legal Leader. Ms. Shields is active in the Pennsylvania Bar Association (PBA), serving as Co Vice-Chair of the Membership Development Committee and Co-Chair of the Women in the Profession Commission’s Report Card Committee. She received her B.A. in Political Science and Philosophy with a Law and Society Concentration from Kenyon College and her J.D. (magna cum laude) from the University of Pittsburgh School of Law.