Maryland Fellow Cynthia L. Leppert
May 26, 2009, Fellows in the news, The Daily Record
BALTIMORE, MD - Cynthia L. Leppert is involved in a lot of legal professional organizations, so the fact she can pick a favorite project is noteworthy. Right now, that project is "Finding Justice,'' a two-part history of women lawyers in Maryland currently in the works under the auspices of the Maryland Women's Bar Foundation, the nonprofit arm of the Women's Bar Association of Maryland. Leppert, the foundation's treasurer and vice president, is helping select a writer and secure funding for "Finding Justice," with the first volume tentatively scheduled for publication by the end of next year. The book is the brainchild of Court of Appeals Judge Lynne A Battaglia, but Leppert said it has a special meaning for the bar association since Maryland was the last state to allow women into the mainstream bar, in the mid-1940s. "I think the WBA thinks of the history of female lawyers in Maryland as our history,'' said Leppert, a principal with Neuberger, Quinn, Gielen, Rubin & Gibber, P. A. in Baltimore. Leppert was named 2008's Woman of the Year by the Baltimore County Commission for Women and is the immediate past-president of the bar association, now in its 80th year. During her term, the association began panel discussions at the state's law schools, created a mentoring program matching older members with younger ones, and revived its pro bono committee. Leppert also created a task force to revisit the WBA's standards for interviewing state court judgeships and sponsored a program that helped recently released prisoners get back on their feet. But it was the chance to meet the WBA's 850 members from across the state that Leppert enjoyed the most. "It was just an unbelievable honor and privilege," said Leppert "It was my greatest honor as a lawyer." Though Leppert had no obligation to join the bar foundation's board, she jumped at the chance to stay active with the WBA. "I care about what it does," she said. Her work with the foundation also gives her a chance to meet the next generation of female lawyers, as it awards scholarships annually to law school students who show a commitment to women's issues.
While Leppert serves on the board of the National Conference of Women's Bar Associations, her affiliations are not all gender-specific. She will be installed next month as secretary of the Bar Association of Baltimore City after three years as membership chairwoman. She has been elected a Fellow in the Baltimore Bar Foundation and is a new Fellow of the American Bar Foundation. Inside the courtroom, Leppert served as lead counsel in a precedent-setting U.S. Bankruptcy Court case last year. The case, In re Levitsky, for the first time in Maryland allowed for a "reverse piercing" of a corporate veil, allowing creditors access to assets held by a corporate alter ego of a debtor. Leppert, who additionally serves on the peer review committee for the state's Attorney Grievance Commission, laughingly admits some people would call her crazy for being involved in so many professional organizations, but she has a simple response: she enjoys it. "I very deeply feel we all have an obligation to give back," she said. "When you're a lawyer you have an obligation to the community and the profession to use unique skills lawyers have to improve things for other people."
« Return to Fellows in the News