I hope to see you on December 5, 2014, at the ceremony to induct new attorneys into the Franklin County Bar Association.  I have it on good report that our membership will be 175 current attorneys after the ceremony.  There should be thirteen new members introduced at the ceremony. 

          I've already written about Ricky Lewis, Esq., and Tiffany Watson, Esq.  However, I'd be there for their induction anyway.  Matt Fogel, Esq., our District Attorney, will introduce them to the bar.  If his last appearance at the induction ceremony is any indication, hearing Matt's presentation is a must!  Further, I'm reserving Lam Troung, Esq., and Krystal MacIntyre, Esq., because I intend to catch up with them in the near future.  I believe I've also missed a new public defender, Casey Bogner, Esq., but she doesn't begin work until the column is published.  However, here are the other new members:

          I met Rosby M. Carr, III, in the law clerk's office next to Judge Van Horn's office. RC is a graduate of Fairfield High School, Class of 2006.  From there he attended Juniata College, Judge Van Horn's alma mater, getting a degree in political science in 2010.  He reluctantly admitted that, because he failed to take Chinese History his last semester, he was three credits short of a minor in history.  He made up for it by taking off a year to dabble in retail sales.  Since his younger brother was just a year behind him in school and college, he may have had another motive than just a year off.  Then he headed to Ohio Northern University Pettit College of Law in Ada, Ohio.  He received his J.D. this past spring.

          RC is currently commuting from Adams County.  He played football and basketball in high school.  For his first year at Juniata, he went out for football.  Realizing, however, that life is short, he took up rugby.  RC is single and a die hard Baltimore Orioles fan.  He also follows the Steelers and the Washington Wizards.

          Judge Meyers will introduce Jeff Hall-Gale, his current law clerk.  Jeff, like the judge, is a graduate of Villanova School of Law.  He also finished this past spring.  I couldn't resist asking Jeff about his last name.  He explained that his parents wanted to share both last names.  Jeff had to deal with this at Notre Dame High School in Lawrenceville, N.J., a town close to Trenton.  After graduating in 2007, he headed to St. Joseph's University, Philadelphia.  There he took a dual major in criminal justice and communications, graduating in 2011.  Judge Meyers scored by doing an on campus interview.

          Jeff's most memorable law school class was a reenactment in torts of Palsgraf v. Long Island Rail Road, 248 NY 339, 162 N.E. 99 ( NY, 1928).  It seems that to teach the concept of foreseeability and reasonable zone of foreseeability, firecrackers were set off in class.  The Judge Cardozo decision hinged on the victim being injured some distance from the trauma by virtue of a freak Rube Goldberg like reaction.  Since the accident wasn't foreseeable, no recovery for the victim.  Pity the students reenacting the incident.  Jeff's living in Chambersburg and enjoying the transition to civil litigation.

          Michael W. Harmon, Esq., comes south from Potter County to join Julie G. Dorsett, Esq.  Michael will focus on consumer bankruptcy, Chapters 7 and 13, and civil litigation.  He graduated from Central High School in Eire, PA in 1996, and then headed to Edinboro University of Pennsylvania.  There he studied history and graduated in 2002.  While he planned more schooling, Michael then took time to become a certified medical technician.  Finally he headed to the University of Memphis for his juris doctorate.  From February, 2008 until August 2014, he clerked for Judge Leete in the Court of Common Pleas for Potter County.

          Michael notes that living in Coudersport meant that frequently he'd see a black bear on the back porch at night.  He loves running [good thing] and reading. 

          Nicole M. Huffman, Esq., is a newcomer at MidPenn Legal Services.  Nikki finished Middletown Area High School in 2004.  Then she headed to Kings College in Wilkes Barre to major in biology and neuroscience.  She was sure that she wanted to become a neurosurgeon until she was required to give a hamster an injection.  When the animal protested, Nikki changed her mind and decided to follow her brother into the practice of law.  [She swears the hamster cried].  She started at Penn State Dickinson School of Law, Carlisle, getting a slightly delayed degree in December, 2012.  She'd had to take a semester off to deal with a knee replacement for a childhood injury.  After graduation she clerked for Judge Placey in Carlisle until taking her new position at MidPenn.

          Nikki still wants to follow a career path to help people so she's happy to be buried in family law.  She likes to hike and take care of her two dogs: Bella, a Shitzu, and Bleaker, a Westie Poodle mix.

          Now the next two inductees have the same last name.  Nathaniel F. Sprang, Esq., is joining his father, David F. Sprang, Esq., of Walker, Connor and Sprang, in the practice of law.  David, who'd had the opportunity to work with his father, was thrilled to introduce me to his son.  Nate comes to Franklin County after nine years in the Bucks County District Attorney's Office.  Nate was unit chief of the special victims unit and has substantial experience with the Children's Advocacy Center.  He's a proponent of the forensic interview of children. 

          Nate graduated from Governor Mifflin High School in Shillington, PA.  He headed to St. Joseph's University in Philadelphia, where he received his degree in history in 2002.  Then he enrolled in Temple School of Law, graduating in 2005.  After graduation he headed to Bucks County D.A.'s office.

          Fortunately, Nate likes ice hockey.  Mike Connor is already working that angle.  Nate also likes most sports and golf.  He claims that he and his wife Maureen are foodies and, well, the parents of Alice Mae Sprang, born April 25, 2014.

          Maureen F. Sprang, Esq., is focusing on part time parenting and part time lawyering.  Maureen is a graduate of Trinity High School in Camp Hill.  After finishing high school in 1997, Maureen headed to the College of Holy Cross in Worcester, Mass.  She focused her college education on political science and Russian, graduating in 2001.  She then headed to the Catholic University of America for law school, earning her juris doctorate in 2004.  She was also able to secure an internship at the immigration courts in Arlington, Virginia.

          Maureen clerked for two years for Judge William W. Caldwell for the Middle District of Pennsylvania.  She then accepted a position to do appellate work for the Bucks County District Attorney's Office.  She primarily works on capital cases.  She's still writing briefs and wants to continue research and writing, even for Franklin County appeals. She met Nate at work and the rest is, well, history. 

          Maureen's father, William J. Flannery, Esq., practices labor law at Post and Shell, Harrisburg.  Oh, Nate's mother lives in Gettysburg...so with little Alice, the granddaughter, arriving, Franklin County began to look very attractive.

          Tara Franklin, Esq., is a new member of the Public Defender's Office.  Originally from Jefferson City, West Virginia, Tara attended Campbell University, Buies Creek, North Carolina.  The school, she tells me, is near Raleigh.  She graduated in 2010 with a degree in criminal justice and then headed straight to Penn State Dickinson School of Law, Carlisle.  Graduating in 2013, she clerked for Judge Thomas R. Campbell in Adams County.

          Tara also likes running, but she prefers snow boarding at Liberty or Round Top.  A former law review editor, she acknowledges loving to read.  She's living in Adams County, currently sharing housing with Sara Mullen, Esq., Judge Krom's clerk.

          I didn't realize that Mallary Willatt, Esq., had not yet been admitted to our bar.  After all, she was one of the gardening assistants [impressed labor as a YLD] for the summer planting in the concrete barrels on the Lincoln Way side of the court house.  Mallary is an attorney at Women In Need.  Mallary is from Vienna, Virginia, getting a diploma from Oakton High School on the DC Metroline in 2004.  She went to a small colege about thirty five miles west of Cleveland, to wit Oberlin College.  Her bachelor's degree is in history and Japanese literature [not music].  For a few years after graduation she worked as a cost accountant for a defense contractor and lived in Arlington, VA, outside of DC. Then she headed to Penn State Centre County Law School, graduating in the spring of 2013.

          Mallary is devoted to Orioles baseball.  She loves biking and reading.  For some strange reason, she also likes family law.