Community Service

At Feldman Shepherd Wohlgelernter Tanner Weinstock Dodig, service to the community is a core part of who we are. Our attorneys and staff regularly contribute time, resources, and legal expertise to those in need throughout Philadelphia and beyond.

Giving Back to the Community

Virtually every Feldman Shepherd lawyer provides pro bono legal services to those who cannot afford to hire an attorney. The firm is also a proud supporter of the Philadelphia Bar Association’s Raising the Bar campaign, which helps fund more than 30 public interest law organizations that serve Philadelphia’s neediest citizens.

Raising the Bar

Founded by Co-Managing Partner Alan M. Feldman during his tenure as Chancellor of the Philadelphia Bar Association in 2006, Raising the Bar continues to serve Philadelphia’s most vulnerable communities. Each year, the firm makes substantial contributions per attorney to organizations such as:

Philadelphia VIP
Community Legal Services of Philadelphia
SeniorLAW Center
Support Center for Child Advocates
Homeless Advocacy Project
Legal Clinic for the Disabled
Education Law Center
Public Interest Law Center
Juvenile Law Center

Advocacy in Action Attorney Highlights

Mark W. Tanner Serves As Volunteer Attorney for Support Center for Child Advocates

Co-Managing Partner Mark W. Tanner has served for more than a decade as a volunteer attorney for the Support Center for Child Advocates and has, among other accomplishments, helped bring about successful adoptions of formerly neglected children or when circumstances permit, the safe reunification of children with parents. In 2016, Tanner was honored with the center’s Eddie Ohlbaum Distinguished Advocate for Children Award in recognition of his extraordinary volunteer work, including his representation of two little girls who had been neglected by their parents, whom he helped place with a loving family.

Reginal L. Streater Serves As President of the Philadelphia Board of Education

Trial Attorney Reginald L. Streater serves as president of Philadelphia’s Board of Education and oversees approximately 200,000 students, 20,000 employees, a significant portfolio of school district properties, and a budget of $4.5 billion. Streater believes himself to be the chief advocate for public education in the city of Philadelphia. In 2022, as an Eisenhower Fellowships USA Justice Fellow, he traveled to Finland and Kenya, where he gained an international perspective on ways to improve public education, particularly in low-resource urban settings routinely challenged by crumbling infrastructure, divestment and apathy.

Bethany R. Nikitenko Protects Consumers from Predatory Debt Collectors

Partner Bethany R. Nikitenko serves as a volunteer attorney for Philadelphia VIP, representing low-income Philadelphians in predatory debt collection cases filed by junk debt buyers. Junk debt buyers often lack proper evidence to prove their cases in court. But the lawsuits that they file may pose economic consequences that follow people for a lifetime if they are not represented by counsel. In 2022, Nikitenko was honored with Philadelphia VIP’s Champion Award for her work on behalf of VIP clients in debt collection cases.

George A. Donnelly Fights for Tenants’ Rights

Trial Attorney George A. Donnelly serves as Supervising Attorney for the Penn Housing Rights Project, which is a pro bono student organization at University of Pennsylvania School of Law that represents tenants in housing court. Donnelly additionally has served as a volunteer attorney on behalf of tenants referred to him by lawyers throughout Philadelphia, especially on complex tenant issues involving Philadelphia’s Just Cause and Lead Safety Ordinances.

Real Impact Through Pro Bono Work

5-Year Long Legal Battle Ends With Successful Adoption

Co-Managing Partner Mark W. Tanner represented two young girls who had been neglected by their birth parents. He successfully shepherded them through the legal system until they were successfully adopted into a wonderful family with three other children who are now their sisters and brother. The path to this adoption required two trials, two appeals to the Superior Court, and an attempted appeal to the Supreme Court. Tanner’s clients prevailed at every level, and the five-year trek ultimately resulted in a wonderful and loving home for two of his youngest clients.

Helping Vulnerable People Navigate Family Court

Trial Attorney Mark A. Schork has assisted multiple clients who otherwise would not be represented in sensitive and consequential family court disputes. Among his accomplishments, he assisted a client in a child custody dispute where the other parent was asking the court for sole physical and legal custody. Schork was able to ensure that the client was able to have partial custody of his child. Schork assisted another client in defeating a wrongfully filed Protection From Abuse Order. He is presently handling an adoption case involving a child who unfortunately never knew his father. Schork is in the process of initiating adoption proceedings so the child’s stepfather can be recognized as the child’s father under the law.

Saving a Family Home From Foreclosure

As a volunteer for Philadelphia VIP, Partner Peter M. Newman was privileged to represent a married couple from West Philadelphia who sought to save their home from foreclosure after missing mortgage payments while the husband was temporarily out of work. Assisted by a talented housing counselor from the Philadelphia Council for Community Advancement, Newman guided the clients through the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas’ Residential Mortgage Foreclosure Diversion Program.

After more than 10 months of court conferences facilitated by the Honorable Annette M. Rizzo, Newman successfully negotiated a HAMP (Home Affordable Modification Program) loan modification for the clients. Despite the fact that the clients’ loan was more than $50,000 in arrears after years in foreclosure, Newman leveraged new HUD guidelines to compel the bank to accept his modification proposal.

Preserving the Assets of a Senior Citizen

Co-Managing Partner Alan M. Feldman represented an elderly woman who was sued by a pedestrian who claimed to have slipped and fell on her property because of uncleared snow and ice. Feldman’s client had no insurance and very little savings. The case went to trial, where Feldman was able to prove that the area where the plaintiff fell was actually not owned by his client, who won a verdict in her favor and was able to preserve her home and her assets.

Leadership in Advocacy Organizations

Jason A. Daria Serves on Board of Directors of Legal Clinic for the Disabled

Since 2011, Partner Jason A. Daria has served on the Board of Directors of the Legal Clinic for the Disabled at Magee Rehabilitation Hospital, which provides free high-quality legal services to low-income individuals with physical disabilities. Daria served as the Board’s president from 2015 through 2017 and vice president from 2013 through 2015.

Daria has additionally served his community as a volunteer for the with the Support Center for Child Advocates, the Juvenile Justice Center Family Services of Philadelphia, and the Police Athletic League of Philadelphia.

Patricia M. Giordano Leads the Way in Protecting New Jersey Families

Since 2010, Partner Patricia M. Giordano has served in a number of executive leadership capacities at the New Jersey Association for Justice, including as its president for the 2023 through 2024 term. NJAJ is a statewide association of over 2,600 members in private practice and public service, including attorneys, paralegals, law clerks, law students and law school graduates not yet admitted to the bar. NJAJ is dedicated to protecting New Jersey’s families by working to preserve and strengthen the laws for safer products and workplaces, a cleaner environment and quality healthcare.

Annual Holiday Giving By Our Staff

In a special holiday tradition, each year the staff of Feldman Shepherd donates time, funds, and/or needed items to local charitable organizations in honor of the firm’s partners and their efforts to build better lives for others. Here’s how me made a difference in 2024:

Empowering Young Readers

We raised $1,350 for Tree House Books, which operates a Giving Library and Literacy Center in North Philadelphia with a dual purpose: to provide free books to the community and to spread knowledge and awareness. It also provides Out of School Time programs that increase literacy skills, and promote a lifelong love of reading and writing in children from their earliest moments, through high school, and beyond.

Helping Families of Pediatric Patients

We raised $985 for Ronald McDonald House Charities of the Philadelphia Region, which provides temporary lodging, transportation, meals, social services and other support to families who travel to Philadelphia for pediatric medical care.

Fighting Hunger and Rescuing Surplus Food

We raised $680 for Sharing Excess, which is dedicated to rescuing perfectly edible surplus food and providing equitable access to food for communities everywhere.

A Legacy of Giving

In previous years, the staff has donated funds to causes including:

Shriners Hospitals for Children, which provides care to children with neuromusculoskeletal conditions, burn injuries, and other special healthcare needs
Youth Consultation Services Foundation in New Jersey, which partners with at-risk and special needs children, youth, and young adults to build happier, healthier, more hopeful lives within families and communities
The Covenant House, the largest private child welfare agency in the Delaware Valley, and the largest provider of services to homeless and runaway youth in Philadelphia
The Philadelphia Ronald McDonald House, in recognition of which two bricks reflecting the firm name were placed in the Ronald McDonald House courtyard
The Salvation Army of Greater Philadelphia’s “Adopt-a-Family” program—which helps nearly 200 Philadelphia-area families in need each year—staff members donated thousands of dollars in goods and gifts, including numerous gift cards, a host of household items, clothing, toys, and much more

The Huffman Fund

More than a decade ago, Feldman Shepherd attorney Daniel S. Weinstock took on the birth injury case of a child named Tony Huffman. Tony always wanted to go to Disneyland but, unfortunately, died before his dream was fulfilled. In honor of Tony, and with some creative lawyering, Weinstock structured a legal settlement in which the defendant’s insurance company was required to make a yearly contribution to a fund to fulfill the dreams of other children. Weinstock then engaged the rest of the Feldman Shepherd team, and they all agreed to contribute a portion of all fees recovered from the firm’s cases involving cerebral palsy. Mary O’Donnell-Green, one of our paralegals, became the fund’s co-administrator with Weinstock.

Over the years, the Huffman Fund has sent many children with severe medical hardships, along with their families, to Disney. The fund also has sponsored athletic programs for children with disabilities, paid for treatments, strollers, wheelchairs, a handicap-adapted van, and more. In addition to the Disney trips, the fund provides food, hotel rooms, transportation, park admission, spending money, supportive devices inside the park, insurance, and arrangements for nurses to accompany any children who require constant care.