Attorneys and Paralegals
Dan Getman
YALE LAW SCHOOL, J.D. 1984
INDIANA UNIVERSITY, B.A. 1980
Mr. Getman originally founded Getman Sweeney as the Getman Law Office in 1998. He has practiced labor law exclusively on behalf of employees since 1989. Mr. Getman handles wage and hour litigation under the FLSA and state wage laws. He has handled individual, collective action and class action litigation, as well as negotiation, arbitration, and mediation. His practice concentrates on federal and state overtime and minimum wage issues. Mr. Getman has handled class and collective actions for back wages for a wide variety of employees including: emergency medical technicians, satellite TV installers, auto mechanics, mortgage brokers, supermarket workers, medical personnel, call center employees, equipment repairers, meat cutters, accountants, chefs, sales clerks, hotel and restaurant workers, shipping inspectors, offshore surveyors, builders, laborers, janitors, home health aides, assistant managers, construction workers, salespeople, and many others. He has handled litigation in New York, Florida, Texas, Connecticut, North Carolina, Michigan, Indiana, West Virginia, Missouri, Louisiana, New Jersey, Georgia, Tennessee, and the District of Columbia. Mr. Getman believes strongly that all employees are entitled to high quality representation regardless of the ability to pay and therefore the firm handles litigation exclusively on a contingent basis.
Prior to founding this firm, Mr. Getman was a senior attorney and managing attorney with Farmworker Legal Services of NY, a non-profit legal services organization dedicated to providing legal assistance to migrant and seasonal farmworkers. In that practice he provided representation without charge to low income individuals in a variety of class and individual actions in employment matters in federal and state courts. For the period of 1984 to 1989, Mr. Getman was an attorney with Prisoners’ Legal Services of New York handling civil rights and governmental misconduct issues in individual and class actions in state and federal court. Mr. Getman helped draft the National Employment Lawyers Association's comments critical of the Bush Administration's proposed regulatory changes to the FLSA regulations.
BAR ADMISSIONS: U.S. Supreme Court, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second and D.C. Circuits, U.S. District Courts for the Southern, Eastern, Northern, and Western Districts of New York, Western District of Tennessee, and the District of Connecticut. Mr. Getman is also admitted to practice in all state courts in New York.
Michael J.D. Sweeney
FORDHAM LAW SCHOOL, JD cum laude, 1996. Editor, Fordham Law Review
NEW YORK UNIVERSITY, Professional Diploma in Publishing 1991
STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK AT ALBANY, B.S. in Economics 1985
Mr. Sweeney has been a Professor at the Fordham Law School since 1998, teaching courses in Civil Procedure; Professional Responsibility; Introduction to the U.S. Legal System; International Human Rights; International Humanitarian Law; and Rights of Displaced Persons under International Law. He also serves as Legal Counsel to the 29-member New York State Commission to Promote Public Confidence in Judicial Elections appointed by Chief Judge of New York State Judith Kaye (March 2003 - present). In that capacity he was principal draftsperson of the Commission's December 3, 2003 and June 29, 2004 Reports and Recommendations to the Chief Judge. Before joining Fordham Law School, Mr. Sweeney was an Associate with Debevoise & Plimpton in New York City where he handled litigation practice in commercial litigation, international arbitration and international human rights. He also directed the firm's political asylum program. In 1997, Mr. Sweeney served as the founding fellow of the Joseph R. Crowley Center for International Human Rights at Fordham Law School. He has also held a variety of consultancies with organizations including the Association of the Bar of the City of New York and the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights, and he has led human rights investigations in Guatemala and Turkey. He is a Member of the Board of Directors of The Fund For Modern Courts.
Mr. Sweeney was Law Clerk to the Honorable Lee P. Gagliardi, U.S. District Court, S.D.N.Y.
PUBLICATIONS:
Editor, Commission to Promote Public Confidence in Judicial Elections, Report to the Chief Judge of the State of New York (June 29,2004)
Editor, Commission to Promote Public Confidence in Judicial Elections, Interim Report to the Chief Judge of the State of New York (Dec. 3, 2003)
Author, Detention at Guantanamo Bay: A Linguistic Challenge to Law, Human Rights Magazine (Winter 2003).
Contributing Editor, Impunity in Guatemala: The State's Failure to Provide Justice in the Massacre Cases, 16 American University International Law Review 1115 (2001).
Contributing Author, Justice on Trial: State Security Courts, Police Impunity, and the Intimidation of Human Rights Defenders in Turkey, 22 Fordham International Law Journal 2129 (1999).
Contributing Author, Obstacles to Reform: Exceptional Courts, Police Impunity & Persecution of Human Rights Defenders in Turkey, (Lawyers Committee for Human Rights and Crowley Program in International Human Rights, July 1999).
BAR ADMISSIONS: The Supreme Court of the State of New York; The United States District Court for the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York.
Matthew T. Dunn
LEWIS & CLARK LAW SCHOOL, J.D. 2003
KALAMAZOO COLLEGE, B.A. 1996
Mr. Dunn joined the firm as an associate in 2007. Before joining the firm, he had his own practice and practiced as an associate with Multnomah Defenders, Inc. in Portland, Oregon and served as Assistant Public Defender with Ulster County, New York. He serves on the Town of Lloyd's Environmental Conservation Committee and on the New York State Bar Association's Special Committee on Animals and the Law. While in law school, he was articles editor for the Animal Law Review and had a Judicial Internship with the Honorable Dennis Hubel, Magistrate Judge for the United State District Court for the District of Oregon.
BAR ADMISSIONS: State Courts: New York and Oregon. Federal Court: United States District Court for the Northern District of New York.
Carol P. Richman
FORDHAM LAW SCHOOL, JD 2006
NEW YORK UNIVERSITY, Master of Arts, 1990
RHODE ISLAND SCHOOL OF DESIGN, B.F.A. 1981
Ms. Richman joined the firm as an associate in 2009. Before joining the firm, she was an attorney at Legal Services of the Hudson Valley, where she first represented indigent clients in landlord-tenant cases, and later, victims of domestic violence in matrimonial actions and in Family Court. She serves on the Town of Gardiner’s Environmental Conservation Committee. At Fordham Law School, she was a Senior Symposium Editor of its Environmental Law Review and Senior Director of Environmental Law Advocates. She also has a background in grassroots organizing and founded a community organization in Taos, New Mexico that addressed local environmental issues.
BAR ADMISSIONS: All New York state courts.
Edward J. Tuddenham
HARVARD LAW SCHOOL, 1978 (Magna Cum Laude)
Mr. Tuddenham is "of counsel" to the Getman Sweeney Office. He began his career in 1978 with Texas Rural Legal Aid, Inc. representing indigent farm workers in employment and civil rights matters. From 1985 until 1989 he was employed by the Migrant Legal Action Program, Washington, D.C., to litigate wage claims and regulatory matters on behalf of indigent U.S. and foreign farm workers He was also a partner in the firm of Wiseman, Durst, Tuddenham & Owen. The majority of his professional life has focused on Fair Labor Standards Act claims and issues arising under the H-2 temporary foreign worker program. Among the groups he has represented in wage claims are meat packers, offshore oil surveyors, highway construction workers, nursery workers, sugarcane cutters and adult entertainment workers. He also has extensive experience litigating civil rights cases in federal appellate courts.
BAR ADMISSIONS: U.S. Supreme Court, U.S. Courts of Appeals for the Fifth, Eleventh and D.C. Circuits, and the United States District Court for the Northern, Western and Eastern Districts of Texas, U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. He is admitted to practice in the States of Texas, New York and the District of Columbia.
Garry G. Geffert
ANTIOCH LAW SCHOOL, J.D. 1977
TEMPLE UNIVERSITY, B.A. Math 1970
Mr. Geffert is "of counsel" to the Getman Sweeney Office. Mr. Geffert has been practicing for over 25 years during which time he represented hundreds of indigent farm workers in class action suits for back wages and handled other employment matters. He authored "H-2A Guestworker Program: A Legacy of Importing Agricultural Labor" in The Human Cost of Food: Farmworkers' Lives, Labor and Advocacy, published by University of Texas Press 2002; and "The Bias of a Majority of the Commission on Agricultrual Workers Led to Recommendations Which Ignore the Factual Findings" included within In Defense of the Alien, published by the Center for Migration Studies 1993. He was presented with the West Virginia College of Law Special Achievement Award for Public Service in 1982.
BAR ADMISSIONS: U.S. Supreme Court, U.S. Courts of Appeals for the Third and Fourth Circuits, and the United States District Court for the Northern and Southern Districts of West Virginia, U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland, and all state courts in the State of West Virginia and Florida.
Anibal Garcia
, Paralegal
BERKELEY COLLEGE PARALEGAL STUDIES 1996
JOHN JAY COLLEGE OF CRIMINAL JUSTICE 1983
Mr. Garcia has been a paralegal and translator with the firm since 1999, facilitating client communication, factual development, intake and offers a wide variety of other professional assistance to the firm. Mr. Garcia has an extensive background in factual development and investigation as an Officer with the New York City Police Department's Organized Crime Control Bureau/Narcotics Division.
Janice L. Pickering
, Paralegal
COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY, Masters of Social Work, 1983
INDIANA UNIVERSITY 1981
Ms. Pickering is a paralegal and Certified Social Worker assisting clients of the firm through investigating legal claims, intake analysis, gathering facts and documents, counseling and communicating with clients about case developments.
Carolyn Mow
, Paralegal
CORNELL UNIVERISTY, Masters of Economics 1983
GRINNEL COLLEGE, Bachelors of Mathematics 1979
Ms. Mow co-coordinates the firm's services for immigrant communities in the Hudson Valley of New York. She has worked with the American Friends Service Committee, Austin, TX coordinating Austin Tan Cerca de la Frontera/Austin So Close to the Border Delegation Program to communities on the Texas/Mexico border, where she designed and led workshops on Globalization in English and Spanish. For five years, she was the Advocacy Coordinator, Independent Farmworkers Center, Florida, NY, responsible for representing the organization in meetings with the New York State Senate and Assembly and other government officials facilitating farm worker participation in regional and statewide coalitions working on farmworker, pesticide and sustainable agriculture issues. Ms. Mow was Project Coordinator, Community Children's Nutrition Program, Chiapas, Mexico (1991), responsible for administration, finances and logistics for children's dining rooms in six refugee communities. There she organized and facilitated workshops on nutrition, menu planning and hygiene. She worked with individual families to overcome problems of illness and malnutrition. Ms. Mow also served as a Training Coordinator, Peace Brigades International, Albany, NY (1990) coordinating recruitment and training of volunteers for projects in Central America and Sri Lanka. Ms. Mow volunteered with Peace Brigades International as a member of an international team monitoring the human rights situation in El Salvador. Ms. Mow is fluent in written and spoken Spanish.
Kathy Weiss
, Paralegal
STATE UNIVERSITY OF NY (SUNY) NEW PALTZ, BS in Social Studies 1968
STATE UNIVERSITY OF NY (SUNY) NEW PALTZ, Masters in Education, Reading 1990
Prior to working with Getman Sweeney Office, Ms. Weiss had a distinguished career in child and family services. She organized and was the first supervisor of the Ulster Child Protective Services unit in the Department of Social Services, working in that capacity for almsot 10 years. In that position, she had extensive experience working in the Family Court system to help families and dependent children. Ms. Weiss worked with the Family Life Development Center of Cornell University staff in community development efforts throughout New York and New Jersey to organize local efforts to address a wide array of child protective issues. She is one of the original incorporators of the Ulser County Task Force on Child Abuse and Neglect, Inc. Ms. Weiss worked for 10 years doing home studies for public and private agency adoptions, including international adoptions and private family adoptions. In 1990, Ms. Weiss earned a Masters in Education degree and began teaching in the New Paltz Central School district. She has broad experience in the classroom, team teaching in a variety of settings. During her teaching career, Ms. Weiss was awarded national certification in teaching, the Mid-Hidson Excellence in Teaching award, and she was invited to join the NYS Department of Education Academy of Teachers.
Michael Russo
, Paralegal
BARD COLLEGE, B.A. in Physics, 1979
SUNY ULSTER, A.S. in Computer Networking, 2000
Mr. Russo is a programmer and database administrator. He has been trained in Networking, Database Administration and Windows Enterprise operating systems. He has operated, created, and consulted on networking and database issues for numerous organizations. Beginning in 2002, he was a technology consultant for the sales force of a data communication reseller, and since 2006, he has provided technology support as a paralegal with the Getman Sweeney Office. Mr. Russo assists the firm with programming, database, and financial analyses. He focuses on discovery of corporate electronically stored information, and complex programs for calculating lost wages and damages due.