2023 Participant Biographies

After 42 years practicing litigation as a male in large Philadelphia law firms, Maryellen came out as a transgender woman in July 2016. Since that time, Maryellen has tried cases in federal court on issues as diverse as First Amendment freedom of speech and patent licensing, as well as practicing before state administrative agencies. Maryellen has served on the Board of Directors of the William Way LGBT Community Center and as a Commissioner of the Pennsylvania Commission on LGBT Affairs. She has also served on boards of directors of a variety of nonprofit institutions such as TLDEF and the Reading Terminal Market. She has been a presenter on transgender issues to the Allegheny and Philadelphia County Bar Associations (2016, 2019), Lavender Law (2018) and Duke University School of Law (2017, 2018). Maryellen and her wife Judy live in Center City Philadelphia and were married in 2018 at historic Christ Church (the mother church of the Episcopal faith in the United States) a few blocks from their home.