Attorneys

Washington DC Attorneys at Law

The attorneys at Paley Rothman, one of the leading regional law firms in the D.C. area, have provided creative legal solutions for their clients for 50 years.

The law firm of Paley Rothman is a full-service law firm which provides a wide range of legal counsel and representation to businesses and individuals in such diverse and demanding practice areas as commercial litigation, employment law, family law, employee benefits, real estate, project development, ERISA and retirement plans, regulatory law & litigation, insurance recovery, tax, corporate, appellate practice, alternative dispute resolution, and government relations, among others. Paley Rothman has one of the largest groups of estate planning, estate and trust administration and estate litigation attorneys in the Washington D.C. area. The attorneys at Paley Rothman cater to the legal needs of District of Columbia (D.C.) businesses including providing support for government contractors with government relations and bid protests guidance, for professionals, including a major emphasis on attorneys and health care professionals, manufacturers, internet and high-tech biotechnology, high-growth companies, and associations. Click here for a listing of our practice groups.

Now totaling more than 40 attorneys, the firm embraces the time-honored virtues of integrity and hard work, and has earned a reputation that makes our clients and us proud. Our clients have a broad range of business and personal legal needs. The lawyers at Paley Rothman have received numerous honors and awards, including Best Law Firms, Best Lawyers in America, Top Attorneys for Bethesda Magazine and Washingtonian magazine, and D.C., Maryland and Virginia Super Lawyers and Rising Stars. Several attorneys have also been voted in by their peers as Fellows of their respective American Colleges, including the American College of Employee Benefits Counsel, the American College of Tax Counsel, the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel, American College of Trial Lawyers, and the American College of Matrimonial Lawyers.

Our diverse workforce helps us approach these issues with varying perspectives. We know that each case is unique, so we work hard to provide our clients with sophisticated solutions that fit their specific objectives. The vast majority of Paley Rothman’s attorneys live in Montgomery County, Maryland, the District of Columbia and Northern Virginia and thus, are uniquely positioned to understand the needs of those residents.

Paley Rothman’s subsidiary, Presidential Title, Inc., serves residential and commercial real estate transactional needs throughout the DMV and the mid-Atlantic region.

The law firm of Paley Rothman is located in Bethesda, Maryland, less than 2 miles from the D.C. line, and just two blocks from the Bethesda Metro Station and the western terminus of the new Purple Line. There is parking available in the building. Paley Rothman is within minutes of downtown D.C., Northern Virginia, including Tysons Corner, Potomac, Silver Spring, Chevy Chase, Kensington, Rockville and Gaithersburg. Paley Rothman also has an office in Northern Virginia in Falls Church.

The increasingly sophisticated needs of DC clients often require a combination of legal, regulatory, and government relations expertise which Paley Rothman is well positioned to provide. Paley Rothman’s D.C. barred attorneys are sufficiently skilled—and equally versatile—to allow us to assemble a team whose members offer just the right combination of knowledge and experience to handle every aspect of the most complex D.C. legal matters.

Clients searching for “Washington Attorney”, “Washington Attorney Search”, “Attorney DC”, or “Washington Legal Services” may be overwhelmed by the number of attorneys in D.C. Brian Hughes, of the Washington Examiner, penned an article about the sheer number of attorneys living in D.C. titled, D.C.: The lawyer capital of the world, which highlights that 1 in 12 residents of D.C. are attorneys, and that 1 in 25 of all US attorneys live in D.C. (2011). Huffington Post further highlights the next city on the list, New York City, has a magnitude of order less attorneys per capita, at 1 attorney per 124 citizens (2011).

The District of Columbia was founded by charter, between 1790 and 1801 and was carved out of Maryland and Virginia between “river Potomac, at some place between the mouths of the Eastern Branch and Connocheague” (1790, quoted in Stewart, 1895, p. 203). In 1846, areas of D.C. below the Potomac retroceded back to Virginia, leaving D.C. to be comprised of only the Maryland lands (Get to Know DC, 2004, para. 5). D.C. is surrounded by Montgomery and Prince George’s counties in MD, and Fairfax County, Loudoun County and Prince William County in Virginia. Fairfax County, Virginia is the largest county in the Washington D.C. area, which is often referred to as the “DMV,” representing D.C., Maryland, and Northern Virginia.

References

Hughes, B. (2011). D.C.: The lawyer capital of the world. Washington Examiner. Retrieved from https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/dc-the-lawyer-capital-of-the-world

Stewart, J.. (1895). Early maps and surveyors of the city of Washington D.C.. Records of the Columbia Historical Society, Washington, Vol. 2. Retrieved from https://books.google.com/books?id=GgULOzNSafMC&pg=PA49#v=onepage&q&f=false

The Historical Society of Washington, DC. (2004). Get to know D.C. Retrieved from https://web.archive.org/web/20080315212051/http://www.historydc.org/gettoknow/faq.asp

United States Census Bureau. (2018). Metropolitan and Micropolitan Statistical Areas Population Totals: 2010-2017. Retrieved from https://www.census.gov/data/tables/time-series/demo/popest/2010s-total-metro-and-micro-statistical-areas.html

News

March 21, 2023

Michelle Chapin’s Article on the Use of Arbitration Causes in Trusts is Published by the MSBA’s Estate & Trust Law Section

Michelle Chapin, a Principal in Paley Rothman’s Estate Planning department, authored an article titled "(Un)Enforceability of Arbitration Clauses in Maryland Trusts" in the MSBA's Estate & Trust Law Section Newsletter Volume 29 Issue 1.

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Blog

Sec. Deb Haaland – First Native American in the Cabinet

Sec. Deb Haaland is the first Native American to serve in the President’s cabinet and has been instrumental in bringing attention and action to the horrific incident rate of...

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Resource Center

Paley Rothman shares this library of resources with clients and friends of the firm to help them stay ahead of legal and business developments and trends. Here, you will find helpful tips and tools written by our attorneys and relevant to our areas of practice.

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