By Hope Keller
Laurie Wasserman, J.D. ’04, has practiced family law for 20 years, but she remembers distinctly what it felt like to represent her first client as a student in what is now the Bronfein Family Law Clinic.
“One of the things we had to do in clinic was, they took us to the District Court, and we literally picked up clients in the hallways who were going in for protective orders,” Wasserman says. “I have never been more afraid — or more excited — in my life.”
Wasserman has come a long way. Today she oversees the Towson firm she founded in 2018, recently renamed Wasserman White Family Law, where she practices with partner Martha White, J.D. ’06.
“I had been at area law firms for the first 15 years of practicing law, and I wanted to take what I learned and apply it to create what I believe to be the premier family-law firm,” says Wasserman, who in 2020 was accepted as a fellow in the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers.
In addition to the partners, Wasserman White employs five attorneys (three of them UBalt Law graduates), including two attorneys of counsel who joined the firm early this year from Kaufman, Ries & Elgin, which closed.
“When I started it was me and my administrative assistant, and my first year was really just spent seeing if I actually could do this,” Wasserman says. “I had no idea what to expect when I went out on my own.”
Wasserman says she was reinvigorated by the experience of starting her own business.
“I like the strategy of it, I like coming up with new ways to become better and incorporate new technology and bringing in other business practices,” she says. “I find that equally enjoyable to the practice of law.”
Family law wasn’t on her radar when Wasserman started college at the University of Maryland, College Park, with the idea of becoming a journalist.
“I quickly realized after my first semester of being a journalism major that I was not going to be a journalist,” says Wasserman.
After switching her major to criminology and criminal justice, Wasserman took an elective in family law.
“I had no idea up until that moment that this area of law existed,” she says. “I always believed there were only very finite ways to be a lawyer. I had no idea that part of being a lawyer is helping people.”
Representing children, including those with special needs, is particularly important to Wasserman, who has two teenagers with learning differences.
“It’s something I feel passionate about,” says Wasserman, who served on the board of Disability Rights Maryland for six years.
‘I Love What I’ve Created’
“I’ve actually had kids that I have represented say, ‘I want to go to law school; I want to be a family law attorney,’” she says. “I think that’s awesome, that I might have inspired somebody else to want to do this.”
Attorneys at Wasserman White praise Wasserman’s openness to feedback, as well as the helpful input they receive from her.
Senior associate Kumudha Kumarachandran, J.D. ’12, says Wasserman encourages the attorneys to raise concerns – a welcome change, Kumarachandran adds, from the atmosphere at the large national firm where she worked until January.
“She wants to make it the best work environment for all of us,” Kumarachandran says. “It matters to her that we’re happy.”
Senior associate Steffani Langston, J.D. ’18, cited the firm’s culture of collaboration.
“We all get feedback and have the opportunity to help on each other’s cases,” she says. “It benefits our clients, but also helps with each of our own professional growth.”
Associate Virginia Yeoman, J.D. ’18, rounds out the UBalt Law contingent at Wasserman White.
In addition to working with clients and running a business, Wasserman keeps her eye on developments in family law.
She cites a child-custody bill that comes up regularly in the General Assembly, including in the last session, that would have judges begin with a presumption that divorcing parents receive joint legal and physical custody of their children.
The prospect worries Wasserman.
“I think that the court should look at each case, based on the individual factors and the facts, and make that decision,” she says. “I don’t agree with the presumption.”
Wasserman, who received the J. Earle Plumhoff Professional Award from the Baltimore County Bar Association in 2023, has been the chair of the family law committees of both the Baltimore County and Baltimore City bar associations. She also has served as a member of the section council of the Maryland State Bar Association’s family and juvenile law section.
“It’s been an exciting journey, one that I never would have necessarily seen when I started practicing,” Wasserman says. “But I love what I’ve created, and I look forward to making it even better every year.”
Hope Keller is a writer based in Connecticut.