Staff
Heather Goldberg, Legal Intern
Heather is a native New Yorker and recent graduate of New York Law School. Previously, she interned at New York City’s Administration for Children’s Services and Human Resource Administration where she assisted in child support litigation matters. As a participant in the Domestic Violence Project, she helped victims of domestic violence petition for temporary restraining orders and advocated on behalf of victims in Family Court.
Prior to attending law school, Heather graduated from New York University’s Silver School of Social Work with a M.S.W. and American University with a B.A. in Sociology.
Click to contact Heather.
Ida Hammer, Intern
Ida is a writer and social justice communicator with a degree in Journalism. Her advocacy and writing has included veganism, food justice, anti-racism, feminism and LGBTQ issues. Her blog the Vegan Ideal starts with veganism as the principle of non-exploitation and works to integrate it into the wider context of anti-oppression theory and practice. She is currently working on a couple of forthcoming projects: Living Equitably, a website that she hopes will encourage people to bring social justice into their daily lives, and the Trans Women Anti-Violence Project, a trans feminist project addressing issues of institutional as well as interpersonal violence experienced by trans women across multiple identities.
Click to contact Ida.
Noah E. Lewis, Staff Attorney
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Noah is a Pittsburgh native and a graduate of Harvard Law School. There he received the Dean's Award for Community Service for his work with the Harvard Transgender Task Force, Lambda, and the Student Animal Legal Defense Fund. His work included assisting with the campaign that added gender identity to Harvard's nondiscrimination policy and achieving improvements in insurance coverage for transgender health care. Noah also graduated magna cum laude from the University of Pittsburgh with a B.S. in chemistry and a B.A. in the history and philosophy of science. While at Pitt he helped lead a successful campaign to get domestic partner health benefits at the university. Prior to joining TLDEF, Noah worked in animal advocacy. He is a long-time vegan.
Click to contact Noah.
Rita Petite, Bookkeeper
Rita is TLDEF’s bookkeeper. She also works as a bookkeeper for other non-profit organizations and teaches QuickBooks. Prior to joining TLDEF, she was in charge of accounts payable and payroll for the town of Darien, CT and then used her masters degree in music education to teach. She taught band and orchestra for over ten years before playing the trombone for national Broadway tours and on cruise ships. Rita settled in New York City in 2000 and has been performing as both an instrumentalist and actor. She is a past president of Crossdressers International and is an avid supporter of TLDEF.
Erin M. Ross, Legal Intern
Erin is a second year law student at the Maurice A. Deane School of Law at Hofstra University. There, she serves as a staff editor of Family Court Review and received a Public Justice Foundation Fellowship for her work in the Crimes Against Children Bureau of the Kings County District Attorney’s Office. In addition, Erin graduated with a B.A. in Studio Art from Brandeis University, where she was a Louis D. Brandeis Legacy Fund for Social Justice Fellow and captain of the varsity softball team.
Click to contact Erin.
Michael D. Silverman, Executive Director
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Michael has been a member of TLDEF’s Board of Directors, as well as its Executive Director, since it was founded. He has worked as an attorney in the LGBT civil rights movement since 1994. In addition to his work at TLDEF, Michael is Adjunct Professor of Law at Earle Mack School of Law at Drexel University, where he teaches courses on gender, sexuality and the law.
As a cooperating attorney with Lambda Legal, Michael worked on a number of groundbreaking cases, including Baehr v. Miike, one of the earliest challenges to restrictions on the freedom to marry, and Boy Scouts of America v. Dale. In that case, Michael represented a coalition of religious organizations opposed to the Scouts’ exclusionary policy, and his brief (cover, tables, brief) submitted to the United States Supreme Court on their behalf was cited in the opinion of the dissenting justices. While on a Georgetown University Law Center Women’s Law and Public Policy Fellowship, Michael taught in the law school’s domestic violence clinic and worked in the legal department at NARAL Pro-Choice America.
Immediately prior to joining TLDEF, Michael worked for four years in New York Lawyers for the Public Interest’s Access to Health Care Program and Disability Law Center. In that capacity, he provided technical assistance to numerous community groups seeking to end discrimination in access to health care on the basis of race and ethnicity. He also successfully prosecuted large scale litigation in conjunction with the United States Department of Justice against hospitals for violations of, among other things, the Americans With Disabilities Act. He is thrilled to be back in the movement for transgender equality.
Michael is a graduate of Vassar College and The University of Michigan Law School.
Click to contact Michael.
Brian Sperber, Legal Intern
Brian is a New Jersey native and a recent graduate of the University of Miami School of Law. There, he was president of OUTLaw, Miami Law’s LGBTQ student group, as well as a participant in the Law Student Congress of the National LGBT Bar Association. Additionally, Brian was inducted into the Iron Arrow Honor Society, the highest honor attainable at the University of Miami. Brian is also a graduate of Emory University with a B.A. in International Studies. He is an avid Miami Hurricanes and New York JETS football fan.
Click to contact Brian.
