Military Legal Assistance: National Guard and USERRA Hot Topics

Paul A. Marone currently serves as the Senior Compliance Policy Advisor for the U.S. Department of Labor, Veterans’ Employment and Training Service (VETS). In that role, he serves as VETS’ national technical advisor for all USERRA field activities and program operations. Previously, he served as the Senior Investigator in VETS’ Philadelphia Region providing substantive guidance and oversight in the investigation of USERRA and veterans’ preference claims brought by veterans and service members in the Region. Before joining VETS in 2015, Mr. Marone served as a trial attorney with the Department’s Solicitor’s Office since 2007. He handled a variety of labor and employment matters throughout the Department’s program areas, including VETS, MSHA, OSHA, Wage Hour, Labor Relations, and Whistleblower Protection, most notably the Chickie’s & Pete’s FLSA tipped employee case, the A-1 Mortgage FLSA commissioned broker case, the CETUSA J-1 student visa case, and the Cumberland Coal MSHA lifeline case.

Mr. Marone previously served on active-duty with the U.S. Army Judge Advocate General’s Corps, was an associate employment law attorney in a small firm, and a Special Assistant U.S. Attorney in Maryland, the latter for nearly ten years. He joined the Department from the City of Philadelphia Law Department, Civil Rights Unit, where he served as a Deputy City Solicitor defending the City and its police officers in excessive force, fatal shootings, and First Amendment cases in federal and state courts.

Mr. Marone received his B.A. and J.D. degrees from Fordham University in 1988 and 1991, respectively, an LL.M. in Trial Advocacy in 2004 from Temple University, where he was an adjunct professor of trial advocacy from 2006 through 2009, and a Master of Strategic Studies degree from the U.S. Army War College in 2011. In 2016, Mr. Marone retired from the U.S Army Reserve as a Colonel, and most recently commanded the 13th Legal Operations Detachment (Expert). He is admitted to the bar in New York, New Jersey, Maryland, and Pennsylvania, as well as the U.S. Supreme Court, and the U.S. District Courts for New Jersey, Maryland, and the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

Deborah Birnbaum is a senior attorney at the U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of the Solicitor where she advises on international labor standards and veteran employment issues. Ms. Birnbaum also serves as the coordinator of the Department of Labor’s pro bono program where she founded and leads a committee of colleagues nationwide. She started her legal career in private practice at a large D.C. law firm.

Ms. Birnbaum holds a B.S. in Policy Analysis and Management from Cornell University, and a J.D. from Columbia Law School.

Andrew Braniff is the Acting Director of the Servicemembers and Veterans Initiative for the US Department of Justice.

Colonel Traci Winston is an attorney for the National Guard Bureau at the United States Army.

Dawn Du Verney is Hearing Operations Director for the Social Security Administration’s Office of Hearings Operations in Tupelo, Mississippi. Dawn professional background spans a diverse range of executive leadership and legal experience within corporate, academic, social service, faith-based, and government sectors. Prior to joining the Social Security Administration as an attorney in 2010, Dawn held titles, including gubernatorial-appointed Executive Director of the New Jersey Martin Luther King, Jr. Commission, EEO/Ethics Officer for the New Jersey Department of State, Special Counsel to the New Jersey Secretary of State, Associate General Counsel for Handex Environmental, President and CEO of the Urban League of Metropolitan Trenton (NJ), Assistant Deputy Public Defender for the State of New Jersey, and Adjunct Professor for Temple University School of Law and Peirce College in Philadelphia.

Dawn earned a Bachelor of Science degree from The American University, a Juris Doctor from Seton Hall University School of Law, and a LL.M from Temple University Beasley School of Law. In addition, she has certifications and training in organizational development, executive leadership and management, including situational leadership, Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), group leadership intensive facilitation, the lawyer personality, systems thinking, and Japanese Learning Circles (quality).

Dawn’s guiding principle is “To whom much is given, much is expected; and to the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked” (Luke 12:48). She values her legal training and gives back to legal profession through active membership in the American Bar Association. Her work has afforded her leadership positions in the Litigation Section, including Division Director, Communications Chair of the Strategic Planning Committee, Committee Chair, and Managing Director. She is committed to expanding pro bono representation to all underserved persons. In this regard, she has served as ABA Presidential Appointee to the Standing Committee on Legal Assistance for Military Personnel (LAMP) and the Standing Committee for Pro Bono and Public Service. For the latter, she chaired the Equal Justice Conference and the Pro Bono Publico Awards Committee and Awards Luncheon.

She is married to Steven Wilkins, who is the former Chief Learning Officer for the New Jersey Judiciary and an executive coach for private individuals and corporate clients. They have two adult sons, Ross Jordan and Drew Carrington.