The Associated’s Lawyers’ Division and Baltimore Jewish Council presents Perspectives on Protected Speech

Elizabeth M. Embry, Esq.
Born and raised in Baltimore, Elizabeth Embry is a longtime resident of Better Waverly and career public servant who has worked for two State’s Attorneys, two Mayors, a Governor, and the Attorney General.

Elizabeth is a proud product of the City’s public schools, from kindergarten through high school. After graduating from City College, she attended Yale University and Columbia Law School. Returning to Baltimore, Elizabeth joined the Baltimore City State’s Attorney’s Office where she rose from law clerk to Deputy State’s Attorney.

As Deputy, she presided over one of the biggest reductions in homicides and violent crime in the history of Baltimore City, bringing murders to less than 200 in a year for the first time in more than 30 years. By focusing on accessible treatment for substance use disorders, Elizabeth championed offering alternatives to incarceration for non-violent offenders, leading to the highest conviction rates on record against violent criminals.

Elizabeth has also worked at the Maryland Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation, where she focused on job creation, training and economic development; and in City Hall where she saw firsthand what in city government worked – and what did not.

The oldest of four, Elizabeth and her sisters are fiercely committed to their hometown and have dedicated their careers to strengthening the City. Her mother is a sculptor who creates art for public spaces and is the founder of a nonprofit dedicated to expanding arts education. Her father, a Housing Commissioner under Mayor Schaefer, and an Assistant Secretary at HUD, is now the president of the Abell Foundation.

Mark Rotenberg, Senior Vice President & General Counsel, Hillel International
Mark serves as Senior Vice President and General Counsel of Hillel International and oversees Hillel’s Campus Climate Initiative, a program that engages hundreds of university leaders to ensure a campus environment for Jewish students free from discrimination and harassment. He also helps higher education leaders address immediate challenges to Jewish students’ full inclusion in campus life and provides legal counsel to the leadership and staff of Hillel International on a wide range of matters.

Mark has spent most of his professional career on university campuses, serving for many years as the general counsel at the University of Minnesota and at Johns Hopkins University. In those positions, he provided strategic counsel and policy advice to university boards, presidents, chancellors and other senior officers. A seasoned university educator, Mark is an Adjunct Law professor at American University in Washington, has taught at the University of Minnesota for over 20 years and was a visiting law professor at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. Mark was a partner at Dorsey & Whitney law firm in Minneapolis and special counsel at WilmerHale in Washington, focusing on higher education issues including free speech, campus protests and academic boycotts. He has argued and won cases in the US Supreme Court and many other judicial forums. Mark received his B.A. from Brandeis University, and M.A., M.Phil., and J.D. from Columbia Law School and Columbia University Graduate School of Arts & Sciences. Mark was a Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar at Columbia, a President’s Fellow and the Columbia Law Review editor. He then served as a law clerk for Hon. Patricia Wald on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit, followed by service in the U.S. Department of Justice Office of Legal Counsel.

Mark is the author of numerous scholarly, professional and mass media publications and is a regular invited speaker at professional conferences and public events. Mark has long been passionately engaged with the Jewish and pro-Israel communities serving in numerous leadership roles and has lived in and visited Israel on multiple occasions.

Jonathan M. Smith, Chief of the Civil Rights Division of the Maryland Attorney General
Jonathan M. Smith is the first Chief of the Civil Rights Division of the Maryland Attorney General. The Division was created in January 2024 following the granting of authority to the Attorney General by the General Assembly to pursue civil rights cases.

Mr. Smith has spent more than 40 years practicing civil rights and anti-poverty law. Before joining the Office of the Attorney General, Mr. Smith served as the Executive Director of the Washington Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs. Mr. Smith was the Chief of the Special Litigation Section of the Civil Rights Division of the United States Department of Justice from 2010 to 2015, participating in investigations of law enforcement agencies, prisons and jails and juvenile justice systems.

Before his government service, he served as the Executive Director of the Legal Aid Society of the District of Columbia, the Public Justice Center in Baltimore, Maryland, and the D.C. Prisoners’ Legal Services Project. In addition to providing program leadership in each position, he has handled individual, class action and impact litigation and engaged in legislative advocacy and in institutional reform efforts.

Moderated By: Sarah R. David
Ms. David joined the Maryland Office of the State Prosecutor in 2018 as a Senior Assistant State Prosecutor. She was promoted to Deputy State Prosecutor in January 2020. Ms. David oversees the agency’s strategic partnerships, legislative agenda and budget, as well as a caseload of corruption and police misconduct cases.

Ms. David graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Johns Hopkins University in 2003 where she studied Political Science and Arabic. A 2006 Truman Scholar and a 2008 George J. Mitchell Scholar, Ms. David obtained a Master’s Degree in Comparative Ethnic Conflict from Queens University in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Ms. David studied Arabic language in both Egypt and Morocco before working as an Intelligence Research Specialist in the New York City Police Department’s (NYPD) Counterterrorism Division. During her time at the NYPD, Ms. David served as primary briefer to the Deputy Commissioner for Counterterrorism, a regional specialist in the Levant and Iraq and was tasked to the Joint Terrorism Task Force for special case assignments.

Ms. David attended the Francis King Carey University of Maryland School of Law as a Leadership Scholar and graduated cum laude in 2013. After graduating from law school, Ms. David clerked for the Maryland Court of Special Appeals before serving as an Assistant State’s Attorney in the Baltimore City State’s Attorney’s Office where in addition to her general caseload was specially assigned to high-profile, complex prosecutions. Ms. David left the State’s Attorney’s Office to serve as Chief of Staff to the Chairman of the Judicial Proceedings Committee in the Maryland State Senate, where she worked on legislation related to criminal, civil, family and many other areas of law.

Ms. David has been recognized in the community for her work in non-profits and professional organizations by the Maryland Bar Foundation as a Maryland Bar Fellow, as a graduate of Maryland State Bar Association Leadership Academy, by the Associated Jewish Charities as a Fred Walpert Community Award Recipient and by the Maryland Daily Record’s Leading Women.