Ahmad Awadalla is a litigation associate and trial attorney who has tried cases to verdict. His practice focuses on the defense of complex general liability matters, including claims involving motor vehicle accidents, premises liability, and other negligence-based personal injury actions. He represents insurers, businesses, and individual clients in litigation in both state and federal courts.
Ahmad has experience in all phases of civil litigation, including written discovery, depositions, motion practice, arbitration, and trial preparation. He regularly conducts depositions of fact witnesses, corporate representatives, and expert witnesses, and prepares witnesses for testimony in both jury trials and arbitration proceedings. His motion practice experience includes drafting and arguing dispositive motions, motions in limine, and discovery motions that have narrowed issues and positioned cases for favorable resolution. He has also secured favorable outcomes for clients in binding arbitration through strategic witness examination and evidentiary presentation.
Ahmad approaches litigation with a strategic and practical mindset, focusing on early case evaluation, targeted discovery, and effective courtroom advocacy. Drawing on his trial experience, he develops clear, evidence-based defense strategies designed to challenge liability and limit exposure for his clients.
Education: American University, Washington College of Law, J.D., 2019; University of The District of Columbia, B.A., 2012.
Practices: Casualty; Construction & Labor; General Liability.
Admissions: Pennsylvania; U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.
Industries: Auto, Trucking & Transportation; Retail, Restaurants & Hospitality.
Cheryl-Lyn is an experienced employment and civil rights attorney and executive leader with deep experience across the private, public, and nonprofit sectors. She advises small and mid-size organizations and nonprofits on HR compliance, employment law, and complex workplace issues, bringing a pragmatic, executive-level perspective shaped by leadership, enforcement, and litigation experience.
Cheryl-Lyn currently serves as General Counsel of a national nonprofit organization, where she functions as a strategic advisor to the CEO, executive team, and Board of Directors. This role encompasses enterprise-wide legal and compliance oversight, including employment and labor matters, governance, contracts, ethics, intellectual property, regulatory compliance, risk management, and organizational policy. Cheryl-Lyn also leads and manages multidisciplinary legal and ethics teams and partners closely with senior leaders across the organization.
Throughout her career, Cheryl-Lyn has advised CEOs, senior leadership teams, and boards on navigating sensitive employment issues, labor relations, policy development, and organizational change. She previously served as Deputy Director at a Philadelphia-based legal services organization, where she led human resources and operations for over 200 legal professionals across three offices. Before that, Cheryl-Lyn served at the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights where she investigated civil rights violations and mediated disputes to resolution. She also worked as an attorney at a boutique employment firm representing plaintiffs in a wide variety of matters including discrimination, criminal history, and wage and hour cases. Cheryl-Lyn clerked for Chief Judge Petrese B. Tucker in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.
Cheryl-Lyn operates a limited advisory practice, Bentley Harmon PLLC, providing employment and HR compliance consulting to nonprofits and small-to-mid-sized businesses.
Cheryl-Lyn holds a J.D. from Yale Law School, M.S.Ed. from Long Island University, and B.A. from Harvard University.
Deandra Denton is a member of the Public Finance & Infrastructure Practice in the Philadelphia office of Greenberg Traurig. She serves as bond counsel, issuer’s counsel, underwriter’s counsel, lender’s counsel, and disclosure counsel on a wide range of tax-exempt and taxable financing transactions.
Deandra brings broad corporate and transactional experience to her practice. Prior to joining Greenberg Traurig, she advised fund sponsors at a large multinational law firm on the formation of private equity funds, as well as regulatory and compliance matters within the investment management industry.
She earned her J.D. from the Maurice A. Deane School of Law at Hofstra University in 2023, where she served as Articles Editor of The American College of Trust and Estate Counsel Law Journal. She received her B.A., magna cum laude, from Hofstra University in 2020 and was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa.
Deandra is admitted to practice in New York, Pennsylvania, and the District of Columbia.
Marlena defends employers, non-profit organizations and colleges and universities in workplace litigation and counsels clients through a wide range of complex employment matters. Marlena works with employers to ensure compliance with federal, state and local employment laws.
She advises clients in employment discrimination cases involving allegations of discrimination under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Age Discrimination in Employment Act. She also regularly represents businesses, non-profits and colleges and universities in discrimination, harassment and retaliation claims before federal and state courts and administrative agencies.
Additionally, Marlena advises employers on day-to-day employment matters including operational decisions, termination decisions, reductions in force, wage and hour compliance and the protection of confidential and proprietary information.
Marlena has conducted multiple confidential investigations for employers, municipalities and institutions of higher learning, addressing complex and high-stakes workplace issues. Marlena is passionate about using the law to benefit her clients with strategic precision and practical insight.