Drop Elura a line

Elura Nanos, Esq.

After receiving a B.A. in English (African-American literature) and Music (instrumental performance) from Wesleyan University, Elura did the law school thing in her hometown, New York City.  Scholarship to Law School? Check.  Law Review? Check.  Magna cum laude? Check.  Elura practiced law both in the world of overworked-underpaid public interest and the world of overpaid-underwhelmed commercial litigation before breaking away and going into business.  School is pretty much Elura’s thing, which is why she started Lawyer Up back in 2002.  In addition to being a lawyer and entrepreneur, Elura is a piccolo-playing wife and mom who loves reading, Mozart and movies about prison, and hates crawling plants, war documentaries and raisins.
 
Elura’s Philosophy:  “I’m an unapologetic gradist.  I love grades, tests, and anything that can be measured by letters, numbers, or percentile ranks.  I take my students on an unabashed pursuit of every A.  It’s not always pretty, but it always works.”

Drop Michele a line

Michele Sileo, Esq.

Michele is a fat, hairy, bald man with a filthy mouth and a bad attitude.  On the other hand, there is a soft, warm, round mom side of Michele that smells like home-baked cookies.  A life-long tough-talking New Yorker, Michele put her mouth where her money was and went to court as a prosecutor, a malpractice lawyer, and a representative of children and families.  In 2002, Michele gave up the lipstick ghetto to form Lawyer Up and to bring her unique blend of whip-cracking and therapy to law students nationwide.  A native Bensonhurstian, Michele now blends in with the other oddballs on Staten Island, along with her husband and two fat hairy children. 

Michele’s Philosophy: Law School is a boxing match.  The opponent must be beaten at all costs!  And when hope seems to be lost, don’t despair.  It’s never too late to band together and defeat the enemy while eating cookies!

Drop Nikki a line

Nikki Birdsall Maloney, Esq.

Nikki is a small-town girl from Wyalusing, Pennsylvania, who broke away to attend college at Alfred University, up in equally small-town Alfred, New York.  There, Nikki discovered a love for law, and followed first by doing the Washington Semester Public Law program at American University, and later, by kicking ass at Temple University Beasley School of Law.  In addition to claiming her place on the International and Comparative Law Journal, Nikki also studied law in Greece.  Between bites of baklava, she worked with Justice Antonin Scalia and future Lawyer Up teammate Georgia Davies Graham – both of whom made indelible impressions on Nikki.    Nikki left her small-town roots behind when she became a full-fledged New York Lawyer in 2006.  When she’s not leading law students to 4.0s, Nikki practices civil litigation defense in Queens, NY. 
 
Nikki's philosophy:  "I’m all about loving school and thinking positively.   Confidence, positivity and organization are the most important keys to success, and I love helping my students create their own systems.  By helping my students forget about what they have not done and focus on what they can do, we work together to make law school a success." 

Drop Caitlin a line

Caitlin Walsh, Esq.

Caitlin has spent all of her adult life combining three things she loves best:  law, teaching, and New York.  As a New York City public school teacher, Caitlin brought her no-nonsense attitude to the city’s kids; later, she kicked asses and took names as a law student.

After scholarshipping-it through law school, and emerging at the top of the class, Caitlin took her J.D. and hit the open road.  She drove cross-country to Los Angeles and did the lawyer thing for a few years before reuniting with her hometown and the public school system.  Now a New York City Teaching Fellow, Caitlin is happily pursuing her dream of being a professional student, as she pursues yet another graduate degree – this time, in special education.  With a background in psychology, law, and special education, Caitlin brings formula for academic success to law students of all abilities, and is both an instructor extraordinaire and our special learning needs consultant here at Lawyer Up.
 
Caitlin’ Philosophy:  “I’m a total dork for saying it, but I love school!  I show my students that law school doesn’t have to be scary.  Once you learn the tricks of the trade, it can actually be sorta fun!”       

Drop Stephen a line

Stephen Reich, Esq.

After coming to grips with the reality that professional sports weren't in his future, Steve made the decision to go to law school.  Armed with a degree from Johns Hopkins, a winning smile and a mild case of overconfidence, Steve concluded his first semester at New York Law School with a depressingly mediocre GPA. But Steve became an academic phoenix, when his determination to improve culminated in buckets of As and a J.D.. cum laude.   Steve is determined to spread his knowledge around and help today's 1Ls "get the hang of it" just as he once did.  When not shaping young legal minds, Steve runs his own solo legal practice, specializing in a variety of civil law areas, including wills, trusts and estates, intellectual property, and tort litigation.  But that's not all.  Steve is also a successful professional actor, and has appeared in commercials for MTV, ESPN, STARZ Cable Network, TV Guide Channel and many others, as well as several independent films, off-off Broadway theater, and yes, a brief stint on ABC’s The Bachelorette.

Steve’s Philosophy: "Keep it simple. The law can often feel like a foreign language, but it doesn’t have to.  Together, we'll translate from jargon to English, and in the end, your newfound fluency will mean a great GPA." 
    

Drop Cindy a line

Cindy M. Levine, Esq.

Cindy M. Levine is a 2004 graduate of Duke University School of Law. She is a massive nerd, in the coolest sense of the word. She convinced Professor Erwin Chemerinsky – yes that Professor Chemerinsky – to be her student note advisor. Her securities law professor wrote a letter at the end of the semester thanking her for her contributions to class  (yeah, she has that letter framed). And as an editor on the Alaska Law Review, she… well, she got a free trip to Anchorage, so there’s that. 

After graduation, Cindy did what any fantastic securities law student with an expertise in Alaskan law would do, and became an antitrust lawyer at BigLaw in New York City. After practicing for five years, she realized her life dream of being a circus performer.  Unfortunately, she is afraid of clowns so that dream never materialized. Instead, she is now teaching law students the finer intricacies of a loss of consortium cause of action, explaining to them why stores in Brooklyn can constitutionally give 10% discounts only to lesbians, and regaling them with stories of what it is really like to be a practicing lawyer. 

Drop Abiola a line

Abiola Tolulope Oriowo, Esq.

Abi is an international gal, growing up in Nigeria, England, Kuwait and finally, small-town Ohio. After 3 years in farm country, Abi packed her things, said "so long" to her pals on the farm, and headed out to the Concrete Jungle, New York, New York. Abi attended New York Law School for not one, but two law degrees. While working on her LLM, Abi met the Lawyer Up crew in between studying sections of the tax code.  Abi currently works at Ernst & Young LLP, where she is a member of the State and Local Tax group. Abi lives in Jersey City with her six year Dauchshund/Chihuhua mix, appropriately named "Maximus Decimus Meridius Prime". Hey, he may be small, but his personality is quite large.
 
Abi's Philosophy:  "Wisdom and knowledge are always knocking at your door. OPEN THE DOOR!!!!!!!"