Welcome to another edition of Meet the Attorney! This time, we are introducing attorney Ellen Radin. Ms. Radin completed her Bachelors of Arts at Barnard College – Columbia University, and proceeded to study law at Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law-Yeshiva University. In December, Ms. Radin celebrated her 10 year anniversary with the Ginarte Law Firm.

When Ms. Radin was growing up, it was almost unheard of for a woman to be a lawyer.  By the time she reached college, the women’s movement encouraged women to seek careers. Many women were applying to law school. Ms. Radin adds, “I began to seriously think about going to law school in my junior or senior year of college.”

When Ms. Radin first started practicing law, she worked mostly with family law and real estate law. She started working with workers compensation law after she had been at the Ginarte Law Firm for a while and an opening developed. Ms. Radin explains, “The firm later realized that many people needed help with applications before the Social Security Administration, and we decided to develop that department.” She became head of the Social Security Department in 2012, and has helped a lot of people since then.

Ms. Radin says, “The most rewarding part of my job is being able to obtain benefits for someone who can’t work and may not have any other way to pay the bills, or obtaining benefits for a disabled child whose family is struggling with so many other issues on top of the financial problems.” Our firm will even file an appeal to Federal District Court, if Ms. Radin believes the case is strong enough.  Most firms will not handle Federal Social Security work.

Ms. Radin enjoys meeting with clients so she can explain the process to them. If they need to appear in front of a judge, she can help prepare them, so they are less nervous about the hearing. She recently won benefits for a man who was bouncing from shelter to shelter just to have someplace to sleep at night. She states, “That’s the kind of thing that makes us feel, this is what we are supposed to be doing.”