Honors and Awards: (1) -- Highest professional rating (AV® Preeminent™ 5.0 out of 5 Peer Review Rated) by Martindale-Hubbell, (2) -- Superb rating (10.0 out of 10) on Avvo.com, (3) -- Law School Honors -- (a) Commencement Award (BNA Law Student Award); (b) American Jurisprudence Award (Criminal Trial Practice); (c) Edward F. Hennessey Scholar; Commencement Speaker to the Faculty, (4) Graduated with honors (cum laude) from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, (5) Recently profiled by Main Line Today in the 2009 "Top Lawyers" edition

Bar/Professional Activity: Admitted to US Supreme Court, 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals, US District Court for the Eastern District of PA, Federal Criminal Bar for the Eastern District of PA; Philadelphia Criminal Justice Section; Pennsylvania Bar Association; PACDL; NACDL

Scholarly Lectures and Writings: (1) -- Lecturer in CLE seminars at PBI Criminal Law Symposium, (2) -- Frequent guest speaker since 1999 on white collar crime as well as ethics in Leadership programs of the Management Department at The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania (Examples of various issues discussed include the changing perception by the courts and society of white collar crime versus violent crime, ethical dilemmas, the motivation of money, defining oneself as a corporate executive, Sarbanes-Oxley Act, evidentiary issues, 5th Amendment privilege, and federal sentencing issues. Examples of various cases discussed include United States v. Michael Milken, Enron (United States v. Kenneth L. Lay and Jeffrey K. Skilling), United States v. Martha Stewart, United States v. Bernard L. Madoff, and United States v. Vincent J. Fumo), (3) -- Co-author with her former law partner, F. Emmett Fitzpatrick, an article entitled "Ineffective Assistance of Counsel", which was published in The Philadelphia Lawyer, The Forum, and The Richmond Journal of Law and the Public Interest

Verdicts and Settlements: (1) -- Significant victory in the highly publicized organized crime case entitled, "United States v. Joseph Merlino, et al." (At the conclusion of a federal trial in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania which lasted almost five months, the jury acquitted her client, Frank Gambino, of attempted murder and racketeering charges. The Philadelphia Daily News described NiaLena as an "extremely thorough" and "tireless advocate [who] allows no legal issue to escape her attention" as well as the "youngest and lone female attorney" who is "a thorough advocate with courtroom poise beyond her years," Mob On Trial: For The Defense ... The Greatest Lawyers On The East Coast), (2) -- Successfully represented a client against methamphetamine distribution charges (The case had been described in the press as the "largest meth bust ever in the city of Philadelphia". Following aggressive pretrial representation over the course of almost 1 1/2 years, all charges against the client were dismissed on the morning of trial), (3) -- Successfully represented a client in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania in two federal drug trafficking and firearms trials (The defendant was first acquitted of multiple counts alleging the possession of firearms in furtherance of a drug trafficking offense and the possession of firearms by a convicted felon. After 8 months of arguments, NiaLena then succeeded in reversing the drug distribution counts for which the defendant had been convicted, and subsequently won a new trial for her client), (4) -- Successfully represented a client in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania in two federal drug trafficking and firearms trials (In the first instance, the jury hung and a mistrial was declared. At the retrial, the defendant was acquitted of multiple counts involving crack cocaine distribution as well as multiple counts alleging the possession of firearms in furtherance of a drug trafficking offense and the possession of firearms by a convicted felon), (5) -- Successfully represented a client in a capital homicide trial which lasted one month in the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas (Despite a lifelong criminal history which involved 30 violent felony convictions, and the fact that the defendant had allegedly killed a government witness in order to prevent that individual from testifying against him, the defendant did not receive the death penalty), (6) -- Successfully represented a client charged with homosexual sex offenses in the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas (Following aggressive advocacy on behalf of her client, all charges were dropped against him on the morning of trial), (7) -- Successfully represented a fellow attorney in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania during a federal Grand Jury investigation involving allegations of possession of child pornography that had allegedly been acquired through the Internet (All charges were eventually dropped against the client, and all computer equipment that had been seized by the government was later returned to him), (8) -- Successfully represented a client in the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas in a trial involving alleged child sexual assaults upon two minor male complainants (At trial, the defendant was acquitted of multiple sex charges, including involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, sexual assault, statutory sexual assault, and sexual abuse of children), (9) Succeeded in reversing a 22-year-old first degree murder conviction following three years of evidentiary hearings in the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas and winning a new trial for the defendant who had been serving a life sentence without parole.

Representative Clients: NiaLena's criminal clients vary and have ranged from a Washington D.C. senior executive of a Fortune 500 financial company, to a medical doctor, to a powerful Senator, to the alleged kingpin of a major drug trafficking organization, to an alleged made member of the LCN, to fellow lawyers, to university students, and to many other fellow citizens of our community

Other Outstanding Achievements: Closing argument on behalf of Frank Gambino in four-month organized crime racketeering federal trial of United States v. Joseph Merlino was subsequently selected among nationwide submissions and spotlighted as featured defense advocate by Center for Criminal Justice Advocacy in Houston.  See http://juryargument.homestead.com/GuestContribution1.html to read excerpts from the closing argument

Educational Background: The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania (Bachelor of Science degree in Economics; May 1988; graduated cum laude; dual major in Multinational Management and Marketing)