The Somerset County Board of Education introduced and welcomed their new board attorneys of Schifanelli Law, LLP at their February 18, 2025 monthly board meeting. Marc Schifanelli and his wife Gordana Schifanelli will be representing the board and providing legal counsel and guidance moving forward.
The board has a goal to drastically improve education across the district in several critical areas, that include: parental rights in education, curriculum, academic proficiency, fiscal responsibility, student behavior, school safety, and transparency.
The board chose the Schifanellis, because of their unique background and multifaceted skill set that makes them a viable solution provider in various aspects of education. The board sees this relationship as a necessary asset to help bring students to the top.
I am elated to have the Schifanellis on our team. It’s a dream team! – Matthew Lankford, Board Chair
It is a huge privilege and honor to be voted by the Somerset County Board of Education to represent them in all legal matters at this time in our history. I feel that I am a part of an amazing team who truly want to make student performance and learning great again and I will do my very best to help them achieve their mission! – Gordana Schifanelli
Meet the team:
Marc D. Schifanelli, Esq. is a retired U.S. Army Reserve officer and a practicing Maryland attorney with over twenty years of civil litigation experience. He has represented clients in litigation actions involving employment law, Constitutional law, financial industry arbitration, immigration law, criminal law, and corporate and public ethics matters. He has served as a pro bono attorney representing disabled veterans at the Board of Veterans’ Appeals. Between 2020 and 2024, he served as an elected member of the Queen Anne’s County Public Schools Board of Education, including as board vice president and president.
Recently, he has served the Talbot County Sheriff’s Office in contesting the findings of the newly established, state-wide disciplinary boards created to address citizen complaints against department deputies.
Marc earned his Bachelor of Arts in Government and Politics, at the University of Maryland, graduating with academic honors magna cum laude. He subsequently earned his Juris Doctor at the University of Maryland School of Law.
After enlisting in the U.S. Army at seventeen, he served twenty-two years as a Special Forces operator, warrant officer, a commissioned officer, intelligence case officer, and psychological operations officer. He maintained a TS/SBI clearance, and with multiple deployments throughout Latin America, Asia and the Middle East, he was decorated and proudly wore the Meritorious Service Medal, Army Commendation Medal, National Defense Service Medal, and a host of foreign military awards.
In 2022, he researched and wrote the book Freedom, Emotion and Fascism, in which he explores the deep psychological needs that are satisfied by the socialist theories of fascism and communism. In 2023, he published his second book, VERIFIED: On the Ground with the Kosovo Verification Mission, in which he documents his firsthand experience and observations in 1999 while working as a contractor with the Office for Security and Cooperation in Europe.
Marc resides on the Maryland Eastern Shore with his wife, the 2022 GOP candidate for Maryland Lt. Governor and a Serbian born, naturalized U.S. Citizen. They have three children: one a second lieutenant in the Army Reserves and a law student, one an engineering student at Embry Riddle ROTC, and the youngest a junior in high school. In addition to serving on his local board of education, Marc mentored local young men as a Boy Scouts of America Scoutmaster between 2017 and 2023.
A native English speaker, he is fluent in Spanish and has working capabilities of German, French, and Serbian.
Gordana Schifanelli, Esq. is an economist, former Adjunct Professor of Law and Economics at the United States Naval Academy and knowledgeable lawyer with expertise in the Civil Litigation, U.S. Immigration law, Employment, Financial Industry Regulatory Administrative law, Family law and estates and trusts. She is an advisor to many private and municipal clients. Gordana has written over 1200 legal opinions and pro bono answers to the public and is named the top legal contributor to many professional legal research organizations and sites.
Previously, Schifanelli earned her Bachelor of Science in Economics and International Finance graduating with academic honors from the University of Belgrade, School of Economics in 1994. She then completed Graduate studies and obtained her Master of International Economics from University of Belgrade School of Economics in 1997 and publicly defended her Thesis on developing former socialist economies to integrate in the modern market based financial system.
Additionally, Gordana Schifanelli successfully graduated from University of Baltimore School of Law focusing on civil litigation including but not limited to family, civil rights and employment discrimination, family estates and trusts, immigration and administrative law/FINRA Arbitration. She is a managing Partner of Schifanelli Law, LLP currently advising to municipal and private clients in Maryland.
As the highest honor of her career, Gordana was selected to teach Law and Economics at the United States Naval Academy from 2014-2022. Her students rated her as a 5 star professor at their local “rate your professor” site.
Elected by the people to serve as their Republican nominee for Lieutenant Governor in Maryland during the 2022 Gubernatorial election, Gordana Schifanelli is recognized for her leadership on the matters of public-school education and issues many boards of education face when implementing novel policies affecting students across Maryland. She is known for her accuracy, promptness, responsiveness and her public profile features over 50 testimonials by her clients and over 14 endorsements by her fellow attorneys in the community, all of which can be found on: avvo.com/Gordana Schifanelli.
Gordana Schifanelli is a member in good standing of Maryland and New Jersey Bar Association.
Gordana Schifanelli resides on Maryland’s eastern shore with her husband and their three sons- two serving with the US Army Reserves and the youngest in Maryland public school system.
Darren Lombardo, Author
February 19, 2025
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