James Meizanis, Jr. and Juli Porto Join Blankingship & Keith
Blankingship & Keith, P.C. has welcomed James R. Meizanis, Jr. and Juli M. Porto to the firm as associates.
“Both James and Juli are highly respected lawyers with impressive track records,” said William B. Porter, managing principal of the firm. “Their collective experience makes them significant assets for the firm and our clients.”
Meizanis joins the firm’s Creditors Rights and Foreclosures Group and Commercial Real Estate and Leasing Group. He has experience in representing mortgage lenders, servicers, creditors, and government-sponsored enterprises in real estate sale transactions, non-judicial foreclosure proceedings, eviction hearings, bankruptcy pleading drafting and filing, and commercial litigation matters involving drafting motions and memoranda in support. As part of the Commercial Real Estate and Leasing Group, Meizanis will represent a variety of clients in different aspects of real estate transactions and in resolving related disputes. In 2016, he was selected to the Super Lawyer’s Rising Stars list for Virginia and Washington, D.C.
Meizanis received his law degree from Pennsylvania State University–Dickinson Law, in Carlisle, Penn., and his undergraduate degree from the Smeal College of Business at Pennsylvania State University. After law school, he served as a law clerk to the Honorable Thomas M. Blewitt, U.S. District Court, Middle District of Pennsylvania, in Scranton and to the Honorable David E. Grine, Centre County Court of Common Pleas, in Bellefonet, Pennsylvania.
Porto is a member of the firm’s Personal Injury Group and devotes her practice to representing individuals who have been injured by the carelessness of others and helping clients recover damages after injury. She has developed a successful litigation practice focused primarily on prosecuting complex personal injury and medical malpractice cases. She has been named a Rising Star in Virginia and Washington, D.C. by Super Lawyers in 2015 and 2016, and among the American Institute of Personal Injury Attorneys’ Ten Best in Client Satisfaction in 2016.
Before joining the firm, Porto was an external law clerk for the Honorable Rossie D. Alston, Jr. of the Virginia Court of Appeals. She received her law degree from George Mason University School of Law in Washington, D.C. As an undergraduate, she was a Distinguished Cadet at the United States Military Academy at West Point. After an honorable discharge from the U.S. Army, she graduated from New York University as an Honors Scholar.