Clinic Faculty & Staff
Alicia Plerhoples is a Professor of Law and the Director of the Social Enterprise & Nonprofit Law Clinic. Professor Plerhoples is a leading scholar in social enterprise law, nonprofit governance, and clinical legal education. Professor Plerhoples joined the faculty at Georgetown University Law Center in 2012, where she is director of the Social Enterprise & Nonprofit Law Clinic. Professor Plerhoples is active in the social enterprise legal sector, advising clients and organizations on governance arrangements and organizational structures that facilitate the work of social entrepreneurs. In 2017, Professor Plerhoples received the American Bar Association’s Outstanding Nonprofit Lawyer of the Year (Academic) Award. She serves on the Legal Advisory Group of Echoing Green, a global nonprofit which identifies, incubates, and funds social entrepreneurs. Examples of Professor Plerhoples’ recent research articles include integrating social enterprise into poor communities, pursuit of charity through public benefit corporations, and how to apply traditional corporate law principles to new social enterprise legislation. Her publications have appeared in the Lewis & Clark Law Review, Washington University Journal of Law and Policy, and the International Journal of Clinical Legal Education, among others. Professor Plerhoples previously was the Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe Clinical Teaching Fellow at Stanford Law School and a Visiting Assistant Professor at University of California Hastings College of the Law. Prior to entering academia, she practiced with the law firms of DLA Piper in New York City and Cooley in Silicon Valley. Professor Plerhoples graduated from Yale Law School in 2005 and holds a master’s degree in Public Administration from Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School of International and Public Policy. She completed her A.B., cum laude, from Harvard College in 2001.
Amanda Spratley is a Visiting Professor of Law with the Social Enterprise and Nonprofit Law Clinic. Professor Spratley researches in the areas of business and nonprofit law, creativity and innovation and educational trends and approaches to teaching, focusing on advancing entrepreneurship within the creative and innovative economies and topics in legal education. She has presented and moderated at conferences and events across the country in cities including: Albany, NY; Boston; Chicago; Ft. Worth, TX; New York City; Philadelphia; San Francisco; and Washington, DC. Her publications include law articles “Engaging Outside Counsel in Transactional Law Clinics” and “Connecting Law and Creativity: The Role of Lawyers in Supporting Creative and Innovative Economic Development,” and book chapter “How Microenterprise Development Contributes to Community Economic Development.” She has taught courses related to business and corporate law, nonprofit law, community development, intellectual property and real property law, including doctrinal, clinical and online courses. She has taught at University of Massachusetts School of Law-Dartmouth, University of Pennsylvania Law School, and The George Washington University Law School–where she was the inaugural Friedman Fellow in the law school’s Small Business & Community Economic Development Clinic. Professor Spratley served as Chair of the Publications sub-committee and co-editor of the digital Newsletter for the Community Economic Development committee of the American Bar Association (ABA) Business Law Section.
Professor Spratley obtained her LL.M. degree focusing in Small Business Law and Clinical Legal Education and her J.D. degree from The George Washington University Law School, where she served on the ADR Board, Mock Trial Board, Moot Court Board, and was a Regional Semi-Finalist and the GW First Place Team Winner of the Giles S. Rich Intellectual Property Law Moot Court Competition. She held positions as a GW Law Faculty Research Assistant, GW Law Library Legal Research Fellow, Associate Editor for the Elliott School International Affairs Review Academic Journal, and was a Summer Associate at a large law firm. She obtained her B.B.A. degree focusing in business and psychology from The College of William and Mary and is licensed to practice law in the District of Columbia, Pennsylvania and Massachusetts.
Sunitha Malepati is a Supervising Attorney and Clinical Teaching Fellow in the Social Enterprise & Nonprofit Law Clinic. Before coming to Georgetown, Sunitha was an associate in the Private Investment Funds Group at Squire Patton Boggs (US) LLP, where she focused her practice on advising investors on investments into various alternative investment funds, including private equity, real estate, hedge and venture capital funds. She also advised on structuring and formation of various types of funds. Sunitha received her J.D. magna cum Laude and Order of the Coif from American University Washington College of Law and her B.S. in Economics from the University of Michigan. During law school, Sunitha was on the Editorial Board for the Journal of Gender, Social Policy and the Law and a student attorney in the Women & the Law Clinic. Prior to attending law school, she was the Chief of Staff at Living Cities, a philanthropic collaborative of foundations and financial institutions focused on developing and investing in initiatives that improve the lives of low-income people and the cities where they live.
Maria Islam is the clinic office manager for the Social Enterprise & Nonprofit Law Clinic where she manages the day-to-day operations of the clinic. After receiving a B.A. in International Studies and a minor in Law and Society from American University, she started working at Georgetown Law as a faculty assistant with faculty support. Maria has interned at the U.S. House of Representatives, Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law, DC Volunteer Lawyer’s Project, the U.S. Department of Justice, National Asian Pacific American Bar Association and various law firms.