Clinic Faculty & Staff

Alicia Plerhoples (she/her) 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 (she/her) is a Visiting Professor of Law in the Social Enterprise & Nonprofit Law Clinic at Georgetown Law. Professor Spratley returns after holding a previous visiting appointment at Georgetown Law, and has visited at American University Washington College of Law, where she taught, supervised students and directed its Entrepreneurship Law Clinic, at The George Washington University Law School, where she taught, supervised students and directed its Small Business & Community Economic Development Clinic, and at University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School, where she taught, supervised students and directed its Entrepreneurship Legal Clinic.

Professor Spratley taught Business Organizations at the University of Massachusetts School of Law-Dartmouth and taught, supervised students and directed its Community Development Clinic to provide transactional legal services to nonprofit organizations and small businesses throughout Massachusetts. Professor Spratley served as the inaugural Friedman Fellow for The George Washington University Law School’s Small Business & Community Economic Development Clinic, where she co-taught and co-supervised law students to provide transactional legal services to the Washington, DC nonprofit and business communities and completed an LL.M. degree program focused on clinical legal education and small business law. She has also developed online professional real estate agent continuing education curricula.

Professor Spratley has presented and moderated at conferences and events across the country on topics related to business law, nonprofit law, and legal education. 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.”

Martina Watson-Pickett (she/her) is a Clinical Teaching Fellow in the Social Enterprise & Nonprofit Law Clinic at the Georgetown University Law Center. Professor Watson-Pickett is an experienced intellectual property practitioner and regularly works with start-up businesses to establish intellectual property strategies. As a solo practitioner, she has worked with small businesses and is responsible for advising on various transactional, real estate, and litigation matters. Professor Watson- Pickett’s experience extends to New York cooperative law, where she helped to establish the nation’s first worker-owned franchise. Prior to her solo practice, Professor Watson-Pickett clerked for the Honorable Sheila A. Venable in the New Jersey Superior Court. She received her J.D. from New York Law School and her B.A. in Psychology from Winston-Salem State University. She is currently pursuing an L.L.M. in Advocacy from Georgetown University Law Center.

Diane Bui (she/her) is a Clinical Teaching Fellow in the Social Enterprise & Nonprofit Law Clinic at the Georgetown University Law Center. Prior to joining the Clinic, Professor Bui was the Deputy Assistant General Counsel for Global Health in the Office of the General Counsel at the U.S. Agency for International Development. There, she served as a leading legal expert supporting life-saving infectious disease programs and global health security programs worldwide. Professor Bui has deep experience working in partnership with nonprofit organizations, for-profit entities, philanthropies, public international organizations and multilateral development banks on global development assistance programs. She has provided strategic legal advice to support novel business approaches and financing mechanisms; introduction and scale up of priority interventions; and diversification of the U.S. Government’s partner base. Prior to her government service, Professor Bui worked in private practice at law firms in Washington, D.C. counseling clients on a wide range of business transactions and was actively engaged in pro bono matters supporting a global non-profit microfinance organization. She is a graduate of Duke University and New York University School of Law.

Anna Harty (she/her) serves as the office manager for several programs at Georgetown Law. She handles the day-to-day administrative operations of the Domestic Violence Clinic, the Social Enterprise & Nonprofit Law Clinic, and the DC Affordable Law Firm LL.M. Fellowship Program. Anna is also currently pursuing a masters in Urban and Regional Planning at Georgetown University’s School of Continuing Studies. She graduated from Xavier University with a B.A. in Gender & Diversity Studies and minors in Studio Art and Peace & Justice Studies. As a Brueggeman Fellow at Xavier, Anna developed an independent study examining the role of gender in conflict resolution and traveled to Uganda to engage in related research. After graduating, Anna did a year of service through Jesuit Volunteer Corps and coordinated legal services for asylum seekers at YMCA International Services in Houston, TX.