Attorneys Glenn Formica and Rochelle Charnin are supported by a team of individuals. Typically, we form case teams that involve a paralegal and clerk to support the work of our attorneys.
In our initial meeting with the client, we seek to define the problems, possible outcomes, goals, expectations, and costs.
Our office then confers to decide the make-up of the team. The client is always a member of that team. As a member of the team, the client will be asked to participate with their knowledge and skills.
In 2020, our office decommissioned its last copying machine. We have invested in multiple high speed production scanners and printers. We work across several software platforms that fully automate the traditional law firm tasks.
Execution is led by the attorneys in our firm and follows a flexible but set strategy and timeline. Our investment in new collaboration software allows clients to interact in real time with case activities and progress.
The work of Attorneys Glenn Formica and Rochelle Charnin is supported by a team of talented individuals with diverse backgrounds, educations, and specialties. While not attorneys, Jennifher Ortiz, Nidia Tubac, and Issa Halirou are team leaders with unique skills that support our different practice areas. We do not list all of our office members on this website, but clients soon learn that everyone in our office has a specialized background that plays an important role in the successful outcome of their case.
Attorney Glenn Formica has practiced law for more than 25 years. In that time, he has developed a reputation for being the attorney willing to take the most challenging cases. Many of his most difficult and professionally risky cases were in the local or national news cycle – particularly in the area of human rights and immigration. While Attorney Formica litigates across multiple practice areas, his passion and tenacity is best displayed in his relentlessness in protecting immigrants and families facing separation in a tough and often unjust Immigration system.
Born in Guilford, Connecticut, Attorney Formica was raised in a small New Hampshire town in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains. In the 1970s, his hometown of Brookline, New Hampshire had a population of less than a thousand residents. While Attorney Formica came from a relatively middle-class family, many of his peers lived in hard poverty, and he witnessed injustice firsthand. It was at this early age that he first developed a life-long devotion to social justice, although he didn’t know it at the time. He recalls, “I didn’t at that age understand the causes of poverty, but I remember feeling that no one should have any less than I had.”
Although the economic conditions in Brookline improved in the 1980s, Attorney Formica became active in local politics and worked with social justice organizations in his area throughout high school. He then attended Boston University, where he was active in political campaigns and worked for Congressman Joseph P. Kennedy, II. He graduated cum laude in 1992 with dual degrees in Classical Civilizations and English, and received distinction for work in the classics. Attorney Formica returned briefly to New Hampshire to run for the state house of representatives as a Democrat in a heavily Republican district. After losing the election, he spent two years working abroad in the Australian National Senate, and then returned to Boston to work for the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights, and eventually for the 150-year-old law firm of Hutchins Wheeler and Ditmar.
In the fall of 1994, Attorney Formica attended the Catholic University Columbus School of Law in Washington, D.C. where he would receive his Juris Doctor degree in 1997 and be admitted to the Maryland Bar. During the first month he was attending law school, a beloved aunt called to tell him she had stage three breast cancer. As the only family member in the D.C. area, Attorney Formica moved in to help with her care. He recounts, “Looking back at the difficulty of that first year of law school, I realize now that my professors taught me law, but my aunt taught me the compassion with which to apply it.” Attorney Formica’s aunt went on to survive her breast cancer for the next 25 years. After graduating law school, Attorney Formica practiced law in Bethesda, Maryland for two years before moving to Connecticut to work for a local firm in Cheshire, Connecticut. He was admitted to the Connecticut bar in October 1999 and started Formica PC in January 2001.
Since moving to Connecticut, Attorney Formica has been active in his community, serving on the vestry for Trinity Episcopal Church in Branford, the Board of Directors for Branford Interfaith Housing, and Harbor Health Services (now BHCare). Between 2017 and 2020, Attorney Formica worked with numerous churches and social justice organizations across Connecticut and provided extensive pro bono services for immigrants seeking relief from removal. More recently, Attorney Formica has continued to work with local nonprofits to provide training on how to support immigrant communities. He is also a frequent speaker on Immigration issues and often provides insight and commentaries for local news stations.
Years of fighting the Department of Homeland Security has made Attorney Formica into a tenacious litigator in the areas of personal injury, medical malpractice, civil rights, employment, and business disputes.
“When you get into the boxing ring to fight for an Immigrant, they tie both hands behind your back. The best you can do is bob, weave, and stay on your feet after taking the hard punch. If you can wear out the 300-pound prize fighter, known as the Department of Homeland Security – you win.” Glenn Formica.
“After fighting the Department of Homeland Security, everything else feels like a pillow fight.” Glenn Formica.
Rochelle Charnin is an attorney at Formica, P.C. focusing on immigration matters.
Born in Michigan, Attorney Charnin attended Hope College, where she graduated summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa with a B.A. in Political Science and French.
She received her J.D. from the University of Michigan Law School. After law school, Attorney Charnin worked for large law firms in Washington, D.C. where she practiced in the area of Public Policy. Upon relocating to Connecticut, she worked for a law firm in Stamford, Connecticut in the area of Commercial Litigation. More recently, she worked as the Immigration Legal Program Manager at Building One Community in Stamford where she developed a passion for immigration issues. Attorney Charnin joined Formica, P.C. in 2020. She is admitted in Connecticut, Massachusetts and Washington, D.C.
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