As she rises in the legal profession, Danielle Weiss sometimes feels a bit of reticence when contacting a client.
She handles an array of legal matters, involving professional liability, both medical and legal malpractice claims, and claims involving breach of contract, business torts, catastrophic injuries, defamation, employment discrimination and fraud. Weiss has an extensive amount of litigation experience and has taken many cases to trial.
“There are times when they [clients] hear from me, it’s not a good day,” said Weiss, a partner at the Center City firm of Haines & Associates. “I’ve always been opinionated and outspoken,” the Temple University James E. Beasley School of Law graduate added. “Going into a career in law has allowed me to do just that every day.”
Weiss is a lifelong Philadelphia-area resident who, after attending The Baldwin School in Bryn Mawr, graduated cum laude from the University of Pennsylvania before her time at Beasley, where she served as an editor of the Temple International and Comparative Law Journal.
Weiss also is an integral member of the National Young Leadership Cabinet of the Jewish Federations of North America and sits on the Board of Trustees of the Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia.
As a Jewish Federation board member, Weiss looks to connect the organization with its donors, sponsors and its community.
“This is where I get to express my Jewish values, and tell people today is a good day,” Weiss said. “We have such a diverse, vibrant Jewish community in Greater Philadelphia, and I’m pleased to be able to serve it. We also are looking to enrich Jewish communities all over the world.”
She particularly enjoys her work with the leadership cabinet, a training program for individuals between the ages of 30 and 40. This has allowed Weiss to interact with Jewish communities across both the United States and the world. The group makes one trip nationally and one internationally each year, raising $2.4 million in the process.
Weiss remembers two international missions in particular, a 2017 trip to India that included Delhi as a stop, and a 2018 visit to Spain that included visits to the Moroccan cities of Casablanca and Fez.
“We went to a synagogue service in Delhi, and they asked if anyone was from Philadelphia or Minneapolis,” Weiss said.
“I said I was from Philadelphia, and a few people gave me thanks. Congregation Rodeph Shalom had given their synagogue [Judah Hyam] a Torah back in the 1950s.”
In Morocco, Weiss was told about a community of 18 elderly Jews in the northern part of the country who were brought kosher meat on a frequent basis.
For 2019, the cabinet’s study missions are to the Alabama cities of Montgomery, Selma and Birmingham, commemorating the Civil Rights struggle, and Moscow and St. Petersburg, Russia, and Tbilisi, Georgia.
This article is part of an occasional series of profiles of Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia supporters.
jweisberger@jewishexponent.com; 215-832-0737
A great spotlight on what sounds like a very hard working attorney. It’s inspiring to learn about the service missions and the work that has gone in and funds raised to make the world a better place. Any time one seeks leadership opportunities, especially with a mindset of being a servant leader, real growth, humility and gratitude can be experienced.