The Faculty and Staff at Washington Online are dedicated professionals who are first and foremost concerned about serving you, our students.

Professors and Assistant Professors at The Washington Online Learning Institute are all trained professionals in their respective fields.

The instructors for all of our paralegal courses, including the Paralegal Certificate Programs, are practicing attorneys, paralegals, or experienced paralegal instructors with a wealth of experience in their fields. Instructors who teach legal and paralegal courses are all attorneys. Full professors have at least 10 years experience. Instructors who teach medical courses have all earned professional credentials in the fields they teach.

All of our instructors have a deep-seated love of teaching, and are primarily interested in making sure their students are engaged and active participants in their classes.

Instructors

Annie Goldman Reed, Attorney at Law

Professor Goldman received her Law Degree from the University of West Los Angeles School of Law in 1983. For the past 20 years, she has created paralegal curricula and taught paralegal subjects to adults in both the public and private sectors. In particular, she holds teaching expertise in the paralegal subjects areas of Introduction to Paralegalism, Legal Terminology, Ethics for the Paralegal, Contracts and Business Entities, Legal Analysis, and Career Development for Paralegals.

In addition to having created individual paralegal courses, she also hold expertise in designing and implementing substantive professional paralegal academies (400+ hour curriculum). In addition to teaching paralegal students, she has been creating legal secretarial programs and teaching legal secretaries.

For the past 15 years, Annie has been creating and teaching continuing legal education programs for attorneys as well.

Andrew A. Goodman, Attorney at Law

Professor Goodman is a partner at Greenberg & Bass LLP and practices in the areas of insolvency and bankruptcy. He has extensive experience handling both debtor and creditor matters. Mr. Goodman’s clients include institutional and asset based lenders, secured creditors, business and consumer debtors, bankruptcy trustees and creditors' committees.

Professor Goodman is a member of the American Bar Association and serves as the Chair of the ABA’s Pro Bono Bankruptcy Sub-Committee. He is the Vice-Chair of the Bankruptcy Committee of the Los Angeles County Bar Association and is an active participant in the Bankruptcy Pro-Bono Debtor’s Assistance Project administered by the Los Angeles Public Counsel. He is a member of the American Bankruptcy Institute, the California Bankruptcy Forum, and the San Fernando Valley Bar Association.

Professor Goodman is a faculty member for the Valley College Paralegal Program and the UCLA Extension Program. He is the immediate past President of the Pitzer College Alumni Association and is a former member of the Pitzer College Board of Trustees. He is a board member of The Executives, a Valley business support group for the Los Angeles Jewish Home for the Aging, and Friends of Oak Park Schools, a support group for the Oak Park Unified School District.

Professor Goodman is admitted to practice in all California courts, the United States District Courts in California and the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. He is admitted to practice in the states of New York and Nevada. He received his B.A. (1981) from Pitzer College, Claremont, California and his J.D. (1984) from Loyola Law School.

Deborah Halperin, Attorney at Law

Professor Debbie Halperin has been a full-time paralegal educator for over fifteen years. She teaches many different paralegal courses, specializing in legal research and writing. After attending Pace University School of Law, Professor Halperin worked as an Assistant County Attorney, where she prosecuted child abuse, neglect and support cases in Family Court. Her law firm experience has mostly been in the area of matrimonial and general litigation.

Frank LaPerch, Attorney at Law

Frank J. LaPerch graduated from the Quinnipiac University School of Law and is an attorney admitted to practice in both New York and New Jersey. He has been a solo-practitioner for several years and his firm focuses on the following areas: Bankruptcy, Family Law, Real Estate and Criminal Law.

In addition, Professor LaPerch is also an active member of the Family and Criminal Law assigned counsel program of the Rockland County Bar Association in New York.

He is a former Acting Justice for the Village of Suffern in Rockland County, New York. In his judicial capacity, he has presided over misdemeanor criminal matters, vehicle and traffic cases, felony arraignments, small claims and civil cases.

Judith Maloney, Attorney at Law

Professor Maloney is an attorney admitted to practice in the State of New York. She has been involved in the legal education field at both the university and graduate levels for many years. She has taught students at “brick and mortar” institutions throughout downstate New York, and is now a full professor at Washington Online. She reviews legal texts and manuscripts for several major legal publishers. Professor Maloney has a strong interest in paralegal education and serves on the Legal Studies Advisory Board of a major regional university.

Professor Maloney graduated magna cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts from Marymount Manhattan College. She received her Juris Doctor from Saint John’s University School of Law. Prior to entering academia, Professor Maloney was chief counsel for a major labor organization. Prof. Maloney is a member of the Nassau County Bar Association and the Legal Assistant Management Association (LAMA), an international professional association for those who manage and supervise paralegals. In 2003, she received the Nassau County Executive Certificate of Achievement for work with their Legal Internship Program.

Tom Sassone, Attorney at Law

Professor Sassone graduated from Pace University Law School in 1992 with a J.D. degree and was admitted by the bar in both Connecticut and New York shortly thereafter. In 1994, he founded the Committee on Immigration Law for the Rockland County Bar Association and chaired that committee until 2000. Since starting his own practice in 1993, Professor Sassone has handled more than 1000 immigration matters, as well as handling multiple other legal matters including matrimonial, family law, civil litigation and real estate cases.

Patricia Setti, MS

Patricia Setti graduated with a Bachelors of Science in Interdisciplinary Engineering from the Cooper Union and a Masters of Science in Biomedical Engineering from Columbia University. Her graduate program research involved the study of mechanical effects on cells and tissues with the aim of engineering functional tissue substitutes of clinical relevance. Other research in the biomedical and orthopedics areas has been published and presented at several key industry association meetings.

Currently, Professor Setti is applying scientific principles to understanding safety and efficacy on a wide range of products in the medical device industry. This includes planning, organizing, and implementing strategies and activities required to procure regulatory approval for new and revised products. She also has a strong interest in the Medical Insurance, Reimbursement, and Administration areas and training students how to enhance their knowledge in this fast-paced, key industry.

In addition, Professor Setti is an active member of the Biomedical Engineering Society and Society for Women Engineers.

If you are interested in becoming an instructor at Washington Online, please send us your resume. Applicants for paralegal instruction positions must have passed the Bar exam in the State of residence and have at least 10 years experience practicing law. Resumes may be emailed or faxed to our office.

Director

Michael Koplen - Co-founder and Director of Washington Online. Professor Koplen is a practicing attorney with nearly 25 years’ experience practicing law. Professor Koplen received his B.A., with Honors and Distinction from the University of Virginia and his J.D. from Hofstra University School of Law in 1981. Professor Koplen began his legal career on Wall Street. He later moved to mid-town Manhattan, where he opened his own law firm specializing in complex real estate transactions. Mr. Koplen now heads a firm in Rockland County, New York. His firm represents clients needing counsel in real estate matters, litigation, Title VII discrimination cases, bankruptcy and family law. Professor Koplen was elected to the Rockland County Legislature in 1993, and has served as Assistant County Attorney and Trustee for the Village of New Hempstead.

Mr. Koplen is a member of the following organizations:

• American Bar Association (ABA)
• Association of Trial Lawyers of America (ATLA)
• New York State Trial Lawyers Association (NYSTLA)
• New York State Bar Association
• Rockland County Bar Association

Student Affairs Department

Contact us if you have questions. We look forward to hearing from you!