Practice Areas
Education
Binghamton University, B.A., 1995
Georgetown University Law Center, J.D., 1998
Notes & Comments Editor, Georgetown Immigration Law Journal, 1997-1998
Admissions and Affiliations
Virginia
District of Columbia
U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Virginia
U.S. Court of Appeals, Fourth Circuit
U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Eastern District of Virginia
Summary
Ms. Manitta has served as co-lead defense counsel in a series of major felony and capital-level murder cases before the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia. Highlights of her recent career include the defense of an innocent client facing murder charges carrying a mandatory life sentence without the possibility of parole. Of six co-conspirators and three defendants, her client alone won acquittal. In addition, as a then associate of Michael Arif, Ms. Manitta served as part of the defense team of Lee Boyd Malvo.
In addition to her criminal practice, Ms. Manitta has assisted hundreds of clients with complex custody matters before both the Juvenile & Domestic Relations and Circuit Courts throughout the Northern Virginia area.
A native of Long Island, New York, Ms. Manitta came to Virginia to study law at Georgetown University, where she participated in the “Law Students in Court” litigation clinic, representing indigent defendants in D.C. Superior Court landlord/tenant disputes, and published Broken Barriers in Legal Education: How Immigration and Integration Have Shaped the Way We Learn the Law, 12 Geo. Immig. L.J. 361 (Winter 1998). Her plans to head back North were thwarted by an opportunity to clerk for the defense team on a capital murder case in Fairfax County, and thus Virginia became her home.
Ms. Manitta lives in Arlington with her family.
Memberships
Current
Fairfax County Bar Association, Member, Criminal and Family Law Sections
Alexandria Bar Association
Virginia Women's Attorneys Association