Lana M. Manitta

Ms. Lana M. Manitta is a criminal defense attorney who represents clients facing serious felony and capital charges before the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia and the Circuit Courts of Northern Virginia.

Highlights of her career include the defense of an innocent client facing federal murder charges which carry a mandatory life sentence without the possibility of parole. Of six co-conspirators and three defendants, her client alone won acquittal.

Since then, Ms. Manitta has achieved excellent results for clients in both the White Collar and “street crime” arena, focusing on conspiracies involving bank fraud, wire fraud, securities fraud, prescription fraud and narcotics distribution.

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 and she is still available on a limited basis to consult on, and litigate if necessary, these matters.

A native of Long Island, New York, Ms. Manitta moved to Northern Virginia to study law at Georgetown University. There, 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). Instead of returning to New York after law school as planned.

Ms. Manitta continued her work with a criminal defense firm in Fairfax County, including participation in the defense of Lee Boyd Malvo. Today, she is firmly entrenched, having settled in Loudoun County with her husband and two children.

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