About Maher Legal Services
A firm built on decades of service inside the institutions we now help clients navigate.
Who We Are
Maher Legal Services represents individuals whose careers, clearances, and rights are at stake in federal and military systems. The firm was built around a specific idea: that people navigating those systems are better served by counsel who has worked inside them.
The attorneys at Maher Legal Services have held senior positions in the federal government, served as military officers and Judge Advocates, and litigated before the Department of Justice. They have been on the other side of the table in the kinds of proceedings their clients now face. That is not just a credential — that is knowledge and experience from your opponent’s playbook. We use that knowledge to your advantage.
The firm’s practice is concentrated in military justice, federal employment defense, USERRA litigation, and security clearance matters. These are areas where the institutional complexity is high, your personal stakes affect your career and family, and where institutional experience makes a difference in how a case is understood and presented.
The firm also assists individuals and families with estate planning, probate, and related matters, and serves small businesses as outside counsel.
The compass in the firm’s emblem reflects a simple idea: when the path is unclear, understanding the problem and mapping a path forward is Maher Legal Services’ first job.
Meet the Team
The attorneys and staff at Maher Legal Services bring backgrounds that span military command, federal prosecution, agency leadership, and private practice. What that means in practice is that when a client describes their situation, someone in this firm has seen it, or something very close to it, from the inside.
John N. Maher
John N. Maher is the founder and principal attorney of Maher Legal Services. A retired Lieutenant Colonel in the Army Reserve Judge Advocate General’s Corps, he has served as General Counsel of the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, a trial attorney at the Department of Justice, and a partner at two major law firms.
He has represented service members in courts-martial and presidential pardon matters, and has litigated USERRA claims in federal court. He is admitted to practice before the United States Supreme Court and multiple federal courts.
Kevin Mikolashek
Kevin J. Mikolashek is the Managing Director of Maher Legal Services. A former Army officer and Judge Advocate, he spent a decade as an Assistant United States Attorney in the Eastern District of Virginia, where he served as the office’s first Servicemember Civil Rights Coordinator and led complex civil and criminal investigations. He also served as Senior Counsel in the enforcement group of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors.
He holds a J.D. from Penn State’s Dickinson School of Law and an M.B.A. from UVA’s Darden School of Business.
Samuel F. Wright
Samuel F. Wright is a retired Navy Captain and Judge Advocate with nearly five decades of experience in military and employment law. He is widely recognized as a principal drafter of the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act (USERRA) and has served in senior legal roles at the Department of Labor, the Department of Defense, the Office of Special Counsel, and FEMA, and as Director of the Service Members Law Center for the Reserve Officers Association.
He holds a J.D. from the University of Houston and an LL.M. from Georgetown University.
Joshua Houchins
Joshua Houchins serves as Legal Administrator for Maher Legal Services, coordinating case management and client communications.
His background in funeral service and estate administration informs his support of clients navigating probate and estate matters. He is a graduate of Olivet Nazarene University.
Trusted Investigators
Kurt Bromund
Kurt is a former Special Agent with the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Division Command (CID), having retired as a Chief Warrant Officer Four (CW4) after 27 years of service. As a CID Special Agent, Kurt led highly sensitive and complex investigations of serious crimes, including murder, narcotics trafficking, and terrorism. He served as a Supervisory Special Agent on the Criminal Investigation Task Force (CITF), created in 2002 to investigate terrorist acts. Kurt is also a trusted personal protection and vulnerability assessment expert who has led close protection operations for senior Department of Defense officials. He has operated out of hostile environments and carried out sensitive extra-territorial missions. A hallmark of Kurt’s approach to investigations throughout his career has been to follow the evidence faithfully and directly to its logical end, without predetermining any outcomes.
William “Coach” Carney
Bill is an accomplished law enforcement professional and expert in international law enforcement investigations, with over thirty years of experience. For over the last ten years, Bill has served as an investigator, advisor, and instructor for the U.S. military’s law enforcement counterparts, primarily in Afghanistan. He has trained and assisted hundreds of U.S. military personnel and international law enforcement partners in how to lead and manage complex investigations, most recently in counter-corruption cases. Bill also has over two decades of experience as a police officer in New York City and in Richmond, Virginia. He was part of the NYPD evidence recovery team at “ground zero” after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Bill works primarily from Helmand Province, Afghanistan, but claims upstate New York, where his wife resides, as his home. He has three grown children.
David “Bo” Bolgiano
David has over thirty years of service as a military lawyer, trial attorney, and police officer. He served for over two decades in the Army and Air Force as a judge advocate officer. David is an internationally-recognized expert in the use of force: he has taught thousands of law enforcement and military personnel on the ethical, constitutional, and tactical dynamics of deadly force encounters, and has authored three books and dozens of articles on the topic. He has deployed to Afghanistan, Qatar, and Iraq as a legal advisor to special operations forces. David is also an accomplished trial attorney, having both prosecuted and defended dozens of courts-martial and civilian criminal trials. Prior to his career in law, he served as a law enforcement officer in Baltimore, Maryland. David makes his home near Vilseck, Germany. He has two sons, both of whom are on active duty in the military and have deployed internationally.
How We Approach Complex Matters
Many of the matters Maher Legal Services handles are not simple. Courts-martial arising from combat deployments, federal employment proceedings involving national security clearances, and USERRA cases against large institutional employers all require more than legal argument. They require a thorough factual foundation.
Depending on the nature of a matter, the firm works with private investigators, forensic accountants, medical and psychological experts, digital evidence specialists, and other professionals whose analysis strengthens the factual basis of a client’s case. The firm also maintains relationships with experienced co-counsel in areas requiring specialized expertise, and in complex matters may serve as strategic lead, coordinating the contributions of multiple professionals into a unified litigation posture.
This approach reflects a deliberate choice. Rather than maintaining a large institutional structure, the firm builds teams around the specific needs of each case. The result is representation that is both capable and efficient, without the overhead of a large firm being passed on to clients.
Ready to Talk Through Your Situation?
If you are facing a legal matter involving military service, federal employment, or your rights as a reservist, we welcome the opportunity to speak with you. An initial consultation is a straightforward conversation about your situation and your options. There is no obligation to proceed.