Melanie S. Cherdack has over 22 years experience as a securities litigator. Prior to joining the Firm, she was Assistant General Counsel to PaineWebber Incorporated, now known as UBS. She primarily represents individual investors in arbitrations before FINRA, the NASD and NYSE. In addition Ms. Cherdack has appeared before the Securities and Exchange Commission. Ms. Cherdack has successfully represented broker-dealers and brokers in complex securities and employment arbitration proceedings. She also serves as an arbitrator for the NASD and FINRA.

Ms. Cherdack is actively involved in the Public Investors Arbitration Bar Association, where she advocates on behalf of individual investors and was a former member if the Securities Arbitration Association. She is a frequent speaker and lecturer on securities arbitration, and has authored numerous articles on emerging trends in this area.

Ms. Cherdack is an editor to the PIABA Law Journal and has published numerous articles on securities arbitration. These include articles for the Practicing Law Institute's Annual Securities Arbitration Seminar entitled Here's How You Resonate With Us: Suggestions from an Arbitrator to Practitioners, in 2007; Blame The Ugly American: Representing The International Investor In A Securities Arbitration, in 2006; Mutual Fund Sales Abuses, in 2004; 'Pay or Play' Offers Of Judgment: Are They Applicable To Arbitration Proceedings? and Should I Sue My Stock Broker? Pitfalls A Practitioner Faces When Naming The Individual Broker In An Arbitration, in 2003; and Drafting A Securities Arbitration Claim: The Pen is Mightier Than the Market, in 2002.

She was the recipient of the Dade County Bar Association "Pro Bono Award" in both 1992 and 1994 for her creation of and participation in a downtown small claims clinic. She also acts as counsel to The Heiken Children's Vision, a charity providing eye care to the Miami-Dade County school children.

Ms. Cherdack was admitted to the Florida Bar in1985, and the New York bar in 1988. In 1985, she received her Juris Doctor, with honors, from the University of Florida College, where she was the Senior Student Works Editor of the University of Florida Law Review. Ms. Cherdack also received her Bachelor of Arts degree from the College of Journalism at the University of Florida.