Natasha Nazareth-Phelps

Natasha Nazareth co-founded Nazareth Bonifacino Law Benefit LLC, Maryland’s first Certified B CorporationTM law firm. She has 28 years of experience as a practicing attorney with a focus on corporate & business law, employment law, and education law. Natasha provides astute general counsel services to a variety of purpose-driven small- to mid-market businesses, independent schools and colleges, and nonprofits with an emphasis on governance, operations, contracting, business transactions, crisis/risk management, growth, and market innovation as well aligning leadership, talent, and operations for optimal performance. She excels in conflict resolution and is a senior mediator for North Carolina state government and universities.

Natasha served as General Counsel to the Bullis School in Potomac, MD as well as a University of North Carolina system campus. She taught as an Adjunct Law

Professor at North Carolina Central University School of Law. In 2019 her career transition from in-house roles to private practice was highlighted in the Maryland Bar Journal.

In 2024, Natasha was awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Bar Association for her significant lifetime distinction, exceptional achievement, and distinction in an exemplary way. She is viewed by her peers as epitomizing the ideals of the legal profession and of solo and small firm practitioners. Under her leadership, Nazareth Bonifacino Law received the coveted Reisman Award for Excellence in Client Service from Clio, the world’s leading provider of cloud-based legal technology.

Natasha has been honored as a Fellow of the Maryland Bar Foundation in recognition for her demonstrated dedication to the welfare of her community, the administration of justice, and the objectives of the state bar. With the Maryland State Bar Association, she currently serves on the Board of Governors (Executive Committee and

Vice Chair of the Budget & Finance Committee). She led the Editorial Advisory Board of the Maryland Bar Journal through its transformation into a modern print and digital magazine which reflects the wide diversity of the organization’s 25,000 members. She is also a member of the Judicial Nominations Committee of the Asian Pacific American Bar Association of Maryland. Her past bar leadership includes the Business Law Section Council of the

MSBA, the Boards of the Asian Pacific American Bar Association of Maryland and the North Carolina Association of Women Attorneys, and the Attorney Grievance Committee of the North Carolina State Bar. In 2023, Natasha was named a “Woman Making History” by the Montgomery County (MD) Commission for Women.

Natasha gladly shares her expertise and growth mindset through her publications and teaching of client workshops and continuing education credits for lawyers and HR professionals. She is the lead author of the Business

Organizations Chapter of the Practice Manual for the Maryland Lawyer (Fifth Edition). In 2020, during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, she published a Strategic Perspectives feature for Wolters Kluwer “Counseling the small business owner on re-opening for business.”

Outside of the law, Natasha enjoys yoga, cooking, long walks with her family and dogs, and travel. Natasha’s guiding principles are service, simplicity and satisfaction. Whether you hire her to explore new ventures, resolve a conflict, or optimi