Rosedale Law Firm

MISSION

The Law Offices of Gabriel J. Christian & Associates, LLC strives to provide the highest quality legal service, tailored to each client's individual background, needs and goals. We are genuinely concerned about your well-being and aim to nurture a close working relationship with each one of our clients, giving them our fullest possible personal attention.


At The Law Offices of Gabriel J. Christian & Associates, LLC, we're committed to serving the best interests of our clients. This means providing proactive legal representation, as well as compassionate guidance. We understand how stressful it can be to navigate the legal system in the D.C. area, but we also believe that empathetic legal service can make the ordeal far easier to handle.


Our clients thrive, in part, due to our team-oriented approach. We emphasize collaboration and open communication, both of which allow us to provide exceptional service. We're proud of our positive atmosphere and believe that it carries over into our legal efforts — and paves the path to an impressive track record.


With an office conveniently situated in Bowie and service offered to clients throughout Maryland, D.C., and Virginia, we are committed to serving our community. We begin by building strong relationships during initial consultations. From there, we continue on to make our clients feel comfortable and cared for throughout the remainder of the legal process. Get in touch today to discover how you can benefit from our personalized approach to law.


OUR TEAM

Gabriel J. Christian & Associates, LLC is possessed of a highly collaborative culture. Our style is open, service focused, and friendly. We are deeply committed to civic engagement in the communities within which we work, and promote an equal opportunity environment.


Corporate Social Responsibility

Our firm is deeply engaged with the Maryland school system, the religious community, and various African American, African, Latin American, and Caribbean community organizations. Our managing attorney Gabriel J. Christian has been honored to serve the Maryland legal system as a Judicial Commissioner of the Maryland Court of Appeals since he was appointed to that position by Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley in 2007.


We serve a diverse community, and believe that such diversity strengthens our nation by drawing the unique contributions of each community into one productive national entity. We believe in an equality of opportunity society where the law serves the best interest of all in the community, not some. We are committed to forging links with other countries and peoples in ways which are mutually beneficial, and further the noblest goals of great national leaders such as President Abraham Lincoln and Dr. Martin Luther King. To that end, our firm promotes the value of civic engagement and volunteerism.


WHY CHOOSE US?

We are not just attorneys, we are trial lawyers. It is true that in reality most cases settle. However, be it personal injury claims involving an insurance company, or a complex family law matter, our colleagues know that we shall aggressively advocate for you and seek the best result. We do not back down. When we take a case, we make no guarantees, but are certain that our efforts will bear fruit. Where we discover that your matter faces challenges, we shall tell you. Our clients over the years trust us because we treat all who come to us, as clients, with compassion, courtesy, and competence while striving for a successful outcome.

HERITAGE

Thomas A. Farrington

Thomas A. Farrington |1938-1997

The Law Firm of Gabriel J. Christian & Associates, LLC, has its genesis in the Law Partnership of Farrington & Christian. Thomas A. Farrington, was the Senior Partner of Farrington & Christian, who graduated from William & Mary and Yale School of Law. He held several esteemed titles in the legal profession and was a master of the bench. Thomas A. Farrington was a senior litigator and Continuing Legal Education lecturer in Prince George’s County, for approximately thirty (30) years. Gabriel J. Christian shared a relationship with Thomas A. Farrington from his first year at Georgetown University Law Center as a law clerk, then became an associate and later a partner.


During that time, the practice developed a high degree of excellence in law and adherence to the highest standards of the bar. The Firm’s tradition of community involvement aimed at opening doors of the legal profession to those previously under represented within its folds. Thomas A. Farrington is acknowledged as the first white lawyer to join the Prince Georges County branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). In its later years, the Firm expanded from its original insurance defense base practice, to one firmly rooted in servicing the community’s needs in civil, criminal, domestic, international, and business law. With the untimely passing of Thomas A. Farrington, on July 19, 1997, the Firm transitioned to Gabriel J. Christian & Associates, LLC. 


  • A Fond Farewell in Prince George's | The Washington Post, July 31, 1997

    His was not, perhaps, a household name, but Thomas A. Farrington was a beloved and respected Prince Georgian who worked behind the scenes as political strategist, mentor and, long before it was fashionable for whites in the county, as a civil rights activist. He died suddenly July 19 at the age of 59, after a heart attack, and last week an establishment that spanned political generations in Prince George's County paid him homage.



    They filled the small St. Mary's Roman Catholic Church in Upper Marlboro for his funeral and afterward crowded into his Woodmore home for the wake. They were the county's power brokers past and present. There were Rep. Steny H. Hoyer (D-Md.) and Peter O'Malley, his former law partner, with whom he formed a triumvirate in the late 1960s and early 1970s to dominate Democratic politics. Former county executive Winfield Kelly Jr. and former governor Harry Hughes were there. So was Lansdale G. Sasscer Jr., son of the late Democratic political boss and congressman. A product of Montgomery County's Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School, the College of William and Mary and Yale Law School, Farrington had first gone to work for the Sasscer law firm when he came to Prince George's.



    The assemblage also included African American leaders whom Farrington had helped promote, among them Tommie Broadwater, the county's first black state senator, and County Executive Wayne K. Curry, its first African American county executive. Years ago, Farrington, it is said, was the only white member of the Prince George's NAACP. Since starting his own law firm in the 1980s, he had brought in black associates, teaching them and boosting their careers, among them Greg Wells, Curry's campaign manager. His current name partner, Gabriel J. Christian, is a black man from Dominica in the Caribbean. "He was uniquely suited to be sort of a bridge and bring everybody in," Hoyer said. "Tom was very committed, and he brought a real intellectual drive to the practical side of politics." In the 1970s, he was chairman of the Democratic Central Committee in Prince George's, joining with Hoyer and O'Malley to dominate the party politics of the era. Broadwater, whose successful first campaign he'd managed, remembered that Farrington "represented the black people's positions" at "all the big-time meetings...He did a hell of a job, took a hell of a beating."

Wendell McKenzie Christian | 1921-2011

The last salute

By Judge Irving Andre
October 17, 2011 9:00 a.m.


Roseau, Dominica (TDN) — Mr. Wendell McKenzie Christian, who was born on March 5, 1921, stood tall throughout his life. He stood tall while growing up in the 1920s in the village of Delices. He stood ramrod straight while clothed in the army fatigues of the British Army, Windward Islands Battalion, "C" Platoon, South Caribbean Forces, where he trained in St. Lucia for a war which ended before he fixed his bayonet on the killing fields in Europe and Africa.


wendell christian

Wendell served in the second World War.


He later stood proud as he took the oath of office as a police constable in the Dominica Police Force and later as a fireman when he was seconded to the Dominica Fire Service. In 1977, he stood alone, the only fireman on duty in Roseau, as a strike by the Civil Service Association crippled the country. One year later, he stood alone, at least within his family, as the Union Jack was slowly lowered over Dominica and lamented that his countrymen would end up throwing the baby out with the bath water.

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    In later decades, this man of great moral rectitude witnessed the triumphs of his children as they soared to great professional heights in North America. He also endured the tragedy of a fallen son, Dr. Welsworth Christian, who predeceased him in 1990.


    His moral fortitude remained unwavering right to the end. Even while advanced age confined him to a wheelchair, Wendell Christian maintained a twinkle in his eye, purity of spirit and a clarity of mind that defied death until the very end.


    Wendell Christian was an exceptional member of a generation of West-Indians born between the two great wars. He and his generation did not experience the ostracism to which most West-Indian soldiers were subjected during World War One as they were relegated to labour battalions in Europe and North Africa.


    Indeed, growing up in Delices, Wendell Christian was weaned on a belief system that was quintessentially British although the modest means of his family posed a silent rebuke to colonial rule.


    However, he was surrounded by a wealth of a different kind. What the family lacked in material comforts, they made up in those qualities that nurtured success; discipline, respect, hard work, pride and loyalty.


    Wendell also grew up with wealth that uplifted his spirits; the redemptive qualities of music. In his "Gatecrashing Into the Unknown," elder brother Henckell Lockinvar Christian, the distinguished educator and Minister of Education, wrote that his policeman father, William Mathew, was the only one who played the guitar in Delices. Their mother had a treasure of hymns and Christmas carols that they sung regularly.


    In the 1930s, they formed the Christian Family Orchestra with Wendell playing the mandolin, his elder brothers playing the guitar and harmonica while their mother was the group's vocalist. Dominica later became the beneficiary of this rich, musical legacy when brother Lemuel Christian penned a musical gem called "Isle of Beauty."


    Wendell Christian, according to son Gabriel Christian, was an unrepentant British colonial. To the very end, he could recite the soaring rhetoric of Sir Winston Churchill and fondly recall his army training under white or "high coloured" officers at the Vigie barracks in St. Lucia, along with more than 50 young Dominican men.


    He became a police officer after the war and gravitated to the Fire Service, in 1955, attaining the rank of Station Officer.


    But his true calling and strength of character emerged not in the Vigie Barracks or on the frontline of firefighting in Dominica but within the halls of the modest family home in Pottersville.


    wendell christian

    Wendell served in the Fire Services in Dominica.


    He and his wife, Alberta, nourished and nurtured seven children, Hildreth, Wellsworth, Lawson, Samuel, Gabriel, Esther and Christalin. The Christian siblings thrived under the tutelage and example of their parents. Hildreth is a well respected environmental engineer, Wellsworth eventually became Dominica's first local veterinary surgeon and Chief Veterinary Officer, Lawson qualified as an electrical engineer, Samuel, a battalion surgeon and Major in the U.S. Army Reserve, while Esther is both an authoress and Certified Public Accountant.


    Author, community leader, attorney and Caribbean nationalist, Gabriel Christian, has been a monumental force in the Dominica Cadet Corps and has been involved in numerous initiatives such as the Dominica Academy of Arts and Sciences that have inured to the benefit of Dominica and indeed the West-Indies. Wendell Christian fervently believed that example was better than precept and if his children's extraordinary success is any indication, he was a fine example.


    He achieved vicarious success through his children. But his prodigious efforts in moulding a professional Fire Service in the 1960s, along with the likes of WWII veteran, Wordsworth Plenderleith, did not go unnoticed.


    He received a Long Service Medal for more than twenty five years with the Fire Service while Alberta was granted the Meritorious Service Medal for her twenty years served at the Workshop for the Blind. Fittingly, son Gabriel co-authored For King and Country, a book which featured his father's service in the British West-Indian military with the likes of Mr. Twistleton St. Rose Bertrand, Mr. G.O.N. Emanuel, Mr. Cletus Angol and West-Indian greats such as former R.A.F. pilots Ulric Cross, DFC, Honourable Dudley Thompson and the late Flight Lieutenant, Cy Grant.


    But the accolades that mattered most to Wendell Christian are those most overlooked. He was a doting husband for 57 years, an exceptional father, a devout Christian and a distinguished ex-serviceman.


    Wendell Christian made his final salute in the afternoon of October 7, 2011. We stopped, stood at attention and saluted him in return. The old Christian soldier who had never abandoned his post, has finally marched home. And as this last member of the old Christian Orchestra approached the pearly gates of heaven, he fittingly sang an old English hymn in the best musical traditions of his illustrious family:


    "Onward Christian soldiers

    marching as to war,

    with the Cross of Jesus,

    going on before."

View British Army World War II Veteran Wendell Christian and his son Gabriel Christian on CaribNation TV
    Wendell McKenzie Christian

    Alberta Christian | 1929-2025

    Obituary | Tribute

    By The Christian Family
    February 21, 2025'


    Alberta Christian was born on June 12, 1929, in the picturesque village of St. Joseph, Dominica, in the British West Indies. She dedicated her life to serving and advocating for the disabled community. After a long and fulfilling life, Alberta, a resident of Upper Marlboro, Maryland, passed away on February 4, 2025, in Hyattsville, Maryland.


    Alberta commitment to civic duty, volunteerism, public service, and community development, both on her island of birth and in the United States did not go unnoticed. She was a strong supporter of Rebuild Dominica and donated all the proceeds from the first batch of Chocolat de la Dominique to support relief efforts following Tropical Storm Maria via www.rebuilddominica.org.


    Throughout her career, Alberta made significant contributions as the Director of the Dominica Workshop for the Blind, where she played a critical role in improving the lives of the blind and disabled communities through craft industry education and empowerment. Her dedication to this cause was recognized by the Government of the Commonwealth of Dominica, which awarded her the Meritorious Service Award (MSA) in 1982.

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      She was a strong supporter of the East Coast Chapter Tuskegee Airmen Inc. and attended its programs. A faithful member of Sodality of St. Joseph Catholic Church, she encouraged support for the church’s social mission in accordance with her Christian faith.


      Alberta was preceded in death by her beloved husband, Wendell McKenzie Christian, who served valiantly as a British Army veteran during World War II and later became a respected Station Officer with the Dominica Fire Service. She also mourned the loss of her son, Dr. Wellsworth M. Christian, who served as the Chief Veterinary Officer of Dominica, and her cherished daughter, Christalin Christian.


      Her legacy continues through her five surviving children: Lawson M. Christian (Mary), Dr. Samuel J. Christian (June), Gabriel J. Christian, Esquire (Joan), Esther E. Christian, and Theresa H. Christian. She also leaves behind two brothers, Washington John Baptiste and Johnson John Baptiste.


      Her family extends to a vibrant group of grandchildren, including Nicole Christian, Trudy Christian, Samora Christian, Makonnen Christian, Britt Christian, Kwame Christian, Kobie Christian, Tyler Christian, and Kelan Christian. She took immense pride in her role as a grandmother and cherished the time spent with her great-grandchildren, Kai Christian and Dominic Christian.


      In addition to her immediate family, she is mourned by extended family members Marcia Hibbert and Edith Francois, as well as a host of other relatives and close friends. Alberta Chistian’s life was a testament to the power of service, and she leaves behind a profound legacy of love, compassion, and dedication to uplifting those in need. May she rest peacefully in the arms of her Heavenly Father.


      A Tribute to Alberta Christian of Dominica- Nation Builder & Mother of the Disabled

      Phillip Louis Ulric Cross | 1917-2013

      DSO, DFC, Squadron Leader Royal Air Force (139 Squadron, Bomber Command), Airman, Lawyer, Judge, Diplomat, and friend.


      World War II Royal Air Force (RAF) veteran Squadron Leader Phillip Louis Ulric Cross, was born in Port of Spain Trinidad on May 1, 1917. A graduate of the prestigious St. Mary's College in Trinidad, he volunteered to fight German fascism which had by 1941 conquered much of continental Europe. Nurtured on a sense of duty to country and elementary fairness, took a ship to Britain and enrolled in the Royal Air Force in November 1941. During his time in the RAF Cross was decorated on several occasions for bravery in aerial combat - he earned the Distinguished Service Order pinned on him by King George V at Buckingham Place and the Distinguished Flying Cross. He undertook a total of eighty combat missions, twenty of which were over the most heavily defended sectors of the German capital of Berlin. Cross was one of the intrepid ace navigators in the Mosquito Pathfinder Force who laid markers on the particular target ahead of the bombers.


      After the war, Cross became the Officer in Charge for Demobilization of Colonial Forces, and an announcer on the BBC. Earlier in the war, he was recorded in "West Indies Calling" a BBC documentary on British West Indians engaged in the war effort. See here.


      After the war Cross graduated as a lawyer from Middle Temple in London. He later served as judge in Ghana under Kwame Nkrumah's government; Ghana's special envoy to President Patrice Lumumba's government in the newly independent Congo in 1961; Attorney General of Cameroon; founder of Tanzania's Industrial Court, and his native Trinidad & Tobago's High Commissioner to London; Cross also served as his country's, ambassador to Germany and France. In later years Cross served as Commonwealth of Nations advisor and was the founder of the philanthropic organization the Cotton Tree Foundation... 

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        During the June 2009 Caribbean American Heritage Month, the Law Offices of Gabriel J. Christian & Associates, LLC spearheaded a Caribbean Diaspora heritage project - Caribbean Glory - A Tribute to the British West Indies Veterans of World War II. See here. The event at Andrews Air Force Base was supported by Pont Casse Press and its co-founders Honorable Judge Irving W. Andre of the Superior Court of Brampton, Ontario, Canada, the West Indian American Military Members Association, the Institute of Caribbean Studies, Ambassador Curtis Ward, Maryland General Assembly Delegate Aisha Braveboy, Maryland Lt. Governor Anthony Brown, Prince George's County Executive Jack Johnson, Chief Judge of Maryland 7th Circuit Honorable William Missouri. The event host was Lynton Scotland of the Executive Leadership Council and the keynote speaker who brought greetings from the British Government was  Baroness Patricia Scotland of Ashtal, Her Brittanic Majesty's Attorney General. The awardees that evening were Wendell McKenzie Christian of Dominica, British Army; Flight Lieutenant Cy Grant of Guyana, Royal Air Force, Flight Lieutenant Dudley Thompson of Jamaica, Royal Air Force and Twistleton St. Rose Bertrand of Dominica, British Army.  The tribute was presided over by HE  Glenda Morean Phillip Trinidad & Tobago's Ambassador to the United States of America, with the notable assistance of her Information Attaché Monique McSween.


        Ulric Cross died aged 96 on 4 October 2013, at his home on Dere Street, Port of Spain, where, in his retirement, he had been living with his daughter Nicola.  A memorial service in his honor was held at Memorial Park, Port of Spain, on 10 October 2013. Paying tribute to Cross at the service, the British High Commissioner said: "Without the help of servicemen from the Commonwealth (like Cross), the outcome of World War II would have been entirely different.


        A movie in honor of Ulric Cross titled "Hero" and starring Nikolai Salcedo as Ulric Cross was premiered in September 2018 in Toronto, Canada.  See here.


        He was our good friend, a humanitarian and an example of service to the best values. We shall remember him and those like him who served and serve.

      See Tribute Here
      Phillip Louis Ulric Cross
      George James Christian

      George James Christian |1869-1940

      George James Christian, born February 23, 1869, to an Antiguan solicitor, Christian received his early schooling in Dominica and at the Mico Training college in Antigua, and spent his early professional life in Dominica as a schoolteacher before been admitted to Gray’s Inn London in 1899 to pursue a law degree.


      He graduated from Gray's Inn and called to the bar on June 11, 1902, and subsequently moved to the Gold Coast (current day Ghana), and at the time a British colony. In the coastal town of Sekondi, Christian set up a law office and quickly distinguished himself as an outstanding criminal and concessions lawyer, dealing with concessions for gold mining.


      Among his other outstanding achievements in the Gold Coast was the prominent role he played in the opening of the Ashanti region to legal practitioners, serving on the Sekondi Town council, and serving on the (National) Legislative Council of the Gold Coast from 1929 until his death in 1940.


      Christian also served as Liberian Consul for thirty years in which he looked after the well-being of Liberian citizens in the Gold Coast, people who were brought in as indentured servants or as government employees in the Sanitary Department.


      George J. Christian was the uncle of Henkell, Lemeul, and Wendell Christian. Henkell Christian served as Minister of Education and Health in the Dominica Government. Lemeul Christian a famed Dominican musician and owner of the Christian Music School, wrote the music to the national Anthem of Dominica. Wendell Christian was the father of criminal attorney and author of Back to Eden Gabriel Christian.


      George James Christian: Pioneer in Africa | Dr. Thomson Fontaine
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