Ballard Spahr just announced it hired Emily Vaias, a real estate attorney, as counsel in its District of Columbia and Bethesda, Maryland offices.

Ballard Spahr is a law firm with a range of services including litigation, business and finance, real estate, intellectual property and public finance.

Previously, Vaias worked on projects in the District of Columbia and guided large projects from beginning to end in Montgomery, Prince George’s and Charles counties in Maryland. Some of those projects include senior housing campuses, multifamily developments and single-family housing developments.

She is also involved in the building industry’s efforts to redraft Montgomery county’s Moderately Priced Dwelling Unit Program and the Stormwater Management Law in Prince George’s county.

Vaias also appears before zoning and planning boards and other administrative, legislative and judicial bodies for local and national developers, commercial and residential builders, retailers, business owners and individuals.

She was previously an adjunct professor for over 15 years in the Edward St. John Real Estate Program at the Johns Hopkins Carey Business School.

Vaias was also president of the Baltimore chapter of the national organization of Commercial Real Estate Women. She served on several community and professional boards such as the Purple Rail Alliance, which promotes construction of a 16-mile light rail line. Other boards she’s served on include the Homeless Persons Representation Project, the Legislative Committee of the Apartment and Office Building Association and many others.

She provided volunteer legal services through the Homeless Persons Representation Project in Baltimore for 20 years.