Max Cardin gives back to his hometown Jewish community through his work at The Associated’s Young Leadership Council.

After growing up in Baltimore and graduating from Beth Tfiloh Dahan Community School in 2011, Cardin studied international affairs at George Washington University.

He then furthered his education at both the University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law and the Johns Hopkins Carey Business School for a combined JD MBA degree.

Currently, Cardin, 31, works as a corporate lawyer for Hogan Lovells in their corporate and finance department doing mergers and acquisitions.

Max and his wife, Rachel Cardin live in Owings Mills and belong to Beth Tfiloh Congregation. The Cardins are expecting their first child soon.

What do you do as a corporate lawyer?

It involves significant corporate transactions, buying companies, investing in companies, partnering and selling companies. As a corporate lawyer, we’re kind of the quarterback for transactions. We often coordinate with lots of different people, both lawyers with certain specific areas of focus, whether it’s intellectual property, benefit, tax or business professionals.

Everybody has unique experiences and different perspectives and learning from them can broaden my perspective. It can be gratifying when everybody is working towards the same goal, which is usually to consummate or finalize a transaction.

What is your role within The Associated’s Young Leadership Council?

We were just given our board assignment: committees in The Associated that we’re going to observe in the following year. Mine is the BJC, Baltimore Jewish Council. I’m excited about that role because politics and the Jewish people are not a monolith.

It’s an opportunity to take people’s diverse viewpoints on contentious political issues and unify them for the interests of the Jewish community. So, I’m interested in how that works.

We have monthly meetings with a cohort of individuals where we learn different leadership skills and about the Baltimore Jewish community. What I find most rewarding about the program is meeting different people. It’s nice to connect with other Jewish people that share the same values.

How would you describe your relationship with Judaism?

I’m a committed Jew, and as I’ve gotten older, I’ve learned to appreciate my Jewish faith more and more. It connects me to the traditions of the past. It gives meaning to the day and it connects me to something bigger than myself.

As I said, I’m a member of Beth Tfiloh and I go there with regularity. I also am active with the GW Chabad, generally with their different holiday programming. I met my wife at a Friday night dinner at Chabad. So, I always feel it’s important to go to those events and support the great work they do.

Have you always known you wanted to be a lawyer?

I couldn’t think of anything else that I would be good at doing, even when I was really young. I’m one of four, but my twin brother, who’s also a lawyer, and I would always debate and discuss issues big and small at the family dinner table.

We would often make each other choose the side that they were less comfortable with. So, we got used to taking other people’s perspectives and arguing both sides of an issue.

In law school, I did a mediation clinic, and as part of that mediation clinic, I taught to a high school in Baltimore City. I found that to be an incredibly rewarding experience, which taught me about the importance of listening and perspective-taking.

I think that those skills should be taught more broadly. Then, we got to take the kids to Annapolis and lobby for funding in schools towards alternative dispute resolution and peer mediation programs.

What do you like about doing things outside of work that help your community?

I think the more you commit yourself to the community that you live in, whether it’s where you physically live or whether it’s the different organizations, the more you get out of it.

I’m fortunate to have grown up with strong Jewish roots because of the sacrifices that my parents and my family have made. I feel it’s my obligation to give back and to strengthen the community. So, I find it meaningful to try to help these organizations and make them stronger.

What’s your favorite place to explore in Baltimore?

I like to go hiking at Oregon Ridge Park with my French Bulldog named Jury.

What’s your favorite Jewish holiday?

I like Passover. I think the story of slavery to freedom is a timeless tale that has its place both in Jewish history, but also for the modern struggles that everybody is going through. I think it brings people together.

Everybody is welcome at a Passover seder table. It just reminds us that there’s always challenges, and we need to commit ourselves to be worthy of freedom.

Shira Kramer is a freelance writer.