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2000s Class Notes

2000

Ryan Clinton was named a “Rising Star” in Texas appellate law by Texas Monthly for the second year running.

Michele C. Cook (formerly Eason) married Jerred Cook on July 10, 2004. Attending the wedding were Amy Collins, Maid of Honor, Melissa Keppel, Elizabeth and Jason Dugas, and Scott Felder. Cook has also changed jobs and is now an associate at Wachtel & Masyr in New York, New York as of June 13.

JailletJean-Paul Jaillet has rejoined Choate, Hall & Stewart as an associate in the firm’s Corporate Department in the Creditor’s Rights & Bankruptcy Practice Group, where he will focus his practice on insolvency matters and major commercial litigation.

Jay Krutulis writes “After nearly five years with Washington, DC, office of Alston & Bird, I have joined the legal department of Amazon.com in Seattle as Corporate Counsel for Business Development. “I’m excited to be part of the dynamic and energetic Amazon environment, and I’m looking forward to being a part of the ongoing growth of the company. I’m also excited to be living in such a beautiful city. I can be reached at jayk@amazon.com.”

Zachary Ward moved in-house to GlaxoSmithKline in Research Triangle Park, NC to practice employment law in January of 2004. Most importantly, on July 6, 2004, he and his wife were blessed with a new addition to the family, Hannah Claire Ward.

John W. Young, III has joined the Litigation Department in the Chicago office of Wildman, Harrold, Allen & Dixon.

2001 Reunion Year

Andrew Bell is an intelligence officer with the U.S. Air Force, currently serving with a fighter wing in northern Japan. He was deployed to Iraq in the spring of 2004. He separates from the Air Force in September, after which he and his wife Betsy will spend a year traveling and volunteering abroad with the United Methodist Church.

ChiChristopher Y. Chi has joined the downtown Nashville office of Bass, Berry & Sims as an associate in the Corporate and Securities Practice Area. Chi’s practice includes mergers and acquisitions, venture capital financings, public securities offerings, and corporate governance.

Babak Djourabchi and Monica Welt wed in Washington, DC on September 5, 2004. The wedding was attended by Melanie Santos Grant, Kristina Soderquist, Bich-nga Nguyen, Dee Martin, Vijay Shanker ’99, Ponneh Aliabadi, and Kim Lee Simmons ’94. In April of 2004, Monica joined the Georgetown environmental law boutique of Wallace King Domike & Branson, where Kim serves as special counsel.

Michele Eason-Cook recently changed positions and is now practicing general and commercial litigation as an associate at Wachtel & Masyr in New York, NY. She continues to live in Jersey City with her husband, Jerred.

Melanie Santos Grant recently joined ARAMARK at its headquarters in Philadelphia as Assistant General Counsel of Sports & Entertainment and Business Services.

Nicolas Jafarieh completed the Ironman Triathlon in Madison, WI. Jafarieh was elected as the DC-representative on the board of directors for the Triathlon USA (Mid-Atlantic), the governing federation for the sport of triathlon. He continues to work as an associate at Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld in Washington, DC.

Thomas Lane and his wife Loren welcomed their second daughter, Megan Elizabeth, into the world on May 29. Big sister Caitlyn Anne will be two in September. Lane practices litigation as an associate attorney for the law firm of BeatyTiller in Richmond.

Melissa Moore and Geoffrey Sigler were married on April 16 in Charlottesville. Included in the wedding party were Allison Buchko Edgar and Priya Gudi. The couple resides in Washington, DC.

Darren LeBron Nealy is currently working at Zeiger, Tigges & Little in Columbus, OH. He was recently profiled in More Than Entertainers: An Inspirational Black Career Guide, authored by Charles B. Schooler.

2002

Mark T. Baker was featured in a July article in The Denver Post as co-counsel in a pro bono case representing a Muslim inmate who won a religious-rights battle when a federal judge ordered he should be fed an appropriate diet and be allowed to wear a headpiece consistent with Islamic teachings.

Danielle Baussan and Kendall Day were married at the University Chapel on April 30. The couple resides in Washington, DC, where Baussan is a fellow in the Capital City Fellows Program and Day is a prosecutor with the Public Integrity Section of the Department of Justice Criminal Division.

Elizabeth C. Curtin and her husband Denis welcomed their first child, a son, on February 4. They named him Denis John, and call him Jack.

GrantTarah Grant was commissioned by the Wilmington Renaissance Corporation to create a snowman sculpture for Wilmington, Delaware’s “public art” exhibit this summer. The exhibit, titled “Wilmington Wonderland,” is similar to the popular “Cows on Parade” public art exhibit in Chicago and the recent “Party Animals” public art exhibit in Washington, DC—it features 27 snowmen, snowwomen, and snowchildren that will be displayed on the city sidewalks of Wilmington from May through September. At the end of the summer, the sculptures will be auctioned-off at a gala. Grant named her patriotic-themed snowman “Uncle Sam the Snowman.” Trail maps and “family photos” of all the snowpeople are available on the exhibit’s website at http://wilmingtonwonderland.com. Grant is an attorney in the Northern Virginia office of Hogan & Hartson.

In an old-school, Virginia-style, fall-classic soirée, Ryan Malone and Elizabeth Veneris were married on October 9, 2004, at Oatlands Plantation in Leesburg, VA. Many Virginia Law alumni celebrated the event with the couple. The wedding party included Charles Marr (with Tina Marr ’01), Brendan McParland, Daniel Golden, Bill Sinclair (with Kate Sinclair), Dean Hoffman ’03, Nessa Horewitch ’03, and Katherine Monahan ’07. Other guests included Julie Shin ’03, Matthew Traupman, Kara Miller ’01, Christopher McParland ’04, Kate Brennan ’03, Adam Gershowitz ’01, Laura Killinger, Heather Westphal, Sabrina Dennis, Meetu Kaul, and Robert (’01) and Kristin Keeling. Heading up the UVA Law old guard were George “Sandy” Mayo ’73 and the groom’s father, Dave Malone ’69. The bride and groom live and practice law in Washington, DC. Elizabeth is an environmental attorney at Skadden Arps; Ryan is a litigator at Ropes & Gray.

In June, Michael McCann was interviewed by Armen Keteyian on Bob Costas’ HBO show “Costas Now.” The questioning pertained to the National Basketball Association’s efforts to institute an age floor for entry into the league. Keteyian separately interviewed NBA Commissioner David Stern and Players’ Association Executive Director Billy Hunter, and the program contrast their three viewpoints. McCann was interviewed for two reasons: 1) his law review article Illegal Defense: The Irrational Economics of Banning High School Players from the NBA Draft” has generated attention among players, agents, and NBA officials, as it reveals that players who matriculate directly from high school to the NBA are rationally self-selected and perform better than any other age group, and it would be economically and legally irrational to ban them; and 2) he served on the legal team for Maurice Clarett in his lawsuit against the National Football League and its age floor (Clarett v. NFL, 369 F.3d 124 (2nd Cir. 2004); cert. denied, 125 S. Ct. 1728 (Apr. 4, 2005)).

Alexis Mei married Samuel Eugene Fishel, IV on December 4, 2004, in Richmond. Alexis Mei Fishel is a family law and litigation associate at Kaufman & Canoles in Richmond. Her husband is an assistant attorney general in the Virginia Attorney General’s Office where he prosecutes computer crimes.

Summer Alumni Receptions

Richmond-area alumni gathered at a Law School reception at the historic Kent-Valentine House in June. Washington DC-area alumni met, also in June, at The Hotel Washington, where FTC Chairman Deborah Platt Majoras ’89 spoke (more).

Owen Shean ’82 and Andrea Bridgeman ’80

Owen Shean ’82 and Andrea Bridgeman ’80

Julie ’96 and Chris ’96 Vinyard

Julie ’96 and Chris ’96 Vinyard

Joe Carter ’76 and Patty Merrill ’92

Joe Carter ’76 and Patty Merrill ’92

2003

Kate Horsley Bally finished her clerkship in October 2004 and worked in New York City for a few months as a Volunteer Fellow at the Center for Reproductive Rights. Since March, she has been practicing in employment and commercial litigation at Day Berry & Howard in Stamford, CT. She is now married.

Andrew D. Rome is the new in-house counsel with Media General, Inc. in Richmond.

Derek Marsh Schoenmann is now a litigation associate at Willkie Farr & Gallagher in New York.

2004

Andrea Robinson was married on June 4, in Morganton, NC, to Rich Kells.

Jared Garner and his wife Melanie welcomed the birth of baby boy, Benjamin Jared Garner, on February 1.

Garner, with Dr. Thomas Stratmann of George Mason University, was awarded the 2004 Duncan Black Prize by the Public Choice Society at its annual convention. The award was given for an article they co-authored entitled “Judicial Selection: Politics, Biases, and Constituency Demands” that was published in the March 2004 issue of the journal Public Choice, a peer-reviewed academic journal focused on the intersections of economics and political science. The Duncan Black Prize is awarded annually by the Public Choice Society for the preceding year’s best paper published in Public Choice.

Yile Gao is currently working as an associate at Clifford Chance in New York, focusing on mergers and acquisitions transactions and securities work. He plans to marry Jacqueline Yang in September in New York.

Edward J. Sackman was married to Caitlin C. Davis on May 27 in Ocho Rios, Jamaica.

On June 9, Michael Signer was made Deputy Counselor to Virginia Governor Mark Warner in Richmond for the duration of the Governor’s term. Signer is resigning from Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr in DC to take the assignment.

Amy Meyer Capen Voorhees has settled happily in Kent, CT. She passed the Connecticut bar in February and was sworn in 12 days after the arrival of her second daughter, Althea Helen (Thea), on June 5th.

Dara Zelnick is living in Boston and working as a litigation associate at Choate, Hall & Stewart.

Andrew Ziegler and his wife Bonnie welcomed daughter Heidi Nicole on August 2, 2004. The Zieglers live in Boston.

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