1990s Class Notes
1990
President Obama appointed Lee E. Goodman to serve as commissioner of the Federal Election Commission, the independent agency responsible for administration of federal campaign finance laws. Goodman, a Republican, was unanimously confirmed by the U.S. Senate. In his testimony before the Senate Rules Committee, he quoted Professor Larry Sabato’s tenet, “Politics is a good thing.” He was sworn into office by Judge Thomas Griffith ’85 of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. He was elected vice chairman of the agency a week later. Goodman previously served in a number of governmental and political posts, including legal counsel and policy advisor to Virginia Governor James S. Gilmore ’77 and general counsel to the Republican party of Virginia. He is married to Paige Pippin, a former captain of the UVA volleyball team, and they reside in Keswick, Va., with two children.
After becoming a shareholder at Greenberg Traurig, Maria Hallas obtained her masters in journalism from American University. Last April she returned to Charlottesville to report on air for NBC29 (WVIR). She enjoys this new chapter in her life, and hopes to hear from classmates who are living in or visiting Charlottesville.
On January 13 William W. Hood III was sworn in as the 103rd justice of the Colorado Supreme Court. Classmates Diana Goldberg (Will’s spouse of 23 years), Mark Heimlich, and John Clancy were present, “and swear this ‘investiture’ actually occurred,” notes Will. According to Will and Diana, their children, Kaila (19) and Alyssa (14), were both tremendously impressed and “promised to begin treating Dad with the respect he has long deserved.”
Stan Perry joined Reed Smith’s new Houston, Tex., office in February 2013. He also went on a Living Water International trip to El Salvador in July with his son, John, a high school senior. Stan and Stacy’s daughter, Anne, is a senior at Texas A&M.
Russell S. Sayre was recognized in Ohio Super Lawyers 2014 in business litigation and was named a local litigation star in general commercial law in Benchmark Litigation 2014. He is a partner and co-chair of the litigation group with Taft Stettinius & Hollister in Cincinnati, where he concentrates his practice on litigation, arbitration, and dispute resolution.
William E. Thro is the 2014 recipient of the William A. Kaplin Award for Excellence in Higher Education Law & Policy Scholarship. The award recognizes scholars who have published works on education law that address the intersection of law and policy. Thro is general counsel at the University of Kentucky in Lexington, where he provides advice on legal and policy issues. His academic research concentrates on constitutional law in educational contexts in the United States and South Africa, with particular emphasis on school finance litigation. He also serves as an adjunct professor.
1991
John Leidig has been appointed as an administrative law judge for the State of Maryland. An investiture ceremony took place April 28.
Alexander M. Macaulay was listed in the Virginia Business legal elite 2013 in legislative/regulatory/administrative law and in Virginia Super Lawyers 2013 and Best Lawyers 2014 in government relations. He is with Macaulay & Burtch in Richmond.
1992
Karol Boudreaux has joined the Cloudburst Group, a consulting firm that serves public and private sector clients in community development, natural resource management, and public health. She holds the position of land tenure and resource rights lead, and brings a decade of experience working on land tenure and property rights around the world. She was most recently director for investments at Omidyar Network.
Brian S. Chilton has written his first novel, Issachar’s Heirs, and is at work on two more. (See In Print.)
John Foster was recently hired as division counsel for the Fairfax County, Virginia, school division. He will represent Fairfax County schools in cases involving staff and students and will provide legal advice on school board matters.
William E. Hannum III is listed in Massachusetts Super Lawyers 2013 in employment & labor law and was recognized in Chambers USA 2013 as a leading attorney in labor and employment law. He is managing partner of Schwartz Hannum in Andover.
Maurice Jones was appointed as the Commonwealth’s Secretary of Commerce and Trade by Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe in January. He previously served as Deputy Secretary for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. At HUD he managed day-to-day operations, the annual operating budget, and nearly 9,000 employees.
Michael C. Wu was appointed senior vice president, general counsel, and secretary of Carter’s Inc. in February. Carter’s, headquartered in Atlanta, Ga., is the largest brand marketer in the U.S. of apparel for babies and young children. He served as general counsel and corporate secretary of Rosetta Stone Inc. from 2006 to 2014.
1993
Daniel G. Lloyd is the general counsel of inContact, the leading provider of cloud contact center software and contact center agent optimization tools. The company’s headquarters are in Salt Lake City, Utah. Lloyd was previously legal counsel with PROS Inc., a software company.
Joel Pierre-Louis has been appointed secretary of the State University of New York by the board of trustees. He will serve as senior liaison to members of the board and manage the board office. Previously Pierre-Louis was senior director of operations at the Dormitory Authority of the State of New York.1994
Brian R. Booker is listed in Best Lawyers 2014 in commercial litigation and in Southwest Super Lawyers 2014 in business litigation. He is a partner with Quarles & Brady in Phoenix, Ariz., where he focuses his practice on commercial litigation with emphasis in commercial and professional liability, real estate, securities fraud, and products liability.
Jordan A. Kroop has joined Perkins Coie as partner in the financial transactions and restructuring group in Phoenix, Ariz., where he represents clients in restructuring, bankruptcy, workouts, litigation, and related matters. He was listed in Best Lawyers 2014 in bankruptcy and creditor debtor rights/insolvency and reorganization law, and was inducted into the American College of Bankruptcy in March. He was previously a partner with Squire Sanders.
1995
Trey Cox was listed in Best Lawyers and named a leader in his field in Chambers 2013 in general commercial litigation. He was recognized by D Magazine as one of the best lawyers in Dallas and listed among the top 100 in Texas Super Lawyers last year. He was also honored with the Client Choice Award for litigation by the International Law Office/Lexology 2013 and recognized as a litigation star by Benchmark Litigation 2013. He is a partner with Lynn Tillotson Pinker and Cox. His third book, How to Recover Attorneys’ Fees in Texas, was published by Texas Lawyer in October.
Cat McDowall works part-time as a pro-tem judge for the Seattle Municipal Court, and is raising four children on her “off” days. John is the new chair of the business group and co-chair of the real estate group at Carney Badley Spellman in Seattle.From Law to Network TV
When Janice S. Johnston ’95 entered the Law School, she was interested in working either on Capitol Hill or in television. Her legal education, she reasoned, would help distinguish her in either field.
She worked for Senator Bill Bradley of New Jersey the first summer of law school to get an idea of what it would be like to work on Capitol Hill. After a brief career as a litigation associate in New York City, Johnston began to make the transition to television, a process that took a couple of years.
She thought a lot about how she could translate her legal work into skills she could use in a broadcasting job and took night classes at NYU to learn more about the field. She attended journalists’ conventions to network wherever she could, and contacted alumni who were in television. Ultimately she landed a job with ABC News. She has been a producer there for 15 years, including a decade with Good Morning America. She’s held as many as seven different titles with the network.
Last year, Johnston and her production team at ABC were honored with two Peabody Awards. One was for ABC coverage of Hurricane Sandy, and the 20/20 special on that storm; the other was for “Robin’s Journey,” the inspirational story of broadcaster Robin Roberts’ illness and bone marrow transplant. The Peabody Award, one of the most distinguished given in television, recognizes public service and excellence in achievement. Johnston shared her first Peabody in 2001 for coverage of 9/11, and is the recipient of four Emmy Awards.
Johnston is currently a senior coordinating producer with 20/20 and the network’s specials division, a job that, depending on the show, involves an array of skills, from hiring to managing other producers and reviewing storylines and scripts, to one of the most fun aspects of her job—working face-to-face with the talent and even shooting some of the footage herself. Johnston took an ABC camera to shoot Mississippi elements for “Robin’s Journey.”
In at least one aspect of her challenging job, law school has given her an edge. “In law,” she notes, “the deposition is the backbone of the case. Law school taught me how to think about the multiple angles of a story. In my work, storytelling is shaped by asking questions. I focus hard on what we are going to ask.”
Johnston is already at work producing ABC’s sixth annual country music special, “In the Spotlight with Robin Roberts: All Access Nashville,” which will air in the fall. Her past experiences include going on tour with Keith Urban and an at-home interview with Taylor Swift. She is passionate about country music, a genre that has soared in popularity since her days in law school, when she became a fan watching cable programs in Charlottesville. – by Rebecca Barns
1996
W. Morgan Burns was named a 2013 attorney of the year by Minnesota Lawyer. He was listed in Chambers USA 2013 and Best Lawyers 2014 for corporate and mergers and acquisitions law, and in Super Lawyers 2013 in securities and corporate finance, and m&a. He is a partner with Faegre Baker Daniels in Minneapolis.
Jay Chadwick recently founded the Chadwick Law Firm in Vienna, Va., after practicing law for many years with large law firms, most recently Venable. His practice focuses on transactional work with an emphasis on buying, selling, developing, leasing, and financing commercial real estate. See www.chadwickpllc.com.
Arnold Evans was named president and chief executive officer of SunTrust’s commercial and business banking markets in Jacksonville and North Florida. He was previously managing director of SunTrust Robinson Humphrey, the bank’s investment division, in Atlanta, Ga.
Mark A. Knueve is listed in Ohio Super Lawyers 2014 for labor and employment and Best Lawyers 2014 in employment law-management and litigation-labor & employment. He is a partner with Vorys, Sater, Seymour and Pease in Columbus.
Aaron Zebley is now a partner at WilmerHale in Washington, D.C. Zebley, who has been both an FBI special agent and an assistant U.S. attorney, served as chief of staff to Robert S. Mueller III ’73, the former director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
1997
Dan Smith is now general counsel and corporate secretary for Videology, Inc., a privately held advertising technology company in Baltimore, Md. He joined the company in 2008 as chief counsel and has seen it grow from a U.S.-based company with offices in the U.S. and the U.K., to a truly international company with new offices and business in France, Spain, Italy, Belgium, Australia, Japan, Singapore, and Indonesia, among others. Inc. magazine ranked Videology—a leading video advertising platform provider for advertisers, agencies and publishers—as the #24 fastest growing private company in the advertising and marketing industry and #137 overall on the 2013 Inc. 500.
1998
Jamila B. Granger has joined Primo Water Corporation in Winston-Salem, N.C., as vice president and general counsel. Previously Granger was senior counsel and assistant secretary for Krispy Kreme Doughnut Corporation. Granger is a member of ABA’s forum on franchising, diversity caucus, and publications committee and serves on the legal symposium task force of the International Franchise Association.
Neale T. Johnson has completed mediation certification through the North Carolina Dispute Resolution Commission, making him eligible to conduct superior court mediated settlement conferences. He is listed in North Carolina Super Lawyers 2014 in real estate law and recognized among Business North Carolina’s legal elite for 2014 in construction. Johnson is with Smith Moore Leatherwood in Greensboro, where he concentrates his practice on commercial litigation with a focus on construction, contract, real estate, title insurance, and landlord-tenant matters.
Andrew M. Lohmann was named a finalist for legal advisor of the year by M&A Advisor and was listed in Virginia Business among the legal elite in business law for 2013. He is a shareholder, vice chair of the business section, and chair of the mergers and acquisitions practice group with Hirschler Fleischer in Richmond.
Helen Wan has been invited to speak about her first novel, The Partner Track, at a number of law schools and law firms this spring. Her book, which explores the challenge of navigating law firm culture, particularly as a woman or minority attorney, was assigned as a text in the Law in Fiction class at the University of Pennsylvania Law School this spring.1999
Joseph S. Brown has been named to Buffalo Business First’s 40 Under 40 list and was honored for his achievement and commitment to the Western New York community at a luncheon held on November 7, at the Buffalo Niagara Convention Center. He is a partner with Hodgson Russ and concentrates his practice on defending private and public sector employers in lawsuits involving a variety of employment and civil rights claims.
Stephanie Chandler is listed in American City Business Journal’s 2013 Who’s Who in Energy list. She was also named a rising star for 2014 in Texas Monthly. She is a partner in the San Antonio office of Jackson Walker, where her practice focuses on securities transactions, reporting and compliance, mergers and acquisitions, technology licensing and commercialization, and general corporate work.
B. Matthew Hornor is president, CEO, and a director of Kaizen Discovery, a Canadian technology-focused mineral exploration company formed last year through a combination of Concordia Resource Corporation and assets acquired from HPX TechCo, a 100 percent–owned subsidiary of High Power Exploration. Hornor has extensive experience in structuring and executing complex financial transactions and raising capital in the mining industry.
Jason S. McCarter joined Sutherland, Asbill & Brennan as a partner with the complex business litigation team in Atlanta, Ga., in July 2013.
