2000s Class Notes
2000
Ryan Clinton recently became a shareholder with Davis, Gerald & Cremer, where he leads the appellate practice and the Austin, Tex., office. He was previously a partner with Hankinson.
Eric Conn is a founding partner of Conn Maciel Carey, a boutique firm launched in September in Washington, D.C., that focuses on OSHA, labor & employment, and litigation. He is chair of the OSHA workplace safety practice group and concentrates his practice exclusively on matters that involve occupational health and safety law. See www.connmaciel.com.
Kandice Kerwin Hull has been elected chair of the Appellate Advocacy Committee of the Pennsylvania Bar Association, and will serve a two-year term. She has also been listed in Best Lawyers 2015 in appellate practice. She is a member of McNees Wallace & Nurick in Harrisburg, Pa., where she is co-chair of the appellate and post-trial practice group and part of the litigation group. She concentrates her practice on the representation of corporate clients in business disputes. Brian Murray has joined Wilkinson Barker Knauer, a communications law boutique in Washington, D.C., as a partner. His practice focuses on telecommunications and media regulatory issues, with a particular emphasis on broadband services. He was formerly a partner in the communications group of Latham & Watkins.
Carrie Nixon recently launched Healthcare Solutions Connection, a network of experts in the health care industry. HSC is the consulting arm of Carrie’s law firm, Nixon Law Group, which focuses primarily on health law and Affordable Care Act implementation. She lives with her husband, Dmitri, and their daughter, Danica, in Northern Virginia.
Dave Pinto JD/MBA was elected a state representative in Minnesota. See www.davepinto.com for the latest news. He is a prosecutor in the Ramsey County attorney’s office.
Amy Ashton Shaw, with her husband, Tony, welcomed Karie Amy Shaw on April 24, joining big brother Bradford (4). Amy is in private practice at Griffin Fletcher & Herndon in Cincinnati, Ohio, where she specializes in real estate transactions, leasing, and general corporate law.
Brian Wise founded Advance Health, a health care company, in 2010. Advance Health provides old-fashioned house calls to members of insurance companies and ACOs. In 2014 the company will make almost 200,000 of these visits. “CARRIE NIXON and I catch up every couple of months because she founded a law firm that specializes in this area of the law,” he writes. “I often see Nathan and Emily Vitan and Bart Epstein ’99 at their homes or ours. I have three children (8, 5, and 3) who keep me very busy.”
2001
Melissa Davis Balough is an associate in the intellectual property litigation practice group with Pepper Hamilton in Boston, Mass. She and her husband, Matt, welcomed their first daughter, Anna Katharine, on February 27.
Matthew P. Bosher was named among the 2014 Leaders in the Law by Virginia Lawyers Weekly. He is a partner with Hunton & Williams in Richmond and Washington, D.C., and member of the securities litigation practice focusing on disputes and investigations relating to financial reporting and corporate governance matters.
Tillman J. Breckenridge received the National Bar Association’s Trailblazer Under 40 Award at a gala event in Atlanta, Ga., in July. The award is inspired by the brave civil rights workers who participated in getting out the vote during Freedom Summer fifty years ago. Breckenridge is of counsel with Reed Smith in Washington, D.C., and Richmond, Va., where he is a member of the appellate group and leads the appellate practice for the Washington, D.C., and Virginia offices.
Chris Chorba was recently named partner in charge of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher’s Los Angeles and Century City offices. He practices complex civil litigation and specializes in defending consumer class actions in California. Chorba lives in Altadena, Calif., with his wife and son, age 8.
Amy J. Collins is a founding partner of Nicolaides Fink Thorpe Michaelides Sullivan, a new law firm with offices in Chicago, Los Angeles, and San Francisco that focuses on representation of insurance companies. She also represents asylum applicants and handles child custody and support cases on a pro bono basis.
Collins plays saxophone with the Chicago Bar Association’s Barrister’s Big Band and Symphony Orchestra, spends time volunteering at the no-kill shelter PAWS Chicago, and enjoys traveling the world with friends and family.
Ryan Coonerty was recently elected Santa Cruz County Supervisor. He will continue teaching law and politics at UC Santa Cruz and serve as cofounder of the growing coworking company NextSpace. Coonerty and his wife, Emily, have a two-year-old daughter named Daisy and are expecting a child later this year.
Jason R. Dugas stepped into the role of Assistant Dean of Academic Services and Registrar at the Law School at the end of September.
After seven years of practice in the energy group at Skadden, Arps in Washington D.C., Lebawit (Lily) Girma left the firm in 2009 to launch a career in travel writing and photography. In 2012 she became a published author, with two travel guidebooks for Moon Travel Guides (Perseus Books): Moon Belize and Moon Belize Cayes. Lily’s travel articles and photographs have also appeared in numerous outlets, including CNN Travel, Every Day with Rachael Ray, BBC Travel, New York Magazine, AFAR, and MorningCalm Magazine, among others. She splits her year between Washington, D.C., and the Caribbean/Central America.
In January 2014 Nestor Gounaris became regional counsel for Asia-Pacific for Stepan Company after almost nine years as managing partner at China Solutions, which provides legal and operational solutions in China. Still with a heavy focus on China, he now also oversees legal and regulatory matters in India, Philippines, Singapore, and other APAC countries. Based in Shanghai, Gounaris also continues to teach Chinese business law at Georgetown Law, and remains involved with China Solutions in a founding partner role.
Steven M. Klepper was principal author of a certiorari petition for Williams vs. Johnson that was granted by the Supreme Court in July. The petition was filed on behalf of a California inmate serving a life sentence, asking the Court to vacate a lower court ruling that further consideration of the inmate’s Sixth Amendment claim was foreclosed. The Supreme Court vacated the lower court’s judgment and remanded for further adjudication by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.
The August 11 issue of The National Law Journal featured an article in which Marcia Coyle reported on Klepper’s Supreme Court victory, his appellate practice, and his Maryland Appellate blog. The article includes comic book action-hero avatars for Supreme Court Justices he created for the National Law Journal (i.e. Chief Justice John Roberts as Captain America, Justice Ginsburg as Wonder Woman). See www.nationallawjournal. com/id=1202666155594/ The-Supreme-Justices- League-of-America-- One-Lawyers-View
Klepper is a principal with Kramon & Graham in Baltimore, Md.
2002
Afi Johnson-Parris has been elected to the North Carolina Bar Association Board of Governors and will serve a three-year term. She is with Ward Black Law in Greensboro, where she concentrates her practice on divorce and family law and veterans’ disability law.
Brian T. Stansbury has joined Akerman as a partner in the litigation practice group in Washington, D.C. He focuses his practice on complex litigation, toxic tort litigation, environmental litigation, and white-collar criminal and government investigations.
Michael L. Whitlock received the National Bar Association’s Trailblazer Under 40 Award at a gala event in Atlanta, Ga., in July. The award is inspired by the brave civil rights workers who participated in getting out the vote during Freedom Summer fifty years ago. Whitlock is with Bingham McCutchen in Washington, D.C., where he is a partner in the antitrust and white-collar practice groups.
2003
John D. Adams is listed in Chambers USA 2014 in litigation: white-collar crime and government investigations-Virginia. He is also listed in Virginia Super Lawyers 2014 in criminal defense: white collar, civil litigation defense, and appellate law. He is a partner and chair of the government, regulatory, and criminal investigations department with McGuireWoods in Richmond.
Lee Dunham married Michael Hickman in Lexington, Va., on July 12. In attendance were David Zetoony, Gretchen Zetoony, née Fair, Donald Wells, Stuart Shapley, Kathleen Shapley, née Zvarych ’04, and Susan Burgess. John Whitfield ’81 rocked out at the reception with his band, Little Walter and the Convictions. Dunham is a bankruptcy attorney in solo practice, and Hickman is the CTO of TextUs.biz, a Boulder, Colorado-based technology company. The couple resides in Boulder.
Yoshikazu Noma LL.M. ’03 and Ritsuko Noma LL.M.’06, welcomed their second son, Yujiro, on February 6. They thank their LL.M. ’03 and ’06 friends for the warm congratulations. The family lives in Tokyo. Yoshikazu has finished a three-year tenure as a faculty member in the Legal Research and Training Center of the Supreme Court of Japan where he gave lectures on Trial Advocacy, Contracts, and Legal Writing as well as served as advisor in Moot Court Competitions. He currently works for TMI Associates as a partner representing clients on finance transactions.
2004
Meghan M. Cloud has been recognized as a rising star for 2014 in civil litigation, personal injury-products, utilities in Virginia Super Lawyers. She is counsel with McGuireWoods in Charlottesville, where she represents corporations in state and federal courts in products liability cases and commercial litigation.
Steven M. Haas is co-author of Goolsby and Haas on Virginia Corporations, 5th Edition, published by LexisNexis (see In Print). This edition provides a comprehensive review of laws that govern stock corporations in Virginia and gives a fascinating picture of the complex balance of power between boards and shareholders. He also co-edited the two-volume Corporate Governance: Law and Practice, the only treatise devoted to corporate governance.
Haas is a partner with Hunton & Williams in Richmond, where he represents clients on mergers and acquisitions, securities laws, and corporate governance matters.
Elliot A. Hallak has been elevated to partner at Fox Rothschild in West Palm Beach, Fla. He focuses his practice on commercial litigation, including life insurance litigation, banking litigation, class actions, business disputes and torts, collections, foreclosures, and commercial landlord/tenant matters.
Christina M. Jones is a partner at McGuireWoods in Richmond, Va., where she practices civil litigation. She has been named a rising star for 2014 in personal injury defense: products; business litigation; and civil litigation defense in Virginia Super Lawyers. Christina wed Douglas Edward Middlebrooks on September 27.
Judge M. Yvette Miller LL.M. received the Jurist of the Year Award from the National Bar Association, Women Lawyers Division, during the 89th annual convention in July in Atlanta, Ga. She serves on the Court of Appeals of Georgia.
John Newby was recently appointed Deputy Secretary of Veterans Affairs & Homeland Security by Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe.
Andrea Mahady Price has been recognized by Louisiana Super Lawyers as a 2014 rising star and was selected for the New Orleans CityBusiness Leadership in Law Class of 2014. Andrea is a partner at Barrasso Usdin Kupperman Freeman & Sarver in New Orleans. She primarily represents manufacturers in products liability and toxic tort lawsuits, insurers in coverage and bad faith disputes, and oil and gas companies in environmental matters.
Chris Richardson will be moving to Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates to join Mubadala Petroleum, where he will head a multinational legal team as general counsel. Mubadala Petroleum, a wholly owned subsidiary of Abu Dhabi’s sovereign wealth fund, is an oil & gas exploration and production company with assets across the Middle East, Africa, and Central and Southeast Asia. Chris will be joined by his wife, Andi, and their two boys Campbell (age 7) and William (age 3). He previously worked with Vinson & Elkins in Hong Kong and Houston and was most recently with Occidental Petroleum Corporation.
2006
Katherine K. Deluca has been recognized as a rising star for 2014 in securities and corporate finance in Virginia Super Lawyers. She is an associate with McGuireWoods in Richmond.
Catherine Ross Dunham LL.M. currently serves as Professor of Law at the Elon University School of Law in Greensboro, N.C. Dunham joined Elon Law as a member of its charter faculty and served as the Associate Dean for Academic Affairs from 2008 to 2013. Dunham teaches courses focused on civil litigation, including civil procedure and complex civil litigation. She also publishes on topics related to civil litigation, gender equity, and legal education, including Skills and Values: Civil Procedure, published by Lexis and the forthcoming North Carolina Civil Procedure Deskbook published by Carolina Academic Press.
Ritsuko Noma LL.M. and Yoshikazu Noma LL.M. ’03 welcomed their second son, Yujiro, on February 6. They thank their LL.M. ’03 and ’06 friends for the warm congratulations. The family lives in Tokyo. Yoshikazu has finished a three-year tenure as a faculty member in the Legal Research and Training Center of the Supreme Court of Japan where he gave lectures on Trial Advocacy, Contracts, and Legal Writing as well as served as advisor in Moot Court Competitions. He currently works for TMI Associates as a partner representing clients on finance transactions.
William I. Sanderson has been named a rising star in estate planning and probate, closely held business in 2014 Virginia Super Lawyers. He focuses his practice on estate planning and estate and trust administration. He is an associate at McGuireWoods in Washington, D.C., where he is a member of fiduciary advisory services and private wealth services practice groups.
2007
In April Jason Beaton was sworn in by United States Attorney for the Northern District of Florida, Pamela Marsh, and he currently serves as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Northern District of Florida.
Two years ago Steve Glasgow and Matt Watson teamed up to create CountryClubPrep.com—a preppy clothing and accessories online retailer with goods for men, women, and children. After much success on the online retail side, the team opened its first bricks and mortar store on The Corner in Charlottesville. Their second store is in Lexington, Ky., and they plan to open 8 more stores over the next three years. Country Club Prep is based in Atlanta, where the two were each practicing law before launching the business. Jezebel magazine says the duo “are poised to become the new faces of bow ties and brights.”
Joey Ponzi has been made partner at Brooks Pierce in Greensboro, N.C., where he focuses on environmental and business litigation.
Katie Townsend recently became the litigation director for the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press in Washington, D.C. Among other things, the RCFP, along with the Thomas Jefferson Center and the D.C. office of Baker Hostetler, runs the First Amendment Clinic at UVA Law. She was previously with Gibson Dunn and Crutcher in Los Angeles, Calif.
2008
Matthew D. Fender has been named a rising star for 2014 in business litigation in Virginia Super Lawyers. He is an associate with McGuireWoods in Richmond, where he represents clients in litigation matters with a focus on antitrust, commercial matters, and real estate litigation.
Jamaal W. Stafford was named to the Lawyers of Color annual Hot List. He is an associate at Barrasso Usdin Kupperman Freeman & Sarver in New Orleans, where he focuses his practice on construction-defect litigation, complex commercial litigation, and extra-contractual bad-faith insurance litigation relating to bodily injury and property damage claims.
Sabina Vayner has been named one of Georgia Trend’s 40 Under 40 for 2014. Vayner focuses her practice on trademark, copyright, and advertising issues with Kilpatrick Townsend in Atlanta. She regularly practices before the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board. In 2013 and 2014 Vayner was recognized as a Georgia rising star in the area of intellectual property litigation by Super Lawyers magazine.
Sean Coughlin ’09 and FaithStreet
By Rebecca Barns
When Sean Coughlin moved to New York City to work for a law firm, he looked for a church, and was surprised that there wasn’t a good online source he could use to find one. It was harder than it should have been, he thought. He asked others who had been looking for a faith community, and they reported the same experience. Later he found that churches were frustrated, too, at not being able to reach people through the Internet.
The discovery of those two things and the desire to create something new led to leaving his corporate law job in 2011 to launch a startup company called FaithStreet (see www.faithstreet.com) that helps people find their own church community and enables churches to reach potential members. Cofounder Ryan Melogy has since left to start a new business venture.
Early on, Coughlin and his team were invited to take part in a three-month program with TechStars, a high-profile startup incubator that connects new tech companies with investors and mentors. That support provided a huge boost at the outset. FaithStreet soon signed up 500 churches in New York, and that number has grown to more than 15,600 faith communities in 50 states, Canada, and Mexico. Eventually the site will include mosques, synagogues, and temples.
The timing for the innovative company couldn’t be better. Forward-thinking church leaders acknowledge the importance of communicating in new ways, and many embrace the idea. Pope Francis and the Dalai Lama have their own Twitter accounts; their tweets are followed by millions every day. Social media has become as important a tool for congregations as the printing press was in Martin Luther’s promotion of the Protestant Reformation.
Still, many churches lag behind, either because they have a Web site that’s so bare bones it’s not useful, or because they don’t have a site at all. That leaves word of mouth or the sight of an impressive church building to draw new members into a congregation—and many interesting new churches are in temporary or unexpected locations that aren’t highly visible. For young people especially, the ability to access a faith community through social media makes all the sense in the world.
FaithStreet users fill out a personal profile and can ask for and obtain further information about a church on the site. The range of churches on FaithStreet is impressive, from traditional houses of worship to churches in airports, on beaches, and in bars. There are congregations comprised mostly of college students, people living alternative lifestyles, and conservative middle-class families. Coughlin is convinced that when people looking for a faith community see how many different ways people worship, they will be able to find one that feels right for them.
Churches sign up on FaithStreet at no charge and create a profile that describes their denomination, location, service times, the size of the congregation, style of music, whether there’s a youth group, and other key facts.
The site also includes a platform that facilitates online giving. Churches pay a subscription fee to use a mobile app that allows followers to tithe online. The company also collects a small fee for processing transactions.
The company has acquired a blog called OnFaith that was founded by Sally Quinn of the Washington Post. The thoughtful content includes a wide range of different perspectives on faith. Coughlin hopes that, too, will help inspire seekers to find their way to a church they can call their own.
Going to church has always been an important part of Sean’s life. He doesn’t think that virtual contact with a church will ever substitute for actually hearing the music, sharing stories, and worshipping together in the same place. “Our mission is driven by the idea that the world is a better place when people participate in faith communities,” he says. “We can even help people who don’t like church find a church. I believe that 95 percent of people have a faith, and that faith just needs to find a home.” FaithStreet is a way to get them there.
2009
As the top scorer on the Texas bar in February, Eric Gerard spoke at a ceremony marking bar takers entry into practice. Justices of the Texas Supreme Court and the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals also attended. Gerard’s remarks, Called to the Bar, may be found in the Texas Bar Journal, at http://bit.ly/gerardtxbar. Gerard is a litigator in the Houston office of Hogan Lovells, with extensive trial and investigative experience. His practice focuses on complex commercial litigation, arbitration, and government investigations in the energy, aviation, and life sciences industries. Before joining Hogan Lovells, Gerard was an assistant district attorney in the trial division of the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office in New York City. He has tried numerous cases to verdict at both bench and jury trials.
Hillary H. Steenberge has joined Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck as an associate in Santa Barbara, Calif. Steenberge is a member of the natural resources department. She focuses her practice on environmental transactional and litigation work, including complex land use and real estate matters, regulatory compliance and site remediation efforts, and groundwater issues. She was previously with Latham & Watkins.
