1990s Class Notes
1990
Michael Milgraum has published his first novel, Never Forget My Soul. The book tells the story of two children of Holocaust survivors and their journey to psychological and spiritual healing. (See In Print.) Milgraum is an attorney and psychologist practicing in Silver Spring, Md.
Russell S. Sayre has been selected as a leading lawyer for 2012 in the area of business litigation by Cincy Magazine. He was also named a future star in Benchmark Litigation 2012. He was named in Best Lawyers 2012 in appellate practice, commercial litigation, and litigation-banking and finance, and included in Ohio Super Lawyers 2012 in business litigation. He is a partner with Taft Stettinius & Hollister in Cincinnati.
1991
Sarah Davies has been appointed member of the Girard College board of managers. Girard is a boarding school for academically capable students, grades 1-12, who are from families with limited financial resources headed by a single parent or guardian. The 43-acre campus is located in Philadelphia, Pa.
Davies is a member with Cozen O’Connor in Philadelphia. She is administrative partner for the commercial litigation group, concentrating her practice in complex commercial litigation, including cases involving class actions, securities fraud, Uniform Commercial Code transactions, business torts, breach of contract, construction litigation, health care, and environmental contamination. She also handles appellate matters in state and federal courts.
Alexander M. Macaulay has been named in Best Lawyers 2012 for government relations law. He is a founding partner with Macaulay & Burtch in Richmond, Va.
Jeffrey L. Stredler has been elected to serve on the Virginia State Bar litigation section board of governors. He also serves on the VSB corporate counsel section board of governors. Stredler is senior litigation counsel with Amerigroup Corporation in Virginia Beach.
Andrew “Mac” Warner LL.M. is currently posted in Bamyan, Afghanistan, where the Taliban blew up two large statues of Buddha carved in a mountain in March 2001. Warner writes he is using his LL.M. instruction to teach judges, mullahs, prosecutors, defense counsel, and police the rule of law and other justice basics. “As we transition the responsibility for security from military to civilian control,” he writes, “the rule of law emerges as the primary need to maintain order and to generate trust in society at large.”
1992Sean Paul Brankin LL.M. has been elected partner in the antitrust group with Crowell & Moring in Brussels. He focuses his practice on matters involving EU and UK antitrust law, including merger control and counseling.
Julie Lynn, who formed Mockingbird Pictures in 1999, was one of the producers of the 2011 release, Albert Nobbs. The film stars Glenn Close, who plays the lead character, a woman who disguises herself as a man to work and survive in 19th century Ireland. The film was nominated for three Golden Globes and three Academy Awards.
Sean M. Mahoney continues to work at the Conservation Law Foundation in Portland, Maine. He will miss the 20th reunion to canoe the length of the Allagash River, but notes that he looks forward to Sean Maloney’s return to Washington, D.C., in 2013.
Sean Maloney is running for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives in the brand new NY-18 district. He is a partner with Orrick in New York, N.Y., where he is a member of the energy and infrastructure group. In 2006 he ran for attorney general of New York.
Timothy J. Moran has joined Sidley Austin as partner in the project finance practice in Washington, D.C., where he focuses his practice on infrastructure project development and finance. He was previously with Dewey & LeBoeuf.
Lowell Sachs was recently promoted to deputy vice president for BCS Incorporated, a management consulting firm specializing in work on energy, environment, and national security matters. His work forthe U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy supports breakthrough research and development and federal initiatives designedto advance the nation’s energy security, economic vitality, and environmental health. His previous work in the tech sector managing federal government affairs for Sun Microsystems prepared him with more than a decade of experience as a public policy expert and technology ambassador. Lowell lives in Falls Church, Va., with his wife, Christine, and daughter, Autumn.
Paul Stockman has joined McGuireWoods’ commercial litigation department in Pittsburgh, Pa., as partner. He focuses his practice on the litigation, trial, and appeal of insurance coverage, environmental, and tort disputes. He was previously with K&L Gates.
1993
Richard C. Gross was nominated for promotion to the rank of Brigadier General by President Obama and was confirmed by the U.S. Senate on February 17th. He now serves as Legal Counsel to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff at the Pentagon.
General Gross is a 1985 graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point and a 2009 graduate of the United States Army War College. He has served in a number of leadership roles, including Chief Legal Advisor, International Security Assistance Force and Staff Judge Advocate, U.S. Forces-Afghanistan; SJA, Joint Special Operations Command, Fort Bragg, N.C.; and Deputy SJA, V Corps, Heidelberg, Germany. He has served in multiple deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan. His most recent assignment was SJA for U.S. Central Command at MacDill Air Force Base, Tampa, Fla.
Lisa E. Jones joined Sidley Austin in Washington, D.C., as counsel in the environmental group. She was previously assistant section chief in the appellate section of the Environment and Natural Resources Division, U.S. Department of Justice.
1994
Maj. Michael K. Gould, U.S. Army Reserve, is deployed for a year to serve as a judge advocate with the Combined Joint Interagency Task Force 435, which handles detainee operations in Afghanistan.
David Haddock was named general counsel and secretary of Sunrise Senior Living in October 2010. He lives in Alexandria, Va., with his wife, Klara, and children, Alex (3) and Adam (1 1/2).
Todd C. Peppers has co-edited In Chambers: Stories of Supreme Court Law Clerks and Their Justices, a collection of essays about Supreme Court law clerks and the justices they worked for. Peppers contributed two original essays to the book. (See In Print.)
1995
Shannon King Nash was the subject of a feature in the October issue of Atlanta Tribune magazine. The Q&A piece focused on Nash’s recent launch, with partners, of The Green Room, a performance space and theatrical bookstore in Atlanta, Ga., that provides a supportive community for actors.
Nash’s primary business is the Nash Management Group, a business and entertainment management company, which specializes in helping clients with accounting, bookkeeping, taxes, contracting, business due diligence audits, and overall business management. The company also offers nonprofit consulting services. Last winter Nash was named a “Woman of Influence” by the Women’s Economic Development Agency in Atlanta.
James “Buddy” Robinson was named vice president-general counsel and corporate secretary of Kohler Co. in Kohler, Wisc. He will have full global responsibility of the legal department. Previously, Robinson was senior vice president and general counsel for Milwaukee-based Bucyrus International.
1996
Nominated by President Barack Obama to the District of Columbia U.S. Court of Appeals in August, Catharine Easterly was formally sworn in February. The ceremony marked her formal entry to the court; she has been serving on the bench since November, when she was confirmed by the U.S. Senate. Easterly previously served in the special litigation division of D.C. Public Defender Service.
Leezie Kim has rejoined Quarles & Brady as partner in the Phoenix, Ariz., office, where she focuses her practice on corporate transactions involving international business transactions and national security, health care, restaurant business transactions, and immigration benefits and enforcement matters affecting businesses. She left the firm in 2007 to serve as general counsel to then-Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano ’83, and in 2009 she became deputy general counsel in the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
Mark Knueve was named in Ohio Super Lawyers 2012 in employment and labor law and in Best Lawyers 2012 in employment law-management and litigation-labor & employment. He is a partner with Vorys, Sater, Seymour and Pease in Columbus.
Jennifer Parham was selected as the recipient of the 2012 YWCA Outstanding Women Award in the area of human relations and faith in action, presented by the YWCA of Greater Richmond. She was honored for her leadership and service in the community, including her work with the Richmond Christian Leadership Institute and the Needle’s Eye Ministries, which connects professional men and women to improve their community through Christian values, ethics, and love.
1997
Brian W. Byrd has been listed among Business North Carolina’s 2012 legal elite in real estate law. Byrd is with Smith Moore Leatherwood in Greensboro, where he practices primarily in the real estate development and finance area, representing developers, lenders, and operating companies in connection with real estate matters.
Jennifer M. DelMonico received the Alumnus of the Leadership Center Award at the Greater New Haven Chamber of Commerce 2011 annual awards luncheon in October. The award is given to an alumnus of the chamber’s leadership programs who has made outstanding contributions to the region. DelMonico is a partner with Murtha Cullina in New Haven, Conn., where she is a trial lawyer for parties in complex commercial litigation disputes and defendants in tort and product liability actions.
Matthew Derdeyn was recently promoted to senior vice president for corporate finance at Charter Communications in St. Louis, Mo. Deredyn joined the company in 2008 as vice president, corporate finance to head Charter’s corporate finance, M&A, and long-term financial planning efforts. Charter Communications is the fourth-largest cable operator in the United States and provides advanced communications services to customers in 25 states.
Amit P. Mehta was named to National Law Journal’s Minority 40 Under 40 list for 2011. Mehta was recognized for his key role in defending several high-profile cases, including the ultimately dismissed charges against former International Monetary Fund President Dominique Strauss-Kahn. Mehta’s successful representation of former Congressman Tom Feeney in connection with a grand jury investigation concerning a privately funded trip to Scotland in 2003 was also noted. Mehta was the primary author of the brief for Rep. Feeney in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit in 2009. The court ruled that Feeney’s statements were protected by the Constitution’s speech or debate clause, a decision that allows members of Congress to speak freely during ethics probes regarding legislative matters.
Mehta was named a future star in Benchmark Litigation’s 2011 ranking of U.S. litigation firms and lawyers as well. He is a partner with Zuckerman Spaeder in Washington, D.C., where he focuses his practice on white-collar criminal defense, complex civil litigation, and appellate litigation.
Daniel J. Smith has joined TidalTV as vice president and chief counsel. Headquartered in Baltimore, Md., TidalTV provides advertisers and agencies with a technology solution to allow them to manage their video advertising campaigns across all types of media—online, mobile, and addressable television.
1998
Amy E. Davis joined Rose Walker as partner in Dallas, Tex. “I could not have found a more perfect fit,” she writes. Rose Walker is a nationwide trial firm for business people that shares her philosophy about cases: understand your client’s goals; focus on what’s important; avoid unnecessary cost and delay. Davis’s areas of practice include employment and commercial disputes, representing professionals and businesses “on both sides of the versus.”
Neale T. Johnson has been listed among Business North Carolina’s 2012 legal elite in construction law. He is with Smith Moore Leatherwood in Greensboro, where his practice focuses on commercial litigation with a focus on construction, contract, real estate, title insurance, and landlord-tenant matters.
Robert J. Shelby has been nominated by President Barack Obama to serve as U.S. District Court judge for the District of Utah. Shelby is a shareholder at Snow, Christensen & Martineau, where his practice focuses on complex commercial litigation and catastrophic personal injury cases on behalf of both plaintiffs and defendants in state, federal, and administrative courts throughout the country.
James H. Wilson attended the September wedding of David Chung to Grace Oh in Washington, D.C., where he was able to reunite with other UVA alums as well. He and his wife, Michele, continue to live in York, Pa. Jim is currently counsel at The Hershey Company (where he works with Lauren Connolly Lacey) and reports that his children, AJ (5) and Justin (4), continue to enjoy the perks of his working for a chocolate company.
1999
Marc P. Berger has been named the new chief of the securities and commodities fraud task force in the U.S. Attorney’s Office criminal division in Manhattan. Berger will supervise a team that has brought a series of high-profile insider trading prosecutions against hedge fund traders and other corporate insiders. He has been with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York since 2002 and served as deputy chief of the task force since 2010.
Joseph S. Brown was recently elected president of the executive board for the Minority Bar Association of Western New York. He is a senior associate with Hodgson Russ in Buffalo, where he concentrates his practice in the business litigation and employment litigation practice groups.
Stephanie L. Chandler was named to San Antonio Business Journal’s outstanding lawyers list as a rising star. She was also named a 2012 rising star in Texas Monthly. Chandler is a partner with Jackson Walker in San Antonio, where she focuses her practice on securities transactions, reporting, and compliance; mergers and acquisitions; technology licensing and commercialization, and general corporate work. She also leads Jackson Walker’s technology section.
Michael L. Hadley joined Davis & Harman in Washington D.C., as a partner, where his practice focuses on employee benefits, advising clients on the full range of tax, ERISA, and other laws affecting benefits plans. His particular focus is on helping financial institutions that sell products to defined contribution and defined benefits plans, IRAs, and 529 plans navigate the special rules that govern those plans. Hadley previously served as associate counsel for pension regulation at the Investment Company Institute, the national association of U.S. investment companies. Among his many responsibilities he advocated for the Institute’s membership before Congress, the Department of Labor, the Department of the Treasury, and the Securities Commission on retirement security issues.
Barry S. Persh and Sherri Persh welcomed their son, Ryan Colby, on January 4. Barry is a senior counsel with Dow Lohnes in Washington, D.C.
Michael and Sali Rakower had their third baby girl, Hannah Abigail, in March of 2011. Michael reports that they have a “happy and frenetic” household. He was recently selected for inclusion in New York Super Lawyers rising stars.
Fredrick Stein, attorney advisor with the Transportation Security Administration, completed a master of arts in security studies at the Naval Postgraduate School Center for Homeland Defense and Security. In the 18-month program, Stein collaborated on current policy, strategy, and organizational design challenges with the leading experts from all fields of Homeland Security to including: intelligence, counter terrorism, Islamic scholars, psychologists, academics, domestic and international law enforcement, and first responders.His thesis on the homeland and national security implications of America’s dependence on foreign oil establishes that with the right policy choices and current technology, the United States can become energy independent in a few short years. Stein’s thesis was nominated for the CHDS Outstanding Thesis Award.
