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2010
Jennifer Ligon was elected to partner with Williams Mullen in Richmond, Va. Ligon was also named to the 2020 class of Up & Coming Lawyers by Virginia Lawyers Weekly. Ligon focuses her practice on transactional and regulatory matters, including Certificate of Public Need matters, Stark Law and Anti-Kickback Statute compliance, state licensure compliance and Medicare reimbursement matters for hospitals, physician groups and long-term care providers. She also routinely counsels clients on general business and employment-related matters.
William L. Stowe was included in the Rising Stars list of 2020 Super Lawyers. Stowe practices with Jackson Walker in Houston.
2011
Lucas ’11 Appointed EEOC Commissioner
Andrea Lucas ’11 was appointed a commissioner with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
She was nominated by President Donald Trump in March 2020 and confirmed by the U.S. Senate in September for a term expiring July 1, 2025. The EEOC advances opportunity in the workplace by enforcing federal laws prohibiting employment discrimination.
“Ms. Lucas will make an excellent addition to the EEOC,” Chairwoman Janet Dhillon said in a statement. “Her extensive experience focusing on employment law, and in particular working with employers to comply with discrimination laws, will be very helpful to the work of the Commission. I look forward to working with her.”
Prior to her appointment to the EEOC, Lucas was a senior associate in the Washington, D.C., office of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher since 2013, where she was a member of the firm’s labor and employment practice group as well as its litigation department. She has represented and advised employers on a wide range of matters, including significant work around employment discrimination. She started at Gibson as an associate out of law school.
“I’m honored to serve as a Commissioner of the EEOC. The American workforce is our country’s most valuable resource and ensuring that all workers have equal opportunity is critical to keeping our workplaces strong and safe,” Lucas said in a statement. “I look forward to working with my colleagues to prevent and remedy employment discrimination across our country and to address the new challenges for our country and the Commission posed by the complexities of the twenty-first century workplace and the COVID-19 pandemic.”
Lucas clerked for U.S. Judge James C. Cacheris of the Eastern District of Virginia.
—Mike Fox
Veronica Colas is counsel at Hogan Lovells in Washington, D.C. Colas counsels clients on the regulations and policy issues affecting food companies from farm to table.
Devin DeBacker was appointed deputy assistant attorney general in the Office of Legal Counsel at the U.S. Department of Justice in August. He previously served as associate counsel and special assistant to the president in the Office of White House Counsel. Before entering government service, DeBacker was an appellate and litigation partner in the Washington, D.C., office of Kirkland & Ellis, with a practice focusing on legal strategy, appeals and critical legal issues in complex trial litigation. Earlier in his career, he clerked for Judge Amul Thapar on the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky and for Judge D. Brooks Smith on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. DeBacker and his wife, Rachel Florek DeBacker, live in Silver Spring, Md., with their five children.
Tore T. DeBella is now a partner at Faegre Drinker in Washington, D.C. DeBella counsels clients and litigates disputes relating to intellectual property and marketing practices. He manages trademark portfolios of all sizes, both domestic and international, through the entire brand life cycle—from selection and adoption of a brand through registration and enforcement.
Leah McLaughlin Fazio was named general counsel at Vitamix and provides day-to-day guidance for the legal team, as well as counsels senior leadership on creating policy and strategy. She was previously the corporate and compliance counsel, providing legal support for finance, international sales, operations, supply chain, logistics and human resources.
Noah M. Galton was included in the Rising Stars list of 2020 Super Lawyers. Galton practices with Jackson Walker in Austin, Texas.
Andrew Penman is a member of Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson’s Tax Department, and resident in New York City. Penman’s practice focuses on federal income taxation, with particular emphasis on partnership taxation and the structuring and formation of private equity and hedge funds, including funds focused on equity, debt, infrastructure and real estate, as well as funds-of-funds.
Carrie Stanton was elected partner with Williams Mullen in Charlottesville. Stanton represents businesses in major corporate transactions, including mergers and acquisitions and capital raises, as well as complex commercial contracts and governance matters.2012
Shaun J. Bockert is a partner with Blank Rome in Philadelphia. Bockert concentrates his intellectual property practice on business and transactional matters, with a focus on complex commercial transactions, mergers and acquisitions, and new media and digital marketing. 
Ashlee Sawyer Gilson is counsel with Hogan Lovells in Northern Virginia. Gilson advises clients on both buy-side and sell-side deals, stock and asset transactions, and private equity portfolio transactions. In addition to her role on deal teams, Gibson frequently assists clients with corporate governance matters.
Matt Harvey was elected partner with Holland & Hart in Boise, Idaho. Harvey focuses his practice on patent prosecution, patent analysis and IP due diligence matters across electrical engineering and standards-essential technologies. He drafts and prosecutes patent applications to protect the innovations of sophisticated technology companies within the electronics, software and wireless telecommunications industries.
Timothy P. Malone is a partner with Pashman Stein Walder Hayden in Hackensack, N.J. Malone represents clients in a wide range of complex litigation matters involving commercial, corporate, and employment law; trusts and estates law; environmental law; and personal injury matters. Malone was honored at the 2020 New Jersey Judiciary Pro Bono Attorney Recognition Event for his pro bono appellate representation in a family law matter.
Benjamin J. Martin is a partner with Bracewell in Houston. Martin advises clients throughout a legal entity’s life cycle, from its incorporation and establishment of governance procedures to its termination through merger, conversion or other business combinations. He was named “One to Watch” in Houston oil and gas law in 2021 by Best Lawyers in America, and a rising star by Texas Super Lawyers in 2018-2020.
Jeffrey S. Porter is a partner at Snell & Wilmer. He is part of the commercial finance group and is based in Phoenix. Porter represents banks, other commercial lenders, investors and developers in the negotiation, documentation, and closing of real estate and other asset-based lending transactions. He is currently on the firm’s Community Involvement Committee. Porter is a member of the Executive Council 70, an umbrella charitable organization that raises over $2 million for Arizona youth-focused charities each year, and is the former director of Snell & Wilmer’s participation at UMOM New Day Centers for the Homeless Legal Assistance Project. 2013
Mike Bradshaw is a partner with Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough in Washington, D.C. Bradshaw practices corporate and securities law, including matters related to public and private offerings of debt and equity, mergers and acquisitions, corporate governance and SEC compliance.
Gerond Lawrence was named to the National Black Lawyers’ Top 40 Under 40 for 2020. This is his second consecutive year on the list. Lawrence is a litigator with experience representing Fortune 500 companies, insurance carriers, health care providers, municipalities, transit authorities and individuals in claims related to catastrophic injury and wrongful death, commercial litigation, employment counseling, and litigation and premises liability. Lawrence practices with Swift, Currie, McGhee & Hiers in Atlanta.
Nicholas Matich is a partner in McKool Smith’s intellectual property practice in Washington, D.C. Matich is former acting general counsel of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Prior to working at the USPTO, Matich was deputy general counsel at the Office of Management and Budget within the executive office of the president.
Andrew Stotts is counsel with Weil, Gotshal & Manges in Dallas. His practice focuses on private equity. Stotts was recognized in Best Lawyers as “One to Watch” in the leveraged buyouts and private equity law and mergers and acquisitions law categories.
Scott Terrell joined Williams Mullen’s Labor, Employment & Immigration Section in the Virginia Beach, Va., office. He assists clients on a variety of labor and employment matters, as well as general employment litigation, including wage and hour, discrimination, employment torts and contract claims, at both the state and federal court and administrative agency levels.
Elizabeth Tuan was elected partner at Irell & Manella, in Los Angeles. Tuan focuses on patent litigation across a wide range of industries, including biotechnology and pharmaceuticals. She was a key member of the trial team that secured Juno Therapeutics and Sloan Kettering Institute for Cancer Research a $752 million judgment. Her practice also includes representing clients in post-grant proceedings challenging the validity of issued patents before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, and in appeals before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.
Named to the Southern California Rising Stars list, Tuan was selected as a Pathfinder for the 2020 Leadership Council on Legal Diversity, a program designed to help a new and more diverse generation of attorneys ascend to leadership positions. She also maintains an active pro bono practice.
2014
Ronald J. Fisher was elected a partner with BraunHagey & Borden. Fisher practices in San Francisco, where he focuses on complex commercial disputes involving financial services, antitrust and competition issues, contract disputes and a variety of business torts. Since joining the firm, Fisher has helped clients prevail in multiple trials and arbitrations, including a recent $54 million federal judgment on behalf of Orion Telescopes against Chinese telescope manufacturers. Prior to joining the firm, Fisher clerked for Judge Michelle T. Friedland of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.
Ethan Simon took an in-house position with Burlington Stores, as director-counsel for litigation in October.
Sabrina Talukder was on CNN’s “This is Lisa Ling” in November, for an episode on the illicit massage parlor industry. She also writes op-eds for CNN regarding the decriminalization of sex work. Talukder is the immigration attorney at the Exploitation Intervention Project at the Legal Aid Society in New York City. She represents noncitizen survivors of human trafficking with criminal histories in their legal proceedings.
2015
Kevin Benedicto served as a voting rights fellow with the Lawyer’s Committee for Civil Rights. Benedicto is an associate with Morgan Lewis in San Francisco. The firm offered U.S. associates an array of fellowships from which to serve as part of the firm’s racial justice and civil rights initiative, Mobilizing for Equality. Benedicto’s areas of practice include complex litigation, cybersecurity and data privacy matters, securities investigations and litigation, business and corporate disputes, and toxic torts.
Angela G. Williams is a partner with Honigman in Chicago. She focuses her practice on general real estate matters, with emphasis on commercial, industrial and office building property types.
2017
Tex Pasley joined Hughes, Socol, Piers, Resnick & Dym in Chicago as an associate. He practices in the firm’s complex litigation group, representing plaintiffs in constitutional and civil rights litigation, class actions and whistleblower complaints.
After three years of clerking in the federal judiciary, Rachel Ellen Simon joined Miller Shakman Levine & Feldman, a boutique litigation firm in Chicago.
2019
David Allen joined Williams Mullen’s corporate section in Richmond, Va. Allen assists clients in general corporate matters, including mergers and acquisitions, corporate governance and securities.
2020
Kaitlin Cottle joined Williams Mullen’s corporate section in Richmond, Va. Cottle’s practice focuses on the representation of financial institutions, both public and private, including community banks, bank holding companies, savings institutions, investment banks and broker-dealers.
