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2000
Mark McKenna joined UCLA's Institute for Technology, Law & Policy as faculty co-director in June. McKenna is a leading intellectual property scholar, widely published on a range of IP and technology law topics. Although his core expertise is in trademark law, his research interests also include privacy, copyright, design patent, the right of publicity and more general inquiries into the regulation of new technologies.
2001
Andrew Boutros and his co-authors wrote "Betraying the Bench: Could the SCOTUS Leaker Face Criminal Charges?" for Bloomberg Law in May. Boutros, a former assistant U.S. attorney in Chicago, is a partner at Dechert and serves as the regional chair of the firm's white-collar practice. He is also a lecturer at the University of Chicago Law School.
2002
Carter Burwell was appointed to serve on the Public Interest Declassification Board, which advises the U.S. president on issues pertaining to national classification and declassification policies. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell appointed Burwell, who currently serves as counsel in the white-collar and regulatory defense practice at Debevoise & Plimpton. Before joining the firm in 2021, Burwell spent more than 15 years in various senior roles across the federal government.
Tom Getz '04 and Dan Smith found themselves at the same groundbreaking in Vermont for a major affordable housing project and the announcement of an expanded public-private investment pool for affordable housing. Getz is owner and CEO of Summit Properties, and Smith is president and CEO of the Vermont Community Foundation. Smith said, "Tom's been on the front edge of some really creative affordable housing development, and I run the community foundation, which has been an active impact investor in housing and downtown revitalizations, in addition to a few other things." The groundbreaking in June announced major federal funding for a mutual partner, Vermont Housing Finance Agency.
Alums Elected to American Law Institute
Lynda Butler '78, Roscoe Jones Jr. '03, Melissa Sawyer '00, James Y. Stern '09 and Andrew Wright '00 were elected to the American Law Institute.
Butler is the Chancellor Professor of Law Emerita and director of the William & Mary Property Rights Project at William & Mary Law School. She was the 2019 recipient of the college's Thomas A. Graves, Jr. Award for Sustained Excellence in Teaching, and served as vice dean from 2000-08 and acting dean from 2008-09. She is also past president of the college's Faculty Assembly and co-author of "Virginia Tidal and Coastal Law."
Jones is a partner in the Washington, D.C., office of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher and co-chairman of the firm's public policy group. Prior to joining the firm, Jones served for almost a decade in senior-level roles on Capitol Hill, most recently as chief of staff to U.S. Rep. Abigail Spanberger, as legislative director to U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, as senior counsel to U.S. Sen. Cory A. Booker, and as counsel and then senior counsel on the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee for then-Chairman Patrick Leahy.
Sawyer is global head of Sullivan & Cromwell's mergers and acquisitions group and is co-head of the firm's corporate governance and activism practice. She serves on the board of advisers for New York University School of Law's Institute for Corporate Governance & Finance, is an adviser on the American Law Institute's Corporate Governance Restatement project and is a member of the editorial board of Insights: The Corporate and Securities Law Advisor.
Stern is a professor at William & Mary Law School, where his scholarship centers on property and private law theory and on intellectual property and privacy issues. He is a recipient of the Thomas Edison Innovation Fellowship from the Center for the Protection of Intellectual Property and the Temple Bar Scholarship from the American Inns of Court Foundation, as well as the Phi Beta Kappa Society's Rockefeller Award for the Advancement of Scholarship and the Plumeri Award for Faculty Excellence at William & Mary.
Wright is a partner at K&L Gates' Washington, D.C., office and a member of the public policy and law practice group. He rejoined K&L Gates after serving as director of legal policy for the Biden administration transition team. He previously served as associate counsel to President Barack Obama and assistant counsel to Vice President Al Gore. In Congress, Wright served as staff director of the Subcommittee on National Security and Foreign Affairs of the U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.
Professor Aditya Bamzai was also elected to the American Law Institute.
—Mike Fox
2003
Andrew Dockham joined the Strategic Risk and Crisis Management Group with Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati in Washington, D.C. Previously, Dockham served as chief counsel and deputy staff director for U.S. Sen. Rob Portman, the ranking member for the Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs.
Dockham led Portman's team to produce a bipartisan report on the security and intelligence failures that led to the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. From 2017-21, he served as chief counsel and staff director for then-Chairman Portman on the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, the Senate's premier investigative entity. Under his leadership, PSI issued several bipartisan reports and held hearings, tackling important issues facing the country, including prescription drug prices, research and intellectual property theft by foreign adversaries, private-sector data breaches, the opioid crisis and international money laundering and sanctions evasion.
Michael Dore's article, "How an NFT is Like a $5 Milkshake," was published in the Los Angeles and San Francisco Daily Journal in late 2021. The article lays out both sides in the federal lawsuit between Miramax and Quentin Tarantino over the director's plan to sell portions of his original handwritten "Pulp Fiction" screenplay.
Dore is a litigation partner with Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher's media, entertainment and technology practice, as well as its law firm defense and white -collar defense groups in L.A. He is a former federal prosecutor with extensive experience in high-stakes criminal and civil matters across a broad range of practice areas.
In February, Roscoe Jones Jr. was selected as one of the 500 leading lawyers in America by Lawdragon and in July he was elected to be a member of the American Law Institute. Jones is a partner with Gibson Dunn in the Washington, D.C., office and co-chairman of the firm's public policy group. He is also a core member of the firm's congressional investigations practice group.
2004
Steven Gieseler joined Bartlett Loeb Hinds & Thompson in Tampa, Fla. Gieseler concentrates his practice on property rights, election law and constitutional law. He has authored numerous briefs in the U.S. Supreme Court and has handled litigation in state and federal courts across the nation.
Gieseler has appeared frequently in the media and authored journal articles on the First Amendment, property rights, environmental law and international relations. His 2004 American Diplomacy article, "Debate on the Democratic Peace: A Review," has been cited by the U.S. Army and the Heritage Foundation and is studied at universities around the world.
In 2012, Gieseler was appointed by Gov. Rick Scott as a member of the Judicial Nominating Commission for Florida's 19th Circuit. He was appointed to a second four-year term in 2017.
Yalonda T. Howze, executive vice president and chief legal and compliance officer with Codiak BioSciences, was named a 2022 In-House Leader by Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly. Howze spent a decade in private practice, primarily focused on the biotech industry before moving in-house with Codiak two years ago.
Scott Levin is an attorney whose practice with San Diego Divorce Mediation & Family Law is dedicated to mediation and alternative dispute resolution. Recently the moniker Levin has gone by for the last decade, Chief PeaceKeeper, was recognized as a trademark. Levin has served as editor of the American Bar Association's dispute resolution newsletter, "Just Resolutions." This spring he published an article in the newsletter on the ever-growing area of "gray divorce," which refers to the rising rate of typically long-married, older adults getting divorced.
Meghan Oliver, a member with Motley Rice, was recognized by Benchmark Litigation for her role as trial counsel for Twitter shareholders, citing the firm's lead role in negotiating an $809.5 million settlement. Plaintiff shareholders had alleged that the social media giant and two of its former senior executives concealed the company's declining daily user growth metrics to inflate its stock price between February and June of 2015. The Motley Rice team negotiated the $809.5 million agreement days before trial was set to begin in September 2021. Oliver practices in Mount Pleasant, S.C.
Cook '05 Takes Seat as Delaware Vice Chancellor
Nathan A. Cook ’05 (Col ’02) was sworn in July 21 as vice chancellor of Delaware's Court of Chancery, which adjudicates legal disputes for more than 1 million incorporations in the state.
He was nominated by Gov. John Carney on June 3 and confirmed by the state Senate on June 22.
"Delaware's my home and practicing as a member of the Delaware bar, and before the Court of Chancery in particular, has offered me more than I could have ever dreamed," Cook said at his confirmation hearing. "I'm keenly aware of the critical importance of the Court of Chancery to the state of Delaware and its citizens."
He had been litigating before the Court of Chancery for 16 years and was the first managing partner at the Delaware office of Block & Leviton. Cook was initially with Abrams & Laster (now Abrams & Bayliss) and then moved to Grant & Eisenhofer before joining Block & Leviton.
Among the cases he has litigated in the Court of Chancery are a Dole Food Co. stockholder class-action and appraisal suit that resulted in a damages award of $148 million; a News Corp. shareholder derivative case that led to a $139 million settlement; and a Clear Channel Outdoor Holdings Inc. derivative suit that resulted in a deal that required the return of $200 million to company investors, Block & Leviton said in a statement.
"While we will deeply miss Nathan as a colleague, we couldn't be happier for him and for the Court of Chancery," Block & Leviton managing partner Jeffrey C. Block told Law360. "We know that Nathan's intelligence and judgment will make him an outstanding vice chancellor."
—Mike Fox
2006
Chris Obenshain is running for a seat in the 41st District of the Virginia the House of Delegates, in Montgomery and Roanoke counties. Obenshain serves as an assistant commonwealth's attorney in Montgomery County. The elections are scheduled for November 2023.
2007
J. Austin Curry earned board certification in patent litigation from the National Board of Trial Advocacy. Curry, a principal at Caldwell Cassady & Curry in Dallas, was recognized on the 2022 Texas Rising Stars list; he's been named for multiple years based on his work in intellectual property litigation. He also earned recognition as one of 100 attorneys in the state to be named to the Up-and-Coming list of Texas' elite lawyers 40 or younger.
Lisa (Hovey) Motley, the managing associate general counsel with the U.S. Government Accountability Office, was awarded the Arthur S. Flemming Award in Washington, D.C., in June. Motley was honored for her leadership and legal counsel, which improved overall government performance and increased the audit capacity of domestic and international accountability organizations, according to officials.
Motley directs several teams of attorneys who handle matters spanning a range of government programs and activities. She played a key role in drafting legislative reforms to enhance the independence of the inspectors general, reduce improper payments and improve financial management across the federal government. She also led efforts to strengthen oversight of federal COVID-19 relief funding. Moreover, Motley has been instrumental in expanding GAO's Center for Audit Excellence and advising on an array of governance issues that supported improvements in financial reporting.
2008
Jordan K. Field was named chair of Crowe & Dunlevy's taxation practice group in Oklahoma City. A firm director specializing in business transactions, Field's experienced tax law practice includes tax planning and tax controversy matters relating to federal and state income taxes for entities and individuals, as well as estate and gift tax planning and tax-exempt entity matters.
Earlier this year, Frankie Jones was selected to complete the unexpired term of the late Guilford County (N.C.) Commissioner Carolyn Q. Coleman, who died in January. In May, Jones won the Democratic primary for a full four-year term and will progress to the general election in November. In addition to his role as a Guilford County commissioner, Jones is a vice president and managing director in the investments real estate department at Lincoln Financial Group.
2009
Patrick J. McCann Jr. was promoted to shareholder with Chamberlain Hrdlicka in Atlanta. A member of the tax controversy and litigation practice, McCann represents taxpayers at all stages of tax controversy including examination, appeals and litigation.
