2000s Class Notes

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2000

Deborah L. Boardman was appointed as a U.S. magistrate judge in the U.S. District Court for the District of Mary­land. Born and raised in Maryland, Board­man was an associate at Hogan & Hartson (now Hogan Lovells) in Washington, D.C., where she practiced complex commercial litigation. She had an active pro bono prac­tice and was selected to serve as the senior as­sociate in Hogan’s pro bono department. In 2008, Boardman joined the Federal Public De­fender’s Office for the District of Maryland. In 2015, she was named the first assistant federal public defender. During her 11-year tenure with the office, Boardman represented individuals charged with federal crimes in the Greenbelt and Balti­more courthouses.

David F. Gieg joined Buist Byars & Taylor as a real estate attorney and partner. Based in the Mount Pleasant, S.C., office, Gieg’s practice is focused on commercial real estate acquisition, divestiture, financing, development and leasing, including transaction structuring.

Francesca Ugolini was promoted to chief of the Department of Justice, Tax Division, Appellate Section, where she’s worked since 2002. The section of about 30 attorneys handles all federal civil tax appeals in the federal circuit courts.

2001

Andrew S. Boutros joined Dechert in the firm’s Chicago and Washington, D.C., offices, where he serves as regional chair of the U.S. white-collar practice. Boutros’ second book, “From Baksheesh to Bribery: Understanding the Global Fight Against Corruption and Graft,” was published in 2019 by Oxford University Press. He was recently profiled by the Corporate Crime Reporter for his experiences handling corporate fraud cases, and teaching, writing and speaking about the subject.

Eric T. Michener was elected partner with Critchfield, Critchfield & Johnston in Wooster, Ohio. Michener is a member of the litigation practice group and the employment law prac­tice group, and chair of the construction law practice group. To date he has conducted over 40 jury trials in the course of his career and litigated cases that have included everything from breach of contract claims to the defense of Occupational Safety and Health Adminis­tration citations.

2002

Afi Johnson-ParrisAfi Johnson-Parris announced the formation of her firm in January. Johnson- Parris Law serves the needs of Guilford County, N.C., residents with family law issues ranging from divorce and property division, to custody and adoptions. Johnson- Parris is a board-certified specialist in family law and currently serves as the chair of the family law section for the North Carolina Bar Association.

Jacqueline “Jackie” Kamins was appointed to the Oregon Court of Appeals by Gov. Kate Brown. Kamins, an at­torney with Markow­itz Herbold in Portland, previously served as a senior assistant at­torney general in the Oregon Department of Justice and litigated civil matters as an at­torney at an inter­national law firm in Washington, D.C. While working for the justice department, she negotiated an agree­ment that made Oregon one of the first states in the country to cover transgender health care services for its employees.

Usha Rodrigues is the M.E. Kilpatrick Pro­fessor of Law at the University of Georgia School of Law, special­izing in corporate gov­ernance and contract law. She was recently honored to be named a tenured professor by UGA. Rodrigues lives in Athens with her husband, Nathan Flath (Commerce ’97), and their three children.

Bill Sinclair chairs the civil litigation group at Silverman Thomp­son Slutkin White. Kathleen “Kate” Hanlon Sinclair bal­ances part-time work for the same firm with providing care for their sons, Teddy, 11, and Robbie, 4. She is a member of the Mary­land State Bar Associa­tion’s Law Assistance Program governing committee. LAP pro­vides substance abuse and mental health ser­vices to Maryland legal professionals.

2003

Valerie M. Nannery joined the American Constitution Society as director of network advancement. As di­rector of the State Attorneys General Project, Nannery works with the ACS team to develop and dissemi­nate legal resources and host programming and events examining the actions of the state attorneys general and the emerging legal and policy issues they face.

Vetere ’03 Named Video Game Trade Association General Counsel

Gina Vetere ’03Gina Vetere ’03 was named vice president and general counsel of the Entertainment Software Association, which represents the U.S. video game industry.

Prior to her hire in September, Vetere was counsel at the international law firm Covington & Burling. She advised clients on the development and implementation of comprehensive global strategies, including coalition building, third-party engagement, and government advocacy and message development to address international trade and regulatory policy priorities.

Based in Washington, D.C., the Entertainment Software Association offers a wide range of services to interactive entertainment software companies, including conducting business and consumer research; providing legal and policy analysis and advocacy on First Amendment, intellectual property and technology issues; managing a global content protection program; owning and operating the Electronic Entertainment Expo, or E3; and representing video game industry interests in federal and state government relations.

“Gina is recognized as a leader in law and policy. We are proud to have one of the brightest legal minds join us,” ESA President and CEO Stanley Pierre-Louis said in a statement. “Her wealth of knowledge and diversity of experience will enhance the services and value we provide to our members and the video game industry.”

Vetere joined Covington after serving as executive director for international IP at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Global Intellectual Property Center, where she also served as co-chair of the U.S. Business Coalition for the Trans-Pacific Partnership’s IP working group. Vetere is also a former director for intellectual property and innovation at the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative and senior policy adviser to the deputy U.S. trade representative.

“ESA has a remarkable track record of promoting the innovation and creativity that fuel this dynamic industry and protecting the rights of consumers, developers, artists and storytellers,” Vetere said in a statement to Corporate Counsel.

—Mike Fox

Heineken USA Hires Kuri ’03 as Chief Legal Officer

J. Carlos Kuri ’03Heineken USA hired J. Carlos Kuri ’03 in December as senior vice president and chief legal officer to lead the company’s legal and regulatory teams.

“[Kuri] brings experience with three-tier distribution, a history of supporting and pro­tecting beloved global brands and a passion for innovation,” the company said in statement. “This background, coupled with his leadership experi­ence sets him up to be a strong contributor to our company.”

He previously worked as senior vice president and general counsel for Red Bull, as well as the first general counsel of the New York Red Bull Major League Soccer franchise. Kuri started at the company as di­rector of legal affairs in 2008.

“There’s no such thing as a sports lawyer,” Kuri said at a conference in 2017. “There are only lawyers that have sports entities as clients.”

—Mike Fox

2004

Allison LarsenProfessor Allison Orr Larsen received the American Academy of Appellate Lawyers Eisenberg Prize for her article “The Amicus Machine,” co-authored with her William & Mary Law School colleague Neal Devins. The article appeared in the Virginia Law Review in 2016. This was the second year in a row that AAAL has recognized Larsen’s scholarship. She previously was awarded the Eisenberg Prize for her 2014 Virginia Law Review article, “The Trouble with Amicus Facts.”

According to a news story from William & Mary Law School, the article is “based on the authors’ interviews with more than two dozen Supreme Court advocates, [and] delineates the well-orchestrated process that is increasingly behind many of the amicus curiae briefs submitted to the court each term.” The article explores in detail the forces that fuel and sustain the contemporary “amicus machine” and concludes that, for the most part, its benefits to the modern court outweigh its drawbacks.

Deborah “Carly” Milner joined Fogler Brar in Houston as a partner.

2006

Tiffany Graves was featured in the September-October issue of the ABA Journal in an article, “Close to Home.” Now pro bono counsel for Bradley Arant Boult Cummings in Jackson, Miss., Graves began her career at the Mississippi Center for Justice, supported by a competitive fellowship. She went on to run the Mississippi Volunteer Lawyers Project, where she launched the state’s first online legal help portal, and the University of Mississippi School of Law’s Pro Bono Initiative, where she helped enact a state supreme court rule allowing law students the limited ability to practice in pro bono clinics, the article explains. In 2014, she became executive director of the state supreme court’s Mississippi Access to Justice Commission.

Graves joined Bradley in 2018 when the firm essentially created the pro bono counsel position for her, said Dylan Black ’97, a partner and chair of the firm’s pro bono committee. In this role, Graves coordinates more than 500 lawyers in 10 offices across six states and Washington, D.C., who help tackle the justice gap. In her first year, the firm reported that total pro bono hours increased 39% and the number of attorneys completing more than 20 pro bono hours a year rose 69%.

Conniel Malek wrote a piece published in one of Jamaica’s national newspapers: “What Bob Marley’s ‘One Love’ Can Teach Us About the Climate Catastrophe in the Bahamas.” Though spurred by Hurricane Dorian’s devastating impact on the Bahamas, the feature also addresses the effects of climate change around the world. A native of Jamaica, Malek turned to Bob Marley’s unifying music and lyrics for comfort during the storm.

After going directly into corporate in-house practice for 10 years after law school, Malek took the helm as executive director of True Costs Initiative, an organization based in Boston. The organization promotes corporate accountability and strong legal systems in the Global South to protect vulnerable communities from the costs of environmental and human rights harms. Malek said she enjoys merging her corporate law expertise with her passion to protect people and the environment.

Franklin RosenblattFranklin D. Rosenblatt joined Butler Snow’s Ridgeland, Miss., office, and practices with the firm’s commercial litigation group. Rosenblatt retired as a lieutenant colonel with more than 12 years of experience serving in the U.S. Army Judge Advocate General’s Corps as a prosecutor, legal adviser and defense attorney. As a prosecutor, he tried dozens of international, financial and violent crimes cases to verdict. Additionally, Rosenblatt successfully prosecuted four terrorism suspects in the Iraqi court system of Kirkuk. As a defense attorney from 2014 to 2018, Rosenblatt served as lead military defense counsel for the highly publicized court-martial of Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl.

2007

Austin CurryAustin Curry of the Dallas firm Caldwell Cassady & Curry was selected to the 2019 rising stars list of the country’s top lawyers under the age of 40 by Law360. The outlet de­tailed Curry’s key role for client VirnetX in the company’s long-running patent infringement litigation against Apple Inc. Overall, Curry and the firm have won four different trials against Apple totaling more than $1 billion in ver­dicts in favor of VirnetX. Those awards include a $502.6 million jury verdict handed down in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas last year.

Beat the Bomb

Alex Patterson ’07 (center, in black shirt) founder of Beat the Bomb, which combines aspects of paint ball and escape room concepts, stands next to Patrick Ashby ’07 (immediate right), counsel at Linklaters. Ashby brought 28 attorneys from the New York and Washington, D.C., litigation offices of Linklaters out to Beat the Bomb in Brooklyn’s Dumbo neighborhood for an office team-building event.

Beat the Bomb had a busy 2019 — having been filmed for a segment on “Today” and by Thrillist for a Capital One ad, and having hosted its Corporate Paint Blast Challenge. The immersive experience has one objective: Teams work together to disarm a paint bomb (users wear hazmat suits) before time runs out on the clock.

Patterson has an answer for when people ask him how he went from law to eventually creating Beat the Bomb: “I remind them that all law is 100% made up out of thin air as well! Plus, it’s rules and penal­ties, like our immersive video game and paint bomb!” He plans to expand the concept to D.C. this summer.

 

2008

Daniel AllisonDaniel Allison was promoted to partner at Sidley Austin. Allison is an energy lawyer in the Houston office, where he focuses on commer­cial lending and other complex finance and energy transactions in­volving exploration and production, and pipe­line and oilfield services companies.

Olivia Chung relocated to the Singapore office of Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld. Chung continues to practice in the area of alternative investment management.

Joseph EsmontJoseph M. Esmont was elected partner with BakerHostetler in Cleveland. Esmont litigates complex commercial, mass tort and fraud cases, especially in the energy, utilities and financial services industries; restructures troubled companies; protects clients from struggling business partners; and advises on transactions with distressed firms.

Matthew FenderMatthew D. Fender was elected partner with McGuireWoods. Fender is a trial lawyer and commercial litigator who represents clients in contract disputes and insurance coverage matters, as well as real estate litigation, from the firm’s Richmond, Va., office.

Eli MillerEli Miller was pro­moted to partner at Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld in New York City. Miller focuses on mergers and ac­quisitions, and related banking and securities law matters for public and private companies, including private equity funds and portfolio companies.

Mark Zaruba was promoted to partner with Williams Mullen in Richmond, Va. Zaruba represents clients with respect to securities, regulatory compliance, mergers and acquisitions, and corporate governance matters, with a particular focus on Regulation D private placement offerings, private equity fund formation and financing transactions for early-stage companies.

2009

Marissa BoyntonMarissa R. Boynton was promoted to counsel with Latham & Watkins in Washing­ton, D.C. As a member of the litigation and trial department, Boynton practices in the areas of data privacy, cyberse­curity and data breach response, white-collar defense and consumer protection. She has liti­gation, investigations and counseling experi­ence in matters involv­ing computer fraud and cybercrime, privacy and data security compli­ance, and program man­agement, representing clients in the consumer, health care, retail, pro­fessional services and technology sectors.

Bridget Mayer BriggsBridget Mayer Briggs was elected partner in Blank Rome’s Phila­delphia office. Briggs concentrates her practice on corpo­rate, white-collar and class-action defense litigation, notably counseling clients on Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organi­zations Act matters, Bank Secrecy Act compliance, the False Claims Act, the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, collateralized debt obligations, govern­ment contracts, civil and criminal forfei­ture, breach of con­tract, fraud and busi­ness torts. Briggs serves on the board of direc­tors for the Homeless Advocacy Project and is an active member of Blank Rome’s recruit­ing committee.

Allison (Davis) Knerr was elected partner with Dinsmore in Cin­cinnati. Knerr’s work in­cludes claims of breach of contract, breach of license agreement, neg­ligence and fraud. She has also represented companies on matters related to regulatory re­quirements under the Clean Water Act and the Clean Air Act.

Bradley T. Giordano joined McDermott Will & Emery’s restructuring and insolvency group as a partner, based in Chicago. Giordano represents debtors, lender groups, creditors, equity sponsors and strategic investors in all aspects of in-court and out-of-court restructurings. He also advises senior managers and boards of directors on operating in Chapter 11, fiduciary duty considerations and strategic restructuring alternatives. In addition, Giordano counsels credit and private equity fund clients in connection with strategic acquisitions or dispositions of distressed assets.

President Donald J. Trump nominated John Chase Johnson of Okla­homa to be inspector general at the Federal Communications Com­mission. Johnson is an associate at Covington & Burling, where he practices in the com­mercial litigation and government contracts groups. He also serves as a major and military judge in the U.S. Marine Corps Forces Reserve. Before joining Coving­ton, Johnson served on active duty in the Marines and deployed to Afghanistan. He clerked for U.S. Judge Edith Clement of the Fifth Circuit and Judge Victor Wolski ’91 of the U.S. Court of Federal Claims.

Josh MarnitzJoshua W. Marnitz was promoted to counsel with Latham & Watkins in Los Angeles. Marnitz is a member of the en­vironment, land and resources department. His practice focuses on complex corporate and finance transactions in the oil and gas, power, renewable energy, manufacturing and real estate sectors. He advises private equity firms, financial insti­tutions and corporate clients on environmen­tal and energy regula­tory matters. He also has experience with the development and fi­nancing of major con­ventional and renewable energy and infrastruc­ture projects in the U.S. and abroad.

Kristin Sheppe is of counsel with Wescott Law in their Plymouth, N.H., office. Sheppe focuses her practice on estate planning and probate administration.

Craig Smith was elected partner with Wiley Rein in Washington, D.C. Smith counsels and represents government contractors and sub­contractors on a broad range of government contracting issues, in­cluding bid protests, contract claims and dis­putes, and suspension and debarment matters, as well as government and internal audits and investigations.

Christine Bestor TownsendChristine Bestor Townsend was elected shareholder in Ogletree Deakins’ Milwaukee office. Townsend focuses her practice on proactively assisting employers in complying with state and federal employment laws, navigating complex leave and accommodation situations, and handling personnel issues. She works closely with employers to create policies and practices that satisfy both the employer’s business needs and the law.

Jamila Justine Willis, a New York-based partner in the restruc­turing practice of DLA Piper, was named to the Crain’s New York Business 2020 Notable Women in Law list. The award is an honor given to 100 “dedicated, gifted and determined female lawyers” in the New York City metro­politan area who are also “fierce in their commitment to public service and pro bono causes.”

Willis was also named a 2019 Rising Star by the New York Law Journal as part of its annual Professional Excellence Awards. The publication’s editors describe the award as recognition for the “re­gion’s most promising lawyers” under 40.

Earlier in her career, Willis worked in Geneva as a human rights attorney for an international anti-tor­ture organization, and she continues to work pro bono on behalf of global human rights or­ganizations and local New York-based non­profits.

Willis focuses her practice on financial and corporate restruc­turing, and has ex­tensive experience in complex restructurings across industries.