2000s Class Notes

Katharine Manning released her debut book, which helps employers foster a healthy workplace environment. In “The Empathetic Workplace,” published by HarperCollins Leadership, Manning helps managers navigate disruptions in the aftermath of trauma. As a senior attorney adviser with the Justice Department, for 15 years Manning counseled on victim rights in high-profile cases like the Boston Marathon bombing, the Pulse nightclub and South Carolina church shootings, the Charlottesville violence, Bernie Madoff and the case against Olympic gymnastics team doctor Larry Nassar. Now president of Blackbird, Manning helps organizations prepare for and respond to the challenges they face involving employees and members of the public in trauma.

 

 

 

Melissa J. Hutson was elected to Kirkland & Ellis’ global management committee in New York City. Hutson is a finance partner in the debt finance group.

 

Steven M. Klepper was recognized in Best Lawyers in America for appellate practice and insurance law. Klepper is a principal in litigation firm Kramon & Graham in Baltimore and leads the firm’s appellate group.

 

 

 

Logan Breed was named a 2020 Future Star in the field of antitrust by Financier Worldwide. Breed is a partner in Hogan Lovells’ Washington, D.C., office. 

 

Sallie Lin practices in Stoel Rives’ real estate group in Seattle. Lin advises clients on a wide range of matters, including financing, leasing, acquisitions and partnerships. She counsels clients on development and construction projects, including affordable housing projects that leverage the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit, tax-exempt bond financing, state and local funding, and equity investment. 

 

Kristina Kopf Thomas, partner in Eversheds Sutherland’s Real Estate Practice Group, was appointed partner in charge of the Atlanta office. Thomas is a commercial real estate and fund formation attorney with more than 15 years of experience working on a broad spectrum of transactions.

 

 

 

John C. Blair was appointed city attorney for Staunton, Va. Blair has served more than 16 years as a local government attorney in a variety of localities in Virginia, including most recently as the city attorney and interim city manager for Charlottesville.

 

Jeffrey P. Kapp is the newest shareholder with Jordan Ramis in Lake Oswego, Ore. Kapp, a member of the real estate team, advises clients on a complex commercial 

real estate and finance transactions. 

 

Andy Poarch, chief operating officer of the Alliance Group in Richmond, was honored by Virginia Business Magazine as 100 People to Meet in 2021, an annual list of impact-makers in Virginia’s business community who are leaders in their respective industries helping to drive innovation and growth across the commonwealth. 

 

 

 

Jason E. Hazlewood is managing partner for Reed Smith’s headquarters in Pittsburgh. Hazlewood has been with the firm since 2006. 

 

Anne Ralph is a professor at the Ohio State University Moritz College of Law, where she was recently named associate dean for academic affairs. In 2020, Ralph received the Alumni Award for Distinguished Teaching, which honors faculty members for superior teaching and is awarded to 10 faculty members annually across the entire university.

 

 

 

Natalie Kernisant has been appointed chief diversity and inclusion officer with Morrison & Foerster. In her previous role, Kernisant was instrumental in shaping and coordinating the firm’s response to fighting racial injustice in the wake of George Floyd’s killing. She led the team in providing programming, training and educational opportunities, and she spearheaded the development of four engagement committees focused on legal services, charitable donations, community action and education. In her new role, Kernisant will provide strategic leadership to advance recruiting and retention of diverse talent, as well as client development support in diversity and inclusion.

 

Brent H. Olson was named a member at Dykema Gossett. Olson is in Dykema's Washington, D.C. office. His practice focuses on insurance coverage litigation and counseling insurance companies on complex coverage issues related to directors and officers, errors and omissions, employment practices, and other specialty lines policies.

 

In May of 2020, Daniel V. Shapiro was promoted to deputy chief of the Criminal Division in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of New Jersey. Prior to that, he was chief of the Economic Crimes Unit.

 

 

 

Clayton De Arment was named a partner at Troutman Pepper in Richmond, Va. De Arment is a corporate and transactional attorney with broad experience across many industries, but with a particular focus on the energy sector and renewable energy projects.

 

Classmates Conniel Malek and Adam Schempp have collaborated with Howard University on a clerkship program aimed at attracting, training and retaining law students of color in the field of environmental law while advancing environmental justice efforts. Malek, who serves as executive director of True Costs Initiative and Schempp, a senior attorney at the Environmental Law Institute, knew each other in law school, but recently got back in touch. 

 

“Adam and I think it is exciting and fortuitous that we reconnected as classmates in a year like 2020, but also that two UVA Law friends could collaborate 14 years after graduating to seed a unique clerkship program at the intersection of environmental law, environmental justice and investing in another generation of law students at a historically Black college/university,” Malek said.

 

The program kicked off with four Howard University law students receiving clerkships hosted at the Environmental Law Institute and guided by the school’s Environmental Justice Center. Malek said True Costs Initiative intends to seed such clerkship programs at other universities in the future. “This collaboration, while still new, has been very successful and garnered much interest and support in the environmental law community,” Schempp added.

 

Ammar Abu Zayyad LL.M. has been country director with CARE International in Jordan since 2019.

 

 

 

Austin Curry was included in 2021 Best Lawyers in America. Curry practices with Caldwell Cassady & Curry in Dallas. Since last year’s guide, Curry earned a repeat selection to the annual Texas Super Lawyers list recognizing the state’s best intellectual property litigators. Curry was also named as one of only six intellectual property lawyers in the country on Law360’s annual Rising Stars list of the nation’s top young attorneys.

 

Kaleb Froehlich serves as chief of staff to U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski.

 

James M. McDonald, most recently director of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s Division of Enforcement, joined Sullivan & Cromwell’s New York litigation practice as a member of the securities and commodities investigations and enforcement practice, and of the commodities, futures and derivatives group.

 

 

Bradley T. Giordano was selected as one of the American Bankruptcy Institute’s 40 under 40. Giordano is a partner with McDermott Will & Emery in Chicago. Giordano represents debtors, equity sponsors, lender groups, creditors and strategic investors in all aspects of in-court and out-of-court restructurings. 

 

Jeremy Ben Merkelson was elected partner at Holland & Hart in Washington, D.C. Merkelson focuses on labor and employment law, collaborates with public and private companies, health care organizations, trade associations and nonprofits to solve their most complex employment-related problems. He has substantial first-chair trial experience in state and federal courts, administrative proceedings and arbitrations throughout the U.S. He also advises on employment aspects of mergers and acquisitions.