Practical Law
Senior specialist legal editors
Introducing the attorney-editors behind the game-changing legal know-how
Antitrust
Jennifer Coon
Jennifer Coon joined Practical Law from Dechert LLP, where she was an associate in the antitrust group handling a variety of merger, counseling and litigation matters. Jen was responsible for managing the US premerger notification program at Dechert, including analyzing premerger notification requirements under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Act and preparing required HSR filings.
Jonathan Faria
Jonathan Faria joined Practical Law from Kirkland & Ellis LLP, where he was a partner in the Antitrust & Competition group. Jon’s practice included a wide range of global antitrust and competition matters, including government investigations, litigation, and counseling on antitrust compliance for U.S and international clients.
Arbitration
Alex Hiendl
Alex Hiendl is an English-qualified solicitor specializing in international arbitration. He joined Practical Law in 2022 from Allen & Overy, where he trained and practised. Alex spent more than a decade with Allen & Overy’s international arbitration team, finishing as the Global Head of Practice Development for International Arbitration, a role which encompassed professional support lawyer work, as well as leading on business development, strategy and operations for the global group. Alex also spent a year at the Court of Appeal as judicial assistant to the Rt Hon. Lady Justice Arden (as she then was) and two years as a Reverendaire at the UK Competition Appeal Tribunal. He holds an LLB in Law with German Law and a postgraduate diploma in European Competition Law, both from King’s College, London. Alex is a fluent German speaker and also studied at Humboldt Universität zu Berlin, gaining a Diploma in German civil law.
Victoria Kummer
Victoria Kummer joined Practical Law in 2015 after retiring from Dickstein Shapiro, where she was a partner in the Business Litigation group for 12 years. Previously at Weil, Gotshal & Manges and Baer Marks & Upham, she practiced for more than 20 years as a commercial litigator before courts and arbitral tribunals around the world. Since 1998, she has also been an arbitrator, serving on panels of the AAA, ICDR, FINRA, CPR, and ICC, and a mediator for the NY Supreme Court Commercial Division, the SDNY and the Second Circuit. She was also an Adjunct Professor of Law at Cardozo School of Law for over 20 years, teaching legal writing and an upper-level course on pretrial practice.
Claire Lipman
Claire Lipman trained and qualified as a solicitor in 1994 with Paisner and Co (now Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner), where she worked for some 13 years in their dispute resolution team. In addition to practising in all areas of general commercial litigation, Claire specialized in international arbitration and became a Member of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators. She has contributed a chapter in ADR and Commercial Disputes, published by Sweet and Maxwell. Claire joined Practical Law in July 2007 and is now Director of Practical Law Arbitration.
Melissa Lorenzo-Herve
Melissa Lorenzo-Herve joined Practical Law from Fortent, a compliance information management company, where she was a legal editor. Previously she was an associate in the M&A group at Troutman Sanders LLP and before that was an associate in the corporate and litigation groups at Hughes Hubbard & Reed LLP.
Carol Mulcahy
Carol Mulcahy qualified as a solicitor in 1983. She trained with, and became a partner at Paisner & Co (now Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner), where she worked for 39 years. Carol started her career as a general commercial litigator before developing a specialist practice in international commercial arbitration. She is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators and has sat as an LCIA arbitrator. Carol has published widely on various arbitration-related topics and is co-author of A Guide to the IBA Rules on the Taking of Evidence in International Arbitration, published by Oxford University Press in 2019.
Steven Skulnik
Steven Skulnik joined Practical Law in 2014 from Ganfer & Shore LLP, where he was counsel in the litigation department. His practice focused on international and domestic commercial litigation and arbitration. He previously was counsel at Squire Patton Boggs (US) LLP and a partner in Pavia & Harcourt LLP. He is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (FCIArb) and of the College of Commercial Arbitrators, a member of the International Arbitration Club of New York, and a panel arbitrator with the AAA/ICDR, CPR, SIAC, and other providers. Steve chaired the New York City Bar Association's Arbitration Committee and the Arbitration Committee of the Dispute Resolution Section of the New York State Bar Association. He has been on the organizing committee of New York Arbitration Week since its inception in 2019 and regularly speaks on and moderates panels at arbitration conferences.
Bankruptcy & restructuring
Ira Levee
Ira Levee has over 30 years of bankruptcy experience. He joined Practical Law from Lowenstein Sandler LLP where he was of counsel in the Bankruptcy, Financial Reorganization and Creditors' Rights practice group, representing debtors, creditors, and other stakeholders including securities class action plaintiffs. Previously, he was a partner in a bankruptcy boutique in Roseland, NJ.
Jordanna Nadritch
Jordanna Nadritch joined Practical Law from Olshan Frome Wolosky LLP, where she was a partner in the Bankruptcy and Financial Restructuring group, handling all aspects of Chapter 11 reorganizations and out-of-court workouts. Previously, she was an associate in the Bankruptcy and Restructuring group at Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson LLP. Jordanna is the Content Lead for Practical Law's Bankruptcy & Restructuring Service.
Aliza Reicher
Aliza Reicher joined Practical Law from Brown Rudnick LLP, where she was a senior associate in the bankruptcy and corporate restructuring group focusing primarily on creditor committee, equity committee and equity holder representations in bankruptcy. Previously she was an associate at Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP where she focused on debtor representations in bankruptcy and prior to that a bankruptcy associate at Lowenstein Sandler LLP.
Ilissa Watnik
Ilissa Watnik joined Practical Law from Debevoise & Plimpton LLP, where she was an attorney in the corporate and bankruptcy group. Previously she was an attorney at Gibson Dunn & Crutcher LLP and Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP. She also worked at PricewaterhouseCoopers as a business analyst.
Ella Vincent
Ella Vincent joined Practical Law from Stoel Rives LLP, where she served as a senior associate in the corporate practice group, advising creditors and other interested parties in Chapter 11 bankruptcies, other insolvency proceedings, and related litigation. Prior to that, she served as an associate at Pacific Northwest firms Miller Nash LLP and Foster Pepper PLLC, where she also focused on bankruptcy and restructuring representations. Ella served as term law clerk for the Honorable Brian D. Lynch of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Western District of Washington.
Capital markets & corporate governance
Vanessa Browder
Vanessa Browder joined Practical Law from Mayer Brown LLP, where she was a senior associate in the corporate and securities group. Previously, she was an associate in the New York offices of Clifford Chance US LLP, Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP and Schulte Roth & Zabel LLP. She has also been a secondee at BMO Capital Markets Corp.
Ian Combs
Ian Combs joined Practical Law from the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority's (FINRA) Office of the General Counsel, where he specialized in SEC and FINRA financial and operational rules. Prior to his role in the General Counsel's office, Ian held several different positions during his almost ten years of service with FINRA.
Jerry Carannante
Jerry Carannante joined Practical Law from Sullivan & Cromwell LLP, where he was a senior associate in the Corporate and Finance group, specializing in a variety of capital markets transactions and complex corporate matters for large public companies.
Amanda Lamson
Amanda Lamson joined Practical Law from in-house legal practice at both NYSE and NASDAQ listed companies, where she focused on securities, M&A and corporate governance. Previously she was an associate at Olshan Frome Wolosky LLP, practicing in the Activist and Corporate groups.
Sharon Makower
Sharon Makower joined Practical Law from Cablevision Systems Corporation, where she was associate general counsel. Previously she was a senior corporate attorney for Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel LLP, specializing in securities and M&A. Before that, she was an associate in the corporate group at Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP.
Robert Pelgrift
Robert Pelgrift joined Practical Law after practicing for many years at Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP in New York, where he served most recently as counsel in the capital markets practice group and also represented the firm's private equity clients. Previously, he clerked for Judge Robert L. Carter in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.
Christopher Roehrig
Christopher Roehrig joined Practical Law from Torys LLP, where he was a senior associate in the corporate and capital markets practice groups. Previously he was an associate in the capital markets and mergers and acquisitions practice groups at Shearman & Sterling LLP.
Wentao Yuan
Wentao Yuan is a US lawyer qualified in New York and the State of Washington. After receiving his JD from New York University School of Law in 2013, he started practicing law at the Hong Kong offices of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP. In 2019, he joined Cooley LLP and was part of the team that started Cooley’s capital markets practice in Asia. At Skadden and Cooley, Wentao was a general corporate attorney with a focus on capital markets transactions involving foreign private issuers. He also briefly worked at Stoel Rives LLP in 2021. Wentao grew up in China and is a native Mandarin speaker. Wentao joined Thomson Reuters Practical Law in September 2021 as a Senior Legal Editor.
Commercial transactions
Peggy Barber
Peggy Chang Barber joined Practical Law with extensive experience in global contracting and commercial transactions. Previously, she was General Counsel and Americas CEO for The International Association for Contract and Commercial Management. She also spent 19 years with Hewlett Packard, most recently as Vice President and Associate General Counsel for Global Sales and the North America Region. Before HP, Peggy practiced at law firms in the Houston and DC area, including Rudnick, Wolfe, Epstein & Zeidman (now DLA Piper).
Janet Brown
Janet Brown joined Practical Law from CEVA Logistics where she was VP-Legal and Risk Management. In this regional general counsel role, she had responsibility for commercial, corporate, litigation, and risk management for North America as well as cargo claims for the global organization. Previously, she was an attorney in the healthcare practice group at BakerHostetler in Houston, Texas. Janet has extensive experience in commercial transactions and law department management.
Charles Donefer
Charles Donefer joined Practical Law from Squishable.com, Inc. where he was General Counsel focusing on transactional matters, licensing and consumer product safety. Previously, he was an associate attorney at Kaye Scholer LLP (now Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer LLP) in New York.
Lawrence Hsieh
Lawrence Hsieh joined Practical Law from private practice. Previously, he was in-house counsel with Nissho Iwai American Corporation, and a corporate associate with Ober, Kaler, Grimes & Shriver, Komatsu & Koma and Shea & Gould. He is the author of the Corporate Transactions Handbook.
Paul Horowitz
Paul Horowitz joined Practical Law from private practice. Previously, he was a partner in the customs and international trade practice groups at Baker McKenzie and Coudert Brothers LLP in New York. Before that, he was a senior associate at a customs and international trade boutique in New York.
Sharon Kohn
Sharon Kohn joined Practical Law from Kraft Foods, where she was Chief Counsel, Marketing Services and Planters, focusing on marketing, advertising, and privacy law and commercial contracts. Previously, she was Marketing and Advertising Counsel at McDonald's Corporation and Assistant General Counsel at Rand McNally & Company. Prior to that, she was an intellectual property associate at Kirkland & Ellis.
Erin Neff
Erin Neff joined Practical Law from Walgreen Co., where she was Senior Counsel in the Litigation and Regulatory Law department. Previously, she was an associate for Petti, Murphy & Associates. Erin is a Senior Managing Editor of Practical Law's Commercial Transactions and Law Department Service.
Brandan Oliver
Brandan Oliver joined Practical Law from Xero, Inc., where she was the General Manager of Legal and Business Advisory for the Americas. Previously, she was a Senior Corporate Counsel supporting commercial transactions at DISH Network. Before that, she was in private practice in the finance and restructuring group at Faegre Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP in Colorado.
Mari Orser
Mari Orser joined Practical Law from the San Francisco office of GATX Corporation, where she was counsel focusing on commercial transactions. Previously, she was an associate with Stein & Lubin (now Lubin Olson & Niewiadomski) and Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher in San Francisco, and Latham & Watkins in San Francisco and Chicago.
Laszlo Serester
Laszlo Serester joined Practical Law from Chinook Sciences, LLC, where he was Corporate Counsel. Previously he was Assistant General Counsel at Minerals Technologies, Inc. and an associate in the corporate and securities department of Baker McKenzie in New York.
Cassandra Soltis
Cassandra Soltis brings extensive in-house and law firm experience to Practical Law. She started her legal career at Hyman, Phelps & McNamara, P.C., and continued at Bayne & Associates, both FDA boutique firms where she was of counsel. She was also a director, corporate counsel, at Starbucks Coffee Company, where she advised on a variety of food and consumer product regulatory matters.
Dan Schaeffer
Dan Schaeffer joined Practical Law from Neal & McDevitt LLC, where he was Of Counsel, focusing on technology and other complex commercial transactions. Prior to that, he was a bankruptcy associate at Foley, Hoag & Eliot in Boston, an intellectual property associate at Kirkland & Ellis in Chicago, and had his own practice. Dan also led the in-house Intellectual Property legal team at Arthur Andersen LLP.
Paula Shakelton
Paula Shakelton joined Practical Law from private practice. Previously, she was a senior business litigation associate at Jones Day and Ulmer & Berne, where she focused on product liability, consumer law, and regulatory matters.
Deborah Verdile
Deborah Verdile joined Practical Law from Samsung C&T America, Inc. where she was General Counsel focusing on commercial transactions, international trade, and corporate law. Previously, she was an Associate General Counsel for Celanese Corporation. Prior to that, she was a litigation associate attorney at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher in New York.
Corporate and M&A
Karl Ahlm
Karl Ahlm joined Practical Law from Gould & Ratner LLP, where he had been a partner in the business counseling and transactional group. Previously, he was a partner at DLA Piper US LLP specializing in private equity and M&A transactions, and before that a corporate associate at Winston & Strawn LLP, focusing on a broad range of M&A, finance, and securities matters.
Catherine Chang
Catherine Chang joined Practical Law from Dewey & LeBoeuf LLP, where she was an associate in the corporate group. Previously she was an associate at both Morrison Cohen LLP and Tannenbaum Helpern Syracuse & Hirschtritt LLP.
Melanie Arad Fitzpatrick
Melanie Arad Fitzpatrick joined Practical Law from Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP, where she was an associate in the tax department. Previously she was an associate in the tax department at Sullivan & Cromwell LLP.
Ana Guzman
Ana Guzman joined Practical Law from Greenberg Traurig, LLP, where she worked as a senior attorney in the corporate and securities department. Previously, she was a senior associate in the business transactions practice group at Schulte, Roth & Zabel LLP, where she handled a wide range of corporate transactional matters.
Hannah Kong
Hannah Kong joined Practical Law after serving as General Counsel for Pegasus Capital Advisors, a private equity fund manager with assets under management of approximately 2 billion. Previously, she was a partner in the Corporate Group at Kirkland & Ellis in New York, where she focused on private equity. Prior to that, she was an associate in the London office of Kirkland & Ellis.
Bob Kuhns
Bob Kuhns joined Practical Law after serving as Chief Legal Officer and Corporate Secretary for LCI Industries, during which time he advised the company on several strategic domestic and international growth initiatives. Previously, he was a partner at Dorsey & Whitney LLP in Minneapolis, where he represented public and private companies in a broad variety of domestic and cross-border M&A transactions, securities offerings, venture capital financings, and corporate governance matters.
Emma Lee
Emma Lee joined Practical Law from Schnader Harrison Segal & Lewis LLP, where she was a partner in the business services department and a former co-chair of the corporate practice group. Previously, she was an associate at Salans LLP. Emma is the Senior Managing Editor of Corporate State Content.
Melissa Lovell
Melissa Lovell joined Practical Law from Gordon, Arata, McCollam, Duplantis & Eagan, LLC, where she was a member in the business transactions group, specializing in corporate law and M&A matters.
Anne Maglione
Anne Maglione joined Practical Law from Winston & Strawn LLP, where she was a senior associate in the firm's corporate department.
Sara McLeod
Sara McLeod rejoined Practical Law from Duval & Stachenfeld LLP, where she was of counsel in the tax group. Previously she was a director and senior tax counsel at UBS and special counsel in the tax department at Sullivan & Cromwell LLP.
Barbara Oikle
Barbara Oikle joined Practical Law from Greenberg Traurig, P.A., where she had been a shareholder in the corporate and securities department specializing in M&A and securities transactions for public companies. Previously she was a corporate associate at Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP. Barbara also clerked for Chief Justice Poritz of the New Jersey Supreme Court. Barbara is the Senior Managing Editor of National Corporate Content.
Ann Williams
Ann Williams joined Practical Law from Locke Lord LLP where she was senior counsel in the corporate practice group, focusing on private M&A transactions.
Nausheen Shaikh Samdani
Nausheen Shaikh Samdani joined Practical Law after working as a senior associate at Paul Hastings LLP, where she represented public and private companies on a broad range of transactional and corporate matters, including M&A, securities laws, and corporate governance.
Data privacy & cybersecurity
Jaime Barwig
Jaime Barwig joined Practical Law from Bass, Berry & Sims PLC where she was a partner focusing on privacy compliance, data management, regulatory strategy, and technology transactions, advising companies in a wide variety of industries and sectors on global data privacy matters, including providing strategic privacy counseling in mergers and acquisitions and data-driven products and services.
Melodi (Mel) Gates
Melodi (Mel) Gates, CIPP/US, joined Practical Law from Squire Patton Boggs (US) LLP, where she was a senior associate focusing on cybersecurity and privacy issues, including in the health information technology field. Prior to practicing law, Mel worked in technical operations for over twenty years in the telecommunications industry, last serving as chief information security officer (CISO) for a large network provider.
Beth Magnuson
Beth Magnuson, CIPP/US, CIPP/E, joined Practical Law from Oracle, where she was managing counsel, responsible for privacy and security matters. Her prior positions at Oracle (formerly Sun Microsystems) focused on trademark and copyright matters. Before that, she was special counsel with Faegre & Benson, general counsel of Pumpkin Masters, a seasonal products company, and an intellectual property associate at both Finnegan, Henderson, Farabow, Garrett & Dunner and Welsh & Katz (now Husch Blackwell).
Sarah Muhlstock
Sarah Muhlstock, CIPP/US/C joined Practical Law from Brother International Corporation, where she was Senior Corporate Counsel responsible for US and Canadian data privacy and general commercial matters. Previously Sarah was an attorney at Verizon Wireless in the Procurement and Technology and Contracts groups. Before that, she was a commercial litigation associate at Day Pitney LLP.
Amanda K. O’Keefe
Amanda K. O’Keefe, CIPP/US, CIPM, AIGP, & FIP, joined Practical Law from New York Life Insurance Company (NYL), where she was Associate General Counsel and Corporate Vice President responsible for technology, intellectual property, and strategic sourcing. Prior to NYL, Amanda was Senior Vice President and Assistant General Counsel for Citigroup, where she served as subject matter expert for privacy and data security matters for Global Corporate Legal. Before joining Wall Street, Amanda represented entrepreneurial startups and creative artists, and worked with the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Enforcement Division. Amanda is also an adjunct professor teaching Business Law and Corporate Social Responsibility.
Victoria Southern
Victoria Southern joined Practical Law from the global pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca where she was the Global Privacy Counsel and Privacy Officer for Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. Previously she was an associate in the Outsourcing, Technology and Commercial group of Pinsent Masons, LLP advising clients on global privacy issues.
Candice Teitlebaum
Candice Teitlebaum Kelamis joined Practical Law from Corus Entertainment Inc. (formerly Shaw Media Inc. and Canwest Broadcasting) where she was Director, Legal Counsel responsible for privacy and information technology matters. While at Shaw Media, Candice also advised its parent company, Shaw Communications Inc. on enterprise-wide privacy and data security matters. Candice was previously an associate in the corporate/commercial group of Aird & Berlis LLP.
Employee benefits & executive compensation
Amy Adams
Amy Adams joined Practical Law from Debevoise & Plimpton LLP, where she was an associate in the employee benefits and executive compensation department.
Jessica Cherry
Jessica Cherry joined Practical Law from the New York office of Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP, where she was a partner in the employee benefits and executive compensation department. Previously she worked as an associate in the global equity services department of Baker McKenzie in San Francisco.
Jessica Faith
Jessica Faith joined Practical Law from Principal Financial Group, where she was in-house counsel for the retirement and income solutions business unit. Previously, she was an associate in the ERISA, benefits, and executive compensation group of Faegre Baker Daniels LLP (now Faegre Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP).
Ray Kaplan
Ray Kaplan joined Practical Law from Epstein Becker & Green, P.C., where he was an associate in the Employee Benefits department. Previously he was with Deloitte LLP and the Segal Company specializing in employee benefits and executive compensation.
Kyle Murray
Kyle Murray joined Practical Law from the Employee Benefits Institute of America (EBIA), where he worked as an ERISA attorney focusing on health and welfare plan issues. Previously he was an employee benefits associate at Ogletree Deakins.
Finance
Maria Barclay
Maria Barclay joined Practical Law from Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP, where she was a senior corporate attorney in the finance group. Previously, she was an attorney on the banking and finance team at the Auckland, New Zealand office of Bell Gully. Maria is a Fellow of the American College of Commercial Finance Lawyers (ACCFL). She is a Senior Executive Editor in Practical Law’s Finance team.
Eric Berman
Eric Berman joined Practical Law from Sidley Austin LLP, where he worked as an associate in the corporate finance group, specializing in derivatives, securitization and structured finance, prime brokerage and securities lending.
Jeremy Estabrooks
Jeremy Estabrooks joined Practical Law from Axiom Law, where he worked at the general counsel's office of American Express and dealt primarily with banking, M&A and regulatory issues. Before that, he worked in the financial services group at Goodwin Procter LLP in New York. Before that, he worked in the finance and corporate and securities groups at Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP, also in New York. Jeremy began his legal career as a Stimson Fellow, working on various legal reform initiatives with the Russian government in Moscow, Russia.
Tim Fanning
Tim Fanning joined Practical Law from Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP, where he was senior counsel in the corporate finance group, representing investment funds, banks and corporations as borrowers and lenders in connection with credit facilities and a range of other financings. Tim is the Managing Editor of Practical Law's Finance team.
Richard Katz
Richard Katz joined Practical Law following a long career with The Bank of New York Mellon's Legal Department. Richard focused on commercial lending, letters of credit, credit support for bonds and commercial paper, and trade finance. Before that he was an associate in the Corporate Department of Demov, Morris & Hammerling.
Heather McArn
Heather McArn joined Practical Law from private practice where she advised clients on financial services compliance and regulatory matters. Heather was a financial services regulator at the New York State Department of Financial Services, a corporate restructuring partner at Jenner & Block, and an associate at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison. Heather began her legal career as a law clerk to Chief Judge Lifland of the US Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York.
Erlyne Nazaire
Erlyne Nazaire joined Practical Law from Debevoise & Plimpton LLP, where she was a corporate attorney in the international practice group handling project finance, private M&A and joint venture transactions.
Vince Salvatore
Vince Salvatore joined Practical Law from private practice, where he advised New York municipalities, 501(c)(3) organizations, and startups on corporate, finance, and energy matters, and was General Counsel of Sustainable Westchester. He was previously General Counsel of Island Capital, finance partner at Winston & Strawn LLP, and Assistant General Counsel at Overseas Private Investment Corporation. Vince began at Chadbourne & Parke LLP, where he worked on finance, M&A, and litigation matters in the firm's New York, Abu Dhabi, Dubai, and Washington, D.C., offices.
David Wiles
David joined Practical law from Goulston & Storrs PC in New York, where he had been counsel and a partner in the Banking & Finance Group. Before that, he worked as a counsel at Davis Polk & Wardwell, as a partner at Mayer Brown LLP, and as an associate general counsel and managing director at Bank of America, covering corporate lending, syndicated and leveraged finance. After law school, he served as a law clerk for US District Judge Richard L. Williams in the Eastern District of Virginia, and then as an associate at Robinson Bradshaw & Hinson in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Government practice: Federal
Gay F. Chase
Gay F. Chase joined Practical Law from the United States Merit Systems Protection Board, where she served as an Administrative Judge adjudicating federal employment cases. Previously she was an Assistant General Counsel for the United States General Services Administration specializing in federal labor and employment litigation. Before that she served as a Labor Attorney for the United States Department of Labor, Office of the Solicitor.
Grace I. Cheng
Grace joined Practical Law from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's Office of the General Counsel, where she served as senior Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and Privacy counsel. Prior to that role, Grace served as Chief of the Government Information Law Division of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's Office of the Principal Legal Advisor, where her practice included FOIA, privacy, congressional oversight, records management, as well as a wide range of regulatory and policy matters related to government information disclosure. Prior to her government service, Grace was in private practice, specializing in civil litigation and commercial arbitration. Grace is the Director of the Government Practice Service.
Brett T. Egusa
Brett T. Egusa joined Practical Law after more than eighteen years as a civilian and military attorney in the Federal Government. Most recently, he served as Associate Chief Counsel, Procurement and Fiscal Law Division at the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), where he practiced procurement, fiscal, and grants law. Prior to his time at FEMA, Brett practiced procurement and fiscal law at U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Previous to that, Brett was an active duty Army Judge Advocate General (JAG), where he practiced procurement, fiscal, operational, labor and employment, and criminal law. Brett retired from the U.S. Army Reserve in 2023.
Christine L. Krell
Christine L. Krell joined Practical Law after almost two decades in the Federal Government. Most recently, she served as Senior Assistant General Counsel to the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA), where she specialized in multi-billion dollar Government-wide IT contracts, advised on matters of Government-wide procurement policy, and served as an attorney for the FAR Council. Prior to her time at GSA, Christine practiced procurement and fiscal law at U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and U.S. Army Surface Deployment and Distribution Command, and previously served at the Department of Veterans Affairs where she adjudicated employment discrimination complaints.
Anna Pohl
Anna Pohl joined Practical Law from the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, where she was a trial attorney in the New York District Office and litigated employment discrimination cases, including systemic cases, under federal civil rights statutes. Previously she was an associate at Mehri & Skalet, PLLC where she represented plaintiffs in complex employment cases and class actions.
Government practice: State & local
Cathy Cunningham
Cathy Cunningham joined Practical Law with more than thirty years of municipal law experience. Most recently, Cathy was in private practice at Boyle & Lowry, LLP, where she advised municipal and special district clients on matters including utility and right-of-way, zoning and land use, personnel, code enforcement, and budget and tax. Previously, she was a Senior Attorney in the Irving, Texas City Attorney’s Office, where her activities were later recognized by the Texas House of Representatives with a Resolution and a flag in honor of her public service. Before that, Cathy worked for the City Attorney’s Office for the City of Abilene, Texas.
Teneé Frazier
Teneé Frazier joined Practical Law with more than a decade of local government experience. Most recently she served as Assistant General Counsel with the Alabama League of Municipalities where she advised state and local government officials, employees, and attorneys on local government issues, including procurement, economic development, infrastructure, zoning, and code enforcement. Prior to that she clerked for Alabama's Fifteenth Judicial Circuit, the Southern Poverty Law Center, and the District of Columbia Office of the Attorney General. She is a member of the Alabama State Bar and the International Municipal Lawyers Association (IMLA).
Beth Hoffman
Beth Hoffman joined Practical Law from the New York City Law Department, where she served as Senior Counsel in the Special Federal Litigation Division. During her more than 10 years in the Special Federal Litigation Division, she exclusively litigated hundreds of Section 1983 cases brought against the City of New York and its uniformed employees, including the New York City Police Department and the New York City Department of Correction, from inception through trial or settlement. In addition to her 1983 litigation experience, Beth has significant experience in numerous other areas of federal litigation practice, including employment discrimination, bankruptcy, securities fraud, and class actions.
Roger Horner
Roger Horner joined Practical Law after more than three decades in local government. Most recently, he was the City Attorney for Brentwood, Tennessee, where he advised the City Manager, City Commission, and all City boards and departments. Prior to that, he served as Brentwood's Finance Director, and previously was a financial analyst for the Tennessee Public Service Commission. He is a past president of the Tennessee Municipal Attorneys Association (TMAA) and received TMAA's Distinguished Municipal Attorney Award in 2018. He is a former member of the Board of Directors for the International Municipal Lawyers Association (IMLA) and a Fellow of the Tennessee Bar Foundation.
Ian Williams
Ian Williams joined Practical Law from the County Attorney's Office of Volusia County, Florida, where he was an Assistant County Attorney. His practice focused on a variety of local government matters, including land use, environmental compliance, transportation, utilities, and litigating Section 1983 and inverse condemnation claims. Previously, Ian clerked for Florida's Fifth Judicial Circuit and was president of the Florida Trial Court Staff Attorneys Association. Ian has prior government experience with the Massachusetts Port Authority and the U.S. Department of State's Bureau of Arms Control in Washington, D.C. and Geneva, Switzerland.
Healthcare
Donna Cameron
Donna Cameron has over 35 years of experience as a health care lawyer, specializing in corporate governance, non-profit tax, and compliance. She joined Practical Law from MCIC, Inc., the leading provider of insurance and risk management services to major academic medical centers, where she was the Chief Legal and Compliance Officer. Previously, she served as the Chief Legal Officer and Executive Vice President of the Lahey Clinic Medical Center and its physician group practice and hospital affiliates. In her private practice, Donna acted as outside general counsel and strategic adviser to numerous heath care entities and physician organizations, both nationally and internationally. She is the former President of the American Medical Group Association Council of Health Care Attorneys. She began her legal career at the Boston law firm of Herrick & Smith.
Elizabeth H. Goldman
Elizabeth H. Goldman joined Practical Law with extensive in-house and law firm experience, having advised on health care coverage, payment and reimbursement issues with a focus on Medicare and Medicaid as well as managed care. She also has counseled on health care regulatory, compliance, fraud and abuse, audit, licensing, and policy matters. She started her legal career in the Washington, D.C. office of Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP, where she was an associate and later counsel in the health care practice group. She was also Associate Counsel, Regulatory in the Corporate Compliance Department of Magellan Health, Inc. and Senior Counsel at Evolent Health LLC.
Jane Kuesel
Jane Kuesel joined Practical Law from AdvantageCare Physicians, P.C., where she was Vice President, Legal for the 400-physician multispecialty medical practice. She also was President of Physicians Proactive Protection, Inc. Risk Retention Group, the risk retention group that provided malpractice insurance to many of the physicians at AdvantageCare Physicians. Prior to that, she was a health care attorney in private practice, including as Senior Attorney with Epstein, Becker & Green and as a partner with McDermott, Will & Emery.
Christy Naylor
Christy Naylor joined Practical Law after spending over a decade in-house, most recently with United Surgical Partners International, where she provided guidance on regulatory and operational issues attendant to ambulatory care surgical facilities. Before that, she served in regulatory and group general counsel roles with DaVita, Inc. and the Methodist Health System, counseling multi-state provider networks, west coast dialysis operators, Medicare managed and accountable care programs, individual physician practices, and non-profit hospitals. Christy began her career in a judicial clerkship, followed by several years in private practice with the K&L Gates, Jones Day, and Winstead, P.C. law firms.
Intellectual property & technology
Rita Berardino
Rita Berardino joined Practical Law from Kirkland & Ellis LLP, where she was counsel and previously a partner focusing on intellectual property and information technology matters in corporate transactions and licensing and collaborations primarily in the areas of pharmaceuticals and software. She previously was an intellectual property litigation associate at Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe.
Michael Burling
Michael Burling joined Practical Law from Paul Hastings LLP, where he was a litigation associate focusing on patent litigation in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology fields. Previously Michael was an intellectual property litigation associate at Ropes & Gray LLP.
Michael Chiappetta
Michael Chiappetta joined Practical Law from Fross Zelnick Lehrman & Zissu, PC, where he was counsel focusing on trademark and copyright litigation. Previously, he was an entertainment litigation associate at Troop Meisinger Steuber & Pasich, LLP in Los Angeles.
Jessica Davis
Jessica Davis joined Practical Law after counseling in-house legal and business teams regarding patent litigation and licensing issues. Previously she was a patent litigation associate at Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP.
Ellen English
Ellen English joined Practical Law from Wargo, French & Singer LLP, where she was of counsel in the transactional group. Her practice focused on complex commercial transactions, with an emphasis on technology transactions.
Frank Forman
Frank Forman joined Practical Law from Cooper & Dunham LLP, where he focused on pharmaceutical patent prosecution matters. Previously, Frank was Senior Patent Counsel at Astellas US LLC and Senior Corporate Counsel at Pfizer Inc., where his responsibilities included pharmaceutical patent strategy, prosecution, transactions, and litigation. Before that, Frank was a medicinal chemist at Sphinx Pharmaceuticals.
Meryl Gordon
Meryl Gordon joined Practical Law after representing major motion picture and television studios in Los Angeles as a transactional entertainment attorney. Previously, she held the positions of Senior Rights Counsel, Intellectual Property Analysis & Insights (formerly, Rights Group) at NBCUniversal, Senior Director, Business and Legal Affairs at Fox Interactive Media, Vice President, Business and Legal Affairs at USA Network, and Director, Business and Legal Affairs at Showtime. Meryl was also a transactional entertainment associate at Loeb and Loeb LLP and a corporate associate at Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen & Hamilton LLP.
Ulana (Uli) Holubec
Ulana (Uli) Holubec joined Practical Law from Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan LLP, where she was a senior associate and handled a variety of trademark and other intellectual property matters. Uli previously was an intellectual property attorney at White & Case LLP and an intellectual property litigation associate at Lieberman & Nowak, LLP.
Eric Lee
Eric Lee joined Practical Law from Medtronic, Inc., where he was principal patent counsel responsible for the Kyphon intellectual property portfolio. Immediately before joining Medtronic, Eric was chief counsel for patents at Georgia-Pacific LLC. Before that, he was assistant chief intellectual property counsel at Becton, Dickinson and Company. Previously Eric worked as an associate at Dorsey & Whitney and Fish & Neave.
Laura Lee
Laura Lee joined Practical Law from NBCUniversal, where she was vice president in the partnerships and licensing group with a focus on new media, mobile, interactive entertainment, and consumer products transactions. She previously was an associate at Nixon Peabody LLP.
Kevin McNamee
Kevin McNamee joined Practical Law from Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft LLP, where he was a senior associate in the litigation department. His practice focused on complex federal litigation, with a particular emphasis on intellectual property matters.
Bryan Schwartz
Bryan Schwartz joined Practical Law from Squire Patton Boggs (US) LLP, where he was a principal focusing on patent litigation. Previously Bryan was a partner at Benesch, Friedlander, Coplan & Aronoff LLP. Before that, Bryan was counsel at Calfee, Halter & Griswold and at Morrison & Foerster, where he specialized in ITC Section 337 investigations. Bryan is a past president of the ITC Trial Lawyers Association.
Kevin Spivak
Kevin Spivak joined Practical Law from Lee & Hayes PC, where he was a patent lawyer focusing on patent prosecution matters. Previously, Kevin was a partner at Vierra, Magen & Marcus, of counsel at Greenblum & Bernstein, a partner at Dickinson Wright, partner at K&L Gates (Bell, Boyd & Lloyd), and of counsel at Morrison & Foerster, focusing on managing and securing intellectual property rights in the high-technology field for domestic and global corporations. Kevin was previously a Patent Examiner in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, where he examined patent applications in computer-related technologies. Kevin also served on the Board of Directors for the Licensing Executives Society for six years.
Labor & employment
Chris Alber
Chris Alber joined Practical Law from Proskauer Rose, LLP, where she practiced immigration law for more than seven years. Before joining Proskauer, Chris spent more than seven years as an immigration attorney with Fragomen, Del Rey, Bernsen & Lowey, an international boutique immigration firm. Chris frequently speaks and writes on immigration topics.
Larissa C. Garriga
Larissa C. Garriga joined Practical Law from Ogletree Deakins where she was Special Counsel. Prior to that, she was Senior Counsel for NBCUniversal Media and Telemundo, working on employment, immigration, and traditional labor law matters. Before going in-house, she practiced labor and employment law in Florida and Puerto Rico for the law firm Morgan Lewis & Bockius, LLP. Previously, she clerked for the Honorable Juan M. Perez-Gimenez in the District Court for the District of Puerto Rico.
Gay F. Chase
Gay F. Chase joined Practical Law from the United States Merit Systems Protection Board, where she served as an Administrative Judge adjudicating federal employment cases. Previously she was an Assistant General Counsel for the United States General Services Administration specializing in federal labor and employment litigation. Before that she served as a Labor Attorney for the United States Department of Labor, Office of the Solicitor.
Inayat Ali Hemani
Inayat Ali Hemani joined Practical Law from Sanford Heisler Sharp, where he represented employees in negotiations and litigation of a variety of employment and whistleblower cases.
Barbara Harris
Barbara Harris is a Senior Executive Editor on Practical Law's Labor & Employment team. She joined Practical Law from DLA Piper LLP, where she served as Counsel in the labor and employment group for more than 10 years. Previously, Barbara spent seven years as Counsel at Solomon, Zauderer, Ellenhorn, Frischer & Sharp, a boutique litigation firm in New York City. Before that, she was an associate at Alschuler, Grossman & Pines in Los Angeles.
Rosemary Joyce
Rosemary Joyce joined Practical Law from Littler Mendelson P.C., where she was Special Counsel litigating and providing counsel in all areas of employment law. Previously, she worked as an attorney in the labor and employment practice groups of Fox Rothschild LLP and Seyfarth Shaw LLP.
Belle Hsu
Belle Hsu joined Practical Law after having her own law practice in California providing advice and counsel on labor and employment law to employers. Prior to that, she was director of human resources and associate general counsel for Advanced Bionics Corporation and was an employment attorney for BP America Inc.'s West Coast operations. Before going in-house, she specialized in labor and employment law as an associate at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, LLP and Littler Mendelson, P.C., both in Los Angeles.
Anna Pohl
Anna Pohl joined Practical Law from the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, where she was a trial attorney in the New York District Office and litigated employment discrimination cases, including systemic cases, under federal civil rights statutes. Previously she was an associate at Mehri & Skalet, PLLC where she represented plaintiffs in complex employment cases and class actions.
Terence McGuire
Terence McGuire joined Practical Law from Epstein Becker & Green, P.C., where he was an associate in the labor and employment practice group, concentrating in traditional labor law and employment litigation matters.
Helena Sung
Helena Sung joined Practical Law from MTV Networks, where she was senior employment counsel providing labor and employment advice to client groups across all channels, including production teams on scripted and reality television programming. Before that, she specialized in labor and employment law as an associate at Baker McKenzie and Kauff McClain & McGuire.
Law department
Frances Faigenblat
Frances Faigenblat joined Practical Law from Sunbeam Products, Inc., where she was Senior Counsel, Corporate, handling a wide range of corporate, commercial and employment matters. She previously was a partner in the International and Cross-Border Transactions practice group at Holland & Knight LLP and before that an associate at Verner, Liipfert, Bernhard, McPherson and Hand (now DLA Piper).
Michelle Graham
Michelle Graham joined Practical Law from private practice and as an in-house consultant advising legal and business teams on a wide range of intellectual property and litigation matters. She was previously counsel in the Intellectual Property practice group at Kilpatrick Stockton LLP and special counsel in the Intellectual Property and Technology practice group at Kelley Drye & Warren LLP.
Helen Respass
Helen Respass joined Practical Law from Sojitz Corporation of America, where she was assistant general counsel for the Americas region, handling a wide range of corporate, M&A, commercial and employment matters and overseeing the ethics and compliance program. She previously was an associate in the Executive Compensation and ERISA group at Linklaters LLP and before that an associate in both the Corporate and the Executive Compensation and Employee Benefits groups at Kelley Drye & Warren LLP. Helen is a Senior Managing Editor of Practical Law's Commercial Transactions and Law Department Service.
Litigation
Lora Alexander
Lora Alexander joined Practical Law from private practice where she advised clients on various state and federal securities laws. Previously, she was senior legal counsel at the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority's (FINRA) Office of Market Regulation, where she specialized in investigating violations of FINRA and SEC operational rules. Prior to her role with Market Regulation, Lora served as an associate with Sullivan & Cromwell, LLP specializing in a variety of capital markets transactions for large public companies.
Brian Birke
Brian Birke joined Practical Law from Adler Pollock & Sheehan P.C. where he was a shareholder in the Complex & Business Litigation, Appellate, and Insurance Coverage & Defense groups. His practice focused on a wide range of disputes, including complex contracts, unfair trade practices, and bad faith and extra-contractual claims. He has been selected as a Super Lawyers Rising Star and a Super Lawyer for Business Litigation. Brian is also a member of the Board of Editors of the Boston Bar Journal.
Jessica Brand
Jessica Brand joined Practical Law from Sills Cummis & Gross PC, where she was a senior associate in the litigation group. Her practice focused on complex commercial and real estate litigation on the trial and appellate court levels in both state and federal courts. Previously, she clerked for the Honorable Joseph E. Irenas in the District Court for the District of New Jersey, and was named a New York Super Lawyers Rising Star for several consecutive years.
Amera Z. Chowhan
Amera Z. Chowhan joined Practical Law from Hughes Hubbard & Reed LLP, where she was Counsel in the firm's litigation department. In her twenty years of practice, she focused on complex commercial litigation at the trial and appellate court levels in both New York and federal courts.
Victoria Cioppettini
Victoria Cioppettini joined Practical Law from Cole Schotz P.C., where she was a partner in the Litigation Department. Her practice focused on complex commercial disputes in New Jersey state and federal courts, through which she gained significant trial and appellate experience. Victoria also handled arbitration and mediation proceedings, counseled clients on e-discovery issues, and conducted internal investigations. Previously, she clerked for the Honorable Jose L. Fuentes, Presiding Judge of the Appellate Division of the Superior Court of New Jersey.
Beth Crawford
Beth Crawford joined Practical Law from Lone Star College System where she was Acting General Counsel. Previously she was litigation counsel at Norton Rose Fulbright US LLP, concentrating on commercial litigation and appeals. Before that, she clerked at the Texas Supreme Court and First Court of Appeals where she later served as a Senior Staff Attorney. She is also an Adjunct Professor teaching Business Law. Beth is a member of the Texas State Bar Rules Committee.
David von Ebers
David von Ebers joined Practical Law from solo practice in the Chicago suburbs, where he concentrated in complex commercial and business litigation, including corporate, real estate, employment, construction, trademark and trade name, and business-to-business contract disputes. Previously he was an associate and partner at Fischel & Kahn, Ltd., in Chicago, where he was one of the firm's primary commercial and business litigators. He also worked as a litigation associate at D'Ancona & Plfaum and Jenner & Block in Chicago. Mr. von Ebers graduated from the University of Illinois College of Law in 1987. He is a Senior State Content Editor for Illinois.
Matt Gayle
Matt Gayle joined Practical Law from Lavin, O'Neil, Cedrone & DiSipio, where he was an associate and later a shareholder in the firm's Philadelphia office. His practice focused on litigation of product liability and toxic tort matters in both state and federal courts. He previously clerked in the Superior Court of New Jersey.
Kelly Griffith
Kelly Griffith joined Practical Law from Spilman Thomas and Battle, PLLC, where she was a litigation partner, e-discovery Counsel, and Director of Litigation Support. In addition to representing clients in various types of civil litigation, she worked with clients, colleagues, and technologists to develop, implement, and manage e-discovery protocols in all manner of cases.
Nicholas Haddad
Nicholas Haddad joined Practical Law from the New York office of Jones Day, where he was an associate in the Issues & Appeals group. His practice focused on appellate litigation and motion practice in both state and federal courts. Before joining Jones Day, he clerked for the Honorable Robert A. Katzmann in the Second Circuit and the Honorable Jed S. Rakoff in the Southern District of New York. Before that, he was a litigation associate at Davis Polk & Wardwell. He is also an Adjunct Professor of Legal Writing at Fordham Law School, and an Adjunct Professor of Lawyering at NYU School of Law.
Melissa Lorenzo-Herve
Melissa Lorenzo-Herve joined Practical Law from Fortent, a compliance information management company, where she was a legal editor. Previously she was an associate in the M&A group at Troutman Sanders LLP and before that was an associate in the corporate and litigation groups at Hughes Hubbard & Reed LLP.
Yen Hope
Yen Hope joined Practical Law from Gilchrist & Rutter, where she was a partner in the firm's litigation department. She was previously a litigation associate at the Los Angeles office of DLA Piper. Her practice focused on business, real estate, and land use litigation. Yen is a Senior State Content Editor for California.
Lauren Hornsby
Lauren Hornsby joined Practical Law from Cokinos, Bosien & Young, where she was a principal in the firm's Irving office. Her practice focused on construction defect litigation, commercial litigation, product liability litigation, appellate practice, and insurance recovery. Prior to that, she was a partner in Thompson & Knight LLP's Trial Section in Dallas, where for more than thirteen years her practice included commercial litigation, consumer protection litigation, ERISA litigation, product liability litigation, insurance defense litigation, and international business disputes.
Robert Iscaro
Robert Iscaro joined Practical Law from the New York office of Jones Day, where he was Counsel in the litigation department. His practice focused on product liability and toxic torts in both state and federal courts. He previously clerked in the New Jersey State Superior Court.
Irina Kobylevsky
Irina Kobylevsky joined Practical Law from Kruzhkov Russo PLLC where she was Counsel and focused primarily on commercial and business litigation. Before that, she was an associate at Gusrae Kaplan Nusbaum PLLC and Kaplan Fox & Kilsheimer LLP. Her experience includes representing clients in contentious disputes between business owners, appraisal proceedings, and securities fraud class actions.
Victoria Kummer
Victoria Kummer joined Practical Law in 2015 after retiring from Dickstein Shapiro, where she was a partner in the Business Litigation group for 12 years. Previously at Weil, Gotshal & Manges and Baer Marks & Upham, she practiced for more than 20 years as a commercial litigator before courts and arbitral tribunals around the world. Since 1998, she has also been an arbitrator, serving on panels of the AAA, ICDR, FINRA, CPR, and ICC, and a mediator for the NY Supreme Court Commercial Division, the SDNY and the Second Circuit. She was also an Adjunct Professor of Law at Cardozo School of Law for over 20 years, teaching legal writing and an upper-level course on pretrial practice.
Brandon Levitt
Brandon Levitt joined Practical Law from Hall, Lamb & Hall, where he specialized in complex commercial and terrorism litigation. Previously he was a senior associate in the Business Litigation department of Shutts & Bowen LLP in Miami.
Brian Lavin
Brian Lavin joined Practical Law from Hartman & Craven LLP, where he was a senior associate in the litigation department. Previously he was a litigation associate at Hogan & Hartson LLP. Before that, he was an associate at Clifford Chance LLP. Brian is a Senior Managing Editor with Practical Law's Litigation Service.
Noelle McCall
Noelle McCall joined Practical Law from Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP, where she was a litigation associate in the firm's Los Angeles office. Her practice focused on product liability, toxic tort, consumer class actions, commercial litigation, securities litigation, healthcare, and insurance recovery, as well as financial regulatory and compliance work.
Matthew Wholey
Matt Wholey joined Practical Law from Ogletree Deakins Nash Smoak & Stewart, P.C., where he was a senior associate focusing on class action litigation. Prior to Ogletree, Matt was a senior business litigation associate with Ulmer & Berne LLP, where he focused primarily on complex and commercial litigation, representing clients in financial services, manufacturing, mining, and other industries.
Brandon Moss
Brandon Moss joined Practical Law from Murphy, Hesse, Toomey & Lehane, LLP, where he was a partner. His practice focused on civil litigation, appellate practice, employment law, and public law. Brandon’s experience includes litigating cases from commencement through appeals in Massachusetts state and federal courts. He was a judicial law clerk with the Atomic Safety & Licensing Board Panel of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Brandon has also served as President of the Massachusetts Municipal Lawyers Association, Chair of the Public Law Section Council and member of the Judicial Administration Section Council of the Massachusetts Bar Association, and Adjunct Instructor of Legal Writing at New England Law | Boston.
Vlad Pavlovic
Vlad Pavlovic joined Practical Law from Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP, where he was a litigation associate. His practice focused on securities litigation, regulatory investigations and white collar criminal matters. Before joining Morgan Lewis, he was a litigation associate at Allen & Overy LLP.
Joseph P. Rindone
Joseph P. Rindone joined Practical Law from Baker McKenzie, where he was a senior associate in the White Collar Defense & Investigations Group. His practice focused on representing corporate and individual clients, both domestic and international, primarily in the areas of white-collar defense (antitrust, securities, tax, export control laws and sanctions regimes, the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) and corporate compliance matters), complex civil litigation and class actions. He previously clerked for the Honorable Rudy B. Coleman, J.A.D.
John-Paul Rodriguez
John-Paul Rodriguez joined Practical Law from the Miami office of White & Case LLP, where he was associate in the firm's U.S. Disputes group. His practice focused on commercial litigation, insurance defense, toxic torts, and appeals in Florida state and federal courts.
Diana Rubin
Diana Rubin joined Practical Law from private practice at her own firm in New York, where she both represented clients and advised practicing attorneys on civil litigation in federal and state courts. Previously, she was a senior litigation associate at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP for 10 years, where she represented clients in a wide range of complex commercial litigation matters, shareholder derivative lawsuits, and M & A litigation. Prior to joining Skadden, she clerked for the Honorable Andrew J. Peck in the Southern District of New York.
Kim Hendrix Scheidt
Kim Hendrix Scheidt joined Practical Law from the Philadelphia office of White and Williams LLP, where she practiced in the firm's commercial litigation and business insurance groups. Previously, she served as Corporate Counsel to The Siegfried Group LLP. Before that, she was Of Counsel at the Philadelphia office of Stradley Ronon Stevens & Young, LLP, where her practice focused on insurance and professional liability litigation.
Stephanie Sklar
Stephanie Sklar joined Practical Law from the Jewish Community Relations Council of the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago, where she was the Director of Domestic Affairs. Previously she was an associate at Winston & Strawn LLP, where she worked in the litigation group in the Chicago office. She was also a litigation associate at Kirkland & Ellis LLP and Chapman Spingola LLP.
Steven Skulnik
Steven Skulnik joined Practical Law in 2014 from Ganfer & Shore LLP, where he was counsel in the litigation department. His practice focused on international and domestic commercial litigation and arbitration. He previously was counsel at Squire Patton Boggs (US) LLP and a partner in Pavia & Harcourt LLP. He is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (FCIArb) and of the College of Commercial Arbitrators, a member of the International Arbitration Club of New York, and a panel arbitrator with the AAA/ICDR, CPR, SIAC, and other providers. Steve chaired the New York City Bar Association's Arbitration Committee and the Arbitration Committee of the Dispute Resolution Section of the New York State Bar Association. He has been on the organizing committee of New York Arbitration Week since its inception in 2019 and regularly speaks on and moderates panels at arbitration conferences.
Beth Tagliamonti
Beth Tagliamonti joined Practical Law from Winston & Strawn LLP, where she was Of Counsel in the firm's litigation department. Her practice focused on both complex commercial and securities litigation. Previously she was an associate in the litigation group at Bryan Cave LLP. Beth is a Senior Managing Editor with Practical Law's Litigation team.
Lauren Sobel
Lauren Sobel joined Practical Law from Shutts & Bowen LLP, where she was a partner in the firm's Business Litigation department. Lauren was also a federal law clerk for the Honorable Joan A. Lenard in the Southern District of Florida and the Honorable Debra C. Freeman in the Southern District of New York. Previously, she was a litigation associate at Nixon Peabody LLP in New York. In addition to her role at Practical Law, Lauren is a host of The Hearing – A Legal Podcast by Thomson Reuters and serves as co-chair of the Women@TR Programming Committee for the NY-area chapter.
Robert Weisz
Robert Weisz joined Practical Law from the New York State Office of the Attorney General, where he specialized in civil appeals in both federal and state courts. Previously he was a litigation associate at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP and Katsky Korins LLP. He also served as a law clerk to the Honorable Allen G. Schwartz in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York. Rob is a Senior Managing Editor with Practical Law's Litigation Service.
Jennifer Marino Thibodaux
Jennifer Marino Thibodaux joined Practical Law from Gibbons P.C., where she was a partner in the Business & Commercial Litigation group. Her practice focused on consumer class action defense in New Jersey state and federal courts. She also handled commercial matters, conducted internal investigations, and is experienced in e-discovery management and counseling. She has served as an Adjunct Professor of Appellate Advocacy at Seton Hall Law and previously clerked in the New Jersey Superior Court, Appellate Division. Jennifer is also a host of The Hearing – A Legal Podcast by Thomson Reuters and serves as a co-chair of the Women@TR Programming Committee for the NY and remote chapter.
Tom Witz
Tom Witz joined Practical Law from the Albany, NY office of the law firm Wilson Elser Moskowitz Edelman & Dicker, LLP, where he was a Litigation Partner. He has had significant trial and appellate experience representing clients throughout New York State in products liability, professional liability, medical and dental malpractice, and commercial litigation matters. Tom has handled matters in both state and federal courts, and before administrative agencies. He was previously an associate at the law firm Thorn Gershon Tymann & Bonanni, LLP and Assistant Counsel with the NYS Division of Parole.
Oil & gas
Matt Baab
Matt joined Practical Law from McElroy, Sullivan, Miller & Weber, LLP where he was Of Counsel, focusing on regulatory, environmental, and land use issues arising from oil & gas exploration and production. Previously, he was an associate at Strasburger & Price, LLP in Austin, Texas.
Curt Magee
Curt Magee joined Practical Law from private practice where he focused on upstream acquisitions, mineral title issues, litigation, and a wide range of transactional matters. Previously, he held a position with a mid-sized oil & gas company where he served as lead in-house counsel.
Maria Victoria Vargas
Maria Victoria Vargas joined Practical Law from the oil and gas company Ecopetrol where she worked as General Counsel and Corporate Secretary for the US. Previously she was Sr. Legal Counsel at the energy company Repsol, and counsel in the energy practice groups of Akin Gump Srauss Hauer & Feld LLP and King & Spalding LLP in Houston, where she handled a wide range of oil and gas transactions.
Real estate
Julie Antalffy
Julie Antalffy joined Practical Law from an in-house counsel position at Situs, a global real estate advisory firm. She previously served as in-house counsel for US Bank in the special assets group and as a senior real estate and transactional associate at the boutique firm of Christian Smith & Jewell LLP. In her practice, Julie handled all aspects of commercial real estate, including lending and workouts, acquisitions and dispositions, commercial property management, and leasing.
Brenda Cooper
Brenda Cooper joined Practical Law from Metropolitan Life Insurance Company, where she was Assistant General Counsel in the Real Estate Unit of the Investments Department. Previously, Brenda was Counsel in the real estate department of Herrick, Feinstein LLP, and a real estate associate at Schulte Roth & Zabel LLP and Rogers & Wells LLP. Brenda has handled all aspects of commercial real estate transactions in the U.S. and internationally representing developers, institutional investors and lenders, including acquisitions; dispositions; mortgage loan origination and servicing; warehouse line, subscription line and other complex structured financings; joint ventures; developments; and asset management.
Regina T. Baldwin
Regina T. Baldwin joined Practical Law from Kelley, Drye & Warren LLP, where she was of counsel in the real estate department. Previously, she was of counsel in the real estate departments of Sills, Cummis & Gross, PC and Winston & Strawn LLP. In her practice, Regina focused on all aspects of commercial real estate, including financing, sales and leasing.
Jill H. Blumberg
Jill H. Blumberg joined Practical Law from Hunton & Williams LLP, where she was a Senior Attorney in the real estate department focusing on commercial real estate matters. Previously, she was an in-house attorney and the Head of Equity Closings at New York Life Investments. Before that, she was a Counsel in the real estate group at Dewey & LeBoeuf LLP.
Christa Eilers
Christa Eilers joined Practical Law from Allen Matkins Leck Gamble Mallory & Natsis LLP, where she was senior counsel. In her practice, Christa represented commercial real estate investment, asset management, and development companies, retailers, and corporate clients in all aspects of the acquisition, disposition, leasing, development, and property management of office, retail, research and development, mixed-use, and industrial projects in California and nationwide.
Ed Gentilcore
Edward B. Gentilcore joined Practical Law from Blank Rome LLP, where he was of counsel providing a wide range of construction contracts and construction litigation representation of owners, developers, manufacturers, contractors, subcontractors, and suppliers. Previously, Ed served as the Chief Legal Officer of Michael Baker International; was Chair of the Construction Services Group of Sherrard, German & Kelly, P.C.; and the Vice-Chair of the Construction Group of Duane Morris LLP.
Kelly Guarnieri
Kelly Guarnieri joined Practical Law from the Chicago office of First American Title Insurance Company, where she was National Counsel and Vice President in the National Commercial Services Division. Prior to her tenure at First American, Kelly was an associate at Goldberg, Kohn, Bell, Black, Rosenbloom & Moritz, Ltd. Her experience includes representing owners, purchasers, developers, investors, and lenders in the sale, acquisition, and leasing of commercial and residential real estate, as well as handling transactions involving mixed-use, commercial, industrial, retail, and multi-family properties.
Andrew Lettington
Andrew Lettington joined Practical Law from Sills Cummis & Gross P.C., where he was of counsel in the real estate department. In his practice, Andrew focused on commercial real estate, including the leasing, acquisition, and disposition of office, retail, and industrial properties.
Seong-Mi Oh
Seong-Mi Oh joined Practical Law from Meltzer, Lippe, Goldstein & Breitstone, LLP, where she was a senior associate in the real estate group. She represented clients in all aspects of the acquisition, disposition, leasing, and financing of all types of real property including commercial, retail, multi-family and mixed-use buildings, medical facilities, shopping centers, warehouses, and industrial sites in New York and other states.
Michael Plambeck
Michael Plambeck joined Practical Law from Christensen & Laue, P.A., where he was the firm’s senior transactional associate, with a focus on commercial leasing, acquisitions and finance, and residential leasing, acquisitions, and finance, including short sales and loan modifications. Michael is one of the Managing Editors for Practical Law Real Estate’s jurisdictional content.
Julie Schwartzberg
Julie Schwartzberg joined Practical Law from Greenberg Traurig LLP, where she was a shareholder in the real estate department. In her practice, Julie represented institutional lenders and purchasers in all aspects of commercial real estate transactions. She specialized in real estate financing with an emphasis in CMBS lending. Previously she was an associate at Bilzin Sumberg Baena Price & Axelrod LLP and Weil, Gotshal & Manges, LLP.
Suprina Sheth
Suprina Sheth joined Practical Law from the real estate law firm Pircher, Nichols & Meeks LLP, where she was of counsel. In her practice, Suprina handled a wide range of commercial real estate matters, including the acquisition, disposition, loan origination and financing of office, mixed use and industrial properties. Her experience includes the representation of purchasers, sellers, owners, borrowers and lenders.
Lori Smith
Lori Smith joined Practical Law from Andrews Kurth LLP, where she was a partner in the real estate group. In her practice, Lori handled all aspects of commercial real estate including acquisition and disposition of hotels, office, multifamily, and industrial properties, and all related financing; hotel and multi-family property management; commercial leasing; loan origination and servicing; and joint venture projects.
Nicky Sonntag
Nicky Sonntag joined Practical Law from Taft Stettinius & Hollister, where she was a partner in the real estate department. She specialized in representing developers, owners, purchasers, and lenders in the sale and acquisition of commercial real estate, development transactions, leasing matters, residential transactions, and financing.
Kevin Ulrich
Kevin Ulrich joined Practical Law from an in-house counsel position where he focused on all aspects of commercial real estate matters, including acquisitions, dispositions, leasing, land use, and development. Previously, he was a real estate associate at Pepper Hamilton LLP and Cooper Levenson P.C.
Justin Xenitelis
Justin A. Xenitelis joined Practical Law after serving as General Counsel and Executive Vice President at Thor Equities, an international owner, developer, and manager of commercial, residential, industrial, and other mixed-use properties. He has handled all aspects of commercial real estate, with a strong concentration in commercial leasing. Justin also serves as an adjunct professor at New York Law School, where he teaches multiple classes, including Commercial Leasing and Drafting Real Estate Documents.
Trusts & estates
Lindsay Mishcon Cohen
Lindsay Mishcon Cohen joined Practical Law from White & Case LLP, where she is of counsel in the Private Wealth & Family Offices group focusing on estate planning and estate administration matters for high-net-worth individuals and families. Previously, she was an attorney in the Private Clients group at Sidley Austin LLP. Lindsay is the Content Lead for Practical Law's Trusts & Estates Service.
Carol Ina Neely
Carol Ina Neely joined Practical Law from Norton Rose Fulbright LLP, where she was counsel in the Trusts & Estates group focusing on estate planning and estate administration matters for high net worth individuals and families, and contested probate and fiduciary matters for corporate and individual fiduciaries. Previously she was with Wells Fargo Wealth Management.
Robert Hull
Robert Hull joined Practical Law from Lewitt, Hackman, Shapiro, Marshall & Harlan, where he was an attorney in the Trusts & Estates group handling a wide range of estate planning, probate and trust administration matters, including income and wealth transfer tax minimization, and multigenerational and business succession planning.
Samantha Brinn Merel
Samantha Brinn Merel joined Practical Law from Sidley Austin LLP, where she was an attorney in the Private Clients group, focusing on international and domestic trust and estate planning for high net worth clients, including income and transfer tax planning, charitable planning, and planning for multi-national families. Previously, she was an associate in the Wealth Advisory group at Lazard Wealth Management.
Kelina Peterson
Kelina Peterson joined Practical Law from Withers Bergman LLP, where she was an attorney in the Private Client & Tax group focusing on estate planning and administration for high net worth clients, including transfer and income tax planning, family and closely-held business planning, and charitable and exempt organization planning. Previously, she was an attorney at Barulich Dugoni & Suttmann Law Group, Inc.
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