PracticePro

Friday, March 30, 2018
Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld
1333 New Hampshire Avenue, N.W.
Washington, DC 20036-1564

SCHEDULE

CONFERENCE & RECEPTION

Professional Development:  In this full-day conference, you will learn:

• Operations and economics of law firms and organizations
• How summer programs work, including the evaluation process
• Practical tools on how to excel in your assignments and exceed expectations
• How to maximize the opportunities presented in firm social events
• How to stand out in interviews
• How to create a career development plan, including identifying and building on your strengths
• Effective methods and habits for developing your professional brand internally and in the legal community
• Client expectations and introduction to business development
• How to develop a fulfilling and sustaining legal career

Recruiting:  Students who attend the conference will be invited to submit their application materials to PracticePro’s law firm partners and participate in various recruiting opportunities with the same.

TUITION & PRICING

Conference
Tuition – $ 350 (includes evening reception)
Register for the Conference here.  Click here for scholarship info.

Diversity Reception
Admission to the Reception is complimentary for all conference attendees.  If you are only interested in attending the evening Diversity Reception, you may purchase your ticket – here.

SPEAKERS & INSTRUCTORS

Niki Kahn, PracticePro 

Niki Khoshzamir Kahn is the founder and CEO of PracticePro, and a lecturer at U.C. Berkeley School of Law. At PracticePro, she leads all aspects of the organization including product development, strategic partnerships, operations, and publications. Niki teaches transition-to-practice skills to law students and attorneys and speaks at law schools across the country. She also consults with law firms to strengthen training and diversity programs, including helping diverse and first-generation associates to succeed as attorneys. Niki developed a skills course – The Junior Attorney: Expectations, Responsibilities, and Realities – for Berkeley Law in 2011, which she has been co-teaching since.

Prior to founding PracticePro, she was an attorney for over six years at the global firm of Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale & Dorr LLP. She focused her practice on intellectual property litigation and trade sanctions compliance. Niki has extensive experience representing companies and individuals in federal and state courts, and in all stages of litigation including trial. She was recognized by the Silicon Valley/San Jose Business Journal as one of the top “40 under 40″ professionals.

Niki is also the founder and former president of the Northern California Chapter of the Iranian American Bar Association. She received her B.S. in Biology, summa cum laude, from Texas Southern University, and J.D. from Berkeley Law. Before law school, Niki was a research assistant at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center and the Baylor College of Medicine Human Genome Sequencing Center.

Kelsy Bennett, AARP

Kelsy Bennett is a Senior Corporate Attorney in AARP’s Office of General Counsel. Kelsy is the lead advocacy compliance attorney for an organization that boasts the country’s largest non-profit lobby, and he is an expert on state and federal lobbying disclosure laws, campaign finance regulations, and government ethics rules. He provides guidance to AARP staff in all fifty states, the District of Columbia,Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands in order to preserve AARP’s strong nonpartisan reputation.
In addition, Kelsy manages the bulk of AARP’s litigation portfolio, defending AARP and its subsidiaries in matters ranging from class action lawsuits to employment agency charges. In that role, he routinely represents the organization in state and federal court, before regulatory agencies, and in negotiations with opposing counsel.
A 2013 graduate of Georgetown University Law Center, Kelsy spent time with the U.S. Attorney’s Office of Maryland, interned for the Honorable Judge Ellen Hollander in federal district court, and represented juvenile clients through Georgetown’s Juvenile Justice Clinic during law school. He also chaired Georgetown’s 2012 pro bono outreach committee. Kelsy is a 2008 graduate of Brigham Young University, twice winning the Garth Undergraduate Teaching Award while earning a B.S. in Physiology.

Abigail Coleman, Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld

Abigail Kay Kohlman is an associate at Akin Gump where she focuses her practice on a variety of litigation matters, including civil litigation, government investigations, and criminal defense. Ms. Kohlman has assisted individual and corporate clients in matters before state and federal courts and administrative agencies. She was an Akin Gump Pro Bono Scholar in 2011 and a member of Akin Gump’s 2012 Summer Associate class.

Ms. Kohlman is a board member of JusticeAid, a nonprofit organization dedicated to using the arts as a medium to provide financial support to organizations engaged in the fight against injustice.

Ms. Kohlman received her J.D., cum laude, in May 2013 from Georgetown University Law Center, where she was the Symposium Editor for the 50^th Anniversary of the American Criminal Law Review. Ms. Kohlman was also a student practitioner in D.C. Superior Court for the Juvenile Justice Clinic.

Scott Cunning, Haynes and Boone

Scott Cunning is the administrative partner for the Washington, D.C. office of Haynes and Boone. Scott assists generic pharmaceutical companies by helping them bring generic versions of branded products to market. He also counsels tech companies and helps them to navigate patent disputes in federal district courts. Scott’s experience has spanned a diverse variety of technological areas including semiconductor processing, digital data compression, implantable medical devices, medical
imaging devices, electronic patient diaries and methods of drug delivery. Scott was selected for inclusion in Washington, D.C. Super Lawyers Rising Stars, Thomson Reuters, in Intellectual Property Litigation, 2014 and 2016.

Scott also maintains an active pro bono practice, including assisting refugees in obtaining asylum status and preparing trademark registrations for non-profit group conducting charitable sporting competitions to support cardiac research.

Scott received his J.D., with honors, from George Washington University Law School.  While in law school, he had the
privilege to intern for the Honorable Richard Linn at the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. He also served as the executive managing editor for the AIPLA Quarterly Journal. In addition to his law degree, Scott holds a B.S. in chemical engineering.

Erich Ferrari, Ferrari & Associates

As the Founder and Principal of Ferrari & Associates, P.C., Mr. Ferrari represents U.S. and foreign corporations, financial institutions, exporters, insurers, as well as private individuals in trade compliance, regulatory licensing matters, and federal investigations and prosecutions. He frequently represents clients before the United States Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), and in federal courts around the country. With over 13 years of experience in national security law, export controls, and U.S. economic sanctions, he counsels across industry sectors representing parties in a wide range of matters involving U.S. economic sanctions administered by OFAC.

Mr. Ferrari’s representations before OFAC frequently involve investigations concerning violations of a variety of sanctions programs including the Iranian Transactions and Sanctions Regulations, the Cuban Assets Control Regulations, and the Ukraine-Related Sanctions Regulations. As part of these representations, he has worked to respond to OFAC administrative subpoenas, procure OFAC specific licenses to engage in transactions prohibited by OFAC, draft OFAC voluntary self-disclosures, develop and implement OFAC compliance programs for international import-export companies, and provide general counseling on OFAC related matters. Mr. Ferrari actively writes for publication on OFAC administered trade sanctions. In addition, he is often called upon by media outlets, such as CNN, The New York Times, The Washington Post, Forbes Magazine, and the Wall Street Journal to comment on U.S. economic sanctions issues. He is also the founder and Executive Editor of the U.S. economic sanctions blog and research site: www.sanctionlaw.com

Mr. Ferrari is a graduate of St. Mary’s University School of Law and Purdue University.

Doris Gilliam, AARP

Doris Gilliam is Associate General Counsel at AARP as well as General Counsel for Cornerstone Peaceful Bible Baptist Church. In her position at AARP, Ms. Gilliam serves as the lead attorney for the State Group in the Office of General Counsel, providing the legal infrastructure for the largest business unit in the organization, including staff at headquarters and field offices in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. The State Group handles issues ranging from intellectual property and advocacy to tax and membership.

As the General Counsel of Cornerstone Peaceful Bible Baptist Church, Ms. Gilliam advises and provides legal guidance to organization management in a wide range of legal areas such as litigation, intellectual property, commercial contract issues, human resources and real estate matters.

Ms. Gilliam was named to the Minority Corporate Counsel Association’s 2015 List of Rising Star Attorneys, and AARP received the 2014 In-House Innovators Award based on the State Group’s achievements from the WMACCA Chapter of the Association of Corporate Counsel. Ms. Gilliam received her J.D. from The George Washington University Law School and holds a B.A. from Howard University.

Jeannine Gómez, Legal Aid Society of the District of Columbia

Jeannine Gómez is a Senior Staff Attorney in the Domestic Violence/Family Law Unit. Jeannine represents survivors of domestic violence in civil protection order, custody, and child support matters. Jeannine is fluent in Spanish and French.

Prior to joining Legal Aid in June 2011, Jeannine worked as a staff attorney at Ayuda, where she represented immigrant survivors of domestic violence in civil protection order and related family law and immigration cases. Prior to that, Jeannine served as a law clerk in the Family Court of the District of Columbia Superior Court for Judge J. Michael Ryan, on the domestic relations and juvenile calendars, and for Magistrate Judges Mary Grace Rook and Janet Albert, on abuse and neglect calendars.

Jeannine received her B.A. in 1997, summa cum laude, in Spanish from the Florida State University, where she received the Dorothy Hoffman Award for Most Outstanding Student in Spanish and was elected to Phi Kappa Phi and Sigma Delta Pi (National Spanish Honor Society). She received her J.D. in 2007, magna cum laude, from the University of the District of Columbia, David A. Clarke School of Law, previously the Antioch School of Law. In law school, Jeannine served as Senior Editor of the UDC Law Review and received two merit scholarships, including a Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg Scholarship. Upon graduation, she was recognized with the Dean’s Fellow Award (top 10% of graduating class) and a Clinical Legal Education Association Outstanding Student Award.

Prior to law school, Jeannine worked in Florida as a social worker with children in adoptive and foster care. She has also worked as a Spanish, French, and English (as a second language) teacher.

Mackie Jimbo, O’Melveny & Myers

McAllister (Mackie) Jimbo is an associate in O’Melveny’s Washington, DC office and a member of the Litigation Department. Her practice focuses on compliance with U.S. economic sanctions, anti-corruption laws (including the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act or “FCPA”), and export controls. She also has significant experience conducting internal investigations for multinational companies and representing companies in criminal and civil matters before government agencies, including the Department of Justice, Department of Commerce, Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control and the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, Securities and Exchange Commission, and US Bureau of Customs and Border Protection.

Mackie also maintains an active pro bono practice. She secured T visas for a victim of human trafficking and his family in Honduras. She is also part of a team representing a coalition of school districts and students challenging the constitutionality of state funding for public education, as well as a team representing a death row inmate in federal and state habeas proceedings.

Mackie received her B.A. in China and Asia-Pacific Studies from Cornell University, and her J.D. from the University of Pennsylvania.

Gabrielle Kohlmeier, Verizon

Gabrielle Kohlmeier is Associate General Counsel for Antitrust and Strategic Projects at Verizon, where she is responsible for antitrust investigations, litigation, mergers, and policy.  At Verizon, she is enthusiastically involved in various diversity groups and initiatives, including spearheading the podcast Lifting Up, spotlighting Verizon women mentors.

Prior to joining Verizon, she was a member of the litigation department at a large international law firm for eight years, where she served on the recruiting committee for several years, and was actively involved in mentoring and diversity initiatives. She has been a part of the ABA Section of Antitrust leadership for more than eight years, currently as associate editor of the Antitrust Law Journal, co-head of the Section’s mentor program, and chair of the Tech Compliance Working Group of the Ethics and Compliance Committee.

Gabrielle received her J.D. from George Washington University School of Law, M.A. in International Affairs, International Economics from George Washington University, and B.A. in Political Science from University of North Carolina at Greensboro.

Thomas Lorenzen, Crowell & Moring

Tom Lorenzen is a partner in Crowell & Moring’s Washington, D.C. office and is a member of the Environment & Natural Resources and Government Affairs groups. Tom works with clients seeking to successfully navigate the federal environmental rulemaking process. With a decade of Justice Department experience managing the legal defense of all EPA rules, Tom has a unique ability to help clients shape environmental policy, provide vital input on proposed federal environmental regulations through written comment and direct interaction with regulators, and mount effective judicial challenges to EPA actions that adversely affect his clients’ interests. Tom also helps clients ensure compliance with existing environmental regulations. In addition, he is a noted appellate lawyer who has briefed, argued, or supervised hundreds of petitions for review of EPA regulations and other final EPA actions.

While he was at the Department of Justice, Tom oversaw many of the seminal environmental cases of the last decade. These include Massachusetts v. EPA, in which the Supreme Court affirmed EPA’s authority to regulate greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act, and Entergy v. Riverkeeper, in which the Court held that EPA has discretion under the Clean Water Act to consider or decline to consider costs in determining how to regulate cooling water intake structures. In the D.C. Circuit and the other federal courts of appeals, he oversaw the government’s defense in Coalition for Responsible Regulation v. EPA, in which the court upheld EPA’s first suite of greenhouse gas regulations (largely upheld by the Supreme Court in Utility Air Regulatory Group v. EPA); EME Homer City Generation, L.P. v. EPA andNorth Carolina v. EPA, in which the court reviewed EPA’s various attempts to address interstate transport of air pollutants; numerous cases challenging EPA regulations governing emissions of hazardous air pollutants; and National Cotton Council v. EPA, in which the Sixth Circuit reviewed EPA’s Clean Water Act regulations governing the application of pesticides over waters of the United States.

Tom is a frequent lecturer and commentator in print, on the internet, and on television regarding federal environmental law, climate change regulation, administrative law, federal policymaking, and effective appellate brief-writing and argument. Tom received her J.D. from Harvard Law School, and B.A. from the University of California, Los Angeles.

Dana Moss, Cooley

Dana Moss is an associate in the commercial litigation group and represents clients in litigation involving complex commercial transactions, contract disputes, trade secrets, business torts, antitrust, patent and trademark, and employment.

While at the University of Maryland School of Law, she served as an editor of the University of Maryland Law Review, member of the Moot Court Executive Board and the National Moot Court Team, and member of the National Trial Team. Dana won the 40th Annual Morris B. Myerowitz Moot Court Competition, and she was named the best oral advocate. She also participated in national trial advocacy competitions sponsored by the American College of Trial Lawyers and the American Association for Justice, and she was inducted into the Order of Barristers.

Prior to entering law school, Dana served in the United States Air Force as a special agent in the Office of Special Investigations during which she conducted criminal investigations and counterintelligence investigations.

Dana received her J.D., cum laude, from University of Maryland School of Law, M.A. from the University of Texas at Austin, and B.A. from the United States Air Force Academy.

Funmi Olorunnipa, Palantir Technologies

Ms. Funmi E. Olorunnipa is Legal Counsel at Palantir Technologies. Prior to joining Palantir, Ms. Olorunnipa was Counsel for Policy in the Office of the Assistant Attorney General, U.S. Department of Justice, Civil Division. In that role, she coordinated review of legislative and regulatory proposals that may affect the Civil Division’s cases.

She previously served the Obama Administration as an Ethics Counsel at the White House Counsel’s Office, where she provided guidance to Presidential appointees on government ethics, political activity, compliance and public-private partnerships. Ms. Olorunnipa also served as an Attorney Advisor at the Administrative Conference of the United States, where she focused on a variety of administrative law and government administration and management matters. Ms. Olorunnipa began her legal career in the private sector as an associate with the law firm of Manatt Phelps & Phillips LLP where she practiced complex civil litigation, government investigations and white collar crime defense before both federal and state courts.

Ms. Olorunnipa graduated from the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law (Boalt Hall) and holds a Masters in Public Administration from Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government. Ms. Olorunnipa graduated with honors from the University of Florida, where she received a Bachelors in Political Science and a Bachelors in Public Relations and was inducted into the University of Florida Hall of Fame.

Jonathan Poling, Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld

Mandy Reeves, Latham & Watkins

Mandy Reeves is a partner in the Litigation & Trial Department of Latham & Watkins and serves as Global Co-Chair of the firm’s Antitrust & Competition Practice. She particularly focuses on the application of the antitrust laws to the healthcare, life sciences, and high technology industries. Ms. Reeves’ antitrust practice runs the gamut from representing clients in Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) investigations into mergers and alleged anticompetitive conduct to defending clients in antitrust litigations, raising novel issues. She has experience at all phases of government antitrust investigations and is an experienced litigator.

Ms. Reeves is consistently recognized by Chambers USA as a top antitrust lawyer in Washington, D.C. In 2015, Global Competition Review recognized Ms. Reeves as one of the world’s Top 40 Competition Lawyers Under 40, and also named her a finalist for Lawyer of the Year – 40 and Under in 2014. She was recently recognized as one of the Washington, D.C. region’s Top 40 Lawyers Under 40 by Bisnow and was named a finalist for Best in Antitrust: Euromoney Legal Media Group Americas Women in Business Law in 2016. In addition, Ms. Reeves is listed as a top lawyer in the Who’s Who Legal: Competition 2016 guide and Who’s Who Legal – Future Leaders 2017 in Competition.

Ms. Reeves rejoined Latham in 2011 after spending two years serving as Attorney Advisor to Commissioner J. Thomas Rosch at the Federal Trade Commission. In that capacity she was responsible for advising Commissioner Rosch on all aspects of competition law, including merger and anticompetitive practice investigations, litigation and appellate strategy, the IP/antitrust interface, and policy matters.

Ms. Reeves is a sought-after speaker and writer on antitrust issues. Her work has appeared in The Antitrust Source, the Antitrust Magazine, and the Indiana Law Journal. She is an active member of the American Bar Association’s (ABA) Antitrust Section, where she currently serves as the Editorial Chair of The Antitrust Source and Chair of the Annual Law & Economics Institute for Judges.

Ms. Reeves is a graduate of University of Virginia School of Law. Prior to joining Latham, Ms. Reeves clerked for Judge John G. Heyburn II, Chief Judge of the United States District Court for the Western District of Kentucky, from 2002 to 2003, and for Judge Mary Beck Briscoe, current Chief Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit from 2003 to 2004.

Souvik Saha, WilmerHale

Souvik Saha is a Senior Associate at Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale & Dorr (WilmerHale), where he focuses his practice on appellate and supreme court litigation, government and regulatory litigation, criminal investigations, and securities litigation. Prior to joining the firm in 2013, he completed internships with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, as well as the National Security Division of the United States Department of Justice.

Prior to his legal education, Mr. Saha served as a Fulbright Fellow in New Delhi, India, researching India’s energy security initiatives, intellectual property law regime and foreign direct investment. He has also worked for the Office of Staff Attorneys at the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

Mr. Saha graduated, cum laude, from Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law where he was a Senior Editor of the Northwestern Journal of International Law and Business. He also holds an M.A. in International Affairs from Columbia University, and a B.A. in Political Science from the University of California, Berkeley.

Jamie Specter, Capital One

Jamie Specter is an in-house attorney within Capital One’s Law & Technology group that is responsible for providing strategic and daily counsel to the company’s technology and cyber organizations.  She is primarily focused on supporting innovation at Capital One through its use of technology at an enterprise level.  Prior to joining Law & Technology, she supported matters within Capital One’s IP Litigation, Commercial Enterprise Litigation, and Regulatory Advisory groups.

Jamie is especially passionate about giving back through pro bono and supporting the diversity & inclusion initiative as an active participant in Capital One’s Women in Tech and Women’s Networks.

Jamie received her B.B.A. from James Madison University, her J.D. from the University of Richmond, and her M.S. in the Management of IT from the University of Virginia.

Andrew (A.J.) Sutton, Ropes & Gray

Andrew “A.J.” Sutton joined the firm’s intellectual property litigation group in 2014. A.J.’s practice focuses primarily on patent and trademark litigation matters before the International Trade Commission, U.S. District Courts, and the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office’s Patent Trial and Appeal Board. A.J. has worked with technologies in multiple areas, including consumer electronics, semiconductors, and mechanical devices. AJ’s litigation experience includes performing invalidity and infringement analyses, preparing for and assisting with depositions, drafting dispositive motions, and other trial-related work. A.J.’s pro bono practice includes representation of clients in the areas of veterans’ disability law, domestic violence matters, social security disability law, criminal defense, civil rights and immigration law.

During law school, A.J. externed for the Honorable Irene M. Keeley of the Northern District of West Virginia, where he worked extensively on several patent cases, including a Hatch-Waxman Paragraph IV ANDA litigation case being heard before the court. In addition, A.J. was the elected President of GW Law’s Student Bar Association, and served as a staff member of the A.I.P.L.A. Quarterly Journal.

A.J. has an undergraduate degree in Mechanical Engineering, and his coursework covered a broad array of topics including C++ programming, organic chemistry, and robotics. In addition, A.J. served as team lead on several engineering projects, including: the design of an ocean wave powered instrumental research buoy for use at the Scripps Institute of Oceanography; a solar panel design project for a learning facility in Kenya; and a robotics design and building competition where his team earned second place out of forty-eight teams.

DIVERSITY KEYNOTE SPEAKER

Lori Lorenzo, Deloitte

Lori Lorenzo is the Research and Insights Director for the Chief Legal Officer (CLO) Program with Deloitte Risk and Financial Advisory. In this capacity, she designs research initiatives related to the legal profession and specifically in-house practice, directing both the creation of innovative research projects and managing the application of research insights across the CLO platform.

Prior to joining Deloitte, Lori was the Program Director at the Leadership Council on Legal Diversity (LCLD). She was responsible for the design, implementation and execution of enterprise-wide strategic plan focused on human capital, talent development, leadership, and diversity and inclusion. Lori also led LCLD’s national suite of in-person training and on-line, large scale substantive learning elements, including training core teaching faculty, and designed and implemented comprehensive data collection strategy, including design of data collection tools and analysis.

After receiving her J.D. from Duke University School of Law, Lori practiced law with the international law firms of Cadwalader, Wicksham & Taft, and with Dewey & Deboeuf.  She obtained a B.A. in Criminology with a minor in sociology, with honors, from University of Florida.

Lori has written and spoken extensively, and is passionate, about talent development, the legal education pipeline, diversity and inclusion, and leadership.

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