PracticePro

Date: Friday, March 22, 2024, 11 – 7:30 PM PST

Location: Latham & Watkins LLP, 505 Montgomery Street, #2000, San Francisco, CA 94111

Do you want to gain the knowledge and exact formula for securing a great summer associate position or post-graduate career? Master the substantive and soft skills and competencies you will need during your summer internships to deliver stellar work product, build a fantastic brand, and receive a permanent employment offer? Would you like to be part of an exclusive group of students participating in recruiting opportunities with PracticePro’s law firm partners?

TARGET AUDIENCE

The conference is best suited for 1Ls and 2Ls. Incoming 1Ls, 3Ls, and LLMs may also attend.

CONFERENCE STRUCTURE 

The Conference takes place on Friday, March 22, 2024, from 11 am to 5 pm. It is taught by speakers and instructors from top law firms and corporate legal departments. The Conference concludes with a recruiting reception (5:30 – 7:30 pm PT).    

Conference registrants can also participate in the following training and recruiting opportunities:

• Spring and summer webinar series focused on business frameworks, professional branding, strategic career planning, advanced networking and interviewing techniques, and other topics. The webinars will also be available for on-demand viewing.
• Exclusive resume collection and virtual networking opportunities with our law firm partners.
• Complimentary customized career/OCI coaching session, valued at $385.

INSTRUCTORS & SPEAKERS

Niki Khoshzamir, PracticePro 

Niki Khoshzamir is the Chief Executive Officer of PracticePro, an EdTech social enterprise that provides skills training, coaching, and scholarships to empower the next generation of diverse attorneys. In her role, she leads all business and legal aspects of the company, including corporate governance, strategic partnerships, IP portfolio strategy, and product development.

Prior to founding PracticePro, Niki was an attorney at the global firms of Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale & Dorr, LLP, and Kirkland & Ellis, LLP. She focused her practice on intellectual property litigation, complex commercial disputes, and trade sanctions compliance. Niki was the first recipient of the firm’s Pickering Fellowship on the West Coast, through which she spearheaded the Advancing Justice – Asian Law Caucus’ advocacy and community education project on U.S. sanctions.

Niki currently serves on the national advisory board of the Iranian American Bar Association (IABA), and she is the former president of the Northern California Chapter, which she founded in 2006. She also serves on the Leadership Council of Asian Law Caucus. From 2011 to 2017, Niki was a Lecturer at Law at the University of California, Berkeley School of Law.

Prior to her legal career, Niki researched cancer genomics at the MD Anderson Cancer Center and was a research technician at Human Genome Sequencing Center, Baylor College of Medicine.

Niki received her B.S. in Biology, summa cum laude, from Texas Southern University, Juris Doctorate from Berkeley Law, and an Advanced Genomics and Genetics certificate from Stanford School of Medicine. She grew up in Tehran, London, and Vienna and immigrated to the United States on her own at 19 to attend college.

Aby Castro, NerdWallet

Aby Castro is Assistant General Counsel at NerdWallet, Inc. and manages various corporate matters, including M&A, strategic initiatives, corporate governance, SEC reporting, equity compensation matters and international subsidiary operations. In 2021, Ms. Castro managed NerdWallet’s initial public offering. Prior to joining NerdWallet in 2017, Ms. Castro was Sr. Corporate Counsel at GREE, a Japanese gaming company. Before going in-house Ms. Castro worked as a corporate associate at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati in Palo Alto and at Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP in New York.

Ms. Castro holds a J.D. from Columbia Law School and a B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania.

Iris Chen, Airbnb

Iris Chen is a Vice President, Deputy General Counsel in the Legal Department at Airbnb, Inc. where she leads a team of 50+ attorneys and legal professionals that support Airbnb’s product, commercial and marketing functions across the company’s Product, Engineering, Marketing, Communications, Creative Production, Supply Growth, Trust & Safety, Community Support and Airbnb.org teams, as well as managing the company’s trademark and copyright matters. Prior to joining Airbnb, Iris spent over 14 years with Google as a Vice President in the Legal Department where she led a team of 145+ legal team members responsible for supporting global product development and all commercial transactions in North America and EMEA for Google’s advertising, commerce, payments, search, research, health, geo and supporting infrastructure services. Iris is experienced in leading and developing legal teams and advising executives across product, engineering, sales, business development and other functions. Before joining Google, Iris was a corporate associate at Simpson Thacher & Bartlett (2001-2004) and then Ropes & Gray (2004-2006) as an associate in the firm’s investment management practice. Iris is a graduate of Yale College and Columbia Law School. 

Iris currently serves on the board of the Children’s Discovery Museum of San Jose and is a member of Columbia Law School’s Alumni of Color Committee. Iris is an avid supporter of diversity, equity, and inclusion in the legal profession and has served as a PracticePro Advisor since 2017.

Michael Coke, Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati

Michael Coke is a partner at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, where his practice focuses on a wide variety of corporate, securities, and related matters, primarily for biotechnology and technology companies. Mr. Coke’s practice spans the full range of corporate transactions, including representing clients in connection with initial public offerings and other securities offerings, corporate governance and disclosure matters, mergers and acquisitions, and venture-backed private financings.

Mr. Coke has been with Wilson Sonsini since 2006. He started his legal career in New York and Singapore, focusing on public and private offerings of equity, equity-linked securities, and investment-grade and high-yield debt, on both the company and the underwriter side, in addition to mergers and acquisitions and other corporate matters. He also spent six months on secondment to the legal department of JPMorgan Chase Bank’s Singapore branch.

Mr. Coke earned his J.D. from Stanford Law School and received a B.A. from the University of California, Berkeley.

Ashley Vinson Crawford, Akin Gump

Ashley Vinson Crawford is the managing partner of the San Francisco office of Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP. In her practice, Ms. Crawford represents clients in consumer class actions, financial restructuring litigation, and a broad range of insurance and other business disputes. Her clients include financial services providers, private equity and hedge funds, creditors’ committees, and other health, energy and entertainment companies. Prior to rejoining Akin Gump in 2011, Ms. Crawford served as in-house counsel for an insurance company, where she managed bad-faith and corporate litigation and regularly advised claims personnel for various lines of business. She uses the unique perspective she gained as an in-house lawyer to deliver high-quality and cost-effective services for her litigation clients.  

Ms. Crawford received her B.A, summa cum laude, in economics from Louisiana State University and graduated from Harvard Law School.

Taylor Gooch, WilmerHale

Taylor Gooch is a partner and member of the hiring committee in the San Francisco office of WilmerHale. Taylor focuses his practice on complex and high-stakes intellectual property and patent litigation matters. Taylor has represented clients in US district courts, the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, and the US International Trade Commission. Taylor has also counseled clients and assisted with matters before the Patent Trial and Appeal Board, including inter partes review proceedings. His cases have involved a wide array of technologies including solid state memory, telecom, computer graphics, video streaming, life science technologies, and many more. Taylor routinely represents clients ranging from small startups to Fortune 50 companies in the microprocessor, video, cable, and life sciences spaces.

Prior to joining WilmerHale, Taylor was an associate at Keker, Van Nest and Peters, where he represented clients in commercial litigation matters, including against patent claims in district court and before the ITC. He was previously a law clerk for the Honorable Sharon Prost of the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit and the Honorable Richard Andrews of the United States District Court for the District of Delaware. While attending the University of Pennsylvania Law School, Taylor worked as a public defender for the Criminal Defense Clinic, assisted clients while working in the Custody and Support Assistance Clinic, and externed for the Honorable Ancer Haggerty of the United States District Court for the District of Oregon.

Christin Hill, Morrison & Foerster

Christin Hill is a hiring partner in the San Francisco office of Morrison & Foerster LLP, and she is also a member of the firm’s Securities Litigation, Securities Enforcement, and Investigations + White Collar Defense practice groups. Ms. Hill has extensive experience representing clients in securities class actions, derivative actions and other complex civil litigation in both federal and state courts, as well as in government and internal investigations. With over a decade of experience in private practice, Ms. Hill has successfully represented public companies and their boards of directors and officers in securities fraud actions, derivative actions, SEC enforcement actions, internal investigations, and general corporate counseling. She also has experience working with pre-IPO companies in complex civil litigation in both federal and state court, internal investigations, responding to government inquiries, and advising on general compliance matters. Before joining Morrison Foerster, Ms. Hill served as senior counsel at Uber Technologies, Inc., where she managed complex civil litigation, including consumer class actions, intellectual property matters, and government investigations. She was also a lead member of Uber’s global compliance team, through which she created and implemented new compliance policies and training programs and advised company management in responding to government inquiries.

Ms. Hill received her A.B. from the University of California, Davis, and graduated from Stanford Law School.

Dayna Louie, Hanson Bridgett

Dayna Louie is an associate in the Government Group at the San Francisco office of Hanson Bridgett LLP. In her practice, Ms. Louie assists transportation and water agencies, cities, special districts, joint powers authorities, and other local agencies with various legal issues, including the Brown Act, California Voting Rights Act, Public Records Act, Title VI, Americans with Disabilities Act, Government Tort Claims, governance, public works, and conflict of interest laws and regulations. She also attends client board meetings and advises on the preparation of board agendas, staff reports, resolutions, ordinances, and meeting minutes. Additionally, Ms. Louie serves as Deputy General Counsel to the Central Contra Costa Transit Authority. Ms. Louie is involved in all phases of the public procurement process, and she drafts, reviews, and analyzes a variety of contracts and solicitations to ensure consistency with local, state, and federal procurement requirements. She also dahas experience with agreements for technology, software-as-a-service, professional services, goods, cooperative purchasing, public works, multi-phase infrastructure projects, and rolling stock. 

Ms. Louie received her B.A. from California State University, Sonoma, and graduated summa cum laude from the University of San Francisco School of Law.

Joshua Mates, Cooley LLP

Joshua Mates is a partner in the San Francisco office of Cooley LLP and has practiced employment law in Cooley’s labor & employment practice group for more than 20 years. His practice includes a broad mix of litigation and employment counseling, as he provides strategic advice regarding the full spectrum of human resources matters, from the beginning of the employment relationship to the end – drafting and negotiating contracts, implementing policies and practices, ensuring protection of trade secrets, ensuring compliance with complex statutory and regulatory matters, advising companies regarding worker classification matters, pay equity analyses, diversity initiatives and employee relations matters, advising executives and boards of directors through complex internal investigations, and investigating, negotiating and litigating pre-suit and filed actions. Mr. Mates also regularly assists clients with the employment-related aspects of M&A transactions, financings and initial public offerings.

Mr. Mates received his B.A. from the University of California, Los Angeles, and graduated from Stanford Law School.

Alvaro Montenegro, Alston & Bird

Alvaro Montenegro is an associate with the Litigation & Trial Practice Group at the San Franscico office of Alston & Bird LLP. He represents clients in high-stakes commercial litigation in federal and state courts. Mr. Montenegro focuses his practice on antitrust litigation, handling a variety of complex and class action matters involving price-fixing conspiracies, monopolization allegations, merger challenges, and other claims under the antitrust laws. Mr. Montenegro also defends companies against class actions arising out of data breaches. Before joining the firm, Mr. Montenegro was an associate with an international law firm, where he handled matters involving antitrust, unfair competition, trade secrets, securities, and fraud and whistleblower actions in state and federal courts. In 2020, the American Bar Association Antitrust Section awarded Mr. Montenegro with the Janet D. Steiger Fellowship, through which he interned at the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s Office. Mr. Montenegro was also an extern with the Antitrust Bureau of the New York State Attorney General’s Office, where he collaborated on antitrust enforcement actions and investigations in a range of industries.

Mr. Montenegro received his LL.B. from the Universidad de San Martín de Porres and received his ACLB and LL.M. from New York University.

Himani Nadgauda, WilmerHale

Bahram Seyedin-Noor, Alto Litigation

Bahram Seyedin-Noor is the founder and managing partner of Alto Litigation. Clients hire Mr. Seyedin-Noor to understand difficult legal problems and solve them. The matters run the gamut from board disputes, to class action lawsuits, SEC investigations, trade secret matters, and commercial disputes. Each problem requires a different solution, but Mr. Seyedin-Noor’s approach is systematic: he understands clients’ problems early and deeply, forms a clear strategy, and executes on that strategy. Mr. Seyedin-Noor has been widely recognized by both his clients and his peers. Chambers & Partners ranks him among the top practitioners for securities litigation in California. Benchmark Litigation named Mr. Seyedin-Noor the San Francisco Litigator of the Year in 2021 and 2019, and also nominated him for California Securities Litigator of the Year in multiple years. In 2018, the National Law Journal named him as an Elite Boutique Trailblazer, and the Daily Journal has recognized his firm as one of the Top Boutique firms in California.

Mr. Seyedin-Noor received his B.A. from Pomona College and graduated from Harvard Law School.

Nicole Valco, Latham & Watkins

Nicole Valco is a partner in the Complex Commercial Litigation Practice at the San Francisco office of Latham & Watkins LLP. Ms. Valco advises market-leading companies on a range of disputes in federal and state courts, and she has experience successfully litigating high-stakes cases through trial to verdict. Her practice covers a broad range of business disputes, including: business torts; consumer protection and unfair business practices; contract; fraud; privacy; trade secrets; and intellectual property. She has particular experience with clients in several industries, including technology, energy, pharmaceutical, retail, financial, and fitness industries. Ms. Valco is also an active member of the firm’s Training and Career Enhancement Committee and serves on the Board of Governors of the Northern California chapter of the Association of Business Trial Lawyers.

Ms. Valco received her A.B. from Dartmouth College and graduated from Harvard Law School.

Dan Van Fleet, Latham & Watkins

Dan Van Fleet is a partner in the San Francisco and Silicon Valley offices of Latham & Watkins LLP. In his practice, Mr. Van Fleet represents borrowers and lenders as well as venture capital and private equity firms with respect to debt financings, with a focus on the technology and life sciences industries. Mr. Van Fleet draws on experience representing clients on all sides of debt financing transactions to deliver insightful counsel to borrowers, sponsors, and financial institutions. He has advised on billions of dollars’ worth of debt transactions, including: Growth debt, including venture, structured, royalty, and lower middle market; Private capital, private equity, growth equity, and leveraged financings, including acquisitions, add-ons, and refinancings; Asset-based transactions, including IP-backed, recurring revenue, accounts receivable, inventory, and equipment financings; and Structured equity and pre-IPO financings. Mr. Van Fleet has served on the firm’s Training and Career Enhancement Committee and has received recognition from the firm as a best supervisor and a top supporter of recruiting and knowledge management efforts. He is also an ally member of the firm’s Hispanic/Latin American Lawyers Group and sits on the firm’s Latin America Practice Leadership Team.

Mr. Van Fleet received his B.A. from Stanford University, his L.L.M. from Duke University, and his J.D. from Duke University School of Law.

KEYNOTE SPEAKER

Hasani Caraway, Notion

Hasani Caraway is the General Counsel of Notion Labs, which provides a SaaS connected workspace where organizations and individuals create, share, and organize all of their work.  Prior to joining Notion, Mr. Caraway served as the General Counsel of Zendesk, a SaaS customer service platform. During his time at Zendesk, Mr. Caraway held a number of different legal roles and helped Zendesk scale from a private company to a public company with over a billion dollars in revenue. Earlier in his career, Mr. Caraway was a corporate and securities attorney at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, where he advised a variety of public companies, fast-growing technology companies, and startups.

Mr. Caraway received his B.S. in Computer Science from Prairie View A&M University and his J.D. from New York University’s School of Law.