“GoExpedi, an innovative e-commerce, supply chain and analytics company that is reinventing procurement for industrial and energy MRO (maintenance, repair and operations), today announced that it has appointed Julie Gremillion as General Counsel,” posts GoExpedi in their Media.

“Gremillion is a corporate attorney with more than 10 years of experience in working with energy companies. She will be responsible for leading all aspects of GoExpedi’s legal strategy, managing compliance and risk throughout the organization; working closely with senior leadership and the Board of Directors as a strategic advisor on legal and business matters affecting the company; and providing legal support for transactional matters, strategic opportunities and day-to-day operations.”

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“McDermott Will & Emery is picking up six transactional partners as builds out across the U.S. amid record levels of corporate and transactional activity for law firms in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic,” reports Meghan Tribe in Bloomberg Law’s US Law Week.

“The six new partners are joining from Kirkland & Ellis, Goodwin Procter, DLA Piper, Foley & Lardner, Hunton Andrews Kurth and Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner. They are joining McDermott’s Chicago, Washington, Atlanta, Dallas, New York, and Los Angeles offices, respectively.”

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“Two weeks after their second dose in a two-dose series (such as the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines), or two weeks after a single-dose vaccine, such as Johnson & Johnson’s Janssen vaccine,” report John A. Rubin, Natalie D. Fluker and Robert J. Simandl in The National Law Review.

“Individuals who do not meet these requirements are not considered fully vaccinated: They are still subject to the prior masking and social distancing requirements. The CDC stated that individuals with compromised immune systems still may not be fully protected after vaccination.”

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“PG&E Corp. agreed Wednesday to pay $43.4 million to settle claims filed by local governments over a 2019 wildfire that ravaged California’s wine country and a deadly fire last year in Shasta County,” reports Dale Kasler in The Sacramento Bee.

“The settlement resolves claims by cities and counties from the damages wrought by the Kincade Fire, which forced the evacuation of nearly 190,000 residents of Sonoma County, and the Zogg Fire west of Redding, which killed four people.”

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Venable LLP is pleased to announce that Benjamin C. Hsing has joined the firm as a partner in the Intellectual Property Litigation – Life Sciences Group in the New York office. Hsing is an accomplished trial lawyer with significant experience litigating patents across a broad range of technologies, including pharmaceutical compounds and formulations, telecommunication cables, treatment methods, genetically engineered seeds, medical devices, memory chips, light switches, imaging devices, and pet products.

Hsing has secured favorable results for major pharmaceutical and technology companies in numerous high-profile cases. He regularly calls upon his experience as a patent examiner to provide comprehensive counsel to clients on matters before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), including post-grant and contested patent office proceedings. He also conducts intellectual property (IP) due diligence investigations in connection with acquisitions and licensing deals. Hsing is deeply involved in his clients’ matters, ensuring that he understands all aspects of their businesses and cases so that he can identify, dissect, and solve potential challenges facing his clients.

Hsing received his J.D. form the George Washington University Law School in 1991, his M.S. in Chemical Engineering from Columbia University in 1986, his B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Columbia University in 1984, and a B.A. from Columbia University in 1983.

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Speaker – Dave Ruel, Senior Product Manager, Hanzo

Dave is a Senior Product Manager at Hanzo, a pioneer in the contextual capture, and preservation of dynamic web and collaboration content for corporate legal and compliance departments. Dave has more than 20 years of experience in software and product development and has spent considerable time in the legal, compliance, and information governance space. He has helped develop a broad range of products and solutions for big data challenges and is passionate about emerging technologies like machine learning, artificial intelligence, and visual analytics.

Littler, the world’s largest employment and labor law practice representing management, is pleased to announce the elevation of three executives within its Littler CaseSmart® (LCS) and Littler onDemand (LoD) platforms. Erik C. Johnson has been named Senior Program Director of LCS and LoD, Emily H. Morris has been promoted to Program Director for LCS – Single Plaintiff Litigation (SPL), and Meg Coppley is now Program Director for LCS – Class Action.

Johnson, who is a shareholder with Littler and joined the LCS team in 2014, will oversee the legal operations across all business lines of LCS, as well as LoD, with a focus on meeting and exceeding the needs of the firm’s clients. He previously served as Program Director for LCS – SPL.

Morris joined the LCS team in 2013 and most recently served as Program Manager of LCS – SPL. In her new role, she will collaborate with Littler clients and attorneys to manage single-plaintiff litigation defended in the LCS model, as well as monitor and manage key performance indicators and financial performance.

A member of the LCS team since 2016 and former Program Manager for LCS – Class Action, Coppley will coordinate with attorneys to manage class, collective, mass and representative actions defended in the LCS model. She will also assist clients in monitoring litigation metrics and manage financial performance.

Littler disrupted the legal industry when it launched the Littler CaseSmart platform in 2010. LCS reengineered the process of managing employment litigation by combining proprietary technology, alternative staffing and project management to control costs and increase fee predictability, while enhancing quality and consistency. LCS has proven to reduce legal spend by 10 to 50 percent and has collected substantial case data over the past decade that helps drive stronger business decisions and reduce risk. Initially created for administrative agency charges, LCS has expanded over the years to manage the full-range of employment litigation, including single-plaintiff, multi-plaintiff, class and collective actions, and mass arbitrations and related litigation. LCS has revolutionized Littler’s approach to managing employment litigation and has helped further solidify its reputation as a forward thinking and innovative law firm.

Building on the use of a unique combination of technology, staffing and project management, the firm launched Littler onDemand in 2019. LoD provides companies with quick, consistent and thorough answers to workplace legal questions, as well as data-driven insights to identify trends, manage risk and drive stronger business decisions. When COVID-19 hit, the firm was able to quickly repurpose LoD for internal use to manage the high volume of workplace-related questions resulting from the pandemic.

LCS and LoD, as well as Forman’s innovative leadership, have led to numerous awards from organizations that recognize innovation in the legal industry, including from the American Lawyer, Association of Corporate Counsel, College of Law Practice Management, FastCase 50, Financial Times, International Legal Technology Association, Law360 and National Law Journal.

Venable LLP is pleased to announce that Thomas E. Perez has joined the firm as a partner in the Washington, D.C., office. Perez previously served as the chair of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and as secretary of labor and assistant attorney general for civil rights under President Barack Obama.

As chair of the DNC, Perez oversaw the rebuilding of the organization’s infrastructure and implementation of vital reforms, enabling the party to secure critical victories at the local, state, and national levels. As labor secretary under President Obama, Perez was a member of the president’s economic team, led a top-to-bottom transformation of the agency, and worked closely with key Department of Labor (DOL) component agencies, including the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), Wage & Hour Division, and Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA). He forged meaningful partnerships between workers and businesses on a range of important issues and settled two major labor disputes – one involving port workers in the West Coast ports and the other involving 40,000 telecommunications workers.

Perez spent over a decade at the Justice Department during multiple administrations and multiple tours of duty, starting as a career civil rights prosecutor, deputy assistant attorney general for civil rights, and ultimately leading the division during the first term of the Obama administration. During his career at the Civil Rights Division, he prosecuted and supervised the prosecution of numerous high-profile civil rights cases and handled a wide range of important civil rights matters. As assistant attorney general for civil rights, he led an expansive effort to restore and transform civil rights enforcement in a wide array of areas, oversaw an active police reform practice, reached landmark settlements to change the culture of policing in numerous cities, and settled the three largest residential fair lending cases in the history of the Fair Housing Act.

Perez previously served as secretary of Maryland’s Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation (DLLR) and led the effort to enact a sweeping package of state reforms to address the foreclosure crisis in Maryland. He was the first Latino elected to serve on Montgomery County Maryland’s County Council and served as council president in 2005. He also served as special counsel to Senator Edward Kennedy, and was Senator Kennedy’s principal advisor on civil rights, criminal justice, and constitutional issues. For the final two years of the Clinton administration, he served as the director of the Office for Civil Rights at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HSS).

Perez received his J.D. from Harvard Law School, his master’s in public policy from the Kennedy School of Government, and his A.B. in international relations and political science from Brown University.

The partnership of Mitchell Silberberg & Knupp LLP has elected three partners as co-chairs of the firm. Lucia Coyoca, David Steinberg and Greg Hessinger will succeed current co-chairs Kevin Gaut and Nimish Patel.

Coyoca is a litigation partner based in the Los Angeles office. With extensive trial experience, her practice involves entertainment industry disputes and insurance coverage work. She also represents employers in wrongful termination, discrimination and sexual harassment cases. Coyoca has held various leadership positions in the profession’s efforts to diversify, including serving as co-chair of the American Bar Association’s Woman Advocate Committee. Since joining the firm in 1988, she has served multiple terms on the firm’s governing board.

Steinberg is a partner in the entertainment & IP litigation practice based in the Los Angeles office. Steinberg is known for his work on intellectual property issues focusing on copyright, trademark, anti-circumvention/Digital Millennium Copyright Act, unfair competition and trade secrets. He also has extensive experience in entertainment and general business litigation. He joined the firm in 1987 and served two terms on its governing board.

Hessinger is a partner in the labor and employment practice based in the New York office. He represents a variety of regional and national employers in all aspects of labor and employment law. Prior to returning to private practice 15 years ago, Hessinger was the executive director of each of the two largest performers’ unions, the Screen Actors Guild and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, which have since merged. He joined the firm in 2016.

Gaut, who has been with MSK for 37 years, served as co-chair of the firm for nearly a decade and Patel has been co-chair since joining the firm six years ago. Both will remain at the firm and return to their full-time practices.

Detroit – May 26, 2021 – Dykema, a leading national law firm, today announced the addition of Janet L. Conigliaro to its Products, Class Actions and Professional Liability Practice Group as a Member in the firm’s Detroit, office. Conigliaro, who previously practiced at Dykema from 2012-2019, rejoins the firm after serving as Director, Legal Regulatory Counsel at ZF Group, a global technology supplier for passenger cars, commercial vehicles and industrial technology.

In her practice, Conigliaro focuses on automotive and products liability litigation. She has extensive experience managing automotive product liability and class action cases, including serving as national discovery and e-discovery counsel for cases in multiple jurisdictions covering numerous allegations and subject matters of first impression.

Conigliaro has led fact investigations, prepared discovery responses, handled motion practice, negotiated protective orders and e-discovery protocols, and developed pre-class certification discovery plans in accordance with overall case strategy. Additionally, she has worked closely with in-house counsel to develop and implement best practices and strategies in pattern product liability litigation matters.

Conigliaro has handled many class actions from inception through class certification briefing managing discovery, fact development, taking and defending depositions, expert discovery, and drafting motions and briefing. She also has experience in handling NHTSA inquiries and investigation responses and recall management for the automotive industry.

Conigliaro has made significant contributions to Dykema’s pro bono efforts, defending immigrants in unlawful removal proceedings and human trafficking. She also taught first- and second-year law classes on Civil Procedure and Advanced Advocacy and Writing.

Conigliaro earned a J.D. from the University of Detroit Mercy School of Law and a B.A., summa cum laude, from the University of Detroit Mercy.

“KeyCorp (NYSE:KEY) announced that James L. Waters will be joining the bank as General Counsel and Corporate Secretary effective July 6, 2021. Mr. Waters will lead Key’s Law Group and serve as the company’s senior legal officer,” posts KeyCorp in their Press Releases.

“Mr. Waters brings more than 20 years of experience in corporate law with a focus on finance. Prior to joining Key, he served as General Counsel and Corporate Secretary at Cullen/Frost Bankers, Inc. Previously, Mr. Waters was a partner at Haynes and Boone, LLP where he spent eighteen years as a corporate lawyer representing banks and corporations.”

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“The centrality of law as a public health intervention has been undeniable during the Covid-19 pandemic. In just the first half of 2020, more than 1000 laws and orders were issued by federal, state, and local authorities in the United States in an effort to reduce disease transmission,” discuss Scott Burris, J.D., Evan D. Anderson, J.D., Ph.D., and Alexander C. Wagenaar, M.S.W., Ph.D. in The New England Journal of Medicine’s Perspective.

“Legal interventions include stay-at-home orders, mask mandates, and travel restrictions, as well as more particular rules for business operations, alcohol sales, curfews, and health care. Given their heavy use, importance, and obvious socioeconomic side effects, and the social and behavioral complexities of their implementation, one might have expected the National Institutes of Health (NIH), other research funders, and the research community to jump to the work of determining the right mix, intensity, and enforcement approaches of legal restrictions to control transmission with the least and most equitably distributed harms.”

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“Armonk lawyer Laurieanne DeLitta has been disbarred and ordered to pay nearly $1.5 million, and possibly another $2.2 million, for stealing money from clients,” reports Bill Heltzel in Westchester & Fairfield County Business Journals’ Courts.

“DeLitta misappropriated funds and engaged in fraud, deceit and misrepresentation, according to a May 19 ruling by five justices of the Second Appellate Division.”

“DeLitta had responded to five complaints last November by asking to resign as an attorney, admitting that she cannot successfully defend herself against allegations of professional misconduct.”

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“Steve Wozniak will soon face the courts for a copyright lawsuit due to a technology school venture initially called ‘Woz Institute of Technology’ but was scrapped and did not push through,” reports Isaiah Richard in Tech Times.

“Instead of being board members or chairpersons of what is supposed to be a technology school that would focus on engineering and pushing forth the development of modern gadgets, both parties are square one in court. According to Business Insider, Wozniak is facing the claims of allegedly “stealing” the idea to a tech school despite having the name ‘Woz’ to it.”

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Renowned corporate energy lawyer appointed to spearhead legal strategy for industry-leading e-commerce platform

HOUSTON, May 25, 2021— GoExpedi, an innovative e-commerce, supply chain and analytics company that is reinventing procurement for industrial and energy MRO (maintenance, repair and operations), today announced that it has appointed Julie Gremillion as General Counsel.

Gremillion is a corporate attorney with more than 10 years of experience in working with energy companies. She will be responsible for leading all aspects of GoExpedi’s legal strategy, managing compliance and risk throughout the organization; working closely with senior leadership and the Board of Directors as a strategic advisor on legal and business matters affecting the company; and providing legal support for transactional matters, strategic opportunities and day-to-day operations.

Gremillion spent nearly a decade at two preeminent international law firms, Jones Day and Sidley Austin, working on a variety of public and private transactions and negotiating numerous commercial agreements for her clients. Following her law firm work, she joined the corporate development team at Anadarko where she managed the execution of a strategic divestment plan involving 12 transactions totaling more than $8 billion and served as a strategic advisor to senior leadership on related compliance and risk management matters. She also played a key role in negotiating strategic agreements for the company’s highest profile assets and helped develop creative funding solutions to solve capital budget constraints.

Gremillion graduated from The Wharton School at The University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia with a Bachelor of Science in Economics as well as The University of Texas School of Law with high honors.

Arent Fox LLP is pleased to announce the expansion of its International Trade & Investment practice, with the addition of one of Canada’s top international trade and investment lawyers, Riyaz Dattu. Riyaz will be joining as the firm’s Canada Legal Practice Leader.

Riyaz has previously founded and led the International Trade and Investment Law practices at two of Canada’s most preeminent law firms. At Arent Fox, Riyaz will continue to represent and advise from New York City and Washington DC multinationals with a Canadian presence and some of Canada’s most prominent companies on their operations in the United States and around the world.

Over his more than 35 years of practice, Riyaz has developed considerable, sophisticated, and wide-ranging experience in international trade and investment law. This includes international investment arbitrations, international trade disputes (including before binational panels, the WTO, and domestic courts), trade remedies, international trade regulations (economic sanctions, export controls, customs), trade policy and market access, government procurement and contracting, national security, corporate investigations, corporate social responsibility, and anti-corruption.

The Government of Canada has appointed Riyaz for a 10-year term on the roster of panelists for the NAFTA Chapter 19 bi-national dispute resolution process, now Chapter 10 of the USMCA.

Arent Fox’s International Trade & Investment practice has a strong track record of successfully representing leading Canadian businesses. With the addition of Riyaz, the group will continue to provide advice and find solutions that consider the implications of both Canadian and US law in a timely and cost-efficient basis by offering innovative and forward-thinking counseling.

Riyaz joins nine Partners and two Counsel that Arent Fox that has added already this year, including top public international law partner David Tafuri in Washington, DC.

Riyaz’s Experience
• Riyaz has acted as counsel in some of the most consequential and precedent-setting international investment arbitrations, international trade disputes, trade remedies disputes, and government procurement complaints.

• Riyaz’s legal representation in investment dispute cases and arbitrations, administered by the London Court of International Arbitration and UNCITRAL ad-hoc tribunals, has been on behalf of several leading Canadian companies in the financial, energy, and mining sectors.

• His current international arbitration representations include acting for a Canadian mining company in relation to an ICSID claim against the Government of Mexico pursuant to NAFTA and another Canadian mining company in relation to a claim against a European country under a bilateral investment for discriminatory and unlawful cancellation of valuable mining concessions.

• He also advises clients on trade policy and market access, international trade regulations (economic sanctions, export controls, customs), national security, anti-corruption, and government contracting.

• Throughout his career, Riyaz has been ranked at the highest level in all leading publications, including Chambers Global, International Who’s Who of Customs and Trade Lawyers, Acritas Stars (Star Lawyer), Best Lawyers, and many other leading international publications.

• He is also listed in the Canadian Who’s Who, for his reputation and achievements in his profession.

As banks, FinTech companies, and others providing financial services navigate a complex regulatory landscape, Davis Wright Tremaine has added a former Federal Trade Commission enforcement attorney to its enforcement & investigations practice within the banking and financial services group. Thomas Kost joins DWT’s Seattle office as counsel, strengthening the firm’s growing regulatory practice area.

Prior to joining the firm, Kost served as a staff attorney with the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection, where he played a leading role in handling all aspects of investigations and litigation to enforce the FTC Act’s prohibition on deceptive or unfair conduct, as well as a range of other consumer financial laws. He also helped develop the agency’s enforcement strategy relating to small business financing. Before joining the FTC, Kost practiced at Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP, where he represented banks, card issuers, and non-bank financial services providers in high-stakes matters involving retail deposit products, overdraft services, mortgage lending and servicing, credit cards, and prepaid cards.

Kost began his career as a law clerk in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit. He received his B.A. in politics from Whitman College and his J.D. from Northwestern University’s Pritzker School of Law.

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Washington, D.C., May 24, 2021 – Hughes Hubbard & Reed LLP is pleased to announce that Tom Healey has joined the firm as a partner in its Aviation Finance Group. Healey, a leader in aircraft finance, will be based in the firm’s Washington, D.C., office.

Healey’s practice focuses on representing financial institutions, airlines, manufacturers and lessors in the largest and most innovative transactions. He advises creditors in Chapter 11 proceedings, restructuring financings for aircraft in North America and South America, and works with lessors, finance parties, operators and governments on export credit financings.

Healey regularly works on pre-delivery payment facilities and asset and credit support agreements and advises buyers and sellers of business aircraft as well as participants in fractional programs. His work has garnered numerous awards from aviation industry publications.

Healey received his JD from the University of Michigan Law School and his BA from Cornell University.

Dallas – Sidley Austin LLP is pleased to announce that Holt Foster has joined the firm as a partner in the Dallas office. Foster will be a member of the global Energy and Infrastructure group and a practice area team co-leader of the Energy practice. He joins Sidley from Thompson Knight where he has served on the firm’s Management Committee and as head of the Dallas office.

As one of the leading energy transactional lawyers in Dallas, Foster represents private equity funds and their portfolio companies in buying and selling energy assets. He represents some of the industry’s largest funds, focusing on mergers and acquisitions, financings, and formation of private equity funds. In addition to energy transactions, Foster has expertise in a broad range of industries including high-tech and software. He works with public and private companies, both domestically and internationally, on structuring and negotiating transactions.