“GoDaddy Inc. (NYSE: GDDY), the company that empowers everyday entrepreneurs, today announced Michele Lau will assume the role of GoDaddy’s Chief Legal Officer effective July 12, 2021, and Mark McCaffrey will assume the role of GoDaddy’s Chief Financial Officer effective June 2, 2021. Both will report to GoDaddy CEO Aman Bhutani. Lau and McCaffrey replace CLO Nima Kelly and CFO Ray Winborne, who both announced their intent to retire earlier this year,” posted GoDaddy in their Newsroom.

“With close to 20 years of legal experience, Lau most currently served as Senior Vice President, Corporate Secretary and Associate General Counsel, Corporate, Governance and Transactions at McKesson Corporation. In her role, Lau advises McKesson’s board and executives on strategic matters related M&A, McKesson Ventures, corporate strategy, shareholder engagement, securities, executive compensation, corporate governance, ESG, antitrust, debt, treasury, bankruptcy, real estate, subsidiary governance, stock plan administration and the McKesson Foundation. Lau co-chairs the National Asian Pacific Bar Association’s In-House Counsel Mentoring Program and serves on the board of directors of the Asian Pacific Fund.”

Read the release.

“Victoria’s Secret has hired former Express Inc. and Abercrombie & Fitch lawyer Melinda McAfee as its first chief legal officer,” reports Ruiqi Chen in Bloomberg Law’s Business & Practice.

“McAfee joined the Columbus, Ohio-based clothing and lingerie company in April, she said on her LinkedIn profile. Parent company L Brands confirmed the move via a spokesperson.”

“McAfee joins Victoria’s Secret after two years with Express as senior vice president and general counsel.”

Read the article.

“Dentons — a firm with almost 11,000 lawyers spread across the globe, with most of them situated in the U.S. — announced yesterday that they’d be matching market bonuses for associates,” reports Staci Zaretsky in Above the Law’s Biglaw.

“To receive a full bonus, associates must meet 2,000 creditable billable hours by year, and those who hit 2,250 hours or more will be entitled to a bit of a bonus boost. Only associates on track to hit their minimum hours will receive bonus money.”

Read the article.

“Area health care providers will finally see millions of dollars in reimbursements tied to a defunct health insurer – but some may be out more than half of the dollars they were owed,” reports Tracey Drury in Business Journal’s Health Care.

“The State Department of Financial Services this week announced a $220.8 million judgment resolving a lawsuit filed in late 2017 against the federal government tied to the collapse of Health Republic Insurance of New York.”

“According to DFS, area hospitals and physicians are expected to recoup the full value of unpaid claims. Here’s what wasn’t in the press release: Providers around the state who didn’t know the settlement was in the works signed offers from Riverdale Capital, a New York-based investment firm for pre-payments of 40 cents on the dollar and are now bound by that agreement.”

Read the article.

Foley & Lardner LLP represented Spectrum Dermatology (Spectrum), the largest dermatology practice in Arizona, in a recapitalization and partnership with Pinnacle Dermatology (Pinnacle), a dermatology platform owned by Chicago Pacific Founders.

The partnership with Spectrum is the next step in Pinnacle’s strategy to build a leading, multi-state dermatology practice platform. Spectrum, which will continue to operate under the same name, brings seven locations and 31 providers serving Scottsdale and Greater Phoenix to Pinnacle. Under the new partnership, Spectrum’s founder Dr. Nancy Kim will join Pinnacle’s board of directors.

The Foley team was led by partner Roger Strode and included partners Steve Gerenraich, John Palmer, Mike Woolever and Matthew Impola, and associates Allie Shalom, Stephanie Schwartz, Laura Burlot, Arthur Vorbrodt and Candace Flatley.

Venable LLP is pleased to announce that the firm’s director of career development, Traci Mundy Jenkins, became the 2021-2022 President of the National Association for Law Placement (NALP) during the association’s annual business meeting on April 30, completing her one-year term as president-elect. NALP is one of the most distinguished legal recruiting and professional development associations in North America, playing an essential role in cultivating an ethical hiring process and building diverse and inclusive legal teams.

As NALP’s president, Jenkins will serve as the chief volunteer and the leader of the board of directors of the organization. Her responsibilities include developing short-term and long-term plans for the organization, working with other officers to prepare the annual budget, and supervising and providing direction for sections, committees, groups, and task forces. Following the completion of her term, Jenkins will serve as immediate past president for one year.

An associate alumna of Venable, Jenkins has broad experience in legal recruiting and development. She has served as founder and managing partner of a recruiting and consulting company and as assistant dean at the American University Washington College of Law, where she spent a total of 15 years, and has an extensive history of association and community leadership. At NALP alone, during her 18 years with the organization, Jenkins has held positions as board member, vice chair of the Annual Education Conference, vice chair of strategic planning for the Lawyer Professional Development Section, and an elected member of the Nominating Committee, among other roles. Jenkins has also previously served as president of the Washington Area Legal Recruitment Administrators Association (WALRAA), president of the Burke-Fairfax Chapter of Jack and Jill of America, Inc., and president of Housing and Community Services of Northern Virginia, and in leadership positions for a number of other community groups.

Jenkins earned her B.A. in Economics from Wellesley College and a J.D. from the University of Virginia School of Law.

Akerman LLP, a top 100 U.S. law firm, has expanded its Corporate Practice Group with Jason Northcutt in Washington, D.C. He joins as a partner from Bass, Berry & Sims. Northcutt works with leaders in the government contracting, aerospace and defense, manufacturing, industrial services, life sciences, tech-enabled services, and other business services industries.

Northcutt has more than 20 years of experience advising a wide variety of financial sponsors and corporate clients in mergers and acquisitions transactions. His clients include leading middle market private equity funds and corporations in the government contracting, manufacturing, industrial services, life sciences, tech-enabled services, and other business services industries. As part of his private equity practice, Northcutt advises private equity sponsors in deploying capital in control investments and counsels portfolio companies on debt and equity financings, corporate governance, and executive compensation matters. He also assists both publicly and privately held companies in structuring and managing complex transactions.

ROANOKE, Va. (May 6, 2021) – The Virginia law firm Gentry Locke is pleased to welcome John Danyluk to its Richmond office. Danyluk will work in the firm’s criminal and government investigations practice.

With experience in criminal defense, investigations, financial liability determinations and issues related to misconduct, Danyluk is well-positioned to help clients facing increasing legal and government scrutiny. As a Special Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Western District of Texas, he litigated more than 1,000 federal cases, including six jury trials, 14 bench trials, and 70 revocation hearings. He has also worked closely with FBI and Army CID agents on investigatory matters to aid in case development.

Prior to joining the firm, Danyluk served for more than four years in the U.S. Army Judge Advocate General’s Corps in Texas and Germany. He has been recognized with the Army Commendation Medal, Army Achievement Medal and the 2018 Client Services Award for Excellence (estate planning, income tax, and consumer finance).

Danyluk received his B.A. degree from the University of Richmond and his J.D. from the University of Richmond School of Law.

“Biglaw firms across the country continue to hand out special bonuses to associates and counsel as a way to thank them for their dedication during the pandemic — and to keep them around amid an incredibly hot lateral market. Other firms are going a step further and instituting salary increases, raising those in major markets to the standard Biglaw salary scale (if they weren’t already there), and others in smaller markets by tens of thousands of dollars,” reports Staci Zaretsky in Above the Law’s Biglaw.

“According to emails sent by management earlier this week at Ice Miller, an Am Law 200 firm, effective July 1, 2021, all full-time associates and partner-track counsel will receive at least a $20,000 raise. With this raise comes an 1,850 billable hours expectation, and adjustments to the firm’s bonus plan will also be made in connection with these salary increases.”

Read the article.

“Data privacy attorney Hilary Lane has joined Holland & Knight’s Tampa office as a partner. Ms. Lane was formerly the chief privacy officer for NBCUniversal. She is a member of Holland & Knight’s national Data Strategy, Security & Privacy Team,” posted Holland & Knight in their News.

“Ms. Lane, a Certified Information Privacy Professional (CIPP/US), has extensive experience helping businesses navigate the privacy and cybersecurity landscape nationally and around the globe. As chief privacy officer for NBCUniversal, she built, implemented and led its global privacy program across diverse operating units and drove strategy throughout the organization. Building on that experience, Ms. Lane takes a strategic and practical approach, working closely with clients to design and implement global data privacy and security programs tailored to their business. Prior to joining Holland & Knight, Ms. Lane was a partner at Quarles & Brady.”

Read the release.

“A former Coca-Cola Co. lawyer will become the new interim chief legal officer for Tilray Inc., the world’s largest legal weed operation by revenue, the company announced Monday,” reports Brian Baxter in Bloomberg Law’s Business & Practice.

“Tilray and Aphria Inc., a rival Canadian cannabis company it agreed to acquire in December, confirmed May 3 the completion of that $3.8 billion deal and the appointment of a new executive leadership team.”

“Tilray’s general counsel Dara Redler will serve as interim legal chief and corporate secretary of the combined company, which will use the Tilray name.”

Read the article.

“Teams of lawyers led by Munger, Tolles & Olson and Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison are handling the divorce of Bill and Melinda Gates, who announced Monday the end of their 27-year marriage,” reports Brian Baxter in Bloomberg Law’s Business & Practice.

“Bill Gates, co-founder of Microsoft Inc., is being advised by Munger Tolles partners Ronald Olson, Robert Denham, and Eric Tuttle in Los Angeles.”

“Olson, a name partner at the firm and longtime adviser and confidant of billionaire Warren Buffett, didn’t respond to a request for comment about how his law firm came to land a role on a divorce that will divide an estimated $146 billion fortune.”

Read the article.

Randy Johnston, Robert Tobey, Chad Baruch receive honor

DALLAS – All three name partners at Dallas law firm Johnston Tobey Baruch – Randy Johnston, Robert Tobey and Chad Baruch – have been named to the list of the Best Lawyers in Dallas 2021 by D Magazine.

Johnston and Tobey are honored in the area of Professional Nonmedical Liability Litigation and Baruch in Appellate law. This is the 11th time D Magazine has honored Johnston and Baruch, and the 10th such honor for Tobey.

Johnston is known as one of the state’s foremost authorities on issues of legal ethics and handles cases involving professional malpractice. Tobey is a trial lawyer and is the immediate past president of the Dallas Bar Association. Baruch is a member of the State Bar of Texas Board of Directors and is certified in Civil Appellate Law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization.

Each year, attorneys in Dallas vote for the lawyers they believe are among the best at what they do. A blue-ribbon panel later reviews the results and D Magazine publishes the list, which is available in the May 2021 issue and at dmagazine.com.

Eversheds Sutherland is pleased to announce that Scott H. Rothstein has joined the Insurance Practice Group in the firm’s New York office as senior counsel, further expanding the firm’s extensive insurance and financial services practice. Rothstein joined the firm from Mutual of America, where, as executive vice president and deputy general counsel, he was leading the group responsible for securities and insurance regulatory matters in support of variable annuity, life insurance, mutual fund and retirement services operations. Prior to this position, Rothstein served as executive director of the New York State Commission to Modernize the Regulation of Financial Services.

With over two decades of in-house experience in insurance and financial services, Rothstein advises highly regulated companies on corporate and regulatory matters, with a focus on insurance regulation, securities regulation of variable annuity products and mutual funds, and the distribution of securities and insurance products. He has extensive experience counseling clients on securities and insurance regulatory issues, including preparation of registration statements and prospectus updates, sales practices and disclosure rules, insurance product design/contract drafting, holding company regulation and corporate governance matters. He also regularly advises clients on the Advisers Act, Investment Company Act and broker/dealer regulatory compliance.

ATLANTA – Chamberlain Hrdlicka welcomes Associates Zack Anderson, Brent Bartlett, Gabriella Cole, Jamihlia F. Johnson and Peter D. Rehm to the firm’s growing Atlanta office. Anderson joins the Commercial Litigation and Construction practices, Bartlett, Cole and Johnson join the Tax Controversy and Litigation practice and Rehm joins the International Tax practice. These attorneys are the latest additions to Chamberlain’s Atlanta office, which has been experiencing rapid growth in 2021, adding six additional lawyers to its headcount since January.

Zack Anderson
Anderson represents owners, contractors, subcontractors, suppliers and other businesses in various construction and commercial matters. Prior to joining Chamberlain Hrdlicka, his practice focused on representing sureties, insurers, contractors and subcontractors in federal, state and bankruptcy courts. Before attending college, he worked in the construction industry and as a commercial truck driver where he gained experience that provides him with valuable knowledge and insight that is helpful in his practice.

Anderson earned his undergraduate degree from Georgia Southern University and his law degree from Duke University School of Law.

Brent Bartlett
Bartlett represents clients in all levels of their matters with the IRS, from examination and appeals to litigation in the United States Tax Court and Federal District Court. Prior to joining Chamberlain Hrdlicka, he served as a law clerk for the Honorable Cary Douglas Pugh of the United States Tax Court and an extern for Senior Judge Mary Ellen Coster Williams of the United States Court of Federal Claims. Before transitioning to tax, Bartlett was a commercial litigator at law firms in Georgia and Florida, practicing in the areas of eminent domain, construction and real estate. He has represented and advised a wide range of clients in a variety of complex commercial matters.

Bartlett earned his undergraduate degree from Emory University, his law degree from Emory University School of Law and his Master of Laws in Taxation from Georgetown University Law Center.

Gabriella Cole
Cole advises clients before federal, state and local taxing authorities and in all federal and state courts in which tax disputes are litigated. She has experience managing both federal and state audits and appeals from inception through the final decision, and helping strategize for litigation. Prior to joining Chamberlain Hrdlicka, Cole led an initiative to work with lobbyists, state congressional members, the Texas comptroller and tax policy group to change the interpretation and application of the Texas research and development tax credit.

She earned her undergraduate degree from Kennesaw State University, her graduate degree from C.T. Bauer College of Business at the University of Houston and her law degree from University of Houston Law Center.

Jamihlia F. Johnson
Johnson counsels businesses and individuals with disputes before the IRS and taxing authorities. She represents taxpayers at all stages of review including at the level of tax audits and examinations, appeals and litigation. Prior to joining Chamberlain, Johnson worked on corporate finance deals for a Chicago based firm. She was also a senior associate at the national office of PwC, and a manager at Deloitte Tax, where she routinely advised Fortune 500 multinational corporations, high net-worth individuals, as well as foreign governmental entities and investors on United States international cross-border tax planning opportunities relevant to inbound, outbound and financial products transactions.

Johnson serves on the board of Mujeres Latinas en Acción, and serves as secretary on the executive board of the Young International Fiscal Association (IFA) Network. She earned her undergraduate degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, her law degree from the University of Missouri School of Law and her Master of Laws in Taxation from Northwestern University School of Law.

Peter D. Rehm
Rehm advises individual and corporate taxpayers in disputes with the IRS. He has extensive experience in international tax matters including structuring, M&A, foreign tax credits, the Foreign Investment in Real Property Tax Act, tax treaties, withholding taxes, and outbound and inbound transactions. Prior to joining Chamberlain Hrdlicka, he served as an international tax associate, senior associate and manager during his tenure at PwC and as a M&A tax manager at KPMG.

Rehm earned his undergraduate degree from the University of North Georgia, his law degree from Mercer University Walter F. George School of Law and his Master of Laws in Taxation from the University of Florida Levin College of Law.

Fitch, Even, Tabin & Flannery LLP will present a free webinar, “Design Patents in the U.S. and Japan: Leveraging the Differences in Laws to Maximize Protection,” featuring Fitch Even partner Calista J. Mitchell and Konishi & Nakamura partner Tomohiro Nakamura.

The webinar will take place on Thursday, May 20, 2021, at 9:00 am PDT / 10:00 am MDT / 11:00 am CDT / 12 noon EDT.

Design patent laws can differ significantly from one country to another. A lack of understanding of these differences can result in not obtaining the broadest patent protection possible. This webinar will provide an overview of the basics of the design patent laws in the U.S. and Japan and then examine how applicants can take advantage of unique opportunities each country’s laws have to offer.

In particular, the presenters will address the following topics:
• Patentability requirements for designs in the U.S. and in Japan
• Best practices for preparing a priority application in one country that is suitable for filing in the other
• Unique filing or prosecution strategies permitted in each country
• Enforcement considerations
• Highlights of Japan’s New Design Act of 2020 and the implications and opportunities for applicants filing secondary applications in Japan

CLE credit has been approved for California and Illinois and is pending for Nebraska. Other states may also award CLE credit upon attendee request.

Register for the event.

Following the live event, a recording of the webinar will be available to view for one year at www.fitcheven.com.

IPRO Expands Programming for 2021 Tech Show to Showcase Transformation in eDiscovery and IG

Capped attendance will allow for more immersive content around company vision, product roadmaps, and networking while maintaining social distancing guidelines.

May 5, 2021—TEMPE, Ariz.—IPRO today opened registration for its 2021 Tech Show, the company’s exclusive event for eDiscovery and Information Governance (IG) professionals to learn and share innovative techniques for using technology to solve their data challenges.

This year’s Tech Show will feature expanded programming, giving attendees an intimate opportunity to learn about the impactful changes IPRO has made over the past year, including how its newly integrated product platform is transforming the EDRM.

The event will be held September 21-23 at the Westin San Diego Gaslamp Quarter–a change from past Tech Show events–in an effort to ensure the comfort and safety of attendees. IPRO will limit the number of attendees at the 2021 Tech Show to allow for adherence to CDC social distancing guidelines.

The 2021 Tech Show will be packed with keynotes, panels, and breakout sessions designed to offer strategies for pushing the boundaries of new capabilities within IPRO products—including Live EDA and Artificial Intelligence. It will also feature in-depth sessions about how thinking upstream in IG processes–by improving retention, compliance, and security–can lead to better eDiscovery outcomes.

Registration and more information is available here: https://web.cvent.com/event/fe60be94-b536-4044-90fb-b09d35958f1d/summary.

Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP is pleased to announce that six attorneys in the firm’s Healthcare Practice Group have been appointed to leadership positions with the American Health Law Association (AHLA), beginning July 1.

The firm’s attorneys newly appointed as AHLA leaders are Justin K. Brown, Alé Dalton, Amy S. Leopard, Russell B. Morgan, Janus Pan and Wendi Rogaliner.

AHLA is the nation’s largest, nonpartisan, nonprofit educational organization devoted to legal issues in the health care field. Its mission is to provide a collegial forum for interaction and information exchange to enable its members to serve their clients more effectively; to produce the highest quality non-partisan educational programs, products, and services concerning health law issues; and to serve as a public resource on selected health care legal issues. Members practice in law and consulting firms; academic, in-house, and in a variety of public sector work settings and represent the entire spectrum of the health care industry.

Based in Bradley’s Birmingham office, Brown will serve as vice chair for the Educational Programming of the Enterprise Risk Management Task Force. He represents hospitals and healthcare providers in a variety of transactional, regulatory, and operational matters.

Based in the firm’s Nashville office, Dalton will serve a two-year term on the Young Professionals Council. Her practice focuses on providing counsel during mergers and acquisitions. She has experience handling acquisitions, divestitures, and joint ventures involving hospitals, physician practices, ambulatory surgery centers, and other providers, and regularly advises clients in matters involving clinical research and telemedicine.

A partner in the firm’s Nashville office, Leopard will serve a second term on the Board of Directors and Nominating Committee At-Large. Leopard regularly provides trusted counsel to healthcare providers, entrepreneurs, and service providers on licensing, payment, regulatory compliance, privacy and technology issues.

A partner in the firm’s Nashville office, Morgan will continue to serve on the Dispute Resolution Service Council. He has extensive experience representing healthcare providers in all aspects of their business, including payor disputes, compliance issues, internal investigations, technology disputes and qui tam litigation.

Based in the firm’s Nashville office, Pan was appointed vice chair of the Regulation, Accreditation, and Payment Practice Group. Pan assists healthcare entities in transactional and regulatory matters. She has advised clients on Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement, and worked on hospital mergers and acquisitions.

A partner in Bradley’s Dallas office, Rogaliner will continue to serve on the Journal of Health and Life Sciences Law editorial board. Rogaliner’s practice focuses on complex regulatory and compliance matters in the healthcare industry. She has extensive experience in regulatory compliance matters, including service as a legal IRO for entities under a corporate integrity agreement with the Office of Inspector General, and is routinely called upon to advise her institutional clients in their day to operations and transactions within the heavily regulated healthcare industry.

3 May 2021- Luminance has announced that Ireland’s leading provider of information security and risk management solutions, Ward Solutions, has adopted Luminance’s cutting-edge AI platform to assist their in-house legal and data protection team when responding to Data Subject Access Requests (DSARs) arising under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

Ward Solutions have opted to adopt Luminance’s AI-powered eDiscovery solution instead of outsourcing this work to expensive third party providers, allowing Ward to analyse vast datasets in record time and maintain maximum compliance, whilst also reducing overall costs.

Luminance’s eDiscovery platform uses a combination of both supervised and unsupervised machine learning to read and form an understanding of the firm’s vast dataset. Luminance’s ability to automatically identify Personally Identifiable Information (PII) such as party names, security numbers and addresses ensures that Ward Solutions are able to rapidly identify personal information within documents collated in response to a DSAR. By using Luminance’s revolutionary bulk redaction feature, the legal team can then isolate all of the relevant information and remove irrelevant data, a process that would be extremely resource and time-intensive to do manually.

Luminance is used in over 300 law firms and organisations across the world. The company was recently recognised as a ‘Future Fifty’ firm by Tech Nation.

DALLAS – Bailey Brauer PLLC, is proud to announce the promotion of Ben Stewart to partner in the Dallas-based litigation boutique, effective May 1.

Stewart’s practice focuses on representing clients in federal and state courts in matters including contractual disputes, breaches of fiduciary duties, insurance coverage, officer/director liability, and other complex litigation.

He also serves as a mediator and assists companies with both internal and governmental investigations, including responses to civil investigative demands from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.

Stewart has earned repeat recognition to Texas Super Lawyers’ Rising Stars listing of the top young attorneys in the state. He earned his law degree from Columbia Law School, where he was a Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar.