The International Association of Defense Counsel (IADC) has announced that William Childs, Senior Counsel, Litigation, at 3M Company in St. Paul, Minnesota, has accepted an invitation to join the IADC, the preeminent invitation-only global legal organization for attorneys who represent corporate and insurance interests.

As senior counsel in 3M’s Litigation group, Childs is involved in managing a range of litigation, including respirator/mask and fall protection. He also was part of building the effort to combat fraud in the COVID-19 PPE marketplace.

Based in St. Paul and listed among the Fortune 500, 3M has 950 companies in the corporate family and manufactures more than 60,000 products used in homes, businesses, schools, hospitals and other industries.

Previously, Childs was a partner at Bowman and Brooke LLP in Austin, Texas, working primarily in products liability defense in pharmaceutical, medical device, highway safety, and other products.

Childs received his J.D. from the University of Texas School of Law (with high honors) and his Bachelor of Arts from Macalester College.

Global law firm Hogan Lovells has announced a series of strategic hires, boosting its corporate and litigation capabilities in London.

Patrick Sarch will be joining as a partner and will co-head the London M&A practice alongside Ben Higson. He joins from White & Case where he was co-lead of the Corporate practice in London and the firm’s global financial institutions industry group.

A leading figure in the London M&A market, Sarch has worked on many high profile public and private M&A deals in recent years. He advises clients on mergers and acquisitions, corporate finance and capital restructurings, innovative structuring, disclosure issues, securities law and shareholder activism, and is recognised for bringing considerable board and C-suite level experience. Matters he has worked on include the takeover of Cadbury’s by Kraft and the acquisition of the Home Retail Group by Sainsbury’s. He also regularly advises leading corporations and funds, such as the Co-operative Bank, Avon Rubber, Softbank and GSO (an arm of Blackstone).

His appointment builds on a series of recent additions to the M&A and Private Equity groups in London [Ed Harris and Leanne Moezi], US [Adam Brown], Shanghai [Don Williams, Tony Mou and Cheng Xu], Frankfurt [Nikolai Sokolov] and more recently in Paris [Matthieu Grollemund and Hélène Parent] as well as the addition of leading New York Capital Markets partner, Richard Aftanas.

In addition, a team of leading commercial litigators will join the firm’s Band 1 Global and London disputes practice, further building on a significant strength of the firm. Kevin Lloyd, Richard Lawton, Akima Paul Lambert and Ardil Salem will join as partners from Debevoise & Plimpton.

Lloyd is one the most respected and best-known commercial litigators in London. His broad practice encompasses company, accounting, financing, banking, insolvency, contractual, tortious, shareholder, breach of contract and fiduciary disputes. He was instrumental in leading and building Debevoise & Plimpton’s commercial litigation practice. Prior to joining Debevoise, he was one of the busiest leading commercial litigation partners, head of contentious restructuring / insolvency and a board member at Herbert Smith, where he had an extensive practice and led a large team. Prior to that he spent several years in Sydney as a leading litigation partner at Mallesons Stephen Jaques where he became one of the most sought after commercial litigation partners in Australia acting on a large range of matters. Over the years, LLoyd has successfully acted for leading financial institutions and accounting firms, as well as representing clients in large corporate collapses.

Lawton, who has built a well-deserved market profile of his own, specialises in complex cross-border litigation. He has acted for leading FTSE 100 companies, market leading insurance and financial institutions, auditors, other professional advisers, company directors and shareholders. He has particular expertise dealing with claims arising in an insolvency context and has worked on some of the largest and most complex insolvencies, such as the Nortel collapse. He also has a wealth of experience dealing with shareholder and joint venture disputes. Lawton started his career at Herbert Smith before joining Debevoise. Among his notable successes were winning a two-month trial for BAT against Sequana SA, two victories for BAT in the Court of Appeal and a successful reverse summary judgment application for Litasco SA in respect of a claim seeking damages of around US$1.9 billion.

Lambert started her career at Hogan Lovells and has since developed a practice focussing on high-stakes commercial litigation. During her time at Debevoise, she has led on several multijurisdictional matters, including representing BAT on various high-profile litigation matters and more recently, PJSC Tatneft in a 12-week remote trial in the Commercial Court. She also spearheaded the development of a dedicated Caribbean practice. She has experience in commercial and investment treaty arbitration and is dual-qualified in the UK and in the U.S.

Salem’s practice focuses on high-value, complex and multi-jurisdictional commercial litigation. He started his career at Herbert Smith before joining Debevoise. He advises clients on disputes arising from joint ventures, breaches of contract, breaches of fiduciary duty, and fraud, as well as insolvency and restructuring-related work. He has successfully acted for high-profile clients such as BAT, EY and NLMK, and has recently helped lead a team representing Litasco S.A. in its defence of a US $2bn High Court claim.

Barnes & Thornburg has added Robyn Maguire as a partner in its Washington, D.C., office, where she is a member of the firm’s Litigation Department. Maguire brings more than 15 years of experience defending major medical device and pharmaceutical companies in product liability suits.

Maguire focuses her practice on lawsuits alleging negligence, failure-to-warn, strict liability design and manufacturing defect, and wrongful death claims concerning the use of orthopedic implants, contraceptive patches, and other drugs and devices. She has deep experience on product defense teams concerning joint replacement implants, as well as the manufacture, distribution, and sale of prescription and over the counter drugs and medical devices.

Maguire also has a highly regarded real estate and land use practice, where she represents individuals and companies in matters concerning eminent domain, commercial landlord/tenant, zoning, and other land use matters, some involving multimillion dollar settlements. Her trial work has been recognized by Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly in its “Top Ten Verdicts” of 2015, 2011 and 2010.

Maguire is active in pro bono, civic, and charitable initiatives, including the submission of amicus briefs to the Supreme Court of the United States and First Circuit Court of Appeals, as well as representation of indigent clients in landlord-tenant disputes with the Boston Housing Authority and of immigrants seeking asylum in the United States. She earned her J.D. from American University Washington College of Law and her B.A. from the University of Michigan.

DALLAS – Orsinger, Nelson, Downing & Anderson (ONDA) associate John Kappel has been honored among D Magazine’s Best Lawyers Under 40, a prestigious listing of the top young attorneys in North Texas.

D Magazine’s editorial team selected the 2021 group following nominations by peer lawyers and additional review by a blue-ribbon panel. Kappel joins a handful of attorneys honored for their work in family law out of close to 1,300 young attorneys in Texas.

Kappel’s expertise includes divorce, child custody and property division matters, as well as probate, estate planning and appellate issues. He is a member of the Dallas Bar Association Family Law Section, the Dallas Association of Young Lawyers and the Collin County Young Lawyers Association. He is a graduate of Southern Methodist University Dedman School of Law and earned his undergraduate degree from Baylor University.

Learn more about Kappel.

D Magazine often recognizes ONDA attorneys for their representation of clients in Family Law, including the publication’s annual Best Lawyers in Dallas edition and D CEO’s Dallas 500 listing of the top business leaders in North Texas.

The firm has earned a multitude of additional awards in recent years. For three years running, ONDA has been recognized as having more Top 100 Texas Super Lawyers honorees than any other law firm in a state with more than 100,000 practicing attorneys.

Sidley Austin LLP is pleased to announce that Michael Homison will join the firm as a partner in its New York office. Homison will be a member of its global Insurance practice, and will support clients in a wide range of domestic and international insurance and reinsurance transactions. Previously, Homison was a partner with Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP.

Homison is a go-to lawyer in the insurance transactional space having represented clients in a wide range of significant transactions over the last 15 years, involving life, P&C, and health insurance businesses. He has tremendous M&A experience, including reinsurance M&A transactions, as well as insurance regulatory experience.

The International Association of Defense Counsel (IADC) continues its long tradition of offering in-depth, scholarly analyses of critical issues of law with the first 2021 issue of its prestigious Defense Counsel Journal (DCJ). The new publication, which is available free to its members and the public, includes articles about oral civil discovery, DNA technology in litigation, and enforceability of arbitration clauses.

The new issue comes at a time of unprecedented challenges facing the U.S. government and Constitution, says IADC member and DCJ editor Christopher B. Parkerson: “I am proud of the leadership of IADC’s members to defend the United States Constitution and the rule of law from attack. IADC members have helped lead the effort to strengthen Americans’ understanding and faith in the court systems. Members have fought for justice for all people and have spoken and written about how the legal system lives up to the ideals that all people are equal in the eyes of the law.”

Frequently and favorably cited by courts and other legal scholarship, the DCJ is a quarterly forum for topical and scholarly writings on the law, including its development and reform, as well as on the practice of law in general. DCJ articles are written by members of the IADC, which is a 2,500-member, invitation-only, worldwide organization that serves its members and their clients, as well as the civil justice system and the legal profession.

The IADC’s first-quarter 2021 DCJ is available for free and without a subscription via the IADC’s website at https://www.iadclaw.org/documents/?CategoryId=4.

Following are brief summaries of the articles included in the first-quarter 2021 issue of the DCJ:

The IADC is the preeminent invitation-only global legal organization for attorneys who represent corporate and insurance interests. Founded in 1920, the IADC has members who hail from six continents, 51 countries and territories, and all 50 U.S. states. The core purposes of the IADC are to enhance the development of skills, promote professionalism, and facilitate camaraderie among its members and their clients, as well as the broader civil justice community. For more information, visit www.iadclaw.org.

Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP is pleased to announce that Ladd Hirsch has joined the firm’s Dallas office as a partner in the Litigation Practice Group.

Bradley’s Dallas office has tripled in size since it opened in January 2019 and has reinforced the firm’s strengths in its litigation, finance, corporate, fintech and emerging business practice areas. In addition, the firm has grown to more than 50 lawyers located across its offices in Dallas and Houston, and more than 70 lawyers licensed in the state, allowing the firm to handle a wide variety of legal matters for its clients in Texas and beyond.

Hirsch has more than 30 years of experience representing companies and high net worth business clients in complex litigation cases and arbitration matters. He has litigated claims arising in a variety of industries, including real estate, manufacturing, oil and gas, healthcare, construction, technology and insurance. Hirsch focuses a significant amount of his practice on business divorce disputes and related litigation and has tried cases to judgment in state and federal courts across the country. Hirsch has been recognized as one of The Best Lawyers in America®, as well as by D Magazine and Texas Super Lawyers.

Hirsch earned his J.D. (cum laude) from Cornell Law School and his B.J. from the University of Missouri.

Ball Janik LLP, a construction defect and property damage law firm with offices in Florida and Oregon, is pleased to announce the addition of Kasey Lynne Joyce, Morgan N. Lester, and Allana D.E. Smith as associates to the firm. The three attorneys will work in the firm’s Construction Defect and Litigation groups, as part of Ball Janik’s continued growth and commitment to its clients.

Joyce previously interned with the Office of the General Counsel for the Hillsborough County Aviation Authority and also completed an externship with the Middle District of Florida, wherein she served the Honorable Charlene E. Honeywell, the Honorable Roberta A. Colton, and the Honorable Amanda A. Sansone. Additionally, she served as a legal extern at the Office of the General Counsel for Shands Hospital. Joyce is a published author and most recently authored an article in The Florida Journal of International Law entitled “The Legal and Practical Framework for Psychiatric Diagnoses as Bases for Requests for Euthanasia and Physician Assisted Suicide in the Netherlands”. Joyce earned her bachelor’s degree, cum laude, from the University of Florida and her law degree from the University of Florida Levin College of Law. She is proficient in Russian and conversational in French.

Lester comes from a family with multi-generational ties to the construction industry. Inspired by her family’s hard work and exposure to the complex issues in residential and commercial real estate development, she formed an early interest in helping people navigate legal issues in this industry and dedicated her studies to becoming an attorney. The first in her family to earn a bachelor’s degree and attend law school, Lester served as a law clerk and paralegal for various firms in Central Florida. She also spent time as the communications editor of the Florida Law Review. Lester earned her bachelor’s degree in Legal Studies from the University of Central Florida and her law degree from the University of Florida Levin College of Law.

Smith grew up watching her mother practice law in Ohio. She previously served as a law clerk and legal intern for various law firms in Central Florida and Ohio, where she gained experience and knowledge in insurance defense. Smith earned her bachelor’s degree in Criminal Justice studies and Psychology from the University of Dayton and her law degree from the University of Florida Levin College of Law. During law school, she interned at the Ohio Supreme Court where she worked alongside Chief Justice Maureen O’Connor, the Ohio Senate, and the Ohio House of Representatives on correcting Ohio’s bail policies. Smith is certified by the Florida Supreme Court in county court mediation.

BioPharma Law Group, PLLC is pleased to announce that its Principal, Joanna T. Brougher, MPH, Esq., has published her newest book, Billion Dollar Patents: Strategies for Finding Opportunities, Generating Value, and Protecting Your Inventions.

Billion Dollar Patents explains the current patent environment and covers the ins and outs of what it takes to build a strong patent portfolio that will generate revenue and keep competitors at bay.

The book’s author, Joanna Brougher, is an Adjunct Professor at Cornell Law School and is the past Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Commercial Biotechnology.

Hanzo, a company known for its pioneering technology in dynamic web content preservation from enterprise collaboration applications and complex websites, today announced the beta release of Hanzo Hold for Google Workspace (G Suite) with select customers, with general availability in April. Hanzo brings best-in-class discovery insights and delivers a purpose-built ediscovery and investigation tool that solves key unresolved challenges with existing market solutions.

Most organizations have an overwhelming volume of data in Google Workspace. Hanzo Hold makes it easy to manage data discovery and investigations efficiently and cost-effectively with these features.

— Easy-to-use interface controls both Google Workspace and Slack: One interface controlling collaborative tools, data preservation and data collection.

— Google Vault control: Easily connect to Google Workspace with a better user experience for Google Vault allowing Legal Ops to issue holds and perform collections through Hanzo Hold.

— Targeted data collections: Reduce overall collection sizes by precisely defining custodians (users) and their data by using visual tools such as Google Drive Explorer along with date filters. Users can select the exact Drive information they need to collect from any custodian down to the individual file level.

— Enhanced file metadata: Hanzo provides visibility to extended metadata beyond what is available via Google Vault, thereby providing better search capabilities once a file is collected.

— Full data indexing and search capabilities: File searching comes to life in Hanzo with full text and metadata available creating more precise search returns. Provides greater search depth than Google Search/Vault alone giving users more accurate and complete search results.

— View file versions and history: View file history and previous versions to access more file information. Provides more accuracy and better granular control over document versioning and user edit history.

— File tagging: Organize data and have more control over data within the system and greater accuracy when exporting information.

— Review ready exports: Exports complete with full metadata, native files, and text virtually eliminate the need to index data inside review platforms such as Relativity saving complexity, time, and money.

“Hanzo Hold for Google Workspace is born from customers requesting easy-to-use solutions for managing discovery for both Google Workspace and Slack collaboration data,” said Senior Product Manager, Dave Ruel. “ Through Hanzo Hold, we’re providing enterprises one interface to control the data preservation and collection of these collaborative platforms and we’re providing customers solutions to simplify the unique challenges of dynamic, complex data sources — saving time, training costs, and the need for multiple systems.”

Learn More

Learn more about the challenges of collaboration data discovery in a CLE-eligible educational session hosted by Hanzo during Legalweek(year) 2021 on Thursday, February 4th at 1:15 PM EST. The session, titled, It’s A Brave New World—Map Your Course For Managing Discovery With Collaboration Data, features speakers Andrew Amoranto, Senior Paralegal Manager, Twitter; Graham Rollins, Discovery Counsel, Capital One; and

Stacey Blaustein, Counsel, Corporate Litigation, IBM Corporation. Moderator, Brad Harris, VP of Product, Hanzo will lead the CLE session, panelists will explore the challenges posed by collaboration applications, and how corporate legal professionals are developing and implementing forward-thinking strategies to navigate those complexities.

Lowenstein Sandler has announced that Boris Liberman has joined the firm as partner in the Investment Management group.

Liberman provides strategic advice to U.S. and international hedge funds, mutual funds, CITs, UCITS, managed accounts, superannuation plans, sovereign wealth funds, and other asset owners regarding all aspects of investment strategy implementation across asset classes globally.

Before joining the firm, Liberman served as Senior Counsel for 12 years at AQR Capital Management LLC, where he counseled the trading, research, compliance, portfolio implementation, and business development teams. From his years in-house at this global investment management firm, as well as his time in private practice representing funds and private equity clients, Liberman has acquired wide-ranging experience in dealing with all aspects of investment strategy implementation, encompassing all types of activity and structures.

Liberman has specialized knowledge of relevant rules and regulations impacting trading documentation globally, including in key emerging markets such as China, Brazil, Saudi Arabia, India, Turkey, and Russia. He provides counsel to investment managers and asset owners who wish to access these markets across various investment instruments.

Earlier in his career, Liberman represented private equity firms and hedge funds at the global law firms of Linklaters LP and Katten Muchin Rosenman. LLP.
He holds a J.D. from New York Law School and a B.S from Yeshiva University. He is fluent in Russian.

Sidley Austin LLP is pleased to announce that Brenna Jenny has rejoined the firm following service in senior legal posts at the Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) and the Department of Justice (DOJ). She brings extensive experience in the administration and enforcement of laws relevant to those in the healthcare industry. Jenny will be a partner in the firm’s global Healthcare and FDA practice, based in its Washington, D.C. office.

During her tenure at HHS, Jenny served as the principal deputy general counsel of HHS and chief legal officer for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). In this role, Jenny supervised an unprecedented wave of CMS regulatory flexibilities offered during the COVID-19 pandemic. Jenny also served as the lead legal advisor for the Provider Relief Fund, a position that included formulating policy for reporting requirements and permissible uses of funds. Jenny was a co-founder of the HHS False Claims Act Working Group and routinely worked with the Department of Justice and the HHS Office of Inspector General on fraud and abuse matters relating to federal healthcare programs. She led implementation of the HHS Good Guidance Practices regulation and departmental efforts to implement the Supreme Court’s Allina decision, by advising HHS on the proper use of sub-regulatory guidance, including enforcement actions.

Before joining HHS, Jenny served as legal counsel to the head of DOJ’s Civil Division, supervising False Claims Act matters and opioid-related investigations, in addition to advising on litigation strategy for healthcare-related lawsuits.

Foley & Lardner LLP has elected 19 lawyers to the firm’s partnership, effective February 1, 2021.

Of the firm’s new partners, 53 percent identify as racially diverse or women, which aligns with Foley’s commitment to diversity and inclusion. The firm’s new partners include:

Dovi Adlerstein, Business Law, Dallas

Adlerstein is a member of the Transactions Practice. He has experience in a broad range of transactional and corporate matters such as structuring, negotiating and implementing all phases of mergers and acquisitions, corporate recapitalizations and private equity transactions, many with intellectual property or technology-related components, including in the pharmaceutical, medical device, technology, insurance, oil and gas, restaurant and hospitality industries. Adlerstein has acted as lead counsel in transactions ranging in size from $500,000 to almost $30 billion, including numerous complex, multinational deals.

Christopher J. Babcock, Business Law, Dallas

Babcock is a member of the Transactions Practice Group and the firm’s Private Equity Leadership Team. He has significant experience representing private equity funds and their portfolio companies, as well as public companies, privately held companies and nonprofits in such matters, with a focus on mergers and acquisitions and portfolio company governance. In addition, Babcock successfully represents clients across a broad range of corporate governance and capital market matters, including tender offers, public exchange offers, advising special committees on disclosure requirements, representing companies in communications with stakeholders, and representing activists in successful campaigns to change the direction of public companies.

Joseph P. Derrigo Jr., Business Law, Washington

Derrigo is a member of the Transactions Practice Group and the Technology, Sports and Cannabis Industry Teams. He represents established and emerging companies at all stages of the business life cycle, from formation through funding, expansion and exit. Joe leads cross-disciplinary teams in the negotiation of complex mergers, acquisitions and divestitures. In the emerging company space, Derrigo represents venture capital and other strategic investors placing growth capital, and he counsels operating companies on formation, governance, financing and commercial matters.

Kyle Y. Faget, Business Law, Boston

Faget is a member of the Health Care and Life Sciences Practice Groups and the FDA and Telemedicine & Digital Health Industry Teams. She advises clients on state and federal laws applicable to telemedicine practice, and on regulatory and compliance matters involving the Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act, the False Claims Act, the Anti-Kickback Statute, the AdvaMed Code and the PhRMA Code. Faget’s practice includes assisting companies in structuring, developing and implementing corporate compliance programs suitable for pre-commercial and commercial-stage pharmaceutical and medical device companies. She also regularly drafts and negotiates agreements required to develop and commercialize pharmaceutical and medical device products such as License Agreements, Material Transfer Agreements, Collaboration Agreements and Clinical Trial Agreements.

Thomas B. (T.J.) Ferrante, Business Law, Tampa

Ferrante is a health care attorney and member of the Health Care Transactions and Telemedicine & Digital Health Industry Teams. He focuses his practice on telemedicine, digital health, remote patient monitoring and virtual care, as well as a wide range of transactional and related regulatory issues for health care industry clients. Ferrante has considerable experience in structuring and negotiating transactions for technology-enabled health care providers nationwide, including mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, strategic affiliations and financings.

Rebecca L. Hays, Intellectual Property, Madison

Hays is an intellectual property attorney and member of the Chemical, Biotechnology & Pharmaceutical Practice. She counsels clients on a wide range of biotechnologies, including novel therapeutic and diagnostic platforms. Hays received her Ph.D. in molecular biology, cell biology and genetics from Northwestern University, where she earned a pre-doctoral fellowship award from the Northwestern University Lurie Cancer Center. After receiving her Ph.D., Hays did postdoctoral research in the Department of Molecular Biology and Pharmacology at Washington University Medical School in St. Louis.

William R. Hughes, Business Law, Milwaukee

Hughes is a member of the Estates & Trusts Practice. He counsels individuals and families that have achieved uncommon success on thoughtful wealth-transfer planning in a tax-efficient manner. Hughes has extensive tax and estate planning experience, including life insurance planning with beneficiary designations and irrevocable life insurance trusts; planning for retirement accounts to minimize income and transfer taxes; estate administration for complex estates with illiquid and hard-to-value-assets; fiduciary income tax planning for estates, trusts and beneficiaries; and planning for closely-held business owners for business succession, buy-sell agreements and deferred compensation arrangements.

Christina M. Kennedy, Litigation, Orlando

Kennedy is a member of the Business Litigation & Dispute Resolution. She represents clients throughout the U.S. in high-stakes business and complex commercial litigation, including the defense of class actions, primarily in the health care, financial services, retail and manufacturing industries. Kennedy has extensive experience litigating disputes from inception through trial and appeals. She has litigated disputes in all aspects of the health care industry, including those concerning securities class actions, consumer class actions, payors and claims administrators against lawsuits related to the Employee Retirement Income Security Act, and various commercial and labor and employment claims. In addition to her commitment to pro bono legal services, Kennedy is a member of the Executive Committee of the Board of Directors for the Ronald McDonald House Charities of Central Florida Inc.

Susan Poll Klaessy, Litigation, Chicago

Klaessy is a member of the Bankruptcy & Business Reorganization and Business Litigation & Dispute Resolution Practices. She focuses on corporate restructuring and insolvency matters, fiduciary liability, debtors’ and creditors’ rights, corporate dissolution, fraud, corporate governance disputes and complex business litigation. Klaessy has represented debtors, creditors and other stakeholders in various in and out of court reorganizations. Additionally, she is an experienced trial counsel and has litigated numerous business disputes, including class action cases, arbitrations, appeals and other high-stakes corporate disputes across a wide range of industries.

Sara P. Madavo, Litigation, New York

Madavo is a member of the Business Litigation & Dispute Resolution and Labor & Employment Practices, as well as the Health Care Industry Team. She focuses her practice on complex commercial litigation and has represented large companies, small businesses and individual clients across various industries through all phases of litigation. Madavo is co-chair of the firm’s Black Attorneys Affinity Group and a member of the Diversity Fellowship Committee.

Claire Marblestone, Business Law, Los Angeles

Marblestone is a member of the Health Care and Telemedicine & Digital Health Industry Teams. Marblestone advises hospitals, health systems, physician groups, digital health providers and health care businesses on a range of health care regulatory and transactional matters, with an emphasis on HIPAA compliance, corporate practice of medicine, provider enrollment, and licensure and certification. She also provides transactional counsel to health care providers, and she has drafted and negotiated documents relating to hospital acquisitions, health plan acquisitions, health care provider mergers, professional services arrangements and management agreements.

Victoria A. (Tory) Matese, Business Law, Washington

Matese is a member of the Transactions and Finance Practices, as well as the Sports, Energy and Hospitality & Leisure Industry Teams. She represents clients on domestic and international mergers, acquisitions, private equity transactions, project finance, supply chain and distribution matters, and general corporate and contract counseling. Matese also has extensive experience and business skill in drafting and negotiating a wide range of commercial agreements, including license, supply, manufacturing and distribution agreements, including for clients in the energy, medical device and health services industries.

Margaret Gembala Nelson, Litigation, Chicago

Nelson is a member of the Securities Enforcement & Litigation Practice. She represents financial service entities, corporations, private funds, accounting firms, and their professionals in government enforcement investigations and examinations and complex securities and business litigation. Nelson also conducts internal investigations on behalf of clients and advises on regulatory compliance and risk management issues. She has experience working with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, the Department of Justice, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, and other federal and state agencies in connection with regulatory inquiries, investigations and actions.

Eric G. Pearson, Litigation, Milwaukee

Pearson is a member of the Business Litigation & Dispute Resolution, Securities Enforcement & Litigation, Tax Controversy, Appellate and Government Enforcement Defense & Investigations Practices. He concentrates his practice on commercial and securities litigation, focusing on representing clients in regulatory, corporate governance and enforcement matters in complex U.S. federal and state tax controversies. Pearson is a certified public accountant. He is the current chair of the Appellate Practice Section of the State Bar of Wisconsin and is a member of the Board of Governors of the Seventh Circuit Bar Association. Before joining the firm, Eric served as a law clerk for Judge Diane S. Sykes of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit.

Ruben J. Rodrigues, Intellectual Property, Boston

Rodrigues is a member of the IP Litigation and Electronics Practices, as well as the Technology Industry Team. He has managed litigation matters for technology companies of all sizes on cases involving software, electronics, semiconductors, medical devices, oil and gas exploration, offshore technologies, additive manufacturing, toys, construction technologies, telecommunications, gene sequencing and biochemical research tools. Rodrigues also represents clients in post-grant review proceedings before the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office and advises on general IP strategy and licensing issues.

Daniel Rose, Intellectual Property, Boston

Rose is a member of Foley’s Electronics Practice Group and the Technology Industry Team. He is involved in the preparation and prosecution of patent applications in the areas of electronics, artificial intelligence, bioinformatics, cybersecurity and telecommunications. Rose has advised companies ranging from Fortune 1000 multinationals to basement startups in the areas of network security and cloud storage, personalized health care and big data processing, and signal processing and communications. He provides advice on domestic and international patent portfolio development, infringement and patentability opinions, post-grant proceedings before the USPTO, and IP diligence for mergers and acquisitions.

Thomas C. Scannell, Litigation, Dallas

Scannell is a member of the Bankruptcy & Business Reorganization Practice. He focuses his practice on the restructuring of companies in and out of bankruptcy, debtors’ and creditors’ rights, and debtor-in-possession financers. Scannell also counsels his clients on out-of-court workouts, turnarounds, and the acquisition and sale of distressed assets inside and outside the bankruptcy sale process. Since 2009, Scannell has represented debtors, creditors, trustees, committees, landlords and receivers in a wide variety of insolvency-based litigation arising from commercial debtor-creditor disputes. He also defends clients in resolving preferential and fraudulent transfer challenges, along with a broad range of adversary proceedings in bankruptcy court.

Morgan J. Tilleman, Business Law, Milwaukee

Tilleman is a member of the Insurance and Health Care Practices and the Health Care Industry Team. His practice is concentrated on corporate and regulatory insurance and reinsurance law and the intersection of health care and insurance. Tilleman represents insurers and reinsurers in mergers and acquisitions, restructurings, reinsurance transactions, shell transactions, affiliations, joint ventures and insurance program arrangements, and she provides regulatory and business counsel to a wide range of U.S. and international insurance industry participants. Tilleman also focuses on advising health insurers and HMOs regarding formation, licensure, operations, compliance, strategy, and mergers and acquisitions.

Nick J. Welle, Business Law, Milwaukee

Welle is a member of the Employee Benefits & Executive Compensation Practice. He exclusively devotes his practice to issues impacting group health and welfare benefit plans, focusing on health care reform issues and consumer-driven health benefits. Welle advises his clients on matters concerning the Affordable Care Act, HIPAA privacy, COBRA, Employee Retirement Income Security Act, cafeteria plans, flexible benefit plans, wellness programs, health savings accounts and other health benefit issues. Welle also works with members of the firm’s Transactions Practice to advise clients on potential liabilities regarding ACA, HIPAA, ERISA and other federal laws governing group health plans.

Hunton Andrews Kurth LLP is pleased to announce that former D.C. Circuit Judge Thomas B. Griffith has joined the firm as a special counsel in its issues and appeals practice. Judge Griffith will be based in Washington, D.C., where he will focus his practice on appellate litigation, Congressional and internal investigations, and strategic counseling.

Appointed to the United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit by President George W. Bush in 2005, Judge Griffith served on the court for 15 years until his retirement in 2020. During his judicial tenure, Judge Griffith authored more than 200 opinions touching a wide range of issues, including administrative law, environmental law, energy law and congressional investigations.

As a member of the D.C. Circuit, Judge Griffith was appointed by the Chief Justice of the United States to serve on the Judicial Conference’s Committee on the Judicial Branch, which concerns the judiciary’s relationship to the Executive Branch and Congress, and the Code of Conduct Committee, which sets the ethical standards that govern the federal judiciary.

Before his appointment to the D.C. Circuit, Judge Griffith served as Senate Legal Counsel from 1995 to 1999. In that role, he represented the interests of the U.S. Senate in litigation and provided non-partisan legal advice to Senate leadership. He represented the institutional interests of the Senate in litigation over the Line Item Veto Act and in numerous committee investigations.

Earlier in his legal career, Judge Griffith spent several years in private practice and served as general counsel for Brigham Young University, where he received his undergraduate degree. A graduate of the University of Virginia School of Law, Judge Griffith is a Lecturer on Law at Harvard Law School and has taught previously at the law schools at Stanford and BYU.

Judge Griffith is a senior advisor at the National Institute for Civil Discourse and a member of the advisory board of the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship at BYU. He has long been active in international rule of law projects and is currently a member of the International Advisory Board of the CEELI Institute in Prague, which promotes international legal reform projects in Eastern Europe and Eurasia.

Attorneys in Hunton Andrews Kurth’s issues and appeals group represent clients in federal and state appellate courts nationwide, including in the Supreme Court of the United States. Among the firm’s lawyers are former justices of the Texas Supreme Court and the Supreme Court of Virginia, two former state solicitors general, and more than 30 who have clerked for federal and state appellate judges throughout the country.

Firm welcomes new partners, associates to Dallas office

DALLAS – Family law attorney Whitney Keltch Green and health care attorney Wade Emmert have joined Carrington, Coleman, Sloman & Blumenthal, LLP as partners in the firm’s Dallas office.

A passionate advocate for clients facing personal turmoil, Green has developed a practice based on creative solutions in matters involving divorce, child custody/support disputes, adoptions, premarital agreements, modifications, enforcements, and complex property disputes. Her work also focuses on unique legal questions involving children, including parental alienation, grandparents’ rights, special needs, and addiction and mental health concerns.

Her work has earned recognition from the Best Lawyers in America in Family Law for 2020 and 2021, D Magazine’s Best Lawyers Under 40, and Thomson Reuters’ Texas Rising Stars. She also holds a 10.0 “superb” rating from AVVO.com. Green is also the President of the Dallas Association of Young Lawyers.

Emmert is a board-certified Health Law attorney with more than 25 years of experience representing Texas practitioners and hospitals, including complex health care transactions and regulatory compliance matters.

Emmert also serves as an adjunct professor at the Texas A&M University School of Law where he teaches courses on Health Care Transactions and Antitrust, and Health Care Fraud and Abuse. He has been recognized on Thomson Reuters’ Texas Super Lawyers listing and among the top 1 percent of America’s Most Honored Professionals.

Also joining the firm are associates Dorlin Armijo, Stephanie Assi and Abbye West. Armijo and Assi join the firm’s Litigation practice group. West’s practice focuses on Family Law.

Lisa Thomas brings broad litigation expertise to Houston-based firm

HOUSTON – The boutique litigation firm of Cadwell Clonts & Reeder is pleased to announce that Lisa M. Thomas has joined the firm as a partner. A trial-tested litigator, Ms. Thomas focuses on intellectual property disputes with an emphasis on complex patent litigation. Her experience includes all phases of litigation, including pre-suit strategy development, fact and expert discovery, pre-trial and post-trial practice, and appeals.

Thomas has litigated cases in a wide range of industries, including pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, chemistry, energy, and software. Licensed to practice before the United States Patent and Trademark Office since 2007, she has prepared and prosecuted patent applications and is experienced in post-grant proceedings that occur in conjunction with litigation.

She joins the firm from the Houston office of Reed Smith LLP.

Thomas earned her law degree from Southern Methodist University’s Dedman School of Law in 2011 and her undergraduate degree in bioengineering from Rice University in 2005.

Three veteran litigators formed Cadwell Clonts & Reeder in 2020 to support a wide range of business sectors in complex commercial disputes, intellectual property matters, and corporate transactions. Backed by previous tenures at major international law firms, the attorneys have represented some of the most intriguing and promising start-ups, as well as Fortune 100 companies.

Buchalter is pleased to announce that it has added two Shareholders in its Arizona office – Robert Miller joins the Insolvency and Financial Law practice group and Quinn C. Wheeler joins the Commercial Finance practice group. Both attorneys join from Bryan Cave.

Miller’s practice focuses on distressed business situations of all kinds, including chapter 11 restructurings, non-bankruptcy workouts, turnarounds, and distressed company mergers and acquisitions. His clients range from institutional lenders, companies in distress, and private equity firms to fiduciaries and other key constituencies in chapter 11 cases, as well as buyers and sellers of distressed debt.

With extensive experience as lead counsel in high profile cases, Miller regularly serves as counsel for senior lenders across the country on debt secured by a wide range of commercial assets. He often lends his counsel to corporate boards, advising on their fiduciary obligations in the zone of insolvency and in restructurings. Miller has also served as lead counsel for various chapter 11 debtors, including a number of public reporting companies. Prior to his legal career, Miller was a practicing Certified Public Accountant and former global head of an Am Law 100 restructuring group.

Miller earned his J.D. with Highest Honors at University of Oklahoma. He also received an M.B.A. from University of Oklahoma, and his B.S. at Central Michigan University.

Wheeler has extensive experience representing clients in secured and unsecured commercial loan and credit transactions, as well as forbearances and other workout transactions. His practice focuses on asset-based financing, receivables-based financing, acquisition financing, time-share financing, real estate secured financing, structured finance, and syndications. Wheeler’s experience also involves the representation of clients in loan restructurings, forbearances, and other workout transactions, and buyers and sellers of distressed debt and other assets including real estate assets.

In addition, Wheeler has experience representing lenders providing asset-based, syndicated, real estate, and project specific facilities. These transactions were secured by real and personal property located in jurisdictions throughout the United States, Europe, Canada, and Mexico.

Wheeler earned his J.D. cum laude from The University of Arizona and his B.S. from Brigham Young University.

Pashman Stein Walder Hayden is pleased to announce that Jennifer A. Lifschitz and Timothy P. Malone have been elevated to Partner, effective January 25, 2021.

Lifschitz, who joined the firm in 2008, is a transactional attorney with a focus on real estate and corporate matters throughout New Jersey and New York.
Lifschitz has extensive experience representing real estate investment companies and individual real estate investors in connection with a broad range of transactions including acquisitions, dispositions, joint ventures and financings of commercial investment properties, as well as commercial leasing.
Lifschitz’s corporate practice focuses on advising clients on a broad range of business related matters, and includes representing emerging companies, start-ups and closely-held companies in a variety of transactional matters, including advising clients on general commercial contracts, service agreements, collaboration agreements, and licensing agreements.

Prior to joining Pashman Stein, Lifschitz worked in the New York office of Bingham McCutchen LLP where she counseled clients on merger and acquisition transactions, initial public offerings and Securities and Exchange Commission compliance and reporting. Lifschitz received her J.D. in 2005 from Georgetown University Law Center, and her B.A. in 2002 from Barnard College, magna cum laude.

Malone joined the firm’s Litigation practice in 2017. Tim represents clients in a wide range of complex litigation matters involving commercial, corporate, and employment law, trusts and estates law, environmental law, and personal injury matters. Malone has significant experience at both the trial and appellate levels, and represents all sizes of clients, from individuals to multi-national corporations. He is a member of the firm’s Social Committee. Most recently, Malone was honored at the 2020 New Jersey Judiciary Pro Bono Attorney Recognition Event for his pro bono appellate representation in a family law matter.

Prior to joining Pashman Stein, Malone worked as a deputy attorney general in the New Jersey Office of the Attorney General’s Environmental Practice Group. He counseled state agencies on the application of federal and state environmental and land use laws to proposed natural gas infrastructure and other developments. Malone’s practice also included defense of state permitting decisions, water quality regulations, Spill Act litigation, and Open Public Records Act requests and disputes. While with the state, Malone garnered substantial appellate advocacy experience, including practice before the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, New Jersey Supreme Court, and New Jersey Appellate Division.

Malone clerked for the Honorable Carmen H. Alvarez, P.J.A.D., New Jersey Appellate Division. He graduated cum laude from Dartmouth College and received his J.D., Order of the Coif, from the University of Virginia School of Law. Prior to attending law school, Malone was a professional equestrian and competed on the “A” rated hunter/jumper circuit.

Blank Rome LLP is proud to announce that the Firm has received a perfect score of 100 percent on the 2021 Corporate Equality Index (“CEI”), the nation’s foremost benchmarking survey and report measuring corporate policies and practices related to LGBTQ workplace equality, administered by the Human Rights Campaign (“HRC”) Foundation. With this score, Blank Rome has been designated for the sixth year in a row as a “Best Place to Work for LGBTQ Equality” by the HRC, and joins the ranks of major U.S. businesses that earned top marks this year.

The 2021 CEI rated 1,142 U.S.-based businesses and evaluated in detail LGBTQ-related policies and practices under the following four central pillars: non-discrimination policies across business entities; equitable benefits for LGBTQ workers and their families; supporting an inclusive culture; and corporate social responsibility. Blank Rome’s efforts in satisfying all of the CEI’s criteria results in a 100 percent ranking and the designation as a “Best Place to Work for LGBTQ Equality.” For more information on the 2021 CEI, or to download a free copy of the report, please visit hrc.org/cei.

The Human Rights Campaign Foundation is the educational arm of America’s largest civil rights organization working to achieve equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer people. HRC envisions a world where LGBTQ people are embraced as full members of society at home, at work, and in every community.

Lowell, MA – January 28, 2020 – Contract Logix, a leading provider of data-driven contract management software, today announced the addition of a new and transformative contract collaboration capability, called Collaboration Room, to its flagship Premium™ CLM platform. Organizations are under significant pressure to digitally transform their business processes to increase visibility, continuity, and remote operations. The new Collaboration Room technology enables this by allowing all internal and external parties to collaborate with greater speed, ease, and intelligence during negotiation. Parties can review, approve, and mark-up contracts in real-time and from any location via a single secure cloud-based destination.

Key Facts:

The average cost of processing and reviewing a negotiated contract continues to rise and can range from $6,900 for a simple contract to more than $49,000USD for complex agreements. This expense is due to the sheer number of people needed to complete the process, inefficiencies in tracking changes, and the lack of visibility into who is involved in the negotiations or what stages have been completed.

With more people working on cross-functional teams and remote collaboration, more agility and visibility into the contract review and negotiation process is required. Contract Logix’s new Collaboration Room technology addresses this need by enabling all appropriate internal and external parties to simultaneously and securely message, comment, collaborate, redline, and negotiate contracts in real-time from a single online destination via any browser, eliminating the time-consuming and risk-prone need to email contracts back and forth between parties. This provides one, always-up-to-date, system of record for tracking all changes, timelines, and collaborators involved in the entire contract negotiation process.

The Collaboration Room technology provides an easy, intuitive, and frictionless user experience for all parties involved while increasing the transparency, compliance, and auditability of the negotiations. For organizations focused on business process optimization, the system allows them to benchmark and track KPIs that can be used to improve contract negotiation strategies such as measuring time to execution, identifying common objections and redlines, understanding exactly who from the counterparty is involved in the process, and more.