J. Daniel Fitz is former executive vice president, general counsel, and company secretary of Misys plc in London.

Prior to joining Misys, Mr. Fitz was group general counsel at Cable & Wireless plc, the major global communications provider. Before Cable & Wireless, Mr. Fitz worked at both Baring Brothers, the UK investment bank, and Pillsbury Winthrop, the U.S. law firm.

Mr. Fitz is on ACC’s Board of Directors and is a past president of ACC Europe.

Mr. Fitz has a BA and JD from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He also has a diploma in international and comparative politics from the London School of Economics.

Ivan K. Fong is general counsel of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security in Washington, DC.

Previously he was senior counsel, e-commerce and information technology at General Electric Company. In this role he was GE’s lead e-commerce lawyer and was responsible for providing legal and policy advice on e-commerce issues company-wide. Prior to joining GE, Mr. Fong served as deputy associate attorney general at the U.S. Department of Justice, where he advised the attorney general, the associate attorney general, and the senior leadership of the department on a wide range of legal and policy issues, including e-commerce and other Internet-related issues. Before his government service, Mr. Fong was a partner with Covington & Burling in Washington, DC. He also served as a law clerk to Justice Sandra Day O’Connor of the Supreme Court of the US and Judge Abner J. Mikva of the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit.

Mr. Fong is former Chair of ACC and a member of the council of the ABA’s section of science and technology and chairs the section’s life and physical sciences division. He is also a member of the American Law Institute, a Fellow of the American Bar Foundation, and a trustee of Stanford University.

He received his JD with distinction from Stanford Law School and his BCL, a post-graduate law degree, from Oxford University, where he was a Fulbright scholar. He received his SB and SM from MIT, where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa and Tau Beta Pi.

Patricia Hatler is the executive vice president and chief legal and governance officer for Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company in Columbus, OH.

Prior to joining Nationwide, Ms. Hatler served as general counsel and corporate secretary for Independence Blue Cross in Philadelphia. Her legal career also includes service with Dechert, Price and Rhoads in Philadelphia; Fulbright and Jaworski in Houston; and Stinson, Mag and Fizzel in Kansas City.

Ms. Hatler is a member of the Columbus Bar Association’s conference of corporate general counsel and serves on the Executive Committee and Board of the ACC. She also is a director on the boards of the United Way of Central Ohio, the Columbus College of Art and Design, and the Kents Hill School.

Ms. Hatler received her BA from Duke University, and is a graduate of the University of Virginia School of Law.

Brad Smith is Microsoft’s senior vice president, general counsel, and corporate secretary in Redmond, WA. He leads the company’s department of legal and corporate affairs, which is responsible for all legal work and for government, industry, and community affairs activities. Mr. Smith has played a leading role at Microsoft on intellectual property, competition law, and other Internet legal and public policy issues. He is also the company’s chief compliance officer and is responsible for Microsoft’s intellectual property work. Since becoming general counsel, he has overseen numerous negotiations with governments and other companies. He is also responsible for the expansion of Microsoft’s citizenship and philanthropic activities.

Mr. Smith previously worked as deputy general counsel for worldwide sales, and before that, he managed the company’s European law and corporate affairs group, based in Paris. Before joining Microsoft, he was a partner at Covington & Burling, having worked in the firm’s Washington, DC and London offices and represented a number of companies in the computing industry.

He has written numerous articles regarding international intellectual property and electronic commerce issues, and has served as a lecturer at The Hague Academy of International Law.

Mr. Smith graduated summa cum laude from Princeton University, where he received the Harold Willis Dodds Achievement Award, the highest award given to a graduating senior at commencement. He was a Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar at the Columbia University School of Law. He also studied at the Graduate Institute of International Studies in Geneva, Switzerland.

Andrew M. Perlman is a professor at Suffolk University Law School, where he teaches professional responsibility, civil procedure, and federal courts. He has authored a number of articles about legal ethics, including articles on the inadvertent disclosure of privileged information, the constitutionality of bar admission rules, and the implications of social psychology for professional responsibility.

Prior to joining the Suffolk faculty, Professor Perlman was an associate-in-law at Columbia Law School, where he conducted research on professional responsibility issues and taught legal research and writing. Professor Perlman also clerked for a federal district court judge in Chicago and practiced as a litigation associate with the Chicago firm of Schiff Hardin & Waite.

Professor Perlman co-authored the widely used book, Regulations of Lawyers: Statutes and Standards (with Stephen Gillers and Roy Simon). He is also a co-author of a forthcoming civil procedure case book and a co-contributor to a legal ethics blog, www.legalethicsforum.com, which was recently named for the second time as one of the top 100 law-related blogs in the country by the American Bar Association Journal.

Professor Perlman is a graduate of Yale College and Harvard Law School. He received his LLM from Columbia Law School.

Stacey L. Sovereign is one of two in-house attorneys for the Marine Spill Response Corporation (MSRC), a national oil spill and emergency response company headquartered in Herndon, Virginia with sites nationwide. Ms. Sovereign handles a variety of legal matters, including internal investigations, compliance with environmental, health and safety, security, transportation, and employment-related laws and regulations, personnel issues, supervising litigation, contract drafting and negotiation, drafting and reviewing all corporate policies and procedures, and benefits issues. For two years, Ms. Sovereign was the vice president of human resources, managing all aspects of human resources.

Before working at MSRC, Ms. Sovereign was an assistant counsel with the Department of Justice’s Office of Professional Responsibility, investigating allegations of attorney misconduct. Ms. Sovereign laid the foundation for this position by serving as an assistant U.S. attorney in the Office of the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia. Ms. Sovereign began her career as a law clerk to then-Judge Kenneth Starr on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.

Ms. Sovereign is a graduate of the University of Virginia and Stanford Law School.

Gretchen Winter is the executive director of the Center for Professional Responsibility in Business and Society at the College of Business at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (the "Center"). Her office is located in Chicago.

Prior to joining the Center, she worked at Baxter International Inc. serving for more than a decade as vice president and counsel for its award-winning Business Practices/Ethics and Compliance program. Ms. Winter also held legal and management roles in labor and employment, employee relations, training and development, and reengineering and she served on the editorial board of the company's annual sustainability report. Ms. Winter also has worked as an attorney with the firm of Seyfarth, Shaw, Fairweather and Geraldson in Chicago and as a legislative analyst with the State of Illinois.

Ms. Winter chaired the Ethics and Compliance Officer Association Board of Directors and the Conference Board's Council on Global Business Conduct, and she has been on ethics committees for the American Bar Association and DePaul University. She serves on the Board of Visitors for the University of Illinois at Chicago College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and has served on other Illinois higher educational boards. Ms. Winter also has chaired boards and committees for a wide variety of statewide and local community organizations. She is a frequent speaker for a variety of ethics, corporate social responsibility, and legal programs.

Ms. Winter received her bachelor’s degree from the University if Illinois at Chicago and her JD from the University of Chicago.

David M. Benck is the vice president and general counsel for Hibbett Sporting Goods Inc., a Birmingham, Alabama based retailer of sporting goods. His responsibilities include providing legal counseling to the entire organization and managing the legal department.

Prior to joining Hibbett Sporting Goods, he served in various legal roles for Momentum Telecom, ITC Deltacom, and Just for Feet where he has provided counsel in a variety of substantive areas, including employment law, real estate law, commercial law, software licensing, advertising law, and intellectual property law.

He currently serves as adjunct professor of law at Cumberland School of Law, where he teaches "Practicing Law In House", is listed on the American Arbitration Association's Roster of Neutrals, and serves on an advisory committee to Norton Board of Directors for Birmingham-Southern College.

Mr. Benck received a BA from Birmingham-Southern College and is a graduate of the University of Alabama School of Law.

Theodore Claypoole is a member in the intellectual property transactions team at Womble Carlyle in Charlotte. He works with clients on e-commerce and social networking issues, as well as data management and privacy concerns.

He has served as assistant general counsel in technology, data security, e-commerce, and intellectual property for Bank of America, and in-house legal counsel for CompuServe, advising electronic communities. He has also worked in the advertising and computer marketing industries.

Mr. Claypoole is on the board of directors for the Carolina Minority Supplier Development Council, and provides pro-bono counsel to art-related charities and institutions.

He is a graduate of Duke University and the Ohio State University College of Law.

Whitnie Henderson is the legal counsel and a legislative advocate for the Association of California Water Agencies (ACWA) in Sacramento, California. As the association's inaugural counsel, Ms. Henderson has the sole responsibility of creating the Office of Legal Counsel, as well as providing general legal representation of the organization. She also lobbies for the association before the legislative and executive branches in several areas including water conservation/use efficiency, groundwater, water rights, eminent domain, and employer/employee relations.

Prior to joining ACWA, Ms. Henderson was the legislative project coordinator for the Judicial Council of California, Office of Governmental Affairs.

Ms. Henderson is a former member and past chair of the Committee of Bar Examiners (CBE), the entity responsible for the development and administration of the bar examination. She currently sits as a member of an advisory committee to the CBE tasked with reviewing and making recommendations on proposed rules and guidelines for California's accredited law schools. She also serves as chair of the Volunteer Center of Sacramento, an organization that matches volunteers with opportunities in nonprofit organizations throughout the Sacramento Valley. Ms. Henderson is a past president of the Capitol Network, an organization of government relations professions who raise money for charities that serve women and children in California. Ms. Henderson teaches a course in legislative advocacy and statutory law at Lincoln Law School of San Jose.

Ms. Henderson graduated from San Francisco Law School, where she wrote for and served as managing editor of the law review.

Roy B. Birnbaum is senior legal director, international law, at Schering-Plough Corporation, Kenilworth, New Jersey. He is responsible for general legal support to all company operations in the Asia Pacific region, including Japan.

Prior to joining Schering-Plough, Mr. Birnbaum held similar positions with Pfizer Inc., Pharmacia Corporation and its predecessors, located in New Jersey, Hong Kong and Michigan. He has also worked as a foreign legal consultant with the law firm of Kim & Chang in Seoul, Korea and began his career in private practice in Washington, DC.

Mr. Birnbaum does pro bono work for various non-profit organizations in New Jersey through assignments from Pro Bono Partnership.

Mr. Birnbaum received a BA from Brandeis University and is a graduate of the Harvard Law School.

Mark Ehrlich serves as director, business conduct and compliance for The AES Corporation, in Arlington, VA, a global power company with operations in 29 countries. AES business lines include traditional energy generation, renewable and alternative energy generation (wind, solar, hydroelectric, biomass), electricity distribution, and climate change projects. Mr. Ehrlich is responsible for implementation and operation of the AES ethics and compliance program, including training and communications, internal investigations, and transaction risk mitigation.

Prior to joining AES, Mr. Ehrlich served as director, ethics and business conduct at MCI where he designed the ethics and compliance program following the discovery of WorldCom’s financial improprieties including drafting a code of conduct, establishing a confidential help line, developing internal investigation procedures, and launching company-wide ethics and compliance training. In addition to his work in the ethics and compliance field, Mr. Ehrlich also has extensive litigation and regulatory experience. He held positions with the MCI litigation and regulatory support groups, served as an attorney advisor in the Wireline Competition Bureau of the Federal Communications Commission, and was a trial attorney with the U.S. Department of Justice in the Civil Division’s Commercial Litigation Branch.

Mr. Ehrlich is a graduate of Harvard Law School with an undergraduate degree from the University of Michigan. Mr. Ehrlich clerked for the Honorable Roger B. Andewelt of the United States Court of Federal Claims.

Lawrence Weiss is Covidien’s chief international counsel, managing the company’s international legal staff in Mansfield, MA. Covidien was originally Tyco Healthcare, which spun off from Tyco and was renamed. Covidien has worldwide sales of medical devices, supplies, imaging products and pharmaceuticals of approximately $10 billion in over 130 countries and employs over 43,000 employees in 57 countries. Mr. Weiss joined Tyco Healthcare, supporting the company on a variety of corporate, transactional, and compliance matters including developing training programs addressing antitrust law, compliance with the US fraud and abuse regulations, and the implementation of an international trade compliance program. Mr. Weiss was named vice president and chief international counsel, in anticipation of Tyco Healthcare’s separation from Tyco, and created the company’s first dedicated international legal staff.

Prior to joining Tyco Healthcare, Mr. Weiss worked as an associate in the corporate department of Goodwin Procter, concentrating on corporate transactions, securities offerings and compliance.

Alexandra Wrage is the president of TRACE in Annapolis, MD, an international non-profit membership association working with companies to raise their anti-bribery compliance standards. She is also the author of Bribery and Extortion: Undermining Business, Governments and Security and the host of the training DVD “Toxic Transactions: Bribery, Extortion and the High Price of Bad Business.”

Ms. Wrage is chair of ACC’s International Legal Affairs Committee, chair of the Women in International Regulatory Law (“WIRL”) steering committee, co-chair of the ABA’s anti-corruption committee, and a member of the working group for the United Nation’s Global Compact 10th Principle. Ms. Wrage has written three guidebooks: The TRACE Standard for Doing Business with Intermediaries Internationally, The High Cost of Small Bribes, and First to Know: Robust Internal Reporting Programs. She speaks frequently on topics of international law, anti-corruption initiatives and the hidden costs of corruption. Ms. Wrage was named as one of the 100 most influential people in business ethics for by Ethisphere Magazine and as one of Maryland’s innovators of the year for BRIBEline.

Ms. Wrage studied law at Kings College, Cambridge University.

Raymond D. Agran is a partner in Saul Ewing LLP’s business department in Philadelphia. He focuses his practice on domestic and international mergers and acquisitions, securities, venture capital, joint ventures, partnerships and strategic alliances, intellectual property licensing, distribution agreements and general commercial law, with emphasis most recently on mergers and acquisitions transactions in bankruptcy, particularly Section 363 sales. In his private practice, Mr. Agran has represented a wide variety of clients, from publicly traded and private companies, to start-up entrepreneurs, in all manner of corporate, securities and acquisition-related transactions, from the simple to the complex, from tender offers, to private negotiations, to bankruptcy reorganizations.

Prior to joining Saul Ewing, Mr. Agran was a partner at Ballard Spahr Andrews and Ingersoll, LLP and Wolf, Block, Schorr and Solis-Cohen, two Philadelphia-based law firms, at which he was a partner in their respective business and finance departments and their mergers and acquisitions and securities practice groups.

Mr. Agran received his BA, magna cum laude, from Yale University and earned his JD from Columbia University School of Law, where he was named a Chancellor Kent Scholar (highest honors) and a Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar (very high honors) and served as the associate editor of Columbia Journal of Transnational Law.

Teresa K.D. Currier is a partner in Saul Ewing LLP’s bankruptcy and restructuring department in Wilmington, DE, where she concentrates her practice in the areas of corporate bankruptcy and restructuring. Her practice includes active representation of debtors, creditors' committees, equity security holders' committees, trade creditors, secured creditors, indenture trustees and bondholders, unsecured creditors, and asset purchasers, primarily in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware.

Prior to joining Saul Ewing, Ms. Currier was a partner with Klett Rooney Lieber & Schorling PC in its Wilmington, DE office. She has handled bankruptcy appeals to the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware and the Third Circuit Court of Appeals, and was selected by U.S. District Court Judge Joseph Farnan, Jr. to serve on his ad hoc committee on bankruptcy issues. She also served on the merit selection panel named by the Third Circuit Court of Appeals to conduct the search for a second Delaware bankruptcy judge.

Ms. Currier is a member of the American Bankruptcy Institute, ABA, and Turnaround Management Association. She has worked with the Delaware District Court judges planning Delaware's annual bench-bar conferences, and serves on the mega case committee for the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware.

Ms. Currier received her BA, magna cum laude, from Lehigh University and her JD from Dickinson School of Law, summa cum laude, where she was awarded Order of the Coif distinction and served as comments editor of the Dickinson Law Review.

Juliette Pryor is executive vice president, general counsel and chief ethics officer, U.S. Foodservice, Inc. In this role, Ms. Pryor is responsible for all legal, risk management and ethics and compliance functions.

Prior to joining U.S. Foodservice, she was counsel in the Washington, DC office of Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom. While at Skadden, she counseled domestic and international corporate clients in various aspects of sales, acquisitions, corporate restructurings, and other insolvency matters. Ms. Pryor also served as debtors’ counsel in Chapter 11 reorganizations and advised foreign and domestic creditors defending claims in U.S. bankruptcy cases. Before joining Skadden, she was chief legal officer and corporate secretary for e.spire Communications, Inc., a publicly traded telecommunications company. She oversaw all regulatory, legal and corporate reporting and compliance matters and successfully defended the company against a class action shareholder litigation. Ms. Pryor also helped manage the company through its Chapter 11 reorganization, including an orderly wind down through a series of asset sales. Previously, as a political appointee, Ms. Pryor served as legal advisor to the vice chairman of the U.S. International Trade Commission, providing advice and counsel on antidumping and countervailing duty investigations, and intellectual property rights investigations. Ms. Pryor began her career as in-house counsel with IBM Corporation.

She holds a BA from Fisk University. Ms. Pryor earned a MS from Georgetown University School of Foreign Service, and she received her JD from Georgetown University Law Center.

J. Scott Victor is a founding partner and managing director of SSG Capital Advisors, LLC, a leading boutique middle market special situations investment banking firm with offices outside of Philadelphia, PA and in New York, NY. Prior to reacquiring SSG from National City/PNC, Mr. Victor was a senior managing director and co-head of the special situations group of National City Investment Banking, which acquired SSG in August, 2006.


Prior to his transition to investment banking, he was a partner at Saul Ewing, LLP and a senior member of its bankruptcy and reorganization department. With extensive experience in representing companies in Chapter 11 proceedings, workouts, and restructurings, he is an expert in the restructuring, refinancing and sale of distressed middle-market companies. Mr. Victor has lead or participated in well over 125 sale, refinancing and restructuring assignments for distressed middle-market companies both in and outside of Chapter 11 proceedings and has testified as an expert in numerous bankruptcy courts across the U.S. He has given more than 100 presentations around the U.S. and Europe on bankruptcy and insolvency law, distressed M&A and turnaround financing issues.

He is a fellow of the American College of Bankruptcy. He is also an active member of the Turnaround Management Association – immediate past chairman and former president of the Philadelphia Chapter and a former member of the executive committee and current member of the board of directors of TMA International.

Toni Marsh is the director of the George Washington University paralegal studies master's degree and graduate certificate programs, which comprise an on-campus degree and a fully online degree, and which she designed and launched. Professor Marsh designed and launched the program and is a professor of American jurisprudence and legal writing. Professor Marsh's responsibilities include designing and assessing curriculum in response to stated and demonstrated needs of the legal community, counseling and placing students and graduates into legal positions, and monitoring trends in the market.

Prior to joining GW, Professor Marsh designed and launched the paralegal studies program at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, taught in the paralegal studies program at Georgetown University, where she managed the ABA approval process, and practiced law.

She currently serves on the advisory board of the Organization of Legal Professionals, the editorial board of Know Magazine, and is an active member of the National Capital Area of Paralegal Associations, the International Paralegal Management Association, and the American Association for Legal Education, where she is a frequent presenter, and does pro bono work for the District of Columbia Superior Court Family Law Self Help Center.

Professor Marsh received a BA from Cleveland State University and a JD from Cleveland-Marshall College of Law.

Jason Weintraub is vice president and general counsel of the DRI Companies, one of the largest residential and commercial energy, roofing, and waterproofing subcontractors on the West Coast.

Prior to joining DRI, Mr. Weintraub gained extensive experience in complex and class action litigation at Howard Rice Nemerovski Canady Falk and Rabkin, and at Horvitz & Levy LLP.

Mr. Weintraub is a frequently sought-after lecturer at continuing education seminars, speaking on such issues as product liability, construction defect law, insurance coverage, unfair competition law, and complex civil litigation. In 2008, the DRI Companies legal department was selected as one of the Top 10 Most Innovative Legal Departments in Corporate America by Inside Counsel Magazine. Articles written by Mr. Weintraub have appeared in California Litigation, Verdict, and For the Defense magazines, as well as in the Lexis-Nexis Insurance Reporter.

Mr. Weintraub received his JD from Berkeley Law (Boalt Hall – University of California) and his undergraduate degree from Stanford University.

Darryl A. Weiss is currently the general counsel and secretary for Telgian Corporation. Telgian offers comprehensive fire protection, life safety, security, engineering, risk management, and loss control services to Fortune 500 companies. His responsibilities include providing legal counsel to the organization and board of directors, merger and acquisition, international law, executive compensation, contracts, IP, employment and labor law and data privacy issues as well as oversight of licensing, risk management and human resources.

Prior to joining TVA, Mr. Weiss worked in the aerospace, computer, telecommunications and biotechnology industries in a variety of legal and human resources roles. Mr. Weiss has worked onsite in Canada, England, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Ireland, Japan, Malaysia, Netherlands, Singapore, Sweden, and Switzerland.

Mr. Weiss is currently on the board of directors for ACC’s San Diego chapter and is the past chair of ACC’s International Legal Affairs Committee. He is a member of the ABA CBA and Ontario Bar Associations.

Erin Williams is legal counsel at Cortina Systems, Inc., a semiconductor company located in Sunnyvale, CA. As a member of a small legal department, she supports the company’s worldwide operations on a wide variety of matters, including: employment, corporate, compliance, and contracts, as well as intellectual property portfolio management and licensing.

Prior to joining Cortina, Ms. Williams was legal counsel at Sunrise Telecom Incorporated where she handled similar matters and, before that, she was an associate at Intellectual Property Law Group LLP, both located in San Jose, CA.

Ms. Williams earned her JD from U.C. Hastings School of the Law and her LLM from the University of Washington’s School of Law.

Steve Gardner is a partner in Kilpatrick Stockton LLP, resident in its Winston-Salem, NC office. He serves as co-chair of the firm's patent litigation group. Mr. Gardner maintains an active practice in patent litigation, due diligence, counseling, and prosecution strategy and management. He has represented companies in patent suits in federal courts in Colorado, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Louisiana, Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, and Texas, including multiple cases in the Eastern District of Texas.

Prior to joining Kilpatrick Stockton, Mr. Gardner clerked for the Hon. Frank W. Bullock, Jr., Chief Judge, US District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina, and the Hon. Alvin A. Schall, US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.

Mr. Gardner currently serves as editor-in-chief of the ABA’s Intellectual Property Litigation newsletter. For several years, Mr. Gardner has been elected to Business North Carolina magazine’s Legal Elite List as one of the top patent attorneys in North Carolina based on a survey of all members of the North Carolina bar. He is listed in the 2009 edition of The Best Lawyers in America® for intellectual property law. He also serves on the board of The Children's Museum of Winston-Salem and as a Deacon for the South Fork Church of Christ.

Mr. Gardner received a BS and MS from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. He received a JD, with honors, from the Wake Forest University School of Law, where he was editor-in-chief of the law review.

Michael Goggans is general counsel of Peavey Electronics Corporation, a leading worldwide manufacturer of musical instruments, professional audio equipment and sound reinforcement systems. Mr. Goggans manages all legal matters for the affiliated companies of Peavey.

Prior to joining Peavey, Mr. Goggans was a partner in one of Mississippi’s largest law firms. There he focused on complex litigation, including asbestos, silica and pharmaceutical defense. Additionally, Mr. Goggan’s managed the firm’s IP practice. Mr. Goggans formerly served as an assistant district attorney, where he was lead counsel for prosecuting crimes of violence against women and children.

Always an advocate for improving educational resources, Mr. Goggans serves as president of the Mississippi School for Mathematics and Science Foundation and works with the Mississippi Afterschool Alliance. Mr. Goggans is also active in local civic organizations and assists with such programs as Habitat for Humanity.

Mr. Goggans earned his JD from Fordham University School of Law. He later obtained an LLM from Franklin Pierce Law Center.

Philip S. Brody is general counsel of Time Equities, Inc. and also maintains a private law practice focusing on real estate matters. Mr. Brody has been general counsel for Time Equities, Inc. for the past 26 years and has been practicing real estate law for the past 29 years. Mr. Brody is also a vice president of Time Equities Securities LLC, a registered broker dealer, which is a member of the National Association of Securities Dealers.

Mr. Brody is currently the chairman of the Real Estate Acquisition and Finance Subcommittee for the Real Estate Committee of ACC. Mr. Brody was the chairman of the Real Estate Committee and treasurer of the Greater New York Chapter of the ACC. Mr. Brody is also a member of the Real Estate Finance, Coop and Condo, Title and Transfer and Leasing Committees of the New York State Bar Association. Mr. Brody was a member of the Village of Ridgewood, New Jersey Zoning Board of Adjustment and the president of the Parent’s Association Advisory Council of George Washington University.

Mr. Brody received his BA from George Washington University, a Masters from Rutgers University and a law degree from Southwestern University School of Law.

Jason Maxwell is the corporate counsel for the international real estate firm, Hines, headquartered in Houston, Texas. He is the sole in-house attorney at the firm, and most of his time is devoted to the legal activities of the firm's larger private and public funds: the Hines US Core Office Fund, Hines REIT and Hines Global REIT. Since his arrival at Hines, he has been involved in the acquisition of 28 Class A office and other assets with an aggregate purchase price of approximately $4.8 billion. Hines is a privately owned real estate firm involved in real estate investment, development and property management worldwide, with over 50 years experience in a variety of real estate types.

Prior to joining Hines, Mr. Maxwell was a corporate and securities partner in the Dallas office of Locke Liddell & Sapp LLP (n/k/a Locke Lord Bissell & Liddell), and a member of that firm's national REIT practice.

Mr. Maxwell is a graduate of the Georgetown University Law Center in Washington, DC.

Douglas Olson is a principal with IVI Companies. Headquartered in White Plains, New York, IVI provides an array of nationwide services to include property condition and environmental site assessments, real estate workouts, construction consulting, cost segregation, zoning compliance and environmental remediation services.

Over his career with the IVI Companies, Mr. Olson has completed over 1,000 property condition and environmental site assessments on all asset classes of real estate. More recently, as a manager with IVI’s due-diligence group, Mr. Olson has overseen the production and quality control of thousands of due-diligence assessments on behalf of institutional investors, lenders, legal counsel and developers. Prior to re-locating to New York, Mr. Olson managed IVI’s Washington, DC regional office in Bethesda, Maryland.

Mr. Olson holds a BS from the Virginia Military Institute and is a Licensed Professional Engineer.

Chad Tiedemann is a partner with Holland & Knight in Washington, DC, representing a number of the leading real estate development firms in the area. He is currently a member of the firm's director's committee.

Mr. Tiedemann has extensive experience representing real estate investors including opportunity funds, investment banking firms and pension funds in connection with their real estate investments throughout the United States. He has over 25 years of commercial real estate venture formation, finance, development and leasing experience. He represents investment advisors, insurance companies, banks and foreign investors, as well as developers, tenants and syndicators.

Interviews with Mr. Tiedemann have been featured in The Washington Post and Bisnow on Business' Real Estate Weekly's "Exclusive Interviews with the Leaders on the Real Estate Scene" section. He is a frequent speaker on real estate industry issues, including current trends in the capital markets, as well as the challenges and opportunities currently facing the industry. Mr. Tiedemann is a member of the Bar Association of the District of Columbia, the ABA and the ABA- Real Property, Probate and Trust Law Section. He is actively involved in the community with the District of Columbia Building Industries Association, International Council of Shopping Centers, The Washington Real Estate Group, Rebuilding Together with Christmas in April, United Way, and Notre Dame Club of Washington, DC.

Mr. Tiedemann earned his BA at the University of Notre Dame and his JD from the Catholic University of America Columbus School of Law.

Gregory J. Walsh is the president and manager of Potomac Capital Advisors, Inc. in Boston, MA. In this capacity he is responsible for the management and operation of this real estate investment, development and consulting firm providing real estate advisory services to third party clients. He is actively involved in the work of the firm and is committed to principal involvement in each of the company’s assignments.

Mr. Walsh brings years of real estate and capital markets experience and specializes in development, project management, due diligence and value creation. During his career he has assisted clients with the acquisition, permitting and entitlements, financing and delivery of complex projects and investments in Boston, New York, Chicago and Washington, DC. Prior to forming his own firm, Mr. Walsh was director of real estate at The Massachusetts General Hospital where he was responsible for leasing, lease negotiations and administration, site selection, acquisitions, disposition, permitting, financial analysis, development analysis, utilization analysis, property valuation and tax abatement. Mr. Walsh also worked at Cabot, Cabot & Forbes a national real estate development firm where he was a project manager responsible for the development of Fox Hill Village.

In addition to his direct experience in the areas of investment and development, he has been acknowledged as an expert witness at the Appellate Tax Board of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts where he has provided testimony regarding real estate valuation.

Mr. Walsh holds a BA from Boston College and has taken continuing educational courses at Harvard University.

Ken Adams is a consultant and speaker on contract drafting. He’s author of A Manual of Style for Contract Drafting (ABA 2d ed. 2008). He conducts public seminars in the US with West LegalEdcenter and in Canada with Osgoode Professional Development, and he offers webcasts through West LegalEdcenter. He conducts in-house seminars worldwide for companies, law firms, and government agencies. He helps companies improve their contracts and their contract process. He acts as an expert in contract disputes. He is also a lecturer at the University of Pennsylvania Law School.

He practiced as a corporate attorney with major law firms in New York and Geneva, Switzerland.

Mr. Adams is secretary and director of US Friends of Latymer Upper School.

Mr. Adams received a BA from the University of York, England, and is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania Law School.

Karen Gray is general counsel of Christie's Inc., the auction house, and global head of intellectual property for the Christie's group. In her role at Christie’s, Ms. Gray oversees all legal affairs in the Americas for Christie’s art-related activities, including private sales, and coordinates the delivery of all other aspects of legal and risk management services. She also works closely with the company’s art restitution department. Ms. Gray is also responsible for all intellectual property matters at Christie's.

Prior to her appointment, Ms. Gray was at Reuters America where she held the title of senior vice president and principal legal counsel for the company’s business support group. In this role, Ms. Gray managed the legal team responsible for all product and commercial matters in the Americas including Reuters’ vendor and intellectual property matters. Before joining Reuters, Ms. Gray spent five years as a health care/not-for-profit attorney at the international law firm of Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft.

Ms. Gray graduated cum laude from Harvard Law School and cum laude from Williams College with a BA.

Scott Rechtschaffen is Littler Mendelson’s managing shareholder of knowledge management, located in San Francisco. Mr. Rechtschaffen leads the firm’s effort to provide innovative services by integrating new technologies to enable individual attorneys as well as clients to access the collective knowledge and experience of the firm’s attorneys. Mr. Rechtschaffen combines years of experience representing companies in every area of labor and employment law with a broad understanding of technology to develop unique solutions that enhance the firm’s ability to deliver legal information and know-how to its clients. Mr. Rechtschaffen is also responsible for the firm’s Executive Employer Conference, an annual gathering of in-house counsel and HR professionals representing some of the country’s leading organizations, and the firm’s numerous print and electronic publications including the National Employer®, an annual compendium of labor and employment information and analysis and a previous winner of the Burton Award.

Previously, Mr. Rechtschaffen served as a senior vice president for ELT, Inc., a premier provider of on-line employment law training services.

Mr. Rechtschaffen received an AB from the University of California, Berkeley and graduated from the Cornell Law School.

Marc Vockell is senior litigation counsel for Dell. He manages general litigation of all kinds in the U.S. and across borders, including complex commercial litigation, class actions, intellectual property litigation, securities litigation, and governmental matters.

Prior to joining Dell Mr. Vockell was general litigator for Vinson & Elkins, LLP -
Austin. He began his legal career as clerk for U.S. District Judge Sam Sparks.

Mr. Vockell is pat president of the Austin Chapter of Federal Bar Association. He helped initiate Dell Legal’s pro bono policy and committee. He has served as the first Pro Bono Chair for ACC’s Austin chapter and helped to create the pro bono program for the chapter. Mr. Vockell is Commissioner for Texas Access to Justice Commission and he serves as Treasurer of Volunteer Legal Services of Central Texas. He has spoken at various local, state, and national CLEs on litigation best practices, e-discovery, cost-control, and pro bono.

He received his JD from the University of Texas at Austin, where he served as Law Review notes editor, and he was an Order Of Coif.

Brian Facey is a partner at Blake, Cassels & Graydon LLP in Toronto. He is also the relationship partner for a number of the firms' national and international clients. Mr. Facey has advised clients in hundreds of legal matters, including merger transactions, criminal cartel cases, and distribution and advertising matters under the Competition Act. He has represented many foreign investors, including state-owned investors and foreign governments, under the provisions of the Investment Canada Act and the new State-Owned-Enterprise Guidelines.

Mr. Facey is co-author of a leading treatise on Canadian competition law entitled “Competition and Antitrust Law: Canada and the United States.” He has testified before the Canadian Senate and Parliamentary Committees on proposed amendments to the Competition Act. He was appointed by the Commissioner of Competition as an external consultant to the Competition Bureau in relation to the recent amendments to Canada's competition laws. Mr. Facey is on the executive committee of the Canadian Bar Association’s national competition law section. He is active in the ABA - antitrust section and the International Bar Association. Mr. Facey is an adjunct professor of competition law at one of Canada's leading law schools, where he teaches competition law. He is also a private sector adviser to the International Competition Network.

He holds a BA (Hons.) from the University of Toronto, an LLM from Georgetown University, and an LLB from the University of British Columbia.

Deborah Platt Majoras is a vice president and general counsel for The Procter & Gamble Company, in Cincinnati, where she focuses on global litigation, antitrust, and compliance.

Before joining Proctor & Gamble, she served as chairman of the Federal Trade Commission, where she focused on ensuring data security and protecting consumers from emerging frauds, such as identity theft and spyware and served as co-chair of the President’s Identity Theft Task Force. She also worked to implement sound antitrust policy regarding intellectual property, increase the efficiency and transparency of the merger review process, and strengthen cooperation among antitrust agencies around the world. Prior to the FTC, she served as principal deputy assistant attorney general at the Department of Justice Antitrust Division. She began her career at the international law firm, Jones Day, where she ultimately became a partner in the firm’s antitrust practice.

She continues to pursue her strong interest in sound competition and consumer policy as co-chair of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce International Competition Policy Working Group, as a member of the governing council of the ABA’s antitrust section, and as an advisor to the International Competition Network. She also serves on the boards of the Cincinnati Legal Aid Society and the Georgetown Law Corporate Counsel Institute.

She earned her BA from Westminster College, where she now sits on the board, and her JD from the University of Virginia.

François D. Ramsay is senior vice president, general counsel and secretary of Yellow Pages Group. Mr. Ramsay has been involved in a variety of matters affecting the companies where he worked, including mergers and acquisitions, debt and equity financings, corporate governance, as well as complex litigation matters.

Prior to joining Yellow Pages Group, Mr. Ramsay was general counsel at Gildan Activewear Inc. (a leading Canadian manufacturer and marketer of high-quality activewear) and Le Groupe Vidéotron Ltée. (one of Canada’s largest integrated communications companies).

Mr. Ramsay graduated from the Université de Montréal.

Peter Wexler is senior vice president and general counsel for Schneider Electric SA the world's leading energy management company. He was promoted to Schneider Electric's general counsel, after having served as vice president and general counsel of Schneider Electric's critical power and cooling services division formerly American Power Conversion Corporation.

Prior to Schneider Electric, Mr. Wexler served as the vice president, associate general counsel, and assistant secretary for American Power Conversion Corporation. Before joining American Power Conversion, Mr. Wexler was corporate counsel for Stone and Webster Engineering Corporation in Boston.

He received his bachelor’s from the University of Vermont and his JD from American University's Washington College of Law.

James R. Beyer is director of employment law at Accenture, in Chicago, where he leads the group. Accenture is a global management consulting, technology services, and outsourcing company, currently with approximately 180,000 people serving clients in over 120 countries.

Previously Mr. Beyer was a senior employment law attorney with International Business Machines Corporation. He was also previously counsel to then Gardner, Carton & Douglas in Chicago and an associate with the Chicago office of Seyfarth, Shaw. He was also a law clerk in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.

Mr. Beyer is an adjunct professor of law at IIT Chicago-Kent College of Law, where he teaches privacy in employment law and international employment law. Mr. Beyer was elected as a fellow to the College of Labor and Employment Lawyers. He is also active in many pro bono activities. He created and chairs the Accenture legal group’s pro bono and corporate citizenship program. Mr. Beyer is a frequent speaker and writer in the employment law area both in the US and internationally. He is the program co-chair of ACC’s Employment and Labor Law Committee and was previously the co-chair of the Web cast committee.

Mr. Beyer has a BA from DePauw University and received his JD with highest honors from the IIT Chicago-Kent College of Law, where was an editor of the Law Review.

Ellen Rice is senior employment counsel at EMC Corporation, in Hopkinton, MA, the world leader in information infrastructure solutions. Ms. Rice counsels senior management and human resources personnel on a broad range of employment law issues. In addition, she handles commercial and employment litigation and provides counsel on internal investigations. She also advises and improves on business processes related to privacy, information security, records and information management

Prior to joining EMC, she worked in the Washington D.C. Metropolitan area. She served as assistant general counsel in the United States Department of Justice’s Executive Office for United States Attorneys, associate general counsel at a nationwide food distribution company, and as a labor and employment law associate at the law firm Paul, Hastings.

She has presented numerous speeches to ACC, ABA, and other legal related programs.

Ms. Rice received a BA from Tulane University and is a graduate of Harvard Law School.

Kenneth A. Sprang is the former senior vice-president, general counsel, and secretary of OnIt Digital, Inc., a start-up international interactive advertising company. He is also an adjunct professor at the Catholic University Columbus School of Law in Washington, DC. His responsibilities for Onit included serving as HR Director, mergers and acquisitions, corporate governance, and completing numerous transactions.

Before joining Onit, Mr. Sprang was general counsel to the Psychiatric Institute of Washington in Washington, DC, where he provided counsel in labor relations and employment, healthcare, and other regulatory matters. Over the course of his career, Mr. Sprang has founded legal departments for several start-up companies, as well as working in the legal departments of Calgon Corporation, a former subsidiary of Merck & Co., Inc., and Cyclops Corporation. He also spent several years as a full-time law professor

Mr. Sprang is a member of ACC’s Washington Metropolitan Area Chapter; ABA, and its labor section’s committee on the development of the law under the NLRA; and the DC and Maryland Bar Associations. He serves as pro bono general counsel to Boys To Men International and as a member of the board of directors of Kidsave International.

Mr. Sprang received his BS from the Ohio State University and an MA from the University of Michigan. He earned his JD at Case Western Reserve University School of Law, where he was an associate editor of the law review and a member of the Order of the Coif.

Diane Lazzaris is the general counsel and corporate secretary at Dick's Sporting Goods. She works in Elizabeth, PA.

Prior to joining Dick's Sporting Goods, she was senior counsel and group counsel at Alcoa Inc., where her practice included international legal work, mergers and acquisitions transactions and a variety of commercial work.

Ms. Lazzaris is a graduate of the University of Pittsburgh School of Law and Carnegie Mellon University (MBA). She is also a licensed CPA and a CFA charterholder.

Ann E. Nolan is an associate general counsel for IDEXX Laboratories, Inc., a publicly traded international company located in Westbrook, ME that focuses on diagnostic products and services for veterinary, production animal and water applications. Her responsibilities include providing legal counsel to multiple lines of business on a wide variety of corporate matters, supporting the corporate finance group and managing company wide privacy initiatives.

Prior to joining IDEXX, Ms. Nolan clerked for the Honorable Eugene E. Siler Jr. of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, and practiced law with the firms of Davis Polk & Wardwell in New York, NY and Sheehan Phinney Bass + Green in Manchester, NH.

Ms. Nolan received a BS from Cornell University and is a graduate of the University of Kentucky College of Law.

John Parker Sweeney is a member in the Baltimore office of Womble Carlyle Sandridge & Rice, PLLC. He has extensive experience defending businesses in mass torts, complex litigation typically involving toxic environmental exposures, as well as counseling corporate premises owners and manufacturers on regulatory compliance and claims avoidance. He has been closely involved with counseling business clients regarding the Consumer Product Safety Commission’s (CPSC) e-rulemaking in its implementation of the complex legislation passed last year to expand the CPSC’s authority and impose significant new requirements on consumer product importers, manufacturers, and distributors.

Mr. Sweeney joined Womble Carlyle’s after several years as a principal at Miles & Stockbridge P.C. where he chaired that firm’s litigation department. Previously he held positions as a partner and associate with Debevoise & Plimpton in Washington, D.C. and as assistant general counsel of the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Mr. Sweeney serves as a national director of the Defense Research Institute (DFI), and chairs DRI’s task force on climate change litigation. He is past chair of the DRI committee on industrywide litigation and the committee on toxic torts and environmental law. He leads a team of Womble Carlyle lawyers providing pro bono legal services to the residents of the Helping Up Mission, Baltimore’s oldest faith-based recovery program.

Mr. Sweeney obtained his B.A from Ohio Wesleyan University and his J.D., summa cum laude, from the American University.

Linda Lu is an attorney with the corporate litigation division of the law and regulations department of Allstate Insurance Company in Northbrook, IL. Ms. Lu manages litigation challenging Allstate’s policies, practices, and procedures. In this regard, Ms. Lu works with outside counsel in her management of numerous nationwide and statewide class actions of significant import to the company, as well as, appeals of first impression. Ms. Lu is a member of the Allstate law department diversity committee and is a manager and mentor to interns in the summer diversity internship program. As a member of the panel law firm subcommittee, she leads the company’s efforts in promoting diversity amongst its panel counsel.

Prior to joining Allstate, Ms. Lu was at the Chicago firm of Lowis & Gellen, representing companies in complex litigation.

Ms. Lu was past president of the Asian American Bar Association of the Greater Chicago Area. She was also past chair of the board of directors of the Chinese American Professional Association, and is currently a board member of the Chinese American Bar Association. Ms. Lu is also a recipient of the 2008 National Asian Pacific American Bar Association (NAPABA) "Best Lawyer Under 40" award.

Ms. Lu graduated, with honors, from The University of Chicago and received her JD from the Georgetown University School of Law.

Wendy C. Shiba is executive vice president, general counsel and secretary of KB Home in Los Angeles, a NYSE-listed company and the #1 homebuilder on Fortune’s “World’s Most Admired Companies” list.

Previously, she was senior vice president, chief legal officer and secretary of PolyOne Corporation; vice president, secretary and assistant general counsel of Bowater Incorporated; corporate chair of the City of Philadelphia law department; associate professor of law at Temple University School of Law; in private practice with O'Melveny & Myers; and law clerk to Justice Stanley Mosk on the Supreme Court of California.

She is a member of the board of trustees for the Japanese American National Museum and has held board and leadership positions with numerous professional and charitable organizations, including the Asian Pacific American Bar Association of Pennsylvania (past president), commission on judicial selection and retention of the Philadelphia Bar Association (past chair), Legal Clinic for the Disabled, Public Interest Law Center of Philadelphia, Community Legal Services of Philadelphia, Legal Services Agency of Western Carolina, United Way of Greater Cleveland, Youth Challenge, South Carolina Board of Accountancy, United Way of Greenville County, and Greenville Little Theatre. She is a member of the inaugural class of the DirectWomen Board Institute (an initiative co-sponsored by the ABA and Catalyst) and recipient of a YWCA women of achievement award.

Ms. Shiba earned her BS from Michigan State University and her JD from Temple University School of Law, where she graduated first in her class and was articles editor of the Law Review.

Simone Wu is senior vice president, general counsel and secretary of XO Communications, headquartered in Herndon, VA. XO is one of the nation’s largest communications service providers focused exclusively on businesses, government, and carrier and wholesale service providers nationwide. In her role as general counsel, Ms. Wu oversees the company's legal affairs, which include commercial, corporate, employment, and intellectual property matters, as well as all litigation in which the company is involved.

Ms. Wu has wide-ranging experience in the telecommunications industry, including domestic and international business and corporate development, intellectual property and commercial matters, and legal and regulatory affairs. Prior to joining XO as senior corporate counsel, Ms. Wu held business and legal positions at MCI and AOL among other places, and practiced domestic and international transactional and communications law at the law firm of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom.

She is a member of the board of directors of the Minority Corporate Counsel Association and an active member of WMACCA, ACC’s Washington Metropolitan Chapter, and the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association.

Ms. Wu graduated with high honors from the University of Michigan with a BA, and received her JD from the Columbia University School of Law.

Bettina Yip is currently general attorney – labor & employment for AT&T Mobility, f/k/a Cingular Wireless, in Atlanta and she serves on the legal department diversity committee.

Before joining Cingular, Ms. Yip was a litigation associate at Meadows, Ichter & Bowers and a labor and employment associate in the Atlanta office of King & Spalding.

Ms. Yip has co-published an article on “Continuing Violations Doctrine: What Now After National Railroad Passenger Corp. v. Morgan?” in the ACC Docket. She has been named a Georgia super lawyers rising star in the area of employment & labor and she was also named one of the 25 most influential Asian Americans in Georgia by the Georgia Asian Times. Ms. Yip is currently the vice president – programs & operations for the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association (NAPABA). She also serves as their nominations and elections committee chairperson, was the association’s secretary, and a past Southeast regional governor. She is a co-chair and founder of NAPABA’s mentoring committee, a past co-chair and founding member of the labor and employment committee, and is on the mentor program sub-committee of NAPABA’s in-house committee. She was has also been named one of NAPABA’s best lawyers under 40. She is on the strategic planning committee of Corporate Counsel Women of Color and is chair of the unauthorized practice of law district four committee.

Ms. Yip graduated magna cum laude from Wellesley College and received her JD from Columbia University School of Law, where she was a Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar.

Susanna McDonald is an associate general counsel in the legal resources department of the Association of Corporate Counsel in Washington, DC.

Previously, she was the general counsel of Claimant Management Systems, a specialized technology provider to legal departments facing mass complex litigation.

As a member of the Delaware bar, Ms. McDonald acted as a guardian ad litem to children in foster care.

Ms. McDonald has her JD, cum laude, from Widener University School of Law. Her undergraduate studies were completed at University of Texas at Arlington.

David Mowry is a member of Xerox Corporation's office of general counsel.

Previously, Mr. Mowry worked at Nixon Peabody LLP as a litigation associate. His practice at Nixon Peabody focused on commercial litigation, primarily working on matters involving products liability, construction, utility tariffs, environmental, land use, securities fraud and contract dispute issues. Prior to Nixon Peabody, Mr. Mowry held clerkships with the US District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma (Chief Judge Robin Cauthon) and then with the U.S District Court for the District of Columbia (Judge Richard Roberts). Just after graduating from law school, Mr. Mowrym worked at Coudert Brothers.

Mr. Mowry has a BS from Emerson College and a JD from Brooklyn Law School.

Tammy McCutchen, a former administrator of the wage and hour division of the US Department of Labor, is a leading authority on federal and state wage and hour law. Currently, she focuses her practice on auditing and correcting wage and hour compliance issues for management clients and implementing compliance programs designed to avoid disputes and lower potential litigation liabilities.

As administrator of the Labor Department’s Wage and Hour Division, Ms. McCutchen was responsible for enforcing some of the country’s most comprehensive labor laws, including the Fair Labor Standards Act, the Family and Medical Leave Act, and the Davis-Bacon Act. Ms. McCutchen was a primary architect of the first major changes to the DOL overtime regulations in 50 years. Before her work at the Department of Labor, Ms. McCutchen was senior counsel at Hershey Foods Corporation among other roles.

Ms. McCutchen received a BA from Western Illinois University and a JD from the Northwestern University School of Law.

Salvador Simao is a shareholder with Littler Mendleson in Newark, NJ. He focuses his practice on employment law, with an expertise in wage-hour matters. His extensive wage-hour experience includes litigating matters in the US District Courts of New York, New Jersey, and Puerto Rico, as well as in administrative courts, arbitrations and negotiating settlements.

Mr. Simao's wage and hour experience also includes assisting a Fortune 50 company to negotiate the largest private settlement at that time with the Department of Labor as well as providing advice including drafting policies and training to Fortune 500 companies. Mr. Simao is also an expert in conducting efficient wage hour audits. Mr. Simao also worked as a trial attorney at the US Department of Labor, Office of the Solicitor.

He received a BA from Seton Hall University and a JD from the Rutgers School of Law.

Adam H. Charnes is a partner in the Winston-Salem, NC, office of Kilpatrick Stockton LLP, where he practices appellate, constitutional, and complex business litigation. Mr. Charnes has litigated appeals in state and federal appellate courts across the nation. In addition to his practice, Mr. Charnes has spoken and written widely about a number of legal subjects, including the Supreme Court, appellate litigation, and legal issues related to the war on terrorism.

Previously, Mr. Charnes served as the principal deputy assistant attorney general for the Office of Legal Policy at the United States Department of Justice. At the Office of Legal Policy, he was responsible for various legal policy matters—including counter-terrorism policy and civil justice reform—and for assisting with the selection and confirmation of federal judges. Following law school, Mr. Charnes served as a law clerk to Supreme Court Justice Anthony M. Kennedy and to Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson III of the US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit.

Mr. Charnes is a member of the Appellate Rules Committee of the North Carolina Bar Association, the Chief Justice Joseph Branch American Inn of Court, and the organizational committee of the Middle District of North Carolina chapter of the Federal Bar Association.

Mr. Charnes graduated summa cum laude from Princeton University and received his JD, magna cum laude, from Harvard Law School, where he was executive editor of the Harvard Law Review.

Virginia Whitner Hoptman is a member of Womble Carlyle’s appellate and business litigation practice groups. Her practice focuses on complex business cases in federal and state courts, including trade-secret misappropriation, patent infringement, and commercial and regulatory disputes. She represents clients in a variety of industries, including software technology, telecommunications, pharmaceuticals, banking, and higher education.

Ms. Hoptman brings to her practice substantial expertise on issues of federal preemption, constitutional law, and appellate and US Supreme Court practice. In addition to practicing in these areas, she has both taught in these fields at George Washington University Law School and served as law clerk to Justice Thurgood Marshall of the US Supreme Court and Chief Judge Collins J. Seitz of the US Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.

She is currently vice-chair of Womble Carlyle’s Diversity Committee, and recently was program chair for the 2008 Just the Beginning Foundation Conference, an organization founded by federal judges to develop and nurture interest in the law, and advancement to the bench and bar, by persons from diverse and traditionally underrepresented groups. She is also a member of the Constitutional and Administrative Law Advisory Committee of the US Chamber Litigation Center, providing support to companies in landmark cases in the US Supreme Court and federal and state courts nationwide.

Ms. Hoptman received a BS from the University of North Carolina and graduated from the University of Virginia School of Law.

Stephen Bendeich is the general counsel of Hydro Tasmania (a government owned hydro-electric electricity generator), in Hobart, Tasmania, Australia. Mr. Bendeich leads a team of in-house lawyers handling corporate, energy trading, market regulation, merger and acquisition, construction and engineering, and general commercial legal issues.

Before joining Hydro Tasmania, Mr. Bendeich was a partner in an Australian national law firm, Deacons, where he commenced practice after graduation and practiced in general commercial and energy related areas.

Mr. Bendeich is a director of Australian Corporate Lawyers Association, the Australian equivalent of the ACC, and is president of its Tasmanian Division (ACLA's smallest).

Mr. Bendeich holds a BA and LL B, with honors, from the University of Melbourne.

Andrew Forstenzer is executive vice president and general counsel for Crump Group, Inc., parent of Crump Insurances Services, Crump Life Insurance Services and Ascensus, a leader in retirement plan administration. Crump’s employees operate out of offices in the US and Bermuda.

Before joining Crump, Mr. Forstenzer worked at Marsh & McLennan Companies, Inc., a publicly held, global leader in delivering risk and insurance services. In various roles, most recently as vice president – senior litigation counsel, he was responsible for handling corporate and overseeing litigation legal matters for various Marsh affiliates. Prior to Marsh, Mr. Forstenzer worked for Damson Oil Corporation, an American Stock Exchange company, most recently as senior vice president and assistant general counsel. At Damson, he was in charge of public and private limited partnership syndications and legal compliance for an NASD member broker-dealer. Earlier, he served as in-house counsel for a regional investment securities firm and as staff attorney for the US Department of Transportation.

He is a frequent lecturer on Errors & Omission prevention and has spoken at various industry associations such as NAPLSO, PLUS and ALFA.

Mr. Forstenzer received a BS from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, a Juris Doctorate from Villanova University Law School, and an LLM in Corporation Law from New York University School of Law.

Genevieve Hancock holds the position of senior counsel at the Department of Internal Affairs in New Zealand. She works primarily in the technology law area, advising on technology law strategy and policy, advising on the procurement of IT hardware, software and services, and negotiating IT contracts for the benefit of the New Zealand government.

Ms. Hancock started her career as a litigator at the national compulsory accident insurance corporation in New Zealand. She then worked with New Zealand law firm Bell Gully, first in the litigation team and later with the commercial side of the firm, in the areas of public sector and intellectual property and technology. As a senior associate at Bell Gully, she advised on, and managed the full range of disputes, from significant and long-term litigation, to appearing in mediations and providing submissions for independent expert determination. Prior to joining the Department of Internal Affairs she was general counsel of Unisys New Zealand.

Ms. Hancock was the president of the Corporate Lawyers Association of New Zealand (CLANZ) from 2006 to 2007. She continues to be on the managing committee of CLANZ and involved with the New Zealand Law Society and is also a board member of Downstage Theatre Trust, an independent theatre company in New Zealand.

Lauren Bruzzone is senior group IP counsel for the IBM Global Services Divisions, Global Business Services and Global Technology Services, in Somers, NY. Her responsibilities include managing a department that provides IP support services for transactions. In addition to assisting in negotiations, her group identifies inventions and files patents, supports patent licensing efforts, provides legal counsel on asset management, and performs trademark clearance and enforcement.

Prior to taking her current position, Ms. Bruzzone held a variety of management and executive positions at IBM in marketing, the IBM Global Network, the intellectual property and licensing department, the trademark department, T.J. Watson Research Laboratory, and the sales & distribution division.

She is co-chair and board member of her local ACC chapter, WESFACCA, conducted a seminar at NY law school, and does pro bono work through Pro Bono Associates.

Ms. Bruzzone received a PhD and MBA from New York University and a JD, summa cum laude, from Pace University School of Law.

Feras Mousilli is corporate counsel for the Americas Division at Dell, Inc. where he counsels clients on intellectual property matters, including advertising and marketing, copyright, and trademark strategies and risks. Mr. Mousilli is a registered US patent attorney and regularly advises business clients on a range of technology law issues.

Prior to joining Dell, Mr. Mousilli practiced with DLA Piper’s intellectual property group in Austin, Texas, specializing in patent litigation.

Mr. Mousilli has served on the board of ACC’s Austin chapter for a number of years, and currently serves as the vice president of membership. He is the proud recipient of the Judge Suzanne Covington Pro Bono Award from Volunteer Legal Services and serves on local boards of national civil rights organizations.

Mr. Mousilli received his bachelors and masters degrees from Johns Hopkins University. He earned his JD from the University of Texas School of Law.

Michael F. Collins is an attorney in the real estate department of Amtrak and currently serves as the chairperson for the American Corporate Counsel’s Real Estate Subcommittee on Leasing, Construction and Development.

Mr. Collins has drafted and negotiated more than 350 commercial leases, covering more than 3,000,000 square feet of space, and representing rents over the life of the leases. Prior to joining Amtrak, Mr. Collins worked for publicly held real estate investment trusts, private law firms and the federal government in the areas of real estate, general corporate and banking law.

Mr. Collins received his JD from Georgetown University Law Center and his BA, magna cum laude, from St. Lawrence University.

William E. Myers is vice president and associate general counsel with Carrols Restaurant Group, Inc. in Syracuse, New York. His responsibilities include negotiating and drafting commercial leases, commercial transactions, real estate sales and purchases, and business acquisitions, along with general corporate matters.

Prior to joining Carrols Restaurant Group, Inc., Mr. Myers was in private practice in Syracuse, New York working in a variety of substantive areas including commercial and real estate law.

He currently is a member of the ABA, the New York State Bar Association, and the Onondaga County Bar Association. He serves on the board of directors of ACC’s Western and Central New York Chapter and is a member of ACC’s Real Estate Committee. Mr. Myers is also an adjunct instructor at Syracuse University.

Mr. Myers received a BA from State University of New York at Buffalo and is a graduate of the University of Dayton School of Law.

Douglas R. Pyne is senior counsel with Macy’s Inc. in Cincinnati, Ohio. His work with Macy’s focuses on legal matters involving the operation, leasing, acquisition, and development of the company’s real estate.

Prior to joining Macy’s, Mr. Pyne was senior real estate counsel for RARE Hospitality International, Inc. in Atlanta, Georgia. RARE Hospitality was the parent company of the LongHorn Steakhouse and The Capital Grille restaurant concepts before being acquired by Darden Restaurants in 2007. Prior to going in-house, Mr. Pyne was in private practice with multiple law firms in Tennessee.

Mr. Pyne is currently the secretary of ACC’s Real Estate Committee and a member of the board of directors of the Southwest Ohio chapter of ACC.

Mr. Pyne received his undergraduate degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and his law degree from the University of Texas.

Jeffrey Brenner is a litigation partner and team leader of Nixon Peabody’s real estate team and construction team. He concentrates his practice in land use matters, zoning issues, and complex real estate, commercial, land use, and tort litigation. He has successfully represented many clients in court and arbitrations in eminent domain cases, tax appeals, zoning appeals, title disputes, boundary disputes, and construction disputes involving owners, general contractors, and subcontractors.

Mr. Brenner has argued in the Rhode Island Supreme Court and the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit. He has also handled cases through trial in state and federal courts, and he has appeared before many administrative and municipal boards throughout Rhode Island. Mr. Brenner frequently handles construction and commercial arbitrations and mediations administered by the American Arbitration Association.

Previously, Mr. Brenner was elected to the Town Council in Barrington, Rhode Island. He has been president of the Barrington Town Council and was a member of the Zoning Board in Barrington and served as chairman. Mr. Brenner is also a member of the Barrington Democratic Town Committee and previously served as chairman.

Mr. Brenner received a JD from Washington College of Law of the American University and BA from the University of Pennsylvania.

Evelyn Lim is senior vice president and deputy general counsel of First Wind in Newton, MA.

Prior to joining First Wind, Ms. Lim was a partner in the finance group in the Los Angeles office of McDermott, Will & Emery LLP. While at McDermott, Ms. Lim spent time in London representing a Greek construction company in connection with its financing of the construction and operation of a submerged tunnel roadway in Greece. Prior to that, Ms. Lim was an associate in the Los Angeles office of Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy, LLP where she represented the issuer in connection with the bond financing of the Monterrey-Cadereyta toll road in Mexico, which was named “Infrastructure Deal of the Year - Americas” for 2004 by Project Finance Magazine. She also represented the underwriters in a cross-border dual tranche senior secured bond financing of the Autopista Central toll road in Santiago, Chile, which was named “Best Project Finance Deal” for 2003 by Euromoney. Prior to moving to Los Angeles, Ms. Lim worked as an associate in the New York office of Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy, LLP representing underwriters in private and public offerings of debt and equity securities, including Rule 144A/Regulation S, high-yield and structured debt offerings, monetizations of energy contracts and other structured products.

She received a BS from Cornell, and a JD from Fordham University School of Law.

Marc Pappalardo is the vice president and general counsel of Breakthrough Management Group International Inc. In this role, Mr. Pappalardo oversees all of BMGI’s legal matters globally.

Prior to joining BMGI he practiced law as a litigator in Phoenix with Greenberg Traurig, where he handled general commercial litigation matters, and also at Beus Gilbert, where his practice focused on securities litigation. Prior to that, Mr. Pappalardo served as a felony prosecutor for the Maricopa County Attorney’s office. Mr. Pappalardo has had extensive first chair litigation experience in a wide variety of cases, including copyright and trademark infringement, securities litigation matters, contract disputes, and employment litigation.

Mr. Pappalardo received his BS in from Villanova University and his JD from Penn State University.

Stephen M. Richard is counsel to Nixon Peabody, LLP in Providence, RI. In his business litigation practice, he regularly handles complex trials and appellate arguments involving a diverse range of legal issues, including employment discrimination statutes, intellectual property, civil rights, the D’Oench Duhme doctrine, commercial contract disputes, antitrust, RICO, taxation, municipal home rule charters, receiverships, and zoning. In the area of employment and labor law, Mr. Richard has successfully defended employers in cases brought under Title VII, the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, and other state and federal discrimination statutes. He has also advised employers on practical and preventive measures to avoid workplace claims.

Prior to joining the firm, Mr. Richard was a partner at Tillinghast Licht LLP. He has also held positions at the Providence law firm of Winograd, Shine & Zacks, and at Ropes & Gray in that firm’s Boston office.

Mr. Richard is a member of the American Bar Association and the Rhode Island Trial Lawyers Association, and is active in the Rhode Island Bar Association’s Federal Court Bench/Bar Committee. Mr. Richard is also a member of the Massachusetts Epsilon Chapter of Phi Beta Kappa.

He received a BA from Boston University and a MBA from Bryant College. Mr. Richard earned his JD from the Notre Dame Law School.

David C. Cannon is vice president, environment, health and safety for Allegheny Energy. Headquartered in Greensburg, Pennsylvania, Allegheny Energy owns and operates electric generating facilities, and delivers electric service to customers in Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Maryland and Virginia.

Prior to joining Allegheny Energy, he was vice president, environment, health and safety for PPG Industries, Inc. (PPG), a diversified global manufacturer of coatings, glass, chemicals and fiberglass. Prior to joining PPG, Mr. Cannon served as an attorney for the United States Department of the Interior in Washington, DC, specializing in conservation and wildlife law. Before joining Interior, he was a trial attorney for the Land and Natural Resources Division of the United States Department of Justice (since renamed Environment and Natural Resources).

Mr. Cannon is a former director of the Environmental Law Institute. He has also served as a board member of the ACC and ACC’s Western Pennsylvania Chapter, and as a board member and past president of the Fox Chapel Area Land Trust. He currently serves as a member of the Fox Chapel Borough Environmental Advisory Council, the Westmoreland County Smart Growth Partnership, and the YMCA Camps Kon-O-Kwee/Spencer. He is also a member of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Climate Change Advisory Committee.

Mr. Cannon received a BS from the University of Notre Dame, and received a JD from the University of Pittsburgh, graduating cum laude and Order of the Coif.

Mary Jane Forbes serves as assistant general counsel of Highmark Inc. at its offices in Camp Hill, Pennsylvania. Her responsibilities include providing legal advice to health plan operations, procurement, and information technology within the company.

Prior to joining Highmark, Ms. Forbes served as the vice-president, general counsel and corporate secretary of Capital Blue Cross in Harrisburg PA, providing legal counsel to that organization and managing the law department there. Before joining Capital Blue Cross, she was a partner at McNees Wallace & Nurick in Harrisburg.

Ms. Forbes serves as an adjunct professor at Widener University School of Law, teaching corporate finance. She is also serving as the current president of ACC’s Central Pennsylvania Chapter. As a member of this chapter, she has been actively involved in the Streetlaw program and the diversity committee. Ms. Forbes also served as a volunteer for Katrina relief in Pascagoula, MS. She is also a graduate of the leadership Harrisburg program.

Ms. Forbes received her BA with high honors from the University of Delaware and she is a graduate of the Pennsylvania State University Dickinson School of Law.

Susan Simms Marsh serves as corporate counsel for Pennsylvania American Water in Hershey. She is responsible for legal and regulatory matters. She has extensive experience in the area of public utility law.

Prior to her work with American Water, she served in state government including service with the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission. Previously, she was selected to serve as legal counsel to the vice chairman of the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission. Ms. Marsh also served as legal counsel to the Pennsylvania Legislative Budget and Finance Committee and has experience in the legislative process.

Ms. Marsh has been active in professional and civic organizations at the local, state and national level. She is a member of the Public Utility Law Section, Women in the Profession, In House Counsel, and minority bar committee of the Pennsylvania Bar Association. She is also a member of the National Bar Association, ABA, and ACC. She serves on the board of directors of ACC’s Central Pennsylvania Chapter and is an active participant with its Street Law program. She also serves on the board of directors for Pennsylvania United Way, Boys and Girls Club of Central Pennsylvania, Inc., and AAA Central Penn.

Ms. Marsh is a graduate of Duke University. She received her JD from North Carolina Central University School of Law.

Christine Carron is a senior partner at Ogilvy Renault, in their Montreal office. She practices primarily in corporate and commercial litigation and in the areas of banking, privacy, product liability, consumer protection, and e-commerce. She is chair of their privacy and access to information team. She has been involved in a wide range of commercial litigation, including the defense of class actions in the financial services, retail, and tobacco industries and represents corporate clients in disputes involving damages for breach of commercial contracts or for latent defects and in shareholder disputes. Ms. Carron also acts as defense counsel in major class actions. She has represented clients in parliamentary commissions on the adoption and amendment of Quebec's privacy legislation for the private sector and participated in the consultation process for Quebec's legislation on new technologies.

Her distinctions and recognitions include: advocatus emeritus by the Quebec Bar; fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers; the best lawyers in Canada, corporate and commercial litigation, class action litigation; Leader in the field of dispute resolution (Quebec), Chambers Global: The World's Leading Lawyers; Leading lawyer in class action litigation, Lexpert American Lawyer Guide to the leading 500 lawyers in Canada; One of Canada's top 25 women lawyers, Lexpert Magazine; one of "Les 101 Femmes entrepreneurs", Magazine Entreprendre; Consistently recommended in litigation - class actions; repeatedly recommended in litigation - corporate and commercial, The Canadian Legal Directory Lexpert.

Lukasz Granosik is a partner at Ogilvy Renault where he practices employment and labor law in Montreal. Mr. Granosik advises and represents employers, with a focus on collective bargaining and grievance arbitration, labor standards, individual contracts of employment, administrative law, and occupational health and safety matters. He has particular expertise in human rights issues and acts in numerous matters involving discrimination, medical examinations, employee surveillance, and protection of personal information.

Mr. Granosik is a member of the Canadian Bar Association, and has served as president of the Quebec Branch. He is a member of the disciplinary committee of the Quebec bar, serves on the Canada-Poland Chamber of Commerce, and is an assessor for the Human Rights Tribunal. He is the director of the Canadian Bar Insurance Association. In addition, Mr. Granosik lectures on labor law.

Mr. Granosik received a BS from Université de Montréal, and is a graduate of the Université de Sherbrooke School of Law.

Vincent H. Kou is chief counsel for Rio Tinto Alcan in Asia. He is currently based in Singapore. Before his relocation to Singapore, his was based in Beijing and Shanghai as director of legal services and mergers and acquisitions and chief representative for Alcan (now part of Rio Tinto Group). His work in China included negotiating, structuring and drafting legal documents related to mergers and acquisitions projects and other forms of direct investments, joint ventures, divestitures, greenfield projects, and he played a leading role in corporate initiatives including the creation of Alcan's regional headquarter in Shanghai. He also provided legal support to Rio Tinto Alcan's businesses operating in China and South East Asia, including drafting and reviewing of commercial contracts, advising on labor and employment matters and compliance with Chinese statutory requirements.

Prior to joining Rio Tinto Alcan, Mr. Kou was an associate with two Canadian national law firms in Montreal. His work in private practice includes securities law, mergers and acquisitions, venture capital financing, corporate and commercial law, and investments in PRC.

He is a past board member and vice-chairman of Canada-China Business Council, Beijing chapter.

Mr. Kou received his LLB from University of Sherbrooke.

Olivier Niggli is the chief financial officer and legal director of the World Anti Doping Agency, an international organization with Swiss statutes and headquarters in Montreal Canada. He is in charge of overseeing all legal matter for the agency including all anti-doping prosecution and legislation. He is currently involved in on going discussion with the EU on the implications of the fight against doping for data protection.

Prior to that Olivier Niggli was a practicing lawyer in Switzerland with the firm Carrad&Associes. He was active in sports law, arbitration, and commercial matters.

Olivier Niggli has a law degree from Lausanne University in Switzerland and a LLM from the London School of Economics (LSE) in the UK. He also holds an MBA from McGill University in Canada.

Joseph Napoli is the senior general attorney—corporate of United States Steel Corporation in Pittsburg and handles the legal aspects of all of U.S. Steel’s and its subsidiaries’ domestic and foreign financings. Those transactions include revolving credit facilities, equity and debt issuances, securitizations, asset-based lending, project financings, and workouts. He also served as the primary attorney for U. S. Steel’s lending division. In addition to addressing domestic corporate matters, he is also responsible for legal matters for all of U.S. Steel’s foreign holding and some of its foreign operating companies. Mr. Napoli has negotiated several joint venture agreements and manages legal matters associated with most of U.S. Steel’s domestic and foreign joint ventures.

Mr. Napoli is president of ACC’s Western Pennsylvania Chapter and has served as an officer of that chapter in several capacities. He is a member of the governing body of the business law section of the Allegheny County Bar Association as well as the governing body of the Allegheny County Bar Foundation. His articles have been published in the ACC Docket and the newsletter of the business law section of the Allegheny County Bar Association. He was named “Outstanding Volunteer Attorney of the Year” by the Executive Service Corps and has also been recognized for his pro bono efforts by the Allegheny County Bar Association.

Mr. Napoli earned his B.A. from Duquesne University and his J.D. from the Duquesne University School of Law.

Mark G. Sessions is general counsel and secretary of NovaTel, Ltd., a privately owned telecommunications provider based in San Antonio, Texas.

Prior to joining NovaTel, Mr. Sessions practiced at Holland & Knight LLP, where he served as executive partner of the San Antonio office, pursuing commercial litigation practice.

Mr. Sessions received a BS from Southwestern University and is a graduate of Baylor University School of Law.

Ron Vaske is with Lindquist & Vennum PLLP in Minneapolis. His practice is focused on representing financial institutions in commercial transactions and the issuance of payment card devices. His payment-card-industry clients are national issuers of credit cards, debit cards, and stored-value cards. Mr. Vaske provides assistance with establishing programs and third-party relationships and achieving consumer and regulatory compliance. His commercial transaction experience encompasses agribusiness lending transactions, including loans to developers of ethanol plants and other agricultural enterprises; public and private debt offerings; asset securitization transactions; and leasing transactions.

Before joining Lindquist & Vennum, Mr. Vaske practiced with Dixon, Dixon and Jessup, Ltd, LLP of Omaha, Nebraska. In addition to his legal background, he has industry experience, having worked in the subprime credit-card business for several years before enrolling in law school.

Mr. Vaske received a BS from South Dakota State University. He earned his JD from Creighton University School of Law.

Joseph J. Craciun is vice president & general counsel for Money Mailer, LLC, a direct marketing company located in Garden Grove, California.

Prior to joining Money Mailer, Mr. Craciun served as franchise counsel for Mail Boxes Etc. USA, Inc. and corporate counsel for Coldwell Banker Residential Affiliates, Inc.

Mr. Craciun serves on the Orange County (CA) Leadership Council for Citizens Against Lawsuit Abuse, a grass roots organization committed to bringing about meaningful tort reform. Mr. Craciun also served on the board for ACC’s Southern California Chapter and has previously served on the franchise law committee of the business law section of the State Bar of California.

Mr. Craciun received his BA from Cal State Fullerton and his JD from California Western School of Law in San Diego, California.

Pamela Samuels Young is managing counsel for labor and employment law at Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A., Inc. (“TMS”). Located in Torrance, California, TMS is the marketing, sales and distribution arm for Toyota, Lexus, and Scion vehicles in the U.S. Ms. Samuels Young manages litigation and provides advice and counsel on employment law matters.

Prior to joining Toyota, Ms. Samuels Young served as employment law counsel for Raytheon Corporation and practiced for several years at the Los Angeles office of O’Melveny & Myers, LLP.

When Ms. Samuels Young isn’t practicing law, the former journalist is usually busy penning her next legal thriller. The author of four novels, Ms. Samuels Young is on the board of directors of the Southern California chapter of Mystery Writers of America and is a fiction writing expert for BizyMoms.com. Ms. Samuels Young is a frequent speaker on the topics of discrimination law, fiction writing, and pursuing your passion.

She is a graduate of USC, Northwestern University and UC Berkeley’s Law School.

Stephen R. Chitwood, PhD, is professor emeritus of public administration in the School of Business and Public Management, The George Washington University and the founder and former director of the university's center for law practice strategy and management. He currently directs the university’s master’s degree in law firm management.

Dr. Chitwood joined the GW faculty following his military service.

In addition to his academic work, Dr. Chitwood has served as a consultant providing management training programs, strategic planning sessions and executive office retreats for litigating divisions of the US Department of Justice, US Attorneys offices, State Attorneys General offices, the general counsels offices of numerous federal government departments and agencies, corporate law departments and private law firms. Dr. Chitwood also conducts ACC's three-day Executive Leadership Institute for chief legal officers and attorney managers.

Dr. Chitwood received his BA, cum laude, from the University of Colorado, his MPA and PhD from the University of Southern California and his JD with honors from The George Washington University.

Susanna McDonald is an associate general counsel in the legal resources department of the Association of Corporate Counsel in Washington, DC.

Previously, she was the general counsel of Claimant Management Systems, a specialized technology provider to legal departments facing mass complex litigation.

As a member of the Delaware bar, Ms. McDonald acted as a guardian ad litem to children in foster care.

Ms. McDonald has her JD, cum laude, from Widener University School of Law. Her undergraduate studies were completed at University of Texas at Arlington.

Sheldon Blumling is a partner in Fisher & Phillips’ Irvine office and a member of the firm’s employee benefits practice group. He advises clients with respect to all aspects of employee benefits and executive compensation, including qualified and nonqualified retirement plans, health and other welfare benefit plans, cafeteria plans, severance plans and equity-based compensation plans. He also advises employers on compliance issues involving the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) and all types of federal and state employment taxes, and has had extensive experience advising clients on the employee benefits and executive compensation aspects of mergers and acquisitions.

Mr. Blumling joined the firm in its Atlanta office, and then rejoined the firm in its Irvine office after practicing in the tax and employee benefits groups at a full-service, international law firm for four years.

He is a member of the tax section of the ABA.

Mr. Blumling received his JD, cum laude, from the University of Miami, where he served as managing editor of the University of Miami Entertainment and Sports Law Review. He received his undergraduate degree, summa cum laude, from Arizona State University.

Sandy Feingerts is a partner in the New Orleans office of Fisher & Phillips. She has spent substantially all of her career advising management on employee benefits and executive compensation matters, including qualified retirement plans, non-qualified deferred compensation arrangements, health and welfare plans and severance arrangements. She is experienced in representing clients in IRS and Department of Labor audits of qualified plans. She also has extensive experience in representing clients who are seeking voluntarily correction of qualified plan failures with the IRS.

Ms. Feingerts began her career in Washington, DC with Melrod, Redman and Gartlan working in the tax section of the firm. She then served on the staff of the Joint Committee on Taxation of the United States Congress. Later, she moved to New Orleans and became a partner in McGlinchey Stafford.

Ms. Feingerts received her JD from Temple University where she was an associate editor of the law review. Her undergraduate degree is from Bucknell University.

Edwin E. Hightower Jr., is principal of The Hightower Group in Saint Petersburg, Florida. He provides legal, HR and management consulting services to clients, including start-up companies as well as executive testing/coaching firms.

Most recently, Mr. Hightower served as senior vice president and chief legal officer of Gevity HR, Inc., a professional employer organization, located in Sarasota, Florida. He successfully led the company's recent sale to a private equity firm, General Atlantic Partners. Mr. Hightower has also previously served as litigation counsel for Carnival Cruise Lines.

Mr. Hightower is currently in the organizational stages of a non-profit in Saint Petersburg, which will provide assistance to families of police officers and firefighters who lose their lives in service to their communities. He also recently co-authored an article entitled, "Working Within and Without: Unique Human Resource Strategies," featured in Maximizing Your HR Efforts (Thomson Reuters, 2009).

Mr. Hightower received his BA from the University of Denver and his JD from the University of Miami. Mr. Hightower is also a Florida circuit certified mediator.

Philip Nicholas is the vice president and general counsel of Amadeus North America, Inc., located in Miami, Amadeus is a an IT provider to the airline, hotel, car and travel agency markets, with affiliate operations in 200 countries. He is responsible for all legal activities affecting the company's North America operations. Mr. Nicholas is also responsible for overseeing all legal activities in South America on behalf of Amadeus' global headquarters located in Madrid, Spain.

Prior to joining Amadeus, Mr. Nicholas was with private law firms focusing on a commercial litigation practice, with an emphasis on construction law, accountant malpractice and physician peer review proceedings.

Mr. Nicholas also serves as an adjunct professor in the litigation skills program at the University of Miami Law School where he has taught students pre-trial, trial and post-trial skills and procedures. Mr. Nicholas is also active in providing pro-bono services to various charitable organizations.

Mr. Nicholas received his BA from Florida International University, and is a graduate of the University of Miami School of Law.

Gregory Nichols is of counsel in the Tampa office of Fisher & Phillips LLP. His practice focuses on counseling organizations on a wide range of employment issues including employment agreements and incentive plans.

Most recently he served as general counsel, secretary and corporate compliance officer for a major professional employer organization operating in all 50 states. In addition, he was vice president, HR and general counsel for Starboard Cruise Services, Inc. part of the Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton - LVMH Specialty Retail Group operating tax and duty-free shops on cruise ships throughout the world as well as vice president, HR and corporate counsel for G. Neil Companies, a direct marketer of HR related products and services. He has spent most of his career serving as general counsel, human resources executive, or a combination of the two in a wide range of companies involved in manufacturing, professional services, retail, healthcare, software and travel. Mr. Nichols has first hand experience in corporate mergers, acquisitions and divestitures, due diligence, executive compensation plans, Sarbanes-Oxley compliance programs, and SEC reporting.

Mr. Nichols received a BA from the University of Central Florida, MBA from the University of Tampa and JD, cum laude, from the University of Miami School of Law.

Dawn C. Anaiscourt is a senior attorney at Southern California Edison Company. Her practice focuses on providing legal support for the procurement of renewable and conventional electric energy, natural gas and related financial products, including pro forma development, aiding in the preparation and management of product solicitations, and contract negotiation and drafting.

Prior to joining SCE’s law department, Ms. Anaiscourt practiced corporate and securities law with Katten Muchin Rosenman LLP and Shaw Pittman LLP, both in Los Angeles, where she provided counsel to public, private and entrepreneurial entities for venture capital and M&A transactions, large-scale IP due diligence management, 34 Act reporting and other corporate matters.

Ms. Anaiscourt currently serves on the advisory board of the Los Angeles Metropolitan Urban Debate League.

Ms. Anaiscourt received her BA from Harvard University and a JD/MBA from the School of Law and the Anderson School of Management at University of California, Los Angeles.

Norman D. Ewart is the associate general counsel of Rosetta Resources Inc. and is located in Houston, Texas.

Mr. Ewart has worked many years as an in-house corporate oil and gas attorney. Prior to becoming an in-house attorney, he practiced oil and gas and other areas of law with Hinkle, Cox, Eaton, Coffield & Hensley in Roswell, New Mexico.

He is the president-elect of ACC’s Houston Chapter.

Mr. Ewart graduated from St. John’s College, Annapolis, Maryland, and received his JD degree from the University of New Mexico.

Alex MacWilliam is a senior energy/environmental partner with the Calgary office of Fraser Milner Casgrain LLP, one of Canada's largest business law firms. He leads the firm's national environmental law practice and advises Canadian and foreign clients involved in the energy, transportation, manufacturing, financial services and land development sectors. Mr. MacWilliam’s practice includes advice to clients on climate change regulation and associated matters, resolution of environmental disputes through negotiation, mediation, arbitration and litigation, defense of environmental prosecutions, environmental due diligence associated with mergers, acquisitions and financings and compliance matters.

At FMC, Mr. MacWilliam is actively involved in FMC's sponsorship of the Houston chapter of ACC and the ACC Energy Committee and its participation at the ACC Annual Meetings. Mr. MacWilliam is a member of the Alberta Environmental Appeals Board and the Canadian Chamber of Commerce Environment Committee and Climate Change Task Force. He belongs to the ABA Environment, Energy and Resources Section, is a past president of the Calgary Bar Association and the Canadian Transport Lawyers Association and a sessional lecturer at the University of Calgary Faculty of Law. He sits on the board of directors of the Calgary International Film Festival and Alberta Theatre Projects and is a member of the Calgary Petroleum Club.

Mr. MacWilliam received his BA from the University of Calgary and his LLB from the University of British Columbia.

Joshua Davis is the managing shareholder of the Boston Office of Ogletree Deakins, one of the nation's largest employment and labor law firms. He has an active litigation practice, including the defense of collective actions and appellate matters.

Prior to founding Ogletree's Boston office, he was a partner in the Boston law firms of Hill & Barlow and Goulston & Storrs.

Mr. Olson also serves as a visiting lecturer in law at Northeastern University School of Law where teaches employment discrimination.

Mr. Davis received his BA, with high honors, from Swarthmore College and his JD, with honors, from the University of Chicago Law School.

Jo Ann Shotwell Kaplan is of counsel with Prince Lobel in Boston, MA. Ms. Kaplan is an experienced and successful complex civil litigator, having practiced before state and federal trial and appellate courts, administrative agencies, and arbitral tribunals. Her experience spans the full range of business litigation, including commercial, corporate transactional, employment, environmental and toxic tort, insurance, real estate, construction, intellectual property, securities, government contract and qui tam whistleblower, product liability and personal injury, bankruptcy, and consumer protection claims, as well as the defense of government investigations and conduct of internal corporate investigations.

Immediately before joining Prince Lobel, Ms. Kaplan served as general counsel of the New England Legal Foundation, where she handled and supervised appellate amicus litigation on constitutional and other cutting-edge legal issues of concern to New England businesses and property owners before the US Supreme Court, the 1st and 2nd Circuit Courts of Appeal, and the state appellate courts throughout New England. Prior to her tenure with the New England Legal Foundation, Ms. Kaplan practiced in the environmental and energy field, first as a Massachusetts assistant attorney general and then in private practice, most recently as a partner at Choate, Hall & Stewart in Boston. Ms. Kaplan then served as chief counsel, litigation, for Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc., a multinational public company and life sciences leader.

Ms. Kaplan earned her BA, summa cum laude, from Tufts University and her JD from the University of Virginia School of Law.

John W. Hogan Jr. is patent counsel for Wyeth in Madison, New Jersey. His responsibilities include varied aspects of US and international patent practice concentrating on prosecution, opinion, licensing and counseling in the pharmaceutical area.

He was senior patent attorney for American Cyanamid Company prior to its merger with American Home Products Corporation, working with the agricultural group.

He is a past chair of the Intellectual Property Committee for ACC and is a member of ACC, American Intellectual Property Law Association (AIPLA) and New Jersey Intellectual Property Law Association (NJIPLA). He was also a member of the board of directors for the National Inventors Hall of Fame Foundation.

Wab Kadaba is a partner with Kilpatrick Stockton LLP in Atlanta and concentrates his practice on litigation related to intellectual property as well as strategy and management of intellectual property and technology issues. Mr. Kadaba has considerable experience representing clients in patent, trademark and trade secret litigation matters, covering technologies as diverse as software, orthopedic devices and chemical compositions.

Mr. Kadaba was recognized in The Best Lawyers in America® for intellectual property law in 2010. He has been selected as a Georgia "Rising Star" for intellectual property and intellectual property litigation by SuperLawyers magazine every year since 2005. He is listed in the 2009 edition of Chambers USA: America's Leading Lawyers for Business as a leading Georgia Intellectual Property lawyer in 2009. He was selected as one of the top 15 young Atlanta lawyers "On the Rise" by Fulton County Daily Report in 2007.

Mr. Kadaba received his BS from Georgia Institute of Technology, his MS from Case Western Reserve University and his JD from the University of North Carolina School of Law.

Alex Sousa is counsel at Innovalight, a privately held firm based in Silicon Valley that develops solar cell manufacturing materials and technologies. Mr. Sousa is responsible for prosecuting and managing Innovalight's patent portfolio, as well as licensing its intellectual property to world-class solar cell manufacturing companies.

Mr. Sousa is registered to practice before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and is a member of the California Bar.

Mr. Sousa received a JD from Santa Clara University School of Law. He also received a MBA from the University of Michigan Business School where he was managing editor of the Monroe Street Journal, and a BSME from the United States Military Academy, West Point.

Deirdre C. Brekke is assistant general counsel for Pactiv Corporation, which is headquartered in Lake Forest, Illinois. Pactiv is a leading manufacturer of food packaging and related products, including the Hefty(R) brand line of consumer products. Ms. Brekke’s responsibilities include serving as divisional counsel to the specialty products division, managing the legal matters related to the procurement, real estate, treasury and information technology functions and handling other law department projects, including spearheading the task of updating and implementing the records retention policy and process at the company.

Prior to joining Pactiv, Ms. Brekke spent five years with Cardean Learning Group LLC (formerly UNext.com LLC), an online education company, serving during the last two years as general counsel and sole in-house attorney. Her in-house career has also included senior positions in the legal departments of Moore Corporation Limited, Sears, Roebuck & Co. and Monsanto Company.

Ms. Brekke graduated with a BA from Emory University and received her JD from the University of Georgia School of Law.

Dan Harper is vice president, corporate counsel and secretary for Océ North America, Inc. in Chicago. He provides general legal guidance and counsel to the North American operations of Océ N.V. a Dutch company the stock of which trades on the Amsterdam Stock Exchange. His responsibilities at Océ include counseling on commercial transactions, employment matters, internal investigations, litigation, corporate policy and procedure, intellectual property, software licensing, technology and marketing.

Prior to joining Océ, Mr. Harper was senior counsel at Spiegel, Inc. where he provided legal guidance to the information technology and iMedia groups for the corporate parent as well as the Eddie Bauer, Spiegel Catalog and Newport News subsidiaries. He also managed the Spiegel Group intellectual property portfolio, negotiated and drafted commercial transactions, managed litigation and was the chairman of the Spiegel Group Corporate Privacy Committee. Prior to Spiegel, Mr. Harper was in private practice with the law firm of Carey, Filter, White & Boland in Chicago where he divided his time between litigation and transactional work.

Mr. Harper is a member of the board of directors of the Chicago chapter of ACC and a former secretary of ACC’s Information Technology and eCommerce Committee. He serves on the board of directors of Seeds of Grace, a non-denominational charity benefitting women and children in rural Kenya and is active in the Chicago Executive Forum.

He received a BA from Villanova University and is a graduate of DePaul University College of Law.

James Markowski was formerly managing director and group counsel for the financial services business unit of BearingPoint, Inc. He was the chief lawyer for the business unit and responsible for all of the business unit’s legal matters including drafting, negotiating and closing complex business transactions domestically and internationally. BearingPoint was a global technology and systems integration company that was spun off from KPMG, LLP.

Prior to BearingPoint, Mr. Markowski was an assistant general counsel at KPMG, LLP and responsible for managing securities and accountants’ liability litigation across the United States. He had been in private practice at Shea & Gould; Tory’s; and Skadden, Arps.

Mr. Markowski has been active in his community local community affairs, and is currently a member of the Town of Pound Ridge Office of Emergency Management.

Mr. Markowski graduated from Georgetown’s Law School, where he was an editor of the Georgetown Law Journal and has an undergraduate degree from New York University’s Stern School of Business.

Ted Gerarden is the branch chief in the Division of Investigations, Office of Enforcement, for the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in Washington, DC. Mr. Gerarden leads and supervises a wide variety of investigations and has had a leading role in developing the commission’s enforcement policies since passage of the Energy Policy Act of 2005.

Prior to joining FERC, Mr. Gerarden served as the consumer advocate at the Postal Rate Commission, where he represented the general public in postal rate and service classification cases before the PRC. Mr. Gerarden has extensive experience in private practice where he has represented numerous shippers, producers, pipelines, and end-users in natural gas open access transportation, rate, and certificate matters before the FERC. Before entering private practice Mr. Gerarden worked for the Federal Energy Administration and the Department of Energy.

Mr. Gerarden is a native of Connecticut and a graduate of Georgetown University and the Georgetown University Law Center.

Karen Redford is the vice president of legal and regulatory affairs for Bangor Hydro Electric Company, a transmission and distribution utility located in Maine and serving over 155,000 customers. She is responsible for provision of all legal services to the company, oversight of regulatory relations with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and Maine Public Utilities Commission, and oversight and direction of the company's compliance programs. Prior to her current position, she was corporate counsel at Bangor Hydro.

Ms. Redford worked in private practice at Eaton Peabody in Bangor Maine as a corporate commercial attorney, specializing in commercial lending transactions, before joining Bangor Hydro. After completion of her law degree, she clerked for a year on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, based in the chambers of Judge Andrew J. Kleinfeld in Fairbanks, Alaska

She currently serves on the board of directors of the Bangor Y, a YMCA affiliated organization, and serves as secretary for the organization.

Ms. Redford received a BA from the University of Toronto and holds a master’s from the University of Maine. She earned her JD from the University of Utah’s R.J. Quinney School of Law, achieving membership in the national Order of the Coif.

Jeffrey Harwin is a first vice president in Bank of America’s global compliance and operational risk group in New York City. He is responsible for oversight of the bank’s global anti-corruption program as well as its code of ethics.

Mr. Harwin had a similar role at Merrill Lynch where he worked prior to coming to Bank of America. He oversaw Merrill’s anti-corruption compliance and transactional due diligence programs. Previously, Mr. Harwin managed Merrill Lynch’s government compliance team which was responsible for ensuring compliance with rules and regulations surrounding gifts and entertainment, political contributions, lobbyist registrations and charitable contributions. He also oversaw the anti-money laundering program for the firm’s capital markets business. Prior to joining Merrill Lynch, Mr. Harwin was a litigation attorney in private practice.

Mr. Harwin is a graduate of Franklin & Marshall College and Brooklyn Law School.

Howard M. Sklar is vice president for compliance and ethics at American Express Co. in New York. His responsibilities include the maintenance and development of the compliance programs for American Express Business Travel, the Consumer Travel Network, Membership Travel Services, and AXP Publishing. These operating divisions comprise over 23,000 employees and operate in countries and markets throughout the world. Until recently, Mr. Sklar was the company's first-ever global anti-corruption leader, responsible for creating and implementing the anti-corruption compliance program globally.

Before joining American Express Co., Mr. Sklar was at the Securities and Exchange Commission as a senior attorney in the enforcement division. Prior to that he was with the Bronx District Attorney’s Office investigating white collar crime. He founded the computer crime unit at the Bronx District Attorney’s Office.

He has lectured on investigative techniques and on anti-corruption issues nationally and internationally.

Mr. Sklar graduated cum laude from Washington College of Law at The American University.

Alexandra Wrage is the president of TRACE in Annapolis, MD, an international non-profit membership association working with companies to raise their anti-bribery compliance standards. She is also the author of Bribery and Extortion: Undermining Business, Governments and Security and the host of the training DVD “Toxic Transactions: Bribery, Extortion and the High Price of Bad Business.”

Ms. Wrage is chair of ACC’s International Legal Affairs Committee, chair of the Women in International Regulatory Law (“WIRL”) steering committee, co-chair of the ABA’s anti-corruption committee, and a member of the working group for the United Nation’s Global Compact 10th Principle. Ms. Wrage has written three guidebooks: The TRACE Standard for Doing Business with Intermediaries Internationally, The High Cost of Small Bribes, and First to Know: Robust Internal Reporting Programs. She speaks frequently on topics of international law, anti-corruption initiatives and the hidden costs of corruption. Ms. Wrage was named as one of the 100 most influential people in business ethics for by Ethisphere Magazine and as one of Maryland’s innovators of the year for BRIBEline.

Ms. Wrage studied law at Kings College, Cambridge University.

Janice Forsyth is vice president and deputy general counsel of Express Scripts Inc. in St. Louis. Ms. Forsyth oversees the legal department of 13 attorneys, and is responsible for litigation, labor and employment, international issues, and licensure for the company.

Prior to joining Express Scripts, Inc., Ms. Forsyth was with Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Missouri. Prior to that she practiced in the health care group of Bryan Cave, LLP where she worked primarily with health care clients on fraud and abuse litigation and investigations.

Ms. Forsyth is a graduate of St. Louis University where she received a juris doctorate and a master’s in health care administration.

Nancy Jessen is a managing director at Huron Consulting Group. She has many years of experience working with legal organizations on a variety of strategic and operational issues. Her focus has included the areas of organizational structure, cost containment, outside counsel management, process improvement, and strategic technology utilization.

Prior to joining Huron, Ms. Jessen was with Navigant Consulting, Inc. and Arthur Andersen, LLP. Her career also includes working for a private law firm and a software development company focused on billing, accounting, and financial management software for the legal community.

She has spoken at a number of conferences and is a member of the International Association for Contract and Commercial Management (IACCM).

Ms. Jessen received a B.A. from Iowa State University.

Jonathan (J.T.) Mann is the general counsel and corporate secretary for TAC Worldwide, a staffing and workforce management company based in Dedham, MA. He and his staff of five oversee all legal affairs for the company – with a heavy emphasis on employment law, corporate law, contracts, litigation and export compliance.

During his varied legal career, Mr. Mann clerked for the First Circuit Court of Appeals and then served as a foreign legal consultant in Seoul, Korea, a corporate associate at Hill & Barlow in Boston, an assistant general counsel at Tyco Telecommunications, and a vice president – corporate counsel at DRS Technologies.

Mr. Mann provides pro bono assistance to the Sherborn Community Center and the Unitarian Universalist Church in Sherborn, MA, and he is an active member of the Sherborn Lions Club.

Mr. Mann received an AB from Stanford University and is a graduate of the University of Maine School of Law.

Douglas K. Chia is senior counsel and assistant corporate secretary at Johnson & Johnson, the world’s most comprehensive and broadly-based manufacturer of health care products, headquartered in New Brunswick, New Jersey. His responsibilities include providing legal counsel to the corporation on matters of corporate governance, securities regulation, public company disclosure, and Sarbanes-Oxley Act compliance.

Prior to joining Johnson & Johnson, Mr. Chia was assistant general counsel, Corporate at Tyco International. In private practice, Mr. Chia was an associate at the law firms of Simpson Thacher & Bartlett and Clifford Chance, practicing in the New York and Hong Kong offices of each firm. While in private practice, Mr. Chia provided legal counsel to issuers and underwriters on securities offerings and cross-border transactions.

Mr. Chia is a member of the Corporate & Securities Law Committee of the Association of Corporate Counsel. Mr. Chia is also a member of the Board of Directors and Corporate Practices Committee of the Society of Corporate Secretaries & Governance Professionals and Chairman of the Society’s Membership Committee. Mr. Chia is a member of the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association (NAPABA). In 2008, Mr. Chia was the recipient of Corporate Secretary Magazine’s “Rising Star” award and named by NAPABA as one of the “Best Lawyers Under 40.”

Mr. Chia received his AB from Dartmouth College and his JD from the Georgetown University Law Center.

Jane E. Freedman serves as the corporate secretary and associate general counsel at OneBeacon Insurance Group, Ltd., a Bermuda-based, NYSE-listed property and casualty insurance company. Ms. Freedman works out of Canton, MA. At OneBeacon, she is responsible for corporate governance, corporate secretarial, securities law compliance, executive compensation and benefits, mergers and acquisitions, and corporate finance matters.

Prior to joining OneBeacon, Ms. Freedman served as senior counsel at Raytheon Company, advising directors and executives on corporate governance, securities, corporate finance and executive compensation law issues. Prior to joining Raytheon, Ms.Freedmam was in private practice at Hinckley, Allen & Snyder, LLP in Boston, MA.

Ms. Freedman is a member of several bar associations and professional associations, including The Boston Club’s Corporate Board Resource Committee. She is on the Board of the Alumnae Association Council of Emma Willard School and serves as its Secretary.

Ms. Freedman graduated cum laude from Wellesley College and she received her JD from Suffolk University Law School where she graduated cum laude.

Richard J. Morrison is associate general counsel and secretary of NSTAR Electric & Gas Corporation, an electric and gas utility headquartered in Boston. At NSTAR, he is responsible for the corporate governance and corporate secretarial practice and also directs the company’s corporate finance, SEC, litigation, and human resources legal support.

A long-time member of ACC, he helped to organize ACC’s Northeast Chapter and has served as a director and secretary of the chapter. Mr. Morrison is the current president of the Eastern New England chapter of the Society of Corporate Secretaries and Governance Professionals and serves on the society’s national board of directors.

He holds an A.B. from the University of Massachusetts – Boston and a J.D. from Suffolk University.

Nicholas J. Pace is the senior vice president, deputy general counsel and assistant secretary for AMERIGROUP Corporation, a Virginia based publicly-traded managed care company dedicated to members in publicly-funded health care programs. His areas of responsibility include corporate governance, SEC and NYSE reporting and compliance, executive compensation, corporate finance and mergers and acquisitions.

Prior to joining AMERIGROUP, Mr. Pace served as assistant general counsel for CarMax, Inc., where he focused on corporate governance, corporate finance, SEC and NYSE reporting and compliance and mergers and acquisitions. Previously, he was a senior associate in the Silicon Valley office of the law firm of Morrison & Foerster, LLP, where he provided legal counsel to clients on corporate governance matters, securities and debt offerings, venture capital financing and mergers and acquisitions. Prior to practicing law, Mr. Pace served as a consultant in Ernst & Young’s tax group where he advised corporations on tax planning and transactional matters.

Mr. Pace is active in various professional organizations, including the ACC, American Bar Association, Virginia Bar Association and Virginia Beach Bar Association. He is also active in numerous charitable endeavors, including serving on the board of directors of the First Tee of Hampton Roads and Sam’s House, a Nepalese orphanage.

Mr. Pace received his BS from Miami University (Ohio) and is a graduate, cum laude, of the University of Richmond School of Law. He also holds a MBA from the University of Richmond School of Business.

Michael Wu general counsel and secretary for Rosetta Stone Inc. He is responsible for all legal, corporate governance, government affairs and compliance matters at Rosetta Stone Inc. He established Rosetta Stone’s corporate compliance and corporate governance functions as well as its anti-piracy and anti-fraud enforcement program.

Before joining Rosetta Stone, he was general counsel at Montreal-based Teleglobe International Holdings Ltd., a publicly held international telecommunications company. Prior to Teleglobe, Michael was a senior attorney in the Hong Kong and Reston, Virginia offices of Global One, the international joint venture between Sprint, Deutsche Telekom and France Telecom. He was also associated with a predecessor firm of Bingham McCutchen LLP in Washington, DC, and Baker Botts LLP in Houston, Texas, focusing on corporate transactions.

Mr. Wu is a member of the ACC and Northern Virginia Technology Council General Counsel Committee. He serves on the boards of the Business Software Alliance and the Alliance Against Bait and Click. He is fluent in English and Mandarin Chinese.

Mr. Wu holds a BA from Emory University and received his JD from the University of Virginia.

Diane W. Biagianti is divisional vice president, legal section head of Abbott Medical Optics, formerly Advanced Medical Optics, Inc. where she has, among other duties, responsibility for management of the company’s global litigation, employment and regulatory matters, and general commercial matters.

Ms. Biagianti formerly served as senior vice president, general counsel and assistant secretary of Advanced Medical Optics, Inc. Prior to AMO, Ms. Biagianti was vice president, assistant general counsel of Experian Information Solutions, Inc. Prior to Experian, Ms. Biagianti was an associate with the law firm of O’Melveny & Myers LLP, where she practiced as an employment litigator.

She received her JD from Cornell Law School and graduated from the University of Arizona.

Mark Peterson is the senior vice president, chief legal officer and secretary of Conexant Systems, Inc., a publicly traded semiconductor company with a comprehensive portfolio of innovative semiconductor solutions for imaging, video, audio and Internet connectivity applications headquartered in California with operations throughout the world.

Prior to joining Conexant, Mr. Peterson was the senior vice president, general counsel and secretary of Targus Group International, Inc., a private equity owned global supplier of mobile computing cases and accessories headquartered in California with primary offices in Asia, Europe, Canada, and Australia. Before Targus, Mr. Peterson was the senior vice president, general counsel and secretary of Meade Instruments Corp., a publically traded global manufacturer and distributor of consumer and commercial optical products. While at Meade, Mr. Peterson also served in a business capacity as the senior vice president – international operations and managing director - Meade Europe. Mr. Peterson started his legal career at O’Melveny & Myers, LLP as a corporate attorney.

Mr. Peterson is also a guest lecturer at the University of California, Irvine, MBA Program on the subjects of corporate law, securities, mergers and acquisitions, executive compensation, and intellectual property.

Mr. Peterson received a JD from Boalt Hall School of Law, University of California, Berkeley, and a BS from Brigham Young University School of Accountancy.

Michael Ray currently serves as vice president, legal services, for Western Digital Corporation, a publicly traded manufacturer of storage products headquartered in Lake Forest, California. He is responsible for managing the various legal issues facing Western Digital’s board of directors and executive management, business units, sales teams, manufacturing facilities, and research and development departments.

Mr. Ray previously served the Western Digital as senior counsel, assistant general counsel and vice president, corporate law. Prior to joining Western Digital, Mr. Ray worked as corporate counsel for Wynn’s International, Inc., served as a judicial clerk for the United States District Court, Central District of California, and worked as an associate for O'Melveny & Myers in the firm's Orange County, California office.

Since 2001, Mr. Ray has served on the board of directors of Mercy House Transitional Living Centers, Southern California's largest private provider of services to the homeless.

Mr. Ray is a graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Law School.

Kimberly Danzi is former vice president and legal counsel, internet and privacy, for The Estee Lauder Companies Inc. with responsibility for global privacy compliance, new media initiatives, CRM marketing programs and the company’s Computer Security Incident Response Team. Her areas of expertise include privacy, new media, advertising, CRM marketing and complex technology and outsourcing deals.

Ms. Danzi is also former associate general counsel and director of business affairs for Audible.com, a provider of spoken-word digital audio. In addition to these in-house roles, she was a litigator at Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson LLP and Hughes, Hubbard & Reed, LLP where she specialized in commercial and intellectual property law and international litigation and arbitration. Ms. Danzi clerked for the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg as well as for the International Chamber of Commerce International Court of Arbitration in Paris, France.

Ms. Danzi is on the steering committee of the ACC’s IT, Privacy and e-Commerce Committee. She is also chair of the Alumnae of Columbia Law School.

Ms. Danzi holds an LLM, with honors, from Columbia Law School and was awarded her JD, cum laude, at the State University of New York at Buffalo. She completed her undergraduate study at the University of Virginia where she earned a BA.

Jules Polonstesky serves as co-chair and director of the Future of Privacy Forum.

Formerly, as America Online Inc.’s chief privacy officer and senior vice president for consumer advocacy, Mr. Polonstesky was responsible for ensuring that AOL’s users could trust the company with their information and for educating employees about best practices for advertising, content, and product development. Previously, he served as AOL’s vice president, integrity assurance. Prior to AOL, Mr. Polonstesky was chief privacy officer and special counsel at DoubleClick. Previously, he served as the New York City Consumer Affairs Commissioner for Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, as New York City’s chief consumer law enforcement official. Mr. Polonstesky has served as an elected member of the New York State Assembly, a legislative aide to Congressman Charles Schumer and was a District Representative for Congressman Steve Solarz. Mr. Polonstesky also practiced law in the New York office of Stroock & Stroock & Lavan.

Mr. Polonstesky has served on the boards of a number of privacy and consumer protection organizations including TRUSTe, the International Association of Privacy Professionals, the Privacy Committee of the Direct Marketing Association, the Children’s Advertising Review Unit of the Council of BBB’s, the Better Business Bureau (NY Region), and the Network Advertising Initiative. Mr. Polonstesky has chaired the CPO Council of the Internet Advertising Bureau. Mr. Polonstesky is a regular speaker at privacy and marketing industry events.

He is a graduate of New York University School of Law and Yeshiva University. Mr. Polonstesky is also a Certified Information Privacy Professional.

Kevin Rothman is a senior counsel and vice president in the technology law group at American Express. His practice includes a focus on outsourcing, technology services transactions, information security and technology licensing. Mr. Rothman also provides legal support with respect to various company initiatives and policies, as well as the information technology aspects of mergers and acquisitions and investments.

Prior to joining American Express, Mr. Rothman practiced in the intellectual property transactions group at Kirkland & Ellis in New York, and the technology transactions group at Cooley Godward in Palo Alto.

He currently serves as pro bono counsel to the Humane Research Council and does pro bono work for the Neighborhood Entrepreneurship Law Project of the City Bar Justice Center.

Mr. Rothman received his BA from Yale University and his JD from Columbia Law School.

Bart Wu is an attorney with years of experience involved in advising, and providing financing to, small and large companies, and municipal entities throughout the country. Most recently, Mr. Wu was involved in the development of a business venture to explore the collection and utilization of the almost 400 million waste tires located throughout the United States.

Prior to that he was chief counsel of the NYS Conservation Fund Advisory Board, a state oversight board within the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation. Before that he was a corporate banker with The Sanwa Bank, Limited, a predecessor of Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, and headed its public finance department in New York for many years. Prior to Sanwa, he was an associate general counsel of the predecessor of JPMorgan Chase, and before that he was an attorney with two New York law firms in their corporate, securities and banking practices.

In addition to ACC, Mr. Wu is a member of the ABA and the NYC Bar Association. He has also served on the boards of various not-for-profit organizations, and has been the chair of their respective law committees. He recently headed the team that developed the privacy policies and user agreements for ACC’s IT, Privacy and eCommerce Committee, and has made presentations on privacy matters.

Mr. Wu received his BA and MA from the University of Pennsylvania, and his JD from the Fordham Law School.

Megan M. Belcher is senior counsel with ConAgra Foods, Inc., a Fortune 500 consumer foods company headquartered in Omaha, Nebraska. Ms. Belcher focuses her practice on the day-to-day management of the company’s labor and employment matters, including providing day-to-day advice to business and human resource clients, and managing administrative charges and litigation in the state and federal courts. Ms. Belcher's practice extends to ConAgra's operations in all 50 states, and internationally.

Prior to joining ConAgra, Ms. Belcher practiced with Husch Blackwell Sanders LLP, in its Kansas City office, defending corporate clients in their labor and employment litigation matters and providing counseling on human resource issues.

Ms. Belcher is very active in ACC’s Employment and Labor Law Committee, acting as the co-chair of the programs subcommittee. She is also an advisory board member to the ACC Docket and regularly writes and speaks on labor and employment related matters.

Ms. Belcher received her BA, with honors, from the University of Missouri, her JD from Boston College Law School, and holds a Certificate in Human Resource Studies from Cornell University's School of Labor and Industrial Relations. She is also certified as a Senior Professional in Human Resources by the Society for Human Resource Management.

Gregory R. Watchman is associate general counsel for employment law at Freddie Mac in Tyson's Corner, Virginia.

Previously, Mr. Watchman served as acting assistant secretary of labor and deputy assistant secretary of labor at the US Department of Labor, Occupational Safety and Health Administration. In addition, he served as labor counsel to the labor committees in the US Senate and House of Representatives, working on a broad range of employment and labor law legislation, including the Civil Rights Act of 1991, the Family & Medical Leave Act of 1993, and the Older Workers Benefits Protection Act. Mr. Watchman also has experience counseling employers on employment law issues, with the national firms Paul Hastings and Morgan Lewis.

Mr. Watchman presently serves ACC as chair of the Employment & Labor Law Committee. In 2006, Mr. Watchman is a past recipient of the ACC's Jonathan S. Silber Award as Outstanding Committee Member of the Year.

Mr. Watchman received his law degree from Cornell Law School and is a graduate of Williams College.

Ronda P. Bayer serves as associate general counsel for the The Valspar Corporation.

Previously, she was a partner with the twin cities law firm of Fredrikson & Byron.

Ms. Bayer is a longtime member of ACC and ACC’s Minnesota chapter board of directors. She is the current president of the Minnesota chapter; she previously served as vice president, and chaired the membership committee and practice group lunches.

She completed her undergraduate work, summa cum laude, at Gustavus Adolphus College and received her JD, cum laude, from the University of Minnesota Law School.

David Garfield is deputy general counsel of Wells Fargo & Company and manages the litigation and workout division of Wells Fargo’s law department.

Previously, he practiced in the areas of bankruptcy and commercial litigation with the Denver law firm of Davis, Graham & Stubbs. He also clerked with Justice Jean E. Dubofsky of the Colorado Supreme Court.

He has spoken many times on litigation, bankruptcy, and workout topics and is a co-author of the “Workouts and Bankruptcy” chapter of Successful Partnering Between Inside and Outside Counsel (West Group, 2000–2009).

Mr. Garfield graduated from the University of Denver and received his JD from Brigham Young University.

Timothy L. Howe is a senior lawyer in the law department of Minneapolis-based Cargill, Inc. He has a diverse corporate practice, and serves Cargill business units involved in grain origination, corn milling, sugar, and renewable energy.

Previously, he worked in a lead-lawyer capacity on several project financings and on the development of eight independent ethanol-production facilities located across the Midwest. He has also served as Cargill’s lead lawyer for the financing and development of a sugarcane-refining joint venture in Louisiana, as well as a utility-grade combined heat-and-power station adjacent to a malting facility in North Dakota. Over the past few years, Mr. Howe has had several opportunities to represent Cargill’s interests, whether as a trade creditor or a potential purchaser, in connection with various bankruptcies that have rippled through the grain and ethanol sectors.

Mr. Howe is a graduate of the University of Iowa College of Law.

James Lodoen works for Lindquist & Vennum in Minneapolis. He co-chairs Lindquist & Vennum’s bankruptcy and creditors’ remedies group. His practice encompasses bankruptcy, debtor-creditor issues, agribusiness matters, and commercial lending and litigation. He has also represented several clients in acquiring assets and businesses via Section 363 sales and plans of reorganization arising from bankruptcy proceedings.

Certified in business bankruptcy law by the American Bankruptcy Board of Certification, Mr. Lodoen has represented a number of large companies, lenders, creditor committees, trade creditors, and individuals in bankruptcy proceedings, litigation, and workouts.

Mr. Lodoen has served as the judicial law clerk to the Honorable William A. Hill, United States Bankruptcy Judge for the District of North Dakota. He has been recognized in “Super Lawyers” (published annually in Minnesota Law & Politics), and is AV-rated by Martindale-Hubbell. Mr. Lodoen speaks and writes extensively on various bankruptcy, debtor-creditor, and agricultural law topics.

Mr. Lodoen earned his JD from the University of North Dakota School of Law.

Daniel Karson serves as senior counsel for Kroll Associates in New York. His responsibilities include legal and risk assessment for Kroll and counseling clients on risk strategies. Mr. Karson has experience directing investigations of business crimes and regulatory violations. His notable cases include major investigations of internal corporate frauds, violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, Internet crimes, and complex litigation.

Prior to joining Kroll, Mr. Karson was general counsel and assistant commissioner of the New York City Department of Investigation. He was the first director of the city’s inspector general program and directed investigations and determined policy for the internal investigative offices of 24 mayoral agencies. Previously he worked as an assistant district attorney for Bronx County, New York, where he served as chief of narcotics investigations.

Mr. Karson is a member of ACC and is a member of the board of directors of ACC’s Greater New York Chapter. He is a frequent speaker at ACC and other professional association meetings, most often on the subject of conducting corporate investigations and compliance.

He graduated from Ithaca College and New York University Law School.

John Lewis Jr. is senior managing litigation counsel for The Coca-Cola Company in its global legal center in Atlanta. In his current role, Mr. Lewis manages the attorneys and staff responsible for litigation and disputes throughout the over 200 countries where the company does business. His group partners with outside counsel to advise internal clients in a variety of areas including commercial disputes, securities litigation, shareholder derivative actions, governmental/internal investigations, intellectual property, international disputes, arbitration, and employment disputes. He also leads Coca-Cola legal’s global diversity initiative and is actively designing an integrated diversity strategic plan for the legal division. In addition, Coke’s senior vice president and general counsel, Geoff Kelly, appointed Mr. Lewis to serve as the division’s representative on the Company-wide nine member corporate diversity advisory council (DAC).

He joined Coca-Cola after several years in private practice as a commercial litigator.

Mr. Lewis serves as vice-chair of the board of The Coca-Cola Company Family Federal Credit Union and chair of the City of Atlanta Board of Ethics.

Mr. Lewis is an honors graduate of Morehouse College and holds a JD from The George Washington University National Law Center.

Ralph Martin is the managing partner of Bingham’s Boston office as well as managing principal of Bingham Consulting Group. Bingham Consulting advises clients who are challenged by the legal, public policy, and other complexities of multi-state investigations by Attorneys General. He practices in the areas of corporate investigations, white collar defense, and general civil litigation.

Mr. Martin is the former Suffolk County district attorney, having served as the elected prosecutor for Boston, Chelsea, Revere, and Winthrop. He has extensive experience as a trial lawyer and as state and federal prosecutor.

Mr. Martin is co-chair of the firm’s national diversity committee. Mr. Martin is a trustee of Children’s Hospital, a director of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts, and a former chairman of the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce, the region’s leading business advocacy group. He is a member of the advisory committee to former U.S. Senator Ted Kennedy on judicial and federal appointments and former chairman of the judicial nominating committee.

Mr. Martin received a BA from Brandeis University and a JC from Northeastern University School of Law.

Marcia Narine is vice president and deputy general counsel, as well the vice president, global compliance and business standards and chief privacy officer of Ryder System, Inc. in Miami. She oversees the company's global compliance, business ethics, privacy, government relations, environmental compliance, enterprise risk management, and labor and employment legal programs, as well as Ryder Fuel compliance services, which helps companies improve operating efficiencies and minimize environmental impacts.

Before joining Ryder, Ms. Narine was an associate with Morgan, Lewis and Bockius' labor and employment practice in Miami. She worked as a commercial litigator with Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen and Hamilton in New York, and was a law clerk to former Justice Marie Garibaldi of the Supreme Court of New Jersey.

She is a member of Leadership Florida- Class XXVII, the Caribbean Bar Association, the Gwen S. Cherry Black Women Lawyer’s Association, and the Wilkie D. Ferguson Bar Association. She is also on the editorial board of the Society of Corporate Compliance & Ethics magazine; a member of the Ethics and Compliance Officer Association; and a court-appointed guardian ad litem for abused and neglected children. She has served on the advisory committee of the National Association of Minority and Women Owned Law Firms, on the advisory board of Teach For America (Miami region), and as a Cub Scout Pack Chairperson. She was named in the 2009 Women Worth Watching edition of the Profiles in Women Diversity Journal.

Ms. Narine earned a BA from Columbia University and graduated cum laude from Harvard Law School.

Lynne G. Beresford is the commissioner for trademarks for the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO,) in Alexandria, VA. Ms. Beresford is the chief operating officer of the Trademark Organization. She is responsible for the production and quality of the work produced by Trademark, examining attorneys, paralegals and support staff. She is responsible for implementation of the Trademark e-government goals of full electronic processing of all work within the Trademark Organization and increased use of e-filing systems by customers. She also oversees the award-winning Trademark Work at Home Program.

Ms. Beresford previously was part of the Office of Legislation and International Affairs, her portfolio included trademarks, geographical indications, and domain names. She chaired meeting of the World Intellectual Property Organization's (WIPO's) standing committee on trademarks, industrial designs, and geographical indications. Ms. Beresford also previously served as president of the Trademark Office Society (now NTEU 245), the union representing examining attorneys, and then chief negotiator for the union.

Ms. Beresford was instrumental in the adoption of the Uniform Dispute Resolution Procedure as part of her work in the founding of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). She was also lead negotiator for the United States at the diplomatic conference that created the Singapore Treaty.

Ms. Beresford holds a JD from Rutgers, State University of New Jersey.

Robert D. Budens is president of the Patent Office Professional Association (POPA) in Alexandra, VA, the Federal labor union representing the approximately 6,500 patent examiners and other patent professionals at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). POPA is responsible for negotiating collective bargaining agreements and representing employees in grievance and disciplinary matters involving the USPTO.

Prior to becoming POPA’s president, Mr. Budens served as a member of its executive committee. While a member of the executive committee, Mr. Budens served on a number of negotiating committees and as POPA’s chief negotiator for automation issues. Mr. Budens began work at the USPTO as an examiner in the biotechnology examining group, examining patent applications dealing with Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) and Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS), as well as applications involving human autoimmune diseases. He also holds the position of PhD level primary examiner.

Mr. Budens received his BS and MS from Brigham Young University and his MS from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas.

Alex Sousa is counsel at Innovalight, a privately held firm based in Silicon Valley that develops solar cell manufacturing materials and technologies. Mr. Sousa is responsible for prosecuting and managing Innovalight's patent portfolio, as well as licensing its intellectual property to world-class solar cell manufacturing companies.

Mr. Sousa is registered to practice before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and is a member of the California Bar.

Mr. Sousa received a JD from Santa Clara University School of Law. He also received a MBA from the University of Michigan Business School where he was managing editor of the Monroe Street Journal, and a BSME from the United States Military Academy, West Point.

Joel A. Peres is senior vice president – Legal of Coca-Cola India & South West Asia. Mr. Peres is based in India. His responsibilities cover management of legal and regulatory affairs as well as all foreign direct investment issues of the Coca-Cola business in India and South West Asia. Mr. Peres has successfully led every initiative of Coca-Cola to secure requisite investment approvals, both at the bureaucratic and political level from its inception and evolution into a fairly large and successful operation. He was a member of the core team that structured and negotiated the acquisition of soft drink brands of the largest soft-drink company in India in 1993. He has also overseen the successful defense of a wide array of litigation, covering tort, contract, trademark and copyright infringement, trademark dilution, commercial disparagement and trade libel, and unfair competition, and competition law.

Prior to Coca Cola India, Mr. Peres worked as a senior associate with the law firm of JB Dadachanji & Co in New Delhi. He initially handled litigation work at the Firm before moving into corporate transactions, including collaborations, joint ventures and other advisory work. Mr. Peres was selected on the ILEX Programme of the International Bar Association in 1988 and did a brief stint at the New York office of the law firm of Morgan Lewis and Bockius.

Mr. Peres graduated from St. Aloysius College, Mangalore, and secured his JD from Government Law College, Mumbai.

Shardul Shroff is the managing partner of Amarchand & Mangaldas & Suresh A. Shroff & Co (Firm), the largest law firm in India. He is one of India's most respected and renowned corporate and securities lawyers, specializing in mergers and acquisitions, securities, banking, insolvency, and policy laws. He has incubated several new practices in the firm (taxation, IP, labour law, policy, technology) and brought in many ground breaking strategic business practices in law firm management into play. Recently, Mr. Shroff acted as lead corporate partner for the sale of Satyam Computer Services Limited and was instrumental in formulating the strategy for its revival and sale of strategic interest.

He has been involved in many high-powered government committees for legal reforms. He has been involved with Indian chambers of business (FICCI and CII) and has chaired several committees on corporate governance, infrastructure development, company law, and arbitration & mediation.

Mr. Shroff has been consistently rated in the Who's Who publication as an expert in infrastructure, corporate law, corporate governance and securities law. Mr. Shroff enjoys teaching law, and is guest faculty at the Law School at University of Chicago, and part of the faculty at Practical Law Institute. He serves as advisory board member on two large leading law universities in India. He was awarded the best Supreme Court Advocate on Record.

Mr. Shroff graduated with honors from the Government Law College, Mumbai.

Pallavi Shroff is a senior partner at Amarchand & Mangaldas & Suresh A Shroff & Co. She is the firm's senior most litigation attorney and spearheads the competition law practice. She also participates in the firm's government policy and regulation, anti-dumping and trade laws practice group.

She has acted in several high profile cases in India and is considered to be a "maestro" in Indian litigation. Most recently, she has been lead litigation partner for Satyam Computer Services Limited, in the proceedings with the Company Law Board in India, and Indian counsel to the company for its class action suits in United States, and for liaising with the US SEC. She has been recently nominated by Verve India as one of 50 most influential women in India, and by India Today as one of 25 most powerful women in India. Pallavi has actively participated as a government appointed member in several high-powered committees for legal reforms, including the SV Raghavan Committee that reformed India's competition law. She is a board member of the Singapore India Arbitration Centre.

Ms. Shroff also enjoys undertaking pro-bono work and actively works with NGOs working with underprivileged children. She is closely associated with Save the Children, the Ashoka Foundation (through Lex Mundi network) and SEED.

She attended the Lady Shri Ram College, New Delhi. She earned a MBA from Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management, Mumbai and a LLB from Government Law College, Mumbai.

Suzanne Hopgood is the director of board advisory services of the National Association of Corporate Directors. Ms. Hopgood has served on the board and as chairman of the board for several companies, a few of which are public companies. She has also served as CEO of both public and private companies, and she is a financial expert. She has assisted a variety of companies in facing difficult business, financial and legal challenges and crises, serving at various times as CEO and as chairman of the board. She has served on the board of an Italian company and currently serves as chair of nominating & governance of Acadia Realty Trust.

Ms. Hopgood previously served on the board of Point Blank Solutions, Inc., a global leader in the design, manufacture, and distribution of high performance body armor. She has also served as a member of board slates elected in proxy contests initiated by institutional investors. She is the president and CEO of The Hopgood Group, LLC, a workout consulting firm she founded. Prior to founding The Hopgood Group, LLC, Ms Hopgood was responsible for a $1 billion equity real estate portfolio.

She speaks internationally on the role and responsibilities of boards of directors. She has also served as an expert witness in high profile litigation. She co-authored the award-winning Board Leadership for the Company in Crisis.

Ms. Hopgood has a B.S.

Robin Johnson is a senior partner in the London, England office of international law firm of Eversheds, LLP. His responsibilities include the coordination of the mergers and acquisitions and corporate banking activities of the firm’s worldwide offices which now number 49 in total. He is a member of Eversheds financial intermediaries group Eversheds largest sector grouping and he also runs their Industrial Engineering Group. During the credit crisis, Robin has been an active commentator in the press and media and has been involved in a number of thought leadership events and think tanks.

He has written articles for the European Venture Capital Journal, Hedgefund Monitor, International Corporate Compliance and has regularly provided commentary for Reuters, The London Times, International Herald and Tribune and the Financial Times and has participated in webcasts for the ABA on issues associated with the current global crisis.

Outside of the law, Mr. Johnson is on the council of the University of Leeds, a top Russell 50 university, a member of several American Bar Association committees and supports a number of local community projects.

Ambassador Frank G. Wisner is the foreign affairs advisor at Patton Boggs, LLP. He provides clients with strategic global advice concerning business, politics, and international law from the firm’s Washington and New York offices.

Ambassador Wisner worked as a senior diplomat in Tunisia and Bangladesh before returning to Washington as Director of Plans and Management in the Bureau of Public Affairs. He joined the President’s Interagency Task Force on Indochina, the entity responsible for evacuating and settling nearly one million refugees and served as its Deputy Director. Later, as Director of the Office of Southern African Affairs, he worked closely with Secretary of State Henry Kissinger to launch negotiations with Zimbabwe and Namibia. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice appointed Ambassador Wisner as the nation’s special representative to the Kosovo Status Talks in 2005 where he played a crucial role in negotiating Kosovo’s independence.

Before joining Patton Boggs, he served as Vice Chairman of External Affairs for American International Group. He serves on the board of directors of the U.S.-India Business Counsel, EOG Resources, and Ethan Allan. He is vice-chairman of the Business Council on International Understanding and he is Trustee to both the American University of Beirut and the American University in Cairo.

After graduating from Princeton University in 1961, he joined the State Department as a Foreign Service officer. His first post was in Algiers immediately after it won independence from France. He then went to Vietnam, where he spent four years at the apex of the war.

James Wong is vice president legal of Chinney Capital Inc., a China based fund investing in distressed U.S. real estate projects. His responsibilities include providing legal counsel to the fund and its various families of companies, screening deals presented to the fund from the U.S., participation in deal decision making, and executing the deal.

Prior to joining the fund, he was part of the eDiscovery Team at Toyota in Torrance, CA, where he leveraged his IT background to guide the IT department's successful project to build an eDiscovery system for the Legal team. Mr. Wong trained at Baker & McKenzie and Price Waterhouse Coopers. He was active in investment banking (direct investments into the PRC), real estate, consumer product manufacturing from China, and even cratered his very own dot bomb (creditenabler.com).

He currently serves on the board of ACC Southern California chapter as incoming treasurer. Mr. Wong is a member of the Pasadena Foothills Association of Realtors; Adjunct Law Professor at the Florida Institute of Technology (designing and teaching Law 1 and Health Care Law). His recently publications include a paper on Drafting Trouble Free Social Media Policy at Law.com. He had previous roles as director of the American Club of Hong Kong, Rotarian, Mensan, and was a member of the YPO.

Mr Wong is a graduate of the University of Washington (BA), the Florida Institute of Technology (MIS), and the University of California Hastings College of the Law (JD).

Jeffrey W. Carr is FMC Technologies, Inc.’s vice president, general counsel, and secretary, in Houston. Mr. Carr has extensive experience in commercial and corporate counseling, corporate governance and compliance, dispute resolution including mediation, arbitration and litigation, negotiations involving international joint ventures, acquisitions, divestitures, privatizations, international trade law, customs, export control. In addition, he designed and implemented the ACES® risk/reward law firm engagement model, the FMC technologies corporate compliance program, and 1° Law an integrated internet/intranet/extranet enabled financial, administrative, internal/external counsel collaboration, matter management, and knowledge management model.

Mr. Carr is a frequent contributor to legal publications on various topics including compliance, law department management, and outside counsel relationships. He received a Lexis-Nexis distinguished legal services award, was included in the Texas Lawyer “In-House 50” and the Inside Counsel “Power Broker 50”, and serves on the boards of ACC and Texas General Counsel Forum (“TxGCF”). The FMC Technologies legal team has been featured in the Corporate Legal Times and Inside Counsel as one of the ten most innovative law departments, and has also been recognized by the ACC and the General Counsel Roundtable for its cutting edge legal delivery services ideas.

Lisa Damon is the national chair of Seyfarth Shaw’s 350 attorney labor and employment department in Boston and is a member of the firm’s executive, administrative, and compensation committees. As part of her practice, Ms. Damon represents management in the area of labor and employment law and also serves as the firm’s lead on its SeyfarthLean program. SeyfarthLean is a systematic way of applying empirical methods, such as Lean Six Sigma and various knowledge and project management tools to create efficiencies and lower costs for our clients. Ms. Damon has led teams of lawyers and staff throughout Seyfarth to bring these methods to our clients in a broad range of legal services such as real estate, litigation, employment, benefits, and corporate transactions. Ms. Damon’s legal practice has an emphasis on litigation of claims of sex, race and age discrimination, and harassment, in the context of multiple-plaintiff claims and single-plaintiff actions. She is also dedicated to consulting with clients on avoiding such litigation, through improved management policies and practices, positive employee relations, training, and diversity assessment. She advises companies nationwide on issues of diversity and conducts privileged and non-privileged audits and assessments of the workplace. Ms. Damon also works with management to devise and refine diversity programs, helping companies limit class action liability and achieve diversity objectives.

Ms. Damon is a Chambers ranked lawyer and a member of the College of Labor & Employment Lawyers. She lectures extensively on various aspects of diversity, employment law, and employment litigation as well as SeyfarthLean and the transformation of the legal industry.

Andrew Fleming is a senior partner of the business law group of Ogilvy Renault LLP in Toronto. He is a member of the firm’s finance committee and conflicts and ethics committee and has extensive experience in law firm management, generally. He has a broad knowledge of business law, including company, securities and banking law, and regulatory requirements relating to corporate transactions, financings and mergers & acquisitions. He is involved in all aspects of company law, including advising on general corporate governance and structure matters, corporate reorganizations, organizing and conducting shareholder and bondholder meetings, and corporate disclosure. Familiar with company law of other jurisdictions, including the USA and Europe, he has acted on project financings, and has assisted corporations in structuring their regular borrowing activities. He has also acted as arbitrator in international business matters.

Previously, he was a member of Ogilvy Renault’s executive committee and managing partner and then co-managing partner of the firm’s Toronto office.

Mr. Fleming is a past member of the continuous disclosure advisory committee of the Ontario Securities Commission and of the committee on corporate disclosure of the TSX. He is listed as one of Canada’s leading capital markets lawyers in The Legal Media Group Guide to the World’s Leading Capital Markets Lawyers.

Bruce R. Goldberg is counsel and chief of staff at the department of law and regulation of the Allstate Insurance Company in Northbrook, Illinois. His responsibilities include management of the business operations of the law department and support for the office of the general counsel. Mr. Goldberg is accountable for managing the law department's preferred provider program for outside legal services, law firm relationship management, expense management, IT support, employee education including CLE, and the law library.

During his time at Allstate, Mr. Goldberg has held a variety of attorney positions including several that entailed providing compliance and counseling services to the company's property and casualty organization and marketing department, and litigation management.

Mr. Goldberg received a BA from Loyola University and is a graduate of the John Marshall Law School.

Stuart M. Pape is the managing partner of Patton Boggs LLP, an international law firm with over 600 professionals which is headquartered in Washington, DC. Mr. Pape chairs the operations and finance and practice management committees of the firm and serves on the firm's executive committee.

Mr. Pape has been a practicing food and drug attorney for several years. Before joining Patton Boggs, he served in various positions with the Food and Drug Administration. He speaks and writes frequently on FDA-related topics.

Mr. Pape is on the board of directors of the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation.

Mr. Pape received a BA from the University of Virginia and a JD from the School of Law at the University of Virginia.