Class Notes – Fall 2019
Below are the Class Notes as they appeared in the Fall 2019 print edition of The Advocate. If you would like to submit a class note for the next magazine, please email editor@wcl.american.edu.
1960s
Michael Roberts ’65 was named senior vice president for government relations at Crowley Maritime Corporation in Jacksonville, Florida.
Sarah Barker ’69 was featured in The Indiana Lawyer in April. She is a senior U.S. District Court judge for the Southern District of Indiana.
Ronald Elberger ’69 was featured in The Indiana Lawyer in April. He is partner at Bose McKinney & Evans in Indianapolis and chair of its Sports, Entertainment and Media Group. He is also a member and former chair of the Litigation Group and a member of the Appellate Group and Health Group.
1980s
Rebecca Reed ’80 was honored by the Stafford Democrats for five decades of public service. Reed was the first woman elected chair of the Stafford County, Virginia, Board of Supervisors.
Peter Buchbauer ’82, of Buchbauer & McGuire P.C. in Winchester, Virginia, received the 2019 Virginia State Bar’s Betty A. Thompson Lifetime Achievement Award. The award honors an individual who has made a substantial contribution to the practice and administration of family law in the Commonwealth of Virginia.
Elizabeth Dunn ’86 has been promoted to administrative trademark judge at the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board.
Jane Sánchez ’88, law librarian of Congress, has been named deputy librarian for Library Collections and Services.
William Muldrow ’89 has been nominated as U.S. Attorney in Puerto Rico.
1990s
Ronald Rawlins ’90 received a Master of Arts in Dispute Resolution from Southern Methodist University in the spring. He is co-author of “Digital Identity for Refugees and Disenfranchised Population,” a paper presented at
the World Justice Forum in The Hague in May.
Robert Brener ’92 joined Duane Morris as partner in the firm’s Corporate and Trial Practice Group.
Jill Epstein ’92 became executive director of the San Diego Bar Association.
Gidon Bromberg LL.M. ’94, of EcoPeace Middle East, presented at the U.N. Security Council in April on environmental peacebuilding and the efforts to shift environmental resource management from an area of conflict into a platform for cooperation across borders.
Daniel Clark ’95, director of the Civil Division at DC Law Students in Court, received the 2019 Jerrold Scoutt Prize from the DC Bar Foundation. The award recognizes a full-time legal services lawyer who has demonstrated a career-long compassionate concern for his or her clients while exhibiting a high degree of skill representing them.
Edward Davis ’95 joined Dorsey & Whitney’s Mergers and Acquisitions Practice Group in New York as partner.
Eric Ascalon ’96 is vice president of development for Catalyst Experiential, an outdoor advertising company that engages in public/private partnerships with municipal entities. He was recently selected to serve as chairperson of the board of directors of the Asbury Park-based Garden State Film Festival, New Jersey’s largest independent film festival.
Vanessa Allen Sutherland ’96, senior vice president, law, and chief legal officer at Norfolk Southern Corp., was featured in Profile Magazine.
Jimmy Yang ’99 was promoted to managing director at Citigroup, where he heads the Capital Markets and Corporate Recruiting Group.
Juan Pablo Lievano Vegalara LL.M. ’99 is superintendent of corporations in Colombia, a regulatory agency of the government of Colombia that oversees corporations.
2000s
Rose Cuison-Villazor ’00 was named vice dean of Rutgers Law School.
Kevin Ruby ’00 joined Wiley Rein in Washington, D.C., as partner.
Ferdose Al-Taie ’01 joined Akerman LLP in Dallas as partner, white collar crime and securities/compliance and antitrust/competition.
James Ferg-Cadima ’01 serves as chair of the Illinois Human Rights Commission. Prior to becoming chair, he was the acting deputy assistant secretary for policy at the Office for Civil Rights at the U.S. Department of
Education.
Paul Figueroa ’01 has taken on a new role as assistant professor at the University of New Mexico School of Law.
Patricia Miranda LL.M. ’01 represented the World Bank on access to information at the Aarhaus Convention Conference at the United Nations headquarters in Geneva in June. She recently wrote a chapter on cybersecurity and blockchain for a book on fintech law and regulation, edited by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, that will be published this October.
Matthew Stanton ’01 was appointed senior vice president of public affairs at Constellation Brands.
Alison Accettola ’02 was named general counsel for the New Jersey Senate majority.
Elsa Ayoub ’02 was selected as a Top Immigration Attorney of the Year for 2019 by the International Association of Top Professionals.
Eric Johnson ’02 was named deputy chief for compliance at the U.S. Department of Justice Foreign Investment Review Staff. Johnson also celebrated his 10-year anniversary at the DOJ.
Benjamin Saul ’02 joined Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner in Washington, D.C., as partner.
Michelle Baum ’03 joined Sahn Ward Coschignano in Uniondale, New York, as counsel.
Robert Malloy ’03 was nominated to serve on the U.S. District Court of the Virgin Islands.
Arta Rama-Hajrizi LL.M. ’03 serves as the president of the Constitutional Court of Kosovo. Rama-Hajrizi and other Constitutional Court of Kosovo
judges visited AUWCL in April as part of a USAID-sponsored project to support rule of law development in Kosovo.
Nadia Zakir ’04 was named chairperson of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s Market Risk Advisory Committee.
Wendy Heilbut ’05 was promoted to partner at Jayaram Law in Chicago.
Karen Woody ’05 joined the Washington and Lee University School of Law faculty as assistant professor of business law and ethics.
Vanessa Burrows ’06 joined Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP in Washington, D.C., as counsel.
Hilary Dengal ’07 has been elected partner in Davis Polk & Wardwell’s Corporate Department in New York, practicing in the Finance Group. She represents financial sponsors, corporate borrowers, and various lenders on a wide range of transaction types.
Katrina Llanes ’07 joined international law firm Alston & Bird LLP in New York as partner.
Cristina Silva ’07 was named District Court judge for the 8th Judicial Court by Nevada Governor Steve Sisolak.
Zachary Blodgett ’08 joined Hancock Estabrook LLP in New York as an associate.
Rachel Weiner Cohen ’08 joined Latham & Watkins as counsel in the Litigation and Trial Department as a member of the Intellectual Property Litigation Practice in August 2018. She previously worked as counsel at WilmerHale.
Radwa Elsaman LL.M. ’08 received the American Association of University Women International Doctoral Fellowship to research law at Boston University College of Law.
Fatema K. Merchant ’08 was featured in Washington Lawyer. Merchant was promoted to partner in the Government Contracts, Investigations & International Trade Practice Group in the Washington, D.C., office of Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton LLC.
Gillian Chadwick ’09 was appointed director of the Washburn Law Clinic at
Washburn University School of Law in Topeka, Kansas.
Elvira Cortez ’09 was named president of the Lawyers Club of San Diego, an organization that seeks to advance women in law and society. Cortez is a
litigation lawyer for Dinsmore, representing businesses in a variety of legal matters, including contract disputes, employment litigation, and product liability.
Quinn Schmiege ’09 became a partner at Gallagher Sharp. Schmiege works out of the firm’s Columbus, Ohio, office, where she focuses her practice
on general litigation, truck accidents, professional liability, and employment practices liability claims.
Blake Urban ’09 was promoted to senior counsel at Bracewell LLP in Washington, D.C., where he advises clients on regulatory matters in the electric industry before federal and state regulatory agencies and appellate courts.
Justin Winquist ’09 was promoted to partner at BakerHostetler in Denver, where he litigates class actions and other civil cases with a focus on insurance defense, dealership/franchise disputes, and product liability.
2010s
Gary Norman ’11, in his capacity as chair of the Maryland Commission on
Civil Rights, was invited to participate in a Public Policy Conflict Resolution Fellows program. This seminar, held by the University of Maryland School of Law in partnership with the Maryland courts, works to foster conflict resolution and non-partisan conversation.
Aubre’ Conner ’12, staff attorney at the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Northern California, was a recipient of the National Bar
Association’s 2019 “40 Under 40 Nation's Best Advocates” awards, which recognize the nation’s top 40 lawyers under age 40 who exemplify a range
of high achievement in the legal field, including in advocacy, innovation, vision, leadership, and overall legal and community involvement.
Claire Griggs ’12 received the Outstanding Teaching in a Full-Time Term-Line Appointment Award from American University. Griggs is a professorial lecturer in the Department of Justice, Law & Criminology.
Michael C. Fallings ’13 was named partner in Tully Rinckey PLLC’s Austin, Texas, office, where he focuses his practice on federal sector labor and
employment law.
Jason Bailey ’15 has joined the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of West Virginia as assistant U.S. attorney.
Whitney Washington ’17, Equal Justice Works Fellow at AUWCL’s Center for Human Rights & Humanitarian Law, was named one of the“40 under 40 Queer Women of Washington” by the Washington Blade.