Diversity, Inclusion & Self-Care: San Francisco [Virtual Summit]

Andrea Russi is an appellate attorney with experience in both state and federal court. She is Senior Counsel in the San Francisco office of Horvitz & Levy.  She previously served for more than four years as a senior appellate court attorney for the California Court of Appeal, First District working for Presiding Justice Ignazio Ruvolo (retired).

Andrea worked for eight years as an Assistant United States Attorney in the Central District of California where she was a member of the criminal appeals section. As an AUSA, Andrea authored more than 40 appellate briefs and argued 20 cases before the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. She also reviewed and edited briefs drafted by other prosecutors and conducted monthly moot courts in preparation for oral arguments before the Ninth Circuit.  Andrea was also a trial lawyer handling a range of criminal cases from indictment through trial. 

Andrea spent six years at the University of California Berkeley School of Law where she was the Managing Director of two research and policy centers: the Chief Justice Earl Warren Institute for Law & Social Policy and the Berkeley Center for Criminal Justice.  She acted as a Lecturer in Residence at Berkeley Law where she taught criminal procedure and as a Lecturer in Law at the University of Southern California Gould School of Law where she taught appellate advocacy. 

Andrea was an associate at Latham & Watkins.  She clerked on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals for the Honorable David R. Thompson and on the United States District Court for the Central District of California for the Honorable William D. Keller.

Andrea graduated Phi Beta Kappa from the University of California, Berkeley.  She graduated from the University of California, Los Angeles School of Law where she was Editor-in-Chief of the Law Review.

Andrea is currently the co-chair of the Civic and Judicial Appointments Committee for the Queen’s Bench Bar Association with a mission of identifying and encouraging diversity in appointments to public office and the judiciary.  She is a 2020 Fellow for the Leadership Council on Legal Diversity.  Andrea is a also the vice president for service and grade level coordinator for the Teen and Parent Service Organization (TAPS) where she organizes and supervises volunteer service projects for high school students.

Candice Petty joined Tesla, Inc. as Senior Employment Counsel in November 2018, bringing 15 years of experience as both in-house and outside counsel. At Tesla, she provides advice and counsel on every aspect of labor and employment law, and manages employment litigation ranging from single plaintiff charges to class action litigation. 

Prior to Tesla, she was the Director of Litigation for 24 Hour Fitness, a national fitness chain based in the SF Bay Area, where she managed and led strategy on all litigation against the company and supervised all aspects of case management. Candice has extensive experience advising on complex wage and hour issues arising from both exempt and non-exempt workforces, as well as navigating discrimination, harassment and retaliation complaints at the state and national level.

In her spare time, Candice volunteers as the Executive Director of the 20/20 Bipartisan Justice Center, a national nonprofit organization focused on criminal justice reform. Candice received her law degree from Stanford Law School in 2004, and her Bachelor’s degree in Political Science from the University of California at Berkeley in 2001.

Leader of enterprise-wide Big Data strategy and governance; experienced in Healthcare Information Technology (Health IT); complex technology transactions, Big Data strategy, and IP attorney for one of the largest health care non-profits ($79 billion operating revenues); over 18 years experience in structuring and negotiating high dollar technology transactions, cloud services, AI, strategic innovation collaborations, licensing, professional and managed services, web-based, and outsourcing transactions. Negotiated upwards of one billion dollar IT deals, including domestic and international transactions. Advised on customer and supplier side of technology agreements for both in and out-bound transactions. Counseled clients ranging from Fortune 100, and early stage companies in IT, healthcare, software, web-based, e-commerce, automotive, manufacturing, insurance, energy, and banking and financial industries. Lead a Data Strategy Team of 12 attorneys and paralegals. Co-chair of the Enrichment and Development Subcommittee of the Equity, Inclusion and Diversity Committee.

Flavia Naves is General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer at Qwil, a financial services company supporting the small business and freelancer community. Prior to her time at Qwil, Flavia worked at different organizations in the SF Bay Area engaging with industries ranging from software licensing and copyrights to entertainment, e-commerce and payments.

Born and raised in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, Flavia is active in the local Brazilian community and provides mentoring to young attorneys. She is also a Board member at Instituto Familiar de la Raza, a non-profit in the San Francisco Mission District providing mental health and family services to the Hispanic community. Flavia has lived in the United States since 1999, spending time on the East Coast first and calling San Francisco her home since 2005.

Flavia obtained her legal degree from Pontifícia Universidade Católica de Minas Gerais and a certificate of US legal studies from Widener University Commonwealth Law School. She lives in San Francisco with her husband Brad and daughters Giovanna and Isabella, where they enjoy the beach, hiking, and the mountains during the winter.

Sara Quinto-Seibert is Senior Regulatory Counsel at Affirm, Inc.  She works cross-functionally with various business teams by providing legal advice on U.S. and Canadian consumer protection regulations for the development of new, innovative and honest financial products for consumers.  Prior to joining Affirm, Sara was Assistant General Counsel at Solar Mosaic, Inc.  During her time at Mosaic, Sara provided legal and business advice to build out Mosaic’s solar loan and home improvement loan products.  She also assisted in strengthening Mosaic’s operations and servicing functions. 

Before going in house in 2017, Sara was an Associate at Severson & Werson.  While at Severson, Sara represented and provided legal advice to various financial institutions.  In 2016, Sara served as second chair for a jury trial and obtained a full defense verdict for a big financial institution. 

Sara received her J.D. from U.C. Hastings College of the Law and B.A. from U.C. Berkeley.  Sara is also a San Francisco native.

Michel C. Narganes is a partner in the Corporate Group and a resident in the firm’s San Francisco office. With over 15 years of experience as a corporate attorney, she brings a wealth of experience specializing in venture-backed startups, corporate law, mergers and acquisitions, financings, commercial transactions, and licensing.

Prior to joining the firm, she was in-house counsel at a technology company providing support to grow and scale their domestic and international M&A, strategic partnerships and corporate compliance operations. During her tenure, she managed legal providers across professional services networks and advised the company on advanced transactions.

Michel previously worked at global law firms and founded her own firm specializing in legal matters related to emerging growth companies.