The Driving Diversity in Law & Leadership: Chicago

Dana O. Williams is a Senior Vice President and Assistant General Counsel at Northern Trust in Chicago. Dana supports global Human Resources groups, providing legal advice and counsel to the Human Resources Consulting Function, Employee Relations, Talent Acquisition, Global Diversity, Equity and Inclusion and the Human Resources Service Center, regarding all aspects of the employee lifecycle. Dana also manages pending and threatened employment litigation against the company. 

Prior to joining Northern Trust, Dana practiced in the Chicago office of Seyfarth Shaw LLP in the Labor and Employment and Litigation, Trade Secrets and Corporate Espionage groups, primarily defending Fortune 500 employers in state and federal court litigation. Dana also worked in the Chicago office of Sonnenschein, Nath and Rosenthal LLP (n/k/a Dentons) in the Litigation group.

Dana has a B.A. in African-American Studies from Dartmouth College, and a J.D. from Georgetown University.

For over ten years, Dana has been an active member of the board of Primo Center, a provider of permanent and transitional housing to homeless women and children on Chicago’s South and West Sides. Dana was recently appointed to the board of CARPLS, Cook County’s largest provider of free legal aid services.

Dana is currently serving as Co-Chair of the Women of Color Alliance within Northern Trust’s Women in Leadership Business Resource Council.

Dana is also a Leadership Greater Chicago Class of 2022 Fellow.

Dana lives in the Hyde Park neighborhood of Chicago with her husband and three children.

Legal Executive with success delivering global Governance, Complex Transactions, Compliance, Litigation, Data Privacy, ESG, and Executive Compensation solutions for leading manfacturing companies including BorgWarner, Mobex Global, Nexteer Automotive.

I develop trusted advisor relationships with corporate officers and am known for advising executive leadership and the Board of Directors. Stakeholders across business areas value my ability to implement changes in business practices meeting business and regulatory needs.

Successes include:

✦ CORPORATE GOVERNANCE: Generate agendas and coordinate committee, board, and annual shareholder meetings. Attend board meetings and prepare meeting minutes as Assistant Secretary & Corporate Secretary. Lead development/gain approval for Annual Shareholder Report; produce annual proxy and Sustainability Report. As Disclosure Committee Co-Chair, manage efforts to generate SEC rule-dictated filings.

✦ TEAM MERGER LEADERSHIP: Assisted in integration of Corporate Administrative Office expansion from 32 to 70 members across Compliance, ESG, Governance, Litigation, and Data Privacy. Currently lead 8 direct, 9 indirect, and 100+ dotted line compliance coordinators. Direct reports include: Dir Environment & Sustainability, Dir Export Controls, and Securities, Employment, Compliance, and Global Regulations attorneys. Set strategy for areas.

✦ COMPLIANCE & DATA PRIVACY: Continuously assess and identify areas to comply with key privacy laws, including: GDPR, CCPA, LGPD, and PIPL. Design in-house training strategies and goals and initiate cultivate internal and external expertise to deliver appropriate training and operating protocols.

✦ EXECUTIVE COMPENSATION/HUMAN RESOURCES SAVINGS: Implemented programs and policies capturing $400K+ annual savings in uniform, payroll, travel, mobile phone, and credit card expenses.

✦ REGULATORY LEADERSHIP: Advised Audit Committee, senior management, and Board of legal obligations related to regulatory inquiries and allegations of irregularities. Interfaced with government agencies including: EEOC, FBI, DOL, OFAC, SEC, and various international regulators. Conducted internal investigations and resolved regulatory findings.

SPECIALTIES:
• Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG)
• Compliance
• Data Privacy
• Sustainability
• Team Leadership
• Culture of Compliance

Over 10 years of legal experience, specializing in advising on all aspects of the fintech product life cycle, including the negotiation, development, implementation, and operation of legally compliant products. Deep knowledge of the financial regulatory landscape, as well as state and federal licensing requirements, impacting card programs, stored value products, payment processing, merchant services, and bank partnerships. Skilled in providing tailored, practical solutions, and risk mitigation strategies to businesses of all shapes and sizes.

Legal executive in a technology setting with diverse experience acquired over 15 years in commercial contracts/negotiations, employment law, compliance/risk management, data privacy, litigation, and human resources.

*Executive Management – Functional lead of a global team of attorneys and HR/legal professionals, responsible for overseeing employment law, immigration and employee mobility, employee relations and labor and employment support of M&A transactions

*Commercial Contracts/Negotiations – Experience drafting and negotiating a wide variety of development, licensing, managed service, supply and sales agreements

*Compliance/Risk Management/HR Support – Create and implement periodic compliance training; responsible for external compliance reporting; advise HR business partners on legal compliance, HR policies/procedures, personnel decisions, RIF’s, AAP’s, wage/hour, employment litigation, and M&A transactions/integration activities.

*General Advise and Counseling – Provide general legal counseling to EC, executive officers, HR Directors/managers, internal/external auditors, business until leads, and all other employees on a daily basis.

Chantal serves as Director & Senior Counsel – Litigation for Discover. She has over 14 years of litigation experience. In her position, she has the primary or secondary responsibility for managing all aspects of significant and routine litigation matters including, investigation, strategy development, discovery, meditation, settlement negotiations, trial, and appeal. She collaborates with in-house advisory attorneys, compliance professionals and business executives to identify, mitigate and prevent litigation risk.  Currently, she serves as the Pro Bono Co-Chair for Discover’s Legal Department.

Prior to joining Discover, Chantal worked at Aon, where she managed risk and litigation. Her role included expanded secondary responsibilities for EMEA, particularly the UK and its British Caribbean Territories for the captive management business. She has experience handling government and regulatory inquiries and providing litigation risk analysis for prospective mergers, acquisitions, and divestitures. Directly out of law school, Chantal worked in-house at Liberty Mutual Group, where she represented policyholders and the carrier in first and third-party insurance claims.

Chantal routinely gives back to the legal and Chicago community at large. She is currently on the Board of Directors for the Metropolitan Family Services’ Legal Aid Society (“LAS”). She is actively involved with the Chicago Chapter of the Association of Corporate Counsel (“ACC”) as a Member of the Board of Directors & Treasurer, Publicity Committee Member, Podcast Committee Chair, and a frequent volunteer of their Street Law Program. She is a Working Group Member and was the Interview/Screening Co-Chair of the ABA Section of Litigation’s Judicial Internship Opportunity Program (“JIOP”). JIOP places law students that are traditionally underrepresented in the legal community in state and federal internships with judges across the country. She is a former Auxiliary Board Member for the Big Shoulders Fund. From 2015–2017, she held the role of Co-Chair of the American Bar Association’s Young Lawyers Division – Corporate Counsel Committee.

Chantal earned her law degree from Loyola University Chicago School of Law. She received her bachelor’s degree from New York University.

Stephanie Vitale is Director, Safety & Insurance Litigation US East at Uber Technologies, Inc.  She oversees the eastern half of the United States for the insurance litigation team, which handles claims and litigation related to Uber’s U.S. insurance policies, both general liability and auto. Prior to joining Uber three years ago, she litigated insurance defense matters in Chicago, Illinois.

Experienced lawyer with a demonstrated history of managing attorneys and litigating cases in the government administration industry. Skilled in labor and employment law, human resources, trials, arbitrations, administrative hearings, police accountability, and public policy. Strong legal professional with a J.D. from Loyola University Chicago, an M.A. in Political Science from Loyola University Chicago, and a B.S. in History from St. Joseph’s College.

Not your typical attorney. I bring a blend of business and legal acumen to my role as in-house counsel. Global experience in striking the right balance between achieving business objectives and mitigating risks.

My credentials include MBA and JD degrees, conflict resolution and mediation training, and licenses to practice before the Supreme Court of Illinois and the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.

Dena Milligan is  Director & Assistant General Counsel, Student Loans, at Discover Financial Services and leads the team that provides legal coverage for the student loan business.  Dena has also advised on anti-money laundering and sanctions compliance, the Community Reinvestment Act program, and other prudential regulatory matters in her time with Discover.

Prior to joining Discover in 2013, Dena was a Senior Attorney in the Legal Division of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System in Washington, D.C. where she focused on regulation related to payment systems and monetary policy.

She holds a J.D. from Boston University School of Law and a B.A. in Economics from Northwestern University. She is admitted to the Massachusetts and Illinois bars.  She currently lives in Chicago, IL.

Kate Dennis Nye is Associate General Counsel & Senior Director at Gap Inc., the parent company to The Gap, Old Navy, Banana Republic, and Athleta.  In her role at Gap, Kate manages the team responsible for marketing and advertising legal issues companywide and serves as the senior legal partner to the Old Navy brand on marketing, advertising, and intellectual property matters.  Among the kinds of issues she handles on a day-to-day basis are trademark clearance, claim substantiation, promotions and pricing, and product review, as well as managing related contracts and disputes.  Prior to joining Gap Inc., Kate was a partner at Neal, Gerber & Eisenberg LLP in Chicago, where her practice encompassed a broad range of intellectual property and marketing matters for clients across industries.

Kara Goodwin serves as RRD’s Vice President, Associate General Counsel – Labor, Employment & Compliance.  Reporting directly to the Chief Compliance Officer and General Counsel, Kara advises Senior Management and Human Resources on all areas of the employment relationship and compliance with key ethical mandates, including adherence to the Company’s Principles of Ethical Business Conduct, the Company’s policy on Anti-Bribery and Anti-Corruption, and the Company’s treatment of Whistleblower complaints.  Kara conducts or oversees many of the Company’s internal investigations, develops and reviews Company policies to ensure compliance with laws, rules, and regulations, and works with new hires and managers regarding compliance with the Company’s ethical requirements.  Kara also oversees all aspects of the Company’s employment litigation and provides instructional leadership to the Company’s Corporate Human Resources, Corporate Communications, DEI, and Environmental, Health and Safety functions.  

Prior to joining RRD in 2019, Kara spent 10 years at Seyfarth Shaw LLP, a leading global law firm, representing companies in employment-related disputes, business counseling, and internal investigations.

I am CIPM and CIPP/US certified by the International Association of Privacy Professionals, and was selected as a Foundry Fellow by the Internet Law and Policy Foundry. I received my J.D. with honors from the University of Wisconsin Law School, and am licensed in Illinois and Wisconsin.

I was recently named to the Lawyers Of Color’s 2023 “Hot List,” an annual publication spotlighting junior- and mid-level lawyers who “have achieved prominence and distinction in their fields” and “have demonstrated a strong commitment to advancing diversity in the legal profession.”

Untress “Trez” Quinn is a seasoned trial lawyer, focusing his practice on commercial and tort litigation for clients across industry sectors. He has defended multiple complex, high-stakes litigation cases in both state and federal courts.

He also regularly serves as outside corporate counsel, leveraging the business and operational acumen he gained as an executive in the health care industry. His experience extends to human resources and people management, further supporting his clients’ diverse corporate, transactional and policy needs.

Kathleen also regularly represents companies in cases involving allegations of sexual harassment, discrimination, retaliation, or wrongful termination brought by single-plaintiff employees at all levels of a company. In addition, she proactively counsels clients to ensure their employment practices comply with current or new workplace laws and regulations. For example, she has guided clients through new workplace issues resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic. She has also offered training and guidance on the legalization of recreational and medical cannabis and its impact on a client’s workplace drug policies, complaint procedures, disciplinary action policies, and accommodations practices.

Before joining Epstein Becker Green, Kathleen worked in medical prosecutions at the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation. She has published numerous articles and presented on a variety of employment law topics, including the impact of the legalization of cannabis on the workplace, wage and hour compliance, and reasonable accommodations in health care workplaces. She also speaks on developments in wage and hour class action law, managing remote employees during the COVID-19 pandemic, Fair Labor Standards Act classification, the Americans with Disabilities Act, and cannabis workplace issues.

Hemu is one of this country’s foremost leaders in privacy, security, and safety issues clients face across multiple business sectors, including big tech, government, law enforcement, corporations, start-ups, talent, and pro athletes. A globally recognized leader with nearly 25 years of cyber experience, he helps clients build up privacy, safety, and security programs and navigate through crises that might arise as the result of privacy and security breaches. He has developed an extensive network in the state attorney general community and respect as a thought leader on cyber policy matters. Hemu was previously the founder and chief executive officer of cyber security and cyber intelligence firm Cyber Security Affairs, formerly known as SSP Blue.

During his tenure at Cyber Security Affairs, Hemu provided strategic guidance to both corporations and online companies in online safety, security, and privacy issues covering product, policy, PR, and regulatory matters. He effectively helped Internet- and non-Internet-based companies in creating and implementing holistic online safety, security, and privacy programs, including in social media, and provided guidance to safety, security, and privacy technology providers. Hemu has also led numerous product and program audits to identify key risk areas and drive execution of changes. When companies are under government inquiry or investigation at the federal and state levels, Hemu provides strategic and legal guidance in navigating such matters. He engages with the non-government organization (NGO) community to build partnership opportunities and provides crisis media management and proactive media outreach services and media training. Having been a federal prosecutor for computer crimes and online sex crimes, Hemu helps clients develop and implement law enforcement compliance programs and training. He also leads cyber security vulnerability assessments on behalf of clients.

Hemu also works with talent, pro athletes, and executives (principals) who require 24/7/365 cyber threat protection, to act as the eyes in cyberspace for security details on the ground, whether on the road or at home, to identify, prevent, or dismantle any threats brewing in the public, deep, or dark web, including social media. Hollywood stars and other high-profile individuals who have been cyberstalked, hacked, and threatened have sought out Hemu to help them, including with online reputational attacks and cyber privacy.

From 2006 to 2010, Hemu was chief security officer for a mass media and publishing company, where he was responsible for protecting the personal information of more than 200 million users around the world. He has been credited with making a social networking service safe and secure after launching an initiative to identify and remove criminals from the networking site. He also drove the launch of more than 150 other safety, security, and privacy protection features for the company and played a key role in an accord between the company and 49 state attorneys general to develop key principles of social networking safety.

From 2002 to 2006, Hemu worked for a multinational technology company, where he led a global initiative to build safety standards into products across the company. He also implemented a virus enforcement strategy and collaborated with the U.S. Secret Service, Interpol, and the FBI to develop the company’s landmark anti-virus reward program. The program is credited with toppling one of the world’s most notorious virus creators in 2005.

From 2000 to 2002, Hemu was vice president of worldwide Internet enforcement at a trade association that represents major film studios, where he spearheaded a global effort to combat online movie piracy for the major Hollywood studios. During his tenure, Hemu implemented anti-piracy technology that allowed the association to eliminate more than 100,000 illegal movie websites in a year.

From 1997 to 2000, Hemu held simultaneous roles in the federal government, serving as a federal prosecutor against child and computer crimes for the U.S. Department of Justice, advisor to a congressional commission on child safety, and advisor to the White House on cyberstalking. In addition to prosecuting Internet predators, Hemu was behind the prosecution of 17 foreign nationals engaged in the trafficking of women and children into the United States.

Hemu began his career as a deputy district attorney in Los Angeles County from 1990 to 1997, focusing on prosecuting sexual assault and child abuse cases. During his tenure, Hemu handled more than 1,000 criminal matters and was a recurring lecturer at rape crisis centers across Los Angeles.

Hemu has also been honored to work with Harvard University’s Berkman Center for Internet & Society and the state attorneys general to develop widely used online safety standards. He was appointed by the New York Office of the Attorney General as an independent safety and security examiner to provide periodic independent assessments of a major online company’s safety and security practices. He has been asked by the White House and the United Nations to provide guidance and counsel on navigating the world’s most critical online protection challenges.

With over a decade of experience in the online space, Simrin Hooper is a veteran in the intersection of policy, regulatory, and product with online safety and privacy. At Venable, Simrin leads a team of analysts focused on regulatory response, human rights assessments, and child safety-related client engagements. Simrin has developed safety, security, and privacy programs for clients and operationally helped clients integrate them in their product, engineering, and policy structure. She is also experienced in analyzing the data of client products, including data receipt, data storage, data management, and data sharing, to identify potential client vulnerabilities and mitigation solutions.

During her time as vice president of safety, security, and privacy at a leading Los Angeles advisory firm, Simrin oversaw all related product reviews for clients providing mobile services, interactive games, social networks, dating opportunities, online classifieds, and applications. She reviewed products from both the front- and back-end perspectives, including signup, abuse reports, age-related safety, data management, and other areas to determine strengths and weaknesses from the perspectives of safety, security, and privacy.

As safety and security manager at a global social media platform company, Simrin oversaw all safety, security, privacy-related site and product features and programs for all company properties, focusing specifically on a major social media site with millions of users around the world. She established uniform SSP standards for all company properties and reviewed new features, marketing campaigns, and expansions to ensure adherence to those standards. She also wrote and distributed safety guides for parents and schools in partnership with educational organizations. She created and maintained original content for the social media site’s safety section, which was developed to help parents, teachers, and users navigate online. She also implemented all attorney general joint statement requests for the platform, and developed, implemented, and oversaw marketing and brand campaign policies for alcohol and movie advertisements for all company properties. Simrin was also responsible for building public affairs programs to showcase these efforts to the public and government globally. Simrin led a team of program managers, working closely with product, engineering, communications, legal, policy, regulatory, and government affairs teams.

Simrin has also worked extensively with nonprofit organizations focused on child safety and human trafficking.

Nicole has twenty years of experience litigating some of the largest and most high-profile cases in the country. She has represented plaintiffs in some of the largest defamation cases in U.S. history, the defendant in one of the largest auditor liability cases ever tried, and Fortune 100 companies in multibillion-dollar securities fraud claims.

Nicole’s clients have described her as “a creative and aggressive, but practical advocate” and as having “an outstanding work ethic.” She has been described by opposing counsel as having a “great presence in front of a jury.”

Her unmatched experience in these “bet the company” cases led Benchmark Litigation to select Nicole as part of its “Under 40 Hot List” for Commercial Litigation in 2017. She was also recognized by Chicago Lawyer in its 2021 Inaugural Class of 50 exceptional women lawyers for achieving success while mentoring other women.

Nicole has extensive complex commercial litigation experience. Her litigation and trial practice is diverse, ranging from nine-figure business disputes to multibillion-dollar class actions to complex MDL proceedings, where she has served as national and coordinating counsel in defending industry-leading companies. Her subject matter expertise is likewise diverse. She has represented individuals and companies in litigation involving trade secret misappropriation, defamation and disparagement, contract disputes, securities fraud, consumer fraud, product liability and internal investigations.

Some of her representative experience includes:

• Representing a global election technology in a defamation suit seeking over $2 billion against Fox News and others.
• Representing a global energy company in defending against an over $100 million trade secret misappropriation claim.
• Representing a teledentistry company in a defamation suit seeking over $1 billion against NBC News.
• Representing a Fortune 100 telecommunications company in defending against a multi-million dollar trade secret misappropriation claim.
• Represented a beef producer in a defamation case against ABC News seeking over $6 billion in damages. Secured a confidential settlement after four weeks of trial testimony that was characterized by the press and industry leaders as vindicating the producer.
• Represented a Fortune 500 food company’s espresso/coffee products business in a dispute with an international postal/e-commerce provider over its insolvent U.S. subsidiary supplier.
• Served as lead counsel for a medical device company in product liability actions. Obtained multiple dismissals and favorable settlements for the company before discovery.
• Represented a manufacturer of cable set-tops in securities fraud litigation seeking over $2 billion in damages. Secured summary judgment in favor of the manufacturer with a precedent-setting decision that was affirmed by the 11th Circuit.
• Represented a “Big Four” accounting firm in auditor liability litigation seeking over $3 billion in damages. Secured a directed verdict in favor of the accounting firm following 103 days of trial testimony and argument.
• Represented a Fortune 50 financial institution in a class action seeking recovery of transaction fees associated with thousands of securities transactions. Prevailed on a motion to dismiss the complaint with prejudice.