The Driving Diversity in Law & Leadership [Virtual Summit]: Los Angeles

Mary Bacon is a full-service business litigation attorney. She prosecutes and defends claims on behalf of business entities in a host of industries in courts and arbitrations in cases involving difficult and complicated business matters. Mary’s litigation practice is focused on complex civil litigation in both state and federal court involving construction disputes, breach of contract actions, and defending financial institutions.

Mary has negotiated and litigated construction claims at the city, county, state and federal levels on behalf of general contractors and specialty subcontractors. Mary has litigated claims involving defective specifications, constructive changes, acceleration, excusable and compensable delays, differing site conditions, terminations for default and the False Claims Act. She also handles private construction litigation involving disputes between owners, general contractors and subcontractors, as well as performance and payment bond claims and mechanic’s lien issues. Mary has also successfully represented bid protesters before the Comptroller General of the General Accounting Office.

Kavitha Mecozzi is Assistant General Counse, Senior Counsel Specialist at Genentech, where she focuses on healthcare law, counseling clients on healthcare fraud and abuse, FDA regulations and other matters related to the development, manufacture, and commercialization of products. Prior to joining Genentech, Kavitha practiced at Ropes & Gray and focused on government enforcement and litigation related to several industries including healthcare.  She graduated from Harvard Law School and received her undergraduate degree from UCLA. She serves on the Executive Committee for the Harvard Law School Association for Northern California.

Susan Collier Thomakos is Lead Product and Partnerships Counsel at Asana, Inc. a leading SaaS work management solution.  She advises Asana’s product teams on feature releases, manages Asana’s intellectual property portfolio, and counsels and negotiates Asana’s strategic, technology, and channel partnerships.  Susan believes relationships are key to being an effective in-house counsel, and that networking is a core part of building those relationships.  Before joining Asana, Susan led technology partnership transactions at Salesforce, Pandora, and MobiTV, and counseled product teams at Salesforce.

Before going in house, Susan was an associate in the corporate group at Orrick, Herrington, & Sutcliffe, and before going to law school, Susan worked at Anderson Consulting (now Accenture) and traveled.

Susan received her J.D. from Columbia University School of Law, and her B.A. in Interdisciplinary Studies from U.C. Berkeley, with a concentration in European Integration.  She now lives in Berkeley, CA, and spends her non-work time on trails and coastlines, cooking, and trying to keep up with her two kids.

Temnee Wright is Commercial Counsel at Blend, a fintech start-up. At Blend, she advises internal clients on legal risks, business strategies, and other issues related to commercial transactions, privacy, and data security. Temnee has held several in-house roles at technology companies in the Bay Area. She obtained a B.A. from University of California, Merced and a J.D. from University of California, Hastings College of the Law. In her free time, Temnee serves on the board of West Valley Community Services, whose mission is preventing hunger and homelessness.

Caroline Donelan is a trusted adviser and strategic partner to both domestic and foreign clients, providing advice and defense counsel in all areas of employment law compliance and litigation, including wage and hour class and representative (“PAGA”) actions, wrongful termination/retaliation, discrimination, harassment, trade secret disputes, data protection, and alleged fiduciary breaches.

Caroline’s proactive risk management practice includes drafting key workplace policies and agreements, providing practical implementation guidance, conducting workplace trainings, managing internal audits and investigations, and providing day to-day counseling on the wide variety of employment issues her clients face.

Caroline also provides transactional support and advice on stock and asset purchase agreements, including buy- and sell-side due diligence and executive agreements.

Arden Joseph joined Deutsche Bank in 2015 as Assistant Vice President and Counsel in the Americas Legal Department located in Jacksonville, Florida.  In her role, she negotiates derivative contracts for hedge funds, corporate and institutional clients. Prior to joining Deutsche Bank, she spent eleven years at Citigroup in New York as a senior member of their capital markets legal team. There, she partnered extensively with various stakeholders as a transactional attorney. She also served as a subject matter expert for the FX prime brokerage desk.  Ms. Joseph earned a Juris Doctorate from Albany Law School and her Bachelor of Science in Finance from New York University, Stern School of Business.

Alexis Crump is a partner in the Los Angeles office of Lewis Brisbois. She is Chair of the National Commercial Lending Practice and Vice-Chair of the National Corporate and National Italy Practices.

Alexis has more than 20 years of experience in corporate finance, real estate, municipal finance and mergers and acquisitions. Her interest in real estate development and investments was sparked as a law clerk at Bechtel Engineering and Bechtel Investments, Inc., and from there she has gone on to represent private equity groups, lending institutions, developers and public entities in the financing of various commercial, retail, industrial, infrastructure and residential real estate projects throughout the United States. Ms. Crump has handled transactions ranging from $5 million to over $400 million as either lender’s counsel, borrower’s counsel or bond counsel, and has led over $1 billion in finance transactions during her career. Ms. Crump handles both buy-side and sell-side business acquisitions for small to mid-market companies, and has assisted in the growth of the firm’s Italian cross-border practice as well. In 2015, Ms. Crump was named one of the 100 Top Women Lawyers in California by the Daily Journal, and in 2017, she was named top 50 Most Influential Woman Lawyers in Los Angeles by the Los Angeles Business Journal.

Ashley is Senior Corporate Counsel at salesforce.com, where she negotiates the agreements for entertainment, marketing and sponsorships. Ashley created an area of practice to engage performers and speakers; a new process that permits the company to contract directly with talent. It is rare to find this being handled in-house within a tech company. At the onset of COVID, Ashley had to quickly pivot and work collaboratively with talent agents to provide virtual events: a new concept for most live entertainers.

Prior to joining salesforce, Ashley was Deputy General Counsel for Larry Ellison’s America’s Cup sailing team “BMW ORACLE Racing”, living in New Zealand, Spain and San Francisco. Ashley negotiated the BMW Title Sponsor deal for the 2003, 2007 and 2010 campaigns and helped draft the 2007 America’s Cup rules.

Ashley graduated from Phillips Andover Academy, Vassar College and the University of California (Davis) King Hall of Law.

Ashley serves on the Constitution Committee of the World Sailing Board. In her spare time, Ashley teaches sailing at Olympic Circle Sailing Center, races their dinghy with her husband Jim and children on San Francisco Bay, and is a competitive horse rider

Nicole Robinson-Etienne is an accomplished, versatile public relations professional with a stellar career history of leadership, advocacy, community engagement and development of public-private partnerships.  A focused, driven leader, problem solver, and persuasive negotiator, Nicole has demonstrated success propelling initiatives leading to substantial program support funding, constructive coalitions and alliances, and zoning changes. 

Nicole began her professional career as an immigration attorney in a small law practice working on asylum and family unification cases.  Realizing her passion for public service, she later went on to work in various roles in government and non-profit sectors, including Special Counsel to Assemblywoman Rhoda S. Jacobs, Senior Project Manager at the New York City Economic Development Corporation and Assistant Director of Government and Community Affairs at the New York Aquarium and Prospect Park Zoo.  In 2017, Nicole joined Institute for Community Living (ICL) as Vice President of Community and Government Affairs and Director of the Clergy, Clinician, Community Collaboration (4C) for Mental Health Awareness designed to address and mitigate the stigma of mental health challenges in communities of color.  A leading voice for increased cultural competence, diversity, and antiracist practices, Nicole serves as a member of the ICL Equity and Inclusion Steering Committee.

A first-generation Caribbean-American, born and raised in Brooklyn, Nicole holds a BA in Political Science and Urban Studies from Fordham University and a JD from Northeastern University School of Law.  Nicole is a married mother of 2 daughters, Arielle and Dominique, and spends her time volunteering as a Girl Scout leader and Board Member of Jewish Community Council of Greater Coney Island and East Flatbush Village.  

Gabrielle’s successful trial experience in a broad range of employment disputes including wage and hour, whistleblower, wrongful termination, discrimination, harassment, retaliation, breach of contract, and trade secret/noncompetition cases and her work with the corporate team on acquisitions and startups equip her to nimbly assess and provide legally compliant options, whether in the counseling or litigation defense role. She also represents employers before a wide variety of state and federal agencies including the EEOC, OFCCP, state human rights agencies, the Labor Commission, the Employment Development Department and OSHA.

Gabrielle is often requested to speak on a broad range of employment issues for a wide variety of corporate counsel and human resource organizations. She is a longstanding member of the Orange County Women’s Philanthropy Fund and an avid supporter of a variety of philanthropic causes in California and Montana. She is currently the head of the Southern California and Montana Labor & Employment departments at Dorsey.

Myrto Koimtzoglou is currently a  Senior Vice President at Wells Fargo Asset management. Prior to joining Wells Fargo, Myrto spent the bulk of her career in London serving as an Assistant general counsel and deputy head of compliance over at JP Morgan Asset management and UBS Wealth Management respectively. Myrto started her career as a junior litigator at Bank of Piraeus and then moved to M&As as junior counsel at ABN Amro Bank. Myrto is a Solicitor of England & Wales ,a Greek Lawyer and a registered foreign attorney with California bar. An International Funds and Investment Management Compliance Lawyer, In-house advisor for investment funds and investment solutions for institutional clients, she specifically focuses on advising the structuring and distributing regulated and unregulated funds (and fund of funds) on a cross border basis globally. Myrto earned her law degree from Aristotle University of Greece ad her Maters in Banking law (LLM) from London School of economics and political science. Myrto is also a certified UK Compliance officer and currently serves as a board member on 2 nonprofit organizations in San Francisco.

In his current role Robert has responsibility for advising a Fortunate 500 company and its operational entities on regulatory compliance matters.  He leads development and execution of Crown Castle’s public policy and regulatory advocacy programs and manages a national team of lawyers responsible for interpreting local jurisdiction and utility regulations and advising internal clients regarding the same.  Prior to joining Crown Castle, Robert worked in the technology, telecommunications and policy practice groups of Davis Wright Tremaine LLP, Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP, and Verizon Communications.  Robert is a U.S. Army veteran; he received his J.D. from Columbus School of Law, Catholic University of America and B.A. from Seattle University.

Mike Jackson is Assistant General Counsel/Senior Director for Microsoft’s Global Workplace Investigations Team (WIT).  As a member of the WIT leadership team, Mike leads a team of seven ethics and compliance attorneys responsible for conducting complex workplace investigations for the U.S. and Canada, and he also leads WIT’s data governance team.  Mike is also the current Global D & I lead for Microsoft’s Corporate, External, Legal Affairs (CELA) department.  In this role, Mike and his team are responsible for supporting and advancing CELA’s D & I initiative globally.   

Prior to Microsoft, Mike was Director, Employee Relations Counsel at Target Corporation where he led the employment team for Target’s Central US region.  Before Target, Mike led an Employee Relations and Labor Relations team for all of Smucker’s U.S. manufacturing facilities.  Prior to Smucker, Mike was global labor and employment counsel at McDonald’s Corporation, joining from Fisher & Phillips LLP.  

Outside of work, Mike is a member of the Board of Directors for the National LGBT Bar Association and is co-chair of the Bar’s Lavender Links corporate counsel learning series. Mike was recognized by the LGBT Bar as one of its 2019 Best LGBTQ+ Lawyers under 40, and he was also recognized as an LCLD Fellow in 2019.   

Mike lives in Seattle, WA with his husband, Chad.

Mimi-Diemmy Dao is an attorney who currently works as the Managing Director of Intellectual Property at Applied Materials. Prior to her work at Applied Materials, Mimi was the Senior Associate at Blakely Sokoloff Taylor & Zarfman for 7 years. She got her Bachelor’s Degree in Chemistry/Biochemistry from San Hose University and later on attended Santa Clara University School of Law. 

Melissa Daugherty is a partner in the Los Angeles office of Lewis Brisbois, vice-chair of the Labor & Employment Practice, and chair of the ADA Compliance & Defense Practice. Her practice focuses on: 

Wrongful Termination and Retaliatory Discharge
Employment Discrimination and Harassment (Including Sexual Harassment Prevention Training)
Americans with Disabilities Act, The Disabled Persons Act and the Unruh Civil Rights Act
Fair Employment and Housing Act (“FEHA”)
Age Discrimination in Employment Act (“ADEA”)
State and Federal Wage and Hour Disputes (including class actions)
Family Medical Leave Act and California Family Rights Act (“FMLA” and “CFRA”)

Ms. Daugherty has extensive experience in providing employment counseling to clients, including policy and handbook drafting, employment practices audits and seminar presentations. She routinely provides AB1825 Sexual Harassment Prevention Training to numerous clients throughout the country. She has special expertise in Title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act and litigation involving the Unruh Civil Rights Act. She has created an extensive database, tracking developments in this area of law and documenting historical settlement value based on a number of factors. Ms. Daugherty also provides seminars on Title II and III of the ADA and related state law.

Ms. Daugherty also has experience in all aspects of employment litigation including: wage and hour class actions, defending employers during audits brought by the Department of Labor and State Labor Commission; defending employers in matters brought before the Department of Fair Employment and Housing, Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, Division of Labor Standards and Enforcement, and the Workers’ Compensation Appeals Board; conducting independent expert investigations of workplace harassment; and defending employers through all stages of litigation.  Her practice is divided almost equally between California State and Federal Court and she also has experience at the appellate level.

Daphne Anneet is a partner in Burke, Williams & Sorensen’s Los Angeles office.  She is Vice-Chair of the firm’s Labor and Employment Practice Group.

A skilled litigator, Daphne has achieved excellent results for clients in state and federal court, as well as in arbitrations and administrative proceedings.  She represents public and private employers in a wide range of matters including class actions, discrimination and harassment litigation, whistleblower retaliation, wage and hour litigation, pension litigation, civil rights, contracting out disputes, unfair labor practice disputes, disciplinary appeals, and appellate matters.  Daphne has served as lead defense counsel in a number of class action lawsuits over the past decade and has a proven track record of achieving successful results in a variety of creative and cost-effective ways.  A graduate of the LA County Bar Association’s Trial Advocacy Project, Daphne has served as a pro bono prosecutor.

In addition to her litigation practice, Daphne has served as the Chief labor negotiator for the cities of Alhambra, Corona, Lynwood, Hermosa Beach, and Hemet and provides labor relations services to cities, counties and special districts.  Daphne serves as General Counsel to the City of Coronado’s Civil Service Commission. As a member of the panel for NAM (National Arbitration and Mediation), Daphne has also served as an arbitrator.

Daphne has earned the distinction of Association of Workplace Investigators Certificate Holder (AWI-CH). She conducts independent investigations of complaints involving discrimination, harassment, retaliation, workplace misconduct, and alleged conflicts of interest.  She has also written and lectured on a wide array of employment issues for many organizations at their annual training conferences and conventions, including the Los Angeles County Bar Association (LACBA); Professionals in Human Resources Association (PIHRA); California Public Employers Labor Relations Association (CALPELRA); League of California Cities; Association of California Water Agencies; Southwestern Law School; and, Southern California Public Labor Relations Council.

Daphne received her Juris Doctor, magna cum laude, from Southwestern Law School, where she was awarded the Outstanding Woman Legal Graduate award. She also served on Southwestern’s Board of Trustees.

Daphne is a committee member of the Labor and Employment Law Section of the LA County Bar Association and an affiliate member of CALPELRA.  She is a Past President of the National Association of Women Business Owners, LA Chapter.

Rose B. Sorensen is a corporate and securities partner in Snell & Wilmer’s Los Angeles office, whose practice includes mergers and acquisitions, divestitures, reorganizations, commercial finance, private placements, venture capital, corporate governance, telecommunications services, joint ventures, licensing and entity structure and formation. She represents clients in the technology, healthcare, food and beverage, manufacturing, retail consumer brand, business services, construction and building materials, and aerospace and defense industries, amongst others. For more information, visit https://www.swlaw.com/people/rose_sorensen.

Sharon Lee currently serves as Vice President and Senior Counsel at VideoAmp, Inc. an AdTech company in Los Angeles, CA. She specializes in commercial transactions, privacy, and technology. Previously, Sharon served as Senior Vice President and Counsel for a financial services firm in Santa Monica, CA in the private markets, investment consulting, technology and analytics space, and was formerly a corporate and restructuring attorney in New York. Sharon has also led diversity initiatives at her current and prior places of work, and is part of the Employee Advisory Group at VideoAmp, focused on Diversity, Equity & Inclusion efforts. Sharon received her B.A. in English Literature from SUNY Binghamton and her J.D. from St. John’s University School of Law. She is licensed to practice law in New York and is a registered in-house counsel in California. 

Alexa Zanolli is Sr. Corporate Counsel at AMN Healthcare, Inc., a publicly traded  company.  At AMN, Alexa acts as product counsel to AMN’s largest divisions, as well as manages M&A, Compliance and Regulatory, and complex litigation. Alexa is a leader in AMN’s ERG for women and the founder of AMN’s ERG dedicated to parents and caregivers. Prior to her tenure with AMN, Alexa was a commercial litigator with AM Law 100 firms, and also a staff attorney for federal judges. She is especially passionate about ending the “motherhood penalty” and bringing awareness and solutions to the current “shecession.”

Courtney Hoyt is Senior Corporate Counsel at Intuit Inc. Prior to joining Intuit, Courtney served as Associate General Counsel at Scopely, Inc., a mobile gaming company based in Los Angeles, and as Senior Counsel on the Litigation and Privacy teams at Uber.  Before moving in-house, Courtney worked in private practice at Perkins Coie LLP and Bingham McCutchen LLP, where she advised heavily on privacy, IP, antitrust, and consumer protection matters, and was recognized for her pro bono work.  Courtney earned a B.A. in Political Science with interdisciplinary honors from Stanford University, and earned her law degree from Santa Clara University School of Law.  Courtney is also a Certified Information Privacy Professional (CIPP/US).

Erin has significant experience representing institutional lenders, real estate funds, opportunity funds, and other real estate investors in sophisticated real estate finance, purchase and sales, sale-leaseback, and lease transactions involving a broad range of real estate assets — from five-star, full-service resorts, to office and retail buildings, to multifamily and mixed-use projects.

Erin has negotiated many complex, high-value transactions. In a recent $1.5 billion acquisition, Erin represented an opportunity fund as the purchaser/landlord/borrower of 33 net-leased properties made up of various real property asset classes located in the United States and Canada.

Recognized as one of the region’s top real estate negotiators, Erin has been included on the Southern California Super Lawyers list of Rising Stars and the Daily Journal’s “Top 40 under 40” list, and she is consistently recognized among top real estate attorneys by Best Lawyers in America.

She has negotiated favorable agreements on behalf of lenders and borrowers in connection with mortgage and mezzanine financing transactions, sale-leaseback transactions, and CDO transactions; handled large multi-property loan, acquisition, and sale-leaseback transactions; and negotiated commercial office leases, termination agreements, assignments, subordination agreements, and licenses.

Prior to joining Mintz, Erin was a partner with a national real estate practice based in Los Angeles.

Amy S. Ramsey is a Member of the Firm in the Employment, Labor & Workforce Management practice, in the Los Angeles office of Epstein Becker Green. She partners with her clients to deliver innovative and practical solutions to employment-related issues, leveraging her two decades of legal experience.

An accomplished litigator, Ms. Ramsey develops strategies that reduce the scope and value of cases to minimize the expense and business disruption of litigation and to expedite resolution.

Before joining Epstein Becker Green, Ms. Ramsey was a Shareholder at an international labor and employment law firm. During law school, she was the general editor of the DePaul Law Review.

Working side-by-side for many years with trial icon Patty Glaser definitely has had its perks — like the opportunity to represent and work with some of the most powerful players in the entertainment industry and to handle some of the most interesting cases. But beyond that, this experience instilled in Ms. Garvis Wright the same tenacity, ingenuity and results-oriented approach to her clients’ legal problems, and she has emerged as her own force in the legal community. Ms. Garvis Wright’s clients, like William Morris Endeavor Entertainment, LLC and Gehry Partners, Inc. are “repeat customers.” Indeed, their general counsel regularly call on Ms. Garvis Wright for advice regarding problems ranging from the more mundane to issues involving emerging, cutting-edge principles of law.

Ms. Garvis Wright considers herself very lucky to enjoy the practice she has, which includes both entertainment and employment litigation. While it may seem strange that the two seemingly distinct types of practices can co-exist, Ms. Garvis Wright believes they actually complement one another and enjoy many parallels. But, most importantly, she loves her practice. When not practicing law, you can find Ms. Garvis Wright spending time with her husband, also a lawyer, and their 7-year-old son, a lawyer-in-training, or doing Pilates.

One of Ms. Garvis Wright’s first notable pieces of entertainment litigation was as a junior lawyer representing Endemol in a legal battle with reality powerhouse Mark Burnett over two competing reality boxing shows. Burnett and his lawyers were determined to keep Endemol’s show from airing. Not only did they try to do so in the courtroom (seeking a restraining order — which Ms. Garvis Wright was successful in defending against), but also with the California Boxing Commission (arguing that Endemol was acting as an unlicensed boxing promoter in violation of the law). Ms. Garvis Wright made her first (and only) appearance before the Boxing Commission and was able to persuade the Commissioners that Endemol was not running afoul of any of the boxing regulations. Ms. Garvis Wright represented Endemol since then on a variety of matters, earning her the nickname “Ally McBeal” from Endemol’s then president.

Logan C. Marcus, Esq. is the General Counsel for a publicly traded FinTech company as well as its subsidiaries, one of which is Appreciation Financial, a nationwide financial services agency primarily serving the retirement and the life insurance needs of public employees. Logan has been in practice for over 11 years and prior to becoming in-house counsel, she practiced criminal defense and civil litigation with a concentration in the litigation of copyright infringement claims for high profile musicians. 

She has inhabited her general counsel role for almost six years, and she is committed to ensuring fairness and equality among the more¬ than one thousand agents that work with Appreciation Financial. Her position as a general counsel as a female in her thirties, is unusual, and Logan has made it her passion to encourage other young female attorneys to reach for their goals. 

Logan has always been involved in philanthropy and has served as the chair for many organizations that are dear to her. She is a member of the California and Nevada bars and is a member of the Beverly Hills Bar Association, the Las Vegas Bar Association, American Bar Association, and National Bar Association, Los Angeles Bar Association.

Logan’s continued desire to maintain the highest level of compliance at Appreciation earned her the prestigious Servant Leadership Award at Appreciation’s 2020 convention.

Katie Lever has been Chief Legal Officer or General Counsel to some of the gaming industry’s most influential operators and suppliers. In these roles, she’s navigated cutting edge legal, risk management, and regulatory challenges during these organizations’ greatest formative times, found creative solutions to complex corporate and strategic requirements against unforgiving timelines, and collaborated across corporate functions and across the globe, while cementing the trust of her teams, colleagues and Boards. She was the first woman Executive Vice President during her tenure at Scientific Games and its acquired entities, Bally Technology and SFHL entertainment, as well as in her position at Global Cash Access.  Recently, in her roles as Chief Legal Officer at Drew Las Vegas and General Counsel & EVP at Baha Mar, she created the foundational structure for the legal, regulatory and compliance functions for these integrated resort destinations. She has brought together her experience in FinTech, corporate law, and risk management as a Director and Chair of the Audit Committee of the GBank Financial Holdings Inc., one of the top-rated community banks in the country.

Lily Toy is the General Counsel of Dialpad which is the leading AI-powered cloud communications platform.  At Dialpad, Lily oversees the Legal, Compliance and Cybersecurity functions.  

Prior to joining Dialpad, she served as the General Counsel and Corporate Secretary of Telenav, a leading provider of connected-car and location-based services.    Before going in-house, she was a corporate associate with the firms, K&L Gates LLP, Fenwick & West LLP, and Shearman & Sterling LLP.

Lily earned her J.D. from Cornell Law School in 2004, and her B.A. Economics (with honors) and Legal Studies from the University of California, Berkeley in 2001. During law school, she was a judicial extern for the Honorable Alan Jaroslovsky of the United States Bankruptcy Court.

Nicole Janigian Simonian is the co-chair of the firm’s International Trade practice and International Employment and Global Mobility Lead, with a focus on the firm’s Asia practice. A partner in the firm’s Los Angeles office, she is also a director of the firm’s China consulting subsidiary in Shanghai. Nicole’s practice covers a range of international compliance and regulatory issues, including cross border transactions, international trade, global mobility and employment, and global supply chains.

Nicole is a member of the firm’s COVID‚Äê19 Working Group, focusing on advising employers on compliance with U.S. and international initiatives affecting private employers and providing guidance on how to navigate the myriad of regulatory complexities companies are confronted with on a global basis.

A highly experienced business, compliance, and global employment lawyer, Nicole has over 20 years of experience working as a strategic advisor for a wide range of clients, from emerging growth companies to Fortune 500 multinational conglomerates, on their market entry and global business expansion throughout Asia (including China, Hong Kong, the Philippines, Malaysia, Taiwan, South Korea, Singapore, Japan, Vietnam and Thailand), the Middle East, Latin America, and Europe.

Christianne Kerns is the Managing Partner of Hahn & Hahn LLP, a full service law firm based in Southern California. In addition, she currently sits on the Boards of Five Acres (Board Chair 2018-2020; Board 2013 to present) and the Hastings Foundation (2019 to present). She previously sat on the Board of Villa Esperanza Services (2002-2008) and the Commission leading Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority (2001-2005).

As Managing Partner of Hahn & Hahn, she provides strategic leadership, direction, business development and operational responsibility with dedication and integrity. Responsibilities include hiring and management issues, partnership issues, branding and business development efforts, all aspects of finance, accounting and budgeting, and developing and strategically overseeing implementation of Risk Management and Human Resources policies and processes. Her experience includes organizational/strategic planning and direction, consensus building, decisive problem solving, strategic advice and counsel and financial acumen.

With more than 30 years of experience as a business lawyer, her legal representation focuses primarily in the areas of real estate, finance and general business matters. She is a trusted Board Member and Advisor to boards of directors, equity holders, and C-suite executives with a track record of identifying and effectively addressing strategic and operational challenges with the overarching goal of optimizing results, value, and return on investment. Expertise includes Board Governance and organizational structuring. She is skilled at calmly assessing a wide range of complex data, goals, points of view, and ideas from a wide range of stakeholders to help executive teams create solutions to business challenges.

Chris was named as one of Los Angeles’ most influential female lawyers by the Los Angeles Business Journal in 2018 and 2019.

Chris earned her J.D. at the University of Southern California Gould School of Law, and completed Harvard Business School’s Women on Boards: Succeeding as a Corporate Director Program. She lives in Pasadena, California, with her husband Charlie; they have two adult children.

Nina D. Boyajian is an intellectual property and privacy attorney  focusing on trademark counseling, enforcement, and litigation; copyright counseling, enforcement, and litigation, including DMCA; unfair competition/false advertising counseling and litigation; entertainment and media/First Amendment counseling and litigation, including right of publicity disputes; trade secret litigation; and TCPA class action defense. She also has broad experience litigating general business disputes. Her litigation and trial experience extends to both state and federal courts.

Allison Amadia serves as a Director, General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer of Personal Capital, an Empower Retirement company, and a leader in digital wealth management transforming financial lives through technology and people.  There she oversees the company’s legal, compliance and HR functions and also serves as a co-chair of the Company’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee.  Allison’s impressive and diverse legal career spans over twenty-five years.

Before Personal Capital, she served as General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer of Handle Financial Inc., a start up in the payment space operating under industry-leading compliance and security standards.  Previously, Allison served as the General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer of Extreme Networks, a multi-national, publicly traded networking communications company. In this role she was responsible for the company’s worldwide legal affairs including securities compliance, intellectual property portfolio management of over 1000 patents, litigation, subsidiary management of 50+ international subsidiaries, employment, regulatory compliance, acquisitions, strategic alliances, distribution management and commercial transactions. Her successful leadership over the acquisition and integration of a peer-sized company while at Extreme Networks earned her recognition as a finalist for Public Company General Counsel of the Year in 2015 by Silicon Valley Business Journal and San Francisco Business Times.

Allison successfully managed a legal consulting firm representing public and private technology companies in an innovative, outsourced General Counsel model for more than a decade. As an outsourced GC, Allison was heavily involved in the boardroom for her clients, where she drove corporate strategy and guided them through difficult business decisions, financings, expansion and acquisition opportunities as well as day-to-day operational activities and challenges that required legal support.  

Allison is a former teacher at University of Santa Clara School of Law where she lectured for several years on Technology Licensing, including source code, SaaS, cloud, and other complex licensing strategies.  From time to time, Allison participates on panels to share her perspective on a range of topics including business acumen for lawyers, complex technology transactions, IP protection, information security, privacy and compliance, women’s leadership, diversity and inclusion, and team building. She also currently serves as Vice Chair of the Dean’s Advisory Council for the College of Letters & Science, UC Davis.

Alyssa Moore is a native Southern Californian who moved East to pursue her educational and professional goals. She graduated from Oakwood University in 2009, and matriculated at North Carolina Central University (NCCU) School of Law in Durham, NC. While at NCCU, Ms. Moore earned her Juris Doctorate and Master of Business Administration degrees simultaneously and graduated in 2013. After law school, Ms. Moore attended The Catholic University of America where she also obtained her LL.M (Masters of Law) in Financial Securities.

Presently, Ms. Moore is Corporate Counsel of Cummins, Inc. She was In-House Counsel for comScore, Inc. where she engages in the practice of Cross-Platform Media Data Measurement for the United States local and national television markets, Canadian media market, and Small Business media markets. She also assists with Data Privacy Rights issues and Non-Disclosure agreements. 

Mikiesha Mayes is Senior Associate General Counsel at UnitedHealth Group, the largest health care services company in the world.  Kiesha partners with Company leadership to identify opportunities to leverage the law for strategic advantage and identify and mitigate risks in the human capital-employee relations space.  Having started her professional career in employee relations, Kiesha knows that being an effective in-house employment attorney is not about cleaning up messes (even if it is required from time to time).  It’s about relationship building and providing sound legal advice that is at the same time thoughtful and practical.  Kiesha guides clients through challenging and complex business and legal matters by helping them understand what is legal, but also what is right.

Before joining UnitedHealth Group, Kiesha was a private-practice attorney—including at the largest global employment law firm representing management exclusively. Kiesha also previously served as Assistant Attorney General for the State of Minnesota.  Prior to beginning her legal career, Kiesha worked in labor and employee relations at Minneapolis Public Schools/Special School District No. 1.

Kiesha is a frequent speaker on emerging employment law trends and diversity and inclusion in the legal profession.  Kiesha is a graduate of the University of St. Thomas School of Law (Minneapolis, MN).

Elizabeth collaborates with employers to (1) develop a culture aimed at preventing employee issues; (2) address employee issues in a manner that will reduce the potential for employment-related litigation; and (3) implement practices and policies that will put employers in the best defensible position if they do encounter employment-related litigation. She focuses her practice on five primary areas.

The first area is assisting employers with preparing and implementing sound practices, procedures, and agreements. This can include drafting policies, providing a legal review of an already existing handbook, drafting employment agreements and separation agreements, and drafting non-compete/non-disclosure agreements.

The second area is conducting employee training. Elizabeth develops and conducts training for both supervisors and non-supervisory employees on a variety of topics such as harassment, discrimination, FMLA and ADA.

The third area is advising Human Resources representatives on day-to-day situations. Examples include: FMLA issues, ADA accommodations, difficult terminations, affirmative action obligations, wage and hour issues, and discrimination and harassment issues.

The fourth area is conducting audits and investigations. This includes conducting Fair Labor Standards Act audits, investigations of employee complaints, and affirmative action audits.

The fifth area is managing litigation when it arises. Elizabeth assists with investigating and defending Charges of Discrimination, responding to demand letters, assessing the legal strength of a claim or potential claim, and managing the work in a lawsuit.