Women in Law & Leadership Summit: West

Tao Zhang is Vice President & Deputy General Counsel at Hewlett Packard Enterprise, where she supports HPE Networking and brings extensive experience across intellectual property, product, privacy, technology and commercial matters.

Prior to HPE’s acquisition of Juniper Networks, Tao held senior legal leadership roles at Juniper, including responsibility for product, intellectual property, privacy and procurement. Earlier in her career, she served as Associate General Counsel of IP and Technology at Ansys and Senior Director of IP Strategy at Huawei Device USA. She previously spent 23 years with Hewlett-Packard, beginning as a research and development engineer before moving into product strategy, supply chain, IP licensing and legal roles.

Tao holds a Ph.D. in Physics from Stanford University and a J.D. from Concord Law School. She is a member of the California Bar and a registered patent attorney with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, and has earned the CIPP/US and Artificial Intelligence Governance Professional (AIGP) credentials from the International Association of Privacy Professionals.

She is co-author of Mining Ideas for Diamonds: Comparing China and US IP Practices from Invention Selection to Patent Monetization and has written on patent claim drafting and intellectual property strategy. Her multidisciplinary background spanning physics, engineering, business and law informs her approach to innovation, IP strategy and legal leadership.

Alina Zagaytova is Deputy General Counsel at Venture Global, where she brings extensive experience in corporate governance, strategic transactions, finance, M&A and regulatory matters. She previously served as General Counsel, Corporate Secretary and Chief Compliance Officer of Redwood Materials and as Deputy General Counsel and Assistant Corporate Secretary of Marqeta, where she helped lead strategic transactions, including the company’s initial public offering. Earlier, she served as Chief Counsel for Business Development at First Solar and practiced law at Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton and Hogan Lovells.

Alina holds a J.D. from Harvard Law School and a B.A. in Political Science from the University of California, Berkeley. She has also served as a director and advisor to several companies and organizations in the clean energy sector.

Diane Rodgers is Global Head of Insurance Legal at Uber, where she leads the company’s insurance legal function and advises on complex insurance, regulatory and risk matters across global markets. She also leads Uber’s autonomous vehicle insurance program and has played a key role in developing insurance structures for rideshare and emerging mobility risks.

Prior to joining Uber in 2016, Diane served as Vice President, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary of AIG Insurance Company of Canada and previously held senior legal roles at Assurant and TD Bank. She began her legal career at Blake, Cassels & Graydon. Diane holds both an LL.B. and an LL.M. in Dispute Resolution from Osgoode Hall Law School at York University.

Margaret C. McDonald is a partner in Reed Smith’s Insurance Recovery Group, where she represents policyholders in complex insurance coverage disputes involving directors and officers liability, employment practices liability, commercial general liability, property, mortgage, and other forms of insurance. An experienced litigator, she advises clients from pre-litigation negotiations and alternative dispute resolution through trial, including matters involving catastrophic losses, environmental liabilities, wildfires, and significant commercial claims. Margaret earned her J.D., magna cum laude, from Notre Dame Law School and her B.A., cum laude, from the University of San Francisco. She is admitted to practice in California and before the U.S. District Courts for the Central and Eastern Districts of California. She was recognized with a 2025 Business Insurance Break Out Award and has been included in The Best Lawyers in America: Ones to Watch for Insurance Law and Commercial Litigation.

Rachel Jari Feldman is a litigation partner in the Los Angeles office of White & Case, where she focuses on complex national and international business disputes. She represents global companies in high-stakes civil litigation, regulatory investigations and product counseling matters, particularly in the technology, internet and social media sectors. Her experience includes matters involving data protection, privacy, intellectual property, defamation, content liability, e-commerce and advertising regulations before courts and regulatory authorities around the world.

Rachel also represents clients in commercial disputes and consumer class actions involving unfair competition, false advertising, product labeling and contractual claims. She has been recognized by The Legal 500 USA as a Next Generation Partner in International Litigation and by Lawdragon as one of the Leading Litigators in America. Rachel earned her JD from the University of Southern California and her BA and BSBA from Washington University in St. Louis.

Minna C. Yang is a Director in Fennemore’s Sacramento office and a member of the firm’s tax practice. With more than 30 years of experience as both a CPA and attorney, she advises businesses, families and real estate owners on federal and state income tax planning, business transactions, restructurings, estate and succession planning, and tax-efficient wealth transfers.

Her experience includes like-kind exchanges, Qualified Opportunity Zone Funds, pass-through entity taxation, mergers and acquisitions, real estate, trusts and estates, and general counsel services. She also serves as outside general counsel to closely held and multi-generation businesses, advising owners and executives on governance, contracts, operational matters and risk while bringing an integrated legal, tax and financial perspective to business decisions.

Minna is a frequent author and speaker on tax and business issues, including business succession planning, real estate and agricultural estate planning, and complex tax matters. She is admitted to practice in California and before the U.S. Tax Court and is a Certified Public Accountant. She earned her J.D. from Lincoln Law School, an M.S. in Taxation from Golden Gate University, and a B.S. from California State University, Sacramento.

Shahzia M. Rahman is the Head of Corporate Legal at Block, Inc. (NYSE: XYZ), the S&P 500 financial technology company behind Square, Cash App, Afterpay, and TIDAL. In her role, she advises executives and the board of directors on corporate governance, securities law, capital markets, and strategic initiatives. She also works closely with cross-functional leadership to navigate the regulatory and governance considerations that accompany the growing use of artificial intelligence and other emerging technologies across the business. Beyond advising on AI governance, she actively experiments with AI-driven tools to reimagine how legal work gets done.

Rahman brings more than two decades of experience spanning leading law firm and senior in-house roles in the technology sector. Her work centers on guiding organizations through periods of strategic transformation on a global scale while building resilient, high-performing teams.

She has also served as an adjunct professor at University of California Law, San Francisco (formerly UC Hastings), where she taught a practical skills course on representing startup companies.

Renee Choy Ohlendorf is Senior Associate General Counsel at Optum, where she advises on commercial payments and related legal and regulatory matters for Optum Financial. Prior to joining Optum, she spent five years with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), most recently as Senior Regional Attorney, advising on matters involving the financial services industry and regulatory enforcement.

Earlier in her career, Renee spent nearly 15 years at Hinshaw & Culbertson, where her practice focused on commercial litigation and consumer financial services. She also served in leadership roles with the American Bar Association’s Litigation News, including as Editor-in-Chief. Renee earned her J.D. from Chicago-Kent College of Law and her B.A. from Northwestern University. She is an active member of the California Bar.

Bhakti Shivarekar is a technology attorney and data privacy leader with nearly two decades of experience navigating the intersection of commercial law, privacy, and AI governance. She currently serves as Assistant General Counsel at Hewlett Packard Enterprise, where she leads high-stakes commercial transactions and drives revenue growth across North American telecommunications markets. Over the course of her career, she has held senior legal roles at Juniper Networks, LinkedIn, and Just Global, building privacy programs, closing complex deals, and advising C-suite executives across global markets. She holds the Fellow of Information Privacy designation, the IAPP’s highest honor, as well as certifications in European and US privacy law, privacy management, and AI governance. Admitted to the California and New York bars, she is a sought-after voice on privacy, AI governance, and the evolving role of in-house counsel in technology-driven organizations. She has an LLB from ILS Law College, Pune, LLM in corporate law from the University of Pune, and LLM in IP, Commerce, and Technology law from the UNH Franklin Pierce School of Law.

Kelly Smith is a Partner at Allen Matkins in Orange County, practicing as a commercial litigator and construction lawyer. She represents developers, owners, and lenders in complex construction disputes — covering design and construction defects, project delays, and mechanics liens — while also providing strategic contract counseling to minimize risk and manage project close-out. Her construction experience spans infrastructure, commercial, hospitality, mixed-use, and residential projects, complemented by an active practice in high-stakes real estate, business, and employment disputes.

Kelly launched her career clerking for two federal judges in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California and went on to serve as a prosecutor, building deep courtroom experience that includes multiple jury trials. She is an Associate Fellow of the Construction Lawyers Society of America — an invitation-only honorary society — and a member of the National Association of Women in Construction. She has been recognized consecutively in The Best Lawyers in America: Ones to Watch from 2022 through 2026 across commercial litigation, construction law, and construction litigation. She earned her J.D. magna cum laude from the University of San Diego School of Law.

Jamillia P. Ferris is a Chambers-ranked partner and co-chair of the Antitrust & Competition Practice at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati. Based in Washington, D.C., she represents clients across diverse industries in high-stakes merger clearance, civil conduct investigations, and strategic antitrust matters before the U.S. Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission. Jamillia’s experience spans complex transactional work — including representations in major technology, healthcare, and consumer deals — and defense against hostile takeover attempts, helping clients navigate nuanced regulatory landscapes with clear, business-focused guidance.

Prior to joining Wilson Sonsini, Jamillia held leadership positions at both the Antitrust Division of the DOJ and the Federal Communications Commission, where she oversaw major merger reviews, including AT&T’s acquisition of DIRECTV. She is actively involved in shaping antitrust discourse through leadership in the American Bar Association’s Section of Antitrust Law and speaks regularly to global audiences on developments in competition law. In addition to her practice, Jamillia serves on the board of the D.C. Volunteer Lawyers Project and the Advisory Council of Lemonada Media.

Dara Poliskin represents institutional investors, developers, real estate funds, sovereign wealth funds, and property owners in commercial real estate transactions. She advises clients on acquisitions, dispositions, joint ventures, financings, leasing, and development matters across asset classes including data centers, office, mixed-use, industrial, retail, hospitality, multifamily, senior living, student housing, and life sciences properties. She also advises both landlords and tenants on leasing and asset management, including headquarters and single-tenant leases as well as multistate portfolios.

A frequent speaker at continuing legal education programs and industry seminars on real estate transactions, Dara is recognized for her practical, business-minded perspective on complex issues. Clients count on her to navigate sophisticated transactions efficiently, delivering pragmatic outcomes that support their long-term business goals. She earned her J.D. from UCLA School of Law and her B.S. from Cornell University. She is admitted to practice in California and is a member of the American Bar Association and Commercial Real Estate Women Network.

Sue Bunnell is a legal leader at a global Fortune 50 company, and rounds out her days with career therapy and teaching. She leverages 20+years of experience in technology, IP, security/privacy, and regulatory compliance when counseling executives in Wells Fargo’s Chief Administrative Office related to its global operations, including incident management, physical security, and safety issues worldwide.

Ms. Bunnell is an outspoken advocate for professional development, and runs career advancement programming inside and outside Wells Fargo, including as an adjunct professor at the University of San Francisco, and past stints as President/Chair of LWT: Advancing Women in Leadership and Director on the Board of the Professional BusinessWomen of California. She is a frequent host on podcasts encouraging women to stretch and grow in their careers, and enjoys speaking and facilitating presentations and workshops on effective self-advocacy and negotiation skills.

Lisa Pan is Senior Counsel, Corporate and Tax at OpenAI, where she advises on corporate and tax matters. She joined OpenAI as Senior Tax Counsel after practicing in the tax group at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom.

Lisa earned her law degree from New York University School of Law, where she served as an editor of the Tax Law Review and as a research assistant to Professor Lily Batchelder. She received NYU Law’s Harry J. Rudick Memorial Award for Excellence in Taxation and is an active member of the California Bar.

By codifying institutional knowledge and prioritizing data-driven decision-making, she builds the operational infrastructure necessary for impactful technology to thrive. Her background spans the full lifecycle of high-stakes commercial agreements—including SaaS, intellectual property licensing, and global production deals—complemented by a deep focus on navigating complex regulatory landscapes such as GDPR and CCPA.

Ashley L. Shively is a privacy and class action attorney in Holland & Knight’s San Francisco office. She also serves as the Data Strategy, Security & Privacy Practice Group Leader.

Ms. Shively counsels public and private companies on consumer protection and data privacy issues with respect to product development, sign-up and point-of-sale procedures, auto-renewals and subscription products, digital marketing, regulatory compliance, incident response, and state and federal enforcement. She regularly advises clients on operationalizing the requirements of the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA/CPRA), Colorado Privacy Act (CPA), Virginia Consumer Data Protection Act (VCDPA) and analogous state privacy statues and legislation. In addition, she counsels businesses on risk mitigation with respect to the California Invasion of Privacy Act (CIPA), Video Privacy Protection Act (VPPA), Drivers Privacy Protection Act (DPPA), Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing (CAN-SPAM) Act of 2003, Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA), state privacy and unfair and deceptive practices laws, and similar legal and regulatory requirements.

Ms. Shively focuses her robust litigation practice on the defense of financial institutions and businesses in consumer class and individual actions, as well as clients facing so-called mass arbitrations. She has extensive experience defending privacy, data breach, false advertising, unfair business practices, call recording and website wiretap claims, particularly under the VPPA, Federal Wiretap Act and similar state statues like CIPA.

Gauri Manglik is Vice President, Head of Legal, Privacy, and AI Governance at GoFundMe, where she leads the company’s global legal function, including privacy and AI governance. With nearly two decades of broad legal experience—including corporate, commercial, regulatory, and product counseling—Gauri is a strategic business partner known for her pragmatic, solutions-oriented approach.

At GoFundMe, Gauri oversees legal risk management, negotiates complex commercial agreements, and drives enterprise-wide privacy and AI Governance programs. Gauri is recognized for her cross-functional leadership and ability to build scalable legal frameworks that enable innovation while safeguarding trust and transparency. Her work is grounded in a strong commitment to integrity, accountability, and empowering teams to navigate complexity with confidence.

Ali is a partner in the firm’s Financial Services Litigation Department. Ali’s practice focuses on financial services litigation, complex commercial cases and trust and estate disputes. She successfully advocates for her clients at all stages of litigation including taking and defending depositions, drafting and arguing dispositive motions, navigating complex e-discovery issues, handling high-stakes settlement negotiations, and preparing for and taking matters to trial, as well as post-trial work if necessary. Ali has defended numerous class actions and multi-district litigation, involving all phases of class action litigation including e-discovery, class certification and class settlement. Ali has litigated numerous cases which triggered application of Articles 3 and 4 of the Uniform Commercial Code. Ali also recently successfully defended against a challenge to her client’s $18 million estate plan – which persisted up until the literal eve of trial. That defense included defending against three separate lawsuits and two appeals and resulted in a $500,000+ award of fees and costs back to the client.
Ali has additional experience assisting clients in trust and estate litigation matters involving undue influence allegations, accounting disputes, life estate valuations, inter-family disputes over distribution of assets, special trustee’s fiduciary duties in administering family trust worth over $100 million, trustee’s fiduciary duties under Hawaii law in administering family trust worth over $30 million with properties in Hawaii and California. Additionally, Ali has significant pro bono experience litigating asylum and prisoner rights’ cases.
Ali served as a law clerk to the Honorable William Alsup of the U.S. District Court of Northern District of California.

Jennifer Jeffers is a partner at Allen Matkins in San Francisco, where she focuses on land use and natural resources law for residential, healthcare, renewable energy, industrial, and mixed-use development across California. She guides private, nonprofit, and public sector clients through every phase of project development — from acquisition and due diligence through CEQA/NEPA compliance, entitlement, permitting, and construction — with a proven track record on high-profile projects including large-scale residential developments and renewable energy projects, healthcare facilities, and corporate campuses. She also brings deep fluency in state housing legislation and local referenda, helping clients stay ahead of regulatory shifts.

Jennifer’s particular strength lies in complex natural resources matters — endangered species, wetlands, and aquatic resources under the federal Clean Water Act, ESA, CESA, and California Fish and Game Code — with direct experience managing permitting before the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, California Department of Fish and Wildlife, California Coastal Commission, and State and Regional Water Quality Control Boards. Her technical grounding is exceptional: she holds a J.D. from UC Berkeley School of Law, an M.S. in environmental science from UC Berkeley, and a B.A. with honors in environmental biology from the University of Colorado-Boulder. Prior to practicing law, Jennifer spent years as Director of Conservation International’s Regional Marine Strategies program, implementing biodiversity conservation practices for governments worldwide. She is a two-time recipient of Bisnow Northern California’s Commercial Real Estate Power Women Award (2024, 2025).

Arthi Chakravarthy has been Chief Legal Officer since joining Enovix in April 2023. She has 20 years of experience as a business attorney for semiconductor and manufacturing companies. Most recently, Arthi was the General Counsel of Lightning eMotors (NYSE: ZEV), a zero emissions commercial vehicle manufacturing company. Previously, she served as Deputy General Counsel of Micron Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ: MU), a semiconductor company. Before Micron, she was Vice President, Commercial Legal Affairs at TiVo, Inc., a consumer hardware company. Arthi began her career at major law firms including Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati and Morrison & Foerster LLP. Since 2009, she has served as a Board Member of Hospital for Hope India, a non-profit hospital in rural India. Arthi received a J.D. from Stanford Law School where she served as Editor of the Stanford Law Review. She has a B.A. in Human Biology with Honors from Stanford University.

Francesca Ginexi is an Associate General Counsel at Meta. In her role, she focuses on emerging AI regulation, advising the company on new requirements, their impact and their implementation. Prior to this role, she served on various legal and policy teams at both Meta and Google, covering topics spanning privacy, content and trust-and-safety. Originally from Italy, she holds a law degree from Bocconi University (Milan) and an LL.M. from Stanford Law School.

Najah Hopkins was recently appointed to serve as an Administrative Law Judge.  Her path to the role is rooted in service to others, beginning in the halls of the Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office, where she worked as a clinical social worker supporting crime victims and witnesses through the criminal justice process.  That formative experience instilled a deep understanding of the human stakes of the law and has guided every chapter of her professional career.

She went on to earn her law degree and build a distinguished legal career spanning public service, private practice, and academia.  Her public sector experience includes an administrative law position at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and a clerkship at the U.S. Federal Trade Commission.  She has litigated family law matters, served as a FINRA arbitrator presiding over securities disputes, and taught business law as an adjunct professor.

In the private sector, Najah held senior legal roles in the aerospace and defense industry at Raytheon and BAE Systems, negotiating government and commercial contracts and advising on International Trade Compliance.  Most recently, she led commercial contracting for the global rides business at Uber.

She holds a B.A. in Psychology from the University of Southern California, an M.S.W. from New York University, and a J.D. and M.B.A. from Howard University.  She is admitted to practice in California and New York.

Carolyn Herzog is a Board Director and C-Suite executive with over 25 years of broad technology experience in multinational companies, having worked across the U.S. and in other countries.  Currently, Carolyn is Chief Legal Officer and Company Secretary of Elastic (ESTC). For Elastic, Carolyn is responsible globally for all legal, regulatory, compliance and public affairs matters and provides strategic counsel to the CEO, Board and leadership team on a broad range of corporate, commercial and regulatory issues. Elastic is headquartered in the Netherlands and is traded on the NYSE.

Prior to Elastic, Carolyn was the EVP, General Counsel, Corporate Secretary and Chief Compliance Officer for Arm Ltd. Before Arm, Carolyn was the VP, Deputy GC and CCO for Symantec Corporation (SYMC), which she joined through the acquisition of AXENT Technologies, Inc. (AXNT), where she led the transaction as GC.  Prior to her legal career, Carolyn worked in the Africa Department of The World Bank in Washington, D.C.

Carolyn has served on a number of non-profit, advisory and subsidiary boards.  She has been recognized numerous times for her business leadership, most recently as an NACD Directorship 100, by 50 Women to Watch for Boardsand as a Top 50 Most Powerful Women in Technology by the National Diversity Awards.

Camille Brooks is a partner in Katten’s Los Angeles office, where she focuses on class action defense and complex commercial litigation. She represents banks, credit unions, commercial landlords and other major companies in federal and state courts nationwide, with particular experience defending consumer claims involving overdraft and nonsufficient-funds fees, the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, the Fair Credit Reporting Act, discriminatory lending and privacy.

Camille also advises clients on reducing class action and regulatory risk, including strengthening consumer contracts and disclosures and implementing arbitration provisions and class action waivers. She earned her J.D. from the University of Southern California Gould School of Law and her B.A., with honors, from the University of California, Berkeley. She has been recognized by Chambers USA, The Legal 500 United States and Best Lawyers.

Samantha Hardaway is Global Vice President, Legal at Oracle, where she has held senior legal leadership roles focused on cloud infrastructure, cloud services, data and technology matters. During her tenure at Oracle, she has led legal teams supporting cloud offerings across infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS), platform-as-a-service (PaaS) and software-as-a-service (SaaS), and has participated in industry initiatives addressing cloud contracting and regulation.

Prior to joining Oracle, Samantha held legal and business roles at Taleo and BroadVision and began her legal career in private practice. She earned her J.D. from UCLA School of Law, where she served as an editor of the UCLA Law Review, and her B.A. from Cornell University. She is an active member of the California Bar.

Allison Lisbonne Amadia is a senior legal, compliance, and risk executive with more than 30 years of experience operating at the intersection of strategy, execution, and governance across technology, financial services, and professional services organizations. Known as a highly effective strategic operator, Allison partners with executive leadership teams to translate business objectives into scalable, resilient operating models—using legal, risk, and compliance functions as drivers of growth rather than constraints.

Throughout her career, Allison has intentionally pivoted across roles and industries— including academia, entrepreneurship, solo and fractional General Counsel roles, and C‑suite leadership—building a rare ability to see the business from multiple vantage points. Her distinguishing strength lies in developing business‑minded teams: leaders who understand not only the law and regulation, but also the commercial, cultural, and operational realities of the organizations they serve.

Most recently, Allison served as Chief Legal & Risk Officer and Corporate Secretary at Edelman Financial Engines, the nation’s largest independent registered investment advisor. As a core member of the executive leadership team, she led numerous areas critical to the success of the company including enterprise Legal, Compliance, Risk, Cybersecurity, Regulatory Affairs, Internal Audit, and Investigations. In this role, Allison helped shape enterprise strategy, modernized risk and governance frameworks, strengthened operational resilience, and partnered with management to navigate high‑stakes business events. She also architected and implemented an enterprise‑wide AI governance framework aligned with innovation, regulatory expectations, and business strategy.

Previously, Allison served as Chief Legal & Compliance Officer at Titan Global Capital Management and as General Counsel, Chief Compliance Officer, and Corporate Secretary at Personal Capital Corporation, guiding the company through its high‑visibility unicorn acquisition by Empower Retirement. Following the acquisition, she was appointed to the Board and served as Head of Human Resources in addition to her original responsibilities and her role was central in partnering with leadership on integration, governance, and strategic initiatives.

Earlier executive roles include General Counsel and SVP of HR at Handle Financial and EVP, General Counsel at Extreme Networks, where she led global legal operations and the acquisition and integration of a peer‑size competitor that doubled the company’s scale in six months. Across these roles, Allison consistently focused on building teams that operate with commercial judgment, accountability, and a deep understanding of business priorities.

Earlier in her career, Allison founded Amadia Pritchard LLP, serving for over a decade as a trusted advisor and outsourced General Counsel to technology companies, following prior roles at Morrison & Foerster, Novell, VeriFone, Seagate Software, and as a federal judicial clerk. Allison also taught a technology licensing course at Santa Clara Law School as an adjunct professor for several years. Widely respected for her integrity, clarity, and ability to lead through disruption, Allison has been recognized as one of the 10 Most Disruptive Women Leaders to Watch (2023) and among the Top 25 Women Leaders in Financial Technology (2021). She brings a distinctive, experience‑driven perspective on leadership, resilience, and career pivots—grounded in the belief that the most durable impact comes from building business‑aligned teams that enable organizations to move faster, smarter, and with confidence.

Bailey Langner is a skilled litigator with a focus on defending tech companies, product manufacturers, and energy sector clients in product liability and personal injury cases. She litigates in state and federal court, including multi-district litigation (MDLs) and coordinated state proceedings, and represents clients in related government investigations. Bailey has significant trial, deposition, and case management experience and has helped secure important victories for clients at all stages of litigation. Bailey recently completed a secondment at a San Francisco-based tech company and gained insight into the issues companies face.

In addition to her legal practice, Bailey is active in the community.  She mentors students through the Leadership Council for Legal Diversity and previously served as a trustee on her local school board.  She has a robust pro bono practice, including assisting students obtain and renew their DACA status.

Bailey received her law degree from the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law, where she co-founded a clinical program helping underserved populations access public benefits and worked as a teaching assistant in the first-year legal writing program.

Katharine (Trina) Falace is the Napa Valley Chair of the Firm’s Litigation Practice Group, Co‑Chair of the Firm’s Wine, Beer & Spirits Industry Law Group, and a Partner in Buchalter’s Napa Valley office. Trina is a trusted legal strategist and seasoned business litigator known for delivering practical, business-minded solutions in high-stakes disputes. With extensive trial experience, she represents clients across diverse industries in complex commercial, real estate, and land use matters.

Trina represents clients in the wine and agricultural sectors, advising wineries, vineyard managers, and agricultural businesses on disputes involving easements, boundaries, contracts, and land use regulations. Her deep understanding of the industry allows her to blend courtroom advocacy with proactive counsel, helping clients navigate legal challenges while preserving vital business relationships.

Beyond litigation, Trina regularly counsels clients on conflict prevention and risk management, offering clear, actionable guidance to avoid costly disputes. Her transactional work includes drafting and negotiating winemaker agreements, vineyard management contracts, grape purchase deals, compliance issues, and water-sharing arrangements.

Known for her collaborative style and clear communication, Trina is a respected advisor for businesses seeking clarity, confidence, and results in a complex legal landscape.

Trina maintains an active presence in the Napa community through her service in a variety of leadership roles.

Cynthia Lopez Beverage is Vice President, Associate General Counsel – Legal (Global Procurement Transactions) & Chief Counsel at Visa, where she leads legal support for global sourcing and procurement transactions and works with risk, product, regulatory, cybersecurity and technology teams on complex commercial agreements. She has extensive experience in intellectual property, technology transactions, licensing and litigation.

Prior to joining Visa, Cynthia practiced at Morrison & Foerster, where her work included patent litigation, intellectual property licensing and appellate matters before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. She also served as a judicial law clerk for the Federal Circuit. Cynthia earned her J.D. from Southern Methodist University School of Law and an LL.M. in Intellectual Property Law from The George Washington University Law School. She is an active member of the California Bar.

Linda Nyberg is a Senior Product Counsel at Google and an experienced technology lawyer specializing in artificial intelligence. At Google, she provides strategic advice on generative AI product launches in Google Cloud and model serving infrastructure, navigating complex legal and regulatory issues related to data governance, ethics, copyright, and privacy. She collaborates closely with cross-functional legal and product teams and is passionate about the responsible and ethical use of AI to drive innovation and transformation across industries.

Rike Connelly is the managing partner of the McGuireWoods Seattle office and co-leader of the firm’s Business Litigation Practice Group. Rike helps businesses navigate commercial disputes of every scale, tailoring strategy to align legal outcomes with broader business objectives and the most efficient path to resolution.

Rike represents clients in a wide array of commercial matters in state and federal courts, with distinct experience in Washington State and within the Ninth Circuit. She has particular experience with large Multidistrict Litigation and class action matters, including antitrust and Lanham Act cases, among others. Rike brings a sophisticated approach to discovery, deploying advanced e‑discovery tools, including custom multimodel continuous active learning systems and other artificial intelligence solutions, to drive down review costs while maintaining defensibility and rigor.

Beyond her commercial practice, Rike maintains an active pro bono docket, assisting individuals in immigration proceedings and supporting systemic civil rights litigation. She also serves as an editor of the annual Court Rules Annotated (Washington), covering the Superior and General Court Rules of Washington State.

Kelly Mandish is Vice President, Legal (Global Employment) at Zendesk, where she leads the company’s global employment legal function and advises on employment law, workplace compliance and workforce matters across international operations. Prior to joining Zendesk, she served as Vice President, Labor & Employment (Global Legal) at NetEase Games and as Director of Global Employment Law at Netflix, where she advised on employment matters across more than 25 countries and led an international employment legal team.

Kelly earned her J.D. from the University of California, Hastings College of the Law (now UC Law San Francisco) and her undergraduate degree from Connecticut College. She is an active member of the California Bar and has been admitted to practice since 2004.

Kelly Wentzel is Senior Director of Legal at OpenTable, where she brings more than 20 years of experience advising technology and consumer-facing companies on commercial, product, employment, compliance and corporate legal matters. Prior to joining OpenTable, she served as Deputy General Counsel at Culture Amp and previously held senior legal roles at Embark Trucks, Scoop Technologies, StubHub and Levi Strauss & Co.  Kelly earned her J.D. from the University of San Francisco School of Law and her undergraduate degree from the University of California, Irvine. She has been a member of the California Bar since 2004.

Sarah Kelly-Kilgore is the Executive Partner of Holland & Knight’s Newport Beach office and a member of the firm’s Litigation and Dispute Resolution Practice Group. Her practice centers on high-stakes litigation and complex business disputes across a wide range of industries.

Ms. Kelly-Kilgore has extensive experience litigating matters involving fraud, business torts, defamation, contract disputes, federal agency enforcement actions, unfair competition, and corporate governance issues. She has served as lead counsel in numerous high-profile cases that have drawn significant national and international attention, including coverage in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, and The Boston Globe.

In addition to her litigation practice, Ms. Kelly-Kilgore regularly advises business clients on compliance and regulatory matters, as well as employment law issues, including sexual harassment, discrimination, and wrongful termination.

Janeé Weaver is a seasoned legal executive with more than 15 years of experience advising executive leadership on complex legal, regulatory, governance, and enterprise risk matters across the transportation, technology, healthcare, and public sectors. She currently serves as Senior Counsel, Regulatory Compliance at Lyft, where she provides strategic legal counsel on U.S. and international matters, including autonomous vehicle initiatives, product launches, commercial agreements, safety programs, enterprise compliance, litigation strategy, and emerging transportation technologies.

Throughout her career, Janeé has partnered with C-suite executives, boards of directors, policymakers, and cross-functional leadership teams to navigate government investigations, regulatory inquiries, litigation, and evolving legal frameworks. She is known for developing practical, business-oriented legal strategies that reduce enterprise risk while enabling innovation and growth. Her experience includes supporting complex litigation, negotiating and advising on commercial contracts, leading internal investigations, implementing enterprise compliance programs, strengthening governance and internal controls, supporting internal audit functions and Audit Committee initiatives, and presenting legal and compliance matters to executive leadership and boards of directors. Janeé has successfully implemented cost-effective compliance solutions that integrate seamlessly into business operations, minimizing disruption, reducing organizational exposure, and contributing to favorable regulatory outcomes while advancing strategic business objectives.

Prior to Lyft, Janeé led enterprise compliance and governance initiatives for public transportation agencies and government organizations, where she built comprehensive compliance and ethics programs, advised executive leadership on governance and enterprise risk management, managed high-profile regulatory matters, and developed sustainable frameworks for organizational accountability.

Janeé is also the co-founder of CRWN Network, an executive leadership community dedicated to accelerating the advancement of women through strategic relationships, executive development, and access to leadership opportunities.

Sri Kuehnlenz is the managing partner of Cohen & Gresser’s Palo Alto office, and a member of the firm’s Litigation and White Collar practice groups. She has experience in matters involving contract claims, securities laws, the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, consumer protection laws, the UCC, and executive employment issues, among others, with a particular focus on cases involving complex financial and accounting issues. On the criminal and regulatory side, Sri has represented senior executives and companies in complex financial investigations at every stage, from the initial regulatory inquiry to negotiations of a potential resolution and through trial, if necessary. Sri also provides pre-litigation counsel, routinely advising clients in contract disputes and employment negotiations, among other matters.

In recognition of her work, Sri was named a “Lawyer on the Fast Track” in Law.com’s 2026 California Legal Awards and to Benchmark Litigation’s 2026 “40 & Under” list of top litigators for her work in White Collar Crime, Commercial Litigation, and Criminal Defense. She was also named a Rising Star by Law360 in the White Collar category in 2024 and one of New York’s Rising Stars by Super Lawyers since 2019. She is also recognized by Lawdragon in both its 500 X – The Next Generation list for excellence in Litigation and White Collar and its 500 Leading Global Investigations Lawyers list.

Prior to joining Cohen & Gresser, Sri was an associate at a leading international law firm.

Sri is a graduate of Yale Law School, where she served as submissions editor of the Yale Journal of Law and Feminism, and community & outreach chair of Yale Law Women. She received her B.A., summa cum laude, from Brandeis University.

Khadeeja is a seasoned legal counsel with over a decade of international experience. Currently, as Associate General Counsel (Director), Technology Transactions at Rivian Automotive, she specializes in complex technology & strategic partnership agreements and provides legal counsel across business teams. Her expertise spans diverse sectors, from startups to publicly traded companies, encompassing roles in commercial & technology transactions, intellectual property, mergers & acquisitions, joint ventures & various product launches. Holding a master’s in law (Intellectual Property and Technology Law), Khadeeja has been honored as one of 100 inspiring women by Rising Beyond the Ceiling, highlighting her dedication to professional excellence and community upliftment.

Pooja Elhance is Vice President, Compliance at Bluevine, where she leads compliance initiatives for the financial technology company and advises on regulatory, risk and operational compliance matters. During her tenure at Bluevine, she has progressed through increasingly senior compliance leadership roles, including Senior Manager, Compliance and Head of Compliance Strategy and Operations.

Her work has included compliance strategy for small-business financial products and emerging issues at the intersection of financial services, technology and regulation. She has also participated in industry discussions on AI-driven compliance and risk management in small-business lending. Pooja received her legal education at St. John’s University School of Law.

Aroma Sharma focuses her practice on a wide range of corporate and transactional matters, acting predominantly for private and emerging companies. Aroma has advised clients on mergers and acquisitions, debt and equity financing, corporate and equity restructuring and recapitalizations and joint ventures in various industries, including technology and health and life sciences. She also advises clients regularly on general corporate and corporate governance matters. Aroma also has experience working on cross-border transactions, including business’ international expansion into new territories.

Amara Mullins is a litigation partner in the Los Angeles office of White & Case and a member of the firm’s Global Technology Industry Group. She represents technology companies in high-stakes litigation and regulatory disputes around the world, with significant experience in matters involving content moderation, intermediary liability, defamation, consumer protection, privacy and data protection, advertising and elections.

Amara also advises legal, policy, product, marketing and communications teams on compliance with U.S. and international laws throughout the product-development lifecycle. She helps lead a team handling international civil litigation for Meta Platforms and other major technology companies, and has served on secondment as litigation, content and compliance counsel for Meta in London, Los Angeles, Paris and Washington, D.C. She earned her JD from the University of Pennsylvania Law School, an MPA from Columbia University and a BA from the University of Massachusetts Amherst.