Speaker Bios

As Getty Images’ Chief People Officer, Lizanne helps the leadership team drive corporate culture and values, ensuring the company has a world-class human resources strategy to support growth and success, further strengthening Getty Images’ competitive advantage through commitment to culture, D&I and aligning human capital to company strategy. She has been with Getty Images for more than 17 years, previously serving as a VP, Corporate Counsel, and has been a consistent and fair voice for employees. Lizanne also serves on the Board of Trustees for the Hamlin Robinson School, a school that ignites the potential of elementary and middle-school students with dyslexia and other language-based learning differences. She is also proud mama to two kids who are her “why” for everything she does.

Aukjen is a seasoned trial lawyer who has tried multiple bench and jury trials to verdict in addition to acting as lead counsel in many arbitrations, including significant bet the company litigation.  She has deep experience in transportation and products liability law and has also tried a number of commercial cases.  Aukjen strongly supports diversity and pro bono efforts inside and outside her firm, including regularly mentoring lawyers from all backgrounds internally and acting as pro bono counsel on local matters for non-English speaking clients.  For the past four years, Aukjen has acted as co-trial counsel on a post-conviction death penalty matter in Louisiana in partnership with the Mwalimu Center for Justice in New Orleans.

Brie Coyle Jones is the co-leader of the tribal team, providing counsel to tribal governments and tribal enterprises on gaming, tax, liquor, cannabis, real estate, construction, and other economic development matters. Brie counsels tribes, tribal enterprises, and lenders in tribal-related financing projects for infrastructure improvements, gaming facilities, and resort properties. She understands the complex and unique intricacies of tribes’ unique sovereign status and jurisdictional issues associated with tribal lands. Brie also regularly advises non-tribal entities in their commercial transactions with tribes and tribal enterprises. Brie is a registered lobbyist in Washington State.

Brie also serves as the firm’s Chief Diversity Officer (CDO). As CDO, Brie provides thoughtful leadership to firm management to ensure that the firm stays at the forefront of advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in the legal profession and beyond. She collaborates with the firm’s Diversity & Inclusion Committee to develop and advance DEI initiatives, including spearheading the firm’s billable-hour credit, women & minority business enterprise program, and establishing an annual diverse attorney retreat. Brie is a persuasive advocate, ensuring that diverse voices are heard and considered throughout the decision-making process. Brie currently serves on Miller Nash’s Executive Committee and is an active member of the firm’s Diversity & Inclusion Committee.

Brie is a descendant of the Quileute Nation.

Christine is the Vice President and General Counsel of Balfour Beatty Infrastructure, Inc. (“BBII”), a subsidiary of London-based Balfour Beatty plc (LSE: BBY), a leading international infrastructure group that finances, develops, builds and maintains complex building programs focused on social and commercial buildings, power and utility systems, and transportation. Balfour Beatty US with combined revenues of over $4 billion, was ranked 17^th overall by Engineering News-Record as one of the “Top 400 Contractors in the United States” for 2020. 

 Christine has extensive experience in construction law, including the negotiation, mediation and arbitration of large and complex construction-related legal matters. Prior to joining Balfour Beatty, she was the head of Venable LLP’s Construction Law Group, based out of Venable’s Northern Virginia office. Christine obtained her JD from the George Mason University School of Law.

 Christine holds multiple bar admissions, is a Fellow and on the Board of Governors of the American College of Construction Lawyers. She also played an integral role in founding the Construction Industry Ethics & Compliance Initiative (“CIECI”), a non-profit association of U.S. construction industry participants dedicated to the promotion of integrity and ethical conduct in the construction industry and is the current CIECI Treasurer.

Caldwell Camero is Associate General Counsel, Global Trademarks & IP for Fluke. She leads the trademark team providing support for the Intelligent Operating Solutions, Precision Technologies, and Advanced Healthcare Solutions segments of Fortive, a provider of essential technologies for connected workflow solutions. Caldwell also manages the patent work for the Fluke Health division, which includes Landauer (dosimetry), RaySafe (radiography), and Fluke Biomedical. Caldwell’s career has given her extensive IP experience across a variety of industries, including industrial technology and manufacturing, food, CPG, consumer electronics, retail, and home improvement.

Meredith Thielbahr is Managing Partner of the Boise and Spokane offices of Gordon & Rees. She is licensed in Alaska, Idaho, Oregon, and Washington, as well as the District of Columbia. She handles complex commercial litigation matters, including general civil litigation and products liability issues. Her practice focuses in handling civil litigation on behalf of her construction industry and government contract clients. She assists contractors and suppliers in dispute resolution in both the commercial and public contracting arena. She works closely with clients on internal compliance investigations, and handles formal qui tam and government lawsuits. She is versed at interpreting contract and regulatory compliance.

Ms. Thielbahr represents contractors in bid protests before the COFC and GAO, along with various state and local procuring agencies, and represents contractors in size and status protests before the Small Business Administration.

Ms. Thielbahr handles complex litigation in both state and federal courts, and has negotiated numerous cases resulting in cost-effective resolutions for her clients. Ms. Thielbahr vigorously advances her client’s positions through tactical discovery methods. When necessary, Ms. Thielbahr prevails on her client’s claims and defenses through dipositive motions practice and, ultimately, at arbitration or trial.

Latrice Lee is Senior Corporate Counsel, Labor and Employment for Alaska Airlines. In this role, she is responsible for providing advice and counsel to business leaders, managing labor negotiations, labor arbitrations, litigation, investigations, and outside counsel. Prior to joining Alaska Airlines, Latrice was an employment attorney for both Microsoft and Lowe's Companies. Her private practice experience was at Polsinelli PC, in Kansas City, MO, where she handled wage and hour class actions and individual suits regarding discrimination, sexual harassment, wrongful termination, retaliation, disability accommodation and compliance matters. 

She received her law degree from North Carolina Central University School of Law and her bachelor’s degree from the University of South Carolina. She is the Executive Vice President for the Junior League of Seattle as well as a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. and Jack and Jill of America, Inc.

Jackee Walker helps local governments navigate all aspects of the eminent domain process, inverse condemnation, regulatory takings, and the associated negotiation and valuation. Over the last decade, she has been involved in hundreds of public projects in the Pacific Northwest, large and small. Jackee takes a proactive approach, advising clients from the pre-project planning stage through to project completion, identifying and addressing issues and potential risks quickly, creatively, and effectively. She has extensive mediation experience and is known for resolving cases short of the courtroom. When litigation is unavoidable, she has successfully first-chaired multimillion-dollar cases in Washington courts. Jackee focuses on understanding her clients’ overall objectives, internal processes, and construction timelines. Her clients include local transit authorities, counties, cities, special districts, utility companies, and private property owners. She regularly works with outside experts, such as appraisers, engineers, architects, developers, land planners, relocation agents, title/escrow officers, and environmental consultants to assure the best possible outcome for her clients.

Jolene Marshall is Smartsheet’s chief legal officer and corporate secretary. She is responsible for aligning the company’s risk management approach and leads the company’s legal, privacy, compliance, and procurement functions. Jolene has over 17 years of experience working in and leading legal teams. Prior to joining Smartsheet, she served as senior corporate counsel at SAP Concur and corporate counsel and secretary at WhitePages, Inc. Jolene holds a Bachelor's degree in business administration from the University of Washington and a JD from the University of Washington School of Law. In her free time, she enjoys travel, skiing, gardening, and reading to her kids.  

Binh Nguyen is a Director and Associate General Counsel at Nordstrom, Inc. Binh has over a decade of in-house experience in Banking where she managed legal and business teams handling litigation and regulatory compliance.  At Nordstrom, she manages a compliance team and supports commercial transactions, financial services, and marketing/advertising.

In her free time, she serves on the board of the Washington Initiative for Diversity, a non-profit organization that provides tools and resources to legal employers to create a diverse workforce and inclusive workplace.  She mentors law students and young attorneys through the Vietnamese American Bar Association of Washington’s (VABAW) and randomly meet with anyone who wants to chat about the legal profession or food.

Outside of the legal profession, Binh serves on the board of Kandelia (Formerly the Vietnamese Friendship Association), a local non-profit that provides programing to ensure equity in education and career readiness for immigrant and refugee youths. 

Kristina Silja Bennard is an Associate General Counsel at Avalara, a Seattle-based tech company that helps businesses of all sizes with automated, cloud-based solutions for tax compliance. She has over 20 years of experience both as an in-house attorney, including at Boeing and Expedia, and in private practice in Seattle and Washington, D.C. She also teaches Enterprise Legal Systems at Seattle University’s Albers School of Business and Economics. Kristina graduated magna cum laude from Harvard Law School and with distinction from Stanford University. Originally from Oregon, Seattle has been home for 17 years. 

Megan Fouty is the General Counsel and CHRO at Glowforge, Inc., a Seattle-based technology start-up that designs and produces 3D laser printers.  Megan oversees the Legal, HR, customer support organization, recruiting, and the facilities team at Glowforge. Megan joined Glowforge's executive team during a period of rapid growth. Megan came from heading up the legal team at Convoy, Inc. another Seattle-based technology start up. In addition to her day job, Megan founded and runs Diversity University, a company that provides diversity, equity, and inclusion tools such as trainings, project management, or assists in investigations for companies, law firms, and organizations. Megan's background includes both law firm and in-house experience with previous senior legal positions at Moss Adams, one of the country's largest public accounting firms and Expeditors International, a Fortune 500 international logistics company.  Megan serves on the board of directors for Providence Pediatric Hospice of Seattle. Recently she was awarded thetop ten 30 somethings by ACC national,  received the "Legal MVP Award" by SimpleLegal, she was listed in Marquis 2022 Who's Who in America, was featured on the International "The Counsel" Podcast, and was recognized  by  Women, Influence and Power in Law for Championing Diversity in-house and for Innovative Leadership.  She has spoken around the country on a wide range of topics and is seen as a prominent leader in the legal community. She recently published her bookThe Art of Networking, providing women, underrepresented individuals, and anyone looking for career progression or to grow a more robust network with tangible tools and advice to do so.

Heather Stutz joined Starbucks as Corporate Counsel, Intellectual Property in April, 2019.  In that role, Heather manages the Starbucks trademark portfolio for a large part of the Asia Pacific region, and she advises on a wide range of general intellectual property issues.  Prior to joining Starbucks, Heather spent nearly five years as an associate at the Milwaukee-based law firm of Quarles & Brady, where she specialized in the prosecution and enforcement of domestic and international trademark and copyright matters.  Heather earned her law degree from Marquette University, and her Bachelor of Arts and MBA degrees from the University of Wisconsin.  Before law school, she served as a patent and trademark paralegal at two other well-respected Milwaukee-based law firms.

Elida Moran is a Director, Legal Affairs for T-Mobile USA, Inc. In this role, Elida manages a small but might team that oversees the Frontline Sales practice supporting retail storefront operations and infrastructure, third party distribution for national retail, door to consumer, and emerging sales channels, and sales operations support for all sales channels and T-Mobile brands. Elida also oversees T-Mobile for Business (TFB) partner solutions distribution and TFB products line. Lastly, Elida supports operational compliance. Working for the Un-Carrier wireless company for over 20-years, Elida is well versed in multiple legal practice areas.

In addition to LBAW, Elida serves on numerous boards in order to promote both diversity and pro bono work within the Legal Community. Elida is a board member of the Association of Corporate Counsel of Washington (ACC-W), Legal Employers Advancing Diversity in Washington (LEAD-WA), and the Campaign for Equal Justice (CEJ). In addition, she serves on T-Mobile’s Pro Bono and Legal Intern Committees. Elida is an active member of the Hispanic National Bar Association (HNBA) and an HNBA Latina Commissioner.