2019 MCCA DIVERSITY GALA
MCCA would like to thank our Board, NGEN Advisory Board, honorees, members, sponsors and partners for supporting the 2019 MCCA Diversity Gala. Once again we gathered to celebrate and honor individuals, companies and law firms who have demonstrated leadership in improving diversity, inclusion and equity and paved the way to create more opportunities for those who have been under-represented.
We believe that working together as a united front is essential to see the kind of change we all long for in our industry. We sense the urgency of our time. While the legal profession has long been focused on hiring and promoting diverse talent, the progress has been slow. We remain focused on our commitment to strategically collaborate with our partners to build a movement of changemakers who believe that change occurs when we all choose to work together for the greater good. There is strength in numbers and even greater strength with unity. #RISEUNITED
From all of us, again, thank you so much for your engagement, partnership and commitment.
Please add events@mcca.com to your Address Book or Contacts to receive any future communications regarding the Diversity Gala.
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OCTOBER 16, 2019
American Museum of Natural History
Central Park West at 79th Street
New York, NY 10024-5192
2019 Diversity Gala Highlights
2019 Diversity Gala Sponsors
MCCA would like to thank all of our generous sponsors who supported MCCA’s 2019 Diversity Gala.
2019 Employer of Choice Award National Winner
Award Accepted by: Kelly Mahon Tullier,
Executive Vice President, General Counsel & Corporate Secretary
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ABOUT VISA INC.
Visa Inc. (NYSE: V) is the world’s leader in digital payments. Our mission is to connect the world through the most innovative, reliable and secure payment network – enabling individuals, businesses and economies to thrive. Our advanced global processing network, VisaNet, provides secure and reliable payments around the world, and is capable of handling more than 65,000 transaction messages a second. The company’s relentless focus on innovation is a catalyst for the rapid growth of digital commerce on any device, for everyone, everywhere. As the world moves from analog to digital, Visa is applying our brand, products, people, network and scale to reshape the future of commerce. For more information, visit About Visa, visa.com/blog and @VisaNews.
2019 Employer of Choice Award
Regional and International Winners
Click on the logos below to view the regional and inaugural international winners’ videos presented at the 2019 Diversity Gala awards ceremony.
2019 Charlotte E. Ray Honoree
The 2019 Charlotte E. Ray Award was presented to Michelle C. Ifill, Founder, La Maison Michelle; Retired Senior Vice President & General Counsel of Verizon Corporate Services, Inc., at the MCCA Diversity Gala on October 16, 2019 at the American Museum of Natural History in New York.
2019 Thomas L. Sager Award Winner
Award Accepted by: Guy Halgren,
Chairman
2019 Thomas L. Sager Award Finalists
Click on the videos below to view the regional and inaugural international winners’ videos presented at the 2019 Diversity Gala awards ceremony.
Host Committee Members
STUART ALDEROTY
General Counsel,
Ripple
DAMIEN ATKINS
Senior Vice President, General Counsel & Secretary,
The Hershey Company
ANNE LEE BENEDICT
Executive Vice President,
Chief Legal Officer & Secretary,
Summit Materials, Inc.
ROBERT BOSTROM
Executive Vice President,
Chief Legal & Compliance
Officer & Corporate Secretary,
Pier 1 Imports, Inc.
DARRELL GAY
Partner,
Arent Fox LLP
SAMANTHA GRANT
Partner,
Sheppard, Mullin,
Richter & Hampton LLP
WILLIE HERNANDEZ
Director & Associate General
Counsel, Product,
Facebook
DUANE HOLLOWAY
Senior Vice President,
General Counsel, and Chief Ethics
& Compliance Officer,
U.S. Steel
KEN JEW
Group Senior Vice President,
General Counsel & Corporate Secretary,
Ross Stores, Inc.
JOHN KUO
Executive Vice President,
General Counsel & Chief
Compliance Officer,
Charles River Laboratories
HANNAH LIM-JOHNSON
Senior Vice President,
Chief Legal Officer & Corporate Secretary,
Meritor, Inc.
LANESHA MINNIX
Senior Vice President,
Chief Legal Officer
& Corporate Secretary,
Flowserve Corporation
DAN NEFF
Partner,
Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz
NATALIE A. PIERCE
Partner,
Gunderson Dettmer
TOM ROBERTSON
Corporate Vice President &
Deputy General Counsel,
Microsoft Corporation
THOMAS L. SAGER
Partner,
Ballard Spahr LLP
TEENA-ANN V. SANKOORIKAL
Partner,
Covington & Burling LLP
MICHAEL TANG
Senior Vice President,
General Counsel & Secretary,
Agilent Technologies, Inc.
ALAN K. TSE
Global General Counsel &,
Corporate Secretary,
Jones Lang LaSalle, IP, Inc.
BENJAMIN F. WILSON
Chairman,
Beveridge & Diamond, P.C.
EVENT AGENDA
WEDNESDAY, October 16, 2019
*Please note the agenda times are in EDT.
06:00 PM – 07:30 PM
VIP PRE-SHOW RECEPTION & PRE-SHOW RECEPTION FOR ALL GUESTS
07:30 PM – 11:00 PM
GALA AWARDS PROGRAM & POST-AWARDS DINNER RECEPTION
Master of Ceremonies: Richard Lui – Anchor, MSNBC & NBC News
Remarks by: Jean Lee – President & CEO, MCCA
Employer of Choice Award Regional and Inaugural International Winners:
- Eaton – Midwest Region
Heath Monesmith – President & Chief Operating Officer, Industrial Sector - Mastercard – Northeast Region
Timothy Murphy – General Counsel - Visa Inc. – Western Region
Kelly Mahon Tullier – Executive Vice President, General Counsel & Corporate Secretary - Nokia – International
Nassib Abou-Khalil – Chief Legal Officer
Charlotte E. Ray Award Honoree:
Presented by: Craig Silliman – Executive Vice President & Chief Administrative, Legal & Public Policy Officer, Verizon
- Michelle C. Ifill – Founder, La Maison Michelle; Retired Senior Vice President & General Counsel of Verizon Corporate Services, Inc.
Thomas L. Sager Award Finalists:
- Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP
- Reed Smith LLP
- Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton LLP
Closing: Richard Lui
Registration & Fees
PAYMENT MESSAGE:
Visa, Mastercard, and American Express accepted.
MCCA Law Firm and Corporate Members: Please note as part of your company’s/firm membership benefits you may be entitled to a complimentary registration or a member discount rate for the conference registration.
For member complimentary registrations, members must obtain their complimentary codes from their “Company/Firm” and use them during registration. The complimentary codes should be entered in the discount code field at the Payment Page and members must click “Apply Now” to zero their balance.
For member discount rates to apply, members must select their “Company/Firm” from a drop down labeled “MCCA Law Firm/Corporate Members” during the registration process. The member discount rate will automatically be applied at the Payment page.
For any questions or inquires, please contact membership@mcca.com.
CANCELLATIONS & SUBSTITUTIONS:
Tickets are non-refundable. If you have paid tickets and are unable to attend the event we will provide a tax letter for your donation upon request. Please email sponsorship@mcca.com for tax letter request and/or questions.
SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS:
Please advise the Diversity Gala team if you have any special needs for facilities, visual aids or dietary requirements at events@mcca.com.
TERMS AND CONDITIONS
Click here to review the MCCA Conference Registration General Terms and Conditions.
PREVIOUS MCCA DIVERSITY GALAS
Michelle Ifill
Founder, La Maison Michelle
Retired Senior Vice President & General Counsel, Verizon Corporate Services, Inc.
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As the recently retired Senior Vice President and General Counsel of Verizon Corporate Services Group, Inc., Michelle was responsible for primary legal oversight and support of the Chief Administration Office, which included Supply Chain and Vendor Management, Supplier Diversity, Global Real Estate, Sustainability, Aviation & Fleet Management. Michelle’s team also had responsibility for a variety of information technology, cyber security, intellectual property and financial services areas. Prior to this most recent appointment, Ms. Ifill was Senior Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary for Verizon’s Enterprise Solutions business unit. In this capacity, she was responsible for representing the legal and regulatory interests for Verizon’s $18 billion business unit which oversees all of Verizon’s wireless, wireline, IT and Cloud capabilities for enterprise and government customers globally.
Michelle is the founder of The Women’s Excellence Network (WEN) a professional business development and relationship-building organization. Relatedly, she has continued her practice of providing executive coaching and diversity & inclusion training through WE Consulting LLC. She and her husband are also entrepreneurs in the development and management of their Caribbean spa resort and conference venue, Villa La Maison Michelle, Barbados www.lammbarbadosvilla.com.
Michelle is a founder and former Co-Chair of the Verizon Legal Diversity & Inclusion Council, is the Governance Committee Chair and Vice Chair of the Board of Trustees for SUNY Purchase College Foundation and is a member of the Audit Committee of the Purchase College Housing Corporation. Active with the National Bar Association, Michelle is a Co-Chair of its annual General Counsel Invitational, as well as on the Advisory Board of the NBA 2025 GC Initiative. Passionate about preparing and empowering our next generation of leaders, Michelle is an Advisory Board Member of the Ron Brown Scholars Program, which focuses on providing mentoring and scholarship assistance to promising high school students of color.
Michelle received a Bachelor of Arts from Brown University and her law degree from Harvard Law School and lives in Westchester County, NY with her husband and teenage daughter.
Stuart Alderoty
General Counsel,
Ripple
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Stuart Alderoty is General Counsel at Ripple. Stuart brings more than 30 years of legal experience to the role with expertise in financial services and regulatory affairs. He’s been General Counsel and part of the executive leadership teams at CIT Group and HSBC North America Holdings. Stuart also was Managing Counsel at American Express where he served on the leadership team of the President and CEO of American Express’ Consumer Card Business. Stuart began his career in private practice and was a partner with the international law firm of LeBouef, Lamb, Greene and MacRae where he specialized in litigation.
Damien Atkins
Senior Vice President, General Counsel & Secretary,
The Hershey Compnay
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Damien Atkins is Senior Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary for The Hershey Company, where he was responsible for leading the corporate secretary, government relations, legal and security functions.
Prior to joining Hershey in August of 2018, he was General Counsel and Corporate Secretary for the Panasonic Corporation of North America. At Panasonic, he managed the company’s full litigation portfolio and led global legal teams in several multi-jurisdictional Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and antitrust investigations, lawsuits and claims. He also led a global legal team in the $1 billion acquisition of the Hussmann Corporation in 2016.
Before Panasonic, Damien was Senior Vice President, Deputy General Counsel, Corporate and Chief Compliance Officer for AOL, Inc., leading a range of high-profile legal matters for the company, including mergers and acquisitions, corporate and real estate legal matters, including AOL’s spin‐off from Time Warner.
In 1998, Damien began his legal career as a corporate associate at Chadbourne & Parke (now known as Norton Rose).
Damien holds a bachelor’s degree in history from Stanford University where he was Senior Class President and a Mellon Scholar, and a J.D. from New York University School of Law.
Anne Lee Benedict
Executive Vice President, Chief Legal Officer & Secretary
Summit Materials, Inc.
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Anne Lee Benedict serves as Executive Vice President, Chief Legal Officer and Secretary of Summit Materials, Inc. (NYSE: SUM), a leading U.S. based construction materials company headquartered in Denver, Colorado. Ms. Benedict serves as the primary legal advisor for the company, responsible for all legal matters.
Prior to joining Summit Materials in October 2013, Ms. Benedict was a corporate partner in the Washington, D.C. office of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, where she had practiced since 2000. Her practice involved a wide range of corporate law matters, including mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures and other strategic transactions, securities offerings, securities regulation and disclosure issues, and corporate governance matters. She began her legal career with Chadbourne & Parke in New York in 1999.
Ms. Benedict currently serves as Chair of the N-Gen Advisory Board of MCCA and serves on the Board of Directors of the Colorado Chapter of the Association of Corporate Counsel, co-chairing its Chief Legal Officers Committee. She has previously served on the boards of directors of APABA DC and KABA DC and as Co-Chair of the Mergers & Acquisitions Committee of the DC Bar Association.
Ms. Benedict graduated from the University of Pennsylvania Law School in 1999. She earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in English and Psychology from the University of Michigan in 1995.
Darrell Gay
Partner,
Arent Fox LLP
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On behalf of management, Darrell handles employee-related issues, including hiring/discharge, discrimination matters, traditional labor/management relations, diversity, internal investigations, workplace training, privacy, restrictive covenants, wage and hour, and issues related to international labor and employment concerns.
Darrell focuses on assisting his clients with compliance with national and local labor/employment laws and the institution of management best practices to proactively avoid operational problems. Darrell has developed and provided client unique training to the management teams of his clients on issues ranging from “Management Techniques – Enhancing Employee Performance,” “Conducting Internal Investigations,” “Navigating Leave Laws,” and “Sexual Harassment Training.” He has also worked with his clients to ensure they have the proper personnel policies to satisfy statutory requirements and best practice management standards.
Darrell’s extensive work for clients with regard to traditional labor matters includes management of union and pre-union environments, union negotiations, NLRB matters including unfair labor charges and representation petitions, negotiation and management of neutrality agreements and elections, and arbitrations. In addition, he serves as chief negotiator for his clients during collective-bargaining sessions and has negotiated several agreements spanning a host of industries. Pertinent to all institutions, Darrell is seasoned in guiding his clients relative to addressing protected concerted activity issues.
Darrell has also led several internal investigations of senior-level executives, including several C-Suite level matters, on behalf of his corporate clients, frequently being retained by the entities’ Corporate Board of Directors. Darrell uses his experience working with the City, State, and Federal Governments and as a New York State Commissioner in helping his clients navigate claims before governmental agencies.
With respect to non-traditional work, Darrell has handled and managed significant cases involving single and multiple plaintiffs, single and multiple defendants, cases with allegations of serious continuing violations, and high profile media cases. He not only has experience before administrative agencies as well as Federal and State courts, but has also handled investigations conducted by the New York State Attorney General’s office.
SAMANTHA C. GRANT
Partner,
Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton LLP
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Samantha C. Grant is a partner in the Labor and Employment Practice Group in the firm’s Century City office.
Areas of Practice
Samantha represents employers in administrative, arbitration and trial proceedings in labor and employment matters, including single-plaintiff, class and collective actions. She has extensive experience litigating discrimination, harassment, retaliation, wage and hour, breach of contract, fraud, defamation, trade secret, covenants not to compete, and unfair competition cases, among others. She also advises clients on litigation avoidance strategies and local, state and federal compliance matters, as well as conducts management and workforce training. The insight and experience she gained while on a two-year secondment, as in-house employment counsel for a Fortune 50 company, was invaluable in her becoming a particularly pragmatic outside counsel.
Willie Hernandez
Head of Legal, Messenger,
Facebook, Inc.
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Willie serves as Head of Legal and a member of the leadership team for Messenger (Facebook), the heavily regulated social media app used across all geographies. He is a proven leader and strategic advisor to senior management teams of heavily regulated technology companies globally, serving previously in executive roles at HPE, Amazon and IBM. Willie has extensive experience in transforming legal organizations to adapt to fast-changing business environments and evolving regulatory challenges. Willie’s experience spans the globe, including living and working in Shanghai, China for 3 years leading the legal team for IBM across Asia-Pacific.
He is active in the community with a focus on bridging the gaps in opportunities experienced by underserved communities. He currently serves as the Board Chair for Cristo Rey San Jose, a college prep high school that partners with roughly 100 companies across Silicon Valley to provide students professional jobs all 4 years of high school. Willie is also the Board Chair for the Silicon Valley Urban Debate League.
Willie is a graduate of UCLA School of Law and UC Berkeley.
Willie is licensed in California and Texas.
DUANE HOLLOWAY
Senior Vice President, General Counsel, and Chief Ethics & Compliance Officer,
U.S. Steel Corporation
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Duane D. Holloway joined U. S. Steel in April 2018 to serve as Senior Vice President, General Counsel, Chief Compliance Officer and Corporate Secretary. He was appointed the additional role of Chief Ethics Officer in September 2018. At U. S. Steel, Mr. Holloway holds executive responsibility for all legal, ethics and compliance matters across the company. He is also responsible for environmental affairs, corporate governance and managing relations with the company’s Board of Directors.
Before joining U.S. Steel, Mr. Holloway served as Executive Vice President and General Counsel at Ascena Retail Group Inc., then the largest women’s specialty retail and fashion company in the U.S. During his time at Ascena, Mr. Holloway served as Global Chief Legal, Compliance, Sustainability and Diversity officer. As a member of the company’s senior leadership team, Mr. Holloway played a key role in the development and execution of the company’s revised business strategy and transformation program. He also led the transformation of those departments under his purview, significantly improving processes, service levels, outcomes, expense controls and levels of engagement. Mr. Holloway also oversaw the development of Ascena’s first-ever enterprise diversity function and strategy, in addition to a comprehensive corporate social responsibility and philanthropic program.
Previously, Mr. Holloway served as Vice President and Deputy General Counsel for Corelogic Inc., the leading global residential property information, analytics and data-enabled solutions provider. He oversaw members of the U.S. legal department advising on transactional, litigation, intellectual property, regulation, employment, antitrust, and governance matters. He also led the development of the department’s first-ever strategic plan.
Prior to joining CoreLogic, Mr. Holloway spent nine years at Caesars Entertainment Corp., the world’s largest gaming company at the time, where he progressed through increasingly responsible roles in the legal department before being named Senior Vice President and Chief Counsel, Operations and Litigation. In this role, he functioned as general counsel for the company’s global operations division, which included all casinos, resorts, hotels and other related holdings around the world, and helped lead the department’s continuous improvements to its operating model and strategy.
Mr. Holloway also practiced law at the firm now known as Hogan Lovells in Washington, D.C.
A native of Baltimore, Md., Mr. Holloway earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology from the University of Virginia and received his law degree from the University of Pennsylvania Law School.
KEN JEW
Group Senior Vice President, General Counsel, and Corporate Secretary,
Ross Stores, Inc.
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Ken is Senior Vice President and General Counsel at Ross Stores, Inc., an S&P 500, Fortune 500 and Nasdaq 100 (ROST) company headquartered in Dublin, California, with fiscal 2016 revenues of $12.9 billion and approximately 78,600 employees at fiscal 2016 year-end.
He leads the legal team at Ross, which operates Ross Dress for Less®, the largest off-price apparel and home fashion chain in the United States with more than 1,412 locations in 37 states, the District of Columbia and Guam. Ross also operates more than 215 dd’s DISCOUNTS® locations in 16 states, featuring a more moderately-priced assortment.
Ken started at Ross in 2003 as Director, Corporate Counsel, coming from national Labor & Employment law firm Jackson Lewis. He became General Counsel in early 2015. Prior to joining Ross, he was in private practice for more than 11 years as an employment litigator and trial lawyer.
He obtained his law degree from the University of California, Hastings College of the Law and his undergraduate degree in Economics from the University of California, Berkeley. Ken also has an MBA from the University of Southern California.
Hannah Lim-Johnson
Senior Vice President & Chief Legal Officer,
Kelly Services, Inc.
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Hannah Lim-Johnson was named senior vice president and chief legal officer for Kelly Services, a global workforce solutions company. She has over 20 years of experience at large global companies and is responsible for leading the strategic direction of Kelly’s legal and corporate security organizations, reporting directly to George Corona, chief executive officer of Kelly Services. Ms. Lim-Johnson manages regulatory and legal compliance for the company, directs Kelly Services’ strategic legal initiatives and provides senior management with actionable counsel regarding company objectives. She manages Kelly’s global in-house legal team and is ultimately responsible for managing Kelly’s outside counsel relationships.
Ms. Lim-Johnson has a breadth of experience in litigation, compliance, securities, bankruptcy, intellectual property, government and regulatory affairs, labor and employment matters, class actions, data privacy and antitrust issues. Before joining Kelly Services, she served as deputy general counsel, chief litigation counsel and assistant corporate secretary for Public Service Enterprise Group (PSEG), where she was responsible for enterprise litigation.
Prior to working at PSEG, Ms. Lim-Johnson served as vice president, chief litigation counsel and chief compliance counsel for The ADT Corporation, where she was responsible for managing enterprise litigation and compliance, and reported to ADT’s Audit Committee on compliance issues. She developed and implemented corrective action strategies regarding compliance and risk vulnerabilities, and she provided guidance to management and the Audit Committee on development of effective compliance policies and procedures.
Previous to ADT, Ms. Lim-Johnson served as senior litigation counsel at Tyco International, a global Fortune 100 company, and was responsible for managing Tyco’s commercial litigation, class action, bankruptcy and global intellectual property dockets. Prior to her in-house tenure, she practiced at a New York City law firm and at the New Jersey Attorney General’s Office.
Ms. Lim-Johnson is a graduate of Rutgers University School of Law, where she served as the Managing Editor of the Rutgers Law Review. She earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in English Literature from the University of Illinois, where she was named an Illinois State Scholar.
In her personal life, Ms. Lim-Johnson takes an active interest in civic and community leadership and serves on the board of directors of the Leadership Institute for Women of Color Attorneys and Milagros Center, a non-profit organization focused on improving education for the underserved populations.
Lanesha Minnix
Senior Vice President, Chief Legal Officer & Corporate Secretary,
Flowserve Corporation
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Lanesha Minnix currently serves as Senior Vice President, Chief Legal Officer and Corporate Secretary at Flowserve Corporation (NYSE: FLS), an S&P 500 manufacturer of engineered and industrial pumps, seals and valves operating in more than 50 countries. As Chief Legal Officer, Ms. Minnix is a member of the Executive Leadership Team and oversees all legal, governance, compliance, and regulatory affairs globally for the company.
Prior to joining Flowserve, Ms. Minnix served as Senior Vice President and General Counsel for BMC Stock Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ: BMCH), a Fortune 700 provider of diversified residential building products. As General Counsel, she was responsible for all legal matters of the company as well as the risk management function.
Prior to joining BMC, Ms. Minnix was Vice President, Deputy General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer for ABM Industries Incorporated (NYSE: ABM), a Fortune 500 facility solutions company with 100,000 employees worldwide. Before her tenure with ABM, Ms. Minnix held significant legal leadership roles at Royal Dutch Shell/Shell Oil Company including roles in the downstream business and an expat role based in Qatar. Ms. Minnix began her career as a corporate associate at the law firm of K&L Gates and then as Corporate Counsel for Sprint Corporation.
Ms. Minnix earned her Juris Doctor and Master of Business Administration from the University of Tulsa and Bachler of Science from St. Louis University. She serves on the Board of Directors for Minority Corporate Counsel Association and previously served on the Board of Trustees and for the National Urban League and the Girls Scouts of San Jacinto Council in Houston. She is a member of the Texas and Pennsylvania Bars.
Dan Neff
Partner,
Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz
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Daniel A. Neff is the co-chairman of the Executive Committee and partner in the law firm Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, which he joined in 1977. He is a corporate and securities lawyer, and has focused on mergers and acquisitions and advice to boards of directors and board committees. Throughout his career, Mr. Neff has been extensively involved in negotiated as well as hostile acquisitions, and has represented bidders and targets, public and private companies, private equity firms, leveraged acquirers and special committees of directors. He has represented companies in divestitures, cross-border transactions and proxy contests, and has counseled managements and boards of directors concerning acquisition matters, responses to shareholder activism, conflict transactions, corporate governance and other significant issues.
Mr. Neff lectures frequently on topics relating to his professional interests, was featured in American Lawyer’s “Dealmaker of the Year” article in 2001, 2012 and 2015 and is listed in Chambers Global Guide, Chambers USA Guide, The Best Lawyers in America and Lawdragon’s 500 Leading Lawyers of America.
Among the significant matters he has handled are the successful defense of Airgas against a hostile takeover bid by Air Products and Chemicals (2009-2011), the sale of Airgas to L’Air Liquide S.A., the merger of Anadarko Petroleum with Occidental Petroleum and Anadarko’s response to acquisition proposals from Chevron and the $130 billion acquisition by Verizon Communications of the 45% interest in Verizon Wireless owned by Vodafone plc.
Natalie Pierce
Partner,
Gunderson Dettmer
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Natalie represents technology and life sciences companies at all stages of growth, from the earliest stages of financing to public companies. Her practice focuses on the needs of start-up and emerging growth companies. She proactively works with her clients to develop workplace policies and procedures to avoid future problems with employment matters. If problems do arise, Natalie is also a litigator who has successfully defended clients against a variety of employment claims.
Natalie is a trusted advisor to her clients on all employment-related matters, including: recruiting, hiring, managing and compensating employees; compliance with all relevant regulations at the federal, state and local levels; and avoiding issues such as harassment, discrimination and pay inequity. Natalie has handled the workforce-related aspects of numerous transactions and reorganizations, including maximizing value through smooth transitional plans for service agreements and pre- and post-closing integration activities. In addition, she is focused on counseling companies on incorporating robotics, biometrics, telepresence, artificial intelligence, and other enhancement technologies into the workplace, as well as re-skilling workforces to facilitate tech adoption.
Prior to joining Gunderson Dettmer, Natalie was a litigator at Littler representing corporations in all types of employment litigation matters involving discrimination, harassment, wrongful discharge and retaliation. Natalie is fluent in Spanish.
Tom Robertson
Corporate Vice President & Deputy General Counsel,
Microsoft Corporation
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Robertson leads the Corporate, External & Legal Affairs team that supports the Experiences and Devices Group, which is responsible for Office, Windows, Office 365, Microsoft Surface devices, Skype, Teams and many other products and services. He has led other teams in Seattle, Tokyo and Hong Kong since joining in 1997. Before Microsoft, Robertson was Associate General Counsel in the Office of the United States Trade Representative within the Executive Office of the President, where he was responsible for intellectual property issues and general trade issues with U.S. trading partners in the Asia Pacific region. Before that, Robertson practiced law at Covington and Burling in Washington, D.C., and London, England, and was a law clerk to the Honorable Albert Bryan, Jr., then Chief Judge in the U.S. Federal Court for the Eastern District of Virginia in Alexandria, Virginia.
Robertson holds both Bachelor of Science and Law degrees from the University of Virginia. He is admitted to practice in Virginia, Washington D.C., and Washington State. He serves on the Boards of Greater Seattle Partners, the Coalition of Services Industries, the National Bureau of Asian Research and Town Hall Seattle. He is a Life Member of the Council of Foreign Relations and a Fellow of the U.S.-Japan Leadership Program.
Thomas L. Sager
Partner,
Ballard Spahr LLP
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Tom Sager is the former General Counsel and Senior Vice President at the DuPont Company. In 2014, Tom joined Ballard Spahr as a Partner, where he leverages his experience steering the legal department at a heavily regulated, Fortune 100 global corporation to a broad portfolio of areas at the firm, including litigation and trial practice, internal investigations, environmental issues, and mergers and acquisitions. Tom began his career with the DuPont Company as an attorney in the Labor, Benefits & Corporate Security Group and spent more than a decade as chief litigation counsel before being named Senior Vice President and General Counsel in 2008. During his tenure, he oversaw significant litigation involving governmental investigations, product liability, environmental, toxic tort, labor and employment, securities, antitrust, and tax issues.
Tom was a strong and early proponent of diversity in the legal profession and helped pioneer the DuPont Company Convergence and Law Firm Partnering Program, or the DuPont Company Legal Model—an industry benchmark that has received national acclaim for its innovative approach to the business of practicing law. The program redefined the way in which clients and law firms measure success, encourage creativity and collaboration, increase efficiency, and retain and promote women and people of color. Many of his early innovations, including use of preferred providers and flat or fixed-fee billing, have become commonplace in corporate law departments. In naming him in 2013 as one of “The Top 50 Big Law Innovators,” The American Lawyer wrote: “Thomas Sager and the DuPont Legal Model are to the legal industry what Derek Jeter is to the Yankees.”
Tom received The American Lawyer’s prestigious Lifetime Achievement Award in 2014. In addition, the Minority Corporate Counsel Association’s Thomas L. Sager Award is given annually to law firms that demonstrate a commitment to diversity and inclusion.
Teena-Ann Sankoorikal
Partner,
Covington & Burling LLP
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Teena Sankoorikal is a commercial litigator who has handled numerous high-profile, complex civil litigation, and intellectual property disputes.
Teena is a member of Covington’s Evaluation Committee, and she serves as the Ombudsman for the New York office.
She has advised multinational companies on a variety of matters relating to the following:
- Misappropriation of trade secrets
- Breach of contract
- Business torts
- Fraudulent misrepresentation
- Tortious interference
- Unfair competition
- Patent litigation
- Trademark infringement
- Copyright infringement
In addition, Teena is a fellow of the Yale Science and Engineering Association, Inc., a member of the Asian American Bar Association of New York, a member of the South Asian Bar Association of New York, and a member of the selection committee for the Don H. Liu’s Scholars’ Program.
MICHAEL TANG
Senior Vice President, General Counsel & Secretary,
Agilent Technologies, Inc.
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Michael Tang is Senior Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary of Agilent Technologies. He is responsible for leading Agilent’s global legal organization and advising the board of directors and management team on all aspects of the law, including mergers and acquisitions, corporate governance and securities matters.
Tang has served in the Legal and Corporate Development departments of Agilent since joining the company in 2006. In 2013 he was named Agilent Vice President, Assistant General Counsel and Assistant Secretary. Tang was the lead attorney on Agilent’s spinoff of its electronic measurement business to form Keysight Technologies.
Prior to Agilent, Tang represented public and private technology companies in a broad range of corporate and securities matters at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, a Palo Alto, California, law firm and Fenwick & West LLP, a Mountain View, California, law firm.
Tang is a graduate of Columbia Law School. He also holds a B.S. in economics from The Wharton School of Business, University of Pennsylvania. He is an active member of the State Bar of California.
ALAN K. TSE
Global General Counsel & Corporate Secretary,
Jones Lang LaSalle, IP, Inc.
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Mr. Tse is the Global Chief Legal Officer and Corporate Secretary of Jones Lang LaSalle, Inc the Fortune 500 Real Estate Services Company. Prior to JLL, Mr. Tse was the Senior Vice President, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary of Petco. Prior to Petco, Mr. Tse was the Executive Vice President, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary of Churchill Downs, Inc. Tse was formerly Vice President and General Counsel of LG Electronics MobileComm U.S.A., Inc. Mr. Tse serves on the Board of Directors of the Association of Corporate Counsel and chaired its Advocacy Committee and is the co-founder and serves on the Board of the Asian American Legal Foundation. Mr. Tse was named one of the best lawyers under 40 by the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association in 2005 and was named as a Top General Counsel to Watch by NYSE’s Corporate Board Member magazine in 2012. Mr. Tse holds a B.A. in Economics and Political Science from the University of California at Berkeley where he earned Phi Beta Kappa honors and graduated cum laude from Harvard Law School.
BENJAMIN F. WILSON
Chairman,
Beveridge & Diamond, P.C.
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Benjamin F. Wilson is the Chairman of Beveridge & Diamond, P.C., a top-ranked law firm focused on environmental and natural resource law and litigation. He represents major corporations, developers, and municipalities in complex litigation matters involving Clean Water Act enforcement, wetlands development, Superfund and environmental justice matters. He served as the Deputy Monitor for Emissions & Environmental in the Volkswagen AG emissions proceedings and served as the Court-Appointed Monitor for the Duke Energy coal ash spill remediation project.
A tireless advocate for diversity and inclusion in the legal profession, in 2020, Mr. Wilson was inducted into the Washington Bar Association’s Hall of Fame, awarded the Cora T. Walker Award from the National Bar Association Commercial Law Section, and featured in the National Law Journal’s cover story “The Vanguard and the Vision.” In 2019, he received the National Bar Association’s Presidential Award, and in 2018, NAWL’s Lead by Example Award and the UNCF’s MASKED Award. He founded and leads the African American General Counsel and Managing Partner Networks and Diverse Partners Network.
Mr. Wilson graduated from Dartmouth College and from Harvard Law School. He has served as Chairman of the Environmental Law Institute since 2016. Mr. Wilson serves on the Judicial Nomination Commission for the District of Columbia and the Board of Directors of the Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company and of PG&E Corporation. He previously served as a member of the Board of Trustees of Dartmouth College and the Board of Governors of the District of Columbia Bar. Mr. Wilson is also an Adjunct Professor in Environmental Law at the Howard University School of Law.