Alumni News and Moves – Summer 2019

Our alumni have forged diverse career paths and have taken on interesting new adventures and personal challenges. They are thought leaders, industry experts, advisers, mentors, advocates, business executives, elected and appointed officials, and trusted professionals.

We are proud of the contributions our alumni continue to make to the legal and business communities, grateful for the time they spent with the firm, and honored that so many have stayed in touch with the firm and with each other.

Here are recent news and moves from our alumni community over the past few months.

• Dan Werly (CH/Litigation/2009) joined the Nashville Soccer Club as General Counsel in August 2019.
• Monica Fennell (CH/Employee Benefits and Executive Compensation/1994 ) was honored to celebrate with her Faegre Baker Daniels LLP’s colleagues and to jointly accept the American Bar Association’s Pro Bono Publico Award at the ABA’s annual meeting on August 10 in San Francisco. The award honors both law firms and individual attorneys for enhancing the human dignity of others by improving and/or delivering volunteer legal services to our nation’s poor and disadvantaged. Monica is Pro Bono Manager in the firm’s Indianapolis office. 
  
• Danielle Kalish (PH/Corporate/2011) joined Comcast as Assistant Deputy General Counsel in August 2019.
• Stacey Lantagne (D.C./Litigation/2005) is now Associate Dean for Faculty Development at the University of Mississippi School of Law.
• Jon Rosan (PH/Litigation/2003) joined FisherBroyles LLP as a partner in August 2019.
• Dan McGuire (PH/Litigation/2003) was promoted to Vice President Global Real Estate, Workplace Services at Hewlett Packard Enterprise in July 2019.
• Priya Harjani (Chicago/Litigation/2000) was promoted to Associate Vice President and Deputy General Counsel in the Office of General Counsel at Northwestern University in July 2019. In her new position, Priya will continue to help lead the Office of General Counsel, supervise attorneys and staff, manage areas of the office, and facilitate the performance of more strategic and proactive work by the office in addition to other duties. Priya has served in the Office of General Counsel for 15 years, starting as assistant general counsel in 2004, becoming associate general counsel in 2007 and senior associate general counsel in 2014.
• Yesenia Villasenor (CH/Environment and Energy/2006) was promoted to Associate General Counsel, Environmental, Health and Safety at Tesla in July 2019.
• Nathan Will (PH/Investment Management/2004) was promoted to Head of Municipal Credit Research at Vanguard Group in July 2019.
• Tony Mitchell (D.C./Government and Regulatory Affairs/2016) was promoted to Associate Director, State Government Affairs - Southeastern Region at CSL Behring in July 2019.
• Brooke Ellinwood McDonough (D.C./Litigation/2004) was promoted to Visiting Associate Writing Professor at George Washington University School of Law in July 2019.
• Joe Doherty (PH/Insurance/2006) was promoted to SVP, Chief Legal & Legislative Officer at Self Storage in July 2019.
• Lee Miller (FP/Labor and Employment/) was appointed an adjunct professor at the Columbia University School of Professional Studies. Lee will be teaching a course on compensation and benefits as part of the Masters in Science in Human Capital Management program. Lee is currently Managing Director at Advanced Human Resources LLC. He is also an adjunct professor at Seton Hall Business School
• Jennifer Mohamed (PR/Litigation/2012) was recently named partner at her firm, the Bayne Law Group in Princeton, New Jersey. The firm is a boutique law firm specializing in domestic and international business law issues.
• Matthew Moench (FP/Litigation/2007) recently merged his firm, Moench Law, LLC, with another firm to form King, Moench, Hirniak & Mehta LLP in Morris Plains, NJ. The new firm specializes in litigation, public sector and government relations matters, in addition to general practice. In November, Matt won a primary election against an incumbent to become the Republican nominee for mayor of Bridgewater, New Jersey.
• Ed Bryant (CH/Health Care/1967) 2019 has been an incredible year for Ed and his fishing excursions! Specifically, Ed caught the largest largemouth bass he has ever caught in at least 64 years of bass fishing. It was 13 lbs, 2 oz, and was also the largest bass ever boated by Ed’s fishing guide in the guide’s 36 years of guiding. Also, 2019 marked Ed’s 53rd consecutive year camping and fishing twice a year at Little Grassy Lake in southern Illinois. This year, for Ed’s first trip, he went in his RV for eight days with a friend with whom he has been fishing for 64 years and he caught a 9 1/2 pound flathead catfish on 8 pound test line and ultra-light tackle. For his second trip this past spring, Ed traveled with alumni Glenn Ferencz and Jay Goldstein as well as another friend. Ed continues to have monthly breakfast get-togethers with fellow alumni Glenn Ferencz, Dennis Carlin, Howard Blum, Gordon Nash, George McCann, Mike Rosenbaum, M.J. Harris, George Covington, Mark Furlane and Dave Matteson, and Ed notes it is one of his great pleasures to continue to keep in touch with the wonderful people he met at or through the firm!
• Rachel Krol (PH/Corporate/2012) was promoted to Assistant Director, Harvard Negotiation & Mediation Clinical Program at Harvard Law School in June 2019.
• Rodney Sparks (PH/Intellectual Property/ 2002) joined RenovaCare Inc. as Vice President of Intellectual Property in June 2019. RenovaCare, Inc. is the developer of the SkinGun™ and other patented technologies for spraying a patient’s own stem cells onto burns and wounds for accelerated self-healing.
• Kate Tromble (D.C./Government & Regulatory Affairs/2005) joined Results for America as VP, Federal Policy in June 2019.
• Lisa Warren (FP/Health Care/1979) In her retirement, among other things, Lisa is doing some pro bono mock trial coaching for the New Jersey Law and Education Empowerment Project (NJ LEEP). NJ LEEP is a college access and success program serving students and families in the greater Newark, New Jersey area. You can find more information and get involved with NJ LEEP at http://njleep.org/.
• Ted Behm (WM/Intellectual Property/2008) joined Armstrong Teasdale LLP in June 2019 as a partner.
• Ngozi Okorafor (CH/Litigation/2004) joined the Cook County Sheriff’s Department in Illinois as Director of Employment Actions in June 2019.
• Nicole Stach (Philadelphia/Litigation/2006) was promoted to senior counsel at Elsevier in June 2019.
• Steve Tsoris (Chicago/Corporate/1997) retired from SPX Flow, Inc., after over 20 years with the company in June 2019.
• Markita Morris-Louis (PH/Real Estate/2003) joined Compass Working Capital (CWC) as Chief Strategy Officer in June 2019. CWC is a Boston-based company that trains public housing residents to build credit so that they can move to home ownership.
• Tonya Evans (PH/Private Client/1999) joined UNH Franklin Pierce School of Law as Associate Dean of Academic Affairs.
• Andrew Turkish (FP/Litigation). This fall, Andrew Turkish, senior partner at Clausen Miller, P.C., in Florham Park, New Jersey, will be teaching Appellate Advocacy as part of Seton Hall Law School’s new part-time weekend JD program. Andrew is also an adjunct professor in the Paralegal Studies Program at Farleigh Dickinson University and teaches Civil Litigation and Legal Research and Writing at the school. Andrew and his wife, Celia, recently returned from a trip to Saba Dutch Caribbean, where their 23 year-old son Brandon is attending medical school and working to become an ER physician.
• David Doto (PH/Litigation/1991) joined Hutchison & Steffen as ADR practice group leader in June 2019. In addition to being a mediator, he also develops and delivers customized training to attorneys and business organizations regarding various topics such as mediation, mediation advocacy, negotiation, conflict management and deescalation, and conflict management/litigation prevention systems design. Since 2013, he has been an adjunct professor of law at the Straus Institute for Dispute Resolution at Pepperdine University School of Law and the Saltman Center for Dispute Resolution at the William S. Boyd School of Law at UNLV.
• Neela Paykel (D.C./Health Care/1995) joined Waymo LLC as Deputy General Counsel. Waymo is a self-driving technology development company. It is a subsidiary of Alphabet, Google’s parent company.
• Matt Gately (FP/Litigation/2009) was promoted to partner at Lifland Pearlman Herrmann & Knopf LLP in June 2019.
• Kevin Golden (PH/Insurance/2003) joined Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney PC as an associate in June 2019.
• Jason Vishio (PH/Insurance/2004) started his own practice, Vishio Forry, PLLC, in June 2019. The firm handles insurance claims on behalf of commercial business owners, condo associations, churches, and residential homeowners in Texas, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Florida, Illinois, and Oklahoma.
• Phil Hampton (D.C./IP/1998) joined Polsinelli PC as a senior partner in the firm’s intellectual property department focusing on intellectual property litigation and all aspects of trademark law. Phil also recently began his 11th year as an adjunct professor at the Howard University School of Law where he teaches a course on trademark law.
• Fruqan Mouzon (FP/Litigation/2000) joined McElroy, Deutsch, Mulvaney & Carpenter, LLC as Of Counsel in June 2019.
• Dan Kaskel (FP/Real Estate/1996) recently celebrated his 20th year practicing law in Florida. In 2003, he became board certified by the Florida Bar in Real Estate Law and in June 2019, he became board certified in Condominium and Planned Development Law. Dan was included in 2019’s Super Lawyers and Florid Trend’s Legal Elite.
• Rush Haines (PH/Real Estate/1968) retired from Drinker Biddle & Reath on January 31, 2019. He and his wife Susie now spend their winters (other than Thanksgiving through Christmas) on Anna Maria Island off the west coast of Florida near Sarasota. The balance of their time is spent at their Ocean City, New Jersey home. Rush and Susie sold their home in Haverford, Pennsylvania in 2017 and he commuted to work from Ocean City.
• Ed Bryant (CH/Health Care/1967) 2019 has been an incredible year for Ed and his fishing excursions! Specifically, Ed caught the largest largemouth bass he has ever caught in at least 64 years of bass fishing (see photo below). It was 13 lbs, 2 oz, and was also the largest bass ever boated by Ed’s fishing guide in the guide’s 36 years of guiding. Also, 2019 marked Ed’s 53rd consecutive year camping and fishing twice a year at Little Grassy Lake in southern Illinois. This year, for Ed’s first trip, he went in his RV for eight days with a friend with whom he has been fishing for 64 years and he caught a 9 1/2 pound flathead catfish on 8 pound test line and ultra-light tackle. For his second trip this past spring, Ed traveled with alumni Glenn Ferencz and Jay Goldstein as well as another friend. Ed continues to have monthly breakfast get-togethers with fellow alumni Glenn Ferencz, Dennis Carlin, Howard Blum, Gordon Nash, George McCann, Mike Rosenbaum, M.J. Harris, George Covington, Mark Furlane and Dave Matteson, and Ed notes it is one of his great pleasures to continue to keep in touch with the wonderful people he met at or through the firm!

Ed Bryant and his largemouth bass.