CLE Committees & Programs

The Corporate Law Committee offers programs evolving around cutting edge legal and regulatory developments affecting both public and private companies. Topics include: issues facing audit committees and other board committees with oversight responsibilities; securities and disclosure developments; and general corporate practice and compliance strategies. It is the intent of the Corporate Law Committee to better enable in-house counsel to successfully address issues facing their respective companies and broaden their knowledge base to provide accurate, ethical and prudent legal counsel.

The members of the Corporate Law Committee are:

• Brent Cotton (Chair), Senior Corporate Counsel, Salesforce
• Henrique Canarim, Assistant General Counsel - Securities, Governance & Transactions, Leidos
• Joanne Kelly, Vice President and Chief Counsel, Yahoo
• Ray Sczudlo, General Counsel, b.well Connected Health Inc.
• Maria Votsch, Chief Counsel, Business & Finance Law, U.S. Postal Service

The Employment and Labor Committee provides programming that addresses the hot topics and particularly thorny issues that arise in dealing with employees and the rules, regulations and practices that come into play in the workplace. The Committee has been particularly successful bringing in speakers from the regulatory agencies that oversee employment and labor matters, including EEOC, OFCCP, the Department of Labor, and the NLRB.

The members of the Employment and Labor Committee are:

• Lesley Marlin, (Co-Chair) Associate General Counsel, Labor and Employment, FINRA
• Andrew Sakallaris (Co-Chair), Senior Corporate Counsel, Logistics Management Institute
• Kathy Cheung, Vice President and Senior Counsel, Marriott International
• Rebecca Clar, Senior Director and Senior Counsel, Employment, Hilton 
• Tammy Daub, Deputy General Counsel, Guidehouse Inc.
• Alex Gordon, Senior Counsel, Employment Affairs, The Johns Hopkins Health System Corporation
• Kirsten Keating, Employee Relations Associate General Counsel, Freddie Mac
• Luisa Lopez, Chief Counsel, Aura
• Amit Patel, Chief Ethics & Compliance Officer, Principal Compliance Officer, Senior Counsel, The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory
• Ellen Rice, Assistant General Counsel, Global Employment Law and Compliance, Celonis
• Susan Tahernia, In Transition

Each year, ACC NCR hosts multiple programs focused on ethical issues that both satisfy the Virginia MCLE requirement and provide important guidance to members.  In addition, as compliance is an increasing focus for many members, the chapter has begun hosting micro-networking lunches on the topic for shared learning.  

The members of the Ethics and Compliance Committee are:

Mara Senn, Director, Global Compliance Investigations Sr Counsel, Zimmer Biomet Holdings, Inc.
Karina Vollmer, Chief Ethics & Compliance Officer, PAE

The Global Issues Committee is designed to explore the legal issues faced by companies that operate in the global economy, either through international operations or by having customers or clients outside the United States. These issues may include intellectual property, compliance, employment, etc.

The member of the Global Issues Committee is:

• Bruce Henoch (Chair), General Counsel, Hiber

The Government Contractors Committee serves attorneys that practice in the area of government contracting by presenting programs that provide helpful information on the ins and outs of government contracting, from general principles to subtle nuances that are unique to that area of law. Many of the Committee's programs feature prominent government officials from agencies such as DoD and GSA.

The members of the Government Contractors Committee are:

• Matthew Dost (Chair), General Counsel and Director of Contracts, Allied Associates International Inc.
• Mitchell Bashur, Public Sector Counsel, Verizon Media
• Elizabeth Jones, Compliance Director, Cambridge International Systems, Inc.
• Kevin Joyce, Head of Global Public Sector Compliance, ServiceNow Inc.
• Hollie Kapos, Corporate Counsel, immixGroup Inc.
• Joelle Laszlo, Corporate Counsel, Accenture LLP
• Won Lee, Associate General Counsel, General Dynamics Mission Systems
• Sarah Maguire, Senior Counsel, BAE Systems
• Annejanette Pickens, Associate General Counsel, General Dynamics Mission Systems
• Christian Scott, Associate General Counsel, Vectrus
• Jim Winner, Executive Vice President, Chief Legal Officer, General Counsel & Secretary, Peraton

ACC NCR's service area includes all of the Commonwealth of Virginia. We organize continuing education programs and other community and social activities for members outside of the D.C. metro area through our Greater Virginia Advisory Committee.

The members of the Greater Virginia Committee are:

• Frost Telegadas (Chair), Director of Greater Virginia, ACC NCR
• Stephanie Frank, Counsel, Thriveworks
• Stephanie Gillard, Vice President, Legal Affairs/General Counsel - Virginia, Peninsula Pacific Entertainment, LLC
• Christine Mehfoud, General Counsel, Anthem Inc. 
• Sakina Paige, Sr. Manager, Sr. Counsel, Capital One
• Christian Ortego, Senior Counsel, Huntington Ingalls Industries, Inc.
• John Oakey, In Transition
• Erin P. K. Kelly, Counsel, Signify Health
• Kindra Kirkeby, Counsel, In Transition
• Lusanna Ro, Vice President and Senior Assistant General Counsel, AECOM
• Javier Rodriguez, SVP, Chief Legal Officer & Corporate Secretary, BioXcel Therapeutics, Inc.

The Litigation Committee provides useful programs for in-house litigators, as well as non-litigators who manage litigation. It also helps develop a working group of in-house litigators who can share ideas about and approaches to various litigation topics.

The members of the Litigation Committee are:

Virginia Robinson (Co-Chair), Deputy General Counsel, Chief Ethics & Compliance Officer, DynCorp International

Scott Walker (Co-Chair), Associate General Counsel, Freddie Mac

Patrick Chaing, Associate General Counsel, Sallie Mae Bank

Rich Coel, Senior Counsel, WMATA

Kelly Fisher, Assistant General Counsel, DC Water and Sewer Authority

The Nonprofits and Associations Committee presents programs for counsel who work in all of the various kinds of nonprofit entities. Topics include: corporate governance, antitrust, employment law, contracting issues (i.e., hotel contracts, convention contracts), etc.

The members of the Nonprofits and Associations Committee are:

• Erum Mirza (Chair), General Counsel, DC Bar
• Thomas Cluderay, Associate General Counsel, The Aspen Institute
• Laura Farley, General Counsel, Virginia REALTORS®
• Jessica Lee Young, Assistant General Counsel, North America Immigration Counsel at Capgemini
• Rhonda Lees, Vice President and Senior Counsel, American Bankers Association
• Monica Page, Associate General Counsel, District of Columbia Bar
• Whitney Silverman, Staff Attorney, National Association of Independent Schools

Recognizing that many aspects of an organization's privacy and data security practices are often managed by in-house legal, the Privacy and Data Security Committee provides continuing education for members who are responsible for these matters.  The group holds roundtable discussions on current issues and organizes high-level CLE programs.

The members of the Privacy and Data Security Committee are:

• Jessica Geller (Co-Chair), Assistant General Counsel, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
• Audrey Jean (Co-Chair), SVP, Privacy Officer and Senior Associate General Counsel, AARP
• Mary Blatch, Regulatory Counsel and Data Privacy Officer, CFA Institute
• Michael Kallens, Senior Associate General Counsel - Ethics and Compliance, Nasdaq
• Ilona Levine, General Counsel, Internet Society
• Tracy Locklin, Associate General Counsel, National Student Clearinghouse
• Jennifer Mailander, Deputy General Counsel, Fannie Mae
• Gang Xu, Director, Legal, Verisign

The chapter's Small Law Department Committee addresses the issues of resource allocation and operational management faced by members who (a) practice in, or are concerned with issues relating to, small corporate law departments or (b) practice in larger departments either as a legal "generalist" or at a remote location with few lawyers.  While there is no specific limit, "small department" generally is defined to refer to those with 1-5 attorneys. This group is not restricted to CLOs.  

The members of the Small Law Department Committee are:

• Troy Cahill (Co-Chair), General Counsel and Corporate Secretary, Lasership Inc.
• Patrick Samsel (Co-Chair), General Counsel, Fors Marsh Group LLC
• Chris Barker, Vice President, General Counsel, CRAssociates Inc.
• Amanda Dupree, Associate General Counsel, ePlus
• Lauren Mooney, Senior Counsel, National Restaurant Association

The Technology and IP Committee hosts formal presentations on current technology and intellectual property issues, as well as informal roundtable discussions among members. The Committee's programming touches on all the different technology sectors -- including computer hardware and software issues, telecom, biotechnology, nanotechnology, etc.

The members of the Technology and IP Committee are:

• David Beck (Chair), Senior Director of Intellectual Property, Viavi Solutions Inc.
• Beverly Chang, Senior Counsel, BSA / The Software Alliance
• Joseph McNamara, Associate Vice President - Principal Associate General Counsel (Intellectual Property), Nasdaq Inc.
• Bob Paskow, Associate General Counsel, Databricks
• Vineetha Pillai Shah, Commercial Counsel, Bloomberg Industry Group
• Zoe Sharp, Vice President, Deputy General Counsel, Optoro Inc.
• Anjanette Stinson, Associate General Counsel, National Student Clearinghouse
• Edwin Szeto, Vice President & Deputy General Counsel, Cvent