W&L Law Discovery - Winter 2021

Discovery Winter 2021 % Volume 7, No. 1

the newsletter from washington and lee university school of law

MAKING SELF-CARE A PRIORITY:

Heading Off he Breaking Point

BY JEFF HANNA

The headlines have been stark.

“Why are lawyers so depressed?”

— The Lawyer’s Daily

“High Rate of Problem Drinking Reported Among Lawyers” — The New York Times

“The most terrifying part of my drug addiction?

That my law firm would find ou ” — The Washington Post

“High rates of alcohol abuse, depression among U.S. attorneys, study says.”

— Chicago Tribune

“Big Law Killed My Husband” — The American Lawyer

As the fir t coordinator for the Virginia Lawyers’ Wellness Initiative, Margaret Hannapel Ogden ’11L is acutely aware of those stories and of accompanying studies and statistics as stark as the headlines.

In the June 2020 edition of Virginia Lawyer, Ogden wrote to thank Virginia lawyers for their support of the new Attorney Wellness Fund and took the opportunity to describe her personal experience with mental health issues. When she started law school at W&L in 2008, Ogden wrote, she suffered from “mild to mode ate” anxiety and soon developed the coping mechanism used by 43% of her fellow law students — binge drinking. By the end of her 1L year, she revealed, “I had joined 6% of students who reported serious suicidal thoughts.”

Ogden experienced what many law students encounter when their hypercompetitive, overachieving selves run headlong into a hypercompetitive environment full of overachievers. “My normal coping mechanisms were not holding up for me,” she said. “You lose your common routine, your hobbies,

Margaret Hannapel Ogden ’11L

found that more than 20% of licensed attorneys are problem drinkers, 28% suffer from depression an 19% show symptoms of anxiety. The study define problem drinking as “hazardous, harmful and potential alcohol-dependent drinking.” The 20% figur is three times higher than the rate of problem drinking among the general public.

One of the study’s authors, Patrick Krill, a former lawyer, told the Washington Post that lawyers tend to “prioritize success and accomplishment over things like balance, personal well-being and health.”

He also noted that law schools teach the lawyers to “work harder, play harder….”

Several months later another report, “Sufferin in Silence,” provided data on law student well-being and documented students’ reluctance to seek help

“My normal coping mechanisms were not holding up for me.

You lose your common routine, your hobbies, your buddies from before law school. Suddenly, law school can become your single focus. If you have a brain that tends towards obsession, it can get out of control.”

–Margaret Hannapel Ogden ’11L

your buddies from before law school. Suddenly, law school can become your single focus. If you have a brain that tends towards obsession, it can get out of control.”

In addition to support from family and friends, she took advantage of the counseling available at W&L to develop more positive coping skills in order to rise above the stressful situation rather than falling into a downward spiral.

Recent studies have defined the pr valence of such downward spirals with frightening data. A 2016 study sponsored by the American Bar Association with the Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation

for substance abuse and mental health issues. In that report, 25% of students were found to be at risk for alcoholism, 17% were experiencing depression, 14% were experiencing severe anxiety and 6% had, like Ogden, experienced suicidal thoughts.

The studies spurred action on several fronts as various associations and individual firms bega paying greater attention to their wellness initiatives. In Virginia, the Supreme Court empaneled a committee that issued an extensive report with 38 recommendations, including the creation of Ogden’s position.

Dean Brant Hellwig was a member of the

Supreme Court’s committee and, with fellow law school deans and bar examiners, focused on the role of law schools in developing strategies to combat the trends indicated by the data.

“I have no doubt that those wellness declines cited in these studies begin in law school,” said Hellwig. “No one can dispute the emotional pressure and the financial pressure”

On the fir t day of new student orientation each year, Hellwig asks students to write down what they want to do with their legal education. “It’s important for them not to lose sight of their goals because I want them to realize that what they want to do may not require them to be at the top of the class,” he said. “Grading on a curve creates incredible pressure, and when those grades are the only definitio of success, you can easily lose perspective.”

Hellwig said that, given additional resources, his fir t move would be to add a counselor. Currently, law students use the university counseling service on the undergraduate side as Ogden did. But demand has grown on both sides of the ravine.

“At one time, you would be told just to suck it up and be more resilient rather than seeking counseling,” Hellwig said. “It’s a good change that students who may be struggling are willing to self-identify and seek help.”

When Trenya Futrell Mason ’05L returned to her alma mater in 2015 as assistant dean of law student affairs, she introduced prog ams to alleviate the percolating pressures before they boiled over.

Then she realized her programming wasn’t really resonating with the students.

“I needed buy-in,” Mason said. “I needed to create a partnership.”

She asked the Student Bar Association to add wellness activities to its annual events. SBA added a standing wellness committee, which led to a Wellness Ambassadors program.

“The Kirgis Fellows incorporate a lot of the wellness activities for the 1Ls, but we were thinking about what happens in the second and third years when you could be left on your own,” said Mason.

“The Wellness Ambassadors help not only working individually with students but also in organizing activities that we have throughout the year — the ABA’s annual Law School Mental Health Day, a wellness fair, ice cream breaks and so on.”

Two of the most popular wellness programs, Mason notes, have been a panel of faculty, who relate their personal experiences both as law students and as practicing attorneys, and a panel of students, who discuss stress-related issues, including problems with alcohol.

In addition, Law Students for Mental Health was established two years ago. According to co-president Alissa Garufi 22L, the organization supplements other wellness initiatives, often by offerin events to help escape the pressure momentarily.

“We had hoped to stage a monthly event where everyone could just not talk about law school for a while — go hiking or do yoga or just get away from school,” said Garufi. “ t’s so important to take care of yourself outside of law school because at the end of

continued on page 2

the day, we’re all going to graduate. Just being able to take a breath is important.”

Of course, along came COVID-19, and everything changed. As Ogden observed, many people in the general population are experiencing anxiety and depression for the fir t time. “It’s the same reason we see attorneys start to experience these things in their careers,” she said. “It’s a total breakdown in social support. If people don’t have positive coping skills, it’s very easy to turn to negative strategies. Liquor sales everywhere have skyrocketed.”

At W&L, coronavirus has forced wellness activities, like other activities, into virtual events while the isolation that students are likely feeling has added another burden, which is a concern to Hellwig.

“Our size has always helped us,” said Hellwig.

“Students interact more here, and that can bring the pressure down a little bit. But this year, unfortunately, there is not as much activity in the building. I think more of our students come to class and then go home rather than having those interactions. We don’t have law school football, for instance. This has been a negative byproduct of the coronavirus.”

In normal times, the frequent interactions among W&L’s law students are one reason the school has been viewed as a more collaborative, less cutthroat environment than its competitors. That is not to say competitiveness does not exist. It is, in Mason’s view, inevitable, partly because of the hypercompetitive personalities that are, as Ogden observed, drawn to all law schools.

“The competitiveness is here. It was here when I was a student and it’s here today,” Mason said. “Still, I do think that W&L does a good job of balancing the competitiveness with collegiality and collaboration.

Even the atmosphere we try to create cannot alleviate the pressure completely. There are always going to be pressures — outside pressures, financial pre sures, self-imposed pressures. They’re always going to be there.”

When Quentin Becker ’19L was preparing to begin law school, he talked with his three older brothers, all of whom are lawyers, about what to expect.

One told him something he hated to hear.

“He said, ‘Quentin, nobody makes friends in law school. You’re going in there on a mission and on a job to get it done.’ I didn’t want that experience at all,” said Becker, who is now in his fir t year at Moore & Van Allen in Charlotte, North Carolina. “And I didn’t find it th t way at W&L, primarily because people know each other there. People knew when you were having a particularly stressful time and would offer to help — m ybe just by listening.”

Even so, W&L is certainly not immune to issues of alcohol and substance abuse identified by th t 2016 report. Mason says that alcohol is not only a

Making time to practice yoga on the Law School’s lawn.

Meanwhile, the bar examination, or as Hellwig calls it, “the mother of all exams,” poses an incomparable period of pressure through two months of preparation. And there is the matter of the character and fitness valuation, which has often been viewed as a deterrent to those who might want to seek counseling. Hellwig’s subcommittee recommended a reevaluation of bar application inquiries about mental health history.

“The common understanding among law students was that any record of mental health treatment would pose a problem, so they weren’t going to risk it,” Hellwig said. “It was an obstacle that we thought should be removed.”

Amanda Fisher ’16L had personal experience with this issue. Like Becker, Fisher works for Moore & Van Allen. After spending several years in Charlotte, she transferred to the fir ’s Charleston, South Carolina, office and, consequent , had to sit for that state’s bar exam. She’d obviously been successful in preparing for the North Carolina bar and had experienced the pressure of preparation. It was differen the second time around.

“On the one hand, you go into the test preparation and the test itself knowing more of what to ex-

“It’s important for them not to lose sight of their goals because I want them to realize that what they want to do may not require them to be at the top of the class. Grading on a curve creates incredible pressure, and when those grades are the only definition of success, you can easily lose perspective.”

–Brant Hellwig, dean and professor of law

huge problem at law schools, including W&L, but also for the legal profession.

“I remember going on a second interview during my law school days. I didn’t drink much at that point, and I really didn’t want to have a drink at all while trying to make a good impression,” said Mason.

“But the partner put a drink in front of me. It wasn’t a glass of wine, either. How do you turn that down? I mean, you want this job, right? There’s so much pressure around it. So much of the socialization comes surrounded with alcohol.”

Among the recommendations from Hellwig’s subcommittee on the Virginia Supreme Court committee was to discourage alcohol-centered social events at law schools. Early on, Mason moved to drop alcohol from meet-and-greet sessions during orientation — a move that has received pushback each year, and not just from students.

2

W&L

Law

Discover y

pect,” she said. “But I had a lot more on the line the second time around. I had a mortgage. I was picking up and moving to a new city. I really needed to pass the exam to keep my job, whereas when I took the North Carolina exam the fir t time, I didn’t have a job lined up.”

As she approached the South Carolina exam, Fisher initially considered seeking a counselor or therapist to help with her anxieties. “I purposely didn’t, though, because I didn’t want to have to deal with disclosing it on my bar application,” she said.

When she described her qualms to her primary care physician during a routine physical, the doctor was appalled that she would be discouraged.

One of the recommendations included in the Hazelden Betty Ford report was for greater education around issues of well-being and a public awareness campaign to overcome what the report’s authors

labeled “the pervasive stigma surrounding substance use disorders and mental health concerns.”

As if the stress of making it through three years of law school and then passing the bar exam weren’t enough, attorneys who enter private practice begin on the bottom rung and are constantly striving to prove themselves. That helps explain data showing that 29% of lawyers in their fir t decade of practice are found to be problem drinkers.

Tom Mitchell ’93L, chairman of Moore & Van Allen’s management committee, is nationally recognized as a finance l wyer concentrating in the area of loan syndications. Mitchell says that his firm like others, is paying greater attention to work-life balance. The human resources department runs wellness programs, and the firm has in tituted a team-based system designed to help young associates manage their workloads more effe tively. Every associate must check with a team leader on a weekly basis, and every assignment must be approved by team leaders.

“Young lawyers are driven to succeed, and they sometimes take on too much,” said Mitchell. “We’ve taken some of the decision-making out of their hands with a clearing house that distributes work more evenly.”

As one of the junior associates working within the system, Becker said it has made a huge diffe ence in helping to avoid burnout. “I feel comfortable telling my team leader when I can take on more assignments and when I can’t,” Becker said.

Although Mitchell recognizes that the work was always pressure-packed, he sees the internet and technology adding an additional layer of stress.

Technology, he said, has been a double-edged sword.

“Technology helps us to be more efficient in a lot ways. You can get away from the office. ou’re not tied to your desk like you used to be when I started,” he said.

He added, “On the one hand, there is a benefi to being able to send an electronic document at any time without relying on FedEx or a mail pickup. On the other hand, because of that connectivity, a client knows that you can send documents out at midnight. He or she knows you’re available at all times.

Our work is client driven.”

Ogden was privy to a conversation at an ABA meeting not long ago and overheard a group of attorneys wondering whether the billable hour can exist in a world that also prioritizes attorney well-being. No one had a ready answer, she said, adding: “At least the question was being asked. I’m very glad to see that our profession is beginning to examine the rift between where we are and where we would like to be.”

Dean Brant Hellwig to Conclude Deanship at End of Academic Year Hellwig, who took the helm of the law school in 2015 and will remain on the faculty, helped navigate W&L Law through a difficult financial period and o ersaw significant improvements in many areas.

DEAN BRANT HELLWIG WILL STEP DOWN AT the end of the academic year in June 2021, having served in his position since 2015. He plans to return to the full-time faculty following a sabbatical.

“Serving as dean has permitted me to form relationships with a range of individuals who have great affe tion for W&L Law and are committed to our success,” said Hellwig. “Together, we have taken steps to maintain and improve our innovative program of legal education while prioritizing student outcomes.

In the process, we also have taken pride in what makes our small, close-knit law school unique.”

Michelle Lyon Drumbl, Robert O. Bentley Professor of Law and director of the Tax Clinic, will succeed Hellwig, with a national search for a permanent replacement commencing in 2021.

“The law school has flourished under B ant’s leadership, which began during a challenging period for legal education and for the Law School in particular,” said President Will Dudley. “I am grateful to Brant for his able leadership of the school and his partnership with offices across the univers y. We owe him a debt of gratitude for his contributions in this role, and I wish him every success in his long-awaited return to full-time teaching.”

During his tenure, Hellwig helped navigate the law school through a di ult financial period an oversaw significant improvements in applic tions and entering class credentials. Under his leadership, the school also achieved record highs in postgraduate employment outcomes for students, exceeded annual fundraising goals and stabilized its position as a top-tier law school.

“Brant really gave the alumni something of which they could be proud, something to celebrate and support,” said Laurie Rachford ’84L, a member of the Board of Trustees and chair of the Law Committee. “He believes in this place, and that sincerity has been evident throughout his deanship.”

During a transitional period when many of the

law school’s longest-serving faculty members retired, Hellwig excelled on the faculty recruitment front, bringing to the W&L Law community a distinguished and diverse group of teacher-scholars. In particular, he increased the number of minority and female faculty members, the latter of which now comprise 50% of the permanent faculty.

Hellwig oversaw the creation of a dedicated legal writing program, along with the hiring of three full-time writing instructors. To develop closer ties between the law school and the rest of the university, he helped create the Law, Justice and Society minor for undergraduate students, taught by faculty from all divisions at the university.

He also made many contributions to diversity and inclusion at W&L Law during his tenure. He was the driving force behind the installation of a display

in the law school honoring Leslie Smith ’69L, the fir t African American graduate of W&L Law, as well as another display honoring the fir t female graduates of the law school.

“I believe in the future of our law school,” said Hellwig. “We have a talented, committed faculty and sta . We have bright, decent students who will be a credit to our school in the legal profession.

The law school and the university are pursuing initiatives that will enhance the breadth of our community and the quality of our education in the process.”

Hellwig joined W&L Law in 2012 and served on a number of important faculty committees prior to being named dean in 2015. Despite the demands of the school’s top administrative post, Hellwig continued to teach a class each semester and made a special point of meeting every student during his weekly coffee and donut sessions wit 1Ls. He was named Faculty Member of the Year by the student body in 2020.

An expert in the field of fede al taxation, Hellwig has taught a variety of tax courses, including Federal Income Taxation of Individuals, Partnership Taxation, Corporate Taxation, and Estate and Gift Taxation. His scholarship in the tax fiel is similarly varied, ranging from the income tax treatment of deferred compensation arrangements of corporate executives to the estate tax treatment of closely held business entities employed as trust substitutes. He is the author of the books “The United States Tax Court: An Historical Analysis” and “Understanding Estate and Gift Taxation,” co-authored with Assistant Dean for Finance and Administration and John Lucian Smith, Jr. Memorial Professor of Law Bob Danforth.

Hellwig will return to the full-time faculty following a sabbatical, during which he will restart a number of research projects he deferred during his time leading the law school.

Michelle Lyon Drumbl Appointed Interim Dean of W&L Law MICHELLE LYON DRUMBL, ROBERT O. BENTLEY Professor of Law and director of the Tax Clinic, has been appointed to a one-year term as interim dean of the law school effe tive July 1, 2021. Drumbl succeeds Brant Hellwig, who has served as dean since 2015 and will step down at the end of the current academic year.

Drumbl joined the law school faculty in 2007.

She founded the school’s Tax Clinic, training students to provide pro bono representation for low-income taxpayers who have post-filing controversies wit the Internal Revenue Service and educate taxpayers about their tax rights and responsibilities. Under her supervision, clinic students represent clients before the IRS in examinations, collections, appeals and a variety of other matters. Since 2008, the Tax Clinic has been awarded more than $900,000 in federal funds from the Internal Revenue Service’s Low Income Taxpayer Clinic grant program.

Her extensive service to the university includes chairing the law school’s Educational Planning and Curriculum and Library committees, serving

on the Strategic Planning Task Force, and working as a member of the Admissions, Building, Clinical Programs, Faculty Appointments and Frances Lewis Law Center committees. She has been a faculty representative to the university’s Board of Trustees and a member of the university’s Faculty Executive Committee and Non-Tenure-Track Faculty Task Force.

Drumbl’s scholarship focuses on the intersection of low-income taxpayers and fiscal poli y, exploring such issues as filing tatus, innocent spouse relief and return preparer fraud. She is the author of two books, including “Tax Credits for the Working Poor: A Call for Reform” (Cambridge University Press, 2019), and numerous articles and essays in journals such as the Oregon Law Review, Temple Law Review, Tax Notes, the Florida Tax Review, the Columbia Journal of Tax Law, the Pittsburgh Tax Review and the eJournal of Tax Research. She is currently vice chair of the teaching taxation committee of the American Bar Association’s Tax Section and a member of the editorial advisory board of The Tax Lawyer.

Winter

2021

law.wlu.edu

3

Erin Hayes ’21L Works for Racial Justice in Texas What skills from law school have you found the most helpful?

Primary responsibilities?

I am currently the legislative director at the Racial Justice Coalition of Texas. Our goal is to get the Racial Justice Act passed in the January 2021 Texas legislative session. The Racial Justice Act is a bill that would allow for individuals on death row to downgrade their sentence if they were able to show that racial bias was a significant fa tor in any aspect of their trial, including the prosecution’s decision to seek the death penalty, jury selection, jury instructions or anything in between.

My primary role is to reach out to Texas congresspeople and see if they would be interested in supporting the bill. My fir t task was securing a sponsor in the Senate, and I am currently in the process of finding a sponsor i the House. I also do a lot of outreach for organizations and nonprofits i Texas in order to show congresspeople that their constituents are interested and support the RJA. We are working with some large national and state organizations who are helping us connect with various lawmakers and are helping us with bill language.

Having the ability to research certain topics that I would otherwise not understand has been incredibly helpful. We talk a lot about jury selection, and without my education in criminal law and the death penalty, I would have certainly been struggling with the procedures of it all. In general, W&L has prepared me for the vast amount of networking that is required from me in this position!

How do these efforts connect to your professional goals?

Erin Hayes ’21L is a graduate of Baylor University. At W&L Law, she serves as a law ambassador for the Admissions Office and is a student attorney in t Virginia Capital Case Clearinghouse.

How are you balancing your academics with your commitments outside the classroom?

Luckily, I decided to take a lighter load this semester, so my classroom commitments aren’t too strenuous. However, I am so thankful I chose to take this up in my 3L year, because I simply

would not have been able to handle the time commitment 1L or 2L. Like any job, we have times that are extremely stressful and times that there isn’t much going on. Using these ebbs and flows to y advantage and focusing on school when my coalition commitment is low has worked very well for me.

I am hoping to do criminal defense when I graduate and eventually move to capital defense. The contacts that I have made throughout the country learning about the RJA and gaining support for our bill have already become extremely helpful in my job search. It also gives me experience to understand how the legislature works and will prepare me for — hopefully — one day litigating the RJA.

SCENE ON CAMPUS

1

2

3

1. Professor Alan Trammell (red hat) uses the law courtyard for a socially distanced classroom.

2. After a mid-December snowstorm.

3. Roughly half of fall classes, like Dean Hellwig’s, were held in person.

5

4. Students wearing masks and sitting apart in the main reading room.

5. Franklin Runge, who teaches Legal Research, using the inner courtyard.

4 4

5 W&L

L

a w

D

i s c o v e r y

Moot Court Goes Virtual Competitors overcome format changes to gain valuable advocacy experience.

Negotiations winners Chris Watts ’22L (foreground) and Trey Smith ’22L.

WITH THE MOCK TRIAL COMPETItion postponed to spring 2021 due to the shortened semester, the John W. Davis Appellate Advocacy Competition capped off the moot cou t events for the fall. Competition chairs Michael Doar ’21L, Kevin Yeh ’21L and Lauren Hancock ’21L were pleased that few technical di ulties occurred during the competition.

“My feeling is that competitors had to overcome more distractions to argue effe tively via Zoom than they would have had to in person,” said Doar. “Arguing from one’s home or from a classroom in the school meant competitors had to work a little harder to maintain the necessary formality.”

The finals were held in the moc trial courtroom, with competitors masked and separated when not addressing the three judges on the panel, all of whom participated virtually. Russel Wade ’22L won best oral advocate this year, and Noriya Shahadat ’21L, the 2019 Davis winner, was runner-up.

Matt Kaminer ’22L and Carson Cox ’22L took home the award for best brief.

Wade says he was very nervous until he began speaking, but he appre-

JUST AS LEGAL PROCEEDINGS OF ALL KINDS have gone virtual across the country this year, so too did the fall moot court competitions at W&L Law.

First up this semester was the Robert J. Grey Negotiations Competition, and co-chairs Joanna Thomas ’21L and Alyssa Montemayor ’21L noted that there were few guidelines to follow as they planned the event.

“We had great autonomy in the decision-making process but also felt the pressures of navigating the unknown,” said Thomas. “Our main considerations were ensuring participants’ safety while still maintaining crucial elements of an in-person negotiation.”

Many of these elements were preserved through the Zoom platform. For example, passing a note to a negotiation partner during the event was replaced with the chat function, and breakout rooms were used for the traditional caucus.

Trey Smith ’22L and Chris Watts ’22L emerged victorious after the final round, which fo used on the relationship between energy resource management

and indigenous peoples. Smith and Watts agreed that Zoom is not ideal for negotiations.

“But what makes for a good negotiation — preparation and a strong rapport with your partner — still shines through on Zoom,” said Smith.

One disadvantage of the virtual format was not being able to read a partner’s body language, but Smith and Watts believe their strong friendship provided an advantage on that front. “I never have to question what Trey is doing or where he is going,” said Watts. “We are always on the same page.”

The team’s contrasting personal styles also served them in the competition. Watts takes an on-the-fly approach and f vors compromise. Smith prefers greater preparation and is willing to walk away from the table.

“I’m not going to let him concede too much and he’s not going to let me storm out of the room,” said Smith. “I think that’s a winning strategy for negotiations.”

Appellate Advocacy Competition winner Russel Wade ’22L.

ciated the moment of levity injected into the proceedings when his wife and 19-month-old daughter accidentally entered the Zoom for participants and judges. “Once you start talking and making your arguments, you forget who is watching,” he said.

Wade worked as a legislative assistant to Sen. Tim Kaine prior to attending law school, and other than

being an interesting talking point, he sees no great advantage to that experience. “Law school and the law are so different from the poli y environment,” he said. “I maybe knew a few more abbreviations coming in than my classmates, but that’s it.”

He noted that the last three winners of the appellate advocacy competition have been people of color, and

he sees some irony in that considering the competition is named for John W. Davis, who argued the losing side of Brown v. Board of Education. “Davis had a very fascinating life and an incredibly accomplished career as an appellate lawyer, but he also represents a social order that has gone by,” said Wade. “It’s an interesting commentary on who we value and who we choose to honor and why.”

Moot Court Executive Board Chair Julia Kerr ’21L gave praise to the competition administrators and participants for the success of the events.

“We really owe it to our competition chairs, who brought their A-game to the table and put in 110% to all that they were doing,” said Kerr. “From interacting with competitors to getting everything completed in a timely fashion, they could not have run these competitions more effe tively. The virtual format, like anything else, presents di ulties, but it is thanks to the dedication of our advisors, judges, chairs and competitors that we are able to keep this going as we would under normal conditions.”

LAW ALUMNI WEEKEND LAW REUNION 20212021

Adhering to the university’s policies and protocols for campus visitors during the pandemic, we regret that Law Alumni Weekend has been moved from an in-person gathering to a virtual reunion. While we are disappointed in this turn of events and will miss seeing you in person, we will offer a robust menu of virtual events and gatherings to celebrate reunion.

Without any knowledge of the lifespan of the Covid-19 threat or the assurance of when these university policies will be lifted, we do not have alternative plans for in-person gathering at this time. As the national safety situation improves, we will keep everyone posted about future plans for in-person reunions.

On April 9–10, we will celebrate the 2021 reunion classes of 71L, 76L, 81L, 86L, 91L, 96L, 01L, 06L, 11L and 16L, as well as our legacies — those who graduated 50 years ago.

Winter

2021

law.wlu.edu

5

Record Holder After 42 years of keeping things straight in the Law Records Office, Linda Johnson is retiring.

BY JEFF HANNA

L

inda Johnson keeps telling herself that there is another world beyond the walls of Lewis Hall. Now she’s going to find out if th t’s true.

Johnson, the director of law school records, retired on Dec. 31, 2020, concluding a career that began 42 years and eight months earlier when she was hired as a secretary in the law school’s Admissions and Recorder’s Offic

As her career evolved in step with a changing administration, Johnson never tired of her surroundings or of solving the challenges her work presented.

“As long as I’ve worked here, I’ve often thought to myself, ‘Well, now I’ve seen everything.’ Then something new comes up. A student poses a question you never considered or maybe tries to get around something — students do try to get around things now and again, you know — and then you realize that you haven’t seen everything after all,” said Johnson. “But that’s what I’ve liked.

I never really thought I enjoyed those little things that much. But when you’re getting ready to leave, you realize that you do, that you really do love all those little things.”

A Rockbridge County native, Johnson pursued an assortment of jobs before settling in at the law school. She worked for an insurance company right out of high school. From there, she moved to The News-Gazette as a typesetter. For a couple years, she and her fir t husband had a tractor trailer that they drove together cross-country hauling furniture. She was with the Rockbridge

Linda Johnson said she never tired of solving the challenges she faced in her position.

took over the office when iss McKemy retired. She still remembers, almost wistfully, the way registration was conducted in those early days. There was much more personal, face-to-face interaction with students before technology took over.

“We had these big long sheets with the course numbers on them, and students would

“Bill Schildt looked at every card I typed to make sure that I had my commas in the right place and that every t was crossed and every i was dotted.”

Country Recreation Department when she spotted a W&L want ad.

Darlene Moore’s own 39-year career in the law school administration overlapped with most of Johnson’s time. Moore remembers when Johnson arrived. “It was funny because there were two older ladies in what was then the Admissions and Recorder’s Office, rs. Annie Miller and Miss Frances McKemy,” said Moore. “Then here comes this tiny little girl, young and spunky and ready to set the world on fire. She came in and brought lots of personality to that office. And she did it all i that offic ”

Johnson’s fir t boss was William Schildt ’64, ’68L, the assistant dean for admissions, and she credits him with her knack for focusing on all the little details critical to maintaining accurate records. Back then, each law school applicant was required to have at least two letters of recommendation. One of Johnson’s assignments was to prepare a postcard that was sent to each of the references to thank them. The cuttingedge technology of the era was the IBM Selectric typewriter, which she used to type each card, front and back.

“Bill Schildt looked at every card I typed to make sure that I had my commas in the right place and that every t was crossed and every i was dotted,” she recalled. “If we got 1,000 applications, that’s 2,000 cards. His constant emphasis on making each card perfect helped me appreciate the details. I admit I hated it at the time. But he was a good teacher.”

Eventually, Johnson began working hand in hand with Miss McKemy, who was the recorder, and 6

W&L

L

a w

D

i s c o v e r y

line up down the hall to come through and give their choices. I’d see all the students as they came through that line,” she said. “We used several different sy tems, including a studentimplemented system where we registered students in random order to start and then flip them back the other direction.”

Since students now register from anywhere with any device, Johnson sees them far less often. She still knows their names but can’t always place the faces. That, she said, is a downside of technology. “There’s a lot of the personal missing now,” she said.

Johnson mastered every system that came along, and there have been many. “Over 42 years, technology is obviously the biggest change and hardest to deal with because it changes so quickly,” she said. “You might have one process one year, then there’s a new system the next and you have to throw out the notes you had.”

Bob Danforth, assistant dean for finance and administration and John Lucian Smith, Jr. Memorial Professor of Law, worked directly with Johnson when he was associate dean. He has found her to be indispensable.

“We used to joke that if Linda got hit by a bus crossing the street, we’d be in a real jam,” said Danforth. “The biggest job she did with me was scheduling classes. That is much harder than you might think because you have all these moving parts — faculty with preferences you want to accommodate, students who have certain needs that you need to consider in order to avoid confli ts. She was masterful.”

Danforth also credits Johnson for her help during the implementation of the third-year curriculum, when she was heavily involved in scheduling all the new and revised classes.

“Really,” he said, “I do wonder how we’re going to replace her.”

In the weeks leading up to her departure, Johnson wasn’t coasting to the finish. She ha fall semester exams to worry about in November, followed by registration and then grades.

“Sometimes faculty like to drag their feet a bit on getting those grades in on time, but we always make it work. Then I’ve got to make sure all the 3Ls are on track to graduate,” she said. “I mean, there really is never a dull moment.”

She knows she’ll miss it, though, as much as the law school will miss her.

“I’ve always liked challenges,” Johnson said.

“But at this point in my life I think it’s time to let someone else take care of those challenges.”

Margaret Williams, Darlene Moore, Linda Johnson and Frances McKemy.

FACULTY SPOTLIGHT:

Alan Trammell Associate Professor of Law Alan Trammell joined W&L Law in 2020. He teaches and writes primarily in the fields of civil procedure, fede al courts and confli t of laws. He is recognized as one of the leading authorities on nationwide injunctions.

Trammell earned his J.D. from the University of Virginia, where he was a Hardy Cross Dillard Scholar and served as articles development editor of the Virginia Law Review. After graduation, he clerked for the Hon. Stephen F. Williams of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit and the Hon. Theodor Meron of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague (Netherlands). He then spent three years as a litigation associate at the firm now known as ellogg, Hansen, Todd, Figel & Frederick PLLC in Washington, D.C.

He received a bachelor’s degree from Wake Forest University and master’s degrees from the London School of Economics & Political Science and Oxford University, where he studied as a Marshall Scholar.

What is your favorite class to teach?

Probably Civil Procedure because there is something magical about working with students during their very fir t semester of law school. “Magical” probably isn’t the word that they would use to describe those initial mind-bending weeks. But the intellectual transformation that you see in students over just a few short months is astounding, particularly as they glimpse what I call the superstructure of the law.

I find this especially g atifying in a course that most students experience, at least initially, as the least intuitive of their classes.

How did you develop your interest/expertise in nationwide injunctions?

The Trump administration made the study of federal court jurisdiction surprisingly salient. Before 2017, federal courts occasionally had issued sweeping injunctions that prevented a president from enforcing a policy anywhere or against anyone. Almost immediately after President Trump’s inauguration, though, a flur y of lawsuits challenged all manner of his policies (such as the controversial travel ban), and courts began issuing these injunctions at an unprecedented rate. Not surprisingly, academics started chiming in. A few of them made what I thought were profoundly incorrect statements about federal courts’ power, and, at fir t, I intended to write a short essay about those narrow points. As I started

writing, though, I realized that figurin out when (if ever) these injunctions are appropriate required me to draw on various strands of my earlier scholarship and to think even more deeply about federal judicial power.

What started out as a short essay ended up dominating my scholarly attention for nearly two years.

I’ll add as a personal aside that I received an invitation to present my work at a symposium on nationwide injunctions at the University of Colorado, where I wound up on a panel with Doug Rendleman. After the symposium, a small group of us went on a short hike together just outside of Boulder, and that’s when I really became acquainted with Doug and his wife, Carol. So it’s serendipitous and humbling to have been hired to fill th vacancy that Doug’s retirement created, even if no one can truly fill his shoes What are your impressions of teaching at W&L Law thus far?

Everyone mentions the unparalleled sense of community that W&L cultivates.

The pandemic has undermined many of the outward trappings of that community (meals, flag football games, more meals, tc.). As I told my students at the end of the semester, though, the challenges of the moment seemed to bring out the very best in them — their empathy, kindness and intellectual engagement. So even though we didn’t have the chance to interact in the normal ways, I have a very good sense of what defines the &L community, and I’m enthusiastic about what the future holds in store here.

It also helps that this is a homecoming of sorts for me. I grew up in the Richmond area and attended law school at U.Va. So this corner of the world has always been very special to me.

What do you like to do outside of work?

I’m an avid runner and cyclist, so my proximity to the Chessie Trail has been an enormous joy. Several years ago, I rediscovered the joy of traveling like I did in college — with just a pack on my back. In 2016, I spent three transformative months backpacking through Thailand, Vietnam, New Zealand and Australia. And during the summer of 2019, I traveled abroad with students for the fir t time — to St. Petersburg and Moscow. Not infrequently these days, I find yself daydreaming about my fir t post-pandemic adventure.

Professor Carliss Chatman Receives Derrick Bell Award Carliss Chatman, associate professor of law, has

been selected by the Association of American Law Schools Section on Minority Groups as the winner of the 2021 Derrick A. Bell Jr. Award.

The annual award is named after the late Derrick A. Bell Jr., the fir t African American tenured professor at Harvard Law School. The award “honors a junior faculty member who, through activism, mentoring, colleagueship, teaching and scholarship, has made an extraordinary contribution to legal education, the legal system or social justice.”

“Carliss has been a driving force in promoting wider access to positions in legal academia, and she has been remarkably generous in mentoring junior faculty in the hiring process in particular,” said Brant Hellwig, dean of W&L Law. “But it doesn’t stop there. She has a passion for bringing people together to foster scholarly productivity and innovation in teaching approaches. We are both proud and fortunate to have her as a colleague at W&L Law.”

Professor Chatman teaches an array of business law, commercial law and ethics classes including: Contracts and Sales and Leases; Agency and Unincorporated Entities, Corporations, Business Associations, and Securities Regulation; Professional Responsibility; and a Transactional Skills Simulation course with a Mergers and Acquisitions focus that incorporates corporate law and UCC Article 9.

Her scholarship interests are in the fields of corpo ate law, ethics and civil procedure. Her current research and writing projects are varied and include two business law casebooks, an article examining the use of slavery in commercial law simulations, a book chapter that reimagines the Citizens United opinion using the framework of critical race feminism, and a children’s book titled “Companies are People Too.”

“I am so honored to be selected by my colleagues and to join a list that includes so many mentors and friends,” said Chatman.

“This award is especially meaningful in this particular time when events have led the world to focus on issues of racial justice and equality. I aspire to use my scholarship, service and teaching to ensure that Derrick Bell’s vision for justice within and beyond the academy is realized during my lifetime.”

Chatman’s work is influenced lar ely by 11 years of legal practice in complex commercial litigation, mass tort litigation and the representation of small and start-up businesses in the United States and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

As a result, her scholarship is intersectional with a focus on issues at the heart of commercial litigation: the interplay of business entities, government and natural persons.

Winter

2021

law.wlu.edu

7

W&L Law Unveils Tribute to First Female Graduates A new installation celebrates the first female graduates of the law school.

T

oday, women make up half of the student body and faculty at W&L Law, so it is hard to imagine what trailblazers like Amber Lee Smith ’75L and Sally Wiant ’78L found when they matriculated with the fir t class of women in the early 1970s.

The university made the decision to allow female students rather late in the year, Smith said, recalling her admittance. Her father, also an alum, had been keeping tabs on the controversy through a friend on the inside. After the decision was made, her father’s “spy,” Amber said, quickly sent her an application.

Later, Smith, along with six other women, formed the fir t coed class in W&L Law’s history. It was 1972.

“I used to go on and on about the halls, the portraits,” Wiant, now professor of law emerita, said. “They are all important portraits, but it would seem that there have been enough of us [women] that have made contributions to the school, the profession, the bar, the bench.”

Now, in addition to honoring the many male leaders of the school, the walls pay tribute to the fir t women of W&L Law with a new installation in Lewis Hall. The display, in the Moot Court Lobby, includes photos of their time at the law school, news clippings about coeducation and coverage of their graduation.

When speaking about that fir t year, both Smith and Wiant laughed about how logistically unprepared the law school was to meet their needs. “When we arrived, we just arrived,” Wiant said.

“A lot of things weren’t thought through clearly,” Smith agreed.

For instance, Smith said, before they arrived, there was a small, single-stall women’s bathroom for sta . But after women were admitted, the school switched the women’s bathroom with a faculty bathroom down the hall, since it had more stalls and space. Paper signs indicated the change: “STOP: this is NOT the women’s bathroom,” one said. And “STOP: this is NOT the faculty bathroom,” the other said.

“We put a big potted plant in front of the urinal,” Smith laughed, adding that, if the female students wanted to have a meeting, they would occupy the bathroom. The athletic facilities at the school didn’t accommodate women either, said

“It was like going to class in a fishbowl. ou couldn’t be anonymous or even unremarked.”

— Amber Lee Smith ’75L

Wiant, who as a student had wanted to swim for exercise.

“There was a huge tradition where the guys swam in the bu ,” she recalled. Plus, everyone who wanted to swim had to enter through the men’s locker room. “It took the athletic committee a year to work that out.”

That fir t class experienced some hardship and prejudice from classmates, Wiant and Smith said.

The women of the Class of 1975 studying in the reading room of the Tucker Hall law library.

8

W&L

L

a w

D

i s c o v e r y

One told Smith that, when he signed up for W&L Law, he was under the impression that he wouldn’t be attending school with women.

Smith also didn’t like standing out wherever she went. Before law school, she had attended an

all-women’s college, and she missed the freedom that she experienced there as an undergraduate while walking on the W&L campus.

“It was like going to class in a fishbowl” she said. “You couldn’t be anonymous or even unremarked.”

One classmate had a hard time getting an apartment, too, Smith recalled, because the landlords didn’t want to be responsible for her getting home by 10 p.m.

There were no female professors, no role models to look up to. Pantsuits were scandalous. Wiant remembered a colleague of hers at a library in Texas getting fired — on the spot — for showing up to work in a pink pantsuit. She herself experienced a lighter kind of disdain.

“If I saw a certain professor walking on the Colonnade — if I had a dress on he would say, ‘Hello.’ If I had a pantsuit on he would act as if I was air.”

Because she worked in the law library while studying, Wiant graduated later than her classmates. When she became the director of the law library after graduation, she remembered being told that she had just doubled the number of women on the faculty.

Still, Wiant said, she made close male friends, and Smith described her professors as supportive, “or at least not anti-female.”

“We were proving that, academically, we could be there,” Smith said. It wasn’t always easy — law school is intimidating no matter what your gender is, she qualified — but being a woman added a whole different s t of considerations.

“[But] when you are 21, 22 years old, you really believe that you can do anything,” she continued.

“If you are given this opportunity to prove that women can do things — of course you’re going to do it — so I did.”

CLASS UPDATES AND SUCCESS STORIES

Personal Experience Leads Tina Beamon ’97L to Success in the Pharmaceutical Industry

BY JEFF HANNA

When TINA CLARK BEAMON ’97L entered W&L Law, she thought she wanted to be a health care lawyer. She imagined being an activist, helping to fight for insurance coverage for underserved populations.

Now, as vice president and chief compliance officer for a pharmac tical company, Beamon has discovered there are other ways to use her legal background to promote the greater good.

“Some people wouldn’t think working in the pharmaceutical industry really does promote the greater good,” she conceded. “I would say it absolutely does because in my role as chief compliance officer I he make sure that our company makes strong ethical decisions that put the best interest of patients fir t. That spark in my younger self that wanted to solve health care disparities is actually getting to play out in terms of my career.”

After W&L, Beamon spent a year clerking with the circuit court in Manassas, Virginia. Then she and her husband, Jonathan Beamon ’98L, returned home to Connecticut where they had been undergraduates at UConn and where both sets of parents lived. They settled into their lives and respective careers — Tina as an associate with Wiggin & Dana and Neubert, Pepe & Monteith; Jonathan as an attorney with the City of Hartford.

Then, in 2002, their son, Kyle,

was born with sickle beta thalassemia, a rare form of sickle cell disease, and everything changed.

“With the course of sickle cell patients and certainly with sickle beta thalassemia, a baby is going to be in and out of the hospital a lot,” says Beamon. “I knew that was not going to be conducive to a standard trajectory in the law firm e vironment. My priority was being unapologetically mom. In that moment, I had to be there for my son.”

Over the next several years Beamon stepped away from the law firm track and took a series short-term positions with the fl xibility she needed to focus on Kyle’s health. Those positions may have been detours, but they weren’t necessarily dead ends.

“Even in those moments in your career where you feel you’re taking twists and turns that you had not counted on,” Beamon says, “you need to use every bit of that experience — your strengths, your education, even your life challenges — because all of it helps you lead with compassion and to be more results-driven, no matter what your industry is.”

By the time Kyle was 5, Beamon was heading down a different kind of track, this time in the pharmaceutical industry. After a dozen years with two drug companies, she was named vice president and chief compliance officer for assachusetts-based Karyopharm in 2019, just as the company was launching its fir t commercial product — Xpovio

70s

80s

1979L

1980L

1984L

The Hon. William D. Broadhurst retired in March from Virginia’s 23rd Judicial Circuit Court after hearing cases for more than 25 years.

He lives in Roanoke.

Robert M. Connolly, of Stites & Harbison PLLC, was elected to The Nature Conservancy’s board of trustees.

James D. Simpson Jr. joined Hunter Andrews Kurth LLP’s London office as a partner in its global energy and infrastructure practice group.

Simpson regularly advises sponsors, lenders, infrastructure funds, equity investors and governments on major renewable energy, infrastructure, LNG-to-power, oil and gas, telecommunications and other projects worldwide. Based in Europe since 1992, he has considerable privatization and transactional experience in the Middle East, Central and Eastern Europe, Russia and the Commonwealth of

James C. Olson joined Joseph & Cohen as a partner after retiring from Jones Day at the end of 2019. Joseph & Cohen is a boutique law firm based in San Francisco focused on corporate transactions, banking and the financial services industry.

William R. Goodell was named interim executive director of the Robertson Scholars Leadership Program in Durham, North Carolina. He resides in Atlanta.

1983L Linda A. Klein, senior managing shareholder at Baker Donelson and past president of the American Bar Association, was recognized by the Anti-Defamation

League Southeast Region with its 2020 Elbert P. Tuttle Jurisprudence Award.

(selinexor), a drug for adult patients with relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma.

She was charged with creating the Karyopharm’s fir t comprehensive compliance program, and she also joined the team of scientists and medical officers cha ed with developing the critical language for Xpovio’s labeling and promotional materials. That language, which is submitted to the FDA for a final stamp approval, must be truthful and not misleading.

At every step of the way, Beamon has been guided by lessons she learned from caring for Kyle.

“In helping to solve issues related to the reputations of the pharmaceutical companies with which I’ve worked, I’ve often called upon my experience as a caregiver of a patient with a chronic illness,” she says. “I’ve been on the other side. Having that focus of keeping the interests of the patients fir t and protecting the organization’s ability to continue to bring innovative therapies to patients is where everything starts for me.”

In a recent profile of Beamon in Modern Counsel magazine, Dr. Michael Kauffman, Ka yopharm’s CEO, praised her as “someone with a heart for patients….”

Meanwhile, the Beamons had reason to celebrate this fall when Kyle went off to colle e.

Independent States, and Africa.

1987L

1985L James H. McNulty Jr. was named president of Tyler & Reynolds Professional Corp. in Boston. His practice focuses on estates and trusts and tax matters.

1986L Lee Mason Baker started a new business, Lee Mason Baker, Independent University Counselors. She also serves as a strategic advisor with Lighthouse Consulting Group.

She lives in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.

Edward Lefebvre Allen has moved to Richmond, where he serves as president of Allen, Allen, Allen & Allen. He practices personal injury litigation.

Rodney Moore was named to the Best Lawyers in America 2021 list. Moore practices with Weil in Dallas.

90s 1992

Jefferson E. Howeth joined Selene Finance/SelecTitle LLC in Dallas as senior vice president, legal.

Winter

2021

law.wlu.edu

9

A Life Concerned With the World

With podcasts that look inward and outward, the Younis brothers amplify their perspective as global citizens.

BY KATIE DOAR

Since graduating from W&L Law, brothers MOHAMED ’08L and AHMED ’04L YOUNIS have pursued careers involving government, public policy and education. They also both host podcasts where they explore these areas, and many others.

Ahmed, an assistant professor of integrated educational studies in the Atallah College of Educational Studies at Chapman University, has worked in government and public policy, studying U.S. relations with the Middle East. Meanwhile, Mohamed, editor-in-chief of Gallup, provides briefings to world leaders and in titutions about important research — he studies U.S. foreign policy, state stability and relations between Muslim communities and western societies.

These interests often provide the subject matter of their podcasts, but they also discuss religion, intentional living, identity and more. For example, Mohamed recently uploaded to “The Gallup Podcast” a recording entitled, “How Western and Eastern Concepts of Well-being Diffe .”

The missions of their podcasts have a similar global focus. And yet Mohamed’s and Ahmed’s methods are essentially the inverse of each other, much like their personalities. Ahmed, runs a more informal podcast. He uses his conversations with guests on “The Study,” as a metric for understanding our surroundings. “I try to go inward,” he said, “in an attempt to explain what’s happening in the world.”

Meanwhile, Mohamed begins by looking outward, using data to indicate widespread phenomena and then animating that data via conversations.

The amount of data in the world is like a “tsunami,” Mohamed said, and it’s di ult for the individual to parse it all out, to hear the voices behind the numbers. “Our data only matter if people are connecting with the fin ings,” he said. “We’re giving a voice to people who are often spoken of, but not heard from.”

Chong J. Kim was appointed an associate municipal judge for the City of Doraville, Georgia.

1993L Georgia Sullivan Haggerty was promoted to staff attorney with the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama in Birmingham.

1995L Scott C. Ford and Brian Richardson ’02L formed Ford Richardson in 2018. The firm is based in Richmond with satellite offices in Roanoke, Virginia Beach and Fairfax.

Kevin Webb (’88) joined the Office of International Affairs at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission in Washington, D.C.

Mohamed ’08L (left) and Ahmed Younis ’04

However different their i vestigative methods may be, the relationship of the individual to the world and world events is a fascination that Ahmed and Mohamed share. It’s a fascination that lends itself particularly well to podcasts, where overwhelming global or otherwise far-flung vents can show themselves not in statistics or marching prose — as with academic reports of newspapers — but in real voices and earnest conversation.

Mohamed and Ahmed’s interest in America and how it fits into the inte national landscape was a byproduct of their upbringing. As kids, they moved to three different countries in a spa of five years — from Southern Califo nia, to Cairo, to Saudi Arabia and back again to California.

“We fundamentally see the world as Americans who are global citizens,” Ahmed said.

Both said that, as young people, this global focus was solidified b Sept. 11.

“After 9/11, all of those issues were front and center, prime time news,” Mohamed said. “I was planning on going to med school, and when I saw the need for some kind of knowledge and understanding — I almost felt

1997L Robby J. Aliff (’91) was voted into the American Board of Trial Advocates (ABOTA) by its national board. An invitation-only organization, ABOTA advocates for improvements in the ethical and technical standards of advocacy, protection of the right to trial by jury and judicial independence.

He is a member of the Jackson Kelly law firm and resides with his family in Charleston, West Virginia.

00s

2000L Michael G. Abelow was named to the Best Lawyers in America 2021 list. He is a partner at Sherrard Roe Voigt & Harbison PLC in Nashville Tennessee.

C. Scott Hataway left Paul Hastings to start Dry Mill Capital and Dry Mill Consulting in Leesburg, Virginia. Dry

10

W&L

L

a w

D

i s c o v e r y

like I would be a punk not to step up,” he explained. “So, I started thinking about going to law school.”

For Ahmed, 9/11 coincided with his fir t few weeks as a student at W&L. “It just so happened that the week before I had given a speech about Islam at a professor’s church,” he said.

Ahmed had arrived in Lexington from Cuba where he had been on an exchange program. He called Lexington “a completely different world. “ had never seen a deer! I had never seen snow!” His experience was positive and welcoming, despite the small, rural nature of the town and its dearth of diversity, especially in the early 2000s.

“Lexington is a very, very beautiful place of beautiful human beings,” he said. “There has to be some mercy in the process of change there.”

The brothers said that law school was invaluable for them; they learned to look at an issue from many diffe ent angles, a feat which they strive to accomplish in their podcasts. “I’m always looking for voices that are non-ideological and more analytical,” Mohamed said. “[People] who can look at things analytically from two

Mill Capital curates alternative investment options for accredited investors and qualified purchasers., while Dry Mill Consulting focuses on business strategy, merger control analysis, dispute resolution and risk management.

2001L Anne K. Guillory joined the Louis D. Brandeis School of Law at the University of Louisville as an adjunct professor teaching written advocacy.

She is a partner with Dinsmore & Shohl LLP in Louisville, Kentucky.

R. Cantrell Jones joined Dunlap Bennett & Ludwig as a partner in Chicago. He focuses on labor and employment, complex commercial litigation and internal investigations.

2002L Sarah M.R. Cravens joined BioZyme Inc. in Saint Joseph, Missouri, as general counsel.

different sides…th t’s something that we learned in law school.”

Before entering academia, Ahmed served in the Obama and Trump administrations as principal deputy assistant secretary of state and deputy special envoy. He was named one of the 500 Most Infl ential Muslims globally, and in 2011 and 2012, Arabian Business Magazine named him one of the Power 500 of the Arab world and one of the 500 Most Famous Arabs in the world.

Mohamed rose through the ranks at Gallup to become editor-in-chief of the news team, where he provides briefings to world leaders and in titutions about important research. His areas of expertise include U.S. foreign policy, state stability, youth employment challenges and relations between Muslim communities and Western societies. Since 2012, he has led Gallup’s initiatives on situational intelligence and open-source monitoring.

“It’s really historic,” Ahmed said, speaking of his brother — a person of color and a top executive in an important D.C. based company.

Their relationship underpins their professional conversations and research; they are always in conversation, Ahmed said, always sharing their different approaches to life an intellectual topics. In doing so, they enrich their overall understanding.

Mohamed called Ahmed the interdisciplinary thinker and performer in the pair. “Ahmed is the fire in ou circle. He’s always been somebody who is really gifted in inspiring people, in leading people, in bringing in the artistic.”

Meanwhile, Ahmed called Mohmed, “a rational, calm, deep thinker who doesn’t allow the moment to sway his judgment.”

“We are very, very similar,” Ahmed laughed. “And very different ”

They’ve chosen a public life, “a life that is concerned with the world,” Mohamed said.

2003L Michael P. Dimitruk was promoted to partner with Dragoneer Investment Group in San Francisco.

Julie Smith Palmer was named a shareholder with Harman Claytor Corrigan & Wellman in Richmond. She focuses on professional liability, premises liability, product liability and commercial disputes and is also a member of the firm’s appellate practice group.

2004L Frederick M. Heiser (’01) was promoted to managing shareholder of the Irvine, California, office of Klinedinst P.C. He is a member of the firm’s business and commercial litigation, commercial general liability and employment practice groups.

2005L Luder F. Milton joined Farm Credit Mid-America in Louisville, Kentucky, as chief compliance officer.

Lauren Paxton Roberts (’02) has been inducted as a fellow of the Nashville Bar Foundation. She is an attorney with Stites & Harbison PLLC. Seth A. Steed was elected a judge of the New York City Civil Court in Manhattan.

2007L Rebecca A. Beers was recognized as one of the top women attorneys in Birmingham, Alabama, by B-Metro magazine.

Broderick C. Dunn was appointed a commissioner with the Fairfax County Redevelopment and Housing Authority. He’s a partner with Cook Craig & Francuzenko, PLLC in Fairfax, Virginia. He practices in the areas of labor and employment litigation, commercial litigation, constitutional law and landlord/tenant law.

Eli D. Frame joined Roper Technologies Inc., in Sarasota, Florida, as senior tax counsel.

Vanessa Yiping Lutz joined KaFe Rocks Group in Henderson, Nevada, as U.S. content iGaming manager for international markets.

2009L G. Calvin Awkward III (’06) joined Goldberg Segalla in Baltimore as a partner.

Michael Chiusano was named partner with Katten Muchin Rosenman LLP in Dallas. His practice focuses on complex commercial litigation and commercial disputes.

10s

2010L Brittani Nichols Cushman was named general counsel for Turning Point Brands in Louisville, Kentucky. She lives in Washington, D.C. Bryan J. Hoynak joined the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., as assistant general counsel.

Guy B. Sereff II joined Michael Best & Friedrich LLP in Broomfield, Colorado, as senior counsel.

2011L Tiffany R. Caterina was promoted to partner in the litigation group at Frankfurt Kurnit. Located in Los Angeles, Caterina represents individual and corporate clients in business and employment disputes related to the film, television, digital media, video game and sports industries.

Anthony Michael Kreis joined the Georgia State University College of Law in Atlanta as an assistant professor of law. He

teaches constitutional law and employment discrimination.

2012L Amber Boyd-Moorman is the managing partner of Amber Boyd Law in Indianapolis and the owner of Thirty8, which represents the pay gap between African-American women and their Caucasian male counterparts. Thirty8 is designed to bring awareness to discriminatory employment practices by educating employees about their employment rights through fashion.

Jonathan Little was named one of Birmingham Journal’s 2020 Rising Stars in Law. He is a litigator with Lightfoot in Birmingham, Alabama.

2013L Christopher L. Edwards joined Morgan Stanley as vice president, government and political activities, in Washington, D.C. Melanie E. Peters was promoted to partner at Weaver Law Firm in Roanoke.

She focuses on all aspects of family law.

J. Scott Thomas joined the U.S. Department of Justice in Washington, D.C., as a trial attorney in the environmental and natural resources division.

2014L Julia B. Barber was named one of Birmingham Journal’s 2020 Rising Stars in Law. She is an associate with Balch & Bingham LLP in Birmingham, Alabama. She practices environmental law.

Stephanie Fox Black joined New England Law in Boston as a J.D. career advisor.

Lauren E. Bohdan (’11) joined Timberlake Smith in Staunton as an attorney.

David S. Freeman was promoted to director of legal support at Ensemble Health Partners in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Crishon A. McManus joined Akerman LLP as an associate in its corporate group in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

He advises investment advisers, broker-dealers and other financial institutions on products, services and issues arising under FINRA and SEC regulations.

Randall W. Miller is clerking for Judge Lawrence VanDyke on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. He and his wife, Kate, welcomed their first child, a boy, Matthew Wilson, on Sept. 14, 2020. The family live in Reno, Nevada.

Kathryn E. Peterson was promoted to partner and general counsel at Merchant McIntyre Associates, a government relations firm in Washington, D.C., where her work focuses on clients in health care, higher education and local government.

Chrishantha R. Vedhanayagam joined EY-Parthenon in Chicago as a strategy and transactions consultant.

Tyler M. Williamson was named a 2020 Millennial on the Move by CoVa BIZ magazine. After practicing law for six years, Williamson joined FACT (Families of Autistic Children in Tidewater) in Virginia Beach, Virginia, as executive director.

2015L

2017L Christian B. Addison was promoted to defense counsel for Charleston Air Force Base in Charleston, South Carolina.

Maureen A. Edobor has joined the League of Women Voters as counsel. She lives in Baltimore.

Ashley N. Adams started her own firm, Ashley Adams Law, in Fort Myers, Florida. She focuses on criminal and family law.

Amanda Lyons-Archambault joined ShuffieldLowman in Charleston, South Carolina, as an attorney.

Chad M. Cormier is the founder and CEO of Marcellus Venture Holdings, Marcellus Capital and Marcellus Advisory Consulting Services in West Palm Beach, Florida.

Chi Vo Kavanaugh transferred from the Houston office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP to its London office. She is a corporate associate in the capital markets practice group.

Imani D. Hutty joined the criminal division of the U.S. Department of Justice in Washington, D.C., as a trial attorney.

Laura A. Iheanachor joined the New York City Law Department as assistant corporation counsel.

Ellen C. Johnston joined the Department of the Navy Office of the General Counsel in Washington, D.C., as associate counsel.

Jordan Cherry Loper was named one of Birmingham Journal’s 2020 Rising Stars in Law. She practices with Christian & Small LLP in Birmingham, Alabama.

Briyanna Scott, in addition to serving as a trial attorney with Allstate Insurance Company, is the founder and president of Southern Elevation Consulting LLC, which provides trial advocacy and public speaking coaching services to professionals and attorneys.

Hernandez D. Stroud joined the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law as counsel. He will focus on mass incarceration, policing, race and court fees and fines.

Katherine A. Waibler has joined the Internal Revenue Service in Washington, D.C., in the Office of Chief Counsel, passthroughs and special industries division.

Nigel K. Wheeler joined the North Carolina Hurricanes as General Counsel in Raleigh, North Carolina. He and his wife welcomed their son, Sebastian, on April 7. He joins sister Emerson, 3.

2016L Ashley N. Barendse joined WhitbeckBennett in Leesburg, Virginia, as an associate attorney. She practices family and civil law.

Aaron D. Siegrist joined Pierce McCoy in Richmond. He focuses on labor and employment.

Luke D. Stone joined BCS Capital Group in Austin, Texas, as a partner.

Ariel S. Wossene joined Holland & Knight as an associate in its Tysons, Virginia, office.

2018L Peter S. Askin is a law clerk with the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia.

C. Alan Carrillo joined Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP as a financial restructuring associate in Dallas, Texas.

He returns to private practice after an inaugural clerkship with the Honorable Brantley Starr, U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas.

During his clerkship, Alan completed fellowships with National Review Institute and James Wilson Institute. He recently joined the board of the Federalist Society’s Dallas lawyers chapter.

Lauren A. Martin (’13) joined Protogyrou Law in Norfolk, Virginia. She focuses on insurance defense and appellate advocacy.

Fiorella S. Herrera joined The Law Offices of Roberto Allen in Burtonsville, Maryland, as an associate attorney. Her practice is on immigration law.

Brett L. Lawrence joined Hall Booth Smith PC, in Charlotte, North Carolina, as an associate attorney. His practice covers a wide array of data privacy and security matters.

Max McCrary IV joined Gentry Locke in Roanoke as an associate in the general commercial practice group.

Jonathan A. Murphy was named one of Birmingham Journal’s 2020 Rising Stars in Law. Murphy is a partner with Fortif Law Partners LLC in Birmingham, Alabama. He also serves as an adjunct professor at Birmingham-Southern College, where he teaches entrepreneurial thinking.

2019L Hugh H. Brown joined Gentry Locke in Roanoke as an associate in the general commercial practice group.

James T. Clark joined Shannon Mullins & Wright LLP in Alexandria, Virginia, as an associate attorney.

Micaela Owens joined the New Jersey office of Cruser, Mitchell, Novitz, Sanchez, Gaston & Zimet LLP as an associate attorney. Her practice covers transportation

liability, employment liability, construction defect and premises liability, as well as professional liability claims.

Pierce E. Rigney joined Moore & Van Allen PLLC in Charlotte, North Carolina, as an associate.

Michael Stinnett-Kassoff received his LL.M. in national security law from Georgetown Law. He has accepted a conditional job offer with the Department of Defense through its Honors Attorney program.

Malory E. Thelen joined Jones Day in Dallas as an associate.

J. David Thompson, a major in the U.S. Army and based in the Middle East, hosted an international forum on countering violent extremism with over 300 people in attendance from 27 different countries. With the arrival of COVID-19, he and his group have been focused on helping to stop the spread and assisting people severely impacted by the lockdown.

Additionally, he created civilian harm mitigation classes in four different languages to assist several U.S. military partners who have been conducting domestic law enforcement-type missions to enforce national social distancing policies.

Robert L. Wilson II joined the Army as a first lieutenant.

After completing the Direct Commissioning Course at Fort Benning, Georgia, and the Judge Advocate Officer’s Basic Course in Charlottesville, he will be stationed at Fort Hood in Texas.

20s 2020L

Leilani T. Bartell joined Troutman Pepper Hamilton Sanders in Richmond as an associate in the multifamily housing finance group.

Keith D. Earls has joined the Pennsylvania Office of Consumer Advocate as an assistant consumer advocate in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.

Loren Findlay joined Weil, Gotshal & Manges in New York City as an associate.

Bonnie S. Gill joined Troutman Pepper Hamilton Sanders in Richmond as an associate.

H. Preston Glasscock is a law clerk for the U.S. District Court Northern District of Texas in Dallas.

R. Luke Graham joined the chambers of the Hon. Rebecca Connelly, U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Western District of Virginia, in Harrisonburg, Virginia, as a term clerk.

W. Chadwick Howard joined Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP as an associate in the mergergers and aquisition practice group.

He lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Jessiah S. Hulle joined the Virginia Court of Appeals in Manassas, Virginia, as a judicial law clerk.

Winter

2021

law.wlu.edu

11

Courtney T. Iverson is clerking for the U.S. District Court in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Collier T. Kelley is clerking with the U.S. Department of Justice Antitrust Division in Washington, D.C.

Carolina. Madison is clerking for the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama. Ben is an associate in the employment law group at Carr Allison. The couple live in Birmingham, Alabama.

Emily G. Kendall joined the Virginia Court of Appeals in Virginia Beach as a judicial law clerk.

Andrew R. Klimek joined Covington & Burling LLP in Washington, D.C., as an associate.

Katherine E. Murphy joined Wollmuth Maher & Deutsch LLP in New York City as an associate.

Thomas K. Petersen is a a judicial law clerk at the U.S. Court of Federal Claims in Washington, D.C. Brittany Lawson Ryers-Hindbaugh joined Shuman, McCuskey & Slicer PLLC in Charleston, West Virginia, as an associate attorney.

Amanda M. Triplett joined the Federal Trade Commission’s Bureau of Competition, health care division, as a law clerk.

She lives in Washington, D.C.

WEDDINGS

Ann Cox Tripp ’17L and her husband, Charles, a daughter, Emmeline Lucy, on Jan. 8, 2020. She joins sister Virginia, 6. The family live in Roswell, New Mexico. Proud grandparents are Ginny Kay and E. Thomas Cox ’67, ’72L of Poquoson, Virginia.

OBITS Natey Kinzounza ’20L to Junior Ndlovu ’20L, on Sept.

5, 2020, in Nashville, Tennessee. Bridesmaids included Sarah Telle ’19L, Lauren Sayers ’20L and Jesse Sharp ’20L. Other alumni in attendance: Greg Funk ’18L, Ben Nye ’18L, Madison Peace Nye ’20L, Emily Kendall ’20L, Muhammad Umar ’20L, Helen Gray Dunnavant ’20L, Lauren Morina ’20L, Shelby Peasley ’20L and Brian Becraft ’20L. C. Parker McCarty ’20L to Genevieve Elise Becker on June 6, 2020, in St. Louis. The couple reside in St. Louis, where Parker is an associate with Thompson Coburn.

BIRTHS Nerissa Neal Rouzer ’09L and her husband, Garrett Michael, a son, Ethan Henry, on Feb. 27, 2020. The family live in Charlottesville.

Madison Peace Nye ’20L to Benjamin Nye ’18L, on May 23, 2020, in Greenville, South

Amber K. Boyd-Moorman ’12L and her husband, Marcus, a daughter, Audrey Joyce, on June 1, 2020.

Christina Harrison Murphy ’11L and her husband, Patrick, a son, William “Liam” Samuel on June 25. He joins sister Maura, 2. The family live in New York City.

Roger L. Campbell ’47L, of Nacogdoches, Texas, died on Oct. 16, 2019. He belonged to Phi Gamma Delta.

Robert T. Goldenberg ’45, ’49L, of Parkersburg, West Virginia, died on Aug. 13, 2020.

He served in the Navy. He practiced law in Parkersburg for 69 years, and at the time of his death he was the oldest practicing lawyer in the state.

He was father to David Goldenberg ’76 and belonged to Phi Epsilon Pi. Virgil M. Bowles ’51L, of Leesburg, Florida, died on Sept. 7, 2020. He belonged to Kappa Sigma.

J. Forester Taylor ’49, ’51L, of Fishersville, Virginia, died on Oct. 16, 2020. He served in the Army during World War II. He had a private law practice before retiring. He was uncle to Catherine Currin Hammond ’84L and belonged to Sigma Alpha Epsilon.

Raymond W. Haman ‘52L of Langley, Washington, died on October 30, 2020. He served in the Marines during and after World War II. He practiced law in Seattle for 39 years with

Lane Powell. He also served as legal counsel to Gov. Dan Evans.

The Hon. Jackson L. Kiser ’52L, of Martinsville, Virginia, died on Oct. 20, 2020. He served in the Army. He was a senior federal judge for the Western District of Virginia.

Robert B. Jacobi ’53, ’54L, of Bethesda, Maryland, died on May 15, 2020. He practiced law for 50 years with Cohn & Marks. He belonged to Zeta Beta Tau. Talbot W. Trammell ’52, ’54L, of Boca Raton, Florida, died on Aug. 19, 2020. He served in the Navy. He had a law practice for more than 50 years in the Miami area. He belonged to Phi Delta Theta.

The Hon. Wiley R. Wright Jr. ’54, ’56L, of Lynchburg, Virginia, died on Oct. 27, 2020. He served in the Army.

He practiced complex civil litigation, primarily in northern Virginia until his retirement in 1996. After retiring, he served as a substitute circuit court judge in various jurisdictions throughout Virginia. He belonged to Phi Gamma Delta.

Robert E. Stroud ’56, ’58L, of Charlottesville, Virginia, died on June 4, 2020. He retired from McGuire Woods as partner in 2002. He belonged to Pi Kappa Phi. Walter C. Foulke ’61L, of Auburn, New York, died on June 30, 2020. He served in the Navy. He practiced a wide variety of law: family law, trusts and estates, corporate law, negligence, trials, and commercial litigation. He was father to Evan Foulke ’86.

Hugo Hoogenboom ’59, ’61L, of New York City, died on July 21, 2020. He served in the Army. His career focused on nonprofit global assistance. He belonged to Delta Upsilon.

Barry M. Storick Sr. ’57, ’61L, of Summerville, South Carolina, died on Sept. 13, 2020. He practiced law for over 45 years in Charlotte, North Carolina. He belonged to Phi Epsilon Pi. Stanley A. Walton III ’62, ’65L, of Chicago, Illinois, died on Oct. 28, 2020. He was a partner at Winston & Strawn and then Seyfarth Shaw LLP. He belonged to Phi Gamma Delta.

F. William Burke ’64, ’67L, of Naples, Florida, died on Oct. 1, 2020. He was a lawyer, professor and banker. He was father to Taylor Burke ’95 and belonged to Beta Theta Pi. The Hon. Ronald H. Marks ’68L, of Virginia Beach, died on Oct. 1, 2020. He co-founded White & Marks PC. He was appointed as a judge to the Virginia Beach Juvenile & Domestic Relations District Court in 1986 and had a 20-year tenure in that position, eight of which were as chief judge, until his retirement in 2006. He was father to Jeff Marks ’87 and belonged to Pi Kappa Phi. Beverly C. “John” Read ’71L, of Santa Fe, New Mexico, died on Sept. 10, 2020. He served in the Army during the Vietnam War. He was a former Rockbridge County and Lexington commonwealth’s attorney.

Catching up with Ernest Hammond ’13L Ernest Hammond ’13L is originally from Chicago, but he moved to the West Coast after g aduating from W&L Law. He has worked in numerous sectors and industries, including tech, biotech, pharma, medical devices and financial se vices. Before joining Twilio, where he works at senior product counsel, he was the product counsel at Uber, where he helped build and develop product offerings in the healthcare space. In his community, he serves as a member on several boards, including the board of directors of the Barristers Club of the Bar Association of San Francisco, the Minority Bar Coalition of the San Francisco Bay Area, the Child Care Law Center and UnCommon Law. What have you done since graduation to lead up to your current job?

I have done quite literally everything. I’ve spent time at a legal arts nonprofit, in ci y government in Los Angeles, as a consultant for one of the world’s largest professional services firms as well as a majo record label, at a small law firm, t a major research institution, a biotech company, and two of the world’s largest tech companies. When I graduated in 2013, the legal job market was still very much reeling from the recession, which forced many of us to get creative and forge new paths. Each of my varied experiences really helped me to hone my skill set and made me a better and more adaptable lawyer.

What sort of legal issues do you handle on a day-to-day basis?

My work is centered at the intersection of tech, healthcare, and telecommunications, and each 12

W&L

L

a w

D

i s c o v e r y

of those areas bring their own unique set of legal issues into the mix. On any given day, I might negotiate several agreements related to protecting consumers’ healthcare data, review documentation related to requirements for a new product the engineering and product teams are launching, advise a marketing team member on best practices for advertising our products while mitigating regulatory risks, or research financial se vices regulations across several countries in anticipation of a new market rollout. Often, all of those things are happening simultaneously which makes organization and checklists very important.

What do you like about your current job?

It is often said, and I tend to agree, that tech is a very spoiled industry. Tech companies are known for taking great care of their employees. They really emphasize things that have become increasingly

important to me as I’ve gotten older; e.g., wellness, balance and a focus on building an inclusive environment. Beyond the spoils, the work is fastpaced and extremely intellectually engaging. On any given day, you never know what issues may come across your desk that will require you to do a deep dive into cutting edge technology, how it’s designed and how it functions. Working hand in hand with brilliant engineers and product designers to solve problems is truly its own brand of fun and something I don’t take for granted. It is also tremendously cool to work in an industry and a company whose products and services impact the entire world. I have the added benefit of helpin solve problems, like building communications tools to improve access to healthcare which is incredibly rewarding when you hear feedback on how lives are being changed by the use of the products you helped build and maintain.

JOHN K. BOARDMAN ’51, ’06L John Boardman ’51, ‘06L, died on July 8 at the age of 91. He was as devoted a W&L alumnus as you could nd. He graduated from Washington and Lee in 1951 and then served in the Navy during the Korean War, putting his desire to attend law school on hold.

Following the war, he went to work with his father-in-law at Sam Moore, eventually purchasing the business and growing it to be one of the largest upholstery furniture manufacturers in the Southeast.

Upon retirement, Boardman returned to W&L at the age of 70 to attend law school classes. Although unable to receive his degree based on the length of time between his courses, he received a certi cate of achievement in 2006 after completing all of the courses necessary for a degree. While a student in the law school, Boardman funded the purchase of the digital clocks so that the entire law school would be on the same schedule. He enjoyed his time at the law school, particularly getting to know his professors and having the opportunity to talk with his younger classmates in the Brief Stop.

Boardman endowed a scholarship for the law school with a $1.1 million gift from a charitable remainder trust he had established. It is tting that his generosity will bene t law students in the years to come.

Franklin C. Coyner Jr. ’74L, of Waynesboro, Virginia, died on July 13, 2020. He served in the Navy. He was an attorney with a private practice in Stuarts Draft for over 40 years.

A. Charles Thullbery Jr. ’74, ’77L, of Lake Wales, Florida, died on Aug. 1, 2020. He served for much of his career as chief assistant state attorney until his retirement in 2012.

Jeffrey S. Miller ’75L, of Jacksonville, North Carolina, died on July 30, 2020. He practiced law for over 40 years.

Bonnie Lineweaver Paul ’83L, of Dayton, Virginia, died on May 24, 2020. She was the first woman elected to the Virginia House of Delegates from the Shenandoah Valley.

She served from 1976-1979.

She had a private law practice for 30 years. She was mother-in-law to Thomas Imeson ’85.

Caroline Watts ’75L, of Madison, Virginia, died on Nov. 8, 2020. She practiced with her father at Watts and Watts in Madison. She served as commonwealth’s attorney of Madison County from 1984-1995 and Madison County clerk of the circuit court from 1995-2009.

Peggy K. Engle ’86L, of Dallas, died on Sept. 19, 2020. She had 30-year career as managing attorney at North Penn Legal Services.

Jacqueline Loughman Powell ’90L, of Unionville, Pennsylvania, died on Oct. 26, 2020. She retired from the practicing law to pursue her artistic passions, to do volunteer work in her community and to focus on her two sons.

Dr. Larry F. Smith ’95L, of Appomattox, Virginia, died on Aug. 12, 2020. He operated a private family medical practice in Appomattox from 1979-1995. He later co-founded Smith and Marchand LLP in Dallas after receiving a law degree in 2002. In 2006, he returned to Appomattox to reopen his medical practice.

James R. Krumenacker ’76L, of Dublin, Ohio, died on June 2, 2020. He worked for the Ohio Industrial Commission as an administrative law judge and retired after 39 years.

Law Firm Giving Competition Alumni (undergraduate and law) continue to support Washington and Lee at impressive rates. Below is the list of firms that reached 75 percent or greater participation in the Annual Fund (undergraduate or law). We thank the law firm liaisons who solicited gifts from their colleagues and thank all alumni for their generous support.

Firm Lightfoot

% 100%

Law Firm Liaison

Firm

%

Lee M. Hollis ’86

Baker Botts

75%

Donald L. Schultz ’89L

Baker Donelson

75%

John A. Wolf ’69, ’72L John C. Morrow ’85L

Crenshaw Ware & Martin

90%

Glenn, Feldmann, Darby & Goodlatte

90%

Burr & Forman

75%

DLA Piper

80%

Butler Snow LLP

75%

Foley Gardere LLP

80%

Dechert LLP

75%

Haynes and Boone LLP

80%

Haynsworth Sinkler Boyd PA

75%

Jackson Walker LLP

80%

Hunton Andrews Kurth LLP

75%

Kaufman & Canoles PC

80%

Little Mendelson PC

75%

Morris, Nichols, Arsht and Tunnell LLP

80%

Maynard, Cooper & Gale PC

75%

Paul Hastings

80%

Womble Bond Dickinson

75%

Polsinelli PC

80%

Winter

Law Firm Liaison

Kathryn R. Eldridge ’03L

2021

law.wlu.edu

13

A Focus on Wellness: Yoga on the Law School lawn, pg. 1

Brant Hellwig steps down as dean, pg. 3

Erin Hayes ’21 works for racial justice, pg. 4

Linda Johnson retires, p. 6

Discovery

A tribute to the fir t female law graduates, p. 8

THE NEWSLETTER FROM WASHINGTON AND LEE UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF LAW LAW.WLU.EDU

Non-Profit Org U. S. P o s t a g e

Washington and Lee University School of Law 204 W. Washington Street Lexington, VA 24450-2116

a nd

Fees

P

a

i

Washington

d a nd

Lee University

2 0 2 0–2021 l a w a n n u a l f u n d

Your impact?

You decide.

We are pleased to share the new option of directed giving through the 2020-21 Law Annual Fund. Support W&L Law by selecting from five key areas of impact: ❏ Law Area of Greatest Need (Unrestricted) ❏ Law Fund for Diversity and Inclusion ❏ Law Student Financial Aid ❏ Law Academics ❏ Law Student Opportunity

Visit law.wlu.edu/give today.