ALUMNI NEWS
BALLSA Annual Dinner a Huge Success The 2012 Black, Asian Latino Law Students Association (BALLSA) Alumni Group Annual Dinner in April was a spirited and memorable celebration of diversity at Cardozo, among its alumni, and in the legal profession. BALLSA, chaired by Glenda Dixon ’92, chose Julian S. H. Chung ’95, a partner at Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP and a member of the firm’s Banking and Debt Capital Markets group, as this year’s honoree. The evening’s keynote speaker was I. Neel Chatterjee, also a partner at Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP and co-chair of Orrick’s Intellectual Property Group in San Francisco. Neel inspired attendees with an account of his successful efforts to accelerate and promote diversity in the IP legal community in Silicon
Valley. Neel made a convincing argument that technology companies, with their culture of inclusivity and collaboration, virtually require IP law practices to set and meet ambitious diversity goals to better serve their clients. The dinner, chaired by Tim Gladden ’01, benefits the BALLSA Scholarship Fund.
Gladden noted that the BALLSA dinner is the primary fundraising event for the Scholarship Fund, which is very important to support increased diversity in the legal profession as a whole. “There is a real need for diversity in the legal profession to generate a diversity of ideas to benefit clients,” he said.
From left, honoree Julian S. H. Chung ’95; Tim Gladden ’01, Mark Yagerman ’79, chair, Cardozo Alumni Association; and Glenda Dixon ’92, BALLSA chair
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Julian von Lucius is an asso-
Joana Kaso and husband
ciate in the firm of K&L Gates LLP’s Berlin office. He concentrates his practice on real estate transactions, public building and planning law and environmental law.
Arben became proud parents of Chloe on September 10, 2011. Joana continues to practice law at the Legal Assistance Program in New York.
Jan Widmer will spend
Mathilde Meilichzon joined
2012–13 in the MIT Sloan Fellows Program in Boston. The program is a 12-month, full-time executive MBA program designed to prepare an elite group of global mid-career managers to magnify their impact as leaders.
UBISOFT, a major French video game publisher and developer, as legal counsel in March 2012.
2007 Yakhsha (Sharif) Benz
married Joshua Benz on January 15, 2010.
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Kelly Yona has been made a “first instance” judge on immigration matters. She is also a legal advisor at the Swiss Federal Institute of Intellectual Property, where she has been part of the Swiss delegation in international negotiations on intellectual property
matters. She was part of the Swiss delegation to the Diplomatic Conference on Audiovisual Performances in Beijing, June 20–26, where Professor Justin Hughes led the United States delegation.
2006 Matthew W. Grieco joined the Office of the New York State Attorney General as an assistant solicitor general in the Division of Appeals and Opinions. Sabrina Victor recently
joined Danbury-based Ventura, Ribeiro & Smith, Attorneys at Law, where she will focus on personal injury litigation. Previous to
this, Ms. Victor handled personal injury, products liability, insurance defense and real estate cases at Costello, Cooney & Fearon, PLLC, Syracuse, NY.
in Tampa, is serving in the firm’s Construction & Design and Litigation Groups. He was recently named as a 2012 Florida Rising Star.
2004
2003
David Gross’ wife Esti gave
Matthew E. Fernand was elected by Sidley Austin to the partnership in the New York office’s Real Estate Practice.
birth to their third daughter Avigail Rachel in October 2011. He owns EMPOWER NY, which provides an online system for NYC real estate managers to track and take care of building violations and tenant complaints. The company recently moved its offices to 307 West 38th Street. Erik P. Raines, an associate at Hill Ward Henderson
Kelly M. Slavitt is the new chair of the Intellectual Property Law Section of the New York Bar Association. She is the legal and business counsel of North America and Food at Reckitt Benckiser.
cardozo life
8/28/12 4:26 PM