CLASS NOTES BRITT MCCLUNG has
joined Hedrick Kring as a partner in Dallas, where he will focus on complex business disputes in trial and appellate courts, with emphasis on efficient resolution of difficult technical and procedural issues. He will also lead the firm’s appellate practice. KATHERINE MONAHAN ROHRBAUGH is litigation counsel at the Kraft Heinz Co. in Chicago. She was previously an associate at White & Case in New York City. She and her husband, Scott Rohrbaugh, are parents of a toddler, Christopher. MELANIE WILSON RUGHANI has been
named a director at Crowe & Dunlevy in Oklahoma City, where she continues her appellate practice. She and her husband, Ankur Rughani, a resident at the Children’s Hospital, have two children, ages 1 and 4. ALBERT “BJ” STIEGLITZ
has been named an assistant chief in the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act Unit of the U.S. Department of Justice’s Criminal Division, Fraud Section. He and his wife, Amanda, along with their daughters, Caroline, 4, and Elizabeth “Ellie,” 3, reside in Arlington, Va.
RICHARD WARREN LL.M. has been pro-
moted to partner with Hunton & Williams in Richmond, Va. He advises clients in mergers and acquisitions, corporate finance, corporate governance and general commercial matters. JACKIE GHARAPOUR WERNZ has joined the
U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights in Chicago, where she investigates and enforces several federal civil rights laws that prohibit discrimination in schools, colleges and universities across the Midwest. Gharapour Wernz was previously a partner with Franczek Radelet, where she practiced all facets of managementside education law. She lives in Chicago with her husband, Matt, and her two children, 4-year-old Isaiah and 2-year-old Cecily.
2008 JIM EVANS is litigation
and regulatory counsel for The TJX Companies Inc., headquartered in
Photo submitted by TAYLOR STOUT ’10
Framingham, Mass. TJX is a leading offprice retailer of apparel and home fashion with more than 3,900 stores in nine countries and three e-commerce sites. Evans and his wife, Colleen, live in West Roxbury with their daughters, Nora and Maggie. JOE GREEN is a senior legal editor with Thomson Reuters’ Practical Law business unit in New York City, focused on creating startup and venture capital resources for attorneys. He was previously with Gunderson Dettmer Stough Villeneuve Franklin & Hachigian. Green writes and lectures frequently on startup law issues. TIFFANY NICHOLS was selected as a rising star in intellectual property litigation for Northern California in Super Lawyers 2016. After practicing law for several years in California, she is pursuing a Ph.D. in the history of science at Harvard University this fall. JAMAAL “JAY” STAFFORD opened The Law Firm of J.W. Stafford in Chevy Chase, Md., in 2015. His practice focuses on construction law and employment litigation, including wrongful termination, wage and hour claims, sexual harassment and discrimination. He lives in Crofton.
2009
THERE IS A STRONG contingent of UVA Law alums in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Florida, including the U.S. attorney himself, A. LEE BENTLEY III ’83. Displaying their school spirit, some of the UVA Law contingent came together for a photo at a recent swearing-in ceremony for new assistant U.S. attorneys, including MANDY RIEDEL ’00, CARLTON GAMMONS ’10, TAYLOR STOUT ’10, JEREMY BLOOR ’09, A. LEE BENTLEY ’83, ERIC GERARD ’10, SHEA GIBBONS ’12 and GERMAINE SEIDER ’09.
96 UVA LAWYER FALL 2016
JAMES P. ABELY has joined Psychemedics Corp. as associate general counsel. Psychemedics, headquartered in Acton, Mass., is the world’s largest provider of hair testing for the detection of drugs. Abely was previously with Goodwin Procter.
ADVOCATING FOR YOUTH IN THE JUSTICE SYSTEM JEREE THOMAS ’11 is the new policy director for the Campaign for Youth Justice in Washington, D.C., an organization dedicated to ending the prosecution, sentencing and incarceration of youth in the adult criminal justice system. Thomas joined the campaign from the JustChildren Program of the Legal Aid Justice Center in Richmond, Va., where she began her legal career in 2011 as a Skadden Fellow representing youth who had problems in their education and their re-entry into society after incarceration. Her work there won her recognition in June as she became the inaugural recipient of the Youth Justice Emerging Leader Award, given by the National Juvenile Justice Network. The problem of youth incarceration in the United States is a pressing one, Thomas said. Some 200,000 youths are tried as adults each year, more than in any other country in the world. “Research, data and experience tell us that treating youth as adults does not improve public safety or rehabilitate the youth,” said Thomas, who participated in the Child Advocacy Clinic while in Law School. “Unfortunately, they are more likely to be put in solitary confinement, 36 times more likely to commit suicide than their peers held in juvenile facilities, and are disproportionately the victims of sexual violence in adult facilities.” As an attorney for JustChildren, Thomas laid the groundwork for the RISE for Youth Coalition, a Virginia-based nonpartisan coalition that supports community alternatives to youth incarceration. She also helped create Performing Statistics, a project that allowed her to work with youth who were released from the Richmond Detention Center; three days a week, three hours a day, she worked side by side with artists and advocates to create art that supports jail reform. When she saw that one of her clients had the potential to be a community organizer, she mentored him so that he had the skills to do the job. “If we want young people to become law-abiding adults, we have to teach them how to do that,” she said. —Rebecca Barns