Roundtable Discussion
The Future of Lawyer Hiring, Development & Advancement
September 28, 2009
Offices of Kirkland & Ellis, LLP
San Francisco, CA

Participant Biographies:

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David Breach is a founding partner of the corporate group for the San Francisco office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. Mr. Breach relocated from Kirkland’s Chicago office. His practice is focused primarily on the representation of private equity funds in all aspects of their businesses, including formation, acquisitions, and divestitures. Mr. Breach serves as lead counsel in structuring and negotiating various strategic and leveraged acquisitions and divestitures, joint ventures, mergers and acquisitions, senior bank finan¬cings, subordinated debt finan¬cings, equity finan¬cings, executive compensation matters, venture capital investments and restructurings, and workouts. He has negotiated and completed transactions in a variety of industries including manufacturing, consumer products, software, post--secondary education, restaurants, retail, staffing, financial services, technology outsourcing, and logistics.

Lisa M. Dickinson is currently Associate Director of Attorney Recruiting and Professional Development for Kirkland & Ellis LLP in San Francisco. Prior to this, she served as the Director of the Office of Career Planning at USF for over seven years. Ms. Dickinson is a past NALP President and former Board member. She has been involved in several NALP initiatives including the timing guidelines task force. Ms. Dickinson has served as President and remains actively involved in the Bay Area Legal Recruitment Association. She also currently serves on the Board of Directors for PIC, a statewide coordinator of legal services in California. Ms. Dickinson was also a member of the Bar Association of San Francisco’s LGBT Issues Committee, a subcommittee of its Equality Committee, which researched and wrote a report on best practices in hiring, retaining, and promoting LGBT employees.

Gihan Fernando received a B.A. with honors in Political Economy from Johns Hopkins University in 1986. He went on to receive his J.D. degree from the Georgetown University Law Center, where he was a member of the Georgetown Law Journal and a Law Fellow. After practicing law with McKenna & Cuneo in Washington, DC, he joined the Office of Career Counseling and Placement at NYU School of Law, where he worked closely with J.D. and foreign LL.M. students. In 1995, he joined Cornell Law School, where first he served as Director of Career Planning and Counseling, and then as Assistant Dean for Student Services. Currently, he is a member of the District of Columbia and New York State Bars and an active member of the National Association for Law Placement (NALP). Dean Fernando’s professional activities include serving as President of NALP in 2007-2008, acting as NALP’s liaison to the ABA Standing Committee on Minorities in the Judiciary, and serving on the advisory board for the ABA/NALP study on judicial clerkships.

Bryant G. Garth is Dean and Professor of Law at Southwestern Law School. He began his tenure as Dean in the fall of 2005. Prior to that time, he served for fourteen years as Director of the American Bar Foundation in Chicago and four years as Dean of Indiana University School of Law-Bloomington. His research focuses on the legal profession and on the globalization of law. His most recent books (with Yves Dezalay) are The Internationalization of Palace Wars: Lawyers, Economists, and the Contest to Transform Latin American States (University of Chicago Press) and Global Prescriptions: The Production, Exportation, and Importation of a New Legal Orthodoxy (edited volume, University of Michigan Press, 2002). He and Yves Dezalay are currently finishing a new book tentatively entitled Asian Legal Revivals: Lawyer-Compradors and Colonial Strategies in the Reshaping of Asian States. He currently chairs the advisory board of the Law School Survey of Student Engagement and serves on the executive coordinating committee of the “After the J.D.” study of lawyer careers. He is also co-editor of the Journal of Legal Education.

Pamela Gates is a partner with Bryan Cave LLP. Her primary area of practice is environmental law and commercial litigation. Ms. Gates is a member of the firmwide and office diversity committees and assisted in establishing the international Women’s Forum, which has hosted over 60 professional development, marketing, and networking events for Bryan Cave’s lawyers and its clients. Ms. Gates has served on the firm’s recruiting committee for years, recently completing a term as the chair of the committee. Ms. Gates also assists in hiring and training summer associates and new associates, on a national and regional basis in communication and trial skills. Since 1996, Ms. Gates has focused considerable attention on law related education for Arizona’s youth. She has worked with the Arizona Mock Trial program and currently serves as a regional coordinator for the Maricopa County program. She regularly speaks at schools and often provides instruction to educators, police officers and probation officers regarding law related education. She was awarded the Law Related Education Attorney of the Year in 2008, has been repeatedly recognized as one of the top business leaders in Phoenix, and was selected as a finalist for the Athena Award, which honors women who excel in business, serve the community, and support women in their professional careers.

Larry Kramer joined Stanford Law School in 2004 as Richard E. Lang Professor and Dean. As the school’s twelfth Dean, he has spear¬headed significant educational reforms, including dramatically expanding joint degree programs as part of a multi-disciplinary approach to legal studies, enlarging the clinical education program to promote reflective lawyering, revamping programs to foster a public service ethos, and building the international law program to support a growing emphasis on globalization in legal practice. Dean Kramer has written and taught in such varied fields as conflict of laws, civil procedure, federalism and its history, and, most recently, the role of courts in society. His book, The People Themselves: Popular Constitutionalism and Judicial Review, sparked renewed interest in the ongoing debate about the relationship between the Supreme Court of the United States and politics. He is an elected fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and a member of the American Philosophical Society and the American Law Institute. In December 2008, Equal Justice Works named Dean Kramer to its Board of Directors. He has appointments (by courtesy) with the Stanford University Department of History and with the Graduate School of Business. Before joining the Stanford faculty, Dean Kramer served as Associate Dean for Research and Academics and Russell D. Niles Professor of Law at New York University School of Law; professor of law at the University of Chicago and University of Michigan law schools; and consultant for Mayer, Brown, Rowe & Maw LLP. Early in his career, Dean Kramer clerked for Justice William J. Brennan, Jr. of the U.S. Supreme Court and Judge Henry J. Friendly of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.

David Montoya has served as the Assistant Dean for Career Services at The University of Texas School of Law since 2004. A native of Santa Fe, New Mexico, he earned a bachelors degree in business administration from the University of Notre Dame in 1985, where he was designated a Notre Dame Scholar. Mr. Montoya received his J.D. from The University of Texas School of Law in 1995. Before attending law school, he was a CPA and worked for Arthur Andersen LLP and Burlington Resources. Mr. Montoya practiced law with Texas law firms for several years before accepting his current position. He was most recently a partner with Jackson Walker, LLP in the Commercial Litigation and Corporate Reorganizations and Restructuring sections, primarily serving the telecommunications, technology, and financial services industries. He served on the recruiting and hiring committees of Jackson Walker, LLP and other previous employers.

Patty J. Morrissy is the Chief Legal Recruiting Officer at Sullivan & Cromwell LLP and oversees the Firm’s worldwide recruiting efforts. Her career began at Davis Polk and evolved into leading strategic initiatives in the areas of professional development, diversity management, and marketing. Ms. Morrissy gained her experience working at: LeBoeuf, Lamb as the Director of Legal Personnel; Credit Suisse First Boston, as Vice President of Global Administration for the Legal & Compliance Department; and at Paul Weiss, as Director of Recruiting. She joined Sullivan & Cromwell LLP in New York in August 2006. Ms. Morrissy is a recognized leader among legal recruiting professionals and is a frequent speaker and author on law firm recruiting issues. She is a member of the City of New York Bar Association’s Committee on Recruitment and Retention and is an occasional speaker at law schools and at industry events sponsored by such organizations as the National Association of Law Placement, the New York State Bar Association, and the National Association of Legal Search Consultants. Ms. Morrissy has authored a number of articles for the New York Law Journal. A native of Ossining, New York, she received a B.A. in Sociology from Boston College in 1985.

Pamela Reed is a firmwide Managing Partner of Morrison & Foerster LLP based in San Francisco, California, and a partner in the Real Estate Group. As a Managing Partner, she coordinates Morrison & Foerster’s firmwide attorney recruiting and professional development strategies and programs. She received her J.D. from the University of California, Berkeley, and her undergraduate and master’s degrees from the University of California, Irvine.

Stephen J. Venuto is Firmwide On-Campus Hiring Partner for Orrick. He focuses on the representation of high-growth technology and media companies, their founders and investors. As the firmwide head of on-campus attorney recruiting he is a member of Orrick’s Leadership Team, and he is also a managing member of Orrick’s venture fund. His practice includes the formation, financing, and general corporate counseling of emerging growth private and public companies; representation of venture capital firms and investment banks in private and public offerings; and other complex transactions. Most of Mr. Venuto’s clients are in fast growth fields related to biotechnology, clean technology, information technology, media, and/or entertainment.