A Roundtable on the Future of Lawyer Hiring, Development and Advancement
Wednesday, June 24, 2008
Arnold & Porter, Washington, DC

PARTICIPANTS

• Jerry Biederman, Managing Partner, Neal, Gerber & Eisenberg LLP
• Joe Caldwell, Chair, Diversity Committee, Baker Botts LLP
• Howard Ellin, Global Chair, Hiring Committee, Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP
• Michael Fitts, Dean, University of Pennsylvania Law School
• Heather Frattone, Associate Dean for Career Planning and Placement, University of Pennsylvania Law School
• William Henderson, Professor, University of Indiana School of Law
• Frederick Krebs, President, Association of Corporate Counsel
• Thomas Leatherbury, Firm Hiring Partner, Vinson & Elkins
• James Leipold, Executive Director, NALP, Moderator
• Wally Martinez, Managing Partner, Hunton & Williams LLP
• Thomas Milch, Chairman and CEO, Arnold & Porter LLP
• Susan Robinson, Associate Dean for Career Services, Stanford Law School
• LeaNora Ruffin, Assistant Dean, Career Development, Widener University School of Law, and 2009-2010 NALP President
• Carol Sprague, Director of Associate/Alumni Relations and Attorney Recruiting, Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP, and 2009-2010 NALP President Elect
• Caren Ulrich Stacy, Director of Professional Development, Arnold & Porter LLP
• David Van Zandt, Dean, Northwestern University School of Law
• Kellye Walker, General Counsel, Diageo
• Mark Weber, Assistant Dean for Career Services, Harvard Law School
• Scott Westfahl, Director of Professional Development, Goodwin Procter LLP
  

BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION

Download a PDF of these biographies

Jerry Biederman is Managing Partner of Neal, Gerber & Eisenberg LLP and is a member of the firm’s Commercial Leasing, Corporate & Securities, Private Wealth Services and Real Estate Practice Group as well as of its Executive Committee. The breadth and depth of his experience with very high-end transactions allows him to bring a sophisticated and holistic perspective to his clients’ business challenges, in rapid order. He represents a wide variety of corporate and individual clients from throughout the U.S. that do business in several foreign countries. He has structured both the contractual and tax aspects of complex, multi-company distribution arrangements for American exporters, negotiated major tenant leases, devised and implemented significant asset restructurings for real estate clients, and integrated his clients’ business planning and estate planning. Mr. Biederman earned his J.D. from the University of Chicago in 1971. In 1968, he graduated from Stanford University with a B.A. He was admitted to the Illinois bar in 1971.

Joe Caldwell is Chair of the litigation department of the Washington office of Baker Botts and Chair of the firm’s diversity committee. He represents clients in federal and state courts and before congressional committees, administrative agencies, and arbitration tribunals. His practice focuses on complex business disputes in civil litigation and on white collar criminal trials and investigations. He is a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers. Mr. Caldwell was named one of the Best Lawyers in America in 2005-09, Top 100 Lawyers in Washington, DC, by Washingtonian Magazine in 2007 and 2008, and has been honored with selection as one of the Top Black Lawyers in the U.S. by Black Enterprise Magazine in 2005 and one of the Top Six Black SuperLawyers in America by Ebony Magazine in 2007. In more than 100 jury trials, Mr. Caldwell has represented a variety of clients, including financial institutions, news organizations, national law firms, entertainment and sports entities, energy and construction companies, and other business organizations in such civil matters as breach of contract, securities, legal malpractice, banking issues, employment discrimination, and real estate disputes. In white collar criminal matters, Mr. Caldwell has represented corporate CEOs in securities and other business fraud allegations, and has defended clients against allegations of conspiracy, money laundering, federal contract fraud, mail and wire fraud, tax crimes, public corruption, and obstruction of justice. He has also defended clients in matters initiated by independent counsels. Mr. Caldwell previously served as counsel at the United States Supreme Court and as special assistant to Chief Justice Warren E. Burger. He also served as deputy attorney general for the State of New Jersey and as chief of staff and legal counsel to Washington Mayor Sharon Pratt Kelly. Mr. Caldwell has taught trial practice as part of the adjunct faculty at Georgetown University Law Center and is a co-leader of the faculty of the National Institute of Trial Advocacy at Georgetown. Prior to joining Baker Botts, Mr. Caldwell was a partner at Miller, Cassidy, Larroca & Lewin, L.L.P.

Howard Ellin is a global co-head of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP’s Corporate Transactions practices and is global chair of the firm’s hiring committee. He focuses on a wide variety of transactions, including private equity and leveraged buyouts, private acquisitions, corporate restructurings and financings, and general corporate advice. Mr. Ellin’s major M&A transactions include representing News Corporation in its $6 billion acquisition of Dow Jones and The Wall Street Journal and in some of its previous acquisitions; representing Express Scripts, Inc. in its pending $4.7 billion acquisition of WellPoint Inc.’s Next Rx subsidiaries; representing Univision Communications Inc. in its $13.5 billion sale to a consortium of private equity investors; representing IBM Corporation in its $3.5 billion acquisition of PricewaterhouseCoopers Consulting; and representing McDonnell Douglas in its $13.3 billion merger with Boeing. Mr. Ellin also represents many companies in their dealings with private equity firms in going-private transactions, having represented AMC Entertainment Inc. when it was taken private by JP Morgan Partners and Apollo Investors. He was selected for inclusion in Chambers USA: America’s Leading Lawyers for Business 2008. Mr. Ellin earned his J.D. from Harvard Law School in 1988 and a B.S. from Carnegie-Mellon University in 1985.

Michael Fitts is the Dean and Bernard G. Segal Professor of Law at the University of Pennsylvania Law School. He earned an A.B. from Harvard and his J.D. from Yale Law School. From 1979 to 1981 he clerked for the late Hon. A. Leon Higginbotham, Jr. of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. From 1981 through 1985, he served as an attorney advisor in the Office of Legal Counsel at the U.S. Department of Justice, where he received a Special Commendation Award from the Attorney General of the United States for his work. In 1985, Dean Fitts joined the Penn Law faculty and was appointed associate professor of law in 1990, professor of law in 1992, and Robert G. Fuller, Jr. professor of law in 1996. His teaching has included an interdisciplinary approach to administrative law, election law, government institutions, legislation, and regulated industries. Dean Fitts has written widely on political institutions, separation of powers, the Presidency, and Congress. He has been a board member of the Law and Political Process Study Group of the American Political Science Association. He has also served on various civic boards, including the Committee of Seventy, a Philadelphia elections “watchdog” organization.

Heather Frattone is the Associate Dean for Career Planning and Professionalism at the University of Pennsylvania Law School. Prior to returning to Penn Law, Ms. Frattone served as Executive Director of Policy and Planning for the School District of Philadelphia, where she worked closely with Chief Executive Officer Paul Vallas to plan and direct policy development for School District programs and initiatives. Immediately following law school, she worked in the litigation department at Dechert as well as the government relations and litigation departments at Kleinbard Bell & Brecker. As a law student, Ms. Frattone interned with the Honorable Marjorie Rendell, served as a clinical student in the Public Defenders Association, and was a Louderback Legal Writing Instructor. Prior to Penn Law, she worked as an intern in the White House Office of Legislative Affairs under President Clinton and at the Public Interest Law Center of Philadelphia. Ms. Frattone received her B.S. in Economics from Wharton cum laude in 1994 and her Penn Law degree cum laude in 1998.

William D. Henderson serves as Professor at the Indiana University Maurer School of Law, where he teaches Corporations, Business Planning, and a course on the economics and structure of law firms. In conjunction with other Indiana law faculty, Mr. Henderson recently developed “The Legal Profession,” a four-credit 1L course that explores traditional legal ethics and professionalism through the lens of specific practice settings. The course also involves intensive team-based projects and the development of non-analytical competencies critical for the professional success of lawyers. Professor Henderson’s scholarship focuses on the empirical analysis of legal labor markets (spanning both law school and law firms) and, more narrowly, the development of human capital for legal service providers. In the law firm context, current and past projects examine a wide variety of market trends, including patterns of lawyer mobility, the relationship between profitability and associate satisfaction, the economic geography of large law firms, and attrition rates of female and minority attorneys. His recent legal education work explores the relationship between labor markets and the annual U.S. News & World Report law school rankings. Professor Henderson also serves as director of the Law Firms Working Group, a joint initiative of the Indiana Law and the American Bar Foundation, and as a research associate for the Law School Survey of Student Engagement.

Frederick J. (Fred) Krebs is President of the Association of Corporate Counsel (ACC), a 24,000+ international membership organization that serves as the “voice of the in-house bar” and provides practical resources and extensive networking opportunities for its in-house counsel members. Mr. Krebs’ experience includes roles as an association executive, an in-house attorney, and a lawyer in private practice with the law firm of Stephens & Krebs, where he specialized in corporate and trade association law. In 1975, Mr. Krebs joined the U.S. Chamber of Commerce as the Assistant General Counsel, and later as Manager of the Labor and Human Resources Policy Department, overseeing all policy development and lobbying on labor and human resources issues. He joined ACC as the Executive Director in 1991 and during his time with ACC the association has tripled in size, from 7,800 members in 1991, to now more than 24,000 members. Mr. Krebs frequently speaks and writes on issues related to in-house practice management, ethics, and professional responsibility, as well as provides insight and commentary for media inquiries in the U.S., Canada, China, and Europe. He serves as an adjunct professor at Georgetown University Law Center and is on the Corporate Directors Institute Advisory Board for the National Association of Corporate Directors. Mr. Krebs received his B.A., with honors, from Allegheny College and received his J.D. from Case Western Reserve University Law School, where he was a member of the Law Review. He also attended the University of Manchester in Manchester, England. Mr. Krebs is admitted to practice in Ohio, Virginia, the District of Columbia, and before various federal courts.

Thomas Leatherbury is the hiring partner and the co-head of the Appellate practice group at Vinson & Elkins L.L.P. He has a broad range of federal and state trial and appellate court experience. Mr. Leatherbury serves as a member of the Editorial Board of the Communications Lawyer and as a director of North Tex as Business for Culture and the Arts. He is a member of the NALP Foundation Board of Trustees. He graduated from Yale College and Yale Law School and clerked for the late Hon. Robert M. Hill, a Dallas federal District Judge.

James G. Leipold is the Executive Director of the National Association for Law Placement (NALP), a position he has held since 2004. Prior to joining NALP, he worked at the Law School Admission Council (LSAC) for five and a half years as the assistant director for education and prelaw programs. Prior to joining LSAC in 1998, he was the director of admission at Temple University School of Law, where he was also an instructor in legal writing and research. He is a magna cum laude graduate of Brown University and Temple University School of Law. He has also worked as a legal writing instructor in the paralegal program at the Community College of Philadelphia, as an undergraduate admission officer at the University of Vermont, and as a high school English teacher in both Michigan and Alaska. He speaks and writes frequently on trends in legal employment for recent law school graduates.

Walfrido (Wally) Martinez is Managing Partner of Hunton & Williams LLP and a member of the firm’s Litigation & Intellectual Property Practice. Mr. Martinez was a founding partner of the firm’s Miami office, where his practice focused on complex business litigation and white-collar criminal defense. He left the firm for two years to serve as senior vice president and general counsel of Diageo North America. He returned to Hunton & Williams to become managing partner in 2006. In June 2008, the National Law Journal named Mr. Martinez one of the nation’s “50 Most Influential Minority Lawyers.” He serves as vice-chair of the Leadership Council on Legal Diversity and is a member of the NALP Foundation Board of Trustees. His legal experience includes federal and state jury trial experience in commercial and criminal matters. He has argued criminal and civil appeals and has successfully defended class actions involving securities fraud, deceptive business practices, and consumer lending. Mr. Martinez has also represented health care providers in connection with criminal, administrative exclusion, and qui tam litigation and has handled numerous injunction proceedings involving matters such as intellectual property disputes, franchise and distributor terminations, and enforcement of covenants not to compete. Mr. Martinez has represented clients in several commercial arbitration proceedings involving supply contracts, third party service agreements, and other business matters, has designed and implemented compliance programs, and has conducted related internal investigations. Mr. Martinez earned a J.D. from the University of Pennsylvania Law School in 1991 and a B.S. from Seton Hall University, magna cum laude, in 1988.

Thomas Milch is presently Chair of Arnold & Porter LLP and previously served as head of the firm’s environmental practice. Mr. Milch’s practice principally includes federal enforcement and private party litigation under U.S. environmental law, counseling national and multinational companies on environmental compliance issues, and addressing environmental issues that arise in complex corporate and real estate transactions. His recent experience has focused on remedial issues at major contaminated sites and national lakes and rivers, including disputes involving sediment remedies, natural resources damages, and RCRA citizen suits. From 1989 until 1997, Mr. Milch was an adjunct professor of law at Georgetown University Law Center, where he taught courses on environmental law. He has served as a member of the ABA’s Standing Committee on Environmental Law (1996-1998), and was chair of the ABA’s Special Committee on Environmental Litigation Techniques (SONREEL) (1991-1994). From 1992 to 1998, Mr. Milch also served on the Board of Directors and Executive Committee of the Environmental Law Institute, and from 1998 to 2004, he served on the Board of Directors of Wildlife Trust International, an international conservation group committed to biodiversity protection. For more than a decade, he has served on the Board of RESOLVE, Inc., a nonprofit organization committed to alternative dispute resolution in the environmental field. He is a graduate of Yale Law School, where he served as an officer of the Yale Law Journal. He earned his J.D. from Yale Law School in 1976 and a B.A., summa cum laude, from Yale University in 1973.

Susan Robinson is the Associate Dean for Career Services at Stanford Law School. For over 12 years, she has worked closely with students and alumni on career planning and placement and with legal employers on a wide range of recruitment issues. Ms. Robinson has also been actively involved through NALP in addressing some of the current challenges in legal recruiting, chairing NALP’s Diversity Pipeline Work Group and serving on the Part V Timing Guidelines Task Force. Currently, she is a member of NALP’s Street Law Implementation Work Group and the Innovation & Technology Task Force. Prior to Stanford, Ms. Robinson was a litigator at two major San Francisco law firms, where she was actively involved in attorney recruitment and development through her work on the firms’ hiring and associate committees. She received a B.A. from Wellesley College and her J.D. from Columbia Law School.

LeaNora Ruffin is the Assistant Dean for Career Development at Widener University School of Law in Wilmington, Delaware, and serves as the 2009-2010 President of NALP. She attended the University of Pennsylvania where she received her B.A. in 1990 and her J.D. from the University of Pennsylvania Law School in 1993. After law school, she was a judicial law clerk and practiced for five years in plaintiff and defense firms in Philadelphia, PA, primarily in the areas of medical malpractice and products liability. In 1998, she joined Widener University School of Law and, after two years, was promoted to Assistant Dean for Career Development over Widener’s two-campus law school. Ms. Ruffin has been active in NALP for several years. Prior to her current role as President, she was a member of the Part V Task Force and held the positions of Mid-Atlantic NALP Board Director, Nominating Committee member, and Vice-Chair and Board Liaison to several sections and committees. Ms. Ruffin has a particular interest in diversity issues and has served as a Board Member for the Philadelphia Area Minority Job Fair since 2004.

Carol Sprague has been with the law firm of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP since 1986, first as Manager then Director of Legal Hiring and just recently has been given the expanded role of Director of Associate/Alumni Relations & Attorney Recruiting. Her primary responsibility is overseeing all aspects of attorney hiring, associate integration, assimilation, and retention initiatives for the firm’s 24 domestic and foreign offices. Ms. Sprague also directs the firm’s alumni programs and outreach. Ms. Sprague is a graduate of Hobart & William Smith Colleges and the Georgetown University Paralegal Program. Directly out of college, she worked as a legal assistant and Professional Personnel Administrator at the former DC law firm of Wald, Harkrader & Ross. Ms. Sprague has been a contributor to the New York Law Journal, American Lawyer, and Harvard Law Record, as well as a speaker on various topics at NALP conferences and law schools. She was a member of the 2000-2001 NALP Board of Directors and served as NALP’s 2002-2004 Vice-President. Ms. Sprague served on the Board of Directors of the NALP Foundation and chaired the 2006-2007 NALP Nominating Committee. She currently serves as the NALP President-Elect.

Caren Ulrich Stacy has worked in the legal industry for over 15 years in the areas of career services, recruiting, legal personnel, professional development, and diversity. She has experience with mid-sized regional and large international law firms in New York, California, Texas, Virginia, and Washington, DC. As the firm-wide Director of Professional Development at Arnold & Porter LLP, a Washington, DC-based firm with over 700 lawyers in six domestic and two international offices, Ms. Stacy oversees and integrates all attorney development, advancement, and retention initiatives, including orientation, integration, mentoring, career development, training, mandatory continuing legal education (MCLE), work assignment coordination, performance management, diversity, and retreats. With her assistance, Arnold & Porter became one of the first law firms in the country to hire an in-house career counselor to work one-on-one with attorneys to develop and track career development plans. She also assisted her firm in hiring a trial training counsel who provides support and direct supervision of attorneys who want to enhance their trial advocacy skills with pro bono matters that offer real-world courtroom experiences with criminal cases. Ms. Stacy has written and spoken extensively on topics such as attorney development and retention for organizations such as The American Lawyer and NALP. In addition to over 70 presentations and articles, she is co-author of a book entitled Loyalty By Design: A Practical Guide for Developing an Effective Attorney Integration Program (NALP Foundation and NALP, 2005). Over the past several years, she has held many leadership positions, including serving as chair of the NALP Attorney Development Committee, two terms on the board of directors for the Professional Development Consortium, and as chair of The American Lawyer Chief Recruitment and Professional Development Officers Conference.

David E. Van Zandt joined the Northwestern Law faculty in 1985 and became Dean in 1995. Soon after becoming Dean, he embarked on a two-year strategic planning process that involved faculty, staff, students, and alumni. The resulting Strategic Plan, completed in 1998, set goals to build a great law school for the changing world. Since then, Dean Van Zandt has worked to implement and refine the plan, setting a new standard in legal education. Under his leadership, Northwestern Law established a unique admissions interview program and work experience requirement that helped improve the student body not only academically, but also in terms of maturity, teamwork, and interpersonal skills. The faculty also improved, becoming more diverse and skilled, with more than 50% holding Ph.D.’s in related disciplines. The faculty has also grown by nearly 40% and includes widely recognized clinical and practitioner faculty. To update and expand upon the Strategic Plan, Dean Van Zandt led the design and implementation of “Plan 2008: Preparing Great Leaders for the Changing World,” a new initiative that will provide graduates with the competencies needed to succeed in the changing global marketplace. As part of the new plan, beginning in 2009 Northwestern Law will be the only law school among top-tier institutions to offer an accelerated two-year J.D. program as well as the traditional three-year J.D. program. The accelerated J.D. and other new initiatives will offer innovative ways for students to develop the foundational competencies — communication, teamwork, strategic understanding, basic quantitative skills, cross-cultural work, project management and leadership — that are at the heart of Plan 2008. Dean Van Zandt earned an A.B., summa cum laude, from Princeton University, a J.D. from Yale Law School, and a Ph.D. from the London School of Economics and Political Science.

Kellye L. Walker is Senior Vice President and General Counsel of Diageo North America. At Diageo, Ms. Walker is a member of the Global Legal Leadership Team and the North American Executive Team. Her responsibilities in this role include oversight of all of legal, regulatory, and compliance matters. Ms. Walker previously served as Senior Vice President, General Counsel, and Secretary of BJ’s Wholesale Club. Prior to joining BJ’s she was a corporate partner in major law firms in Boston, Massachusetts, and in New Orleans, Louisiana. In addition to her mergers and acquisitions work while in private practice, Ms. Walker always was actively involved in recruiting and business development activities such as developing a Women in Business Seminar series. Ms. Walker’s professional affiliations include being the Chairman of the National Selection Committee for the Stakeholder 100 (a program designed to select and invest in the careers of top-performing law firm associates of color in the U.S.), a member of the Board of Directors of the Association of Corporate Counsel, and a member of the International Corporate Governance Committee of the Business Law Section of the American Bar Association. She is also a member of the YWCA Boston Academy of Women Achievers and has served as a member of the Commonwealth Institute General Counsel Forum, a member of the Board of Directors of the Museum of Afro-American History and a member of the Advisory Board of the Women of Ethnic Diversity Initiative (a program designed to assist women entrepreneurs to grow their businesses). She has served as a board member of the Northeast Chapter of the Association of Corporate Counsel, the National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship of New England, the South Shore Hospital, and as a member and former chair of the Board of Directors of the American Heart Association, New Orleans Division. Ms. Walker is admitted to practice in Massachusetts, Tennessee and Louisiana. She received her B.S. from Louisiana Tech University and her J.D. from Emory University School of Law, where she was Research Editor of the Emory International Law Review.

Mark Weber is Assistant Dean for Career Services for Harvard Law School. He has more than 15 years of experience counseling and advising students and attorneys about their careers. Before joining Harvard Law School in 2000, he was the Assistant Dean for Career Services at the University of Illinois College of Law for six years. Prior to that, he practiced law for six years at a mid-sized firm in Chicago focusing on tax, corporate, and bankruptcy matters. He is also a CPA and worked in the tax department of a Big Four public accounting firm in Chicago for two years. Mark is an active member of NALP and has held numerous leadership positions within the association including serving on the Board of Directors and the Long Range Strategic Planning Committee and chairing the Nominating Committee. Mr. Weber received his B.S. in Accountancy from the University of Illinois and his J.D. from the University of Illinois College of Law.

Scott A. Westfahl joined Goodwin Procter in 2004 as the firm’s Director of Professional Development. In this role, he is responsible for all aspects of the professional development of Goodwin Procter attorneys, focusing primarily on issues involving feedback, mentoring, diversity, professional skills development, attorney integration, and alumni. In 2008, he was chosen as one of Law Firm, Inc. magazine’s five “Innovators of the Year” for his work in developing a cutting-edge attorney assignment system and database called iStaff, which effectively ties attorney work assignments to their professional development needs. Mr. Westfahl currently serves as Vice Chair of the Professional Development Consortium, a 370-member professional association for law firm professional development and training leaders across North America and the U.K. He is a frequent guest lecturer and is the author of the book You Get What You Measure: Lawyer Development Frameworks and Effective Performance Evaluations (NALP, 2008). Prior to coming to Goodwin Procter, Mr. Westfahl spent six years leading professional development for the Washington, DC office of McKinsey & Company, one of the world’s top management consulting companies. Mr. Westfahl is also an experienced business and federal regulatory attorney, having practiced law with Foley & Lardner’s Washington, DC office from 1988 to 1998. He earned his J.D. from Harvard Law School in 1988, and graduated summa cum laude from Dartmouth College in 1985 with a B.A. in Government.