Class Notes: Spring 2025

In August 2024, Holland & Knight partner Leonard Gilbert began serving a one-year term on the American Bar Association’s House of Delegates Select Committee and a three-year term on its Standing Committee on Constitution and Bylaws. His long history of service with the ABA includes being a member of the Board of Governors and of the House of Delegates, director of the American Bar Foundation, and chair of the general practice section. A member of Holland & Knight’s financial services practice group, Gilbert is a former president of the Florida Bar, the Hillsborough County Bar, and the American College of Commercial Finance Lawyers.

In the fall, Howard Brod Brownstein, president of The Brownstein Corp., wrote: “I was honored to be a speaker at the recent 50th Reunion of the Class of 1974, which is my reunion class although I am J.D./M.B.A. ’75. My topic was ‘Joining & Serving on Boards,’ which is a role I have had my entire career, beginning with The Harvard Coop when I was a student. We had a great turnout and had active discussions about why serving on boards can be a valuable adjunct to one’s career as a lawyer, as well as how to navigate the ethical issues, which are important but certainly manageable. Since law firms are increasingly permitting their members to serve on boards — since to continue to discourage it may put them at a competitive disadvantage regarding recruitment and retention — there was a great deal of interest among our audience, which included reunion attendees from several graduation years. It was wonderful to be back on campus, and I am looking forward to future reunions, as well as to guest-teaching as I have done in the past.”

Richard A. Rosen writes: “I recently retired from Paul Weiss Rifkind Wharton & Garrison, a New York law firm where I had been a litigation partner since 1986. As of Oct. 1, 2024, I assumed the role of senior vice president of legal advocacy at the Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law, which provides strategic and legal guidance to Americans experiencing antisemitic discrimination and harassment, helping students, employees, and others obtain effective responses from universities and other institutions. When those institutions fail to comply with their legal obligations under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act and other laws, the center seeks to hold them accountable through federal and state court litigation and through complaints to administrative agencies such as the Office for Civil Rights of the Department of Education. I am responsible for overseeing all litigation and administrative proceedings nationwide. I am also an adjunct professor at Columbia Law School, where I teach a seminar in complex litigation. I also frequently teach overseas and in recent years have been a visiting professor at law schools in Budapest, Hungary; Vilnius, Lithuania; and Odesa, Ukraine. I may be reached at rarosen826@yahoo.com.”

In October, Lena Zezulin wrote: “I have just returned from Georgia, where I have been consulting for many years on pension laws. A new law requiring mandatory contributions to a defined contribution national pension, sort of a national 401(k), was introduced recently and already required some governance changes. In addition, a new law providing for voluntary pensions was adopted, and it required implementing regulations.” She added that at the time Georgia was also “on the cusp of a very important election.”

Evelyn D. Giaccio has joined Cole Schotz as a member in the firm’s real estate department and is based in New York. Her practice focuses on real estate finance, purchases/sales, joint ventures, development and construction, and other matters. Giaccio joined the firm from Counterpointe Sustainable Real Estate, where she served as managing director and general counsel.

In August 2024, John Kunich wrote: “Three-time Tony Award winners Jay and Cindy Gutterman will be the lead producers for ‘Marva!,’ my musical play about Marva Collins and her founding of a life-changing school in Chicago’s inner city. The Guttermans are assembling the production team necessary for a Broadway run. I’ve written all the music, lyrics, and book (script) for the show.”

“I’m serving as the president of the Harvard Law School Association for the next two years,” Yvonne Campos wrote in October. “I get to meet with fabulous alumni, faculty, and students. Make sure HLS and HLSA have your current email address so you can get notice of in-person or online events near you or of interest to you. This is a volunteer gig. I am still a general jurisdiction state trial court judge in San Diego. If you are now retired or retiring and looking for something sociable to do, come join us at HLSA, where you can mentor, socialize, or just hang out with fellow alumni.” For more information on the HLSA, go to Hlsa.org.

Adrienne Go is co-author with Olga Mack of the book “Product Counsel: Advise, Innovate, and Inspire,” published in the fall. Last August she wrote: “This book is the first of its kind, offering a product counsel framework for law students and lawyers interested in product counseling. Product law stands at the intersection of law, business, and technology, shaping numerous emerging industries. This book provides an in-depth examination of this evolving field, offering insights into its development, requisite skills for practitioners, and the broader legal and regulatory environment. It is especially relevant in the age of transformative technology such as AI.”

Jeff Senger has joined JAMS as a mediator and arbitrator after service as the acting general counsel of the Food and Drug Administration, a life sciences partner at Sidley Austin, and a leader of the Justice Department’s dispute resolution office. He has also been appointed to teach FDA law and negotiation at Columbia and Harvard law schools.

Peter Bekker LL.M. writes that he has joined Dentons US as a partner in the New York office, working in the international arbitration team within the commercial litigation department that is headed by Sandra D. Hauser ’91.

Danielle J. Marlow, a partner at Moritt Hock & Hamroff, now serves as co-chair of the firm’s litigation practice group. She focuses on complex commercial litigation matters including financial services and securities litigation, creditors’ rights, employment litigation, shareholder and partnership disputes, and class actions.

In February 2024, Brent Landau became executive director of the Public Interest Law Center. Founded in 1969 as the Philadelphia affiliate of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, the law center uses high-impact legal strategies to advance the civil, social, and economic rights of communities in the Philadelphia region facing discrimination, inequality, and poverty. Its practice areas include employment, environmental justice, health care, housing, public education, and voting. Previously, Landau was global managing partner of Hausfeld, where he litigated class actions on behalf of victims of human rights violations, anticompetitive conduct, and other wrongs. He is also an adjunct professor at the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School, where he has taught professional responsibility for the past 10 years.

Ethan Bernstein J.D./M.B.A. ’02, an associate professor in the Organizational Behavior Unit at Harvard Business School, is a co-author of the book “Job Moves: 9 Steps for Making Progress in Your Career.” The authors help people figure out the job move that’s right for them by sharing the job-switching process they developed, tested, and refined while researching, coaching, and mentoring over a thousand professionals. At HBS Bernstein teaches the courses Managing Human Capital and Developing Yourself as a Leader as well as various executive education programs. Previously, he spent five years at Boston Consulting Group and two years in executive positions at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

Michelle Yau, chair of the ERISA/employee benefits practice at Cohen Milstein in Washington, D.C., was profiled in Lawdragon on Sept. 24, 2024. Her ERISA class-action cases have garnered more than a billion dollars that will help workers in their retirement, and she has successfully challenged the enforceability of arbitration agreements before three circuit courts of appeal in the past two years. An HLS Heyman Fellow in 2003, Yau worked in the Office of the Solicitor of the U.S. Department of Labor.

Scarlett Singleton Nokes has become leader of the government enforcement and investigations practice group at Bradley Arant Boult Cummings in Nashville, Tennessee. A former federal prosecutor in Nashville as well as Birmingham, Alabama, and Savannah, Georgia, she represents clients in a range of matters related to internal investigations, government investigations, white-collar criminal defense, and regulatory and compliance issues, among others.

Tytus Cytowski LL.M. writes: “In September I celebrated the 15th anniversary of establishing my own law firm, Cytowski & Partners, which specializes in venture capital, emerging companies, and U.S. market expansion. It’s been quite a ride. Running my own boutique firm, I learned that you can turn a lot of lemons into lemonade. I started the firm after being let go from Big Law in 2008 as a result of the securitization meltdown and pivoted to startups after traveling to Iraq post-surge in 2012 on an assignment with a U.S. client responsible for redevelopment of Kurdistan. As it turns out, legal work in postwar Iraq did not match my risk profile. After Iraq I discovered that I have a great product-market-fit with European technology clients accepted into YCombinator or which received term sheets from Sand Hill investors. The firm is consistently ranked in PitchBook for its VC work and received a Spotlight in New York 2025 Guide by Chambers. Our firm’s clients include hot unicorns like ElevenLabs and top European VCs like Earlybird, 500 Emerging Europe, Credo Ventures, or Dig Ventures. I am happy to have five associates on my team, including Eresi Uche LL.M. ’19 and Fabiana Morales Centurion LL.M. ’22. We also have an office in Poland, which supports our Bay Area clients expanding into the CEE region.”

Emily Miskel has been elected to her first full term as a justice on the Court of Appeals for the Fifth District of Texas at Dallas. She was appointed to the court by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott in 2022. Miskel has spent nine years on the bench, serving in leadership roles on the Texas Judicial Council, the Supreme Court Advisory Committee, and the Texas Indigent Defense Commission. She was also honored with the Rehnquist Award for Judicial Excellence for her court innovations during the pandemic.

Jordan Leu has joined King & Spalding as a partner in the business litigation practice group and is based in the firm’s Dallas office, which it launched in February 2024. He handles complex commercial and bankruptcy disputes.

In November, Kim Smaczniak received the 2024 Clean Energy Education & Empowerment Government Award for her leadership and accomplishments in the field. Smaczniak is special counsel at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, where she has shaped historic reforms to policies that better enable the grid to reliably and affordably sustain a transition to clean energy. She has also led the Clean Energy Program at Earthjustice, a nonprofit law firm. And she served as a climate change negotiator for the U.S. State Department’s Office of Global Change, where she led the U.S. climate change mitigation portfolio. Smaczniak has also served as counsel to the U.S. Senate Environment and Public Works Committee and as a trial attorney for the U.S. Department of Justice. Clean Energy Education & Empowerment is a public-private sector collaboration focused on advancing women in the energy sector.

Kathryn Appling is now a partner at Blank Rome in New York. She focuses her real estate practice on representing private equity funds, developers, public companies, family offices, and other investors in structuring and negotiating complex joint ventures, acquisitions and dispositions, financings, and restructurings.

Caitlin Connolly has been elected a partner at Aronson Mayefsky & Sloan in New York, where she practices in the field of matrimonial and family law. She is a former assistant district attorney in New York and special victims prosecutor.

Caitlin Fitzpatrick is a new partner at Latham & Watkins in Washington, D.C. A member of both the antitrust and competition practice and the litigation and trial department, she advises clients on antitrust and competition matters, including obtaining regulatory approvals for mergers and acquisitions from U.S. and global competition authorities, advising on government conduct investigations, and counseling clients on antitrust compliance matters.

David Husband recently joined the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board as counselor to board member Edward Felten. An independent executive branch agency, the PCLOB ensures that the federal government’s efforts to prevent terrorism are balanced with the need to protect privacy and civil liberties, in part by conducting oversight and providing advice regarding executive branch regulations, policies, procedures, and activities related to efforts to protect the nation from terrorism. Prior to joining the PCLOB, Husband served for 10 years with the Federal Reserve Board of Governors, where he was a senior counsel in the legal division, with a focus on privacy, cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, national security, and administrative law matters.

Megan Behrman, a partner at Latham & Watkins in New York since January, is a member of the securities litigation and professional liability practice and the litigation and trial department. She represents individuals, emerging companies, financial institutions, and multinational corporations in securities class actions, shareholder derivative litigation, complex civil disputes, and U.S. and foreign regulatory investigations and enforcement actions.

David P. Salant became a partner at Gibson Dunn in January and has a broad litigation practice in the firm’s New York office.

Dayme Sanchez has joined Capobianco Law Offices in Palm Desert, California, as counsel. Specializing in complex commercial litigation, she manages high-stakes disputes across industries, including trials, appeals, and domestic and international arbitrations. Before joining Capobianco, she practiced at Jones Day and Holland & Knight.

Yi Sun has been promoted to counsel at Latham & Watkins in San Diego. A member of the intellectual property litigation practice and the litigation and trial department, she represents clients in the pharmaceutical and life sciences industries before district and appellate courts.

New Latham & Watkins partner Gilad Zohari LL.M. is a member of the capital markets practice and corporate department in Tel Aviv, Israel. He advises companies, investment banks, private equity firms, and strategic investors on capital markets transactions, mergers and acquisitions, strategic investments, and other general corporate matters.

Najla Al-Gadi LL.M. has been elected a partner at Latham & Watkins in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, where she is a member of the capital markets practice and corporate department. Al-Gadi advises issuers and investment banks on IPOs, secondary equity offerings, and other securities offerings in various industries. She also advises issuers, boards of directors, and capital markets institutions on corporate governance, public and securities law matters.

Yan F. Zhang LL.M. was chosen as the winner of the Guardian and 4th Estate 4thWrite Short Story Prize 2024. Her winning story, “Fleeting Marrow,” appears in the Guardian Online. Her writing was also short-listed for the Surrey New Writing Prize 2024, was a semifinalist for the Tucson Festival of Books Literary Awards 2025, and was long-listed for The Literary Consultancy Pen Factor Prize 2023.

In the fall Thomas E. Carroll joined Blank Rome’s New York office as an associate in the corporate, and securities group. Focusing his practice on securities law and general corporate matters, Carroll represents issuers, underwriters, and institutional investors in public and private securities offerings, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission reporting, and compliance and corporate governance matters. He joined Blank Rome from Haynes and Boone.

Rebecca Johnson Barksdale has been promoted to partner at Pietragallo Gordon Alfano Bosick & Raspanti in Pittsburgh. She practices in the fields of construction, commercial litigation, and insurance coverage. Barksdale currently serves on the Western Pennsylvania March of Dimes Young Professionals Board and the Pennsylvania Women Work Volunteer and Ambassador Council, and she mentors through the Harvard Committee on Sports and Entertainment Law Mentorship Program.

Yossi Koppel has joined the Washington, D.C., office of Caplin & Drysdale as an associate and is part of the private client practice group. He advises high-net-worth clients on tax-efficient strategies to meet their estate planning objectives. Prior to joining the firm, he served as an attorney in the Passthroughs & Special Industries Division at the IRS Office of Chief Counsel, where he worked on matters involving trusts, partnerships, and S corporations.

Lt. Ariel Sarandinaki is the co-recipient with Manal Cheema of the U.S. Navy’s 2024 Robertson Prize in International Law for the article “Maritime Autonomy and Liability: Navigating Uncharted Waters,” published in the journal International Law Studies.