Law Firm Management Program: Student & Alumni Achievements

In 2019

  • Ashley Tenney, Class of 2016, has been promoted to Director of Practice Integration at Dentons.

  • Mary Lou Shefrin, Class of 2014, has been promoted to Chief Financial Officer at Finn Dixon
    & Herling in Stamford, Connecticut.

  • William Washington, Class of 2018, has been appointed Managing Director, Strategic Finance at Hogan Lovells.

In 2018

  • Brandi Hobbs, Class of 2018, has been promoted to Director of Client Service & Strategy at Poyner Spruill in Charlotte.

  • Ellen Pace, Class of 2017, has been appointed Administrator of the Northern California Office of Skadden Arps.

  • Jason Santiago, Class of 2009, has been appointed Director of Administration of the Northern California Offices of Covington & Burling.

  • Yvonne Nath, Class of 2019, has joined LawVision as a consultant.  She will be based in Cleveland.

  • Frank Schipani, Class of 2017, has been appointed Director of IT and Operations at Three Crowns LLP, a small firm specializing in international arbitration with offices in DC, London and Paris.

  • Aja Hendrix, Class of 2015, has been promoted to Marketing Technology Manager at Pillsbury Winthrop in Nashville.

  • Ellen Pace, Class of 2017, has been appointed Senior Administrative Operations Manager at Morrison & Foerster.

In 2017

  • Andrew George, Class of 2017, has been appointed Director of Pricing and Practice Analysis at Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer in Washington, DC.
  • Barbara Mica, Class of 2015, has been appointed Chief Operating Officer at Munger Tolles Olson LLP in Los Angeles.
  • Stephen Pasco, Class of 2010, has been appointed Director of Administration of the Boston office of Morgan Lewis & Bockius.
  • John Ferko, Class of 2010, has been appointed Chief Operating Officer of Richards, Layton & Finger of Delaware.
  • Yvonne Nath, a current student in Cohort 12, has been appointed Director of Strategic Operations at Porter Wright in Columbus, Ohio.
  • Kimberly Bero Rennick, Class of 2011, has been appointed Chief Client Development and Marketing Officer with Shook Hardy & Bacon.  She is based in Washington, DC.
  • Marie Woods, Class of 2013, has been appointed Director of Market Operations at Reed Smith for DC, Tysons, Richmond, Chicago and Houston.
  • Amanda Brady, Class of 2011, has been made a Partner at Major, Lindsey & Africa.  She is based in Houston.
  • Chris Echols, a current student in the Class of 2019, has been appointed COO at Stites & Harbison PLLC in Louisville, Kentucky.
  • Katherine Diggs, Class of 2010, has been appointed Director of Business Development—Litigation at O’Melveny & Myers in New York.
  • Luciana Melo, Class of 2015, has been appointed Divisional Legal Recruiter at Michael Aaron Staffing in Boca Raton, Florida.
  • Grace Lopez, Class of 2011, has been appointed Global Practice Group Director for the Health Industry Advisory practice at McDermott Emery Will.
  • Julie Bozzell, Class of 2010, has been appointed Public Law and Policy Practice Manager at Akin Gump in Washington, DC.

In 2016

  • Aja Hendrix, Class of 2015, has been promoted to Marketing Technology Projects Lead at Pillsbury Winthrop’s Global Operations Center in Nashville.
  • Andy George, Class of 2017, has been promoted to Director, Financial Planning & Analysis at Finnegan Henderson in Washington, DC.
  • William Washington, Class of 2018, has been appointed Director of Financial Planning & Analysis at Orrick Herrington in Washington, DC.
  • Marina Raykin, Class of 2015, has been promoted to Director of Management Accounting at Baker & McKenzie Global Services in Chicago.
  • Jason Santiago, Class of 2009, has been appointed Office Administrator of the San Francisco office of Allen Matkins.
  • Kathleen Pearson, Class of 2012, has been promoted to Chief Human Resources Officer of Pillsbury Winthrop.

In 2015

  • Melissa Mason has been appointed Practice Group Manager of U.S. Litigation for Dechert LLP in Philadelphia.
  • Meg Holman has been appointed Associate Director of Attorney Development for King & Spaulding in Atlanta.
  • Jim Jarrell has been appointed Director of Marketing and Business Development for Stark & Stark based in New Jersey.
  • Marsha van Broek has been appointed Law Firm Administrator for Rubin Olson in San Francisco.
  • Daniel DiResta, a member of the Class of 2015, has been promoted to Senior Manager and team leader of the Attorney Recruiting Department at Davis Wright Tremaine LLP.  Dan will be in charge of supervising a team of five managers and coordinators throughout the firm’s nine offices to handle all attorney recruiting as well as providing innovative hiring solutions for the firm’s RFP process and general commodity work.
  • Gabrielle Cossolini, a member of the Class of 2016, has been appointed Business Development Coordinator: Business Litigation Group at Goodwin Procter in Boston.
  • Heather Quinn has been promoted to Business Manager for Healthcare, Privacy & Cyber, and Tax Groups at Crowell & Moring in Washington, DC.
  • Ashley Tenney has been promoted to Senior Business Development Manager for the Corporate Department at McKenna Long & Aldridge in Atlanta.
  • Jennifer Bettencourt has been appointed Business Manager for an engineering consulting company (Materials Science Associates) in Rhode Island that offers expert witness services to law firms.
  • John Porter has been appointed Regional Director of Administration for Covington & Burling in San Francisco, California.
  • Matt Cichocki has been appointed IP Practices Services Operations Manager for Cooley LLP in Washington, DC.
  • Dan DiResta has been appointed Chief Operations Officer for the Marten Law Group in Seattle.
  • Ashley Tenney of Cohort 9 and Senior Business Development Manager of McKenna Long & Aldridge LLP was awarded the Sales & Service Executive of the Year Award at the 12th Annual RainDance Conference.
  • Nguyen Truc Hien, a student in the Class of 2016, has been elected Managing Partner of the Ho Chi Minh City office of VILAF, one of the largest law firms in Vietnam.
  • Ashley Tenney, a student in the Class of 2016, has been promoted to Practice Manager of the Corporate Department of Dentons U.S.
  • Nikki Karakostas, a student in the Class of 2016, has been appointed Firm Administrator at Edell Shapiro & Finnan, LLC in Gaithersburg, Maryland.
  • William M. Washington III has been promoted to Director, Financial Planning and Analysis at Crowell & Moring in Washington, DC.  William is a student in the Class of 2017.
  • Jennifer Bettencourt, Class of 2014, has been appointed Director of Marketing and Operations at
  • Marasco & Nesselbush in Providence, Rhode Island.
  • Ellen Pace, a student in the Class of 2017, has been appointed Manager of the San Francisco offices of Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati.

In 2014

  • Amanda Brady, Class of 2011 and Cohort 4, has been appointed Managing Director, Global Practice Leader – Law Firm Management for Major, Lindsey & Africa (MLA Global).
  • Matt Cichocki, a student in Cohort 8, has been promoted to Manager of the Client Services Group at Oblon Spivak in Alexandria, Virginia.
  • Laura Richards has been promoted to Director of Operations at Evidox Corporation, an e-Discovery Company.
  • Marie Woods has been appointed Director of Operations, DC Region, for CBRE, the world’s largest commercial real estate services firm.
  • Marsha van Broek has been appointed Executive Director of Donahue Fitzgerald, a combination of Fitzgerald Abbott Beardsley, of Oakland, California, and Donahue Gallagher Woods, of Walnut Creek, California.
  • Katie Schrack (formerly Katie O’Brien) has been appointed Communications Manager for Sutherland Asbill in Atlanta.
  • Stephen Pasco has been promoted to Director of Operations at Nutter McClennen & Fish in Boston.
  • Debi Marple has been appointed Director of Finance at Hall Render Killian Heath & Lyman in Indianapolis.
  • Margarida Saragoca, Business Development and Clients Director of Vieira de Almeida & Associados, the largest firm in Portugal, has agreed to represent our Program at a Conference in Brasilia in September.  The Conference is being sponsored by the Central Bank of Brazil and the Department of Justice.  Margarida a 2013 graduate from Cohort 6, will present information about the Program at the Conference.  Her firm recently won the Financial Times Most Innovative Law Firm of the Year for Continental Europe Award.
  • Brad Emler has been appointed COO at Goldberg Segalla LLP in Miami.
  • Kelly Harbour has been appointed Associate Director of Client Relations at Goulston & Storrs PC in Boston where she will work with Beth Cuzzone, our 2009 graduate.
  • Erika Negrin has been appointed Law Firm Administrator at Stavitsky & Associates LLC in Fairfield, New Jersey.

In 2013

  • Kelly Harbour has been promoted to the position of Manager of Strategic Initiatives at Bingham McCutchen in Boston.
  • John Porter has been promoted to the position of Regional Director of Administration, Northern California at Bingham McCutchen in San Francisco.
  • Laura Richards has been appointed Manager of Client Services at Evidox Corporation in Boston.  Evidox is an e-discovery company.
  • Stephen Pasco has been appointed Manager of Operations at Nutter McClennen & Fish, LLP in Boston.
  • Michael Downey, a partner at Armstrong Teasdale in St. Louis, has been elected Chairman-Elect of the Law Practice Management Section of the American Bar Association.  He will become Chairman of the Section this spring.  
  • Marie Woods has been appointed Director of Firm Development at Grossberg Company, a public accounting and business consulting firm in Bethesda, Maryland.
  • Grace Lopez has been appointed Director of Administration of the Miami, Florida office of Carlton Fields, P.A.
  • Alyson Lynch has been appointed Office Administrator of Hawks Quindel, S.C. in Madison, Wisconsin.
  • Dan Jackson has been appointed Executive Director of NuLawLab, an innovative laboratory at Northeastern University in Boston.
  • Jeffrey Weeden has received the Martindale-Hubble Peer Review Rating of “AV Preeminent.”  “AV Preeminent is a significant rating accomplishment—a testament to the fact that a lawyer’s peers rank him or her at the highest level of professional excellence.”
  • James Jarrell has been hired by Barnes & Thornburg as their new Business Development Manager, based in Chicago.  In this new role, he will manage marketing and business development activities for the firm’s 185-attorney Litigation practice, as well as support local marketing and business development initiatives for the firm’s offices in Chicago, Minneapolis, Grand Rapids, and South Bend.
  • Carrie Sadowski has been appointed Firm-wide IP Practice Support Manager of Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman, located in the McLean, Virginia office.
  • Patricia Williamson has been appointed the Chief Financial Officer at Lewis Brisbois Bisgaard & Smith LLP in Los Angeles.
  • Kimberly Bero Rennick has been promoted to Senior Client Development Executive at DLA Piper.  She will be in charge of the US Business Development team.

In 2012

  • Katie Voldal has been appointed Records Manager at the Washington, DC office of Sidley & Austin.
  • David Reitman has been promoted to Regional Head, Administrative Services & Vendor Relations at Shearman & Sterling in New York.  In addition to his current responsibilities, David will coordinate among the North America and London offices in the area of global procurement.
  • Amanda Brady has been promoted to Director of The Alexander Group in Houston.
  • Kathleen Pearson has been appointed Director of Administration of the Global Operations Center of Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman.
  • John Porter has been promoted to Senior Office Manager, Northern California at Bingham McCutchen.
  • Raquel Moreira-Chavez has been promoted to Legal Administrative Manager, Office of General Counsel at The Nature Conservancy.
  • Kathleen Pearson and her former firm, Waller Lansden, have jointly been awarded the 2012 NALP Award of Distinction for Innovation and Recruiting Practices.
  • Marie Woods has been appointed Director of the Reston, Virginia office of Cooley LLP.
  • Carrie Sadowski has been appointed Firm-wide Intellectual Property Administrator for McDermott, Will & Emery LLP in Washington, DC.
  • Richard Pearson has been promoted to the position of Chief Learning and Development Officer at Davis Wright Tremaine in Seattle.
  • Melissa Mason has been appointed Practice Group Administrator at Kaye Scholer LLP in New York City.

In 2011

  • Brad Emler has been hired as the Assistant Executive Director of Fowler, White, Burnett, P.A. in Miami, Florida.
  • Cameron Gowan has been hired as the Library Services Manager of the Washington, DC office of Jones Day.
  • Katherine Diggs has been appointed Director of Marketing at Simpson Thacher & Bartlett in New York.
  • Martin Gooding has been hired as the Executive Director of Vandeventer Black in Norfolk, Virginia.
  • Grace Lopez, the Office Administrator for Weil Gotshal & Manges’ Miami office, has been appointed President of the Miami-Ft. Lauderdale Affiliate of Susan G. Komen for the Cure.
  • Elizabeth Flanagan has been hired as the Manager of Attorney Recruitment and Development at Latham & Watkins in Boston.
  • Richard Pearson, the Director of Professional Development at Davis Wright Tremaine in Seattle, has created a competency model which will form the basis for the firm’s new merit-based compensation structure.  He has also initiated career development plans for all associates supported by coaching from his team as well as mentoring from partners.
  • Lauren Macaulay has been appointed Business Development Manager for the Transactional and IP Practices at Wilmer Hale in Boston.
  • Jason Santiago has been appointed Office Manager of the San Francisco office of Jackson Lewis LLP.
  • Kim Schultz Rennick has been appointed Client Development Executive for DLA Piper in the Washington DC region.
  • Cameron Gowan is the recipient of the Private Law Librarians SIS of AALL's first Emerging Leader Award "For outstanding potential for continued service and leadership within the PLL and the profession".  She was recognized at the PLL Business Meeting and Luncheon in Philadelphia on July 24, 2011.
  • Crystal McNeill has been promoted to Office Manager of the New York office of Drinker, Biddle & Reath.
  • Grace Lopez has been appointed to serve on the Susan G. Komen's Affiliate Advisory Council at the national level.  Only 12 members out of the entire national organization were selected to serve on this Advisory Council.
  • Debra Marple has been appointed Chief Financial Officer at Alston Hunt Floyd & Ing in Honolulu.
  • Katherine Diggs has been promoted to the position of Director of Business Management at Simpson Thacher & Bartlett in New York City.
  • Elizabeth Salsedo-Surovov has been promoted to Senior Client Manager, Strategic Law Firms at Thomson Reuters.

In 2010

  • Tess Blair, a partner at Morgan, Lewis & Bockius in Philadelphia, was appointed Practice Group Leader of the firm’s 70-lawyer and technologists’ eData Group in July 2010.
  • Julie Bozzell has been promoted to Chief Research and Knowledge Services Officer at Hogan Lovells in Washington DC.
  • In June 2010, Michael Downey published his first book, Introduction to Law Firm Practice (ABA 2010).  Michael also joined the St. Louis law firm of Armstrong Teasdale LLP in July 2011.
  • Kathleen Pearson, the Director of Professional Recruiting at Waller, Lansden, Dortch & Davis in Nashville, created an innovative approach to recruiting.  The firm has eliminated its summer associates program in favor of a fall internship for third-year law students at the firm.  It is receiving favorable national attention.  "A New Approach to Fall Recruiting," Above the Law http://abovethelaw.com/2010/09/a-new-approach-to-fall-recruiting/.  See also http://amlawdaily.typepad.com/amlawdaily/2011/06/wallerlansdenrecruitin…
  • Kevin Richardson has been promoted to Director of Billing and Client Services, a new position at Jones Day in Cleveland.

In 2005

  • Valerie Pearce has been promoted to Chief Administrative Officer at Morgan Lewis & Bockius in Philadelphia.