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2000
![Katharine Manning](/system/files/uvalawyer/2021-spring/00_manning_katharine.jpg)
2001
Melissa J. Hutson was elected to Kirkland & Ellis’ global management committee in New York City. Hutson is a finance partner in the debt finance group.
![Steve Klepper](/system/files/uvalawyer/2021-spring/01_klepper_steve.jpg)
2002
Logan Breed was named a 2020 Future Star in the field of antitrust by Financier Worldwide. Breed is a partner in Hogan Lovells’ Washington, D.C., office.
![Sallie Lin](/system/files/uvalawyer/2021-spring/02_lin_sallie.jpg)
![Kristina Kopf Thomas](/system/files/uvalawyer/2021-spring/02_thomas_kristina_kopf.jpg)
2003
John C. Blair was appointed city attorney for Staunton, Va. Blair has served more than 16 years as a local government attorney in a variety of localities in Virginia, including most recently as the city attorney and interim city manager for Charlottesville.
![Jeffrey P. Kapp](/system/files/uvalawyer/2021-spring/03_kapp_jeffrey.jpg)
real estate and finance transactions.
Andy Poarch, chief operating officer of the Alliance Group in Richmond, was honored by Virginia Business Magazine as 100 People to Meet in 2021, an annual list of impact-makers in Virginia’s business community who are leaders in their respective industries helping to drive innovation and growth across the commonwealth.
2004
Jason E. Hazlewood is managing partner for Reed Smith’s headquarters in Pittsburgh. Hazlewood has been with the firm since 2006.
Anne Ralph is a professor at the Ohio State University Moritz College of Law, where she was recently named associate dean for academic affairs. In 2020, Ralph received the Alumni Award for Distinguished Teaching, which honors faculty members for superior teaching and is awarded to 10 faculty members annually across the entire university.
2005
Natalie Kernisant has been appointed chief diversity and inclusion officer with Morrison & Foerster. In her previous role, Kernisant was instrumental in shaping and coordinating the firm’s response to fighting racial injustice in the wake of George Floyd’s killing. She led the team in providing programming, training and educational opportunities, and she spearheaded the development of four engagement committees focused on legal services, charitable donations, community action and education. In her new role, Kernisant will provide strategic leadership to advance recruiting and retention of diverse talent, as well as client development support in diversity and inclusion.
![Brett Olson](/system/files/uvalawyer/2021-spring/05_olson_brett.jpg)
In May of 2020, Daniel V. Shapiro was promoted to deputy chief of the Criminal Division in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of New Jersey. Prior to that, he was chief of the Economic Crimes Unit.
2006
![Clayton de Arment](/system/files/uvalawyer/2021-spring/06_de_arment_clayton.jpg)
Classmates Conniel Malek and Adam Schempp have collaborated with Howard University on a clerkship program aimed at attracting, training and retaining law students of color in the field of environmental law while advancing environmental justice efforts. Malek, who serves as executive director of True Costs Initiative and Schempp, a senior attorney at the Environmental Law Institute, knew each other in law school, but recently got back in touch.
“Adam and I think it is exciting and fortuitous that we reconnected as classmates in a year like 2020, but also that two UVA Law friends could collaborate 14 years after graduating to seed a unique clerkship program at the intersection of environmental law, environmental justice and investing in another generation of law students at a historically Black college/university,” Malek said.
The program kicked off with four Howard University law students receiving clerkships hosted at the Environmental Law Institute and guided by the school’s Environmental Justice Center. Malek said True Costs Initiative intends to seed such clerkship programs at other universities in the future. “This collaboration, while still new, has been very successful and garnered much interest and support in the environmental law community,” Schempp added.
Ammar Abu Zayyad LL.M. has been country director with CARE International in Jordan since 2019.
2007
![](/system/files/uvalawyer/2021-spring/07_curry_j_austin.jpg)
Kaleb Froehlich serves as chief of staff to U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski.
James M. McDonald, most recently director of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s Division of Enforcement, joined Sullivan & Cromwell’s New York litigation practice as a member of the securities and commodities investigations and enforcement practice, and of the commodities, futures and derivatives group.
2009
Bradley T. Giordano was selected as one of the American Bankruptcy Institute’s 40 under 40. Giordano is a partner with McDermott Will & Emery in Chicago. Giordano represents debtors, equity sponsors, lender groups, creditors and strategic investors in all aspects of in-court and out-of-court restructurings.
Jeremy Ben Merkelson was elected partner at Holland & Hart in Washington, D.C. Merkelson focuses on labor and employment law, collaborates with public and private companies, health care organizations, trade associations and nonprofits to solve their most complex employment-related problems. He has substantial first-chair trial experience in state and federal courts, administrative proceedings and arbitrations throughout the U.S. He also advises on employment aspects of mergers and acquisitions.