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2010
Alexandra Garrison Barnett was elected partner with Alston & Bird’s labor and employment team in Atlanta. Barnett counsels and defends employers in actions brought under state common law and federal law, including the Americans with Disabilities Act, Family and Medical Leave Act, and Fair Labor Standards Act. In addition, she defends employers in complex employment class actions, conducts internal investigations and advises on employment-related issues arising in corporate transactions.
William Stowe was selected for inclusion in the 2021 Super Lawyers Texas Rising Star list. Stowe is a partner with Jackson Walker in Houston. His practice focuses on commercial transactions, regulatory and compliance, and business litigation.
Nathan Wacker was part of a team that worked to free Jonathan Smith after 21 years of wrongful imprisonment for murder. Wacker worked on the case pro bono, in addition to maintaining his tax controversy practice with Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher and Flom in Washington, D.C. The Skadden team and members of the Innocence Project will continue to work for Smith’s full vindication.
2011
Noah Galton was selected for inclusion on the 2021 Super Lawyers Texas rising stars list. Galton is a partner with Jackson Walker in Austin. His practice focuses on commercial litigation, including eminent domain, real estate litigation, litigating issues surrounding governmental/sovereign immunity and general business litigation.
John Kaercher joined Kirkland & Ellis as a partner in the corporate practice group to help launch its Austin office. Kaercher counsels clients on complex transactions, including domestic and cross-border mergers and acquisitions, pestitures, special purpose acquisition companies, private equity, and public and private securities offerings, with a particular focus on the technology, media, telecommunications and energy sectors. Kaercher was co-chair of his prior firm’s private equity pillar and was recognized as a Texas Super Lawyers rising star in 2018, 2019 and 2020.
2012
William Bloom joined the litigation group at Maynard Cooper & Gale in Birmingham, Ala., as of counsel. Bloom focuses his practice in the areas of complex commercial, appellate and securities litigation matters. In addition, he works with and advises clients facing crisis management situations and disruptive investigations.
Allison Lansell was promoted to partner at Rolf Goffman Martin Lang in Cleveland. Lansell represents health care providers in the long-term care industry. She has been named a Super Lawyers rising star in health care since 2017. Lansell’s practice focuses on compliance and transactions, licensure and certification, fraud and abuse, and tax issues for nursing homes, assisted living facilities, independent living facilities, home health agencies and hospices.
Jessica R. Rose has been promoted to partner at Reed Smith in Pittsburgh. Rose is a member of the real estate group. Her practice is built around various commercial transactions, including property acquisitions and dispositions, leasing and loans secured by commercial real estate. Rose’s experience includes assisting real estate investment trusts, developers and development companies, and utility and energy clients.
Charles W. Throckmorton was elected shareholder with Carlton Fields. Based in Miami, Throckmorton focuses his practice on complex commercial litigation and class action defense, with specific experience litigating cases involving trade secrets, software, breach of contract, vendor disputes, unfair competition, fraud, employer-side employment disputes and cryptocurrency issues.
7 Young Alumni Recognized
Five alumni were among Law360’s Rising Stars for 2021, a list of attorneys under 40 whose accomplishments as lawyers “transcend their age.” In addition, two other alumni were named to Bloomberg Law’s 40 Under 40 list.
Rising Star honorees were selected based on their career accomplishments in their respective disciplines.
Marissa Boynton ’09 of Latham & Watkins in Washington, D.C., was named a top cybersecurity and privacy attorney for guiding Facebook through its global response to a data breach, as well as representing one of nine technology companies in a novel Federal Trade Commission inquiry.
Kyle P. Brinkman ’10 of Blank Rome in D.C. was named a top insurance litigator for taking a prominent role in several policyholder-side real estate disputes, including representing publicly traded real estate investment fund Urban Edge Properties in a $40 million COVID-19 business interruption suit.
Tristan Morales ’11 of O’Melveny & Myers in D.C. was named a top transportation attorney for successfully defending American Airlines, United Airlines and other air carriers in multiple class actions.
Melanie Wilson Rughani ’07 of Crowe & Dunlevy in Oklahoma City was named a top appellate law attorney after scoring several major appellate victories in Oklahoma, including leading the legal side of a successful fight to expand Medicaid eligibility in the state.
Elizabeth Tuan ’13 of Irell & Manella in Los Angeles was named a top intellectual property attorney for helping VLSI Technology win a $2 billion verdict, and Juno Therapeutics and Sloan Kettering win a $752 million verdict.
The 40 Under 40 list recognizes “the accomplishments of sterling young lawyers nationwide.”
Kristen Riemenschneider ’06 of Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer in D.C. was singled out under the health care and life sciences category for her work on COVID-19 countermeasures that resulted in deals for the U.S. procurement of hundreds of millions of doses of vaccines as well as millions of doses of therapeutic antibodies.
Jamila Willis ’09, a partner at DLA Piper in New York City who focuses on debtor-side restructuring, was recognized for her work in bankruptcy law; she counts her representation of Abengoa and its subsidiaries in their multijurisdictional, global restructuring as a career highlight. She serves as co-chair of the firm’s consumer goods and retail sector and chair of the New York Restructuring practice.
—Mike Fox
2013
Bonnie Latreille was named the federal student aid ombudsman with the U.S. Department of Education. She is the third ombudsman in FSA’s history and the first to report directly to the chief operating officer. Latreille joined FSA after serving as the office of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau student loan ombudsman, where she led the development of annual student loan ombudsman reports to Congress, oversaw high-level analysis about consumer complaints, and identified areas of improvement in the federal and private student loan markets. Her team’s work identifying consumer harm to borrowers pursuing public service loan forgiveness led Congress to dedicate $700 million in 2018 to create a limited opportunity for expanded relief for borrowers. Following five years at the CFPB, Latreille co-founded the Student Borrower Protection Center and served as its director of research and advocacy.
Warren McCarty was named a principal with Caldwell Cassady & Curry in Dallas. McCarty has played vital roles in many of the firm’s most notable courtroom victories, including last year’s complete defense victory for United Kingdom-based World Programming Ltd. in a copyright and patent infringement lawsuit filed by SAS Institute Inc.
2014
Brian Mink was named general counsel, vice president of risk management and corporate secretary for InTown Suites, a national extended-stay chain based in Atlanta. Mink also teaches Legal Analytics and Innovation as an adjunct professor at the University of Georgia School of Law.
Saverio S. Romeo joined the litigation department at Fox Rothschild in Philadelphia. Romeo focuses his practice on white-collar criminal defense and complex commercial litigation. He has represented clients in U.S. Justice Department investigations, as well as in matters involving alleged violations of consumer financial protection laws, health care statutes, the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, the False Claims Act and Anti-Kickback statutes.
Jessica Thompson joined the apparel company Bombas as senior commercial counsel in New York City. She previously practiced with Kluk Farber Law and Cleary Gottlieb, both also in New York.
2016
Will D. Mortenson was elected to the South Dakota House of Representatives in 2020 and finished up his first legislative session earlier this year. He writes, “While I had a generally productive year, most notably I filed the first articles of impeachment in state history against the current attorney general, who is a member of my party.”
William Townshend is an associate with Brann & Isaacson in Lewiston, Maine. Townshend focuses on estate planning, as well as tax and corporate law. He was previously with Withersworldwide in Greenwich, Conn., where he advised clients on international and domestic estate planning, succession planning for family businesses, and state and federal tax disputes.
2019
Stephen Fritz is an associate in the litigation practice group at Bradley Arant Boult Cummings in Jackson, Miss. Before joining the firm, Fritz clerked for Judge Rhesa H. Barksdale on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.
