With decades of experience in the practice of law, both at law firms and in-house, our expert trainers and consultants have a long history of doing more than training and consulting with law firms and in-house legal departments - we've done the heavy lifting.
Our ample experience on "both sides of the fence" makes us uniquely qualified to train and advise law firms on what their clients are looking for and how to provide it; and to counsel in-house legal departments on how to enhance the structure of their departments, and get the most out of their outside legal vendors.
Panelist & Trainers
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Christina Ayiotis Christina Ayiotis is an accomplished attorney, business executive and teacher. She is a former Deputy General Counsel at CSC, a provider of technology-enabled business solutions and services, where she focused her practice on information management, privacy, security and electronic discovery. Ms. Ayiotis is currently an adjunct faculty member of the Department of Computer Science, School of Engineering and Applied Science at The George Washington University. Prior to CSC, Ms. Ayiotis, a Certified Records Manager, held the position of Corporate Records Manager at Booz Allen Hamilton, where she was led the company's Integrated Records and Information Management Program, and developed and implemented training for the Program. Ms. Ayiotis worked with the company's internal technical professionals to develop repositories and electronic archiving solutions, particularly to ensure compatibility with legal compliance strategies. Before joining CSC, Ms. Ayiotis was an Executive Vice President at Sewan Enterprises, where she had responsibility for regional investment in real property, and supervised outside counsel, financing institutions, and other professionals in support of the company's operations. Prior to Sewan Enterprises, Ms. Ayiotis was the Director of Knowledge Management, Global Financial Services Industries at Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu; Regional Knowledge Account Manager, EMEA at Ernst & Young International; Coordinator of Business Development at Edison Capital; and Special Assistant to President at Global Environment Fund. She also worked as a litigator in the environment insurance coverage area representing policyholders. Ms. Ayiotis holds a JD from The College of William and Mary - Marshall Wythe School of Law, as well as a BS in Biology and a BA in Philosophy (Minors in French, Mathematics) from Virginia Commonwealth University. She was the recipient of the Women's Bar Association of the District of Columbia 2008 Mussey-Gillett Shining Star Award. Ms. Ayiotis has served on the Board of Directors of the Women's Bar Association of the District of Columbia, as well as the Fairfax Law Foundation. She currently serves on the Board of Directors of the Hellenic American Women's Council and the Board of Governors of the Organization of Legal Professionals. She is the very proud mother of a daughter in high school. |
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Rod Boddie Rod Boddie is a Principal of The Wickford Group, a legal training and consulting company, where he also serves as a Senior Advisor. After more than 17 years of practicing in-house, he created a number of training programs designed to give outside counsel insight into the needs, demands and expectations of their clients, and to deliver legal services and devise client relationship strategies that speak more directly to the client. Rod is also the author of Succeeding as Outside Counsel: A Lawyer's Guide to Providing First Class Legal Services from the Client's Perspective. Rod is also the General Counsel for Seneca One Finance, Inc., a specialty finance company that purchases annuitized receivables. There, he is responsible for all of the company's legal activities, has managed a 25-person legal and processing team consisting of 7 lawyers, 7 paralegals and 11 non-legal personnel. Rod also manages outside counsel in areas such as litigation, insurance, employment, consumer protection, antitrust, securities, trademarks & copyrights, gaming, banking, tax, debtor/creditor, collections, and transactional matters. Previously, Rod was the Senior Counsel at Winstar Communications, a fixed wireless broadband service provider. He managed the legal issues arising in conneciton with obtaining access rights to commercial office buildings and building out the company's wireless network. Rod managed an 11-person in-house legal team and managed outside counsel in a variety of areas including, real estate, leasing, zoning, government contracting, employment, transactional matters, technology, and debtor/creditor relations. Rod began his legal career at Miles & Stockbridge, a Baltimore based law firm, where he practiced for over 4 years. There, he had substantive contact with clients, including the predecessors to some of the largest banking institutions in the U.S., one of the largest healthcare providers in the Mid-Atlantic Region, and a variety of small and medium sized business. Rod holds a J.D. from the University of Virginia School of Law, and a B.S. in Finance from James Madison University. He played 3 years of minor league baseball in the Montreal Expos' organization, and chose a career in law when he came to the painful realization that he couldn't hit a slider. |
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Kenya Parrish-Dixon Kenya Parrish-Dixon spent over a decade as a complex litigator at Epstein Becker & Green and McDermott Will & Emery before joining Lockheed Martin on the Mega contract. Mega was the world's largest litigation support contract servicing the Department of Justice and its e-Discovery needs. While at Lockheed Martin, Ms. Parrish-Dixon gained valuable insight into how the Department of Justice collects data from corporations and then uses the data to fuel multiple litigations. As a senior manager at Lockheed Martin, she learned the secrets of defending against Government investigations and has since consulted with major law firms to create e-Discovery departments and protocols, to provide end-to-end e-Discovery case management, to devise e-Discovery strategy in 911 situations, and to implement a more efficient protocol within corporations. Ms. Parrish-Dixon co-founded Dixon Patel, LLP, a law firm specializing in e-discovery, business transactions and litigation, and immigration law. As a leading expert in e-Discovery, she frequently lectures nationally on the topic. Ms. Parrish-Dixon holds a J.D. from the College of William and Mary School of Law and a B.A. in economics from Norfolk State University where she graduated Summa Cum Laude. Ms. Parrish-Dixon has taught e-Discovery as a visiting professor at the College of William and Mary School of Law. |
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Colleen R. Jones Colleen R. Jones is the Executive Vice President, Global General Counsel and Secretary of ACN, Inc. ACN is the world's largest direct selling telecommunications company, with operations in 23 countries throughout North America, Europe and the Asia-Pacific region. ACN is also one of the fastest growing privately held companies headquartered in the US, with annualized revenue in excess of $500 million and continuing significant year-over-year revenue growth. ACN's world headquarters are in Concord, North Carolina, with regional headquarters here and in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, and Sydney, Australia. Each of ACN's three geographic business units includes a unit general counsel who reports to Colleen. ACN's owners have in recent years expanded their focus from core ACN operations to majority equity investments in various operating businesses deemed strategic to ACN's operations or to the converging telecom and internet industries. In her role as counsel to this effort, Colleen holds numerous public company board seats, and counts three additional general counsels among her reports. Prior to joining the ACN team, Colleen served as general counsel for, and has held a number of non-legal business roles for, a number of public and private hi-tech and communications companies - always companies with strong upward growth curves and entrepreneurial cultures. Before choosing to focus her efforts on in-house roles, Colleen was a full equity partner at a large international law firm, where as a transactional, tax and M&A corporate partner, she built a practice in general corporate and commercial law, with a strong emphasis on the telecom sector. Colleen has always maintained a strong commitment to give back to the community, which is especially challenging as a corporate lawyer, where the ability to offer direct pro bono services is limited. She has therefore made time throughout her career to serve as a board member, committee member and officer of various professional associations and charitable entities. She, her husband Chris, their younger son Tyler and their two toy poodles moved to Charlotte for ACN in 2006 from the Washington, DC area, and have been told they are 'damn Yankees', as they have made it known that they love the area and are not going back! |
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James Markowski James Markowski is a business lawyer in private practice representing private equity investors in connection with distressed asset, bank, and industrial company investments and restructurings. He also represents technology companies in transactional matters, and advises management on labor and multi-employer pension plan issues in the construction trades. Before returning to private practice, Mr. Markowski spent 15 years as in-house counsel, most recently at Bearing Point, Inc. as the General Counsel for its global Financial Services Business Unit. He negotiated a variety of complex commercial agreements, resolved client disputes and developed standardized processes to accelerate contract execution Mr. Markowski also had responsibility for risk and compliance functions such as ensuring compliance with EU privacy directives, HIPAA, Gramm Leach Bliley and corporate policies; serving on the committee that developed global compliance programs, policies and procedures; and, advising and training the management team on risk management and data privacy matter, and conducting internal investigations of suspected fraud and violations or corporate policies. He also served as a member of the Financial Services Deal Review Committee that evaluated and managed risk on major engagements. Prior to Bearing Point, Mr. Markowski was the Assistant General Counsel at KPMG LLP, where he managed and coordinated nationwide securities litigation and represented company partners and employees in SEC, grand jury and other regulatory proceedings. He also advised senior management and operating personnel on multiple legal issues including compliance with securities laws and SEC regulations, and he collaborated with the Department of Professional Practice on compliance with audit standards. Mr. Markowski was also responsible for developing and implementing action plans in response to adverse events, such as financial frauds by clients, restatements of financial statements, termination of client relationships, government investigations and adverse media reports. Before his time at KPMG, LLP, Mr. Markowski was in private practice at Shea & Gould, Tory LLP, and Skadden Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom working on class action and commercial litigation matters. He holds a J.D., cum laude, from Georgetown University Law Center where he was on the Georgetown Law Journal and the Dean's List. He also has a B.S., cum laude, in Banking and Finance from New York University's School of Business, where he was the recipient of the Founder's Day Award, the University Honors Scholar and the Regents Scholarship. |
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Alix Mattingly Alix Mattingly focuses her practice on business immigration representing individuals and companies of all sizes. Having worked with companies that are start up enterprises through a Fortune 50 company with thousands of active cases, Ms. Mattingly is committed to providing the highest caliber of timely and cost effective strategies. Ms. Mattingly has a background in corporate compliance and the development of human resource strategies that facilitate the movement of employees to the U.S. and around the globe. She advises companies on all facets of the immigration process from initial planning for a non-immigrant visa, through the stages of legal permanent residency and naturalization. Ms. Mattingly has been a speaker on business immigration law topics at local and national events for the American Law Institute - American Bar Association (ALI-ABA) and the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA). Her recent speaking engagements include the "Hot Topics in Immigration Law" for the ALI-ABA Airline Railroad Labor and Employment conference and for AILA on "Hot Topics in Non-immigrant Visas", "Adjustment of Status and Consular Processing" as well as "PERM: Strategic Objectives and Best Practices." Ms. Mattingly is a 1997 graduate of George Mason University Law School and a 1993 graduate of Mount Holyoke College. She is fluent in German, conversational in French and studied Dutch at the University of Antwerp in Belgium. |
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Miriam Sanders Miller Miriam serves as Senior Vice President of Operations and Senior Counsel for Seneca One Finance, Inc., a specialty finance company in Bethesda, Maryland. She is responsible for the legal integrity of financial transactions entered into by the Company in twenty-nine states, and she manages the activities of more than a dozen outside counsel across the country. Miriam began her legal career by serving as Real Estate Counsel for Winstar Communications, a wireless communications provider. At Winstar, she supported the company's efforts to build out a nationwide wireless communications network. Miriam then joined Ricochet, a wireless internet provider based in Denver, Colorado, and served as the company's Real Estate Manager. In this role, she focused on obtaining access rights by negotiating with commercial office building owners and municipalities. Law is a second career for Miriam. Born and raised in Maryland, her first career was with Montgomery County and it spanned 26 years. There, Miriam was a Program Administrator, where she conducted administrative hearings to resolve disputes arising in homeowner associations, condominiums and cooperatives and she managed a team that negotiated the resolution of landlord tenant disputes. It was then that Miriam decided to pursue law as a second career. |
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William E. Raney William Raney is a partner at Copilevitz & Canter, LLC, in Kansas City, Missouri. His legal practice focuses on all aspects of selling of goods and services by telephone, with clients ranging from international conglomerates to small independent service bureaus. He represents publicly-traded and private companies with respect to contacting prospective customers by telephone. Mr. Raney has represented clients at state and federal trial, appellate and supreme courts and has participated in all phases of civil and regulatory litigation. He was co-counsel with regard to a First Amendment United States Supreme Court case Ryan v. Telemarketing Associates. Mr. Raney's litigation experience includes successful constitutional challenges to overreaching laws as well as defending clients in regulatory actions. Mr. Raney serves as liaison with Federal and state regulatory agencies on behalf of his clients and has worked with state and federal regulators concerning sales by telephone including long distance telephone services, credit cards, mortgages and refinancing and other services and merchandise. He has represented businesses before the FCC, FTC, IRS and with nearly every state attorney's general office. Mr. Raney tracks legislation relevant to the telemarketing industry and has lobbied at the state legislative level on behalf of his clients. He has researched and prepared numerous charts summarizing areas of applicable law, such as curfews, disclosures, registration fees etc., which he regularly provides to clients, along with updates as new rules are adopted. Mr. Raney also advises clients regarding salestax issues for teleservices sales. Mr. Raney's publications with regard to teleservices law are in three areas. First, he wrote and co-wrote many articles appearing in trade magazines on the topic of compliance with telemarketing laws. Some representative topics are: telemarketing tax issues, predictive dialing regulations, and how the First Amendment protects commercial telemarketing. Second, he served as the editor of Copilevitz & Canter's teleservices newsletter, which summarizes legislation and judicial decisions affecting telemarketing throughout the United States. Third, Copilevitz & Canter has prepared a commercial telemarketing law reference entitled the "Copilevitz Commercial Telemarketing Resource" for several years and offered it to its clients to enable them to quickly determine the types of requirements applicable to a given campaign based on summaries of state and federal law. Mr. Raney holds a J.D. from the University of Virginia School of Law, and a B.A in Psychology, and a B.J., magna cum laude, from the University of Missouri. |
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Jonathan Ritter Jon Ritter recently left his position as the Vice President, Law & Assistant General counsel - North America at Integra LifeSciences Corporation, a publically traded medical device company, to pursue a new career as a technology entrepreneur. At Integra, Mr. Ritter advised senior management on a wide range of commercial transactions, corporate and compliance matters. He oversaw a team of 7 lawyers and was responsible for providing legal support to all of the company's selling divisions, as well as to its operations and information services groups. Before joining Integra, Mr. Ritter was Director, Legal at Verisign, Inc., the leading online verification and authentication provider. He handled all of the company's legal issues arising in the customer life-cycle, including substantial product development work. Mr. Ritter developed the first U.S. ringtone program advising on all first impression copyright and DRM issues, and he guided the international rollout of multiple phone content product offerings. Prior to Verisign, Inc., Mr. Ritter was a Legal Director at AT&T Latin America Corp., where he advised the CEO and other senior managers on commercial, financial corporate governance and strategic legal issues. He oversaw the in-country legal work provided to local subsidiary companies in five countries. Before his time at AT&T Latin America Corp., Mr. Ritter was Vice President, Commercial Legal Operations at Winstar Communications, a fixed wireless service provider, and Senior Attorney at MCI Telecommunications Corporation. Prior to moving in-house, he was an associate at Arnold & Porter, in the firm's Telecommunications and Intellectual Property groups. Mr. Ritter holds a J.D. from the Stanford School of Law and a B.A., Summa Cum Laude, with distinction in Political Science from Boston University. He is a member of New Jersey In-House Counsel, and the Association of Corporate Counsel. He is the former President and Chairman of the Board for D.C. Habitat for Humanity. |
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Kristen Shaheen General Counsel & Corporate Secretary for a Chicago-based Technology Corporation providing Voice of Customer (VOC) feedback innovation, serving a prestigious client list that includes nearly half of the Fortune 50 organizations such as Wal-Mart, Bank of America, United Continental Airlines, and many more. With over sixteen years of litigation experience, Kristen counsels OpinionLab Officers and Senior Managers to assure compliance with regulatory and contractual requirements vital to everyday business. Kristen provides legal analysis that guards the company against risks and is responsible for Complex Commercial Transactions, Negotiating Critical Contracts, Business Development, Strategic Partnerships, Intellectual Property, Litigation Management, Management of Outside Counsel, HR and Employment Matters, Leases, Privacy, Data Security, Policy Development, International business, General Corporate Law, Compliance and Governance. Prior to joining OpinionLab, Kristen was a Partner and Managing Attorney of a highly successful law practice in New York. Kristen is a graduate of Syracuse University College of Law and resides in Wilmington, NC with her husband, Michael and their two sons, Harry (13) and Amir (11). |
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Michael Wu Michael Wu is responsible for all legal, corporate governance, government affairs and compliance matters at Rosetta Stone Inc. He joined Rosetta Stone in 2006 and established Rosetta Stone's corporate compliance and corporate governance functions as well as its anti-piracy and anti-fraud enforcement program. In 2009, Mr. Wu oversaw the company's successful initial public offering on the New York Stock Exchange. Before joining Rosetta Stone, Mr. Wu was general counsel at Montreal-based Teleglobe International Holdings Ltd. In 2004, Mr. Wu led Teleglobe's acquisition of voice over IP provider, ITXC Corp., and the listing of the combined company on NASDAQ. Prior to Teleglobe, Mr. Wu was a senior attorney in the Hong Kong and Reston, Virginia offices of Global One, the international joint venture between Sprint, Deutsche Telekom and France Telecom. He was also associated with a predecessor firm of Bingham McCutchen LLP in Washington, D.C. and Baker Botts LLP in Houston, Texas, focusing on corporate transactions. Mr. Wu holds a J.D. from the University of Virginia School of Law and a B.A. in political science from Emory University. He is fluent in English and Mandarin Chinese. He is a member of the Association of Corporate Counsel and Northern Virginia Technology Council General Counsel Committee. He serves on the boards of the Business Software Alliance and the Washington Metropolitan Area Corporate Counsel Association. |
