W&L Law Discovery - Winter 2023

the newsletter from washington and lee university school of law

50 YEARS OF THE LAW NEWS:

‘Irreverence With Some Measure Of Reverence’

BY JEFF HANNA

As origin stories go, the birth of The W&L Law News isn’t complicated. As Ken Wernick ’73L recalled, he and classmate Toby Harder were chatting in Tucker Hall one day in September 1972 when Harder said, “You know, I think we should start a newspaper.”

Wernick winced at the suggestion. He’d been managing editor of the twice-weekly Bucknell student paper. That meant he had the necessary experience to get a paper started. It also meant he knew what he’d be letting himself in for.

“I’d thought a paper for the law school would be a great idea, but I remembered how my grades sank at BucknelI. I wasn’t one of these people who’d come from a family of lawyers,” Wernick said. “I needed grades. I needed to be in the library, right? I was also facing the Army.”

But Harder, “Champagne Tony” as he was known, was persuasive. He assured Wernick that he’d put together a solid team to provide the stories if Wernick shepherded them through the mechanics of publishing.

So Wernick signed on as managing editor under Harder as editor-in-chief. Fifteen names were on the first masthead when Number 1, Volume 1 of The W&L Law News appeared on September 19, 1972.

The four pages comprised an assortment of hard news from around the law school (“Legal Aid, Research Finished Reorganization”), feature stories (“Lexington Eateries Offer Hometown Haute Cuisine”), and sports (“‘Roy’s Boys’ Seek Football Title”). The lead photograph on page 1 was historic: Sally Green Handley ’75L was shown registering for classes as one of the first six women entering W&L Law.

The masthead was modeled after The New York Times, and the lead editorial in the first issue laid the foundation for the next 50 years: “A

nick observed, “The women were coming; Dean (Roy) Steinheimer was flying around in his private plane recruiting students from all over the country; our reputation was growing beyond Virginia. The time [for a newspaper] was right.”

In 2013, Howard Wellons ’14L, then editor-inchief of The Law News, interviewed Steinheimer as part of the paper’s 40th celebration of the paper. Wellon asked Steinheimer, known as “The Sky Dean,” what he remembered of the newspaper’s origins.

“There were turbulent times in the sixties, in all educational institutions,” Steinheimer told

News and had helped launch a newspaper at the Yale Law School. Between those first-hand experiences and his scholarship in mass media and First Amendment issues, he has special insight into student media.

“I think The Law News has played an important role in talking about the community as a community of human beings,” said Murchison. “I always thought the newspaper added the kind of information that reflects a real community rather than just a professional school. It brought out the humanity of the place more than its legal accomplishments.”

At the same time, Murchison acknowledged the paper often had the irreverent streak that its founding editors promised. He described it as “properly irreverent” at times, which no doubt included the April Fool’s editions.

newspaper so pompous or impertinent as to mimic the masthead of the New York Times should give the readers of its opening edition some hint of a memorable editorial policy. We could ape the Times (and some of our classmates) by spewing profound inanities on all subjects passing through our craw. But irreverence tempered with some measure of relevance seems a more palatable blend to serve up to you.”

Irreverence tempered with some measure of relevance was an apt vision statement. Over the next five decades the balance between those two — irreverence and relevance — has occasionally tipped more in one direction than the other.

The newspaper’s appearance at that moment in the law school’s history was appropriate to chronicle the many changes underway. As Wer-

Wellons. “The newspaper sprang up because they felt they needed to have an additional means of asserting themselves. Well, I was happy to help them get organized. I didn’t put any blocks in their way. If they wanted a newspaper, fine, but they would have to have a way to operate it and so forth. And they did, and it was good.”

Like most student-run newspapers, The Law News has had its ups and downs. Some years there were plenty of staffers to share the load; some years the paper struggled to find its footing. In Professor Brian Murchison’s view, however, the paper has always been an asset. Murchison arrived at W&L in 1982 when the paper was in its second decade. He’d worked on the Yale Daily

“It would satirize some of us on the faculty, which allowed people to let off steam,” Murchison said. “As a free speech teacher, I think part of why speech needs to be free is to let off steam and to let people relax. It had an information purpose and a kind of humor purpose.”

Before the paper’s birth in the pre-internet days, a primary communication tool for law students was a bulletin board above the drinking fountain in Tucker Hall. Announcements posted there were approved by “H.F.”

“The posts were marked either ‘H.F. OK’ or ‘H.F. Not OK.,’” said Sally Wiant ’75L, an emerita professor of law. “Maybe somebody knew who H.F. was, but I didn’t. When we moved to Lewis Hall, the bulletin board was locked under glass, and ‘H.F.’ couldn’t make the approvals.”

The Law News kept “H.F.” alive with its “Law School Advisor,” featuring tongue-in-cheek letters to “H.F.” and equally facetious responses, like

“The women were coming; Dean (Roy) Steinheimer was flying around in his private plane recruiting students from all over the country; our reputation was growing beyond Virginia. The time [for a newspaper] was right.”

–Ken Wernick ’73L

Left to right: First edition of The Law News published in September 1972; 1981 Law News staff.

this answer to “Desperate’s” complaints about not getting the right classes: “Dear Desperate, Nothing could be simpler. All you have to do is to sign up for all the courses offered for the semester. Then, after the semester has begun, drop all but the classes you intend to take.”

“That column had been passed down over the years,” said Dan Collopy ’81L, editor-in-chief in 1980-81. “All of us on the staff would take swings at both writing and answering questions to ‘H.F.”’

In addition to advice from H.F., early issues included a gossip column titled “The Fishbowl,” describing life in the small, insulated world of the law school. “You know the editor should probably not be the gossip columnist,” said Nan Robertson Clarke ’78L. “But I was willing to take it on from time to time. It was fun but probably not something you’d be able to do now.”

Clarke was the fourth editor-in-chief and the first woman in the position. Her first editorial declared: “We at the News … are not professional journalists; in fact, according to some of our readers we’re not even close. We work on the Rag not from financial or course-credit incentives and with scant hope of using it as resume fodder (particularly if the interviewer has ever seen a copy). We do it for the simplistic notion that we like doing it.”

Clarke acknowledges the paper of her day could not survive the internet era.

“Our newspaper wasn’t seen beyond the law school, and that was freeing. You could libel people — well, not really libel them — but you could poke fun and write stories without worrying that you were jeopardizing your career,” said Clarke. “Everyone seemed to love the paper. We didn’t get complaints, although I did get some grief when the man I eventually married (T. Hal Clarke ’73, ’76L)

post a notice on the bulletin board outside the TV lounge soliciting stories for future issues.

“We got some interesting submissions,” he said. “One I still remember was the piece Nancyjean Bradford ’83L did on trying to figure out how Aquafresh toothpaste comes out of the tube with the symmetrical red, white and blue stripes.”

The toothpaste mystery aside, The Law News didn’t shy away from controversy. In its fourth issue, for instance, the paper’s lead story was about

Although The Law News has successfully published 369 issues, it suffered a couple of near-death experiences in the past decade, only to be resuscitated by the infusion of energetic leadership. “People weren’t interested in writing for it. People weren’t interested in reading it. The administration didn’t want the paper. They were tired of it and embarrassed by it.”

–Howard Wellons ’14L

found I’d misspelled his name. He hasn’t let me forget that.”

In every era, The Law News provided students an outlet to write something other than briefs or memos. As Collopy explained, the staff would

faculty “squatters” who were paying the same rent as married law students to live in the Davidson Park apartments. Later, there would be stories about a professor’s tenure denial, race relations at the university, Lexington Police Department prac-

tices, and the name of the university, among others.

“We wrote stories that were pretty straightforward,” said Paul Fletcher ’85L, editor-in-chief in 1984–85. “The story we wrote about a tenure decision did get some people mad, but I never had anybody from the administration call me on the carpet.”

Fletcher went from The Law News into a successful career in legal journalism. He was publisher and editor-in-chief of Virginia Lawyers Weekly for 33 years before becoming executive director of the Virginia Bar Association in 2021.

“Lawyers,” said Fletcher, “are storytellers. Lawyers and journalists have a lot in common — it’s just that lawyers get paid better.

“I had a number of reporters at Virginia Lawyers Weekly who were originally lawyers and were making the transition to legal journalism. One of the things I would tell them is to draw on their experience as lawyers. Interviewing is not unlike doing an examination, even a cross-examination. When you’re in a trial or at a deposition, you’re tapping into the same skills.”

Audrey Marcello ’02L, coeditor of the 2000-01 Law News with Meri Triades Pasztor ’02L, majored in communications and was features editor of the newspaper at LeMoyne College. Not only did she find that the writing style she’d developed as a journalist was valuable in law school, but she also recognized how a paper run entirely by students played an important role.

“It was challenging to squeeze the paper in with all our studies, which is why Meri and I were coeditors,” said Marcello. “I thought it was important for people to focus not just on their own studies but to know what was happening around them and not to rely on word-of-mouth. I think we see problems with that today.”

Although The Law News has successfully published 369 issues, it suffered a couple of neardeath experiences in the past decade, only to be resuscitated by the infusion of energetic leadership. During his 1L year in 2012, Howard Wellons ’14L worried The Law News had reached its end.

“People weren’t interested in writing for it. People weren’t interested in reading it,” said Wellons. “The administration didn’t want the paper. They were tired of it and embarrassed by it.”

Wellons had been editor of Erskine College newspaper when that paper was in a similar experience. “I was in a position to revive the paper there and didn’t. I regretted that,” Wellons said, adding that he didn’t want similar regrets in law school. He took over at the end of his 1L year, recruited a new board and convinced the administration to give the paper another chance — and office space.

Current staff of The Law News with the National Achievement Award.

Editor-in-chief of the 2013 Law News, Howard Wellons ’14L.

“We’d had great space, and it had been taken away. We ended up with what was essentially a closet,” said Wellons. “It was quite a comedown, but at least we were still there.”

When the first edition of the 2012-13 Law News appeared in October 2012, it featured a front-toback redesign and promoted a year-long celebration of the newspaper’s 40th anniversary. In his first editorial, Wellons vowed to provide “faithful and insightful coverage of the events and issues facing the law school.” Amid the paper’s standard blend of feature and news stories were sprinkled pieces about the law school’s history and guest columns by previous Law News editors and writers.

In August 2013 the American Bar Association honored the paper with its top award for student-run newspapers and praised The Law News “for its long-term commitment to provide law students well-written and engaging content relevant to their studies, their future careers, and the legal profession in a thoughtfully designed newspaper.”

That was not the first time the ABA had recognized The Law News. Nor would it be the last. The current office on the second floor of Lewis Hall features a wall full of ABA awards. In addition to recognition for articles and editorials, the paper won the overall award in 1985, then three successive

AN EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW

ON FEBRUARY 4, 1973, SPORTS EDITOR PETE Wimbrow, writers Rick Grimes and John Gee, and photographer Jeff Twardy, members of the Class of 1973, secured an exclusive interview with basketball legend Wilt Chamberlain.

Here’s how the full-page feature began: “The Sports staff of the W&L Law News, acting on behalf of the Law School basketball team, presented Wilt Chamberlain with a challenge to play one game for the world’s championship this past Sunday at Cole Field House, College Park. Maryland. Of secondary import was the fact that two months of frantic and often futile efforts culminated in a pre-game and post-game interview with Wilt Chamberlain. At stake was journalistic supremacy on the W&L campus.”

How and why did four law students from W&L wind up interviewing Wilt the Stilt for a student newspaper? A law school student newspaper, at that?

The why may be an easier answer than the how. The four journalists, members of the same intramural basketball team, were big fans of Wilt and wanted to meet him. It was that simple.

What wasn’t as simple was arranging the interview.

Wimbrow spent months corresponding with the Lakers to request press passes for the game between Chamberlain’s Lakers and the Baltimore Bullets (now the Washington Wizards). He eventually got an answer — a polite no. But the response was on Lakers’ letterhead, and Wimbrow was preparing to photocopy the letterhead and grant himself the press passes and interview.

“Fortunately, I didn’t need to use that letter so I didn’t have to go prison,” Wimbrow said.

Instead, Grimes, who was working as an

awards from 2012 to 2015, and once again in 2022. Wellons increased circulation by sending the paper to alumni and launching its first website. He also worked with the Ring-tum Phi to have Law News articles republished on the undergraduate side.

“We wanted to give the law school community what it might not get in other places. You have so many outlets online that can get national, state, local news a lot faster and more comprehensively than you can possibly get in a campus newspaper,” Wellons said. “To get it read, you have to narrow your focus.”

One example was the paper’s coverage of the tragic automobile accident in which Lara Gass ’14L was killed in March 2014. The April 17, 2014, edition

News was the participation we got,” said Darmante. “I remember the first interest meetings I attended there were maybe 10 to 15 people in the room. When I left we filled an auditorium with people who wanted to write.”

COVID created another bump in the road since no Law News was published between October 25, 2019, and November 2021. When it did reappear, the paper had adopted a magazine format. Current editor-in-chief, John Coffron ’23L, said reviving the paper, post-COVID, was a massive undertaking.

“When we started, there were no style guidelines, no editing templates, and we spent hours and hours trying to figure out what looked good and what kind of style we wanted to use to bring it back to the publication it had been in the past,” Coffron said.

The work paid off when the 2021-22 paper won its latest National Achievement Award from the ABA.

Coffron said plans are to continue publishing at least twice, and perhaps three times a year, in the magazine format. Its look is different but, Coffron said, not its purpose.

not only had a front-page story about the accident, but almost two pages of student-authored tributes.

“Lara’s death was devastating,” said Wiant. “We needed to grieve collectively, and that helped.”

The paper continued its successful resurgence in the 2014-15 when Mike Darmante ’16L succeeded Wellons as editor-in-chief. At Wellons’ invitation, Darmante had begun writing for the paper the year before he matriculated, making him the only fouryear staff member.

“What I was most excited about with The Law

“I think The Law News does a couple of things really well. One is that it gives students the opportunity to write for pleasure about issues that interest them,” said Coffron. “It also provides a platform for advocacy about the direction that we on The Law News want the school to go.”

Murchison agrees.

“Early on, it was to keep the community informed, but they weren’t looking that much beyond that,” he said. “Now, because of the internet, there’s a lot more going on beyond that. They have the luxury of being more reflective now. I always think, ‘Oh, good. There’s the latest issue. I want to read that because I always think I’m going to encounter a perspective I haven’t thought about.’”

assistant coach at VMI, had obtained authentic passes through his VMI contacts.

The four journalists had courtside seats under the basket where Chamberlain battled Washington stars Wes Unseld and Elvin Hayes.

“There was on exchange when Unseld was called for a foul and responded to the official. It was just like he was talking to me. I was that close,” said Wimbrow.

In the locker room after the game, Gee did the interviewing, Twardy shot photos, and Wimbrow and Grimes listened in.

One of Gee’s questions did have a legal twist. At the time players were bound to their teams under the reserve clause, which was still operative in pro sports at the time. The exchange was instructive, if terse:

Gee: What is your opinion of the reserve clause?

Wilt: Horseshit!

The story caused some buzz around Tucker Hall when it appeared.

“I think a lot of people were pretty much astonished that we could accomplish this feat,” Grimes said. “We were primarily writing about intramurals on the sports page, but it was pretty obviously the biggest story we ever got.”

And the story didn’t end there. Wimbrow’s fascination with all things Wilt extended well beyond law school. Wimbrow would eventually develop a personal friendship with the star starting in 1991 when he sent Chamberlain a column he’d written for a local Ocean City, Maryland, newspaper. Several months later he got a package from Random House with a copy of Chamberlain’s book, “A View from Above.”

“This was before the book was even on the shelves, and I didn’t know who’d sent it to me,” Wimbrow said. “I opened it up and there’s an inscription: ‘To Peter Ayers Wimbrow III. Here’s one copy free. Now you must buy two more. That makes III. Happy reading, Wilt Chamberlain.’”

Later, Wimbrow visited Chamberlain’s restaurant in Boca Raton and re-introduced himself.

“I asked if he remembered our interview at Cole Field House. He said he had,” Wimbrow said. “We exchanged phone numbers and kept in touch the rest of his life.”

The Law News was in its infancy when four staff members came up with what remains one of the biggest scoops in the paper’s history.

The Law News Wilt Chamberlain interview published in 1973.

“It was challenging to squeeze the paper in with all our studies, which is why Meri and I were coeditors. I thought it was important for people to focus not just on their own studies but to know what was happening around them and not to rely on word-of-mouth. I think we see problems with that today.”

–Audrey Marcello ’02L

Meet the 1Ls

ZOE SPEAS

Background

Zoe Speas hails from Cumberland, Virginia. She graduated from the College of William and Mary in 2012 before moving to New York City to embark on a career in the theater. She worked as a Shakespearean actor and musician across the country, eventually joining the American Shakespeare Center in Staunton, Virginia.

On her Theater Career

I liked to think of myself as a Shakespearean scholar who preferred a stage to a classroom. Performance was a laboratory in which I and my ensemble-mates could interrogate classical text and use the audience and one another to test our ideas about language and stagecraft. The highlights of my previous work always involved tearing apart Shakespeare’s plays lineby-line, arguing (heatedly) with fellow actors about scansion and rhetoric, and engaging with audience members after performances – particularly young folks seeing their first play. I got to play some killer roles, but the one that stands out as a personal favorite was Roderigo in Othello. I love Shakespeare’s fools, and I love that fool especially because he’s a fool and a villain, and Shakespeare implicates you in the tragedy of it all by making you feel for the poor idiot while he does it.

Why W&L Law

It has always been W&L Law for me. Last fall, I registered for the LSAT and scheduled a visit to W&L Law. It took approximately 20 minutes of sitting in on an Immigration Law class to sell me heart and soul on this place. I love language and I love character. I wanted to do something that required me to bang my head repeatedly against words, words, words, but also something that rated empathy and respect for others above all else. I had a feeling switching from Shakespeare to statutes and common law wouldn’t feel like such a drastic pivot. I was right. They all make you want to simultaneously pull your hair out and drop to your knees in awe.

MARC SENDRA

Background

Marc Sendra is originally from Orlando, Florida, and attended the University of Central Florida for his undergraduate degree. Prior to his educational experience, he served in the U.S. Army as a religious affairs specialist from 2015 to 2019 in the 82nd Airborne Division located in Fort Bragg, North Carolina.

On his Military Career

First, my chaplain and I were responsible for the overall mental and spiritual well-being of about 500 soldiers. We provided counseling to soldiers and suicide prevention training. We were also responsible for ensuring that the spiritual needs of soldiers were met regardless of religious affiliation. Second, I was responsible for advising the commanding officer of my unit on the organic spiritual and mental health of our soldiers, including information regarding religious activities within the area of a deployed environment. Finally, the Geneva Convention prohibits the chaplain from being armed while in a deployed environment. This means that his chaplain’s assistant would act as armed security for the chaplain if we were in a hostile environment and received contact from opposing forces.

Why W&L Law

I chose W&L Law because of its reputation for being a high-quality law school. Admission to W&L Law meant so much to me that I applied binding early decision, fully ready to commit. While law school generally has a competitive environment, Washington and Lee offered something different. When I went to the admitted student open house, I confirmed that W&L Law did not promote a cutthroat environment. Instead, it was one of cooperation, cohesion, and teamwork among law professors and law students to ensure that everyone has a successful career. I have never been in an environment in academia where everyone is so willing to help one another.

EBONY AIKEN

Background

Ebony Aiken ’25L is originally from Jackson, Mississippi, and attended the University of Houston for her undergraduate degree. She also obtained a master’s in public policy from the University of Arizona. Before starting law school, Ebony worked in real estate and in policy research. She is a licensed Realtor in Texas, and has worked with researchers at Arizona State University, Penn State, University of Arizona, and Louisiana State University-Shreveport on communitybased crime interventions, drug market interventions, food insecurity research, and implementing policy on the microlevel.

On her AmeriCorps Work

My service was very informative in understanding how public policy and the law impact different communities, learning how to work with various community stakeholders, and where some of the gaps in information lie and how to plug in said gaps. My AmeriCorps service focused on research, policy analysis, and implementation, which prepared me for critical analysis and synthesizing large sums of information. My work in the real estate industry taught me a lot about community needs and understanding that so much of those needs are impacted by law and policy even if people do not realize it.

Why W&L Law

I chose W&L Law because of the closeknit community, the student-to-faculty ratio, and the amount of support given to each student throughout their entire time at W&L. I knew that I wanted to go to a school where I could have oneon-one time with professors to enhance my understanding of legal concepts. W&L has spent a lot of time thinking about the whole person by curating a positive student experience inside and outside of the classroom. W&L has recognized that in order to get the best out of students, it’s important to prioritize wellness. Essentially, W&L cares about the details.

KALI VENABLE

Background

Originally from Houston, Texas, Kali Venable ’25L graduated from The University of Texas at Austin with a bachelor’s degree in journalism and certificate in creative writing. Before law school, she worked as a public safety reporter, and later as an investigative and environmental reporter at a daily newspaper in central south Texas. Her work has appeared in the Victoria Advocate, The New York Times, and Texas Monthly, among others.

On her Journalism Career

I have always loved storytelling and felt strongly about accountability, as well as empowering people to engage with their communities and make educated decisions for themselves and their families. A good story can do all the above, and I felt privileged to tell so many different types of stories. Journalism also allowed me to interact with people from all walks and forced me to observe society through a sort of third-party lens that made me challenge my own bias. I enjoyed that challenge because it broadened my perspective and fed my curiosity. Not to mention, the chaos of the newsroom and the rush of deadlines meant I rarely had a dull day on the job.

Why W&L Law

Prior to W&L Law, I had only attended large public schools. When I decided to go to law school, I wanted the opposite: a small school that would allow me to immerse myself in my studies. W&L is one of the smallest top-tier law schools, and I think the class size creates an immediate sense of intimacy and collegial environment that you won’t find anywhere else. The strong sense of community was palpable when I visited, as well as when alumni shared their experiences with me.

This fall, W&L Law welcomed 125 students from 28 states and eight countries. The class has the strongest academic profile that the law school has seen in over a decade, with members bringing an array of experiences with them as they began their law school journeys.

The First-Generation Student Union

Students in the School of Law have launched a new organization to support first-generation students in their law school journey through a mentoring program and alumni networking events. Below, co-presidents Brandi Seppala ’24L and Taylor Roberson ’24L answer questions about this new effort.

What is the mission of your organization?

The First-Generation Student Union (FGSU) empowers first-generation law students to excel and feel confident navigating law school and entering the workforce. As first-generation students ourselves, we understand the value of creating and maintaining a support system for students in this demographic to overcome barriers in the legal community. Our organization accomplishes this through mentorship programs, including one-on-one student mentors, alumni networking events, and social events for mentors and mentees.

Do you have any events coming up for the fall and spring?

We are planning to host an alumni panel, a panel for finding and applying to jobs, and a couple of networking mixers for our law school mentors and mentees!

Can alumni get involved?

Yes! We have a dedicated alumni committee of second- and third-year law students that are reaching out to identify first-generation law school graduates!

We are hoping to have alumni speak on a panel this year and to ultimately establish an alumni mentorship program.

Will there be mentorship opportunities within the law school or with undergraduates?

We have started the process of having incoming 1Ls that are first-generation sign up to be mentees and 2Ls and 3Ls to be mentors. The goal is to have ongoing mentorship pairings within the law school.

What prompted you both to want to start this organization?

As first-generation college graduates and law students, we both have a deep appreciation for the first-gen mentors we have had and the opportunities provided to bridge the gap in our understanding of how to succeed in law school, what various jobs look like post-law school, and how to get there. We think having this student organization will facilitate an empathetic and empowering community!

Are there already law students involved? If so, what is everyone looking forward to in this new organization?

We sent a message out last spring to current law students and received an enthusiastic response! Our 16-person leadership board has been hard at work making plans and discussing ideas to create a successful launch this semester. We have big goals for this year, and everyone is really excited to start this community and support fellow first-gen students in any way we can!

Is there anything else you both would like to share about the organization?

We are always open to ideas, collaboration, and questions! Feel free to reach out to us via email with any questions, comments or concerns. Our email address is fgsu. wlu.law@gmail.com.

If you are an alum who would be open to working with this student organization, please reach out to Taylor and Brandi.

At the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals

TWO THIRD-YEAR LAW STUDENTS AT Washington and Lee University School of Law argued a case in November before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. Sica Matsuda ’23L and Brian Warren ’23L were assigned the case as part of their work with the school’s Criminal Justice Clinic.

The case itself dates back more than 20 years, when Professor Jonathan Shapiro represented Darwyn Payne at trial on drug charges. Payne was acquitted by the jury of possession with intent to distribute but convicted of the lesser crime of simple possession of just nine grams of crack cocaine. At the time, this crime was a felony that carried a mandatory minimum sentence of five years, which Payne served, along with two years of supervised release.

Congress later changed the law, first to make this crime a misdemeanor, and then passed additional legislation in 2018—the First Step Act—that included a provision to make the misdemeanor charge retroactive. The problem for Payne is that the new statute did not include specific language for someone who has completed his sentence. He has remained a felon, even though someone convicted of the same crime today would likely not even face jail time.

“His status as a felon has prevented him from getting jobs, kept him from traveling to Canada on a family vacation, kept him from getting a professional license, kept him from inheriting his grandfather’s shotgun, and kept him from coaching his son’s AAU basketball team,” said Shapiro.

Matsuda and Warren are the not the first clinic students to work on the case. Katie Moss ’15L argued the motion in the Eastern District of Virginia following the first change in the law, and Joe Barton

’20L handled a second motion after the new law was made retroactive. The current effort is an appeal from the denial of Barton’s motion.

Matsuda and Warren learned in September that they would argue the case jointly, and immediately began intense preparation that included extensive legal research and moot arguments. Warren noted that while there are many cases about the First Step Act, there was nothing specifically on point that addressed Payne’s situation.

“Ours was an issue of first impression,” said Warren. “We had to piecemeal cases together to make our argument and try to craft the most persuasive argument tied to the statute.”

Warren took the lead during oral argument on discussing the text and interpretation of the statute

in question, while Matsuda discussed the actual purpose of the changes to the original law.

“The judges were reluctant to apply the law to Mr. Payne without an express statement, so we had to be very persuasive about what type of relief to ask for and to make it clear that that pathway is available without creating new law,” said Matsuda.

The students’ experience preparing for and arguing the case is a good example of the “whole building” approach to student success at W&L Law. They received help from classmates and more than half dozen faculty to develop and practice their arguments. And when Professor Shapiro fell ill the day before the court date, Professor Brandon Hasbrouck stepped in on a day’s notice and completed the necessary paperwork to serve as their supervising attorney, enabling the argument to proceed.

“It was a nice tour down memory law,” said Matsuda, who was in the same small section with Warren as a 1L. “All these people who had already helped us learn the foundation of the law were now helping us prepare to be actual lawyers for the day before the court — it was just really wonderful.”

For their part, Matsuda and Warren appreciate the layers of institutional history wrapped up in this case and are happy to be “one small part of that interesting journey.” And a skeptical panel from the Fourth Circuit that seemed to be looking for more express guidance from Congress on this matter likely means that journey is not over.

“If we get a bad result from the Fourth Circuit, we will take the case to the Supreme Court,” said Shapiro.

Brandi Seppala ’24L and Taylor Roberson ’24L

Sica Matsuda ’23L and Brian Warren ’23L

Law Center Adopts Policy to Offset Climate Impacts

The Frances Lewis Law Center at Washington and Lee University School of Law has implemented a new policy to address the Center’s impacts on climate change. Boxerwood Education Association, a local environmental education center, will benefit from the effort.

The Lewis Law Center is the research support arm of W&L Law and is a regular sponsor of scholarship endeavors and events that involve travel by W&L faculty and visiting scholars. Since greenhouse gases from transportation, including air travel and automobiles, accounts for about 27 percent of total U.S. greenhouse gas emissions, the Law Center Committee, chaired by Professor Chris Seaman, director of the Law Center, decided to adopt a policy of carbon neutrality beginning this year.

“We believe it is important to do our part on sustainability and environmental stewardship, and to help meet the University’s ultimate goal of achieving carbon neutrality,” said Professor Seaman. “We are pleased to partner with Boxerwood,

a respected local nonprofit, in this important effort.”

The policy, available on the Law Center website, includes securing carbon offsets from reliable providers for air and ground transportation and lodging for all academic visitors and guests to the University who are

invited by, sponsored by, or funded by the Law Center. An added benefit of the new policy is that the funds to secure carbon offsets will be reinvested right in Rockbridge County through Boxerwood’s COREworks initiative.

Boxerwood has long been a leader in the area for environmental

education and conservation efforts. Its new program, COREworks, vets and funds local projects that restore soil, protect water, and reduce carbon emissions. Current projects include the development of solar arrays and riparian tree planting. The Law Center secured three COREworks offsets, the equivalent of preventing the release of three metric tons of carbon dioxide into the environment.

Ginny Johnson, a 2020 graduate of W&L and program coordinator for COREworks, noted that many individuals have already secured personal offsets through their online marketplace, but W&L Law is the first institution to do so.

“Since its inception, COREworks has been a collaborative effort with our friends at W&L,” said Johnson. “This leadership is particularly special considering the Community Legal Practice Center’s pro bono contributions to the development of COREworks in 2020. It’s wonderful to see that partnership come full circle.”

Recognizing Law Student Veterans

W&L PROVIDES YELLOW RIBBON FUNDING TO an unlimited number of undergraduate and law students covering their tuition and fees. Currently, 10 W&L Law students receive Yellow Ribbon (YR), GI Bill, or other veteran benefits. In fact, the number of YR students in the law school building has almost doubled with this new first year class.

In addition, W&L Law has an active student organization, the National Security and Military Law Society, which provides a forum for those affiliated with the U.S. armed forces, or those interested in military veterans’ issues, national security strategy, or defense policy. The organization supports our veteran students during their time in law school and connects them with opportunities throughout the Lexington area.

Daniel Throckmorton ’25L says the W&L Law community has been one of the most supportive he has experienced as a veteran pursuing higher education.

“I’m extremely grateful to be learning in an environment where the faculty and staff have been so open and engaging with my military experience and how it can be applied to the myriad fields of study that comprise legal academia,” said Throckmorton. “I come from a background rooted in military intelligence, which has helped me foster an appreciation for detail and nuance that is immensely useful in understanding the nearbyzantine ways in which legal practice is applied in the real world, not to mention some lively discussions when sharing how my own military background has been impacted by legal oversight.”

Veteran law students play an important role in the student body as they offer a different and unique perspective in the classroom and in their extracurricular activities. Brooklyn Hills, a 1L from Westminster, South Carolina, noted, however, that U.S. veterans are not homogenous.

“They come from different political walks, born of different countries, having a different first language than English, together pledging to a country to earn this thing called freedom,” said Hills. “I strive to contemplate the unseen sacrifices that veterans make for our country. Often veterans endure mental pains to fulfill the call to serve. Many have lost a part of themselves through trauma experienced while serving, neglecting their own needs to do things most of us could not fathom as necessary to maintain freedom at home.”

W&L Law recognizes the sacrifices that veterans have made to ensure the protection of our country and are therefore dedicated to making our legal education affordable for veteran students and to partnering with them throughout their legal journey. We are proud of the ways our veteran students have served the United States of America, and we look forward to seeing the impact they will have on the legal field.

Ginny Johnson ’20, program coordinator for COREworks, presents Professor Chris Seaman, director of the Law Center, with a certificate in recognition of the center’s emissions balance.

Brooklyn Hills ’25L, John Maloney ’24L, Daniel Throckmorton ’25L and Jalen Frantal ’24L are some of the W&L Law students who receive Yellow Ribbon, GI Bill, or other veteran benefits.

Painting with Words

BY JEFF HANNA

special prosecutor investigating and prosecuting organized crime’s infiltration of financial institutions in connection with the credit union crisis. Once that assignment ended in 1993, he returned to Howrey and, in 1997, became the firm’s youngest ever partner.

From Howrey, he moved to San Francisco-based Heller Ehrman, where he helped form and co-develop that firm’s government competition practice in Washington. Five years later Heller Ehrman became a casualty of the financial crisis, and Cohen founded, formed and chaired the Antitrust & Competition Practice for Paul Hastings, which grew to a $50 million practice with 12 partners across three continents.

As he moved through his career, Cohen’s field underwent a significant shift. Antitrust practice had once been focused in Washington, but he was representing private multinational companies conducting business throughout the world and required to follow rules that were different by geopolitical region.

“picked up the poetry pen differently,” filling every spare minute of his international trips composing poems — whether on a transatlantic flight or sitting on the banks of a river in Bangkok.

“For me, painting and poetry are the same thing,” Cohen said. “They’re just different media. In my paintings, I’m coloring a frame of mind or mood; in my poems, I’m painting with the words.”

Cohen’s paintings capture his feelings through natural geometry and cityscapes, although he also does some abstract work. He paints in oil and fills very large canvases — often 6 feet in height or width — with color. That allows him to exploit a self-confessed inability to draw — a shortcoming his college art professor helped turn into a strength.

Through more than three decades of practicing law, Michael Cohen ’90L had kept his expressive side mostly hidden. That changed last December when he published Lyrics, a volume of his poetry and painting.

“My expressive side would not have been accepted in the ‘big law’ world,” said Cohen. “It’s perfectly accepted by clients; it’s not accepted by big law. Nobody thinks you’re going to be a hard core professional if you have an expressive life.”

Cohen has always pursued eclectic interests. That was especially evident during his undergraduate days at Virginia Tech where he majored in mathematics and art while also completing minors in philosophy, history and art history.

“But what I really was, was a writer,” he said. “Words to me were like paint. They mattered. They came from the heart, not just the head. Word choice mattered, not just as a form of communication, but a form of expression.”

Law school would enhance his belief in the power of words. He couldn’t wait for homework assignments, he said, because he loved reading cases.

“Every case is a story,” he said. “And it’s not simply a story about a business. It’s a story about the people in the business, about what the business does, about what led to a dispute.”

Cohen still remembers his first day in torts when Professor Brian Murchison told the famous story of two men whose dogs got into a fight and, while trying to break up the fight, Mr. Kendall accidentally hit Mr. Brown in the eye with a stick. Mr. Brown sued Mr. Kendall, and Brown v. Kendall became a precedent-setting case in U.S. tort law.

“There is a story in law, and all of that is expressed in words,” Cohen said. “My passion for language as a tool was intensified during my law school years.”

When he arrived in Lexington, Cohen planned to become a federal prosecutor or a criminal defense attorney since everything he knew about the law came from Perry Mason. He was surprised to discover most of his classmates weren’t in law school to become Perry Mason, but he retained that enthusiasm for criminal law, studying with Professors Roger Groot, Lewis H. (Lash) Larue, Joan Shaughnessy and Brian Murchison. “They were my mentors,” he said, “and I knew I was headed into criminal practice.”

After graduating, he joined Howrey & Simon, an antitrust firm, but was quickly appointed as assistant

“I lived the transformation,” said Cohen, who was now advising multinationals on how to do business and compete around the world. His expertise led him to serve on the University of Toyko faculty in 2010 to teach the International Competition Law curriculum to students from Beijing University, Seoul University and the University of Tokyo.

“We’ve really not been teaching international competition at all in America,” said Cohen, who has taught an International Law Practicum at W&L in recent years. “We’re still looking at this area as though it’s all antitrust law for America. But it’s perhaps the most encountered field of international law in any business’s experience because it’s an everyday thing.”

By 2015, Cohen began contemplating an escape from the world of “big law.” A native of California, he initially planned to move back to the Monterey Peninsula where he’d grown up and open his own practice. Instead, he joined Sheppard Mullin, a general practice firm with a California presence and with a culture that fit him. He’s been among Sheppard Mullin’s top five originating partners since 2018 and hosts a podcast, Nota Bene, aimed at global business executives.

In the meantime, he had begun pursuit of his twin creative passions — painting and poetry — more intentionally. He began painting again with purpose, selling artwork with some success. He also had

“I began using color — only primary colors — to create perspective and to overcome areas where I felt I could not sketch with precision,” he explained. “This process tended to work better on large canvases because I could make the colors more impactful. I was creating worlds from color, not from sketch.”

As for his poems, Cohen has been described as a “contemporary poet expressing the color of the world through poetry.” He said that while he follows certain basic rules of poetry, his work departs from those rules substantially.

“All my poems depict some dream or experience or mood,” he said. “I think in all respects my poetry is painting some frame of mind, whether unconscious or conscious. It is never just a description of the experience; it’s a feeling of the experience.”

When COVID hit, Cohen found himself stuck on Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, where he has a second home. He had always expected he’d collect his poems into a volume, and the pandemic seemed an auspicious moment.

“I had thought about publishing a book for some time,” said Cohen, “and I knew I wasn’t leaving this little island for a while.”

The result was Lyrics, which features 42 poems interspersed with nine images of his paintings. The book is something of a watershed moment for Cohen as he takes a step more toward his expressive life. Although he intends to continue practicing law, it will not be at the same level as in the past while “rebalancing” to give more time for his painting and writing.

After a successful career in big law, Michael Cohen ’90L returns to his passions of poetry and painting.

Cohen’s paintings capture his feelings through natural geometry and cityscapes.

Beautiful Struggle

Janssen Evelyn ’06L uses resilience and intentional joy to find his purpose.

BY JEFF HANNA

Janssen Evelyn ’06L learned resilience early. He was 8 when he, his two siblings and their parents emigrated from Barbados. For more than a year, the family of five shared a queen-size mattress in an uncle’s basement bedroom in Prince George’s County, Maryland, where culture shocks were frequent at the outset.

For instance, Evelyn has vivid memories of an older white man yelling the “n” word at him from a blue pickup at an intersection in Riverdale, Maryland. He’d never heard the word and didn’t know what it meant, only that he was frightened.

In school, Evelyn and his older sibling were teased mercilessly and called derogatory names. They were initially placed in English as a Second Language classes largely because they spoke English with an accent until his mother intervened “with some choice words” for the teachers.

“My childhood prepared me for what I call the beautiful struggle,” said Evelyn. “Life’s not supposed to be necessarily easy. You grow up and (along the way) you learn resilience and adaptability while maintaining authenticity and knowledge of self. You also need to find joy. I’m very intentional about finding joy.”

At St. Mary’s College of Maryland, Evelyn majored in political science, minored in African Diaspora studies, and performed in two mainstage plays. He’d been a member of a performing arts troupe in high school and found theater was a place where he could find his voice and overcome stage fright. “Butterflies,” he said, “are a sign you really care about what you’re doing. That’s been a litmus test for me. If I’m shook before I do something, I recognize how important it is to me.”

His litmus test for a law school was its location. Having grown up in an urban environment and then spending four years on the St. Mary’s River for college, Evelyn wasn’t yet ready to give up the rural environment. Between House Mountain and the Maury River, W&L fit the bill. He also wanted the same kind of low student-faculty ratio he’d had at St. Mary’s.

how to be yourself in spaces where people had divergent political views.”

That skill has helped Evelyn follow his self-described unorthodox legal career. In law school, Evelyn had a particular notion of how his life and career would unfold: he’d join a law firm, earn a partnership, and then become a judge. That’s not how it worked.

His jobs right out of law school did epitomize a traditional path: judicial law clerk in Baltimore, associate with Franklin & Prokopik, PC, in Baltimore, and inhouse attorney with Liberty Mutual Insurance. Then his path veered when a friend asked if he’d be interested in working in government.

“You think of government work, and it’s bureaucratic and sometimes you get caught up in process,” he said. “But I got a positive buzz that comes from

board, and a member-at-large of the Howard County Branch of the NAACP.

One of those places where he’s found “intentional joy” has been his work in the local community garden movement, which not only provides healthy food to needy people but also educates the community. During the pandemic, two gardens he was heavily involved in provided not only food and education but also socialization among neighbors.

In 2021, Evelyn’s path took another turn when he left the government and joined Baker Donelson as counsel and as a member of the firm’s Labor & Employment Group. It proved to be a brief interlude. In early 2022, after reevaluating his priorities, he made his first foray into politics by running for a seat on the Howard County Council.

“A lot of things came together at the same time — the murders of George Floyd and Ahmad Arbury, the pandemic, losing my mom who died in February 2020,” he said. “I thought maybe I just had to dream differently. I needed to show the sacrifices my mom made, the gifts and opportunities she gave me, weren’t in vain. The only way to do that was to create a world that was better for my two daughters and for other children.”

Still, it meant he’d have to leave Baker Donelson after only nine months to commit to a race full-time. It wasn’t an easy choice. His wife, Sonya, a senior program director for the global humanitarian organization ADRA International, recognized his quandary: “She said, ‘Look, I get it. The big firm pays well, but that’s not you.’ I should have listened to her from the beginning.”

He knocked on over 11,000 doors in a spirited grassroots campaign. When the polls closed on July 19, he led the race by 335 votes. But mail-in ballots broke heavily for his opponent, an incumbent, and he lost by a scant 239 votes.

Despite the obvious disappointment, he wouldn’t trade the experience. “There are,” he said, “certain times when you feel you’re doing what you’re supposed to be doing. No regrets.”

Fortunately, he received a new job offer several days before the election was certified and subsequently became the first executive director of Anne Arundel County’s Police Accountability Board.

Once he arrived at W&L, Evelyn found what he called a “hodgepodge of people who became closer than siblings” during his three years. He was one of five Black students in his 1L class, and “we bonded on our first weekend in Lexington, and we still communicate today.” Evelyn even met his wife, Sonya Funna, through his classmate, Sherry Fox (‘06L). She was in town for the Rockbridge Wine Festival.

He found mentors among the faculty, too, and even calls Clinical Professor of Law Beth Belmont “my spirit animal.” He did two summer internships with Professor Belmont’s Community Legal Practice Center along with being a 3L student attorney. “She taught me so, so much — legally and personally,” he said. “Professor Belmont will never, ever understand the impact she’s had on me.”

Evelyn believes the classes that prepared him most for his career were those in which he struggled — especially classes with Professors Sam Calhoun, Lyman Johnson, and Timothy Jost.

“My mind didn’t naturally work the way they taught, but what it did was force my mind to become dexterous,” he said. “Honestly, I think the most important skill that W&L taught me was not even law: it was

knowing you’re doing good. I wanted to feel like I was making a difference.”

Evelyn started as an associate county attorney for Prince George’s County where he became immersed in labor and personnel matters, EEOC issues, and police, sheriff, and corrections trial boards. After three years there, he moved to neighboring Howard County as assistant county solicitor. Then he was appointed as assistant chief administrative officer, where he had an extensive portfolio. He served as part of the county executive’s cabinet and, among other assignments, was acting human rights administrator and helped restructure the county’s Office of Human Rights and Equity. He also handled labor negotiations, union grievances and adjudicated employee appeals. And when the pandemic hit, he was part of a team that shifted the county government operations to virtual operations.

“At the time, Howard County had only 1 percent of the 3,500-member workforce able to work remotely, and we had to increase it to 35 percent,” he said.

Outside the office, Evelyn’s service to his community is extensive. Among other activities, he is the vice chair on the Maryland Commission on Civil Rights, a member of the Howard County Conservancy’s executive

“I’d leveraged everything,” he said. “I have a mortgage. I have a wife and two kids. My dad’s living with us. I have responsibilities. When you go out on a limb and chase what you feel is your purpose or your dream and then come up short, it’s tough. This job was serendipitous validation to me that putting all your eggs in one basket was not foolhardy -- there are always more eggs.”

Each Maryland county is required by the Police Accountability Bill of 2021 to establish a board to conduct investigations into police misconduct complaints by members of the public. The job was a perfect fit for Evelyn who can combine his experience in local government and handling police discipline with his lived experience as an advocate for police reform.

“I have the unique perspective of living in both worlds,” he said.

Although establishment of many county boards has been slow, Anne Arundel County’s nine-member board was up and running in August 2022, well ahead of many others. The job, he knows, will be difficult and filled with emotion on both sides of the issue.

“I think I have what the role requires, and I attribute much of that to W&L,” he said. “Maybe I didn’t have the best grades there, but I made the experience work for me. I learned to use IRAC (Issue, Rule, Application, Conclusion) and critical reasoning to think outside the box, to bring in different perspectives. That’s what this job will need.”

“My mind didn’t naturally work the way they taught, but what it did was force my mind to become dexterous. Honestly, I think the most important skill that W&L taught me was not even law: it was how to be yourself in spaces where people had divergent political views.”

CLASS UPDATES AND SUCCESS STORIES

Q&A with Namrata Kang ’21L

Nam Kang enjoys solving the puzzles in compliance investigations as a member of the regulatory team at Troutman Pepper.

Namrata Kang ’21L was born in India but grew up in Richmond, Virginia. She graduated from the University of Virginia in 2014, where she double majored in American Government and Religious Studies. Before attending law school at W&L Law, Nam worked as a corps member for Teach For America in New York City and for Make UP Forever, a subsidiary of LVMH. In law school, Nam was a summer associate at the law firm Troutman Pepper, LLP, where she currently works as an associate in the Regulatory, Investigations, Strategy + Enforcement group based in the Washington, D.C., office. Outside of work, Nam enjoys working out at boutique fitness studios and trying unique and strange/new snacks.

Did you know coming into law school that you wanted to work in Big Law?

Yes and no. Prior to law school, I had some experience working in a business compliance capacity. I was interested in a “business” environment, but I was not sold on Big Law. In law school, especially during 1L and 2L, I explored all different areas of law and paid attention to the kind of classes and topics I liked, which tended to be more in line with business and administrative law.

As a summer associate at Troutman Pepper, I rotated through the

60s

1968L

Joseph W. Brown received the 2022 Lifetime Achievement Award from Nellis-Creech Air Force Base. The award honors Brown’s 32-plus years of remarkable support to the Nellis and Creech bases. Brown is a former U.S. Marine, one of the founders and former chair of the Nevada Military Support Alliance and a former honorary commander and vice commander of the Nellis Support Group to the

practice groups to get a feel for litigation and transactional work. There, I was introduced to the Regulatory, Investigations, Strategy + Enforcement group, which primarily focuses on government investigations and compliance. I loved the work given to me as it was a mix of business and regulatory law and also had aspects of both litigation and transactional work.

What has this last year taught you in your current role?

So many things! During the last year, I learned that law school provides the foundational blocks for how to become a lawyer, but the actual learning really happens on the job. Law school was a great place for me to explore and try different areas of the legal field, especially whether I wanted

commander of the Air Combat Command, and, until very recently, had been honorary commander for the 526th Intelligence Squadron at Nellis Air Force Base.

80s

1985L

Charlie Martel moved from his position as a visiting professor at University of Maryland Carey School of Law to a position as assistant professor at Lewis and Clark Law School. He had two academic journal

to go into litigation or transactional fields. However, even as a junior attorney, I am still figuring out exactly what I want to focus on and specialize in. To any current or prospective law student reading this, you do not need to decide that in law school. It’s the on-the-job experience that has really informed me of the work I particularly enjoy, or even dislike.

Senior attorneys (associates and partners) are incredibly understanding and do not expect you to know everything on day one. They know that it’s a learning process. As I do not have a lot of subject matter expertise, I have used the last year as an opportunity to absorb the knowledge from others around me. I try to emulate the experienced attorneys to figure out my own style.

publications during the year. One, “Racism and Bigotry as Grounds for Impeachment,” was published in the New York University Review of Law and Social Change in August 2021. The second, “I Was a Stranger, and You Welcomed Me,” is an essay about his volunteer work with refugees in Greece and was published in April 2022 by the Harvard Human Rights Journal.

1986L

After being at the helm of AutoMon for 25 years, Tom Jones sold his company to Government Brands. He is on

What sort of legal issues do you handle on a day-to-day basis?

I work in the regulatory space, which involves advising and representing clients in regulatory investigations and compliance matters. These involve both federal and state investigations against various businesses. Most commonly, I work with consumer protection statutes focusing on Unfair, Deceptive or Abusive Acts and Practices (UDAAP).

What do you like about your current job?

I find the work to be very interesting and intellectually stimulating. No day is the same, which keeps things exciting. Compliance matters tend to be more like puzzles that need to be solved and investigations are basically the best parts of litigation (no court involvement yet, so no Federal Rules of Civil Procedure or Evidence to worry about) where you negotiate with the government over substantive issues.

More than the work, it’s the people and the culture of the firm that I love! I wanted to find a firm that would be a good fit for my personality and Troutman delivered. Having mentors and teammates who actively root for me, care about me, not just professionally but personally, and go out of their way to ensure I am doing well, makes coming to work fun. As a way of giving back, I am involved in a lot of recruiting and mentoring initiatives at the firm. I focus my efforts on promoting more diversity at the firm, which is a passion of mine, and I love that I am surrounded by people who share that goal.

to new adventures at Narnia Properties.

1987L

John Freeman joined Stephen F. Austin State University as a university lecturer in the Nelson Rusche College of Business, teaching courses in Business Communication and Business Ethics.

Rodney L. Moore has been named as a 2023 Best Lawyer for both Corporate Law and Mergers & Acquisitions Law in Dallas by Best Lawyers in America.

1988L

Following his service on the Delaware Court of Chancery as vice chancellor, the Hon. Joseph R. Slights III joined Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati in Wilmington, Delaware, as a partner in the corporate governance practice group.

Jim Vines retired from King & Spalding.

Q&A with Casey Floyd ’15L

With his company NOCAP Sports, Casey Floyd ’15L helps athletes and agents negotiate and transact NIL deals.

on legislative proposals such as NIL.

Did you know coming into law school that you wanted to work in Sports and Entertainment Law?

Since that moment, I knew I wanted to be part of fixing the system and advocating for athlete rights. What have you done since graduation to lead up to your current job?

After starting his legal career in college athletics compliance, Casey Floyd ’15L recently co-founded NOCAP Sports, a comprehensive NIL (Name, Image, Likeness) technology platform that unites athletes, agents, universities, and brands, providing each with the tools to interact, negotiate and transact compliantly on NIL deals. Floyd is originally from Los Angeles, and currently resides in Dallas, Texas, with his wife. He has nearly a decade of experience in NCAA compliance and governance, including stops at “Power Five” institutions, mid-majors, and a conference office. Floyd was the director of compliance at the University of Michigan and served on the NAAC Legislation & Governance Committee that provides feedback to the NCAA

1989L

Robin McCabe was promoted to chief, Civil Litigation Unit, Office of the General Counsel at the New York County District Attorney’s Office in New York, New York.

90s

1990L

Tom Smith, executive director and secretary of the American Society of Civil Engineers, was elected to the National Academy of Construction’s class of 2022. In electing Smith, NAC cited him for “demonstrated leadership in fostering a culture of safety, integrity, innovation, and collaboration within the engineering, design, and construction industry with major influence in infrastructure investment.”

1992L

Charmaine Betty-Singleton received the Roy Wilkins Civilian Service Award from the NAACP for her outstanding accomplishments in supporting civil rights in the armed services and civilian workforce. A retired U.S. Army

First, some context about me is necessary because I am a nontraditional law student that had unique motivations for being there. I am a first-generation college student, and I grew up in a blue-collar area an hour outside of Los Angeles. My dad remarried while I was in high school, and I was blessed with three younger siblings that changed the trajectory of my life because they gave me a sense of purpose and responsibility as a teenager. I went to law school because I believed becoming a lawyer was the best option available to me to make a lot of money and help provide a better life for my siblings and family.

It was not until I was at W&L that I decided to work in college athletics. Sports had always been my outlet growing up (shoutout to W&L for having the #1 ranked Law School Football League), and I was a die-hard UCLA fan along with my dad. Ed O’Bannon was a star of the 1995 UCLA championship team, and I idolized him as a little kid. O’Bannon sued the NCAA while I was at W&L, and I became obsessed with the case. That lawsuit was the next pivotal moment in my life because that is when I realized that college athletes were the only American citizens that did not have the rights to their own name, image, and likeness (i.e., publicity rights). I remember talking to a professor and he basically said, it is definitely illegal, but some things take time to work through the system.

lieutenant colonel, Betty-Singleton is currently serving as deputy general counsel for the California Military Department in Sacramento.

Charmayne Sugars Clark joined Charles County State’s Attorney’s Office in La Plata, Maryland, as assistant state’s attorney.

1993L

Margaret Oertling Cupples has been named the Mississippi Bar Association’s 2022 Susie Buchanan award recipient. The annual award, named for the first female lawyer to practice before the Mississippi Supreme Court, honors a woman lawyer who has achieved professional excellence in her field and paved the way for other woman lawyers to achieve success. Cupples was presented with the award at the 23rd annual Price-Prather Luncheon at the MBA’s annual meeting in July.

1994L

Kevin Pomfret was named Geospatial Ambassador of the Year by Geospatial World at its annual Geospatial World Forum. Pomfret, a corporate transactional attorney at Williams Mullen in McLean, Virginia, is chair of the firm’s Unmanned Systems Team

I worked in college athletics, specifically compliance and governance. My first stop was at The Summit League’s Conference Office in Illinois. Next, I moved to Salt Lake City, where I worked on-campus at the University of Utah, and most recently I spent four years as director of compliance at the University of Michigan. At Michigan I would help coaches and athletes by educating them on NCAA rules, filing waivers to get flexibility from rules, and if anyone got in trouble with the NCAA, I would represent them to try and mitigate the penalty or get them off completely (NCAA has its own quasi-judicial system).

Additionally, as an athlete rights advocate inside the system, I learned a lot about the NCAA bureaucratic walls that are put up to resist change. However, I always knew the legal changes were coming, and recently state laws and federal courts started to force the NCAA to evolve. Ahead of the legal changes, I serendipitously met my two co-founders while helping a Michigan athlete that was interning for their start-up company. A short introduction call turned into a multiple hour meeting where I learned the three of us were all on the same vibration about what athletes really needed. After our initial call, I was immediately interested in being a part of this movement to give every athlete, regardless of school, sport,

and is a co-chair of its Data Protection & Cybersecurity Team.

1997L

Tina Clark Beamon was included in SAVOY Magazine’s 2022 Most Influential Black Executives in Corporate America edition.

Caprice Roberts joined the LSU Law Center in Baton Rouge as a tenured full professor. She will teach courses in constitutional law, federal courts, remedies, and contracts.

Matthew Weidner joined MN8Energy in New York as assistant general counsel.

1999L

Kelly Horan Florio was promoted to senior civil rights counsel at the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of New Jersey in Newark, New Jersey.

level or background, equal access to the best technology and resources to maximize their NIL. I jumped in and from that point we started building NOCAP Sports. I’m proud to say that today we help thousands of athletes, businesses, and universities navigate the everchanging waters of the modern era of college athletics.

Have you always been interested in starting your own company?

I have always wanted to start my own business, mainly to control where my attention and energy was spent. I am very blessed that my wife supported me quitting my job at the University of Michigan, so I could follow my business goals and passion for athlete advocacy.

What sort of legal issues do you handle on a day to day basis?

We have a general counsel, but here are some legal issues that are most common in college athletics: NCAA compliance and governance, Title IX, contracts, state NIL laws, F-1 Visas for international athletes, and everyone tracks on federal NIL proposals, pending NCAA lawsuits (House v. NCAA and Johnson v. NCAA), and employment law (unionization).

What do you like about your current job?

I love the people I work with, and I am really proud of the company that we are building. I get immense fulfillment seeing the impact we are making and thinking about the lives we are helping change.

2000L

Brent Andrewsen joined Holland & Hart in Salt Lake City as a partner.

Ashlyn Danelly Beck was selected by the Eleventh Circle Judicial Council to serve as its circuit executive, effective July 1, 2022. She is the first woman to be appointed circuit executive of the Eleventh Circuit.

James Haldin has been elected as a partner for Davis Polk and Wardwell LLP.

Nick Leverett joined CoStar in Raleigh, North Carolina, as director of market analytics.

Bob Lilly ’93L stopped in to Lewis Hall to catch up with Professor Brian Murchison.

Devon Munro and Ben Byrd ’08L formed Munro Byrd in Roanoke, Virginia. The firm represents injured people in the areas of medical malpractice, auto accidents, personal injury, and premises liability.

2001L

Sue Heisinger Moritz joined The Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson as senior counsel – Patient Engagement & Customer Solutions in Horsham, Pennsylvania.

2002L

Hillary Coombs Jarvis joined R&Q Insurance Holdings in Richmond, Virginia, as chief claims officer for North America.

Pranita Raghavan joined the National Endowment for the Humanities in Washington, D.C., as assistant chair for planning and operations.

Russell Rigby was promoted to chief counsel, litigation, at Intellectual Ventures in Bellevue, Washington.

Jonathan Wasden joined Wasden Bless & Forney in Washington, D.C., as a partner. His practice focuses on employment-based immigration and Administrative Procedures Act litigation.

2003L

Susan Healey was named deputy general counsel at Dorilton in New York.

Julie Smith Palmer, a partner at Harman Claytor Corrigan & Wellman in Richmond, was named president of the Virginia Association of Defense Attorneys.

Job Seese joined Lewis Roca Rothgerber Christie LLP’s Denver office as a partner in their Litigation Practice Group.

2004L

Leah Garabedian was promoted to director at KPMG US in Houston.

Dan Wolf joined Venable in Washington, D.C., as director of Cybersecurity Services. He also serves as the director of State Programs for the Alliance for Digital Innovation.

Tyler Wood was promoted to deputy chief, National Security Division, U.S. Department of Justice, in Washington, D.C.

2005L

Leslie Wood Bradenham joined Ivins, Phillips, & Barker, where she focuses on estate planning, estate administration, and charitable giving with the tax firm.

Olubunmi Kusimo-Frazier joined Thomas Combs & Spann in Charleston, West Virginia, as senior associate.

Matt Gatewood opened his own firm Gatewood PLLC in Washington, D.C.  He counsels organizations by resolving commercial and employment-related disputes and by representing them in arbitration and litigation.

Virginia Robinson was promoted to general counsel and chief ethics and compliance officer at Tlingit Haida Tribal Business Corporation in Washington, D.C.

2006L

Janssen Evelyn was appointed as Anne Arundel County’s first executive director of the state-mandated Police Accountability Board.

Will Fagan joined Baker Donelson as Of Counsel in Atlanta. His practice focuses on serving in the role of de facto in-house counsel for business owners, as well as counseling clients on mergers and acquisitions and traditional and nontraditional lending/financing transactions.

2008L

Jane Ledlie Batcheller was promoted to associate general counsel, M&A, at WestRock in Atlanta.

Ben Byrd and Devon Munro ’00L formed Munro Byrd in Roanoke, Virginia. The firm represents injured people in the areas of medical malpractice, auto accidents, personal injury, and premises liability.

Chace Daley joined Farmers National Company in Tulsa, Oklahoma as senior vice president of energy.

Marie Trimble Holvick has been elevated to the role of managing partner of the San Francisco and Oakland offices of Gordon & Rees.

2009L

Kathleen Blaszak was named partner with King & Spalding’s

Corporate, Finance and Investments Practice Group. She is based in the Northern Virginia office.  Blaszak’s practice covers M&A, joint ventures and new venture formations, investments, strategic partnerships, and complex commercial transactions, as well as the negotiation of complex commercial contracts and general corporate matters. She represents clients across multiple sectors, including technology, media, telecommunications and automotive.

Travis Cushman was promoted to deputy general counsel, Litigation & Public Policy at American Farm Bureau Federation in Washington, D.C.

Bart Gengler joined as general counsel to the Agency of Human Services for the State of Vermont. He will be working directly with the secretary and deputy secretary to advise on the operations of the Department of Health, Department of Mental Health, Department of Aging and Independent Living, Department of Corrections, Department for Children and Families, and the department that administers Medicaid.

Chris Henry was promoted to partner at Latham & Watkins. Thad McElroy joined Blackstone in New York as senior vice president.

Robert Reed was elected shareholder with Allen, Allen, Allen, and Allen in Richmond. His practice focuses exclusively on protecting the interests of seriously injured clients and their families in personal injury cases, including tractor-trailer collisions, car crashes, premises liability cases, and product liability cases.

Katy Shurin joined Sheppard Mullin in Houston as a partner. She is a member of the Energy, Infrastructure and Project Finance industry team. 10s

2011L

Christopher Hirsch joined the Nassau County Attorney’s Office in Westbury, New York, as deputy bureau chief, Family Court Bureau.

After a multi-year year stint with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Joe Toner returned to Wilmer Hale

Erika Harmon Arner ’99L Named Managing Partner

Intellectual property law firm Finnegan, Henderson, Farabow, Garrett & Dunner has named Erika Harmon Arner ’99L as its managing partner, effective July 1, 2022. Erika joined the firm in 1999 as a summer associate and has spent her entire career at Finnegan. She currently leads the firm’s largest practice group

— electrical and computer technology — and has been lead counsel in over 200 Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) proceedings. Erika is a longstanding champion for women in IP. She was a co-founder of the PTAB Bar Association and served as the organization’s first female president. Erika

in Washington, D.C., as special counsel.

2012L

Chad Ayers joined the City of Chicago Department of Procurement Services as an attorney.

Susanna Myirski Fultz was named to the board of directors of ReadingFilm. Based in Wyomissing, Pennsylvania, Fultz is a member of Barley Snyder’s Employment and Litigation practice groups and serves as the chair of the Employment Law Section of the Berks County Bar Association.

Lauren Keefe was promoted to partner at Krooth & Altman LLP in Washington, D.C.

2013L

Emily Baker was named partner with Feldesman Tucker Leifer Fidell LLP in Northern Virginia. Her practice focuses on family law.

Rockwell Bower joined DLA Piper in Dallas as senior counsel. His practice is focused on commercial litigation, sports and entertainment, hospitality, and information privacy.

Douglas Dua received the Cornerstone Award from the Lawyers Alliance for New York. This award is presented to outstanding business and transactional lawyers who have provided superior pro bono legal services to nonprofits that are improving the quality of life for low-income New Yorkers.

Christopher Edwards was named to the 35 under 35 list by Modern Counsel.

Christopher is chief of staff and counsel to the chief policy officer with Coinbase.

Amy Conant Hoang joined Seyfarth Shaw in Washington, D.C., as partner and co-chair of the Government Contracts Practice Group.

Matthias Kaseorg joined Pierce/McCoy in Richmond as a commercial litigator and civil defense attorney.

Joanna Heiberg Sutton joined Flowers Foods and Subsidiaries in Thomasville, Georgia, as assistant general counsel, assistant corporate secretary and vice president of Mergers and Acquisitions.

2014L

Brian Buckmire wrote “Come Home Safe,” a young adult novel that touches on the issue of police interactions, the fear that often comes with it, the dangers, the law, and the conversations teens are having about them with their parents.

Michael Carrah joined Bank of America in Washington, D.C., as assistant general counsel and senior vice president.

David Hurst joined Divvy Homes in Phoenix as capital markets attorney.

Jessica Piltch Taylor joined Fisher Phillips in San Francisco as an associate.

2015L

John Badman joined the Richmond office of Miles & Stockbridge as a principal in its Corporate & Securities Practice Group.

Donavan Eason joined Moseley Marcinak Law Group in Savannah, Georgia, as a transportation and logistics attorney.

Sarah Klein joined Amneal Pharmaceuticals in Bridgewater, New Jersey, as director, Corporate Counsel –Litigation.

Jordan Loper joined ProAssurance in Birmingham, Alabama, as a complex litigation specialist.

Katie MacRobbie (formerly Waibler) joined the Passthrough Transactions Group at EY as a manager. She lives in Lexington.

Jastin Mostowtt was promoted to senior vice president at Bank of the West, BNP Paribas Group.

Jim Pickle joined Protective Life Corporation in Birmingham as vice president and senior counsel.

Ashley Howe Seibler joined the corporate healthcare department at Proskauer Rose in Washington, D.C., as an associate.

Cameron Tommey is associate corporate counsel for the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and the NRDC Action Fund in Washington, D.C.

helped co-found, with others, Finnegan’s women’s business initiative, Finnegan FORWARD, to create and support initiatives to address issues impacting women attorneys in intellectual property. She also co-founded the Washington, D.C., chapter of The Women in IP Network (WIN). Erika

serves in leadership roles on the women’s committees of the Intellectual Property Owner’s Association (IPO) and the PTAB Bar Association and has held leadership positions in the American Bar Association (ABA) and the American Intellectual Property Law Association (AIPLA).

Henry Leventis ’03L

Nominated for U.S. Attorney Post

W&L Law alumnus Henry C. Leventis ’03L has been tapped by President Joe Biden to serve as U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Tennessee.

Currently, Leventis is a partner at the law firm Spencer Fane LLP in Nash-

ville. His practice is focused on helping businesses and individuals with high-stakes criminal, civil and administrative matters.

From 2015 to 2020, Leventis served as an assistant United States attorney in the United States Attorney’s

Office for the Middle District of Tennessee. Prior to that, he served as a trial attorney in the Criminal Section of the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice.

From 2003 to 2005 and again from 2008 to 2010, Leventis served as assistant solicitor

in the Ninth Circuit Solicitor’s Office in Charleston, South Carolina.

Leventis received his J.D. from W&L Law in 2003 and his B.A. from the College of Charleston in 1997.

2017L

Mikail Clark joined Kilpatrick Townsend and Stockton in Charlotte as a corporate attorney. His practice focuses primarily on transactional law with an emphasis on tax-related matters in the for-profit and non-profit sector.

Charli Gibbs-Tabler joined the U.S. Security and Exchange Commission in Washington, D.C., as an attorney advisor.

Kja Harper-Gopaul joined JonesDay in Irvine, California, as a staff attorney.

Catherine Lee joined the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in Washington, D.C., as an attorney adviser.

2018L

Caitlyn Bates opened Bates Law Firm in Austin, Texas. She specializes in civil litigation and administrative law.

Corey Lipschutz joined Susman Godfrey in Houston as of counsel. His practice focuses on supporting universities, research institutes, and technology companies navigate disputes, often with complex technical aspects, including patent infringement, patent licensing, and commercial disputes.

Javier Puga joined Saltz Mongeluzzi & Bendesky PC in Philadelphia as an associate attorney.

Devin White joined the Department of Veterans Affairs, Board of Veterans’ Appeals  in Washington, D.C., as an attorney adviser.

2019L

Matt Bass joined Amazon Web Services as associate corporate counsel in New York.

Nicholas Betts opened Nicholas Betts PLC in Lexington, Virginia.

Timur Dikec joined Porter Wright Morris & Arthur in Pittsburgh as an associate.

Sally Harper Griffin joined Crowe & Dunlevy in Oklahoma City as an associate.

Michael Lehr joined Amazon Web Services as associate corporate counsel.

Elisa Leighton joined Gausnell, O’Keefe & Thomas in St. Louis, Missouri, as an associate.

Alexa Shockley Campbell joined Simpson Thacher in Washington, D.C., as an associate.

Tiffany Feller Yo was promoted to tax policy advisor with the Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts in Austin.

Madison Peace Nye joined Maynard Cooper & Gale in Birmingham, Alabama, as an associate.

Georgianna Pisano Goetz joined the U.S. Department of Justice in El Paso, Texas, as an attorney adviser.

C. Reed Rogan joined White & Case in Chicago as an associate.

Alex Taylor-Lee joined American Express in New York as manager and counsel.

2021L

Warren Buff joined the Community Legal Services of Prince George’s County Eviction Prevention Program in Greenbelt, Maryland, as Housing Justice Fellow.

Virginia Gordon joined Weil Gotshal & Manges in New York as an associate.

Mitch McCloy joined Hunton Andrews Kurth in New York as an associate in the litigation group.

2020L

Emily Kendall Chowhan joined Woods Rogers Vandeventer Black in Richmond as an associate.

Whitney Davis joined Arlington County in Arlington, Virginia, as assistant county attorney.

John Dorsey joined the Office of the County Attorney in Fairfax, Virginia, as assistant county attorney.

Thomas Geeker joined Quinn Emanuel’s Miami office as an associate.

Luke Graham joined the U.S. Department of Justice as a trial attorney in Dallas.

Aaron LeClair joined Stradley Ronon in Philadelphia as staff attorney concentrating in trust and estates.

Patrick Wright joined Jones Day in New York as an associate in its financial markets practice group.

2022L

Landen Benson joined Arnall Golden Gregory in Atlanta as an associate.

Henry Cleland joined Hall Booth Smith in Atlanta as an associate.

Mallory Davis joined Wick Phillips in Dallas as an associate.

Hayden Driscoll joined Potter Anderson & Corroon in Wilmington, Delaware, as an associate.

Jim Dwyer joined Shulte Roth & Zabel in New York as an associate.

Pearce Embrey joined the U.S. District Court in Buffalo, New York, as a judicial law clerk.

Elizabeth Hudson joined Eversheds Sutherland in Washington, D.C. as a litigation associate.

Scott Ingram is clerking for the Virginia Court of Appeals in Virginia Beach.

Kylan Memminger joined Deloitte in Chicago as a tax consultant.

Katherine Nelson-Sayers joined Southwest Virginia Legal Aid Society, Inc. in Marion, Virginia, as a domestic violence and family law attorney.

Ben Richie joined the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in Washington, D.C., as an attorney.

Lauren Robertson joined Holland & Knight in Tampa as a litigation associate.

Elena Schiefele joined Sanford Heisler Sharp in Washington, D.C., as an associate.

Brittany Smith joined Steptoe & Johnson in Charleston, West Virginia, as an associate.

Kenneth Snavely joined Bradley Arant Boult Cummings in Birmingham as an associate.

Timothy Wang joined Simpson Thacher in New York City.

Alex Xenos joined Parker, Simon, & Kokolis, LLC in Rockville, Maryland, as a law clerk. Alex also serves as a Visiting Legal Fellow at the Foundation for Government Accountability.

WEDDINGS

Peter A. Wimbrow III ’73L to Judith Ann Whalan

W&L attendees at the wedding of Pete Wimbrow and Judith Ann Whalan, on May 7, 2022, in Ocean City, Maryland, included (first row, left to right) Robert Westerman ’73L; Sam Heck ’73L; Hon. Jesse Crumbley ’73L; Ernest I. Cornbrooks III ’67; Hon. John P. Miller ’73L; Bruce Phillips ’73L; (second row) Thomas K. Coates ’81; Hon. Thomas C. Groton III ’70; Peter Ayers Wimbrow III ’73L; and Richard V. Gromes, Jr. ’73L.

Christopher Lauderman ’06, ’09L marriage to Dr. Kay Younggren in Phoenix, Arizona, on December 19, 2021. They reside in Artesia, New Mexico.

W. Josef Barton ’20L to Whitney Lambeth ’20L on Friday, October 7, 2022, in Fairhope, Alabama. The wedding was officiated by Professor Mark Drumbl. The couple lives in Biloxi, Mississippi, where Joe is a JAG in the Air Force.

Hector A. Quesada ’21L to Sarah E. Coffey on September 3, 2022, in Baltimore, Maryland. Hector is a judicial law clerk at the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Middle District of North Carolina. Sarah earned her MS at Virginia Tech and works for the Chesapeake Bay Foundation.

BIRTHS AND ADOPTIONS

Ellie Hindsley Clendenin ’05, ’08L and her husband, Ken, a son, Charles Austin Clendenin, on June 2, 2021. He joins his brothers Carson and Peter.

Brian Buckmire ’14L and his wife Victoria Berg, a son, Reid, on July 29, 2022.

Devin White ’18L and his wife Allison Straw, a son, Shepherd White, on September 28, 2021.

Kasia Wiggins and fiancé Bryan Rosado-Ocasio, a boy, Abner, June 18, 2021.

DEATHS

Harold J. Blacksin ’55, ’57L of Norristown, Pennslyvania, died on Aug. 6, 2020. He belonged to Phi Epsilon Pi.

Alumni at the U.S. Supreme Court bar admission ceremony (. to r.) Bo Mahr ’17L, Marie Washington ’03L, Shawn George ’81L, Anjelica Hendricks ’15L, Carter George ’13L, Brian Buckmire ’14L, Daniel Welsh ’13L, Marey Casey ’00L, Stan Brading ’79L, Laurie Kelleher Wood ’04L, SCOTUS Deputy Clerk for Case Management, and Mark Snider ’04L.

Donald J. Currie ’58L of Lake Mary, Florida, died on May 26, 2022. He served in the U.S. Army as a second lieutenant in the Air Defense Artillery, the Army’s Judge Advocate General’s Corps, and the National Guard.

Davis W. Ganim ’62L of Stratford, Connecticut, died on June 7, 2022.

Willard Lipscomb, Jr. ’60 ’62L of New Kent, Virginia, died on May 21, 2022. He belonged to Lambda Chi Alpha.

SCENE ON CAMPUS

Arthur J. Peck ’68L of Coming, New York, died on Oct. 3, 2022.

George P. Parthemos ’69L of Larchmont, New York, died on August 29, 2022. He was a member of the Black Horse Troop where he rode in the inauguration parade for President John F. Kennedy and was a member of the New York Yacht Club.

William F. Etherington II ’74L of North Chesterfield, Virginia, died on August 5, 2022. He served in the U.S. Army in

Vietnam and worked for Beale Law Firm PC.

James D. Hocker ’80L of Tulsa, Oklahoma, died on Feb. 26, 2022. He served in the United States Air Force for 20 years and spent 15 years with the Transock Pipeline Company. He is survived by his daughter Betsy Hocker ’90L.

Milton L. Woodrum ’65, ’80L of Roanoke, Virginia, died on Sept. 8, 2022. He practiced insurance law with Woodward Fox & Wooten for 20 years and traveled the world,

following his love of fly fishing and adventure, with his wife Beverly. He belonged to Kappa Alpha.

Terry P. Diggs ’82L of Bonnerdale, Arkansas, died on June 20, 2022.

Guy L. Sweet ’82L of Holt, Michigan, died on June 11, 2022. He worked with the Ingham County Prosecutor’s Office for over 30 years, loved to canoe, and spend time with his family.

Julia H. Tillou ’82L of Alexandria, Virginia, died on July 20, 2022. She is survived by her husband Ken Tillou ’82L.

Randolph Stone ’02L died on Sept. 21, 2022. He was a Mock Con state chair at W&L. Tyler was commisioned as an officer in the Judge Advocate General Corps of the U.S. Navy and served in the Iraq War and in Bahrain.

Jody L. Castillo ’10L of Staunton, Virginia, died on July 9, 2022.

1. The Journal of Civil Rights and Social Justice Symposium hosted its annual symposium on the past, present and future of civil rights reforms.

2. Law students enjoying class outside in the fall weather.

3. Law students enjoyed a night of pumpkin carving.

4. Professor Brian Murchison meeting with students outside his office to get ready for the Torts exam.

5. Tom Boss ’24L was the winner of the John W. Davis Appellate Advocacy Competition.

6. Dylan Jarvis ‘23L and Wade Bredin ‘23L were the winners of the Robert J. Grey, Jr. Negotiations Competition.