’50s | ’60s | ’70s | ’80s | ’90s | ’00s | A Leader from the “Land of Enchantment” | One for the Defense | A Day at the (Pebble) Beach | The Senator from Nevada | In Memoriam | And What About You?
Alan H. Bernstein, JD ’59, (pictured at left) was rated a leader in the intellectual property law bar in the 2004 Chambers USA Guide to America’s Leading Business Lawyers. He is a partner and shareholder of Caesar, Rivise, Bernstein, Cohen & Pokotilow in Philadelphia. He focuses on all aspects of intellectual property law, especially litigation in the chemical, pharmaceutical, and biotechnology fields as well as chemical and pharmaceutical patent application preparation and prosecution. Bernstein also was included in the category of intellectual property law in Pennsylvania Super Lawyers 2004.
Stanley H. Cohen, JD ’61, (pictured at left) a partner and shareholder of Caesar, Rivise, Bernstein, Cohen & Pokotilow in Philadelphia, was named a leader in the intellectual property law bar in the 2004 Chambers USA Guide to America’s Leading Business Lawyers. He also was included in the intellectual property law category of Pennsylvania Super Lawyers 2004. He focuses on all aspects of patent, trademark, and copyright law, with an emphasis on copyright and trademark law and related counseling, licensing, and litigation.
Shulman, Rogers, Gandal, Pordy & Ecker, based in Rockville, Md., named Philip R. Hochberg, BL ’65, its special counsel in July. Hochberg specializes in the representation of professional and collegiate sports teams such as the National Football League and the Division 1-A Athletic Directors Association in regulatory matters and legislation. He also developed a practice before the Federal Communications Commission, specializing in cable television and broadcasting matters. In his free time, Hochberg is an announcer for sporting events, and was the voice of the Washington Redskins for 38 years, earning a spot in the team’s Hall of Fame/Ring of Stars at FedEx Field in Landover, Md
In honor of 38 years of service to his clients, N. Alfred Pasternak, JD ’65, received the Tax Excellence Award from the Section of Taxation of the Maryland State Bar Associ-ation in May. The award is presented annually to a lawyer who exemplifies excellence, integrity, compassion, and commitment in the practice of law.
Albert Kimball Jr., LLM ’72, was named a “Texas Super Lawyer” for 2004 by Texas Monthly in October. The list is also included in Texas Super Lawyers. Kimball is an intellectual property attorney with Houston firm Bracewell & Patterson. He was chosen by his peers and the editorial staff of Texas Super Lawyers. The honor is given to about five percent of the 66,000 licensed attorneys of the State Bar of Texas.
Mark A. Welge, JD ’72, was reappointed for a fourth term as co-chair of the Alternative Dispute Resolution Committee of the Pennsylvania Bar Association in September. Welge—a mediator and arbitrator who is president of Welge Dispute Solutions in Pennsylvania—also is president-elect of the Greater Delaware Valley Chapter of the Association for Conflict Resolution. He can be reached at m.welge-disputesolv@att.net.
Joanne F. Alper, JD ’75, former vice president of Syracuse University’s Alumni Association Board, in April was named president of Syracuse University’s Alumni Association. She serves a three-year term. Alper has served on the board since 1995 and is only the second woman in the history of the association to be named president. Since 1998, Alper has been a judge on the Circuit Court for the 17th Circuit of Virginia.
Fairfax County, Va., county attorney David Bobzien, LLM ’75, was installed as the 66th president of the Virginia State Bar. He is the first local government attorney in the county to serve in that position. Bobzien has served the Virginia Bar in other capacities, including as a member of the executive committee. Bobzien also currently serves as a board member of the Fairfax Bar Foundation. Bobzien resides in Reston, Va.
In March, Robert J. Rosepink, JD ’75, was elected president of the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel, which is composed of more than 2,600 trust and estate lawyers from the United States and Canada. Rosepink has been in private practice since 1975 in Phoenix and Scottsdale, Ariz., focusing on estate planning, probate, and trust law. He also is a fellow of the American College of Tax Counsel and an academician of the International Academy of Estate and Trust Law.
J. Randolph MacPhearson, LLM ’76, (pictured at right) leads the expanded government contracts practice of Hartford, Conn., firm Halloran & Sage in its Washington office and also represents clients in bid protests, claims and related litigation, and matters related to Federal Supply Schedule contracts and the leasing of properties to the government.
In October, Harris Corp., an international communications technology company in Melbourne, Fla., named Gene Cavallucci, LLM ’77, its vice president and general counsel. He has worked with Harris since 1990 and is also its director of business conduct. Prior to joining Harris, he served as vice president-general counsel and secretary for DBA Systems, also in Melbourne. Previously, he was a partner in a Melbourne law firm and served in the U.S. Air Force as a judge advocate.
Richard L. Byrne, JD ’78, (pictured at left) a patent attorney and partner with The Webb Law Firm in Pittsburgh, was ranked with honors and named a “Renaissance Man” of IP law by Chambers USA America’s Leading Lawyers for Business 2004, published by Chambers and Partners Publishing in London. Attorneys are profiled in the guide only if strongly recommended by the market data drawn from more than 7,000 telephone interviews of lawyers and clients across the United States. In its profile of Byrne, the publication said he won the honor for his “ability to combine patent and trademark work with a distinct litigation expertise.”
Duane Morris named Eric R. Breslin, JD ’82, a partner in its Newark, N.J., office. Formerly of Epstein, Becker & Green, Breslin now is a member of Duane Morris’ trial practice group. He focuses on complex commercial litigation and white collar criminal defense. He has tried a variety of criminal and civil matters to verdict in state and federal courts, including work for a utility charged with criminal Clean Air Act violations; serving as co-counsel for a New Jersey-based computer company in a copyright dispute in England; and representing a physician in a criminal tax matter. Breslin served as a clerk in 1982 for former Chief Justice of the New Jersey Supreme Court Robert N. Wilentz.
Jorge Goldstein, JD ’82, managing director at Sterne, Kessler, Goldstein & Fox, was named as one of 15 top intellectual property lawyers in the Washington area by the Legal Times. He has spent more than 20 years practicing biotechnology law and leads his firm’s biotechnology practice. He also is co-chair of its nanotechnology task force. In addition to his degree from the Law School, Goldstein holds a PhD in chemistry from Harvard University.
Focusing on U.S. immigration law, management side labor, and employment law, Philip M. Keating, JD ’84, joined Arlington, Va., firm Bean, Kinney & Korman as a shareholder in July. Keating resides in Arlington.
A member of Cozen O’Connor in Washington, Barry Boss, JD ’85, was a featured speaker at two events focused on criminal law in May. He made a presentation at the 13th Annual National Seminar on the Federal Sentencing Guidelines in Miami Beach, Fla., an event sponsored by The United States Sentencing Commission and the Tampa Bay Chapter of the Federal Bar Association. He also demonstrated how charities and associations can be found liable criminally and civilly for conduct that might not readily appear to be actionable or illegal at a seminar presented by the D.C. Bar Continuing Legal Education Program. Later this year, James Publishing will release a book he co-wrote, Federal Criminal Practice. Boss concentrates his practice on criminal matters, especially white collar crime. He is a former co-chair of the U.S. Sentencing Commission’s Practitioners’ Advisory Group; an adjunct professor for GW Law School; and is a past recipient of the R. Kenneth Mundy Lawyer of the Year Award from the District of Columbia Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers.
Alayne Katz, JD ’85, was appointed acting village of Irvington justice in June 2003 in Irvington, N.Y., and also received the Westchester Women’s Bar Association of New York’s Juvenile Justice Award in May 2002. She is the founder of the Law Office of Alayne Katz in Irvington.
A senior partner with Nagel Rice & Mazie in Livingston, N.J., David A. Mazie, JD ’86, was named a certified civil trial attorney by the New Jersey Supreme Court and also a civil trial specialist by the National Board of Trial Advocacy.
Law & Politics and Philadelphia Magazine named John A. Greenhall, JD ’87, a “2004 Pennsylvania Super Lawyer” in the field of construction law. He is a partner with Cohen, Seglias, Pallas, Greenhall & Furman, a construction, commercial, labor, and employment firm headquartered in Philadelphia. The firm has offices in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware.
In the Washington office of Bracewell & Patterson, Benjamin Israel, JD ’87, became a partner in the firm’s real estate, energy, and finance section in January. He focuses on all facets of electric power development and acquisition of utility and non-utility power generation assets. Israel has led numerous complex domestic and international transactions, including electric power and natural gas deals in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Indonesia, and Israel. Additionally, he has served as lead acquisition counsel related to the acquisition of the Potomac Electric Power Company electric generation assets and the Orange and Rockland Utilities electric generation assets. He previously was with Washington firm Troutman Sanders.
International firm Greenberg Traurig opened a Dallas office with 20 attorneys including Michelle A. Mendez, JD ’87, a shareholder. Mendez also is president-elect of the bankruptcy section of the Dallas Bar Association and a member of the board of directors of the Sammons Center for the Arts in Dallas.
David Hertz, JD ’88, joined Bank Hapoalim as its U.S. general counsel and a director. Bank Hapoalim is a leading financial group and bank in Israel that finances corporate clients through branches in New York and Chicago. Hertz also was named general counsel of Signature Bank, the first Israeli-owned bank to issue public shares on the NASDAQ.
The 2005 South Florida Legal Guide named Peter D. Russin, JD ’88, (pictured at left) one of the area’s top 250 attorneys. He is a founding shareholder of Meland Russin Hellinger & Budwick in Miami. Russin, a resident of Miami Beach, concentrates on bankruptcy and commercial litigation, representing debtors, creditors, creditors’ committees, receivers, and trustees in an array of insolvency proceedings and workouts. He has published several articles on creditors’ rights and has lectured for the Florida Bar Bankruptcy/UCC Committee and the National Business Institute. He also is the past president of the Bankruptcy Bar Association of the Southern District of Florida. The South Florida Legal Guide in 2001 honored him with the “Up & Comers Award.”
A tax partner with Cole, Schotz, Meisel, Forman & Leonard in New Jersey, Jeffrey H. Schechter, JD ’88, in June was named chair of the Administrative Practice Committee of the American Bar Association’s Tax Section. The committee offers educational programs; provides feedback on IRS rulings, notices, and regulations; and often acts as a liaison between the bar and the attorneys in the IRS National Office in Washington on procedural aspects of federal tax practice, including audits, appeals, and collections. Schechter practices taxation and corporate law and regularly represents clients in disputes with the IRS and the New Jersey Division of Taxation.
Don Bell, JD ’90, was appointed general counsel of the National Association of Chain Drug Stores. He represents 33,000 pharmacies across the country. Bell lives in Falls Church, Va., with his wife, Melissa, and three children, Donald, Katie, and Timmy.
Formerly a trial attorney with the Department of the Army before entering private practice several years ago, James S. DelSordo, JD ’90, (pictured at right) now is a member of Halloran & Sage’s Washington government contracts practice. The firm is based in Hartford, Conn. DelSordo is experienced in all aspects of federal procurements, including claims preparation and litigation, bid protests, procurement and fraud, and construction disputes.
Previously with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California’s civil fraud section, Vipal J. Patel, JD ’91, transferred to the Los Angeles-based office’s criminal division in June. Before joining the office in 2000, he was a partner in the Los Angeles office of Hancock Rothert & Bunshoft.
Washington firm White & Case in May named bankruptcy and financial restructuring attorney Sam J. Alberts, JD ’92, (pictured at left) a partner. Alberts has experience in complex business bankruptcies, representing debtors, creditors, trustees, lenders, landlords, and others in all phases of bankruptcy and reorganization. His healthcare experience includes representing the unsecured creditors committee in the Greater Southeast Community Hospital and Doctor Community Hospital Corporation Chapter 11 cases in Washington. He is co-editor of the American Bankruptcy Institute’s Health Care Insolvency Manual. Alberts formerly was a partner with Akin Gump.
Rod Dixon, JD ’92, who has taught cyberlaw as a visiting assistant professor of law at Rutgers University Law School at Camden, published a comprehensive introduction to software licensing in the information age. Open Source Software Law (Artech House) explores the formal and legal aspects of two views of software development and distribution: that software should be offered to users with open access to the source code, and that end-users should be able to modify, copy, or redistribute the software they have legally acquired. It also examines an innovative legal response to the conflict regarding copyright law and digital technology and includes analysis of the legal regime that an increasing number of developers have come to prefer when creating and distributing software online.
The Board of Governors of the Nashville Chapter of the Recording Academy in September elected Doug Howard, JD ’92, its president. Also senior vice president of A&R/Lyric Street Records, Howard has served on the board for two years and also is a member of the academy’s national board of trustees. Howard formerly was vice president and general manager of Polygram Music/Nashville.
Thomas E. Propson, JD ’92, was named one of Minnesota’s “Super Lawyers” for 2004 by a list compiled by three regional magazines and limited to fewer than five percent of attorneys practicing in the state. Propson is a partner with Minneapolis firm Meagher & Greer and focuses on commercial litigation and product liability disputes. He resides in Minneapolis.
After serving as an assistant district attorney for Kings County in Brooklyn, N.Y., for three years, Paul N. Jeon, JD ’93, founded LEGALSOURCE, a full-service legal staffing firm with offices in Washington and New York. Now entering its eighth year of operation, LEGALSOURCE has assisted law firms and corporations in complex litigation matters and large mergers. Jeon can be reached at paul@golegalsource.com.
Pepper Hamilton, a multipractice law firm with 400 lawyers in five states and the District of Columbia, in January elected David Kaplan, JD ’94, (pictured at left) a partner in its employee benefits practice in Philadelphia. He focuses on all areas of executive compensation and employee benefits law.
The Virginia State Bar Council elected Raighne C. Delaney, JD ’95, a member of the Virginia State Bar’s Fourth District Disciplinary Committee. Delaney is a shareholder in the Northern Virginia firm Bean, Kinney & Korman, specializing in civil litigation.
In October, American Lawyer Media selected Katayun I. Jaffari, JD ’95, (pictured at right) of Saul Ewing as one of Pennsylvania’s “2004 Lawyers on the Fast Track.” She was selected based on her work in development of law, advocacy, community contributions, and service to the bar. Jaffari is an attorney in Saul Ewing’s business department and a member of its corporate governance practice, securities transactions, and life sciences practice groups. She practices in the area of business law, concentrating on a broad range of securities law matters and corporate governance issues, including mergers and acquisitions. Jaffari is an adjunct professor, teaching law in society, at Temple University’s Fox School of Business and also is a member of the board of directors and a volunteer attorney for the Support Center for Child Advocates.
In January, Alexis D. Kondé, JD ’96, and Pamela (Sosne) Kondé, JD ’95, welcomed their second child, Joshua, into their family. Their first child, Sophia, turned three years old in October. Alex is an attorney director for NeuStar, and his work focuses on local telephone number portability and other telecommunications numbering resources. Pam is a senior policy analyst with the National League of Cities, and her work focuses on early childhood development, education, welfare reform, and economic development.
Todd Bussert, JD ’97, was named co-chair of the American Bar Association’s corrections and sentencing committee, which is a subcommittee within the criminal justice section, in August. In May, Bussert moved his criminal defense practice to New Haven, Conn., where he resides.
Fiduciary Investment Management International named Jane-Scott Cantus, JD ’97, its senior vice president for business development and client services in October. The Washington firm is a subsidiary of the New York-based company. Cantus previously was an investment adviser for the private wealth management division of Morgan Stanley, helping to establish its Washington office. She serves on the Women’s Leadership Group of the Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Washington and is a sustaining member of the Junior League of Washington.
In New Jersey, Joseph C. Fanaroff, JD ’97, is deputy attorney general in the Department of Law and Public Safety’s Division of Law. He is assigned to the election law section.
A senior associate in the Palo Alto, Calif., office of Dechert, Karineh Khachatourian, JD ’97, was selected by her firm and the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office to participate in the DA’s three-month Volunteer Attorney Program. The 20-year-old program is open primarily to law firm attorneys with at least five years of experience. Participants typically handle four to seven trials during their three-month terms. She works as part of the DA’s misdemeanor trial team to gain first-chair trial experience to complement her private practice work. Khachatourian also serves as a judge pro tem in Santa Clara County Superior Court and regularly devotes a portion of her practice to pro bono matters.
After nearly seven years litigating intellectual property disputes, Colette Vogele, JD ’97, accepted a fellowship position with Stanford Law School’s Center for Internet and Society. There, she litigates cases involving intellectual property, privacy, new technology, and free speech, and works with students in the cyberlaw clinic.
Mark Blacknell, JD ’00, (pictured at left) in June joined Williams Mullen’s Washington office as an associate in the firm’s communications practice. He represents clients before the FCC and other federal agencies, and advises clients on federal and state laws and regulations governing programming, advertising, and operational issues. Blacknell also aids clients in the acquisitions and divestitures of broadcast properties in Europe and Latin America.
An associate in the litigation department of Philadelphia firm Klehr, Harrison, Harvey, Branzburg & Ellers, Paula J. Zimmerman, JD ’00, (pictured at right) in June was elected to the board of directors of Bucks County Planned Parenthood, a nonprofit organization providing reproductive healthcare. Zimmerman focuses on commercial litigation and labor and employment.
David Calabrese, JD ’01, is the vice president for government relations for the Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers in Washington, where he represents the home appliance industry before Congress and federal and state governments. Prior to joining AHAM, Calabrese was an associate with the Washington office of Dewey Ballantine.
On Oct. 4, 2003, Brian Johnston, JD ’01, and Kara Simmons, MPH ’01, JD ’01, were married. Kara is an associate with the Washington office of Prosakuer Rose. Brian is a medical malpractice attorney.
In Chicago in August, Sachnoff & Weaver hired Erica E. Lord, JD ’02, who represents clients in estate planning matters ranging from probate and estate administration to family and charitable foundations to business succession planning. Prior to joining the firm, she was an attorney with Lord Bissell & Brook.
A Leader from the “Land of Enchantment”
Former N.M. Chief Justice Elected President of Alumni Association
“One of my goals is to bring more alumni back to see the campus and witness the amazing steps forward GW Law has taken with technology and facilities.”
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“It doesn’t matter what reason you went to law school, five years out you will be doing something different,” says Joseph F. Baca, JD ’64, LLD ’97.
“I went to law school to become a U.S. Senator from New Mexico,” Baca admits. Instead, he ended up serving as chief justice of the state’s Supreme Court and becoming an integral part of the state’s court system.
Baca, who began a two-year term as president of the board of the GW Law School Alumni Association this fall, reflects fondly on his time at GW Law and in the nation’s capital. “I happened to be in Washington during what I thought were the golden years of 1960 to 1964,” Baca says. “Those were the Kennedy years and Washington was the center of the Western universe.”
An interest in politics led Baca to Washington and GW Law in 1960. He began by attending class at night while working for Sen. Clinton Anderson (D.-N.M.) during the day. Also a member of the Air National Guard, he was pulled from law school for one year during the Berlin Crisis in 1961 to serve at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland. He returned to GW in the day program and graduated in 1964. Baca then returned to New Mexico and spent one year as an assistant district attorney and several years in private practice.
In 1969, Baca was elected to a post that changed his career. Residents of New Mexico had voted to revise the 58-year-old state constitution, and Baca was elected a delegate to the state’s constitutional convention. There he met Bruce King, who became New Mexico’s governor in 1971. In 1972, King appointed Baca a judge in New Mexico’s 2nd Judicial District. He served as a district judge for 17 years before being elected to the New Mexico Supreme Court in 1989.
During his tenure on the Supreme Court, Baca wrote 290 opinions and decisions. “I enjoyed immensely the intellectual challenge of the New Mexico Supreme Court,” he says.
The pinnacle of Baca’s career came in 1994, when he was named chief justice of the New Mexico Supreme Court. He held that position between October 1994 and January 1997.
Baca postponed becoming chief justice for several months and yielded his chief justice title for one month to ill colleagues who were retiring but had never served as chief justice of the state’s highest court. Baca also is credited with leading the restoration efforts of the New Mexico Supreme Court building, which was in need of repair and updating when he arrived in 1989. It was this kind of caring for his colleagues and the court that led an overflow crowd to give Baca a standing ovation at his retirement ceremony in July 2002.
Baca now serves as a private judge in mediation and arbitration cases and frequently speaks to law students. He also serves on the American Bar Association Law School Accreditation Committee and on the board of directors for the State Justice Institute.
As GW Law Alumni Association president, Baca is working to plan programs and activities for alumni, student recruitment, student placement, and strategic planning. Baca believes GW Law has built a strong foundation with alumni and that the school compares favorably to most peer institutions.
These days when Baca visits his alma mater, he barely recognizes the school he attended in the early 1960s. “One of my goals is to bring more alumni back to see the campus and witness the amazing steps forward GW Law has taken with technology and facilities,” he says.
Another of Baca’s priorities is to make a more concerted effort to reach out to and maintain communications with recent GW Law graduates. This issue is close to his heart, not only as an alumnus, but as the father of third-year GW Law student, Anna Marie Baca.
Though he never aspired to sit on the U.S. Supreme Court, Baca’s name was circulated as a potential candidate in the 1990s and during the 2000 presidential campaign. The Hispanic National Bar Association included Baca on a short list of seven U.S. Supreme Court candidates provided to Presidents George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and George W. Bush.
While Baca calls his candidacy unrealistic, he says, “The recognition was a thrill and was icing on the cake at the end of a long career.”
—Matt Lindsay
One for the Defense
Pamela Mackey leaves the court house with NBA basketball star Kobe Bryant in Eagle, Colo., on April 26, 2004.
Photo by AP/WWP, Helen D. Richardson
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It wasn’t until she had attended three different colleges and spent three years as a self-described ski bum that Pamela Mackey, JD ’85, criminal defense attorney and head of the Kobe Bryant legal team, decided she wanted to become a lawyer.
Born in Texas, Mackey grew up the oldest of five children in Indiana and a skilled athlete. When her gymnastic career ended in injury at the University of Minnesota, she tried an equestrian program in Missouri, skiing in Aspen, and finally landed in journalism school at the University of Colorado. “I decided that I needed to find something that would support me,” Mackey says.
A communications law class her last semester of college provided the impetus. “I thought the issues were fascinating,” Mackey says. But she didn’t know any lawyers. A friend, now her husband, then made what turned out to be a life-altering introduction, setting up an interview for Mackey with famed Denver attorney Hal Haddon, whom he knew through Gary Hart’s Senate campaign. When Mackey asked Haddon about being a lawyer and “how to go about becoming one,” he offered her a job as an investigator. She jumped at the chance, and before the year was up she was hooked on criminal law.
Never having been to the East Coast, Mackey decided to head to Washington, D.C., for law school, entering GW in 1982. “I loved GW,” says Mackey, who graduated with high honors and served as managing editor of the The George Washington Law Review. “The school prepared me incredibly well to practice law. It gave me a very practical, down-to-earth, how-to-be-a-lawyer education.” Among her favorite GW memories are criminal law classes with Gerald Caplan and working on the Law Review.
Mackey tried her hand at private practice in Denver after graduating from GW, both with a “white-shoe” firm and with Haddon’s firm. When her trial experience was limited to two DUI cases over the course of four years, she recognized it was time to look elsewhere. “I knew that if I ever really wanted to be a trial lawyer, I had to go someplace where I could try a lot of cases,” Mackey says. The state public defender office seemed an obvious choice. “All of the people I admired, who had been role models for me, had been public defenders.”
So Mackey became a public defender in Colorado’s 5th Judicial District, which included Eagle County—something that gave her all the experience she could hope for. “I learned to work without a net,” she says. “I was out there trying cases all by myself in rural jurisdictions. I learned how to try cases at a very fast pace and high volume with wonderful people, including good prosecutors on the other side.”
But after five years as a public defender, the toll it exacted on Mackey was too high.
“I was doing nothing but the really horrible cases—the homicides, sexual assaults,” Mackey explains. “I got worn down by the tragedy of the cases. It was too sad.”
Mackey rejoined Haddon in what is now Haddon, Morgan, Mueller, Jordan, Mackey & Foreman and continued to build her reputation as a criminal defense attorney, handling felony and misdemeanor cases and representing some high-profile clients along the way. Her most prominent successes included securing the dismissal of domestic violence charges against former Colorado Avalanche goalie Patrick Roy and avoiding any charges against a British skier over another skier’s death at Breckenridge Ski Resort.
It was when she agreed to represent Kobe Bryant last year that Mackey catapulted from a respected, well-known attorney in legal circles to a household name. She says that while she had no hesitation in accepting the NBA star’s case, the intense public and media scrutiny “affected us every day.” It also affected the way the case was tried. “There were numerous court-imposed obligations, including filing certain pleadings under seal and holding the majority of the hearings in camera, that altered the case, more so than any other sexual assault case I had ever worked on,” Mackey says.
But she stresses that the high profile of the case didn’t influence the way or degree that she and Haddon advocated for Bryant. “Did the fact that the media was watching us affect what we did for our client? No,” she says. And what they did for their client was a lot. Criminal charges against Bryant, who faced life in prison, were dismissed in September after a series of legal victories by the defense.
Mackey, who continues to represent Bryant in the pending civil suit, says it’s too soon to assess the case’s impact on her practice. The flood of requests for representation she’s received includes a large number of requests for post-conviction representation. “I’ve probably received 150 letters from inmates,” says Mackey. “I receive four or five calls a day, many from people who read the newspaper and think that I can save them.” With her track record, it’s hard to entirely blame them.
—Rachel Muir
A Day at the (Pebble) Beach
It’s one of those job titles that make you outwardly exclaim in interest and inwardly roll your eyes with jealousy. The words “general counsel and executive vice president for real estate of Pebble Beach Company” call to mind business lunches with pro golfers and taking off early from the boredom of the boardroom to sneak in a few holes before sunset. But while Mark Stilwell, JD ’81, enjoys the perks of his job, he works hard to earn them.
“There is no ‘normal day’ at Pebble Beach,” Stilwell says of the company which owns and oversees the world-famous Pebble Beach Resorts on California’s Monterey Peninsula. “It’s a unique place to do work in that it is a private, gated community run by a company. I deal with public, private, and corporate interests every day. Between our residents, local government, and employees, there are a lot of people to try to keep happy.”
On a typically non-typical day in October, Stilwell arrived at his office at 6:30 a.m. to finish a brief and prepare for a meeting with the California Coastal Commission about some improvements to Pebble Beach Golf Links, a recurring site for the U.S. Open National Golf Championship. After lunch at his desk, he answered e-mails about human resources matters, and took calls from Pebble Beach residents who are interested in a public/private partnership to finance a wastewater reclamation project to provide recycled water to irrigate all Pebble Beach area golf courses. In the afternoon, he met with the company’s riding and trails manager about a new equestrian trail project. At the end of the day, he looked into the legal issues raised by a resident who had cut down trees on his property without obtaining the proper authorizations.
Stilwell oversees real estate planning and development; legal affairs; government, community, and media relations; and environmental compliance for the 1,800-employee company.
“I work with an alphabet soup list of agencies and numerous local residents and groups to listen to and meet their needs and requirements. I am constantly reviewing policies and practices to adapt and strengthen the way we do business,” Stilwell says. “I like to think of my job like a game of chess; I’m always trying to think a few moves ahead.”
The road to Pebble Beach began during Stillwell’s senior year at Yale, when a class in constitutional law taught by a visiting federal judge was the catalyst for his interest in the law. Wanting to learn the law in the heart of D.C., Stilwell came to GW in the early ’80s and found his niche.
“I enjoyed my time at the Law School, especially my constitutional law class with Professor Jerry Barron,” Stilwell says.
After graduation, Stilwell clerked for U.S. Federal District Judge Oliver Gasch in Washington, where he worked on two prominent trials, one a libel suit against The Washington Post by the president of Mobil Oil, the other a tort case against the National Rifle Association brought by the family of someone murdered with a gun stolen from the NRA’s offices. He later joined the D.C. offices of Morrison and Forester, where he represented the state of Alaska on a crude oil pipeline rate-making case involving most of the major oil companies.
Following a move to the San Francisco home of Morrison and Forester in 1984, Stilwell began to practice real estate law, but he eventually left law firm practice to lead the development effort for a northern California coastal resort known as the Costanoa Lodge. In the early ’90s, a business audit of Pebble Beach led to the recommendation that the company hire a general counsel. Stilwell, who by then had joined a local Monterey law firm that represented Pebble Beach, was tapped for the job.
Now, he does enjoy the benefits of life and work on the West Coast.
“Pebble Beach is a beautiful place in which to live and work,” Stilwell says. “Our mission is to ‘exceed the expectations of every guest, by providing a once in a lifetime experience, every time.’ It takes a lot of hard work to live up to that mission, but after 12 years here, I certainly think we do.
“I don’t get to play much golf, about once a month or so. And when I do, it’s usually on one of the other local courses, because ours are so busy. But I do enjoy the scenery and working with people who are passionate about what they do and who take great pride in the company.”
Stilwell and his wife, Susan, have two sons and one daughter who enjoy sports—including golf—and other outdoor activities. Their most recent family vacation was a whitewater rafting excursion in Northern California.
In his spare time, Stilwell serves on the board of Pebble Beach Company’s Charitable Foundation and coaches his children’s sports teams. He previously was on the boards of the Monterey Institute of International Studies and the Hospice Foundation.
And while his daily life at Pebble Beach may not exactly fit the fantasy other people have of the job, Stilwell says he is lucky to work hard for a great company.
“I have busy days, but they’re good days,” Stilwell says. “And when some of your work involves enjoying the outdoors and occasionally working with Clint Eastwood, Dick Ferris [former CEO of United Airlines], Arnold Palmer, and Peter Ueberroth, you can’t complain.”
—Laura Ewald
The Senator from Nevada
When the dust from the November elections settled, Harry Reid (D-Nev.), JD ’64, emerged not only as the victor of his re-election campaign but also as the Senate Democratic leader-elect.
The road to Washington for Reid began in Searchlight, Nev. Impressed by the hard work and intellect of the hard-rock miner’s son, some area businessmen supported Reid during his undergraduate career at Utah State University. After graduation, Reid moved with his wife and young family to Washington to pursue a degree from GW Law while he worked nights as a U.S. Capitol police officer.
Reid’s public service career includes acting as Nevada’s youngest lieutenant governor, the chairman of the Nevada Gaming Commission, and two terms in the U.S. House of Representatives, where he introduced the Taxpayer Bill of Rights. He is now in his fourth term in the Senate, acting as Whip.
Those who knew him in his Law School days are not surprised that Reid’s career has always focused on politics in action.
“He was well-liked and was a very serious and thoughtful student of the law. Harry had many friends in his class, and even then, he showed careful attention to the political process. His classmates are proud of his accomplishments,” says Carlos F. Lucero, JD ’64, a judge on the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals.
In Memoriam
1950
Richard Cornwell, JD ’50
June 23, 2004
Cape Coral, Fla.
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