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’50s | ’60s | ’70s | ’80s | ’90s | ’00s | Leading Litigation at Coca-Cola | A Supreme Accomplishment | In Memoriam | And What About You?

Philip H. DeTurk, BA ’54, JD ’56, received a certificate from the state of Washington honoring his 50 years of practice. DeTurk now is a mediator for the North Carolina Superior Courts and an arbitrator for NASD.

James C. Cacheris, JD ’60, was appointed chief judge of the U.S. Alien Terrorist Removal Court by Chief Justice of the United States John G. Roberts Jr.

In August of 2005, William L. Nixon, JD ’62, was sworn in as an immigration judge of the U.S. District Court for the District of Utah. Nixon previously was an assistant U.S. attorney in Salt Lake City and was chairman and CEO of Pro Wedge from 1996 to 1999.

A retired federal government lawyer and now an instructor at American University Washington College of Law and the University of Hull in England, Gary J. Edles, LLM ’66, SJD ’75, is co-author of the second edition of An Interpretive Guide to the Government in the Sunshine Act (ABA, 2006), a comprehensive treatment of the statute.

A New Hampshire resident, Albert P.C. Lefebvre, JD ’67, is the author of Call It Again (Elderberry Press, 2005), a novel about the CIA in French Indochina during the Vietnam War. Having served in the Air Force and Armed Forces Intelligence and Security Services from 1951 to 1954, Lefebvre accepted a position with the Central Intelligence Agency in 1955. He is working on another novel.

Harold Rosen, BBA ’64, JD ’67, LLM ’73, was reelected to a third three-year term as a member of the Board of Direction and as general counsel of the Society of American Military Engineers. The society is a 501(c)(3) and 20,000 member organization created after World War I to facilitate engineering support for the U.S. military and national security. Rosen also is in private practice in Potomac, Md.

As founder and CEO of SWR Corp., a specialty industrial chemical company, and CEO of Rentrak Corp., which provides business intelligence for the media and entertainment industries, Paul Rosenbaum, JD ’67, continues to expand and acquire new companies and opportunities. Recently, Rosenbaum launched Rentrack Theatrical, an authority in tracking theatrical box office ticket sales across the United States, Canada, and around the world. Rosenbaum and his wife, Maureen, have
two children and two grandchildren. He can be reached at exitpoll@aol.com.

Nicholas S. McConnell, JD ’72, was named Lawyer of the Year by the D.C. Defense Lawyers Association in September. He also has been recognized by Washingtonian magazine as one of the leading hospital and professional liability defense attorneys in the Washington region. With more than 30 years of experience, McConnell is chair of the health law practice group and director in the business law and general litigation practice groups at Jackson & Campbell. McConnell also is past president of the Bar Association of the District of Columbia.

The American Jewish Committee in March honored David Berz, BA ’70, JD ’73, with the Judge Learned Hand Award for his outstanding work and achievement within the principles of the legal profession and community. Berz is a lawyer with Weil, Gotshal & Manges in Washington.

The Virginia State Bar named William L. Botts III, JD ’73, Legal Aid Lawyer of the Year in June of 2005. A legal aid attorney for more than 30 years, Botts is the executive director of Rappahannock Legal Services. Botts has served the nonprofit organization, based in Fredericksburg, Va., since 1979. RLS receives some state and federal grants and provides free civil legal assistance to low-income families.

Norman L. Eule, JD ’74, joined Garson Claxton as leader of the tax department for the Bethesda, Md., firm in April of 2005. Eule has more than 30 years of experience within the field and has previously taught as an adjunct professor at American University and GW Law Schools. He previously was a partner at Ridberg, Press & Sherbill and, prior to that, with Reed Smith. Eule has published numerous tax and compensation articles in trade and professional publications.

Husch & Eppenberger construction attorney Susan L. McGreevy, JD ’74, was named among the “Best of the Bar” by the Kansas City Business Journal. She is the only construction attorney to be selected every year since the award began. McGreevy also is listed in the 2003-2004, 2005-2006, and 2006 editions of Best Lawyers in America. McGreevy is chair of the firm’s construction law practice group, and focuses on advising construction companies, sureties, design professionals, and owners in day-to-day business ventures.

The Clackamas County Juvenile Department awarded Warren Oster, JD ’74, the 2005 Award for Excellence from the Oregon Mediation Association, of which he is a founding member. Oster has worked at the CCJD since 1976 and is the Victim Offender Mediation Program coordinator, a program he created 10 years ago. Oster has helped establish several community service work projects including the CCJD’s Project Payback, which allows young offenders the opportunity to earn money to pay back their victims. He previously was recognized by the OMA for his contributions in the area of mediation, in addition to his work in juvenile law and restorative justice.

Lynne B. Barr, BA ’72, JD ’75, received the Jean Allard Glass Cutter Award for her work and commitment as a financial services lawyer. Each year the award is presented to an outstanding female business lawyer on behalf of the American Bar Association’s Business Law Section. Barr is a partner with Goodwin Procter in Boston in the firm’s financial services group, and also is chair of its consumer financial services practice.

As of March, Steven M. Goldman, JD ’76, is the commissioner of the Department of Banking and Insurance for the state of New Jersey. The department is responsible for regulating the banking, insurance, and real estate industries in the state. He was named to the post by Gov. Jon S. Corzine and unanimously approved by the state Senate Judiciary Committee. Previously, Goldman was a senior member and 22-year veteran of Sills Cummis Epstein & Gross, where he focused on corporate law.

In March, Debra Jacobson, JD ’77, received a Montgomery’s Best Honor Award for her work on a regional wind energy purchase for Montgomery County, Md. The award recognized Jacobson’s contribution in providing legal and policy support to Montgomery’s Department of Environmental Protection prior to the purchase. In addition, Jacobson was honored by the Women’s Council on Energy and the Environment for her role as a founding member of the board of directors for the organization. She was selected by the American Wind Energy Association to give a presentation at the annual WINDPOWER Conference this summer. Jacobson is a professorial lecturer at GW Law.

Ira G. Megdal, LLM ’77, was elected to serve on the Virtua Health Foundation board of trustees. As a member of the board, Megdal will help govern the foundation in its charitable work. Megdal is a member of Cozen O’Connor in Cherry Hill, N.J., where he is co-chair of the energy, environmental, and public utility practice group. He concentrates on commercial litigation, especially matters related to public utilities and shareholder disputes. In addition, Megdal is an active member of the executive committee of the Boy Scouts of America, Southern New Jersey Council, and is a member of the Energy Bar Association and the Transportation Lawyers Association. He is past chairman of the public utility law section of the New Jersey State Bar Association and also was appointed to the board of directors of the Chamber of Commerce for Southern New Jersey in 2003.

Selected by his peers, Nicholas J. Seay, JD ’77, was named among the Best Lawyers in America 2006 published by Woodward/White. Seay is an intellectual property law attorney with Quarles & Brady in Madison, Wis.

Willow Grove Bancorp and its subsidiary, Willow Grove Bank, elected Rosemary Cody (Schaffer) Loring, JD ’78, as chairman of the board. The publicly-traded bank has assets of $1.5 billion and serves Chester, Bucks, Montgomery, and Philadelphia counties in Pennsylvania through a network of 27 branches. She has served as an independent director since 2000, and vice chairman since 2004.

Paulette Wolfson, JD ’78, now is a senior attorney, special council for air quality, for the City of Houston Legal Department. She has practiced environmental law since graduating from GW Law.

Best Lawyers in America included Michael J. Jordan, JD ’79, in its 2006 edition. Jordan is a partner of the Cleveland firm Walter & Haverfield and director of its health care litigation practice. In addition, he is chair of the labor and employment practice group of the American Health Lawyers Association.

Andru Volinsky, JD ’80, was awarded the highest rating of Martindale-Hubbell, a leading client development company. The AV rating “identifies a lawyer with very high to preeminent legal ability.” As a lawyer with Bernstein Shur in Manchester, N.H., Volinsky focuses on employment law, commercial disputes, and other issues of white-collar crime. Volinsky also was included in the 2005 edition of The Best Lawyers in America.

In Birmingham, Ala., Craig A. Alexander, JD ’81, joined Rumberger, Kirk & Caldwell as a partner. With 25 years of experience, Alexander has practiced civil litigation in Birmingham since 1982, focusing on commercial litigation, product liability, and employment litigation. In the past, he served as an adjunct professor at Cumberland School of Law and has worked with the Volunteer Lawyers Program of the Birmingham Bar Association since 1994.

Executive Vice President and General Counsel of MCI Anastasia Kelly, JD ’81, was honored in September for her work at Appleseed, a legal advocacy and social justice nonprofit organization.

Bradford J. Duft, LLM ’83, joined Duane Morris in San Diego. Duft concentrates on intellectual property law and litigation, specializing in the biotech and life sciences. Duft previously led the intellectual property practice of Brobeck, Phleger & Harrison. Prior to that, he served for eight years as senior vice president and general counsel of Amylin Pharmaceuticals, a development-stage pharmaceutical company. He has taught patent law for several years as an adjunct professor at the University of Southern California Law School. Before entering private practice, Duft clerked for Giles S. Rich of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.

The American College of Trial Lawyers invited J. Elise Tourek, JD ’83, as a fellow in October. Tourek is an assistant counsel in the office of chief counsel for the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation. Tourek formerly was a deputy attorney general with the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s Office for 20 years.

Norman L. Pernick, JD ’84, was included in the 2006 edition of The Best Lawyers in America. Pernick practices with the Wilmington, Del., office of Saul Ewing, concentrating on bankruptcy and creditor-debtor rights law.

Managing shareholder of the Miami office of Ogletree, Deakins, Nash, Smoak & Stewart, David Michael DeMaio, JD ’85, was included in the 2006 edition of The Best Lawyers in America. He previously was named one of Florida’s “Legal Elite” by Florida Trend and “Best of the Bar” by the South Florida Business Journal. He lives in the Fort Lauderdale area with his wife, Marina, and their children, 16-year-old Robert and 12-year-old Alexandra. He has lived in South Florida since joining the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Miami in 1986.

The University of Colorado appointed Hank Brown, LLM ’86, its 21st president in June 2005. Brown previously was president and CEO of the Daniels Fund and, prior to that, was the 11th president of the University of Northern Colorado. He served the state in the U.S. Senate and also served five consecutive terms in the U.S. House representing Colorado’s 4th Congressional District. Brown and his wife, Nan, live in Denver and have three children and two grandchildren.

How Time Flies Edward V. Cassidy Jr., LLM ’85, poses in photographs taken by his wife, Pam, with his children, Keith and Kelly, in May of 1985, upon his graduation, and in May of 2005, when Keith and Kelly received their Juris Doctorates from GW Law. Edward is an appellate attorney with the Veterans Administration, Keith is a legislative assistant for Sen. George Allen (R.-Va.), and Kelly is with Fairfax, Va., litigation firm Rees, Broome & Diaz.

Sheila Kearney Davidson, JD ’86, was elected executive vice president in charge of law and corporate administration at New York Life Insurance. Davidson joined New York Life in the office of the general counsel in 1991. She was appointed head of the corporate compliance department in 1997. She was appointed general counsel in 2000 and in 2004 was elected senior vice president and general counsel. She also is a member of the company’s executive management committee.

In May of 2005, David A. Mazie, JD ’86, was voted the top lawyer in New Jersey by his peers in New Jersey Monthly Magazine. A certified civil trial attorney, Mazie is a senior partner at Nagel Rice & Mazie in Roseland, N.J. In January of 2005, he obtained a $135 million jury verdict against Aramark Corp., the largest liquor liability verdict in U.S. history, as well as the largest personal injury verdict in the state’s history.

Bruce G. Chapman, JD ’87, joined the Los Angeles office of Connolly Bove Lodge & Hutz in April as a partner. Formerly a partner with Lyon & Lyon, Chapman focuses on intellectual property, specifically patent litigation. He is admitted to the California, District of Columbia, and Pennsylvania Bars, and also is registered to practice before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

In April, John A. Greenhall, JD ’87, was named a 2006 New Jersey Super Lawyer in the field of construction law by Law & Politics. He is managing partner of Cohen, Seglias, Pallas, Greenhall & Furman, with offices in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Delaware. Greenhall frequently writes and lectures on construction law topics. Most recently, he was a co-contributing writer of the Contractor’s State License Bonds Desk Reference, which addresses licensing and bond requirements in each state.

Luis R. Mejia, JD ’87, was named chief litigation counsel to supervise the Securities and Exchange Commission Enforcement Division’s nationwide litigation program in October. Since joining the commission in 1999, Mejia has been involved in many high profile investigations. He served as lead litigation counsel in the commission’s Enron investigation.

The Syracuse, N.Y., firm Bond, Schoeneck & King welcomed Camille (Wolnik) Hill, JD ’88, as a partner. Hill is a business attorney, concentrating in areas of creditors’ rights, bankruptcy, and workouts.

The Naples, Fla., office of Quarles & Brady named Andrew G. Tretter, JD ’88, a partner in April. A former assistant district attorney in the office of the New York County District Attorney, Tretter now practices in areas of complex commercial litigation, construction litigation, and white collar criminal defense.

Fish & Richardson added Cathy L. Reese, JD ’89, to its Wilmington, Del., office as a principal in April. She heads the firm’s corporate and chancery litigation practice and focuses on fiduciary duty litigation, corporate governance disputes, and corporate technology litigation in the Delaware Court of Chancery. Previously, Reese formed and headed the litigation practice at Greenberg Traurig’s Wilmington office. She also was named as a leading lawyer in Delaware chancery and commercial litigation by Chambers USA America’s Leading Lawyers in the 2004 and 2005 editions.

A partner in the Roseland, N.J., office of Greenbaum, Rowe, Smith & Davis, Marc J. Gross, BA ’88, JD ’91, was named among “Forty Under 40” by NJBIZ magazine. Gross is a member of the firm’s litigation department, concentrating on business counseling and trial practice in state and federal courts, representing corporate, partnership, banking, and individual clients. Gross serves as president and founding member of the North Jersey Business Council, a non-profit organization that assists professionals, entrepreneurs, and chief executives in building business relationships. He also is vice president of the Essex County Bar Association.

Washingtonian magazine recognized John B. Mesirow, JD ’91, as a top personal injury lawyer in the area.

Dana C. Nifosi, JD ’91, was promoted to partner of Venable in its Tysons Corner, Va., office. Nifosi counsels public and private entities on environmental, transportation, and land use matters and practices. She also has civil and criminal litigation experience involving environmental, land use, and project finance issues relating to transportation infrastructure development.

Previously serving as legislative counsel in the Executive Office for U.S. Attorneys at the Department of Justice, Greg Brower, JD ’92, was appointed inspector general for the U.S. Government Printing Office. He formerly was a shareholder with Jones Vargas in Las Vegas.

Luce Forward elected Eli Mansour, JD ’92, a partner in December of 2005. He is based in the Carmel Valley/Del Mar office in California. Mansour is the founder of the firm’s aviation practice area and concentrates on all aspects of intellectual property law with an emphasis on development, protection, and licensing of technology and intellectual property. His aviation-related work includes advising certificated carriers and commercial operators; corporate flight departments and individuals seeking to acquire, lease, or share in the use of aircraft; as well aviation management companies, charter companies, and fractional ownership programs.

Brooks R. Amiot, JD ’93, was promoted to partner in the Baltimore office of DLA Piper Rudnick Gray Cary. Amiot, who joined the firm in 2000, focuses on labor law, including union avoidance issues and labor arbitrations. He also counsels companies with respect to all employment-related decisions and regularly defends them in litigation matters, from discovery to trial to appeal. He and his wife, Susan, reside in Owings Mills, Md., with their three sons.

In June, R. Scott Beach, JD ’93, won the Fairfield County, Connecticut, “40 Under 40” competition, which was organized by the Fairfield County Business Journal in partnership with several area businesses and organizations. Beach is a partner with Day, Berry & Howard’s business law department and chair’s the firm’s emerging companies and venture finance practice. He also is a member of the firm’s diversity and sensitivity committee and its opinions committee.

Stroock & Stroock & Lavan named Jonathan Z. Kurry, JD ’93, a partner in its Miami office. Kurry assists his clients in the acquisition, financing, development, leasing, and disposition of real estate located nationwide and in the Caribbean. Kurry concentrates on the representation of institutional investors, pension fund advisers and developers, and banks and institutional lenders. He has been engaged to deal with a wide range of real estate projects, including structuring complex joint-ventures, in connection with multi-family, office, shopping center, industrial, and resort properties.

Michael G. Milstein, JD ’93, B’Accy ’90, joined Foster Graham Milstein & Calisher as a partner. He has practiced law in Denver since 1994.

Littler Mendelson added Alan I. Model, JD ’93, to its Newark, N.J., office as shareholder in March. Model advises employers nationwide in all aspects of employment law and labor relations. He regularly writes on labor and employment law issues and speaks on hiring/firing, sexual harassment, pro-employee relations, and topics pertaining to construction labor law.

Robin Teskin, JD ’94, was named a partner in the intellectual property practice group of Duane Morris in Washington. Teskin, who has prosecuted more than 1,000 patents in the United States and around the world, has counseled clients in biotechnology and pharmaceuticals for 20 years.

Jones Day named Marc S. Blackman, JD ’96, a partner in its Chicago office in January. Blackman practices intellectual property law, including patent, trademark, copyright, trade secret, and unfair competition litigation.

Alan M. Freeman, JD ’96, was appointed to the board of directors of the Hebrew Home of Greater Washington and also serves on the board of directors for Ring House and Landow House, two of the organization’s assisted and independent living communities for the elderly. Freeman is a partner in Blank Rome’s commercial litigation and maritime practice groups and focuses his practice on civil and commercial litigation in federal and state courts. He is involved in a number of other professional and civic organizations and resides in Potomac, Md., with his wife and two sons.

Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal named Alexander J. Hadjis, LLM ’96, a partner in its Washington office. He serves as national chair of the firm’s patent litigation practice. Hadjis focuses on complex patent litigation, having previously served as lead counsel in several cases before the United States International Trade Commission.

Steven Khadavi, JD ’96, joined Dorsey & Whitney’s New York office as a partner in the corporate group, specializing in capital markets transactions.

Fulbright & Jaworski announced the addition of Seth H. Lundy, JD ’96, as a partner in the Washington office in January. Previously a senior associate with the firm, Lundy specializes in the federal regulation of health care providers and suppliers.

Reed Smith in San Francisco welcomed Jesse L. Miller, MA ’96, JD ’96, to the firm in June of 2005. In addition to serving as an of counsel attorney in the firm’s environmental group, Miller is a field grade officer in the California Army National Guard. Miller formerly was with Seyfarth Shaw.

Randall K. Miller, JD ’96, was elected a partner of Arnold & Porter in January. Miller has a complex commercial litigation and trial practice. He lives in Arlington, Va., with his wife, Dolores Lyons, JD ’96, and their two children.

The Washington-based firm Venable named Jeanne L. Newlon, JD ’96, a partner. Newlon concentrates on tax and wealth planning. She advises clients to ensure the proper disposition of assets while employing tax planning techniques such as the use of irrevocable and revocable trusts, life insurance planning, lifetime gifts, and charitable trusts to minimize estate and gift tax liability. Newlon also has experience in the administration of decedents’ estates.

Yale Law School selected Todd Bussert, JD ’97, as a co-visiting lecturer for the spring semester of 2006. Bussert, a criminal defense attorney, is supervising criminal defense clinic students.

Christy Fast Kane, JD ’97, and her husband, Sean, are the proud parents of their first child, Katherine Ellen Kane, born Nov. 29, 2004. Kane is a partner with Adams and Reese in New Orleans, where she specializes in corporate defense work, specifically class actions and complex litigation.

A partner with Gordon & Rees in its intellectual property group in San Francisco, Karineh Khachatourian, JD ’97, specializes in trade secret litigation serving clients in the high tech industry.

The Florida Coastal School of Law Journal published an article by Michael Vincent Laurato, JD ’97, in its spring 2004 issue. He is a shareholder with the firm of Jaramillo, Austin, Laurato, & Freeman, where he practices in the areas of plaintiff personal injury, wrongful death, and first party insurance litigation. He has offices in Fort Meyers, Tampa, and Orlando.

Reetu Dandora, JD ’98, was elected a partner at Reed Smith in Philadelphia and has been with the firm since 1998.

Lowndes, Drosdick, Doster, Kantor & Reed announced the promotion of Rachel D. Gebaide, JD ’98, as a partner. Gebaide focuses on commercial litigation, general litigation, and labor and unemployment law. She also is active with the Jewish Federation of Greater Orlando and is a member of the board of directors for A Gift for Teaching.

In January, Cleveland firm Baker & Hostetler named Janis M. Penman, JD ’98, a partner. Penman is a member of the business group and focuses her practice in general corporate and federal securities law.

Russell H. Stern, JD ’98, was named partner in the corporate and securities practice group at Certilman Balin Adler & Hyman. Stern also provides general counsel to several businesses and corporations in addition to serving as a mentor in the Lawyers Involved in Kids’ Education program, an affiliate of the Long Island Mentoring Partnership.

Washington firm Sterne, Kessler, Goldstein & Fox added Kevin W. McCabe, JD ’99, as an associate in its biotechnology/chemical group in April. McCabe has litigation experience in the areas of biology, chemistry, and pharmaceuticals. McCabe is registered to practice in Virginia, the District of Columbia, and before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

In Philadelphia, Alan Nochumson, JD ’99, of Nochumson P.C. and Bear Abstract Services, was named chair-elect of the Young Lawyers’ Division of the Philadelphia Bar Association. He represents 3,500 young lawyers within the area. Nochumson focuses in real estate, litigation, labor and employment, and land use and zoning.

Gregory H. Revera, JD ’99, is a partner in the Huntsville, Ala., office of Bradley Arant Rose & White. He is a member of the firm’s Litigation Practice Group, specializing in medical malpractice, product liability, drug and medical device litigation. Revera is a patent attorney, focusing on patent prosecution in the fields of biomedical devices and biotechnology.

Previously associate counsel with MicroStrategy, a software company in McLean, Va., Daria Williams, JD ’99, joined MCI in Washington as technology transactions counsel in the technology and network law group.

Heather (Fish) Daglieri, JD ’00, married Steven A. Daglieri in October. She is an attorney with the state of Rhode Island and her husband is in law enforcement. Cheryl (Demma) Hale, JD ’00, was a bridesmaid.

Beat of a Different Drum: The Untold Stories of African Americans Forging Their Own Paths in Work and Life (Hyperion, 2006), by Dax-Devlon Ross, JD ’01, is a compilation of 30 interviews with those who have made careers “outside of the boundaries that seemed so stringently set for blacks living in America.” Ross is an English teacher in New York.

Carl E. Miller III, JD ’04, is a full-time assistant professor of philosophy at Fort Hays State University in Hays, Kan. Miller has prior teaching experience at the University of South Carolina, University of Georgia, and GW.

Armstrong Teasdale named Rebecca T. Balint, JD ’05, a member of the business and services department in its Las Vegas office.

Parsons Behle & Latimer welcomed Stefan P. Brutsch, JD ’05, to the Salt Lake City law firm in October of 2005. Brutsch is a member of the litigation department and concentrates his practice on commercial litigation.

Snell & Wilmer welcomed Ehab M. Samuel, MS ’05, LLM ’05, to the Orange County, Calif., firm in February. Samuel extends his practice over a broad spectrum of technologies, including biotechnology, chemical processing, and construction equipment. In 2005 he was winner of the Federal Circuit Bar Association’s George Hutchinson Writing Competition.

The intellectual property law firm Sterne, Kessler, Goldstein & Fox welcomed Christopher J. Walsh, JD ’05, as an associate in the biotechnology/chemical group.

Leading Litigation at Coca-Cola

John Lewis Jr., JD ’90, talks with ease about various facets of The Coca-Cola Co. In one moment, he speaks about a derivative case that’s wrapping up in his litigation group. In the next, he extols the timeless design of Coke’s “contour bottle” and narrates stories from the company’s long history.

Lewis is senior managing counsel and head of the team of attorneys, paralegals, and staff of Coca-Cola’s global litigation function within the company’s larger Corporate Legal Center in Atlanta. He is one of almost 40,000 employees of the massive global corporation, yet Lewis says he feels very connected to the company.

“As in-house counsel, we have the opportunity to help guide senior management and to really learn about the company and the business,” he says.

Litigation at one of the world’s most successful companies these days includes managing securities litigation, Sarbanes-Oxley issues, contract disputes, and shareholder derivative actions (“sign of the times,” Lewis says). He summarizes one of his group’s main duties as “keeping the general counsel and other constituencies within the company in the know on emerging disputes.”

“You work really hard and dedicate yourself, but thankfully, we don’t have the pressure to bill hours,” Lewis says. This translates into Coca-Cola’s attorneys and other employees practicing better time management, delving deeper into the business implications of legal issues, and making sure there’s room for the most important things in life—family and community.

“It was a life change to come to Coca-Cola from a private practice,” he explains. “My younger daughter would tell people, ‘My daddy used to be a lawyer, but now he works at Coca-Cola.’ ” Lewis married his wife, Patrice, during his last year of law school. They have two daughters: Taylor, 10, and Sydney, 8.

Lewis says he appreciates Coca-Cola’s strong view of corporate citizenship and is impressed with its dedication to environmental issues, namely water purity. “Around the world, some of the highest water quality and resource management standards are in places where Coke is present,” Lewis says.

Lewis is active in his community as well. He serves on the City of Atlanta’s Board of Ethics, The Coca-Cola Co. Family Federal Credit Union Board, and is Coca-Cola’s Legal Division appointed representative to the company’s Corporate Diversity Advisory Council. For three years, he was the chair of the Commercial Law Section of the National Bar Association. He also participates in tutoring and mentoring programs for children in Atlanta. And he has been an integral part of the Coca-Cola Summer Law Intern Program.

Lewis is a Houston native who received a scholarship to study economics at Morehouse College. The Alpha Phi Alpha member graduated in 1987 and enrolled the following fall at GW Law School.
“I always knew I wanted to be a lawyer,” Lewis says. “My dad always drilled into us the importance of public speaking and developing higher-level thinking skills.”

Lewis says he found his GW Law studies rigorous. He particularly enjoyed his civil procedure class with Professor Roger Trangsrud, and he thinks Professor Mary Cheh is “one of the smartest” attorneys he has encountered to date.

During the summer after his first year, Lewis took advantage of the Washington location and took a job with the Department of Justice Antitrust Division’s appellate section. “There are a myriad of possibilities for legal training in Washington that you just can’t find anywhere else,” Lewis says.

His senior paper for Professor Luize Zubrow was particularly memorable as it challenged him, helped hone critical writing skills, and kindled an interest in UCC/creditors rights work that resulted in more than 10 years of private practice in bankruptcy and commercial law.

Socially, GW Law was special for Lewis as he says it was the first time he had experience with diverse students and their cultures—insight and appreciation he uses regularly working for the global beverage powerhouse.

Lewis holds fond memories of being a member and chair of GW Law’s Black Law Students Association, where he met fellow alums such as Natalie O. Ludaway, JD ’86. He also recalls support from many black alumni such as Willie Leftwich, JD ’67, LLM ’71; Jeanette Michael, JD, ’75; and Rob Cooper, JD ’87; among others, who regularly visited and made themselves available as resources to GW BLSA members.

After graduating from GW Law, Lewis spent several years in private practice in Washington, Kansas City, and Atlanta until he joined Coca-Cola in 2002.

In his years as an attorney, Lewis has seen enlarged opportunities in the profession for members of minority groups. Lewis is passionate about making sure his profession is representative of the diversity of people in this country.

The Coca-Cola Summer Law Intern Program, which Lewis has headed for the past two years, is one way to help accomplish this goal, as it principally targets diverse law school candidates for summer internships in Coke’s legal division. Lewis credits Coca-Cola for its commitment to inclusion and for allowing him to dedicate time to promoting such initiatives.

“I love my work and the great group of diverse people here,” Lewis says. “I like where I’ve landed.”

—Claire Duggan

A Supreme Accomplishment

True-life David versus Goliath stories don’t happen every day. That’s what makes the memoir of Washington attorney Neil Thomas Proto, MA ’69, JD ’72, so compelling. To A High Court (Hamilton Books, 2006) takes readers 30 years back in time to Proto’s GW Law days, when he and four determined classmates took on the federal government and the nation’s railroads and won.

Neil Proto, JD ’72, author of To A High Court (Hamilton Books, 2006), a first-hand account of how he and four GW Law classmates challenged the nation’s railroads and the Interstate Commerce Commission to get them to comply with freight rate applications of the National Environmental Policy Act.

A partner at Schnader Harrison Segal & Lewis, Proto chronicles the riveting tale of the United States of America v. Students Challenging Regulatory Agency Procedures (SCRAP), offering first hand accounts of the environmental and industrial roadblocks SCRAP encountered over the course of the two-year battle, as well as personal recollections of his GW days. “It all began in the fall of 1971 with a clinical law project in John Banzhaf’s Unfair Trade Practices course,” Proto says. “I was intent on taking Professor Banzhaf’s class because he gave students the opportunity to do real-world, practical projects in place of a final test. I couldn’t get that experience early enough.”

Proto recruited four classmates for the venture and, together, they created SCRAP, dedicated to making the nation’s railroads and the Interstate Commerce Commission comply with the new National Environmental Policy Act and its application to freight rates. As chair of SCRAP, Proto led the students against the behemoths to petition for compliance with the law and a billion dollar refund.

“Our case was the first time that the National Environmental Policy Act was tested and resulted in the first United States Supreme Court decision to consider the act [in June 1973],” says Proto, whose group comprised George Biondi, JD ’73, John Larouche, JD ’73, Peter Resslar, JD ’72, and Kenneth Perlman, JD ’72. “The project allowed us to make connections between the law and the purpose the law is supposed to serve. The enormity of the harm the railroads were doing was not only to the environment but to the culture. Ralph Nader was enjoying his heyday at the time, and our project fit right into that atmosphere of challenging corporate misconduct. The railroads were big, but we were smart and irreverent.”

Proto, who today specializes in land use and environmental litigation, was a prominent face on the Foggy Bottom campus during those years, earning his master’s degree in international affairs prior to attending GW Law. As a law student, he served as the popular resident director of Crawford Hall, whose basement game room was named in his honor. The book, which reads like a novel and is aimed at a popular audience, includes colorful anecdotes about Proto’s life at GW, as well as excerpts from court transcripts and recently released papers of Supreme Court justices.

“It’s a wonderful book that evokes not only the case but the five brave and intelligent law students who dared to take on one of the most powerful industries in America, as well as the federal government, and won,” says Peter H. Meyers, JD ’71, professor of clinical law, who, as legal assistant to Banzhaf in the early 1970s, worked closely with the students and argued their case before the Supreme Court. “It was a classic David vs. Goliath story, where the students used their cunning, intelligence, enthusiasm, and creativity to defeat the nation’s railroads and overcame great odds to establish an important precedent by winning of the most expansive, liberal decisions on standing in Supreme Court history.”

Meyers, who has kept in touch with Proto over the years, says: “He has remained a good scholar and has retained his commitment to trying to do what’s right.” Proto’s recent legal, political, and cultural victories include drafting a unique statutory scheme for the State of Hawaii in 1993 that resulted in the conveyance of Kaho’olawe Island for the special use of Native Hawaiians. He also represented, pro bono, Protect Historic America, a group of authors and historians, in its successful effort to stop Disney from building a theme park in the Virginia Piedmont.

Throughout his 30-year career in public service and private practice, Proto has kept in touch with academic life. Since 1990, he has served as an adjunct professor at Georgetown University’s Public Policy Institute, where he has taught courses on environmental values, energy choices, urban policy, and urban sprawl. Earlier in his career, he was a visiting professor at Yale.

Proto’s SCRAP teammates, whom he reconnected with in the process of writing the book, have all gone on to successful careers in law as well. To this day, Proto insists that the group did not do anything special. “The prevailing attitude of the early 1970s—the anti-war, civil rights period—was that authority was to be respected but not revered,” Proto says. “We did what any law students would have done given the same opportunity.”

—Jamie L. Freedman

In Memoriam

And What About You?

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