¾Alum Spotlight: Dave Patton, Vice President – Business Strategy, General Counsel, and Secretary, Mohawk Industries ¾Around the Firm ¾Alston & Bird Partner Spotlight: Theresa Conduah, Intellectual Property Litigation Group ¾New Faces Across the Firm ¾By the Numbers ¾Tales From the Other Side with Recent Retiree Ted Hollifield ¾What’s New with You? ¾We asked Partners-in-Charge: What’s Your Favorite Summer Destination or Memory? In this issue SUMMER 2024
SUMMER 2024 ALUM SPOTLIGHT Interview with Dave Patton Vice President – Business Strategy, General Counsel, and Secretary, Mohawk Industries; and former partner with Alston & Bird’s Corporate Transactions & Securities Group Dave was recently interviewed by Paul Nozick, partner with Alston & Bird’s Corporate Transactions & Securities Group.
SUMMER 2024 SUMMER 2024 They had an internal GC, but I had worked with the management team for a long time and they knew me and always wanted me involved in things. The legal department was super small at that time, way smaller than it normally would be for such a large public company. I think the GC who preceded me was happy to have me involved because he simply didn’t have enough bandwidth in the legal department to do a lot of the stuff internally. He was the first person who had begun to put in the things you would see in a public company’s legal department—various policies and practices and the general organizational framework that you would expect legal departments to have. He didn’t finish it before he left. So for my first few years, I was continuing what he started, building on the foundation that he had put in. As a company, we are bigger now than we were then, in the United States and globally. But when I got there, there were three lawyers. We have since expanded the legal department to 13 full-time people in the U.S., with others around the world. Another challenge came from the adjustment from outside expert to inside advisor. For 17 years, I Q: When did you begin working with Mohawk? In reality, I started working with Mohawk basically since I started at Alston & Bird in 1996. Actually, I did a summer assignment for them when I was a summer associate in 1995. So, I sort of grew up with the management team here. When the company decided to make a change in 2013, they asked me if I would be interested in the GC role. I said I would be if I could get more involved in the business, and things went from there. My undergraduate degree was in finance, and business has always appealed to me. And frankly, I’d gotten a little bored and was ready to add some breadth to having the same completely predictable negotiation over and over again. This was something different and new. They were going to let me get involved in the business, and I said OK. Q: What are some of the legal challenges you have faced as GC that you didn’t face in the firm, and how have you navigated those challenges? As I noted before, to a large degree, I had been functioning somewhat as the outside GC for a while. had been the outside counsel, and all of a sudden I wasn’t. It was a learning experience for me and for them because they didn’t have to pay for every minute of my time anymore. There were a few years when we went through some pretty significant litigation. Senior management had never really viewed litigation or the legal department in a cost-benefit analysis where you could actually make an investment in something on the legal side and have it actually generate a return. They had just always viewed legal as a sunk cost. So I wanted to import the idea that we should look at spending money in legal the way we look at spending money anywhere else. Some things you must do, but others are optional. So we started analyzing the optional items differently. An example would be a big-ticket plaintiff-side litigation where it made sense to spend some money to increase not only the probability of winning but also the probability of a much larger judgment if we win. A no-brainer. But before I got here, the decision had been made not to make the investment. I reversed that and believe it paid off. We won and got a very large judgment. Q: What would you say are the biggest legal risks that companies face today, and what do you do to manage those risks? The biggest risk is all the plaintiffs’lawyers out there. You don’t have to have done something wrong to be forced to pay a lot of money, and that’s because a lot of the more sophisticated plaintiffs’ firms have figured out how to increase the damages concept to an extent where it encourages parties to settle. And that is a dynamic that requires some management. We absolutely fight if we haven’t done anything wrong, but occasionally, if you can get out for less than the costs of defense, it makes sense to do that. Q: How was your experience at Alston & Bird? How did that prepare you for what you’re doing today and those kinds of issues? For me, all the corporate stuff at the firm— meaning transactions and corporate governance, interactions with boards, all that stuff—was extremely helpful. Working on transactions gave me a breadth of experience that I use every day. When you become a GC, all of a sudden, you’re not the primary person responsible for every detail, but
SUMMER 2024 SUMMER 2024 you have to understand and coordinate it all, which is similar to what I did at the firm when managing a transaction. Even in a transaction, you’re not the primary person responsible for the ERISA provisions, the tax provisions, or the environmental provisions. But you need to know a little bit about all of it. Doing those transactions and even the due diligence experience when I was younger gave me the breadth that was useful when I came in-house— you see a variety of problems that you remember going forward, you’ve heard some of the statutes before, and you know a little bit about what the legal framework is—all of which allows you to ask the right questions and poke in the right directions. What I would say I wasn’t prepared for as much was the litigation side. The procedural stuff that happens, you learned all that in law school, but as a corporate lawyer, you didn’t really do any of it, so 17 years later that was a little bit of a learning curve getting back up to speed. Once I got here, I spent time getting up to speed on how the cadence and strategy of a litigation matter really flows. Of course, learning that flow from the inside, that goes across all aspects of my job. It goes on across the business side, the corporate governance side, the litigation side, and I would say A&B was a very good crucible for refining my judgment. Q: A follow-up question. You work hand in hand with so many different departments within Mohawk and third parties and vendors and everything else. What kind of strategies do you use to foster strong relationships between your legal department and other departments within your company? That was one of the things we had to work on. The culture was you go to the lawyers after you have a problem, not to prevent a problem. That was the culture. We really made a concerted effort to help people understand how we can help them avoid the problem in the first place. It means helping them figure out a way to say yes. It’s less likely to lead to problems, and that’s a process and mindset that takes years. To be a good GC you have to get involved, you have to almost force your way into stuff by making the investment of knowing what’s going on, and if you’re not asked directly, you go around and talk to the different people to see what they’re working on, what are the important things that are going on, and where the concerns are. And, thankfully, we had buy-in from the business presidents on trying to make that change in the way we were providing legal services to the organization. It was much more reactive before I got here. We still react some because some things you just can’t anticipate, but there’s a much better mix of proactivity and reactivity. Q: How do you balance the demands of being a GC with your personal life and your family life? Technology has really helped a lot, right? I have more weekends now, and so that’s helpful. I mean, back when we were first starting out, you needed to be at the office or at the client or you couldn’t do the work, and that’s not really the case anymore. I can almost do my job from anywhere, except for meeting with people, and even some of that you can do over the phone or the way we’re doing it now on Teams. It’s just much easier to have that balance now. It’s also easier because I’m older, I’m more senior and I just “get it” more. But if something needs to get done, we get it done, and then you go back to the family stuff after that. Q: What do you think are the qualities that are essential to being a successful general counsel? There’s judgment and the ability to persuade. Believe it or not, senior management doesn’t always want to do what you advise them to do. And sometimes that’s OK. They understand the risk, and they say we’ll take that risk. There are other times when they don’t want to take your advice, but they probably should—and then you have to be a little bit more diplomatic and persuasive. Alongside that, you have to have a little bit of stick-to-it-ness. I also got more involved in the strategy—and by strategy, I don’t necessarily mean where are we going with products and that sort of stuff—but more along the lines of what deals should we do and what deals shouldn’t we do and what business should we sell? Again, that’s a situation where you need to have a position, and then you need to build the explanation why you have that position. Sometimes, you have that position because of legal risks or legal issues, and sometimes because you think that you should buy this because it’s a good asset for the business or it has some strategic imperative that is important for the business, or you should sell this business because it doesn’t fit with whatever you’re trying to do strategically. You need to be well-spoken in addition to being persuasive and have good judgment. You really have to understand the totality of the company. Q: When you’re not working with Mohawk, what hobbies or interests do you have that get you through the day? I like to read a lot, I like sports, and I like games of chance. Q: You mentioned books. I know you’re a voracious reader. Is there a book that’s had a big impact on you? When I read for pleasure, I try to read stuff that isn’t really super serious. I’ll read spy novels and science fiction. I read fantasy, too—the Game of Thrones– type books. But I do read some other stuff, and there was a book I read a while back called Unbroken, about a guy in World War II. He floated in the middle of the Pacific for—I can’t remember how long—but a long time. And then he was picked up by the Japanese and held prisoner for a long time. But he refused to give up and had a really good attitude and life outlook. I think they ultimately made that into a movie. That one was really good, and I found it pretty inspirational. Q: What kind of advice would you give to young attorneys aspiring to become a general counsel someday? Keep your network broad and always work at expanding and developing your network. I didn’t realize when I was younger how important that was, but it really is. Make sure you have a broad and deep group of connections and, of course, make sure you always do a good job. You know, I’ve had situations where I would do deals and then later the person on the other side of the table hired me to do a deal for them. So do good work, develop your network, and then just try to get as much breadth of experience as you can.
SUMMER 2024 SUMMER 2024 Around the Firm X Atlanta The Atlanta office participated in several office-wide community service projects, including: An office-wide MLK Day of Service, “The Sandwich Project” – The Atlanta office assembled and donated fresh, homemade sandwiches to help address food scarcity in Metro Atlanta Women of Color’s Atlanta Night at the Movies screening of The Color Purple Hunger Walk/Run for Atlanta Community Food Bank X Charlotte The Charlotte office hosted a summer social outing with Alston & Bird employees and their relatives. X Los Angeles The Los Angeles office held their summer outing at Santa Anita Park. X New York The New York office participated in several office-wide events, including: Packing and distributing lunches to individuals experiencing homelessness “Meet Your Neighbor” dinner X San Francisco The San Francisco office held several client events, including: Custom Scent Experience Client Event and Dinner Bay Area Lawyers for Individual Freedom’s 44th Annual Gala X Washington, D.C. The Washington, D.C. office celebrated Asian American & Pacific Islander Heritage month by hosting Robert Hur, former U.S. Attorney for the District of Maryland. Partners Sarah Ma and BJay Pak moderated the discussion, which highlighted Hur’s career with the U.S. Department of Justice. Photo from The Color Purple screening
SUMMER 2024 SUMMER 2024 PARTNER SPOTLIGHT PARTNER SPOTLIGHT Get to know Theresa Conduah, Partner, Alston & Bird’s Intellectual Property Litigation Group Theresa was recently interviewed by her colleague Nadya Sand, partner with Alston & Bird’s Intellectual Property Litigation Group Q: Let’s start at the beginning. What inspired you to specialize in IP law? To be perfectly honest, I sort of fell into IP law. I worked for a number of years at a clinical research organization, so I was focused more on vaccine research. When I decided to go to law school, I thought I would essentially focus on similar issues and health policy and health care law. But after my first year of law school, I was a summer associate at a law firm and one of the cases involved IP and pharmaceuticals—a patent infringement case. I worked on that and thought to myself, “This actually might be interesting, given the issues that were involved.” The litigation piqued my interest, and that’s what sort of geared me toward IP and IP litigation. I figured that this way I wouldn’t be wasting all the many hours I spent in organic chemistry classes. Q: What have you enjoyed most about IP law? Being able to learn about different subject matters and different areas from the industries and technology. By nature, I’m super curious, so I’m interested in being able to learn, speak with inventors and R&D—and learn about brands you see on TV … that’s one of the more interesting parts of the work that we do. Q: Could you share your experience with the types of issues you’ve dealt with? I started off more on the patent side. But now I’ve crossed over, and I’m more on the trademark and copyright side, with a different focus on types of technology and industries. I was in-house at United Airlines and Toyota, working on different types of technology—everything from landing gears to user interfaces—and then moved toward more of the brand side, sponsorships, and a lot of sports initiatives. It’s been an interesting range of practice areas and industry areas, which is, I think, what makes IP law such a diverse area to practice in and keeps us interested in our day-to-day activities. Q: Are there any notable cases that you’ve worked on that stand out in your mind? One, when I was here as an associate in the Charlotte office. The case I worked on was with our client, Augusta National, in a trade dress case involving a video game that was trying to use the golf course as part of a game. That involved novel trade dress claims as well as First Amendment issues, and whether it was an artistic use or not. I was even quoted in some law review articles—I always enjoy when the case that you worked on shows up in a law review article. Q: IP law is changing. How do you stay up to date on the changes? It’s really beneficial to be part of some of our industry organizations, national trademark associations, and even some of the local associations. Here in LA, we have the Los Angeles Intellectual Property Association. And then on a day-to-day basis, reading Law360 and the IP sections, that’s a really great way to keep up to date on what the trends are, what the issues are, what the key cases are. I’m on the editorial board for Law360, and that’s a good way to make sure I’m keeping up with—and helps me focus on— some of the cases. We’ve had a lot of big cases that have come up and gone up to the Supreme Court involving our area of the law. Q: What motivated your decision when you were in-house to go back to a firm? Ultimately, it was the ability to work with different clients and industry bases. I loved the business side of being in-house. But at a law firm, we have the benefit of being able to work across a spectrum of different industries and clients. That was what led me to this side, to make the so-called reverse commute. Q: Can you describe your particular practice in LA? What types of clients and industries are you working with? We have the traditional corporate clients in food and beverage. But then we also have, because this is LA, some sports and entertainment clients. For
SUMMER 2024 SUMMER 2024 PARTNERS SPOTLIGHT PARTNER SPOTLIGHT PARTNER SPOTLIGHT example, I was fortunate to represent the Los Angeles Olympics, which will be here in 2028. We also have fashion designers and socialites because, you know, they need representation as well. Q: Do you have any particular strategies that you use to resolve these cases efficiently? I think this is where time spent in-house comes into play. I’m able to balance the risks and the business needs of my clients from a PR perspective—whether a client will want to avoid full-blown litigation or may not want to be seen as a bully, depending on who the other side is. But then there are times when the client will want to be seen as being forcefully enforcing their IP rights. So there’s a lot of balancing that comes into play. Having spent the time inhouse, I’m able to more efficiently see both sides of the coin and help guide our clients on when they should push the envelope at times. Q: In LA, there are a lot of unique types of cases and clients that you work on. Have you ever encountered any unique challenges that relate to IP law? One of the things that comes into play is brand placements, where you have to consider clients’ having their products placed in movies or TV shows. You have to consider some unique issues that are not necessarily legal but are more PR considerations. One example was Peloton and Sex and the City, where maybe that brand placement wasn’t the best example of a brand placement, right? We do a lot of sponsorships where you want to consider if this is the right sponsorship for your clients in terms of PR and marketing. A lot of social media issues will come into play and, of late, a lot more issues involving AI, generative AI, and scripted content. Q: AI and technology are changing what you do on behalf of your clients. What role do they play in how you practice law? We’re constantly changing and being more efficient. Even in search reports where you’re using image searches, you’re not having to do a lot of the manual reviews, making it more efficient from an enforcement perspective. It’s easier to find and link potential parties together using the tools that are now available. I think from that perspective, it’s been fantastic. On the flip side, it’s also made infringers more efficient at their work. Q: Can you think of just a fun, memorable case where you successfully protected someone’s IP rights? One of my favorite cases involved being creative. It started off as a trademark infringement case where someone set up a fake dealership using our clients, but it turned out that the same defendants were also being sought by the Southern District of New York for a cryptocurrency scam that involved a couple of celebrities. They were having trouble reaching the celebrities for assistance. But it just so happened that one of our clients had a talent agreement with one of these celebrities. Long story short, by picking up the defendants, we were able to wrap up our trademark infringement litigation matter and get that win. I like that case because you started off thinking one way to get the matter resolved but were able to think creatively and use another angle to resolve your case. Q: What are your memories of being in the summer program? The summer program was just a great opportunity to get to learn about the firm, get to hang out, and go to amazing restaurants and events. I think one of the best experiences in New York City was going to a Prince concert. That would have to be, hands down, my favorite summer experience.
Welcome New Faces Across the Firm Suhaib Al-Ali, Senior Associate Litigation & Trial Practice New York City Previously: Bredin Prat Grace Assaye, Associate Litigation & Trial Practice Atlanta Previously: Gibbson Dunn & Crutcher Karly Bader, Associate Litigation & Trial Practice New York City Previously: Yumi Mona Bhalla, Partner Litigation & Trial Practice New York City Previously: New York State Department of Financial Services Joseph Boddicker, Counsel Global Tax Services Washington, D.C. Previously: Nextera Energy Resources Kennedy Bodnarek, Associate Financial Restructuring & Reorganization Atlanta Previously: Parker, Hudson, Rainer & Dobbs LLP Christina Braswell, Senior Associate Finance Atlanta Previously: Ford Motor Company Erik Carlson, Partner Intellectual Property - Litigation Los Angeles Previously: BakerHostetler Julia Cayre, Counsel Litigation & Trial Practice London Previously: Ghaffari Partners Abigail Cessna, Counsel Litigation & Trial Practice Washington, D.C. Previously: Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney PC Kyle Ceuninck, Associate Intellectual Property - Litigation Atlanta Previously: Ballard Spahr Jennifer Cieluch, Counsel Intellectual Property - Litigation New York City Previously: Covington & Burling LLP Arianna Clark, Associate Litigation & Trial Practice New York City Previously: Clyde & Co Theresa Conduah, Partner Intellectual Property - Litigation Los Angeles Previously: Haynes & Boone LLP Brielle Cuskelly, Partner Real Estate Century City Previously: Sidley Austin Melissa Dalziel, Counsel Alston Discovery Atlanta Previously: Quinn Emanuel Mirella deRose, Hourly Counsel Litigation & Trial Practice New York City Previously: Law Office of Mirella A. deRose LLC Megan Dowty, Senior Associate Environmental & Land Use Los Angeles Previously: Troutman Pepper Eric Dunbar, Associate Investment Funds Atlanta Previously: Kirkland & Ellis Kianna Early, Associate Litigation & Trial Practice New York City Previously: Kirkland & Ellis Jennifer Everett, Partner Technology & Privacy Washington, D.C. Previously: Jones Day Erin Felchner, Partner Real Estate Chicago Previously: Sidley Austin Peter Fritz, Partner Corporate Transactions & Securities Charlotte Previously: Kirkland & Ellis Amir Ghaffari, Partner Litigation & Trial Practice London Previously: Ghaffari Partners Dorothy Giobbe, Counsel Financial Services New York City Previously: Jones Day Barry Hester, Counsel Financial Services Atlanta Previously: Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner LLP Welcome New Faces Across the Firm Scott Hilsen, Counsel Litigation & Trial Practice Atlanta Previously: Cox Enterprises William Hooker, Partner Litigation & Trial Practice London Previously: Pallas Partners LLP Ben James, Associate Health Care Washington, D.C. Previously: Keller and Heckman Zachary Ladu, Practice Group Staff Attorney Real Estate Atlanta William Lasker, Senior Associate Securities Litigation Atlanta Previously: Ballard Spahr LLP B.K. Lee, Partner Finance New York City Previously: Skadden Derek Marks, Counsel Finance Charlotte Previously: Moore & Van Allen PLLC Gillad Matiteyahu, Counsel Real Estate Dallas Previously: Bank OZK Jens-Olrik Murach, Partner Litigation & Trial Practice Brussels Previously: Willkie Farr & Gallagher Laurel Newman, Associate Global Tax Services Atlanta Previously: Sherrard Roe Voigt & Harbison Nicolette Nunez, Associate Intellectual Property - Litigation Atlanta Previously: Haynes & Boone LLP Brett Oberst, Counsel Environmental & Land Use Los Angeles Previously: Doll Amir & Eley LLP Jennifer Pike, Counsel Health Care Washington, D.C. Previously: Thompson Coburn LLP Elliott Riches, Associate Intellectual Property - Litigation Dallas Previously: Munck Wilson Mandala LLP Asal Saffari, Associate Intellectual Property - Litigation Los Angeles Previously: Haynes & Boone LLP Scott Schirick, Partner Litigation & Trial Practice New York City Previously: Pryor Cashman LLP David Shaw, Partner Corporate Transactions & Securities New York City Previously: Fried Frank Jason Spotts, Associate Intellectual Property - Litigation Dallas Previously: Baker Botts Alex Theofanis, Counsel Environmental & Land Use Los Angeles Previously: Jones Day Philip Won, Associate Health Care Washington, D.C. Previously: Hyman, Phelps & McNamara Heather Wyckoff, Partner Investment Funds New York City Previously: Schulte Roth & Zabel Eric Xie, Associate Litigation & Trial Practice Washington, D.C. Previously: King & Spalding Charlene Yin, Counsel Finance New York City Previously: Milbank LLP Brian Yoon, Senior Associate Corporate Transactions & Securities New York City Previously: Latham & Watkins Dave Zampa, Partner Health Care Chicago Previously: Sidley Austin SUMMER 2024 SUMMER 2024
SUMMER 2024 SUMMER 2024 1999 2024 Total # Attorneys 383 932 % Attorneys Female 29% 40% % Attorneys Male 71% 60% Total # Partners 167 396 % Partners Female 15% 27% % Partners Male 85% 73% Total # Associates 175 416 % Associates Female 38% 51% % Associates Male 62% 49% BY THE NUMBERS: In recognition of our 25th consecutive listing in Fortune’s “100 Best Companies to Work For,” we decided to compare some numbers from when we were first awarded the honor in 1999 to now. 1999 2024 1999 Who Wants to Be a Millionaire with Regis Philbin 2024 Starring Justin Hartley 0.76 3.45 1999 1999 2024 2024 “Believe” by Cher “I Had Some Help” by Post Malone featuring Morgan Wallen $2.84 $3.86 Highest Rated TV Show Cost of Gas Top Song Cost of Milk
SUMMER 2024 SUMMER 2024 TALES FROM THE OTHER SIDE INTERVIEW WITH ALUMNUS RETIREE TED HOLLIFIELD Q: It’s been about six months since you retired: what’s the biggest surprise to you about retirement so far? My biggest surprise is that I haven’t panicked and tried to come back! I love A&B. I love being associated with A&B, and retiring puts a bit of a capstone on my professional life. That I’ve been able to be at peace with that is a positive surprise. Q: You joined the firm laterally and became the Partner-in-Charge (PIC) of our Silicon Valley (SVA) office. Give us a brief recap of your practice and your time at the firm. I joined A&B in May 2012 and helped launch the corporate practice in the Silicon Valley office. I brought a number of venture-backed clients with me to A&B, and the heart of my practice has remained venture capital financings and M&A exits for those companies. Highlights of my time at A&B included the sale of Bitstrips to Snap, the sale of 365 Data Centers in a multistage M&A exit, and several venture financings exceeding $100 million in proceeds. Q: What was your biggest challenge as the PIC? Operating within my grasp was the biggest challenge. I’ve learned a lot from my clients, and initially I thought I could turn SVA into a highgrowth startup. I owe a huge debt of gratitude to Jamie Hutchinson for being so patient with me. Jamie (and others) helped me reframe the goal toward measured, integrated, and long-term growth. Achieving this has been a team effort, has been harder in a lot of ways, but has also been more gratifying. Q: It seems like the SVA office moved locations every 10 minutes or so. What was that all about? This was also something I learned from Jamie. Folks from SVA helped launch offices in China and San Francisco, and our space needs have fluctuated a lot in the SVA office. We’ve always had nice facilities in SVA and I love our current space. We’ve avoided long-term leases and planned space around our current needs as opposed to aspirations. With the benefit of hindsight, being smart about space planning has unquestionably contributed to the success of SVA and the firm. Q: You are an avid cyclist – how did you get started and what rides do you have lined up? I first learned about AIDS/LifeCycle from someone whose life was transformed by this seven-day bike ride down the California coast – by the physical training and challenge, by needing to repair your own bike when it breaks down, by needing to fundraise, by joining and becoming part of a training team, and by contributing to the fight against HIV and AIDS, an affliction that overwhelmingly affects those that our society has marginalized in some way. I was excited by all of it but couldn’t imagine balancing it with a busy legal practice. I wasn’t prepared for the matter-of-fact response of “so you’ll never do it then.” That response ate away at me. Just not acceptable. And so, I signed up, started riding my bike and preparing for the ride until I couldn’t imagine not doing it. I’ve signed up for 2025, which will be my fourth time doing AIDS/ LifeCycle. Q: If you could move to any city in the world, where would you go and why? I just got back from a week-long, communal-living yoga retreat. Eighteen of us lived on a common schedule, prepared and shared meals together, and cleaned up together. There was something incredibly grounding about that experience that I’m interested in exploring further. And that’s one of the great things about communes – the location matters a lot less than the community. Although that’s not a definitive answer, hopefully it gives you an idea of where I’m headed. Q: What is your next big adventure? My husband grew up going to Cape Cod in the summer, and we’ve rented a place in Provincetown, Massachusetts for August. We’ve stocked up on sunscreen and beach reading, and otherwise plan to unplug from the world.
Partners-in-Charge: What’s Your Favorite Summer Destination or Memory? We surveyed our Partners-in-Charge for their favorite summer vacation spot or their favorite summer memories. Here are the highlights! Janine Brown (Atlanta): One summer, my family went on a camping trip to Bryce, Zion, and the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. My husband, 10-year-old daughter, and I had an amazing experience gathering around a campfire each night and seeing the stars in these beautiful national parks. The day we hiked to our campsite at the North Rim, we ended up in a torrential downpour and were soaked to the bone. Our tents were flooded. It was a mess! Luckily, the sun finally came out in the late afternoon, and our camp leaders dried everything out and re-pitched our tents. (You really didn’t think that I was carrying all of my own gear and pitching a tent?) I’ll never forget the next morning taking in the view over the Grand Canyon at sunrise. Jason Solomon (Charlotte): My most memorable summer vacations were the two cross-country drives we made to visit national parks and other sights while en route to visit far-flung aunts and uncles ... Pittsburgh to San Diego and Cleveland to Idaho. We caravanned with grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins and communicated via walkie-talkie and CB the entire way. Vivid memories of my grandfather, who had been a truck driver for a stretch, talking with other truckers on the many highways. Vivid memories of my parents, budding landscape photographers, stopping to take a picture of every remote farmhouse we passed by (many of those photos still hang on their walls today). Far-flung roadside hotels, food not fit for the A&B Atlanta cafeteria, and lots of questionable 80s music (if I ever hear Bob Seger again, I’ll just have to end it). Jared Slade (Dallas): Summer vacation is dominated by family trips (our daughters are 9 and 12). We’ve leaned into international travel with them, recognizing this “season” will not last forever as teenager commitments will conflict with getting away. Two “summer” memories stand out. The first was on Christmas, which found us on Bondi Beach in Australia experiencing a southern hemisphere summer with the Aussies. The second was in 2022, when we traveled to Sweden. After a few days in Stockholm, we ventured to Dalarö, a stunning archipelago gem where many from Stockholm venture for their summer vacations. The highlight there was alternating between cannonballs into the freezing Baltic Sea (this native Floridian is a wuss when it comes to cold water) and a sauna on the pier. Richard Willis (London): Among many great summer vacation memories, one is the week we spent at a rented beachfront house on Amelia Island with our then nearly two-year-old daughter, Sonny. Watching Sonny enjoy the ankle-deep tidal pools as the tide receded – often belly flopping into them, flapping her arms, and exclaiming “I swimming in the wha-taa” – is a memory that won’t fade any time soon. The week was also notable for collecting sharks’ teeth, leisurely siestas matching the child’s rhythm, and Sonny’s occasional appetite for a small, furtive, fistful of sand. Great times and great memories all. Jeff Rosenfeld (Los Angeles): Jeff’s favorite summer spot list includes El Encanto; Santa Barbara, CA; and Hotel Crillon, Paris. Matt McGuire (Raleigh): My favorite family summer vacation spot/memory was a trip we took to Maui and Lanai in March 2009. Great food, incredible natural beauty, and up-close encounters with humpback whales, large sea turtles, and spinner dolphins. Rebecca Valentino (Silicon Valley): My mother was a teacher, and every year, for the first week of summer (right after she turned in her grades), our family would drive to Northern California and rent a houseboat for a week on Trinity Lake. It was nothing fancy, but we would spend the week hiking, swimming, building campfires, roasting marshmallows, and playing card games. It was always a great way to start the summer! SUMMER 2024 SUMMER 2024 Wtih You? Douglas Chalmers, 1996, Litigation & Trial: Doug is the managing member of Chalmers, Adams, Backer & Kaufman LLC, an Alpharetta-based firm with 26 lawyers in 7 states and D.C. Doug also recently ran into Bill Jordan, and both lamented that it’s been 30 years(!) since their summer at A&B together. What is your favorite summer memory? My favorite summer memory is spending July 1982 touring Europe with the Sound of America Honor Band & Chorus. We sang in Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris, St. Mark’s Basilica in Venice, and other places. Faith Myers, 1996, Health Care Compliance: Faith was elected the Chair of the IAPP Board of Directors for 2024. What is your favorite summer memory? Driving from NYC with my dad, sister, and cousin to visit cousins in NC, AL, TN, and GA. One year that included a drive to Orlando to Disney World, where I got to ride Space Mountain for the first time! Jason Poulos, 1997, Litigation & Trial: Jason is the Associate General Counsel of Cox Enterprises Inc.; Chief Counsel, Manheim Auctions. Recently, Jason received the first-ever Professor Roy Sobelson Award for Teaching Excellence by Georgia State University College of Law. What is your favorite summer memory? Summer 1996 – 2L internship with the U.S. Army JAG Corps at Ft. McPherson; the Summer Olympics were in town, and we were able to attend several of the shooting events at Wolf Creek just down the road. Oni Holley Brown, 1999, Litigation & Trial: Oni is excited to announce the launch of her company, Strategic Breakthrough Coaching LLC, an executive and leadership development coaching practice focused on helping lawyers become high-performing leaders. What is your favorite summer memory? Spending time at Pensacola Beach with my family and friends. John Douglas, 1977, Financial Services: John is the Senior Executive Vice President of TIAA.
Alston & Bird Job Postings Liz Price Alumni Chair liz.price@alston.com +1 404 881 7264 Candace Spencer Marketing Director candace.spencer@alston.com +1 202 239 3150 Update Information We want to hear from you. Share what’s new with your fellow alumni. New job or title? Relocation? Family news? Let Candace Spencer know. In-House SUMMER 2024 SUMMER 2024 WINTER 2023
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