2008 Speaker Biographies

Calpernia Addams was born in Nashville, TN and attended the same high school that graduated Bettie Page. She began her entertaining career as a Bluegrass gospel fiddler with her family in church, progressing to writing and theater until she became a nationally known showgirl and activist. As a member of the Navy Hospital Corps, Calpernia spent four years as a field medical combat specialist in the Navy and with the Marines, one of the elite combat-trained "Devil Docs" during the first Gulf War. She served in Al-Jubail, Saudi Arabia during Desert Storm/Shield, worked in the only ER on remote Adak Island in the Aleutians and received notice from Congress as part of a group who assisted a downed Chinese airliner on the tiny island of Shemya. After honorably completing her enlistment as a decorated war veteran, Calpernia returned to Nashville and set out to become one of the top showgirls in the state.

Working her way up from spotlight operator to full-time headlining cast member, she spent seven years at the Connection, the largest gay owned and operated theater and nightclub in the United States, performing up to eight shows a week for up to 2,000 people. The tragic murder of her Army boyfriend, dramatized in the award-winning film Soldier's Girl, caused her to reevaluate her life and seek to make a difference in the world. The tragedy forced a national spotlight on the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy and transgender issues, and Calpernia left behind her artistic career to attend to the trial and personal matters.

After a meeting with Jane Fonda, Calpernia and business partner Andrea James were introduced to Eve Ensler, who suggested an all-trans cast performance of The Vagina Monologues. The sold-out V Day LA 2004 performance at Hollywood's Pacific Design Center raised over $11,000 for the NGLTF and the LA Commission on Assaults Against Women. Calpernia later joined the board of directors of the National Gay & Lesbian Task Force, where she served for a number of years.

Now living in Hollywood, Calpernia has returned to her roots as an actress, appearing in television shows such as CSI and Deadwood as well as feature films such as "Transamerica" alongside Felicity Huffman. She runs Deep Stealth Productions, Inc., with business partner and noted authority Andrea James, producing media with an awareness of the truth and value of trans people's contributions to society. Deep Stealth's V-Day 2004 benefit production of "The Vagina Monologues" was a sold-out success in Hollywood under the direct support of playwright Eve Ensler and mentor Jane Fonda. Their latest project, "Casting Pearls", is a short film written, produced, directed and acted by the team depicting a series of auditions endured by a trans actress in LA.

Bebe J. Anderson is the HIV Project Director at Lambda Legal. Prior to joining Lambda Legal in July 2006, she was a Staff Attorney with the Center for Reproductive Rights; Co-Executive Director of the HIV Law Project; a partner at Erickson, Beasley, Hewitt & Wilson; a staff attorney with the Civil Division of the Legal Aid Society of New York City; and an associate at Winthrop, Stimson, Putnam and Roberts (now Pillsbury Winthrop). Ms. Anderson is a graduate of Columbia University School of Law and received a bachelor's degree in Biological Sciences from the University of California at Santa Barbara.

 

C. Elaine Arabatzis is a Diversity/Pro Bono Counsel at Dickstein Shapiro LLP where she specializes in overseeing and implementing the firm s diversity strategic plan and corresponding diversity initiatives. She is also a member of the firm's Diversity Committee. Arabatzis received her J.D. from the New York University School of Law.

Jane Bassett is a private practitioner in Ann Arbor. Her practice focuses on probate, elder law, and domestic partnership family issues, Ms. Bassett is a founding member and current vice-president of the Coalition of Adoption Rights Equality, Inc. working for equality for Michigan's children by promoting legal recognition of parent-child relationships regardless of the gender or marital status of the parents. She has served on the board of advisors for the Housing Bureau for Seniors connected with Turner Geriatric Clinic at the University of Michigan, and is a past founding board member of Cambios, Inc., a non-profit dedicated to eliminating discrimination through multicultural reading programs. She is a graduate of the University of Detroit Mercy Law School and is a licensed foster and adoptive parent.

 

Jeff Becherer is an associate with Dickstein Shapiro LLP in New York, specializing in securities and white collar criminal cases.  Mr. Becherer’s pro-bono practice focuses on representing members of the LGBT community, including individuals seeking asylum on the basis of their sexual orientation & HIV status, LGBT political organizations and those fighting for equal marriage rights.  Mr. Becherer is a member of the firm’s Diversity Committee.  Mr. Becherer received his JD from the University of California, Berkeley, Boalt Hall School of Law.

 

Professor Hazel Glenn Beh is the Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and Professor of Law at the University of Hawai'i School of Law. She teaches Contracts, Torts, Insurance Law, Higher Education Law and legal writing. She has served as chairs of the American Association of Law Schools Sections on Contracts, Education, and Insurance. Dr. Beh holds a JD, a PhD in American Studies, and an MSW. She has written extensively about ethical implications of medical treatment for intersex and GID conditions in childhood and adolescence. In 2000, Dr. Beh received the Excellence in Teaching Award, the University of Hawai'i's highest honor for teachers.

Professor Aaron Belkin is Associate Professor of Political Science and Director of the Palm Center, both at University of California, Santa Barbara.  In 2008, the Palm Center was chosen by the Advocate as one of seven vanguard organizations which use cutting edge strategies in the area of LGBT social justice.  Belkin published the first-ever study of gays in the military in the official journal of the Army War College, and he is the author of more than 20 journal articles and book chapters on civil-military relations, social science methodology, and sexuality and the armed forces.  His research has been covered widely by the media including stories in the New York Times and Washington Post and broadcasts on NBC, ABC, CBS, PBS, CNN, C-Span, Fox, and National Public Radio.  He has made presentations on gays in the military at the Army War College, National Defense University, Naval Postgraduate School, and U.S. Military Academy at West Point.

Spencer Bergstedt is a 1988 graduate of University of Washington School of Law. Spencer is a co-founder of Transgender Law & Policy Institute and has served as a board member for a number of other local and national community organizations.  Spencer practices in the areas of bankruptcy, estate planning, probate, business, personal injury, and is a nationally recognized expert in GLBT family law and surrogacy law.

Tara Borelli is a Staff Attorney in the Western Regional Office of Lambda Legal. Borelli's work at Lambda Legal has included matters involving asylum claims, Washington's anti-discrimination law, constitutional claims for public employees seeking domestic partnership benefits in Washington, California's domestic partnership law and parenting issues. Borelli received her bachelor's degree summa cum laude from the University of California, Davis, and her J. D. from Boalt Hall, the School of Law at the University of California at Berkeley. Borelli is a member of the State Bars of California and Washington.

Professor Kylar W. Broadus is a professor, attorney, activist and public speaker from Missouri.  He is an associate professor of business law at Lincoln University of Missouri, a historically black college where he served as interim chair of the business department from 2007 to 2008.  Kylar has maintained a general practice of law in Columbia, Missouri since 1997. Formerly, Kylar served as the State Legislative Manager and Counsel at the Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s largest gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender advocacy group.  In August 2005, Broadus along with two other panelists were the first to present information before the American Bar Association regarding Transgender clients. Currently, he is board chair for the National Black Justice Coalition and is on the ABA Committee-Section for Individual Rights and Responsibilities.

Denise Brogan-Kator is the Managing Attorney for Rainbow Law Center, PLLC, based in Michigan. Denise was the first openly transgender student to attend the University of Michigan Law School. Prior to her career in the law Denise worked as a Certified Public Account, and as a Chief Financial Officer. Denise has been a participant and a leader in the transgender rights movement since the mid 1990s. She currently serves on the Board of Directors for the Washtenaw Rainbow Action Project (WRAP) and the Board of Trustees for Michigan's state-wide advocacy organization, Triangle Foundation.. In addition to her J.D. from Michigan, Denise has a Bachelor of Science in Accounting from Metropolitan State College, and a Masters in Business Administration from the University of Colorado, Executive Program. She is a member in good standing of the State Bar of Michigan, the American Bar Association, the National Lesbian and Gay Law Association, and the Michigan chapter of the Stonewall Bar Association.

Anthony M. Brown practices at the law firm of McKenna, Siracusano and Chianese heading their Nontraditional Family and Estates Law division serving unmarried individuals, couples and families in Manhattan and on Long Island.  Anthony is the Executive Director of The Wedding Party and has been a Board member since its inception in 1999.   The Wedding Party is a non-profit educational organization that educates the public about marriage and its importance to all citizens through outreach programs and strategic media placement.  Anthony has worked as a law guardian at The Children’s Law Center, representing the legal needs of children in Brooklyn Family Court.  Anthony also worked as a legal intern for Lambda Legal in the summer of 2002.  While there he helped to prepare briefing for the landmark case of Lawrence v. Texas and his research was quoted specifically in Justice Sandra Day O'Connor's concurring opinion.  Anthony graduated from Brooklyn Law School, where he served as research assistant to Nan Hunter, the founder of The Gay and Lesbian Project at the ACLU. 

Suzanne Bryant is currently in private practice in Austin, Texas where she focuses on the legal and political issues associated with second-parent adoptions. After she graduated from Duke Law School and moved to Washington, D.C. she was the founding co-chair of GAYLAW.  She served on the initial board that created NLGLA, was co-chair of Lavender Law and co-chair of NLGLA.

Marla R. Butler is a partner in the Atlanta office of Robins, Kaplan, Miller & Ciresi L.L.P., where she practices in the area of patent infringement litigation.  She is an experienced trial attorney, with first and second chair responsibility in complex business litigation and patent litigation matters before state and federal courts and in mediations and arbitrations.  Ms. Butler is chair of the firm’s Diversity Committee and is a member of the firm’s Technology Committee.  Ms. Butler’s professional activities include support of and involvement in various professional and civic organizations, including Lambda Legal and Human Rights Campaign.  She is a member of the board of directors of the Atlanta-based YouthPride.   Ms. Butler is also a member of Lambda Legal’s National Leadership Council.  She has presented at various conferences, including those sponsored by Law Seminars International and by the Minority Corporate Counsel Association.

 

Professor Erin Buzuvis joined the faculty of the Western New England College School of Law in 2006 and teaches property, administrative law, and sports law. Most recently, she taught constitutional law at the University of Iowa College of Law for three semesters. After graduating from Cornell Law School in 2001, she practiced environmental and land use law at Goodwin Procter LLP in Boston. She then clerked for the Honorable Thomas L. Ambro of the Third Circuit Court of Appeals. Professor Buzuvis recently published an article about Title IX and college athletics in the Iowa Law Review, and she continues to research and write about culture, sports, and gender.

Professor Patricia Cain is the Inez Mabie Distinguished Professor of Law at Santa Clara Law School. She previously served as Vice Provost and Aliber Family Chair in Law at the University of Iowa. Professor Cain has published more than 50 law review articles and several book chapters, treatises, and casebooks including Tax Planning for Unmarried Couples; Rainbow Rights: The Role of Lawyers and Courts In the Lesbian and Gay Civil Rights Movement; and Sexuality Law (with Arthur S. Leonard)

 

Professor I. Bennett Capers graduated from Columbia Law School and Princeton University. Prior to joining the Hofstra Law School faculty, he clerked for Judge John S. Martin, Jr., and served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney, both in the Southern District of New York. His scholarship has appeared or is forthcoming in California Law Review, Columbia Law Review, Harvard CR-CL Law Review, Hofstra Law Review, Howard Law Journal, Indiana Law Journal, NYU Review of Law and Social Change, Michigan Journal of Race and Law, and Yale Journal of Law and the Humanities. He is currently a visiting professor at Fordham Law School.

Brian Chase is a senior staff attorney based in Lambda Legal's Western Regional office in Los Angeles. Since joining Lambda, Brian has been involved in multiple cases on behalf of lesbian and gay couples, LGBT youth and people with HIV. Brian was a member of the team that secured Lambda's landmark U.S. Supreme Court victory in Lawrence v. Texas� striking down every sodomy law in the nation. Prior to joining Lambda, Brian was an associate with the New Orleans firm of King, LeBlanc & Bland. Brian received his J.D. with honors from Tulane and his undergraduate degree from Wake Forest.

 

Vincent Cheng is an attorney at Lewis, Feinberg, Lee, Renaker & Jackson, P.C., a law firm in Oakland, California, that specializes in employee benefits, discrimination, and wage-and-hour law.  He is a member of the Board of Directors of the AIDS Legal Referral Panel (“ALRP”), and has provided disability benefits training to ALRP volunteer attorneys.  In December 2007, he was recognized as the Bar Association of San Francisco’s Volunteer of the Month for his on-going work with the ALRP.  Vincent received his J.D. from the Boalt Hall School of Law at the University of California at Berkeley in 2003 and his B.A. from the University of California at Berkeley in 1996.

Natalie Chin is a staff attorney at Lambda Legal. Prior to joining Lambda, she worked for MFY Legal Services in New York, where she was a staff attorney representing individuals with mental health disabilities and the elderly.  She previously was an Assistant Corporation Counsel for the New York City Law Department.  Prior to going to law school, Natalie worked as a journalist in California and for the Sowetan Sunday World in Johannesburg, where she wrote about issues that affected poor and low-income women of color. She received her J.D. from George Washington University and B.S. from Boston University.

Susan Belinda Christian is an Assistant District Attorney in San Francisco specializing in criminal law and appellate practice. She received her B.A. and J.D. from Yale, and has been a member of the California Bar since 1992. In addition to serving on the Board of Directors of NLGLA, Susan also serves on the Board of Directors of Directors of Walden House, a non-profit drug and alcohol treatment organization that also offers re-entry services to ex-offenders, and the Transgender Law Center, a civil rights organization which advocates nationally for the transgender community.  Susan is Co-Chair of the Alice B. Toklas LGBT Democratic Club and a member of the Bar Association of San Francisco's Judiciary Committee.

 

Lisa Cisneros leads Proyecto Poderoso (“Powerful Project”) a collaborative effort by California Rural Legal Assistance and the National Center for Lesbian Rights aimed at improving legal services for low-income LGBT residents of rural California. The project is made possible by a generous grant from Pride Law Fund’s Tom Steel Fellowship.   Lisa received her J.D. from UC Berkeley School of Law (Boalt Hall) in 2007. During law school, she served as a law clerk at Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein, as well as at NCLR. Upon graduation, Lisa received the Francine Diaz Memorial Award for her contributions to the Boalt community and public service.  She is fluent in Spanish.

 

Professor Brietta Clark chairs the Law School Admissions Council’s LGBT Issues Subcommittee.  As a professor at Loyola Law School, Los Angeles, Brietta teaches several health care law courses and business associations, and writes about health care inequities and bioethics.  She is also a board member for the ACLU and HIV/AIDS Legal Services Alliance (HALSA).

Hon. JG (Gary) Cohen has been President of the International Association of Lesbian and Gay Judges since 2005. Previously, he served as President of the BC Provincial Court Judges Association and as a member of the Judicial Council of British Columbia, both in 2006. Judge Cohen is a founding member (and former Vice President) of the Bar Benevolent Association and a founding member (and first President) of the Gay/Lesbian Law Students' Association at the University of British Columbia. Judge Cohen is also an accomplished author (Desk Order Divorce, an Annotated Guide and a member of the editorial board of C.L.E.'s Family Law Practice Manual).

Matthew Coles is one of the nation's top-level litigators for LGBT rights and is a veteran advocate for the community. He is the author of "Try This At Home--A Do It Yourself Guide to Winning Lesbian and Gay Rights." He has been in charge of the ACLU's Lesbian & Gay Rights and HIV/AIDS Projects since 1995. Prior to joining the ACLU's national staff, he worked with the ACLU of Northern California and was the principal drafter of California's law banning discriminatino based on secual orientation in employment. Atty. Coles co-counseled Romer v. Evans, the challenge to Colorado's anti-gay amendment. In addition, along with Atty. Leslie Cooper, Matt received the Dan Bradley Award, NLGLA's highest honor in 2003, for among other things, his inspiring work on the Lofton Florida adoption case.

Professor David B. Cruz is a Professor of Law at the University of Southern California Gould School of Law, where he teaches a variety of courses in constitutional law; sex, gender, and sexual orientation law; and law and identity.  Professor Cruz has widely published, spoken, and commented in print, radio, and television media on the rights of LGBTI persons.  He is past chair of the AALS Section on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Issues, president of the International Lesbian and Gay Law Association, and a General Counsel of the American Civil Liberties Union.

Phil Curtis oversees the policy and advocacy activities of AIDS Project Los Angeless Government Affairs Division. He joined the agency as a case manager in 1989, worked as APLA's benefits coordinator, managed the agency's first return-to-work program, and joined the Government Affairs Division in 2000. Previously, Curtis had a long career as a journalist, writing for a variety of newspapers, newsmagazines and wire services. For several years he was an on-air producer/reporter for PBS WNET-TV 's first nightly newsmagazine, The 51st State. Curtis is a graduate of the University of Virginia.

 

Lisa J. Damon is the managing partner in the Boston office of Seyfarth Shaw LLP, where she represents management in the area of labor and employment law. Ms. Damon also serves on the firm's Executive Committee.  Her practice has a particular emphasis on litigation of claims of sex, race and age discrimination and harassment, in the context of class actions, multiple-plaintiff claims and single-plaintiff actions.  Ms. Damon’s practice is also dedicated to consulting with clients on avoiding such litigation, through improved management policies and practices, positive employee relations, training and diversity assessment. She advises companies nationwide on issues of diversity and conducts privileged and non-privileged audits and assessments of the workplace. Ms. Damon also works with management to devise and refine diversity programs, helping companies limit class action liability and achieve diversity objectives.

 

Paul DiSangro is a partner at Nixon Peabody in San Francisco. He is regarded as a leading advisor in the area of federal and state tax controversies. As a counselor and litigator, Paul regularly represents clients in the course of complex IRS audits and appeals and tax litigation. Paul has authored several important works on U.S. and international tax issues, and he is widely sought as a speaker and presenter at professional tax seminars and symposia. Paul earned his B.A. and LL.M. degrees from Georgetown University and his J.D., magna cum laude, from the University of Miami School of Law.

 

Mathew Dos Santos is a litigation associate in the San Francisco office of Morrison & Foerster LLP. He served as co-counsel with the National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR) in Gammett v. Idaho State Board of Corrections, successfully obtaining a ruling in federal district court that a transgender woman is entitled under the Eighth Amendment to receive female hormone therapy during incarceration. Prior to joining the firm, he worked as a law clerk at NCLR, focusing on a variety of LGBT issues in the areas of family law, immigration, and the right to marry. Mr. Dos Santos is a 2006 graduate of Cornell Law School.

 

Professor Nancy Ehrenreich is a Professor of Law at the University of Denver's Sturm College of Law. A graduate of Yale (B.A. 1974) and the University of Virginia (J.D., 1979, L.L.M., 1982), she teaches Criminal Law, Jurisprudence, Torts, and a seminar on reproductive rights (Legal and Medical Control of the Reproductive Process). Professor Ehrenreich has written on masculinity and militarism, court-ordered Cesarean sections, contract parenthood, sexual harassment, and abortion, among other topics. Her most recent publication, The Reproductive Rights Reader: Law, Medicine, and the Construction of Motherhood, was published last fall as part of the Critical America series by NYU Press.

Nima Eshghi is a staff attorney with Gay and Lesbian Advocates and Defenders in Boston. Nima previously worked at Edwards, Angell, Palmer & Dodge, LLP; Foley, Hoag & Eliot LLP; and represented people living with HIV/AIDS as staff attorney and clinical instructor at Harvard Law School's Legal Services Center. Nima was a law clerk to Chief Justice Herbert P. Wilkins of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court. Nima served on GLAD's Board of Directors from 2004-2006. She has a B.A.from Smith College, a Master's in political science from the University of Washington, and a J.D. from Northeastern University.

Professor William N. Eskridge, Jr. is the John A. Garver Professor of Jurisprudence at Yale Law School. In 1990-95, Professor Eskridge represented a gay couple suing for recognition of their same-sex marriage. Since then, he has published a field-establishing casebook, three monographs, and dozens of law review articles articulating a legal and political framework for proper state treatment of sexual and gender minorities. The historical materials in the book on Gaylaw formed the basis for an amicus brief he drafted for the Cato Institute and for much of the Court's (and the dissenting opinion's) analysis in Lawrence v. Texas (2003), which invalidated consensual sodomy laws. His most recent book is Gay Marriage: For Better or For Worse? (with Darren Spedale). Professor Eskridge received his B.A., summa cum laude, from Davidson College, his masters in History from Harvard, and his J.D. from Yale.

Kate Fletcher is a solo practitioner in the areas of Tax and Estate Planning and practices in the states of Illinois and California. She graduated from Loyola University Chicago School of Law with a J.D. and an LL.M. in Taxation. Her LL.M. thesis addressed the issue of Internal Revenue Code Section 1041 and how it relates to the Dissolution of California Domestic Partnerships. Ms. Fletcher is currently the Treasurer of NLGLA and NLGLF. She began her career with NLGLA as a Law Student Division representative.

Professor Taylor Flynn is a professor of law at the Western New England College School of Law.  Professor Flynn, formerly on the faculty of Northeastern University School of Law, was a Staff Attorney with the ACLU of Southern California prior to teaching. Her area of specialization, both at the ACLU and in her academic research, focuses on discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. Professor Flynn has litigated a wide array of issues, including arguing before the California Supreme Court on behalf of members expelled from the Boy Scouts based on their sexual orientation and religious non-belief, as well as on behalf of a transgender father who faced losing all legal rights to his child solely because of gender identity. Professor Flynn's scholarly work has appeared in journals including the Columbia Law Review, Stanford Law and Policy Review, and Iowa Law Review, as well as in the book Transgender Rights.

Professor Kim Forde-Mazrui is the Justice Thurgood Marshall Distinguished Professor in Law and Director of the Center for the Study of Race and Law at the University of Virginia. Mr. Forde-Mazrui is a magna cum laude graduate of the University of Michigan Law School, where he received the Carl Gussin Memorial Prize for excellence in trial advocacy and the Henry M. Bates Memorial Scholarship, the highest award given to outstanding seniors. He was note editor of the Michigan Law Review and a member of Order of the Coif, Phi Beta Kappa, and the Golden Key National Honor Society. During law school, Mr. Forde-Mazrui was a summer associate with Dykema Gossett in Detroit, Michigan, and was program director for the University of Michigan Office of Minority Affairs. After graduation, Mr. Forde-Mazrui clerked for Judge Cornelia G. Kennedy of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, and worked as an associate with Sidley & Austin in Washington, D.C.

Phyllis Frye grew up in Texas as the all-American boy – an Eagle Scout and commander of her high school ROTC class. But when she came out as transgender in 1972, Frye lost her military career and her first marriage ended. She transitioned from male to female in 1976. As a result, she was dismissed from her job as an engineer. The next year, to fight depression and ensure a future income, she went back to school to study business administration and law at the University of Houston’s Law Center and College of Business. As a student, Frye successfully lobbied every elected official in Houston to get rid of the city ordinance against crossdressing that made her subject to arrest on a daily basis.

In 1979 and again in 1981, 1983 and 1985, Frye, then out as transgender, was elected as a delegate to the Texas Democratic Convention. She was instrumental in encouraging the Texas Democratic Party to adopt a GLBT-rights supportive plank in its official platform in 1983. Frye is the founder and former executive director of the International Conference on Transgender Law and Employment Policy Inc. She also founded the Transgender Law Conference. In 1995, Frye began the "Phyllabuster" e-mail network that keeps thousands of activists around the world informed about related legal and political issues related to transgender people, as well as lesbian, gay and bisexual issues. Frye remains a practicing attorney in Houston, where she lives with Trish, her legal spouse of over 30 years.

Gary J. Gates, Senior Research Fellow at the Williams Institute, co-authored The Gay and Lesbian Atlas. His doctoral dissertation included the first significant research study of the demography of the gay and lesbian population using US Census data. His work on that subject has been featured in many national and international media outlets. He holds a PhD in Public Policy from the Heinz School of Public Policy and Management at Carnegie Mellon University along with a Master of Divinity degree from St. Vincent College and a BS in Computer Science from the University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown.

Mariette Geldenhuys has practiced law in Ithaca, New York for the past twenty years. She is a partner in the law firm of Schlather, Geldenhuys, Stumbar and Salk and is the founder of the Collaborative Family Lawyers of Central New York. Mariette was one of the plaintiffs' attorneys in the same-sex marriage rights case in New York. She has written articles, given lectures and made presentations on a wide range of topics, including collaborative law and legal issues affecting lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender clients.

Hon. Linda E. Giles, Associate Justice for the Massachusetts Superior Court, is a graduate of McGill University and the New England School of Law where she served as Case Comment Editor of the Law Review. Judge Giles was engaged in the private practice of law, specializing in trial practice, before joining the bench. In 1991, she was appointed as the first openly lesbian judge in Massachusetts to be an Associate Justice of the Boston Municipal Court by Governor William F. Weld. In 1998, she was elevated to the Superior Court by Governor Argeo Paul Cellucci. Judge Giles has served as chair of the Massachusetts Trial Court’s Gender Equality Advisory Board and president of the International Association of Lesbian & Gay Judges. Judge Giles is a recipient of the Massachusetts Judges Conference’s Judicial Excellence Award (President’s Award), the Massachusetts Bar Association’s Public Service Award, Boston College Law School’s Lambda Student Association’s "Courage in Coming Out" Award, and the North Shore Gay Alliance 15th Anniversary Award.

Professor Elizabeth M. Glazer received B.A. and M.A. degrees in philosophy from the University of Pennsylvania in 2001. Professor Glazer received a J.D. in 2004 from the University of Chicago, while serving as a member of the Law Review. Following graduation from law school, Professor Glazer represented clients in connection with multi-million dollar real estate deals in the New York office of Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson LLP. Professor Glazer's research borrows principles from analytic philosophy in an effort to solve problems in constitutional law, statutory interpretation, and property law. Glazer is currently working to determine whether the rights to exclude in the First Amendment context and the property law context are grounded in the same, or different, theoretical bases. Professor Glazer teaches courses in First Amendment, Jurisprudence, Property, and Transactional Lawyering. In January 2007, Professor Glazer was a visiting scholar at the Feminism and Legal Theory Project at Emory Law School. Glazer's first article, When Obscenity Discriminates, is forthcoming in the Northwestern University Law Review.

Deborah Golden has been litigating prisoners' human rights since 2000. After graduating from the University of Michigan Law School, Ms. Golden received a Skadden Fellowship to serve the civil legal needs of domestic-violence survivors. After her fellowship, Ms. Golden joined D.C. Prisoners' Legal Services Project, now part of the Washington Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs. She has handled casies challenging discrimination against people with HIV as well as cases involving prisoner sexual assault. Ms. Golden has also advocated for reproductive rights of women prisoners and for fair treatment for transgender inmates.

 

Jamison Green is internationally recognized as a leader in the field of transgender education, theory, and policy.  He has provided transgender awareness training and consulting for the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the California State Department of Fair Employment and Housing, the San Francisco Police Academy, and corporations such as IBM, BP Oil, Genentech, Capital One Bank, Macy’s, and Kaiser Permanente.  Jamison has also consulted with representatives of the governments of Canada, Australia, France, and Great Britain.  He is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Law at a British university.

Professor Julie Greenberg, Professor of Law at Thomas Jefferson Law School, is an internationally recognized expert on the legal issues relating to gender, sex, sexual identity and sexual orientation. Her path-breaking work on gender identity has been cited by a number of state and federal courts, as well as courts in other countries. In addition to her teaching and writing, she serves on a number of nonprofit organizations' boards of directors and has also been involved in a variety of community service projects relating to the rights of women and sexual minorities.

 

Emily Hecht is a Staff Attorney with Servicemembers Legal Defense Network. In addition to providing direct legal services to those impacted by "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" and related forms of discrimination, Emily is also part of the litigation team in Cook v. Gates, challenging the constitutionality of the law. She is currently working on issues related to transgender service members and represents SLDN in the ABA's LGBT Domestic Violence working group. Prior to her 2006 arrival at SLDN, Emily served as the Assistant Director for the ABA's Section of Individual Rights and Responsibilities.

 

Professor Marybeth Herald is a former Associate Dean at Thomas Jefferson School of Law where she teaches Constitutional Law, Advanced Constitutional Law, and Law and Psychology. She has published articles exploring constitutional issues relating to the First Amendment, gender, the legal and political relationship of U.S. territories, and the intersection of law and psychology. Her most recent articles explore the constitutional implications of sex determination rulings and the cognitive biases implicit in judicial decisions about gender issues.  Before beginning her teaching career, she graduated from Harvard Law School, and then worked for Micronesian Legal Services in the Northern Mariana Islands and in private practice.

Professor Elizabeth Hillman's fields of interest include military justice, American legal history, and gender and sexuality in the law. A veteran of the United States Air Force who earned a Ph.D. and J.D. at Yale, she previously taught history at the Air Force Academy and at Yale University. She teaches constitutional law, military law, legal history, and trusts and estates, and co-directs the Marshall-Brennan Fellowship Program. Her scholarship examines crime and discipline within the U.S. armed forces, the impact of sexual orientation discrimination on legal outcomes, and the status and treatment of women in the American military.

Ernest Hopkins, the Director of Federal Affairs for San Francisco AIDS Foundation, advocates for sound public policies and sufficient funding to support publicly funded HIV/AIDS programs. He serves as Policy Chair with Communities Advocating Emergency AIDS Relief (CAEAR) Coalition and was previously Director of Health and Treatment at the National Association of People with AIDS (NAPWA). He was a Chairperson of the Metropolitan Washington, DC Regional HIV Health Services Planning Council and helped found the Washington, DC Black Gay and Lesbian Pride Day. As a member of the African American Policy Workgroup, he worked to establish the Minority HIV/AIDS Initiative. From 2001-2007 Ernest served on the Board of Directors of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force.

Skip Horne is a Global Recruiting Manager with Latham & Watkins where he supports the firm’s efforts in diversity hiring, law school and LLM outreach and international hiring for over 2,100 attorneys in 26 offices worldwide.  Prior to joining Latham, he was the Assistant Dean for Law Career Services at Santa Clara University School of Law, where he served as the advisor to BGLAd, the law school’s GLBT student organization, and the Director of Career Services at The University of Texas School of Law, where he founded and served as the first director of UT’s Public Interest Law Center.  Horne was elected President of the National Association for Law Placement (NALP) in 2002-03 and has the honor of being the association’s first openly gay President.  He has also been active member in NALP’s GLBT, Nominating, Member Services, Electronic Communications, Public Service, Awards of Distinction and Conference Planning Committees.  Horne has presented at the last ten Lavender Law conferences on career issues for GLBT law students and graduates, and for many years served as NALP’s official liaison to the NLGLA.  He received a BSFS, cum laude, in International Politics from Georgetown University, and an MBA from The Darden School at the University of Virginia.

Jody Huckaby has been a nonprofit executive for 14 years, serving as Executive Director of the Washington Humane Society in Washington, DC, New Mexico AIDS Services in Albuquerque, NM, and the Bering/Omega Community Foundation in Houston, TX. He also was a member of the board of directors of AIDS Action in DC, and in that capacity, he performed GLBT grassroots organizing and public policy development on HIV issues, housing, health care and research.  Huckaby is now the Executive Director of PFLAG. Since the start of his tenure in 2005, he has been the voice of PFLAG on issues including marriage equality, judicial nominations, education, extremist organizations, and other issues key to families.  

 

Professor Nan D. Hunter is Professor of Law at Georgetown University Law Center and Legal Scholarship Director at the Williams Institute for Sexual Orientation Law and Policy at UCLA Law School. She was the founding Director of the ACLU LGBT Rights and AIDS Projects. She is co-author of the Sexuality, Gender and the Law casebook. Her articles have appeared in the Michigan Law Review, the Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review, the Minnesota Law Review, the Virginia Law Review, and the NYU Law Review, among others. Professor Hunter was awarded the first NLGLA Dan Bradley award.  She has a new blog, hunter of justice, at http://hunterforjustice.typepad.com/hunter_of_justice/.

 

Professor Courtney Joslin is an acting professor of law at the UC Davis School of Law. She received her undergraduate degree from Brown University and her law degree from Harvard Law School, where she was an executive editor of the Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review. Previously, Professor Joslin served as an attorney at the National Center for Lesbian Rights, where she litigated cases on behalf of LGBT people and their families. Professor Joslin was an adjunct professor at Boalt Hall School of Law and at Santa Clara University School of Law. Professor Joslin's areas of interest include family and relationship recognition, particularly focusing on same-sex and nonmarital couples.

Marge Kaiser has been practicing public accounting in Alaska for over 20 years. She has provided audit, accounting and tax preparation services to a variety of clients in the real estate and construction industries, to not-for-profits and to medical professionals and attorneys. Marge has a BBA in accounting and finance from the University of Wisconsin. She is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, and the Alaska Society of CPAs. She previously served on the Alaska State Board of Public Accountancy, and has taught auditing and accounting for the University of Alaska.

Joyce Kauffman specializes in family law, co-parent adoption, and mediation, with an emphasis on legal issues affecting lesbian and gay families. Joyce has written extensively on these issues and is a frequent speaker at seminars, conferences, and in community settings; she is the former co-chair of the Massachusetts Lesbian and Gay Bar Association and former chair of MLGBA's Family Law Section. Her legal accomplishments include obtaining a court order placing two lesbian mothers on a birth certificate without benefit of adoption where one of the women was the egg donor and her partner gave birth; more recently, she has successfully petitioned the court to allow several three-parent adoptions for lesbian and gay families. Joyce is the recipient of the Gwen Bloomingdale Pioneer Spirit Award, from the Massachusetts Lesbian and Gay Bar Association, 2007; the Fisher Davenport Award, from the Family Pride Coalition (now Family Equality Council) and COLAGE, 2004; and the Barney Frank Award, from Massachusetts School of Law, 2003.  She has lectured and written widely about issues of concern to Lesbian and Gay families. She is the mother of a twenty-three year old daughter.

Kate Kendell is the Executive Director of the National Center for Lesbian Rights, a national legal organization committed to advancing the civil and human rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people and their families through litigation, public policy advocacy, and public education. Growing up Mormon in Utah, Kate learned about the complexities of religion and politics from an early age. After receiving her J.D. from the University of Utah College of Law in 1988 and a few years practicing corporate law, she pursued her real love—civil rights advocacy—and became the first staff attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union of Utah. There she directly litigated many high-profile cases focusing on all aspects of civil liberties, including reproductive rights, prisoners’ rights, free speech, the rights of LGBT people, and the intersection of church and state. In 1994 she joined NCLR as legal director, and was named executive director two years later. Kate and her partner, Sandy Holmes, live in San Francisco with their son, Julian, age 10, and daughter Ariana, age 5. Their family includes Kate’s daughter Emily, age 25.

Andrea Khoury is the director of the ABA Youth at Risk Bar-Youth Empowerment Project focusing on adolescent’s access to attorneys, children’s right to counsel, and youth involvement in court hearings. She is also an Assistant Director of Child Welfare for the National Child Welfare Resource Center on Legal and Judicial Issues where she provides technical assistance to states on issues dealing with the Adoption and Safe Families Act, Child and Family Service Reviews, and other child welfare legislation. She also provides numerous trainings across the country on adolescent permanency, the role of the child’s representative, involving youth in dependency proceedings, and representing LGBT and questioning youth. She managed the writing, editing, and production of the ABA publication, Achieving Permanency for Adolescents in Foster Care: A Guide for Legal Professionals as well as authoring several chapters. She co-authored the ABA publication, Opening Doors for LGBTQ Youth in Foster Care: A Guide for Lawyers and Judges.  

Deb L. Kinney has an estate planning and trust administration practice in San Francisco and Santa Rosa focusing on the LGBT community. She is a known resource for emerging issues pertaining to the Domestic Partner Rights and Responsibilities Act of 2003, more commonly known as AB205, and is on the board and co-chair of the Planned Giving Committee of Horizons Foundation and on the board of Equality California.

 

Amanda Kloer joined the American Bar Association's Commission on Domestic Violence in November 2007 to develop national and international training and educational materials to improve legal services for LGBT domestic violence victims and human trafficking victims. Amanda has been advocating for sexually exploited women and children since 2002, including founding and leading the local grassroots advocacy organization Students Opposing Slavery in 2004 and working with at-risk street youth in Tanzania and Zanzibar in 2005.  Prior to joining the Commission, Amanda conducted research and developed educational outreach materials on international and domestic sex trafficking for Shared Hope International. She has participated in the creation of several documentary films about sexual and domestic violence and gender identity.

Tamara E. Kolz is a partner in the Boston office of Holland & Knight LLP, where she practices in the Private Wealth Services group. Her practice is focused on counseling high net worth individuals in all aspects of their tax and estate planning needs. She has particular expertise in the area of prenuptial, pre-registration, pre-civil union and cohabitation agreements, as well as advising same-sex couples and non-traditional families.

Chris Krueger has worked for the California Attorney General's Office since 2002.  He presently serves as Senior Assistant Attorney General for the Government Law Section of that office. Chris got involved in marriage-related legal issues in 2004 during the admission of former Attorney General Bill Lockyer.  He prepared much of the briefing in Lockyer v. CCSF, the California Supreme Court case that stopped the San Francisco marriages.  He also assisted in the defense of Knight v. Superior Court (2005), the conservative challenge to the domestic partnership law.  In Smelt v. County of Orange and Department of Health Services (2006), Chris successfully persuaded the federal district court and the Ninth Circuit to abstain from deciding the constitutionality of the California's marriage laws under the United States Constitution.  He represented the State in the Marriage Cases from their inception in 2004 through the California Supreme Court's decision this year.

Doug Lakey (B.A., Vanderbilt University) is Director of the West Coast Office of Alliance for Justice, and is responsible for managing the operations and program implementation of the Oakland, CA-based office and outreach into the broader West Coast civil rights and public interest community.   Doug brings over 20 years of nonprofit experience to AFJ on the West Coast, including strong management, fundraising, and program development skills.  His background includes:  nearly 6 years as Development Director for Alliance for Justice based in DC, where he helped identify and cultivate new and expanded revenue sources while helping to lead the organization through long-term strategic planning and board development processes; over 5 years with the Human Rights Campaign where he helped merge the membership and development operations of the nation’s largest LGBT political organization; and more than 10 years in health care administration at George Washington University’s Medical Faculty Associates.

Carolyn Laub is the Founder and Executive Director of Gay-Straight Alliance Network. Carolyn led the passage the California Student Safety and Violence Prevention Act of 2000 (AB 537). In 2001, Carolyn served on the California Department of Education's AB 537 Advisory Task Force. In 2002, she co-founded the California Safe Schools Coalition, which is dedicated to the full implementation of AB 537. Carolyn graduated from Stanford University in 1995 with a BA in Cultural Anthropology with a focus on the social construction of race, gender, and sexual orientation.

Professor Sylvia A. Law is the Elizabeth K. Dollard Professor of Law, Medicine and Psychiatry and Co-Director of the Arthur Garfield Hays Civil Liberties Program. For three decades, Law has been one of the nation's leading scholars in the fields of health law, women's rights, poverty, and constitutional law. In 1984, Law became the first lawyer in the United States selected as a MacArthur Prize Fellow. She has been active in the Society of American Law Teachers, served as president of the organization from 1988-1990 and was honored by the organization as Law Teacher of the Year in 2001. In 2004, she was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Alexander Li-Hua Lee is the founder and current Legal Director of the Transgender, Gender Variant & Intersex Justice Project (TGIJP), a nonprofit legal advocacy and leadership development organization.

TGIJP's mission is to end the egregious human rights abuses committed against transgender and gender variant people, and people with intersex conditions, in California prisons and beyond. TGIJP works at the intersections of race, class, gender, sexuality, age, intersex condition, and dis/ability, among other multiple facets of identity and background.

 

James G. Leipold is the Executive Director of the National Association for Law Placement (NALP).  Prior to joining NALP, he worked at the Law School Admission Council (LSAC) for five and a half years as the assistant director for education and prelaw programs.  Prior to joining LSAC in 1998, he was the director of admission at Temple University School of Law, where he was also an instructor in legal writing and research.  He is a magna cum laude graduate of Brown University and Temple University School of Law.  He has also worked as a legal writing instructor in the paralegal program at the Community College of Philadelphia, as an undergraduate admission officer at the University of Vermont, and as a high school English teacher in both Michigan and Alaska.

M. Dru Levasseur is a transgender activist and attorney committed to empowering trans and gender non-conforming people to believe in themselves.  He is the chair of LeGaL’s Transgender Committee and an active member of MLGBA’s Committee for Transgender Inclusion.  This past year, Dru initiated New England’s first ever Transgender Pride March and Rally.  He received his J.D. from Western New England College School of Law and B.A from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. 

 

Lisa Dickinson is currently the Attorney Recruiting and Professional Development Manager for Kirkland & Ellis LLP in San Francisco.  Prior to this, she served as the Director of the Office of Career Planning at the University of San Francisco for over seven years.  Lisa is a Past President NALP, the Association of Legal Career Professionals and former Board Member.  Kirkland & Ellis' San Francisco Office will participate in the inaugural year of the NALP StreetLaw, diversity pipeline project.  Lisa has served as President and remains actively involved in the Bay Area Legal Recruitment Association.  She also currently serves on the Board of Directors for PIC, a statewide coordinator of legal services in California.  Lisa is also a member of the Bar Association of San Francisco's LGBT Issues Committee, a subcommittee of its Equality Committee, which researched and wrote a report on best practices in the hiring, retention and promoting of LGBT employees.

Hon. Jodi Levine is a U.S. Administrative Law Judge for the Social Security Administration in Oklahoma City. Judge Levine is a leader within the American Bar Association. She is the Past Chair of the American Bar Association Judicial Division; Past Chair of the American Bar Association National Conference of Administrative Law Judiciary; and is a Presidential Appointment to the ABA Coalition for Justice. Judge Levine was an Oklahoma Governor's Commendation Recipient in 1995. She took a Bachelor of Arts degree with Honors at the University of Texas at Austin, and received her J.D. at the University of Tulsa College of Law.

Professor Larry Levine is a professor of law at the University of the Pacific, McGeorge School of Law in Sacramento, California. A frequent panelist, lecturer, and speaker on legal issues involving sexual orientation, he is a member of the prestigious American Law Institute. Larry has served on the State Bar Committee on Sexual Orientation Discrimination as well as the board of directors of the AIDS Legal Referral Panel of Northern California and Sacramento Lawyers for the Equality of Gays and Lesbians. He is the immediate past chair of the Law School Admission Council’s Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Issues Subcommittee. Larry graduated from UC Hastings College of the Law and was an associate with Morrison & Foerster in San Francisco for two years before joining the Pacific McGeorge in 1985. He is the author or co-author of several books on torts, a subject he teaches along with courses on Sexual Orientation and the Law, and Bioethics and the Law.

Ben Lunine is a staff attorney with the Transgender Law Center. Since joining TLC in February, 2007, Ben has provided direct legal services and “know-your-rights” trainings to hundreds of transgender individuals and their families throughout California, technical assistance to attorneys serving transgender clients across the country, and trainings to government agencies, private employers, and community-based organizations.

Laura Maechtlen joined the NLGLA Board as the affiliate representative for Sacramento Lawyers for the Equality of Gays and Lesbians in 2004. She has assumed responsibilities as the Membership Chair and most recently the President-Elect. Laura graduated from the Boston University School of Law after attending the University of Colorado at Boulder for undergraduate studies in Music and Political Science. She works at Seyfarth Shaw LLP in labor and employment litigation in their San Francisco, California offices.

Jody Marksamer is a staff attorney and director of the National Center for Lesbian Rights Youth Project, Jody Marksamer oversees NCLR's policy and advocacy work challenging the overrepresentation and disparate treatment of LGBTQ youth in child welfare and juvenile justice settings. In 2006, Jody co-authored the CWLA Best Practice Guidelines for Serving LGBT Out-of-Home Youth, the first comprehensive policy and practice guide of its kind. He regularly presents on legal and policy issues affecting LGBTQ youth in the state custody. Jody joined NCLR in 2003 as an Equal Justice Works Fellow. He received his J.D. from Northeastern University School of Law.

Hon. Larnzell Martin, Jr. has been an Associate Judge of the Circuit Court for Prince George's County, Maryland since December 1990.  His service as a member of the Maryland Judiciary began as a member of the District Court of Maryland in May of 1988.  He has had numerous judicial assignments including service as Chair of Maryland Judiciary's Committee on Family Law, two stints as Coordinating Judge of his court's Family Division and membership on the Maryland Judiciary Technology Oversight Board.  Over the last three years, one-fourth to one-third of his assignment has concerned youth in foster care whose biological parents have had their legal rights terminated or termination of the rights has become the permanency plan.

 

Professor Diane H. Mazur is a Professor of Law at the University of Florida Levin College of Law, a former Bigelow Fellow at the University of Chicago Law School, and a graduate of the University of Texas School of Law.  She teaches courses in evidence, professional responsibility, and civil-military relations, and her research focuses on the constitutional, legal, and cultural relationship of the military to civilian society.  Her article, "A Blueprint for Law School Engagement with the Military," 1 J. Nat'l Sec. L. & Pol'y 473 (2005), maps out a plan for responding to military recruitment on law school campuses.  Professor Mazur is a former aircraft and munitions maintenance officer in the United States Air Force, and before entering law teaching she practiced with the Modrall Law Firm in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

William D. McColl, the Political Director of AIDS Action, has worked on HIV/AIDS, alcohol and other drug treatment, and criminal justice reform issues for nearly 15 years. He was Director of Government Relations at Drug Policy Alliance and an Executive Director of NAADAC: The Association for Addiction Professionals. A former Missile Combat Crew Member in the Air Force, he became a Captain in the Reserve. He holds a law degree from the University of Maryland School of Law, a masters in International Relations from Troy State University and bachelors in Political Science from the University of Michigan.

Kelly McCown is co-founder and partner of the corporate immigration law firm McCown & Evans LLP in San Francisco, California, and was recognized in 2007 as one of the "Top 50 Female Super Lawyers" in Northern California across all legal specialties.  She currently is Co-chair of the Bar Association of San Francisco (BASF)’s LGBT Equality Committee, Co-chair of the Legal Outreach Committee of BASF’s Marriage Fairness Task Force, and a past Co-Chair of Bay Area Lawyers for Individual Freedom (BALIF).  She received her B.A. in International Relations from Stanford University in 1985 and her J.D. from Boalt Hall School of Law at the University of California Berkeley in 1993.

Madeleine McDonough is on the Executive Committee for Shook, Hardy & Bacon and divides her time between the firm's Kansas City and Washington, D.C. offices. She represents corporations and individuals in product liability, toxic tort, personal injury, and commercial matters, and she regularly counsels clients on preventative litigation strategies, creative and efficient resolution of claims and threatened litigation, and on effective records and information management. She heads up many civic, diversity, pro bono, training, and client development activities. She has been recognized as a Super Lawyer by the magazine Missouri & Kansas Super Lawyers in 2005, 2006 and 2007, and 2008.

Sharon McGowan joined the ACLU Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender & AIDS Projects as a Staff Attorney in 2004. Although she works on a broad range of issues, Sharon has recently focused on transgender equality and student rights. She is a co-author of the ACLU's Rights of Lesbians, Gay Men, Bisexual and Transgender People (4d. ed, 2004).

Professor James McGrath joined the faculty at Texas Wesleyan University School of Law as an associate professor of law in 2006. Previously, Professor McGrath worked as an associate professor at Appalachian School of Law. He has additional teaching experience at the University of San Diego and Temple University Beasley School of Law. Professor McGrath’s study of the law and human sexuality includes lesbian, gay, transgender, and intersexual legal issues.

Allison Mendel has lived and practiced law in Alaska since 1982. She has been in private practice doing family law, civil rights, and appellate matters in both state and federal courts since 1987. Her wide-ranging appellate practice has resulted in numerous reported decisions in the Alaska Supreme Court, the Court of Appeal, and the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeal. She has also been at the forefront of litigating issues relating to the legal rights of same-sex partners and their children. Allison currently serves on the State Bar Board of Governors, and she was formerly co-chair of the NLGLA. Currently, she is a member of the NCLR National Family Law Advisory Council.

Hilary Meyer is the Judicial Independence Program Associate at Lambda Legal, where she advocates for a fair and impartial judiciary through public education campaigns, speaking engagements, and coalition work. Prior to joining Lambda Legal in 2006, Meyer was an associate at Reitman Parsonnet, and a summer associate at the Dwyer Law Firm, representing employees and unions in New Jersey. Meyer earned her J.D. from Rutgers Law School Newark and graduated magna cum laude from Colgate University. Meyer also completed a summer fellowship at the Human Rights Campaign, tracking and analyzing state and federal legislation of relevance to the LGBT community.

 

Shannon Price Minter is the Legal Director of the National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR), one of the nation's leading advocacy organizations for LGBT individuals. Mr. Minter has received numerous awards for his work, including the Ford Foundation's "Leadership for a Changing World" Award, as well as the Anderson Prize Foundation's "Creating Change" Award by the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force. Earlier this year, Mr. Minter argued and won a case before the California Supreme Court that declared as unconstitutional California's ban on same-sex marriage. Mr. Minter received his J.D. from Cornell Law School in 1993.

 

Lisa Mottet joined the National Lesbian and Gay Task Force staff in 2001 as the legislative lawyer for the Transgender Civil Rights Project. A graduate from Georgetown University Law Center, Mottet held the nation's first legal fellowship specifically aimed at addressing discrimination against transgender people on a national level. At Georgetown, she served as an editor for the Georgetown Journal on Gender and the Law.

Victoria Neilson is the Legal Director of Immigration Equality, running Immigration Equality's pro bono asylum project and providing assistance and mentoring on LGBT and HIV immigration issues to attorneys around the country.  She is the primary author of The LGBT/HIV Asylum Manual and has published extensively on legal issues facing LGBT and HIV-positive immigrants and refugees.  Ms. Neilson received her law degree from the City University School of Law and her bachelor's degree from HarvardUniversity.  Ms. Neilson is co-chair of the New York City Bar Association's Committee on AIDS and an active member of the American Immigration Lawyers Association.

 

Douglas NeJaime is the R. Bradley Sears Law Teaching Fellow at the Williams Institute at UCLA School of Law, where he teaches courses on law and sexuality.  Doug’s research focuses on antidiscrimination law and social movement lawyering, with a focus on sexual orientation-, sex-, and religion-based cause lawyering.  Before joining the Williams Institute, Doug was an associate at the Los Angeles law firm of Irell & Manella.  He is a graduate of Brown University and Harvard Law School, where he served as a Teaching Fellow to Professor Lani Guinier.

Gregory R. Nevins is the Supervising Senior Staff Attorney in the Southern Regional Office of Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund, Inc., a national organization committed to achieving full recognition of the civil rights of lesbians, gay men, bisexuals, transgender people and those with HIV through impact litigation, education and public policy work. In addition to his caseload in the ten-state region, he is Lambda Legal s point person on employment law matters. He litigated to successful resolution both a sexual orientation discrimination suit in South Carolina and an HIV discrimination suit in Georgia. He is a graduate of Harvard Law School.

Jimmy Nguyen is a partner in the Los Angeles office of Wildman Harrold.  His practice encompasses counseling, transactions, enforcement and litigation of entertainment, new media, intellectual property, technology, advertising, and sports matters.  Jimmy also has years of experience handling commercial litigation, having tried both jury and non-jury cases.  He is a prolific speaker, writer and commentator on entertainment, new media, IP and technology matters. Jimmy is a strong advocate for diversity issues.  For the LGBT community, he serves on the Board of Directors for Equality California.  He also serves on the steering committee for the California Minority Counsel Program.

 

Monica G. Parham is a Counsel in the Washington, D.C. office of Crowell & Moring LLP. Since January 2007, she has served as Crowell & Moring s Diversity Counsel, with full-time responsibility for coordinating efforts aimed at addressing and enhancing the recruitment, retention and promotion of attorneys, including women and attorneys of color, who have traditionally been underrepresented in the legal profession. Prior to serving as Diversity Counsel, Monica was a Counsel in the firm s litigation practice. Monica received her law degree in 1993 from the Yale Law School, where she was senior editor of the Yale Law and Policy Review, and her B.A. in 1990 from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she was a Morehead Scholar, graduated with Honors, and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa.

Acting Lt. . Brett Parson is one of the founders of the Gay and Lesbian Liaison Unit (GLLU). GLLU was the first police unit in the country to combine community relations with full policing powers. Parson has served MPDC since 1994 and served as the GLLU's commander from June 2001 until January 2007. Brett worked in patrol, Vice/Narcotics, Gun Recovery, and Investigations and served on several workgroups and committees. He has specialized in the enforcement of alcohol related crimes, as well as Domestic Violence investigations and has been recognized by the department, community and other agencies many times for his work, to include victim advocacy. In 1999, he was transferred to the Sixth District (Southeast and Northeast quadrants of the city), where he was a patrol and investigative supervisor. He briefly supervised the Violent Crimes Investigative Unit, which is responsible for homicide and other violent crime investigations. From the Sixth District, Brett moved to the Major Narcotics Branch, where he supervised the city's elite Narcotics Strike Force, which infiltrates areas of violent crimes and conducts undercover narcotics operations. Brett arrived at the GLLU in June of 2001, joining co-founder, Kelly McMurry. (Kelly created the unit in June of 2000). Upon his arrival, he endeavored to keep the GLLU on the street and in the community.

Jenny Pizer is Senior Counsel for Lambda Legal, based in the Western Regional Office in Los Angeles, where she litigates cases and does public policy advocacy to advance LGBT family rights and to end sexual orientation discrimination in health care, employment, education and housing.  Pizer is a leading voice for ending marriage discrimination against lesbian and gay couples.  She was co-counsel for fourteen same-sex couples and two organizations in In re Marriage Cases, in which the California Supreme Court ruled that it violates the state constitution to deny gay and lesbian couples the equal right to marry, as well as co-counsel for the couples in Andersen v. King County, the Washington State marriage case.  Pizer currently represents Guadalupe Benitez before California’s high court against physicians who refused her a common infertility treatment because she is a lesbian based on their anti-gay religious beliefs.  The court is expected to rule by the end of August 2008 on whether the doctors have a constitutional right to violate California’s civil rights law.  A graduate of NYU School of Law and Harvard College, Pizer is an adjunct professor at USC Law School and Loyola Law School.   

Professor Nancy D. Polikoff is Professor of Law at American University Washington College of Law and the author of Beyond (Straight and Gay) Marriage: Valuing All Families Under the Law (Beacon Press 2008). She has been working on lesbian and gay family law issues for more than 30 years. She helped develop the legal theories in support of second-parent adoption and visitation rights for legally unrecognized parents, and was successful counsel in In re M.M.D., the 1995 case that established joint adoption for lesbian and gay couples in the District of Columbia, and Boswell v. Boswell, the 1998 Maryland case overturning restrictions on a gay noncustodial father=s visitation rights.

 

Professor Gowri Ramachandran, Associate Professor of Law, Southwestern Law School. J.D. Yale Law School; L.L.M. Georgetown University Law Center; M.A., Statistics, Harvard University; B.A., Mathematics, Yale College. While in law school, Gowri was the Editor-in-Chief of the Yale Law Journal, after which she clerked for the Hon. Sidney R. Thomas of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. She was then a Future Law Professor Fellow at Georgetown University Law Center. Before joining Southwestern, she was a Visiting Professor at Florida State University. She has taught Antidiscrimination Law, Federal Courts, Feminist Legal Theory, Constitutional Law, and Employment Law.

Michelle Roberts is a corporate associate at Sullivan & Cromwell LLP in New York. She received a B.A. from the University of Western Ontario in 2004, and an LL.B. from Queen's University Law in 2007. In 2007, Michelle with S&C colleague Julia Guaragna initiated the S&C transgender name change project. S&C attorneys provide representation to low income transgendered men and women in New York City in connection with their legal name change.

Professor Russell Robinson is an Acting Professor at UCLA School of Law. Robinson graduated with honors from Harvard Law School after receiving his B.A. summa cum laude from Hampton University. Robinson clerked for Judge Dorothy Nelson of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals and for Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer. He has also worked for the U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Legal Counsel and the firm of Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer and Feld in Los Angeles, practicing entertainment law. He was a Visiting Professor at Fordham Law School. Robinson’s current scholarly and teaching interests include antidiscrimination law, law and psychology, race and sexuality, and media and entertainment law. His publications include: Casting and Caste-ing: Reconciling Artistic Freedom and Antidiscrimination Norms, Uncovering Covering, Perceptual Segregation, and Structural Dimensions of Romantic Preferences.

 

Professor Clifford Rosky is an Associate Professor of Law at the University of Utah’s S.J. Quinney College of Law, and a Senior Research Fellow at the Williams Institute on Sexual Orientation Law & Public Policy at the UCLA School of Law.   Professor Rosky received his B.A. from Amherst College and his J.D. from Yale Law School.  His most recent article, Like Father, Like Son: The Gender of Homophobia in Family Law, will be published in the Yale Journal of Law & Feminism this fall.  Professor Rosky teaches courses on criminal law, family law, and sexuality, gender and law.

Professor Darren Rosenblum is an Associate Professor at Pace Law School.  Professor Rosenblum joined the Pace faculty in July 2004 after practicing litigation and international arbitration at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP (2000-2004) and Clifford Chance LLP (1998-2000) in New York. Professor Rosenblum clerked for the Honorable José Antonio Fusté in the U.S. District Court of Puerto Rico from 1996-1998.  Professor Rosenblum holds a Masters in International Affairs from Columbia University.  His B.A. and J.D. are from the University of Pennsylvania.  Professor Rosenblum has taught Sexuality and the Law at the University of Pennsylvania Law School and at Fordham Law School.  He currently teaches Contracts, International Business Transactions, Sexuality, Gender and the Law and International and Comparative Equality.   His recent scholarship focuses on international and comparative law and gender, and his publications have appeared in Fordham Law Review, U.C. Davis Law Review, Columbia Journal of Transnational Law, and Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review, among other journals.

Abby Rubenfeld has a general law practice in Nashville with an emphasis on family law, sexual orientation and AIDS-related issues, and currently serves on the board of directors of the ACLU of Tennessee. She served on the board of directors of the Human Rights Campaign, a national civil rights organization and the largest lesbian and gay political organization in the world, for seven years. She also served for more than five years as Legal Director of Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund, Inc., a national civil rights organization that conducts test case litigation across the country on behalf of lesbian and gay rights and AIDS issues. She is a past recipient of the Bill of Rights Award from the ACLU of Tennessee, and the Dan Bradley Award from the National Lesbian and Gay Law Association, which recognized her outstanding efforts on behalf of equality under the law. Ms. Rubenfeld received a J.D. from Boston University School of Law in 1979. She received an A.B. with honors from Princeton University, and while there, lettered in basketball and crew and was the first woman elected as a class president in more than 225 years of Princeton history. She has two daughters, ages seventeen and thirteen years old, as well as a partner, Helia Rethmann, and step-daughter, aged twelve. Ms. Rubenfeld is a professor at Vanderbilt Law School, teaching Sexual Orientation and the Law.

Cathy Sakimura is an Equal Justice Works Fellow at the National Center for Lesbian Rights working to increase access to family law services for low-income LGBT parent families. She received her J.D. in 2006 from UC Hastings College of the Law. During law school, she worked with Legal Services for Children, the ACCESS Self-Help Center of the San Francisco Superior Court, and NCLR. She has a background in youth organizing on issues of homophobia, transphobia, and racism in schools and has worked with children of LGBT parents.

Brad Sears is the Executive Director of the Williams Institute on Sexual Orientation Law and Policy and Adjunct Professor of Law at UCLA School of Law. Sears graduated summa cum laude from Yale University and magna cum laude from Harvard Law School, where he served as Editor-in-Chief of the Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review. In 1996, Sears created the HIV Legal Checkup Project, which provided preventive legal services to over 800 clients per year. In 1997, Sears also became the Discrimination & Confidentiality Attorney for the HIV/AIDS Legal Services Alliance of Los Angeles.

Elizabeth Schwartz, 36, is an attorney and family mediator in Miami Beach, Florida. She focuses her practice on serving the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered communities with an emphasis in the areas of estate planning and probate, as well as divorce and creative conflict resolution. Her work also includes assisting with the legal aspects of adoption, insemination and surrogacy. She is a member of the board of Securing Our Children's Rights, which organization was formed to overturn Florida's ban on gay adoption.  For her years of service, Elizabeth was honored with the Miami-Dade Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce 2005 Community Award as well as the 2007 Dade County Bar Association Sookie Williams Award. A native of Miami Beach, she received her Bachelor of Arts from the University of Pennsylvania in 1993 and her Juris Doctor, cum laude, from the University of Miami, in 1997.

 

Sonja Shield is a staff attorney in the HIV unit of South Brooklyn Legal Services.  Prior to joining SBLS, Shield was a staff attorney at The Bronx Defenders in their civil unit, and clerked for Magistrate Judge Cheryl Pollak in the Eastern District of New York.  Shield received a law degree from NYU Law School, an MSW from NYU School of Social Work, and a BA from Swarthmore College.

Susan Silber is the founder of Silber, Perlman, Sigman & Tilev, P.A., a law firm in Takoma Park, Maryland. Susan provides representation in all areas of family law, employment, and civil rights, and is the City Attorney for several towns. She is dedicated to advancing the rights of lesbian and gay families. She is a member of a network of nationwide experts, the National Family Law Advisory Council of the National Center for Lesbian Rights. Susan has assisted hundreds of families to cooperatively form their LGBT families (e.g. second-parent adoptions, living together contracts). She has also won victories in contested court matters recognizing the rights of lesbian or gay non-biological co-parent and LGBT parent custody and visitation rights.

 

Hon. George J. Silver was elected to Civil Court bench in November 2004   Prior to his election to the bench, he was a partner in the firm of Silver & Santo, LLP specializing in personal injury litigation, commercial litigation, maritime law, guardianship and real estate law.  He obtained a B.S. in Accounting and Management from New York University, a law degree from Hofstra University School of Law and was conferred a Masters of Business Administration from New York University Stern Graduate School of Business.      He is involved in many community-based and Bar Associations including the NAACP, Daytop Village Foundation, the International Association of Gay and Lesbian Judges and the Jewish Lawyers Guild.   In addition, Judge Silver has lectured at Continuing Legal Education Programs for the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Community Center, the Brooklyn Bar Association and Safe Horizons.

David N.-A. Sims is an associate at Saveri & Saveri where he practices antitrust, unfair competition, and class action litigation. David currently serves on the Board of Directors for BALIF and is the Social Chair. Prior, to his current role, David practiced criminal law as a Criminal Law & Policy Fellow at the San Francisco District Attorney’s Office. In addition to his law practice David consults in the cheerleading and dance industry and serves on several governing Board of Directors for cheerleading Safety, Rules, and Compliance. He has a B.A. from Wake Forest University and a J.D. from the University of San Francisco School of Law.

Steve Sims has been with the California Franchise Tax Board for 25 years where he has worked as an auditor in Sacramento, San Jose and Oakland, a collection supervisor and project manager. He was the manager of the Education and Outreach section that is responsible for education and outreach efforts towards tax practitioners and small businesses. He was recently appointed to be the Taxpayer Advocate for FTB. He is a graduate of CSU Sacramento with a B.S. in Business Administration with a concentration in Accounting. He is an Enrolled Agent with the Internal Revenue Service.

 

William S. Singer, a partner in Singer & Fedun, LLC, has been in the private practice of law in New Jersey for over 35 years. His practice concentrates on the creation and protection of non-traditional families and as counselor to numerous, varied non-profit organizations throughout the United States. He has worked to extend rights to lesbian and gay families through the Court system and the legislative process in New Jersey. Bill is a member of the National Family Law Advisory Council of the National Center for Lesbian Rights. Bill serves as general counsel for the National Lesbian and Gay Law Association, the ACLU of NJ, the Sierra Club in New Jersey and the Trial Lawyers of America-New Jersey Branch. Mr. Singer received a degree in history with distinction from Rutgers College and his Juris Doctorate degree from the Columbia University School of Law.

 

Terra Slavin is the Lead Staff Attorney of the Domestic Violence Legal Advocacy Project at the L.A. Gay & Lesbian Center. She is responsible for overseeing the delivery of comprehensive legal services for LGBT survivors of domestic violence. This includes client consultations, case research and court representation in civil domestic violence matters. She is also responsible for training domestic violence and legal service providers on LGBT sensitivity and same-gender domestic violence legal issues, and has provided trainings to hundreds of attorneys and advocates across the country. Attorney Slavin is on the advisory board of the ABA's Legal Assistance and Education for LGBT Victims of Domestic Violence Project. She graduated from Northeastern University School of Law in Boston, Massachusetts in May 2005.

Professor Dean Spade teaches Poverty Law, Administrative Law and Critical Perspectives on Transgender Law at Seattle University School of Law. Prior to joining the faculty of SU, Dean was a Williams Institute Law Teaching Fellow at UCLA Law School and Harvard Law School, teaching classes related to sexual orientation and gender identity law and law and social movements. In 2002, Dean founded the Sylvia Rivera Law Project (www.srlp.org), a non-profit law collective that provides free legal services to transgender, intersex and gender non-conforming people who are low-income and/or people of color. SRLP also engages in litigation, policy reform and public education on issues affecting these communities and operates on a collective governance model, prioritizing the governance and leadership of trans, intersex, and gender variant people of color. While working at SRLP, Dean taught classes focusing on sexual orientation, gender identity and law at Columbia and Harvard Law Schools.

Judith Sperling-Newton is a co-founder of the Law Center for Children & Families and the President of the Board of Directors of The Surrogacy Center in Madison, Wisconsin.  She is committed to social justice and is an ardent children’s rights advocate. She is an experienced guardian ad litem for abused or neglected children. Ms. Sperling-Newton practices in the areas of adoption, assisted reproduction, surrogacy, child protection, and parentage for same-sex partners and works with clients worldwide.  Ms. Sperling-Newton has been recognized for outstanding public service by the Center for Public Representation, and she is a 2004 recipient of the Congressional Coalition on Adoption Angel in Adoption Award.  Ms. Sperling-Newton is the author of Voluntary Termination of Parental Rights and Adoption and the juvenile chapter of the Guardian ad Litem Handbook, both published by the State Bar of Wisconsin.

Eric Stern has worked on numerous Democratic campaigns and in the movement for social justice and equality over the last decade. Stern began his political career as a volunteer for Congressman (and now Ohio Governor) Ted Strickland. As a law student and a lawyer, Stern worked on civil rights issues while at the U.S. Department of Justice, assisting people living with HIV/AIDS at the Whitman-Walker Clinic, advocating for disadvantaged children and families living in poverty at the Children's Law Center, lobbying for equality at the Human Rights Campaign and working to ensure a fair and independent federal judiciary at the Alliance for Justice. In 2004, Stern served as the Director of LGBT Outreach at the DNC where he developed a voter mobilization plan that helped to turn out more than 3.5 million LGBT votes for Democratic candidates nationally. Stern also served as a Regional Field Director in Iowa for the Kerry-Edwards Campaign. After the 2004 election, Stern was appointed the Executive Director of National Stonewall Democrats. At Stonewall, Stern developed the "Stop Santorum Now" campaign--a locally-driven effort that worked to educate, mobilize and turnout LGBT voters in Pennsylvania to defeat anti-gay U.S. Senator Rick Santorum. Stern is currently the Associate Director of Career Development at the University of California, Berkeley School of Law. He continues to remain politically active, serving in the 2008 election cycle first as a Political Advisor to the John Edwards for President Campaign and currently as a National Co-Chair of Obama Pride.

Katie Stewart is the Youth Law Project Attorney at Equality Advocates Pennsylvania. Her work is funded by the law firm of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, LLP, through its public interest fellowship program. The Youth Law Project provides direct legal services, advocacy, education, and outreach to children and youth affected by anti-LGBT bias in Pennsylvania. Katie has experience working with LGBTQ youth in foster care in both Philadelphia and New York City. She received her B.A., cum laude, from Princeton University in 2000, and her J.D., magna cum laude, from New York University School of Law in 2005.

 

Therese M. Stewart has served as Chief Deputy City Attorney for the city of San Francisco Since 2002.  She oversees the City and County's civil litigation and represents San Francisco and its officials in key cases. From February 2004 through May 2008, Ms. Stewart headed a team of deputy city attorneys and private firm lawyers representing the city and county of San Francisco in the California marriage cases, which were litigated in the state trial and appellate courts.  She presented oral argument to the California Supreme Court on March 4, 2008, and the high court decision was issued on May 15, 2008 and held that the exclusion of same-sex couples from marriage unjustifiably discriminates against lesbians and gay men and denies them of fundamental liberty and autonomy privacy interests in entering into a state-sanctioned family relationship equal in dignity to other state-sanctioned family relationships. 

Karen Stogdill is an Enrolled Agent whose tax practice is located in Berkeley, California. She specializes in tax consulting and compliance for registered domestic partners, sole-proprietors, high net worth individuals, trusts, LLCs and S Corporations. She has been awarded a Certified Employee Benefits Specialist designation from the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania.

Professor Kelly Strader teaches criminal law-related courses at Southwestern Law School in Los Angeles.  Before joining the Southwestern faculty, Kelly practiced white collar criminal defense in New York City.  Kelly writes in the areas of white collar crime, criminalization theory, and HIV-AIDS.  He is the past chair of the LSAC’s LGBT Issues Subcommittee.

Kara Suffredini is the Director of Public Policy at Family Equality Council, a national LGBT rights organization based in Boston, Massachusetts. She served on NLGLA's board of directors for ten years, serving as chair in 2004-2005. She currently is chair of NLGLA's Strategic Planning Committee and NLGLA's liaison to the ABA/IRR's Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Committee, of which she is a vice chair. She is a graduate of the University of California, Berkeley and the Boston College Law School and a past Harvard Law School Wasserstein Public Interest Fellow. She is admitted to practice in her home state of California, as well as Connecticut and the District of Columbia.

Linda Tam, is the HIV/AIDS Immigration Project Attorney at the East Bay Community Law Center. Linda, a California attorney, joined the East Bay Community Law Center in 2003 to develop an immigration practice for people living with HIV/AIDS.  She counsels clients on immigration options, immigrant benefit eligibility, and assists clients living with HIV obtain citizenship, permanent residency, HIV waivers, U visas, and political asylum.  She is a contributor on immigration law to "AIDS and the Law," the leading treatise on HIV legal issues, and the AIDSLaw Manual: A Manual on Providing Legal Services to People with HIV/AIDS.

Anne Tamar-Mattis, J.D., is the founder and Executive Director of Advocates for Informed Choice, the first organization in the country focusing on legal advocacy on behalf of children born with intersex conditions. She is a long-time organizer in LGBTQI communities. Ms. Tamar-Mattis is the former Director of the LYRIC Youth Talkline and former Program Director of the San Francisco LGBT Community Center . She is a graduate of Boalt Hall School of Law, and has recently returned to Boalt as a lecturer in Sexual Orientation and the Law. She and her partner, Dr. Suegee Tamar-Mattis, are the parents of two children.

Dr. Suegee Tamar-Mattis is the first openly intersex physician in the nation, and is a long-time intersex and LGBT rights activist. Suegee is a former director of Dimensions Clinic for LGBT youth in San Francisco, and the founder of TranSonoma Clinic in Santa Rosa, CA. Suegee has spoken widely on matters of intersex rights and appropriate health care, in venues ranging from the UCSF School of Medicine to the San Francisco Human Rights Commission. With partner Anne Tamar-Mattis, Suegee is the parent of two children.

Aaron Tax, an SLDN Staff Attorney, provides legal services to those affected by "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" and related forms of discrimination. He is part of the litigation team in Cook v. Gates, challenging the constitutionality of the law. He also coordinates SLDN's constitutional challenges to the military's prosecution of consensual sodomy. He previously worked for the Army as a Presidential Management Fellow, where he served as a Special Assistant U.S. Attorney, practiced labor law with the Army V-Corps, and wrote employment discrimination decisions. He earned his B.S. with honors and distinction from Cornell and J.D. with honors from the George Washington School of Law.

Wayne Thomas is the developer of the GLBT Domestic Violence Attorney Program in Boston, MA, where he currently practices as the lead attorney. He serves as the co-chair of the GLBT Domestic Violence Coalition. He also chairs the Coalition's public policy committee and co-represents the Coalition at the Working Group on Service Accessibility within the Governor's Council Addressing Sexual and Domestic Violence. Attorney Thomas currently serves on the advisory board of the ABA's Legal Assistance and Education for LGBT Victims of Domestic Violence Project. He previously co-presented on GLBT domestic violence at Lavender Law 2006. He is a 1999 graduate of the Northeastern University School of Law.

Julius Turman is a labor and employment attorney with Morgan Lewis & Bockius in San Francisco and has represented employers from a variety of industries in federal and state court and administrative agency proceedings.  He is a past Co-Chair of BALIF, a member of the BASF Board of Directors, a past Chair of the Minority Bar Coalition, and a 2006 Recipient of the BASF Unity Award.  In 2007, he received the BASF Award of Merit.  Julius received his J.D. from Rutgers University School of Law in 1992 and his B.G.S. from the University of Michigan in 1987.

Ken Upton is Supervising Senior Staff Attorney at Lambda Legal, working out of the South Central Regional Office in Dallas, Texas.  He has over twenty years of trial and appellate experience in state and federal courts across the U.S. and currently serves on the governing council of the Sexual Orientation and Gender Identification Issues Section of the State Bar of Texas.  Some recent cases in which Ken appears as counsel of record include Finstuen v Crutcher (striking down as unconstitutional Oklahoma's adoption invalidation law), Moreau v Qwest Communications (testing the reach of the Denver Anti-Discrimination Ordinance for workplace harassment and retaliation based on sexual orientation), Lopez v. River Oaks (asserting Title VII claim on behalf of transgender woman denied employment) and Varnum v Brien (holding unconstitutional Iowa’s denial of  marriage equality for same-sex couples).

Carlos Felipe Uriarte is an associate in the Antitrust and White Collar Groups in the Washington, DC office of Crowell & Moring LLP. Carlos served as a Law Clerk to the Honorable Juan S�nchez of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. Carlos graduated from Washington University in Saint Louis, magna cum laude, and the University of Pennsylvania Law School. During law school, Carlos worked for the Honorable Marsha Berzon of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and as a law clerk for the United States Senate, Committee on the Judiciary.

Brandon Waggoner is an associate in Crowell & Moring's Insurance and Tort Groups, where he focuses primarily on representing clients involved in complex insurance coverage litigation and premises liability litigation.

Professor Deborah H. Wald, is the founder of the Wald Law Group, a Bay Area law firm specializing in Family Formation, Assisted Reproduction, Adoption, Divorce and Dissolution legal services. She speaks regularly on cutting-edge family law topics, and is an adjunct professor at USF Law School. Ms. Wald is a member of the Academy of California Adoption Lawyers and Academy of California Family Formation Lawyers; Board Chai r o f Our Family Coalition; Chair of the National Family Law Advisory Council for the National Center for Lesbian Rights; and a member of the Family Law Section of the American Bar Association.

Hon. James L. Warren (Ret.) has been involved in many of San Francisco Superior Court’s most high profile cases. Prior to his appointment to the bench, he was Senior Counsel for Pacific Bell in San Francisco where he was primarily responsible for large and complex commercial litigation. Previously, Judge Warren practiced for nearly twenty years with Pillsbury Winthrop (formerly Pillsbury, Madison & Sutro) where he specialized in anti-trust and large commercial cases and was founding Chair of the firm’s Intellectual Property Specialty Group. He is known for his insightful analysis, creative problem-solving, and warm but firm manner with all parties.

Hon. Theodore M. Weathers was appointed as Judge of the Superior Court of the State of California for the County of San Diego by Governor Gray Davis in July 2003.  He currently presides in San Diego’s “Mental Health Court” and was previously the Supervising Judge of the Juvenile Delinquency Court.  Weathers was appointed by the judges of the Superior Court as a Commissioner in January 2000. He is a graduate of Rutgers University and New York Law School.  Prior to his appointment to the bench, Judge Weathers served as an assistant district attorney in Bronx County, New York and as a deputy public defender in San Diego County.

Kristina Wertz is the Legal Director of the Transgender Law Center and has been an advocate for the LGBT community for over ten years. Prior to her current role, Kristina practiced as a civil rights litigator at the Epstein Group in San Francisco. During her time there, she focused on employment discrimination and housing rights for a diverse clientele. As an attorney, Kristina has worked as a legal advocate for people with disabilities, workers, victims of domestic violence, renters and recipients of public benefits.  She has a B.A. from New YorkUniversityand a J.D. from BrooklynLawSchool.

Kathi Westcott has been with SLDN since 1999. As Deputy Director for Law, Ms. Westcott is responsible for coordinating SLDN's legal service and litigation programs which includes serving as the primary attorney for SLDN's legal service clients, managing all requests for legal assistance, and identifying and reporting on trends in the application of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell, Don't Pursue, Don't Harass" in the various services. Ms. Westcott is also responsible for directing SLDN's involvement in challenging the constitutionality of the United States military's sodomy statute in light of the Supreme Court decision in Lawrence v. Texas, and is a member of the litigation team challenging the constitutionality of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" in Cook v. Rumsfeld. In 1999, Ms. Westcott spearheaded SLDN's investigation into the murder of a soldier at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, and assisted in bringing the soldiers responsible to justice. Ms. Westcott regularly contributes to SLDN's policy work and speaks publicly about SLDN, the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell, Don't Pursue, Don't Harass" law, current litigation, and Fort Campbell murder. Before joining SLDN's team, Westcott honed her social justice and legal rights expertise with several prominent and nationally recognized civil rights organizations including the ACLU National Prison Project and People for the American Way, where she served as a Senior Legislative Representative. In the two years prior to joining SLDN, Westcott assisted the Federal District Court for the District of Columbia in the oversight of a large class action sexual harassment case. A licensed attorney in the state of New York and the District of Columbia, Westcott received her Bachelors with Honors from the Rochester Institute of Technology and her Juris Doctorate from the University at Buffalo, School of Law.

Bridget J. Wilson is shareholder at Rosenstein, Wilson & Dean, PLC in San Diego, CA. She has been active in the battle against the US military's anti-gay LGBT policies since 1972. She is a graduate of Creighton University and the University Of San Diego School Of Law. Her practice includes military law and civil litigation. She is a veteran of the U.S. Army Reserve. She is an adjunct professor at Thomas Jefferson School of Law where she has taught Military Justice.

Richard A. Wilson is principal in The Law Offices of Richard A Wilson PC, in Chicago, where he concentrates exclusively on litigation and appellate practice relating to domestic relations law and legal issues, with particular emphasis on same-sex issues, including domestic partnerships, parentage, custody and visitation and related concerns and rights of persons in same-sex relationships. He is immediate past chair of the Illinois State Bar Association's Standing Committee on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity (2006-2007) and the Chicago Bar Association's Committee on the Legal Rights of Lesbians and Gay Men (2005-2006, 2004-2005). He is also member of the American Bar Association's AIDS Coordinating Committee, the SOGI committee of the ABA's Family Law Section, the Board of Directors of the AIDS Legal Council of Chicago, and the Board of Directors of the Lesbian and Gay Bar Association of Chicago. He also a founding member of the National Family Law Advisory Council, a roundtable of lawyers who practice same-sex Domestic Relations law, established in 2003 by the National Center for Lesbian Rights. He resides in Chicago with his partner of 25 years.

Janson Wu is a staff attorney with the Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders (GLAD). Before coming to GLAD, Janson worked as a coordinating attorney with Tri-City Community Action Program, a multi-service, anti-poverty organization, where he provided legal services to low-income individuals. Prior to that, Janson was an associate at the litigation law firm of Quinn Emanuel Urquhart Oliver & Hedges in San Francisco. In California, he volunteered on an LGBT anti-violence hotline, for the Lawyer's Committee of Civil Rights, and for the AIDS Legal Referral Panel.

Mia Frances Yamamoto was born "Michael" while her family was interned at the Poston Relocation Camp in Arizona during World War II. It was her earliest experience with race-based discrimination and the vital importance of civil rights and liberties, something that has inspired her career and life's work. Ms. Yamamoto volunteered for the US Army, 4th Infantry Division, and service in Vietnam where she received the Army Commendation Medal and Vietnam Campaign medal, among other commendations. Ms. Yamamoto received her Juris Doctorate from the University of California Los Angeles School fo Law, and she co-founded the Asian Pacific Islander Law Student Association, one the earliest such organizations in the country. After law school, Ms. Yamamoto worked at the Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles for three years before becoming a Deputy Los Angeles County Public Defender, and later a California State Public Defender. She has been in private practice as a criminal defense lawyer since 1984.

Danny Yu is a collaboratively trained therapist in the San Francisco Bay Area.  He provides psychotherapy to individuals and couples using psychoanalytic, family systems, and cognitive behavioral approaches, as well as working collaboratively as a coach in divorce and parentage cases.  His practice focuses on provision of services to Asians and Pacific Islanders, individuals with HIV disease, gay men, lesbians, and transgender individuals, as well as adolescents.  He presented on the uses of Collaborative Practice within the lesbian and gay community at the 2008 Collaborative Practice California conference, and will be presenting on similar issues at the annual conference of the International Association of Collaborative Professionals in October, 2008.

Hon. D. Zeke Zeidler was elected to the bench of the Los Angeles County Superior Court in 2004.  Prior to that, he served as a Superior Court Referee for over six years, presiding over cases that involve child abuse and neglect.  Judge Zeidler is very active on committees that create anti-bias curriculum for judicial officers and court staff throughout California, and teaches new judge orientation and juvenile law overview courses for judicial officers in California.  He is on the Board of the International Association of Lesbian and Gay Judges, previously serving as treasurer.  Before taking the bench, Judge Zeidler's was as an attorney was representing abused and neglected children.  He has served as an officer in NLGLA and was the co-chair of NLGLA's law student arm.  In addition to his legal involvements, Judge Zeidler has been very active on education issues.  He was first elected to the Redondo Beach School Board in 1995, becoming only the tenth openly Gay or Lesbian school board member in the country, and he was overwhelmingly re-elected in 1999.  Judge Zeidler resides in Los Angeles with his husband, attorney Jay Kohorn.

 

National Lesbian and Gay Law Foundation
1301 K Street, NW, Suite 1100 East Tower
Washington, D.C. 20005-3823

202-637-7661 info@lgbtbar.org

The National Lesbian and Gay Law Foundation is a 501(c)(3) sister organization to a 501(c)(6)professional membership organization.

Web Design by Southern Web Group