PRACTICEPRO - Key Persons
Amanda Kelly is the Senior Manager of Attorney Recruitment at Haynes and Boone, LLP, bringing over 15 years of experience to the team. As a member of the Attorney Recruitment Department, she focuses on entry-level hiring across all offices. She is involved is setting recruiting strategies for the firm and focuses on initiatives that drive the firm's strategic commitment to recruit top talent. Amanda is a passionate advocate for increasing diversity within the firm and works closely with the Director of Diversity and Inclusion to help achieve the firm's goals and vision for diversity. As such, she has served as a member of the Attorney Diversity & Inclusion Committee, a group who is dedicated to attracting, developing and retaining diverse talent.
Amanda received her Bachelor of Business Administration from Southern Methodist University in Dallas, TX. Outside of work, she enjoys running and spending time outdoors with her husband and three kids.
Job Titles:
- Advisor
- Director of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion at Cooley
Amie Santos is the Director of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion at Cooley. Strengthened by her background in change management, talent recruitment, and program development, Amie collaborates with firm management to implement strategies aimed towards increasing the representation and promotion of women and diverse lawyers and professional staff at Cooley.
Amie holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Political Science and Business Management from Radford University. After her undergraduate studies, she received a Graduate Certificate in Leadership in Human Resources from the University of Virginia.
Prior to joining Cooley, Amie was the Firmwide Senior Diversity Coordinator at Baker Botts LLP and the Recruiting and Development Coordinator at Skadden, Arps. Amie is a member of the National Association for Law Placement (NALP) and on the Board of the Association of Law Firm Diversity Professionals (ALFDP).
Avery is an Assistant Career Coach at PracticePro where he is committed to helping law students bridge the gap between law school and practice.
Prior to PracticePro, Avery worked as a Mediation Fellow at the St. Louis Mediation Project. Through sensitivity and creativity, Avery successfully prevented eviction while meditating over 200 cases between landlords and tenants in St. Louis County Housing Court.
Avery earned his J.D. and LL.M. from Washington University School of Law in St. Louis, where he was the Associate Managing Editor of the Washington University Jurisprudence Review. Avery also earned the Richard Sher Award for Excellence in Mediation and Dispute Resolution.
Before attending law school, Avery graduated magna cum laude from the University of Mississippi with a major in Marketing & Corporate Relations. In his freetime, he enjoys recording music, trying new restaurants, and playing disc golf.
A partner at Haynes and Boone, Brian Kwok helps clients build, manage, and successfully monetize patent portfolios. Brian evaluates patent portfolios and negotiates deals ranging from a few hundred thousand to many billions of dollars. He recently represented an international technology company in a multi-billion dollar patent portfolio acquisition involving thousands of patents related to wireless telecommunications, cellular systems, and consumer electronics.
Brian also counsels clients through pre-litigation conflicts to resolve assertions and licensing disputes before patent litigation ensues. When patent disputes mature into formal litigations, Brian has significant experience with patent matters before the International Trade Commission and numerous federal district courts. Brian's practice also includes representing clients in inter partes review and post-grant review proceedings before the U.S. Patent Office's Patent Trial and Appeal Board as part of a comprehensive litigation strategy.
Mr. Kwok was selected for inclusion in Northern California Super Lawyers - Rising Stars Edition, Thomson Reuters, 2014-2016. Outside of his legal practice, Mr. Kwok is a member of the Board of Directors for Leela International, a non-profit that builds playgrounds and art education programs for children in underprivileged communities around the world.
Brian received his B.S. with distinction in chemical engineering from the University of Illinois, and graduated from the University of Wisconsin Law School, magna cum laude.
Job Titles:
- Advisor
- Partner at Jackson Walker LLP
Bruce J. Ruzinsky is a partner at Jackson Walker LLP where he chairs the firm's bankruptcy, restructuring & recovery section, previously headed up the Houston office litigation section and Houston office hiring committee, and previously chaired the firm's diversity and inclusion committee.
Job Titles:
- Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Coordinator
Darielle Martin is a graduate of the University of California, Riverside (UCR) and a prospective law school applicant. At UCR Darielle served as the President for the National Black Law Student Association. She also served as the Internal Vice President of the Black Student Union.
Job Titles:
- Advisor
- Senior Manager of Firmwide Law School
Elizabeth Pond is the Senior Manager of Firmwide Law School Recruiting for Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati. She co-leads the firm's law school recruiting efforts and is currently located in the firm's Austin office. Her role includes overseeing the firm's annual summer programs, as well as the firm's fall associate onboarding and integration efforts. She has 17 years of legal recruitment experience working at a number of top ranked law firms. Her experience includes law school on-campus recruiting, summer program management, attorney onboarding, lateral attorney hiring, and professional development/mentoring. She has a passion for helping others and has served on many committees throughout her career, ranging from the Palo Alto Lawyers Softball League Committee to the National Association for Law Placement (NALP) Annual Education Conference Planning Committee.
Elizabeth received her Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo. She is a member of the National Association for Law Placement (NALP), the Bay Area Legal Recruitment Association (BALRA), and the Recruiting Administrators of Austin (RAA). When she's not working, Elizabeth enjoys exploring new places and cultures with her husband and two kids.
Job Titles:
- Advisor
- Vice President, Deputy
Iris Chen is a Vice President, Deputy General Counsel in the Legal Department at Airbnb, Inc. where she leads a team of 50+ attorneys and legal professionals that support Airbnb's product, commercial and marketing functions across the company's Product, Engineering, Marketing, Communications, Creative Production, Supply Growth, Trust & Safety, Community Support and Airbnb.org teams, as well as managing the company's trademark and copyright matters. Prior to joining Airbnb, Iris spent over 14 years with Google as a Vice President in the Legal Department where she led a team of 145+ legal team members responsible for supporting global product development and all commercial transactions in North America and EMEA for Google's advertising, commerce, payments, search, research, health, geo and supporting infrastructure services. Iris is experienced in leading and developing legal teams and advising executives across product, engineering, sales, business development and other functions. Before joining Google, Iris was a corporate associate at Simpson Thacher & Bartlett (2001-2004) and then Ropes & Gray (2004-2006) as an associate in the firm's investment management practice. Iris is a graduate of Yale College and Columbia Law School.
Iris currently serves on the board of the Children's Discovery Museum of San Jose and is a member of Columbia Law School's Alumni of Color Committee. Iris is an avid supporter of diversity, equity, and inclusion in the legal profession and has served as a PracticePro Advisor since 2017.
Job Titles:
- Law School Mastery® Co - Director
Isabella Gonzalez is a 3L at the University of Miami School of Law, where she served as secretary of the Miami Law Women Association and as an intern for the Immigration Clinic. Isabella is currently in the top 8% of her class and plans to focus on Intellectual Property once she graduates.
Prior to law school, Isabella graduated summa cum laude from Florida International University, where she majored in Liberal Studies. During her undergraduate studies, Isabella was also part of the Honors College.
Isabella's main mission is to help current and incoming diverse law students access the legal profession and provide resources to help them succeed in the practice of law.
Jackson Gossett is a 2L at Boston University School of Law. Before attending law school, Jackson graduated with Highest Distinction from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with a double major in History and Political Science and a minor in English. At UNC, he worked as a Trial Manager at a jury research firm and served as a Student Government Appointee on Carolina Student Legal Services' Board of Directors.
Outside of law school, Jackson enjoys fly-fishing with his father in the North Carolina mountains and savors any opportunity to spend time in nature.
Jackson is eager to promote PracticePro's goal of diversifying the legal profession and is driven to help provide students with equitable access to success.
James Kahn, Kahn Analytics
James Kahn has nearly 20 years experience in entrepreneurship and developing startups into mature, successful, and profitable organizations. Beyond his fluency in dozens of compiled and interpreted programming and scripting languages along with their computer theoretic and mathematical underpinnings and related platforms, Mr. Kahn has a profound knowledge and understanding of computing, software engineering, algorithms, business, and financial engineering theory and practice.
Serving throughout his career as Founder, President, CEO and CTO of numerous endeavors, he has pioneered technology-based businesses, created innovative algorithms, and provided in-depth technical and financial solutions. Mr. Kahn has extensive experience in the conception, design, development and production of technical arms of companies in various industries.
Job Titles:
- Advisor
- Second - Year Associate
Kristina Krasnikova is a second-year associate in Cooley LLP's Palo Alto General Corporate Group. She represents both private and publicly-traded companies across a wide range of matters, including entity formation, corporate governance matters, venture capital and other private financings, mergers and acquisitions and public offerings.
Kristina graduated from the UC Berkeley School of Law where she served as a class representative for the Student Association at Berkeley Law (SABL) as well as the Annual Review editor for the Berkeley Law Technology Journal. Prior to law school, Kristina earned her Bachelor's degree at the University of California, Santa Barbara where she graduated with a double major in Political Science and Slavic Languages and Literatures, in the honors program with high honors.
Kristina is a PracticePro Diversity Scholar Program alumna. Prior to graduating law school, Kristina also served as the Editor-in-Chief of the PracticePro Practice with Passion Blog as well as a PracticePro law clerk. As an immigrant and first-generation attorney, Kristina is passionate about diversity, inclusion and mentorship within the legal profession.
Job Titles:
- Advisor
- Director of Legal
Lindsey Higgins is the Director of Legal Recruitment for WilmerHale. Lindsey leads the firm's non-partner recruiting efforts and sits in the Boston office. Lindsey is a strategic & thoughtful leader with over 15 years of experience driving & overseeing Talent Acquisition, Development, Training & Management programs across multi-office organizations. Her specialties include full- cycle talent acquisition efforts, professional development programming, leading and working across teams, onboarding, integration, counseling, compensation, mentoring, diversity and inclusion, employee relations and performance management. Lindsey is a recognized talent acquisition leader and is a go to for industry professionals.
Lindsey earned her law degree from Suffolk University Law School and her B.A. in English and Gender Studies from Connecticut College. Outside of work, Lindsey enjoys spending time with her husband and children.
Job Titles:
- Advisor
- Partner in the Palo Alto
Lisa Nguyen is a partner in the Palo Alto office of Paul Hastings. Her practice focuses primarily on intellectual property litigation, and has included actions pending before the US International Trade Commission, federal district courts and state courts. She has represented both plaintiffs and defendants in complex multi-defendant, multi-patent cases. She has particular experience obtaining successful outcomes for her clients based on innovative strategies, including victories at trial, summary judgment, and motions to dismiss. She has obtained walk aways for defendants with no payment to plaintiffs, as well as attorneys' fees and costs awards.
Lisa has been recognized among the Top 50 Women in PTAB Trials, Asian Leader Worth Watching, and Rising Star in IP Litigation by Northern California Super Lawyers. Lisa currently sits on the Board of Directors and serves as the Vice President for the Asian Law Alliance. As an undergraduate, Lisa regularly served as a teaching assistant for the introductory computer science course and was recognized with the Computer Science Department Award for Excellence and Dedication in Teaching.
Lisa received her bachelor's degree in computer science and legal studies from U.C. Berkeley and her law degree from the University of Chicago Law School.
Job Titles:
- Advisor
- Partner
- Latham & Watkins
Maj Vaseghi, a partner in Latham's Silicon Valley office and current Global Vice Chair of the firm's Public Company and Board Representation Practice, consistently dedicates herself to diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) within the firm and across the Bay Area legal and business community. A recognized firm leader, she has served as a Bay Area Hiring Partner and Co-Chair of the Diversity Leadership / Recruiting Subcommittee.
As part of her practice, Maj guides public companies on the interplay of compensation, tax, and disclosure requirements in benefits and compensation issues and securities compliance. She frequently writes and speaks on executive compensation, corporate governance, and tax-related issues.
Niki Khoshzamir is the Chief Executive Officer of PracticePro, an EdTech social enterprise that provides skills training, coaching, and scholarships to empower the next generation of diverse attorneys. In her role, she leads all business and legal aspects of the company, including corporate governance, strategic partnerships, IP portfolio strategy, and product development.
Prior to founding PracticePro, Niki was an attorney at the global firms of Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale & Dorr, LLP, and Kirkland & Ellis, LLP. She focused her practice on intellectual property litigation, complex commercial disputes, and trade sanctions compliance. Niki was the first recipient of the firm's Pickering Fellowship on the West Coast, through which she spearheaded the Advancing Justice - Asian Law Caucus' advocacy and community education project on U.S. sanctions.
Niki currently serves on the national advisory board of the Iranian American Bar Association (IABA), and she is the former president of the Northern California Chapter, which she founded in 2006. She also serves on the Leadership Council of Asian Law Caucus. From 2011 to 2017, Niki was a Lecturer at Law at the University of California, Berkeley School of Law.
Prior to her legal career, Niki researched cancer genomics at the MD Anderson Cancer Center and was a research technician at Human Genome Sequencing Center, Baylor College of Medicine.
Niki received her B.S. in Biology, summa cum laude, from Texas Southern University, Juris Doctorate from Berkeley Law, and an Advanced Genomics and Genetics certificate from Stanford School of Medicine. She grew up in Tehran, London, and Vienna and immigrated to the United States on her own at 19 to attend college.
Ola Adekunle is Sr. Patent Counsel and Head of Engagement Readiness at Google. As a member of Google's Patent Transaction Team, Ola focuses on mitigating IP risks and supporting the company's objectives through strategic third party engagements and leveraging Google's patent portfolio to achieve business goals. Prior to joining Google, Ola was Senior Patent Counsel & IP Strategist at Hewlett Packard Enterprise and Hewlett Packard Company from 2012-2017. Before starting his in-house career at HPE/HP, Ola worked as a patent attorney at firms in the DC area and TX.
Ola is passionate about diversity, equity and inclusion in the legal profession and tech space. Ola is one of the founding members of Google's Legal Summer Institute (LSI) and sits on the LSI Steering Committee. Google LSI aims to improve access to in-house careers at tech companies by expanding opportunities and removing barriers for talent historically underrepresented in the legal industry. Ola is also a co-founder and co-lead for Google's Street Law program, a program that mentors and introduces high school students from diverse backgrounds to careers in the law and helps them develop practical skills useful in real life and in the corporate world.
Ola earned his law degree from West Virginia University College of Law, his MBA from West Virginia University, and his B.S. in Computer Engineering from West Virginia University. Ola currently serves on the WVU Foundation Board of Directors (Vice-Chair of the Nomination and Governance Committee) and served on the WVU College of Law Visiting Committee from 2012-2017. Outside of work, Ola enjoys spending time with his two sets of twins (twin boys and twin girls).
Job Titles:
- Advisor
- Product and Commercial Counsel at Amazon
Prior to joining Amazon, Priyank was an associate at Fenwick & West and Morrison & Foerster, where he focused his practice on risk assessment and transactional matters involving intellectual property and technology, including licensing, joint development, manufacturing and supply logistics, strategic sourcing, and mergers and acquisitions.
Priyank graduated from UCLA School of Law, where he was a co-founder of the First-Generation Law Students' Association, and helped pro-bono clients at the law school's trademark clinic. Priyank was also a research assistant for Berkeley Law Professor David Oppenheimer on topics related to Comparative Equality law. During law school, Priyank was also an intern at Salesforce, NBC, and Rubrik. Prior to law school, Priyank was a legal specialist at Google and Apple.
Priyank is a PracticePro Diversity Scholar Program alumnus.
Priyank Patel is a product and commercial counsel at Amazon in their Devices Division.
Professor Berring is also a pioneer in the profession of law librarianship. He served as the director of the Berkeley Law Library for 23 years, and is the former dean of the School of Library and Information Studies. He has authored several groundbreaking texts on legal research - including Finding the Law and Legal Research Survival Manual - and is the creator of the award-winning video series Legal Research for the 21st Century. Professor Berring was named the author of the most influential work on the profession of law librarianship in 50 years (1957 to 2006), by the Academic Law Libraries section of the American Association of Law Libraries.
Professor Berring has an unparalleled dedication to mentoring and inspiring students. From those enrolled in his courses, to those seeking him out for advice by email or in school hallways, he always takes time to listen and guide his students to pursue their dreams. For years, Professor Berring has also written an advice column under the pseudonym "Uncle Zeb." Claiming to be an ectoplasmic entity, Uncle Zeb has helped thousands of Berkeley Law students. The law school's cafe was named after Uncle Zeb by popular vote.
Professor Berring received his B.A. from Harvard University and his J.D. and M.L.S. from the University of California at Berkeley. He lives in Berkeley, California with his wife and enjoys spending time with his two children and granddaughter.
Job Titles:
- Advisor
- Chairman
- Co - Chair of the Diversity Committee
- Partner in S & C 's Litigation Group
Tracy Richelle High is a partner in S&C's Litigation Group, a co-Head of the Firm's Labor and Employment Law Group and a member of the Criminal Defense and Investigations practice. Ms. High's practice focuses on representing financial institutions and other corporations in complex civil litigation, arbitration and mediation proceedings, corporate internal investigations, and labor and employment matters. She has also represented clients before a wide variety of regulatory and prosecutorial agencies, both at the state and federal levels, as well as Congressional committees and independent examiners appointed by court order.
Internally, Ms. High serves as co-chair of the Diversity Committee and is one of S&C's hiring partners. Ms. High also oversees S&C's active networks for minority associates: the Asian Associates Network, the Network of Black & Latino Lawyers and the LGBT Network. Each of these groups is dedicated to enhancing the experience of S&C's diverse attorneys and championing their retention and advancement by fostering professional development, networking and mentoring opportunities.
Externally, Ms. High is the Chairwoman of the board of directors of the YWCA-NYC, a Vice Chairwoman of the Legal Aid Society and a board member of the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. She also serves on the Steering Committee of the Kate Stoneman Project, is a Trustee of the Harvard Law School Association, New York City, and is a member of the Association of Black Women Attorneys and Metropolitan Black Bar Association. Ms. High is also a Fellow of the American Bar Foundation.
Ms. High is a graduate of Yale University and Harvard Law School.
Job Titles:
- Advisor
- Litigation Partner in the Houston Office of McGuireWoods
Yasser Madriz is a litigation partner in the Houston office of McGuireWoods. He has extensive experience handling complex, high-stakes litigation in federal and state court, and plays key roles in various multi-billion dollar cases filed throughout the United States. He represents both plaintiffs and defendants from a wide array of industries in a broad range of business, commercial, and energy litigation matters. Over the past several years, Yasser has focused his practice on cases involving technology and intellectual property disputes, trade secret theft, and unfair competition claims, but he has substantial experience handling other litigation matters. As a former transactional attorney, Yasser frequently leverages his transactional background to help clients solve complex transaction based disputes, business organization controversies, and derivative actions.
As a native Nicaraguan, Yasser's Latin American roots and fluency in Spanish have additionally enabled him to develop experience in representing Latin American clients in international and cross-border disputes.
Yasser is very active in the Houston legal community, including membership in the Houston Bar Association, Texas Young Lawyers Association, and the Houston Young Lawyers Association. His involvement with United Way earned him the designation of United Way Young Leader, and he was selected as a Leadership Council on Legal Diversity Fellow in 2012. Yasser was also selected for inclusion in Texas Super Lawyers - Rising Stars Edition, Thomson Reuters, from 2009-2012.
Yasser graduated with honors from McMaster University and received his law degree from the University of Houston Law Center.