D.C. Bar Election Coverage 2010

The D.C. Bar Nominations Committee has announced candidates for office on the Board of Governors for the 2010–2011 term. The nominees are running for the positions of president-elect, secretary, and treasurer; five vacancies for three-year terms on the Bar’s Board of Governors; and three seats in the House of Delegates of the American Bar Association.

Ballots and instructions for voting (by mail or online) will be distributed to all active D.C. Bar members on May 5. Members have until June 4 to vote. Results of the election will be announced on the Bar’s Web site at www.dcbar.org and on Thursday, June 24, at the Bar’s Annual Business Meeting and Awards Dinner, which takes place at the Renaissance Mayflower Hotel, 1127 Connecticut Avenue NW.

Concurrently, the D.C. Bar Sections Office has announced nominees for vacancies on the steering committees of the Bar’s 21 sections. Election is determined by ballot among section members, who have until June 4 to vote. The Sections Office will announce election results the week of June 14.

Meet the Candidates for President-Elect

Darrell G. Mottley
Darrell G. Mottley is a principal shareholder at Banner & Witcoff, Ltd., where he focuses on intellectual property law, particularly patent-related matters in the areas of computers, e-commerce, electrical and mechanical technologies, and medical devices.

Mottley has been practicing at Banner & Witcoff for the past 10 years, despite taking what some might consider an unconventional path to the legal profession. With a Bachelor’s of Science in Engineering Science and Mechanics and Master’s in Business Administration from Virginia Tech in hand, he originally pursued a career as an engineer, working for the U.S. Air Force Reserves, AAI Corporation, U.S. Army Belvoir Research and Engineering Development Center, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Looking to combine his engineering and business backgrounds, he attended The George Washington University School of Law, focusing on patent law.

“I want to be able to take my engineering background, business acumen, and the Bar leadership that I’ve developed over the years … and use technical issues to bring the Bar closer to members,” Mottley says. “For example, I think we should look at strategy on how to use social networking at the Bar. Do we use blogs? Do we look at Twitter-type, Facebook-type activities? How will those things relate to increasing member experience?”

As chair of the D.C. Bar Council on Sections, Mottley and other Bar leaders already have begun testing new online interactive communications. As president-elect, he would seek a broader approach that could be applied to the Bar as a whole. He suggests a “President’s Channel” of sorts where speeches would be recorded, uploaded to YouTube, and then linked to the Bar’s Web site. “Using technology that we already have—it’s free—so that members can see what this Bar is all about, what we’re doing, and how we’re doing it [is important],” Mottley says.

Other top priorities include implementing the Bar’s strategic plan, which was approved by the Bar’s Board of Governors in November 2009, and continuing to improve the Bar’s leadership initiatives. As a member of the Strategic Planning Committee, Mottley participated in developing the Bar’s “envisioned future.” Part of that vision is to make the organization a national model for all other bars. To accomplish this goal, Mottley says, the Bar needs a strong leader at the helm—a trait he honed as a commissioned officer in the Air Force Reserves. “You had to deal with how you lead others in times of a lot of stress and uncertainty,” Mottley says. “We have a lot of uncertainty now in the economy.”

If elected, Mottley plans to explore organizing roundtables with law firms to develop best practices that can assist attorneys as they adapt to the changing landscape of the legal industry. “[In Sections], we did look at that issue. We asked our members to come up with programs to assist folks in their careers. We looked at speed networking and speed mentoring so that lawyers who are in firms can mentor the people who are coming in new.” The Bar would act as the central coordinator, disseminating information to the public, he suggests.

In addition, Mottley’s federal government work has given him experience dealing with multimillion-dollar budgets, organization structures, and policy issues. “I think I’m uniquely positioned to advance the strategic plan of the Bar. I have the technical background, the ability to synthesize what the complex issues are and place that into a useable area for our members.”

Mottley is a member of the board of directors of the Bar Association of the District of Columbia, a fellow in the American Bar Foundation, and a member of the Commercial Law Section of the National Bar Association. He also serves on the Industrial Advisory Council at the College of Engineering at Virginia Tech and on the editorial board for the American Bar Association’s Landslide magazine. Previously, he served as cochair of the D.C. Bar Intellectual Property Law Section and has lectured on patent law at Howard University School of Law.

“Part of the model [at Virginia Tech] is Ut Prosim. It translates to ‘That I May Serve.’ If you look at what I’ve done, most of it is dealing with service to the community and service to others,” he adds. “That’s what I’ve been trying to do and what I would want to do in the future.”

Laura A. Possessky
Laura A. Possessky is a founding member of Gura & Possessky, PLLC, where she focuses on entertainment, intellectual property, and media law. For more than 15 years, she has worked in the arts field, counseling artists, associations, nonprofits, and small businesses on intellectual property protection and content transactions in film, the Internet, media, publishing, and television.

Possessky began her journey through private practice as an associate at Garfinkle & Associates, and then as an attorney at Lichtman, Trister & Ross, PLLC. In 2004 she became a member of Gura & Day, which became Gura & Possessky a year later. Previously, she was a staff attorney at the Smithsonian Institution.

If elected, her top priority would be to engage members. She wants to create a forum to open up discussion and address concerns—especially the significant changes in various fields—that are relevant to members’ law practices. “A lot of the issues that have been out there floating around in their practice have been on the horizon for years,” she says.

While managing her small firm’s Washington, D.C., office, Possessky has gained a unique perspective on the legal industry’s current economic challenges. “It’s been a year where we’ve had to reevaluate how we practice law, how we manage our businesses … I have a good understanding of what it’s like to be operating and working in this kind of economic environment,” she says. “I’m a small firm lawyer. It’s challenging.” To meet the needs of numerous attorneys—a growing group—who are contemplating starting their own practices, she aims to continue elevating members’ awareness and access to Bar resources so they will have the tools they need to get set up and established.

If elected, “another key goal would be working to raise the visibility of the programs that the Bar already has and providing greater accessibility to those programs,” Possessky says. She points to new initiatives that are part of the Bar’s strategic plan, which she helped develop as a member of the Strategic Planning Committee. “[We’re going to] look at online opportunities and teleconference programs and a variety of things that can really make it easier for practitioners to get access to information they need that would help them with their practices and their substantive areas of law.”

Possessky also wants to shift more focus toward pro bono work. “Building community is essential,” she says. As president of the Washington Area Lawyers for the Arts (WALA), a nonprofit organization that provides legal services for the arts community, she sees firsthand the difficulties of securing access to justice for those who cannot afford representation. “The demand is the greatest it has been in years, and the level of resources is probably at the lowest it has been in years … We’re struggling to provide services that people need,” Possessky says. “We need to find ways to encourage the membership to get involved in pro bono activities. There are ways to get that message out and enlist the support of people who are in a position to be able to serve and provide services that are badly needed now.”

In addition to working with WALA, Possessky serves as a member of the D.C. Bar Board of Governors, formerly serving as the Bar’s treasurer, and is a member of the board of the Women’s Bar Association Foundation. A former chair of the D.C. Bar Council on Sections, she also has served as chair of the Bar’s Arts, Entertainment, Media and Sports Law Section. Possessky is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and the Georgetown University Law Center.

“I’ve been involved with the Bar for many, many years. [It has] gone through some challenging times and has had to reevaluate what it’s doing and where it’s going,” Possessky says. She believes she can draw from her experiences to lead the organization as it continues to grow and reflect the changing industry. “I really love the Bar … This is a great opportunity to take it to the next level. I really want to be a part of that.”

D.C. Bar Nominations Committee Announces Board Candidates
The D.C. Bar Nominations Committee also announced the selection of candidates vying for other positions on the Bar’s Board of Governors, including secretary and treasurer.

Ballots and instructions for voting will be distributed to all active D.C. Bar members on May 5. Members may return their ballots either by mail using the special envelope provided or electronically by following instructions on the ballot. In either case, the first ballot received, electronic or paper, will be the only ballot counted. All ballots must be received by June 4. Results will be announced June 24 at the D.C. Bar Annual Business Meeting and Awards Dinner and posted on the Bar’s Web site at www.dcbar.org.

Nominated for one-year terms on the Bar’s Board of Governors are, as secretary, Habib F. Ilahi of Schertler & Onorato, LLP and Patrick McGlone of ULLICO, Inc.; and, as treasurer, Andrea C. Ferster, solo practitioner, and Sherrese M. Smith of the Federal Communications Commission.

Seeking to fill the five vacancies on the Bar’s Board of Govenors for a three-year term are H. Guy Collier Jr. of McDermott Will & Emery LLP; Stephen I. Glover of Gibson Dunn & Crutcher LLP; Charles K. Kerby III of Liberte Group LLC; Bridget Bailey Lipscomb of the U.S. Department of Justice; Lorelie S. Masters of Jenner & Block LLP; Robert D. Okun of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia; Marianela Peralta of Littler Mendelson, P.C.; Veta T. Richardson of the Minority Corporate Counsel Association; Alfreda Robinson of The George Washington University School of Law; and R. Justin Smith of the U.S. Department of Justice.

There are three seats open on the American Bar Association House of Delegates. Nominated for these positions are Arthur D. Burger of Jackson & Campbell, P.C.; John C. Cruden of the U.S. Department of Justice; Robert J. Hildum of the Office of the Attorney General for the District of Columbia; Beth L. Law of the Consumer Specialty Products Association; Karen M. Lockwood of The Lockwood Group; and Lucy L. Thomson of Computer Sciences Corporation.

Sections Office Announces Steering Committee Nominees
The following nominees are running for vacancies on the steering committees of the Bar’s 21 sections. Ballots, which will be mailed to members of the sections by May 7, must be received in the envelope provided with those ballots by June 4. The Sections Office will announce the election results the week of June 14. Section members who have not received their ballots by May 19 should call the Sections Office at 202-626-3463 to obtain a duplicate.

D.C. Bar Sections 2010–2011 Steering Committee Candidates

Administrative Law and Agency Practice (Three Vacancies): Jonathan G. Cedarbaum, U.S. Department of Justice; Thomas O. Gessel, Rulemaking Services LLC; Adam L. Hill, U.S. Department of Homeland Security; Connie L. Johnson, U.S. Department of Defense; Andrew J. P. Levy, Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP; Suzanne Newhouse Mullen, U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure; Sambhav N. Sankar, U.S. Department of Justice; Daniel W. Wolff, Crowell & Moring LLP.

Antitrust and Consumer Law (Three Vacancies): Carrie M. Anderson, Weil Gotshal & Manges LLP; Craig L. Briskin, Mehri & Skalet, PLLC; Nadine Jones, Arnold & Porter LLP; Phyllis G. Kimmel, Miller Balis & O’Neil PC; Tracy D. Rezvani, Finkelstein Thompson, LLP; Steve Vieux, Federal Trade Commission.

Arts, Entertainment, Media and Sports Law (Three Vacancies): M. Paige Gold, Law Office of Paige Gold; Daniel P. Kaufman, Perennial; Kate McSweeny, Chadbourne & Parke LLP; Karl W. Means, Shulman, Rogers, Gandal, Pordy & Ecker P.A.; Lita T. Rosario, Wyz Girl Entertainment Consulting LLC; Juan “Jay” Rossello, National Collegiate Athletic Association; Bradley S. Shear, Law Office of Bradley S. Shear, LLC; Bradley A. Thomas, Law Office of Bradley A. Thomas; Robert M. Wise, Wise Entertainment Law LLC.

Computer and Telecommunications Law (Three Vacancies): Emmitt H. Carlton Jr., Federal Communications Commission; Braden E. Cox, NetChoice; Kathleen M. Cronin, Axiom Legal; Grace E. Koh, Cox Enterprises, Inc.; Patrick R. McFadden, Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP; James J. Miller, Federal Communications Commission; Glenn S. Richards, Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP; Enrico C. Soriano, Fleischman and Harding LLP; Berin M. Szoka, The Progress & Freedom Foundation; Eric T. Werner, National Security Council, The White House.

Corporation, Finance and Securities Law (Three Vacancies): Anne L. Benedict, Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP; Larry Ellsworth, Jenner & Block LLP; Keir D. Gumbs, Covington & Burling LLP; Sara P. Hanks, Clifford Chance US LLP; Julie A. Smith, Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP; Daniel S. Sommers, Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll PLLC; Stephanie Tsacoumis, Georgetown University.

Courts, Lawyers and the Administration of Justice (Three Vacancies): Jenny A. Brody, Attorney-at-Law; Anne M. Smetak George, Washington Legal Clinic for the Homeless; Sharon E. Goodie, D.C. Office of Administrative Hearings; Frederick V. “Fritz” Mulhauser, American Civil Liberties Union of the National Capital Area; Stephen B. Pershing, University of California Washington Center; Sean C. Staples, The Children’s Law Center.

Criminal Law and Individual Rights (Three Vacancies): Errol R. Arthur, Arthur & Arthur PLLC; David B. Deitch, Law Offices of David B. Deitch PLLC; Thomas W. Farquhar, Attorney-at-Law; Orin S. Kerr, The George Washington University Law School; Maria “Maribeth” Raffinan, Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia; Mark E. Schamel, Schertler & Onorato, LLP; Justin V. Shur, U.S. Department of Justice; Alvin H. Thomas Jr., Law Offices of Alvin H. Thomas Jr., LLC; Geneva G. Vanderhorst, Law Services of Geneva Vanderhorst.

District of Columbia Affairs (Three Vacancies): Esther S. Bushman, D.C. Office of Zoning; Thomas P. Cassidy Jr., O’Riodan Bethel; Brian K. Flowers, Council of the District of Columbia; David L. Goldblatt, Arnold & Porter LLP; Jarid A. Smith, Wiley Rein LLP; Lee A. Smith III, D.C. Department of Small and Local Business Development; Ram Y. Uppuluri, Council of the District of Columbia.

Environment, Energy and Natural Resources (Three Vacancies): Brian P. Grant, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency; Emily M. Lamond, Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP; Benjamin S. Lippard, Vinson & Elkins LLP; Amy E. McDonnell, The Chesapeake Bay Foundation; Sierra B. Weaver, Defenders of Wildlife; Jeffrey A. Wertkin, Patton Boggs LLP.

Estates, Trusts and Probate Law (Three Vacancies): Gary D. Altman, Altman & Associates; Kimberly K. Edley, Attorney-at-Law; Olekanma A. Ekekwe, Law Offices of Olekanma A. Ekekwe, PC; Elizabeth Forgotson Goldberg, The Law Office of Elizabeth Forgotson Goldberg; Mark G. Griffin, Griffin & Murphy LLP; L. Laurel Lea, Furey, Doolan & Abell, LLP; M. Cecelia Steiner-Smith, D.C. Office of the Attorney General; Katherine M. Wiedmann, Crowley Hoge & Fein PC.

Family Law (Three Vacancies): Jessica E. Adler, The Law Office of Jessica E. Adler; Daniel F. Cardile, Kuder, Smollar & Friedman, P.C.; Danya A. Dayson, O’Toole Rothwell Nassau & Steinbach; Nancy E. Drane, The Children’s Law Center; Shaughnessy B. Loncar, Burr Law Firm; Rebecca C. Shankman, Ain & Bank, P.C.

Government Contracts and Litigation (Two Vacancies): Keith D. Coleman, Reed Smith LLP; Thomas A. Coulter, LeClairRyan; Elizabeth W. Newsom, Crowell & Moring LLP; Jeffrey S. Robinette, Robinette Group PLC; Stephen M. Seeger, Seeger, Faughnan, Mendicino, P.C.; Daniel O. Stewart, Hill International, Inc.

Health Law (Two Vacancies): Saundra E. Brown-Savoy, Howard University; Sarah A. Kaput, Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky and Popeo, P.C.; Sondra L. Mills, U.S. Department of Justice; Tearyn Parroff, Bredhoff & Kaiser, P.L.L.C.

Intellectual Property Law (Three Vacancies): Stephen E. Belisle, Fitzpatrick, Cella, Harper & Scinto; Cheryl L. Black, Goodman, Allen & Filetti, PLLC; Maureen F. Browne, Covington & Burling LLP; Robert J. Kimmer, Litman Law Offices, Ltd.; Rina Pal, The George Washington University Law School; Ellen M. Smith, Sughrue Mion, PLLC; Raymond Van Dyke, Merchant and Gould PC.

International Law (Two Vacancies): Andrew J. Durkovic, Amsterdam & Peroff LLP; Claud “Lex” v. S. Eley, Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP; Nancy L. Perkins, Arnold & Porter LLP; Louis K. Rothberg, Dilworth Paxson LLP; Mara V. J. Senn, Arnold & Porter LLP; Baiju S. Vasani, Crowell & Moring LLP.

Labor and Employment Law (Three Vacancies): Michelle F. Bercovici, Kraft Eisenmann Alden, PLLC; Gerald L. Gilliard, American Federation of Government Employees; H. David Kelly Jr., Beins, Axelrod, P.C.; James T. Langford, D.C. Office of Labor Relations and Collective Bargaining; Joyce E. Taber, Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP; Christine C. Zebrowski, Overbrook Law LLC.

Law Practice Management (One Vacancy): Anne E. Collier, Attorney-at-Law; Christopher M. Guest, Law Office of Christopher Guest; Mathew B. Tully, Tully Rinckey PLLC.

Litigation (Three Vacancies): Jonathan G. Cedarbaum, U.S. Department of Justice; Olekanma A. Ekekwe, Law Offices of Olekanma A. Ekekwe, PC; Kathleen R. Hartnett, Spiva & Hartnett LLP; Michael D. Kass, Hogan Lovells; Elliot F. Kaye, Hogan Lovells; Robert N. Kelly, Jackson & Campbell, P.C.; Adam S. Lurie, House Intelligence Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations; John E. Reid, De Laurentis Reiff & Reid, LLC; Mark E. Schamel, Schertler & Onorato, LLP.

Real Estate, Housing and Land Use (Two Vacancies): Edward A. Bloom, K&L Gates LLP; Steven L. Dube, Holland & Knight LLP; Todd Lewis, The TR Lewis Law Group, P.C.; Robert W. McKeon Jr., D.C. Office of Tax and Revenue; Lauren J. Pair, D.C. Department of Housing and Community Development; Zakkiyyah L. Terrell White, Gladstone Law Group, P. A.

Taxation (Three Vacancies): Ronald A. Dabrowski, KPMG; Michael G. Lapidus; Attorney-at-Law; Richard G. Larkins, Ernst & Young LLP; Scott M. Levine, Jones Day; Christian M. McBurney, Nixon Peabody LLP; Serena G. Simons, The Segal Company.

Tort Law (Three Vacancies): Paul J. Cornoni, Regan Zambri Long PLLC; Crystal S. Deese, Brault Graham LLC; Elizabeth Ewert, Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP; Kelly J. Fisher, Koonz McKenney Johnson Depaoli & Lightfoot, L.L.P.; Denis C. Mitchell, Stein, Mitchell & Muse LLP.