D.C. Bar Communities Announce 2025 Lawyer of the Year Awardees

May 13, 2025

The D.C. Bar Communities are recognizing 10 D.C. Bar members for leadership in their respective practice areas, excellence in their professional and personal lives, and dedication to the mission of the D.C. Bar and its Communities.

The Communities Lawyer of the Year awardees will be honored at the D.C. Bar’s Celebration of Leadership on June 26 at the Westin Washington, DC Downtown Hotel.
 
“The mission of the District of Columbia Bar Communities is to advance the professional development and competence of members of the D.C. Bar through high-quality educational programming, leadership opportunities, networking events, and wellness activities,” said Communities Committee Chair James S. Bubar. “I am honored to announce the following 10 lawyers who were nominated by their Community peers for their distinguished service to the Bar.”
 
Katie Townsend
Arts, Entertainment, Media and Sports Law

Katie Townsend is a partner in the Washington, D.C., office of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP, advising clients in the media, entertainment, and technology industries. Townsend recently returned to Gibson Dunn after serving as the deputy executive director and legal director of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, where she oversaw the nonprofit organization’s legal services portfolio, including its amicus curiae practice and the litigation and legal advising work of Reporters Committee attorneys. She began her career at Gibson Dunn handling contract disputes, intellectual property issues, and defamation claims.

Ann C. Wilcox
District of Columbia Affairs

Ann C. Wilcox has been a member of the D.C. Bar since 1989, after graduating from American University Washington College of Law. Her practice largely has been in public interest law, including defending tenants, counseling protesters, and handling other criminal and civil matters. She has served two terms on the District of Columbia Affairs Community steering committee and has been active in organizing programs on D.C. home rule and local policy issues.

Gregory M. Lipper
Environment, Energy and Natural Resources

Gregory M. Lipper is a trial and appellate litigator at Lipper Law PLLC, which he recently founded. Lipper’s practice covers criminal defense, First Amendment and media law, as well as commercial and civil rights litigation. A vegan and an animal lover, he is co-chair of the Environment, Energy and Natural Resources Community’s Animal Law Committee. He prepared an amicus brief on behalf of federalism scholars in National Pork Producers Council v. Ross, in which the U.S. Supreme Court upheld California’s law barring in-state sales of inhumanely produced pork.

Kristin Henrikson
Family Law

Kristin Henrikson has been a private family law attorney in the District of Columbia and Montgomery County, Maryland, for 20 years. She began her career as a staff attorney with the Legal Aid Society of the District of Columbia before joining a boutique family law firm and then shifted to solo practice in 2019. Her expertise encompasses all aspects of family law, including prenuptial agreements as well as divorce and its related issues such as property division and spousal support. She also has an active mediation and arbitration practice, including both court-appointed and private matters. Henrikson devotes time and resources to assisting persons of limited means and is also actively engaged in legal education and legislative advocacy efforts.

Ralph C. Thomas III
Government Contracts

Ralph C. Thomas III is senior counsel at Whiteford, Taylor & Preston LLP, where he is the firm’s government contracts law lead. Thomas has significant experience in contract terminations, bid protests, small business compliance, and disputes resolution, to name a few specialties. In addition to being a member of the D.C. Bar Government Contracts Community, Thomas is also chair of the Federal Bar Association’s Government Contracts Section. Thomas is also an author, a U.K. solicitor, a former government senior executive, and a past adjunct professor of law.

Irene Hui
Health Law

Irene Hui is senior counsel for government programs at Kaiser Permanente. She is responsible for advising Kaiser’s regional offices outside of California on Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program matters. Prior to joining Kaiser, Hui spent more than 14 years at the D.C. Department of Health Care Finance (which administers the District's Medicaid program and other publicly funded health care programs), first as attorney advisor, then as deputy general counsel. Hui holds a master’s degree from the Yale School of Public Health and a JD from the University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law.

Brendan Hughes
Intellectual Property Law

Brendan Hughes is chair of Cooley LLP’s global trademark, copyright, and advertising practice group. An experienced litigator, Hughes focuses his practice on trademark, copyright, and false advertising-related actions in federal court, as well as on trademark opposition and cancellation proceedings before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office’s Trademark Trial and Appeal Board. The World Trademark Review has recognized him as one of the top trademark lawyers in Washington, D.C., recently noting that Hughes is “an exceptional practitioner with an eye towards practical strategy and creative solutions.”

Andrea Al-Attar
International Law

Andrea Al-Attar is principal of The Law Office of Andrea T. Al-Attar, P.C. She advises corporations, individuals, and nonprofit organizations on compliance with U.S. economic sanctions, export controls, and anti-money-laundering laws. She assists clients with navigating these regulations in the context of complex cross-border transactions. Al-Attar formerly held several positions at the U.S. Department of the Treasury, including in the Office of Foreign Assets Control, and worked as an associate at two law firms. She is co-chair of the D.C. Bar International Law Community’s steering committee. She is also co-chair of the ABA International Law Section’s Export Controls and Economic Sanctions Committee.

Bennett Rushkoff
Public Interest and Courts
 
Bennett Rushkoff has been an administrative law judge (ALJ) for the D.C. Office of Administrative Hearings since 2016. During this period, he has specialized in public benefits cases, hearing claims brought by Medicaid, SNAP, and TANF beneficiaries and by recipients of shelter services. As the principal ALJ for public benefits cases from 2019 to 2023, and as a current co-chair of the D.C. Bar Public Interest and Courts Community’s steering committee, Rushkoff has strived to improve access to justice for unrepresented litigants.

Liz Young
Taxation

Elizabeth “Liz” Young, a partner in the tax credit and community development finance practice group at Holland & Knight LLP, provides tax counsel to real estate investors, syndicators, developers, and tax-exempt organizations that seek to finance community development projects across the United States. Young structures complex community development transactions involving various tax credits as well as state and local programs to provide affordable housing, rehabilitate and preserve historic structures, and install vital businesses in underserved areas of our communities. She served on the D.C. Bar Taxation Community’s steering committee from 2018 through 2023 and was chair from 2020 to 2021. She has been a member of the D.C. Bar Communities Committee since 2024.