Class of 1997
(Notes posted in the order they were received, with the newest posts on top.)
Darin Michael Klemchuk has been elected Managing Partner of Klemchuk Kubasta, an intellectual property law firm he co-founded in Dallas, Texas. Darin focuses his practice on all aspects of intellectual property with emphasis on patent, trademark, copyright, and trade secret litigation. Posted 1-10-12
Wade Turner was named executive vice president and general counsel of Academy Sports Outdoors. Turner’s in-house career began in 2005 at Home Depot, where he was senior corporate counsel in charge of litigation. In 2009, he joined Academy Sports Outdoors as general counsel. Posted 1-10-12
Renee Yuen has been appointed by the Florida Secretary of Business and Professional Regulation to a three-year term on the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulations, Division of Hotels and Restaurants, Hotels and Restaurants Advisory Council.Renee is an in-house counsel for the Walt Disney World Resort. Posted 10-17-11
Daniel W. Van Horn took office as president of the Tennessee Bar Association at the association's annual convention in Chattanooga. He is the youngest member of the TBA to hold that office. Danny practices law at the Memphis firm of Butler Snow O’Mara Stevens & Cannada, where he focuses on commercial litigation, including business torts, unfair competition, insurance disputes and product liability. He also leads the firm’s commercial litigation group. Posted 10-17-11
Timothy W. Hoover was elected to partner in the Buffalo, NY office of Phillips Lytle. Timothy, who joined Phillips Lytle in June 2008, focuses his practice on white collar criminal defense matters, government and internal investigations, civil and commercial litigation in state and federal courts, and appeals. Posted 3-10-11
James Hill Hippe has been named as legislative director and counsel for U.S. Representative-elect Chuck Fleischmann, a Republican elected to the 3rd Congressional District f Tennessee in November. "I am grateful to have Jim on my team. He brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to the table that will be invaluable as we begin the process of governing. I will look to Jim for advice on navigating Capitol Hill and introducing the conservative legislation the voters of the 3rd District elected me to fight for," Fleischmann said in a news release. Jim worked for Sen. Bill Frist for seven years in several roles, including legislative director and deputy chief of staff. Most recently he has served as a counsel for policy to the state Senate Republican leadership in Nashville. Posted 12-16-10
James Crumlin was chosen as the 2010 Young Leader of the Year from among 1,800+ alumni of Young Leaders Council. The award was presented at the recent Young Leaders Council 25th Anniversary Celebration Dinner and is presented annually to an alumnus of the YLC training program who has demonstrated a commitment to ongoing community service and board leadership after graduating from YLC. Posted 11-30-10
Rebecca Jacobs is rejoining Ulmer & Berne after a leave of absence. She will work in the firm's Columbus, Ohio office. She represents businesses on employment-related matters, including wrongful discharge, discrimination, harassment, retaliation, employee leave, and wage and hour issues. Posted 11-18-10
Tennessee Bar Association President-elect Danny Van Horn was among several Vanderbilt Law alumni recognized for leadership and service to the Tennessee Bar Association (TBA) during the association’s annual convention in Nashville in June 2010. He took office as president-elect of the TBA on June 3. The move puts Van Horn in line to assume the presidency in June 2011 as the youngest member of the TBA to hold that office. Van Horn practices in the area of commercial litigation with Butler Snow O’Mara Stevens & Cannada, where he focuses on business torts, unfair competition, insurance disputes and product liability cases. Posted 11-3-10
Daniel W. Van Horn has been elected president of the Tennessee Bar Association for 2011-2012. Danny will be one of the youngest attorneys to serve as president of the Tennessee Bar Association (TBA). He will first serve as the TBA’s next vice president, which will make him the organization's president-elect in 2010. He a former president of the TBA's Young Lawyers Division, and he currently serves as the 9th District representative on the TBA Board of Governors and as chair of the TBA CLE Committee. He is a partner with Butler Snow O'Mara Stevens & Cannada in Memphis, where he focuses on business torts, unfair competition, complex commercial litigatin and insurance coverage disputes. He has been named to Mid-South Super Lawyers in the area of Business Litigation, and awarded the Pro Bono Service Award for Memphis Area Legal Services, the Star of the Year Award by the American Bar Association’s Young Lawyer’s Division twice, named Top 40 Under 40 by The Memphis Business Journal and won the President’s Award from the Tennessee Bar Association’s Young Lawyer’s Division. He is a member of the ABA's Litigation Section, its Standing Committee on Membership and its House of Delegates. Danny previously served as Assembly Speaker for the ABA Young Lawyers Division, the second highest national officer. He is a co-founder of the Atticus Network. a pro bono referral group, an officer for the Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Memphis, a member of the Board of Advisors for the Greater Memphis Chamber, and a Chamber Ambassador. Posted 6-17-09
Renee Yuen (B.A. 1994) and her husband, Iain Juden, are proud to announce the birth of a baby girl, Evelyn Soo-Quan Juden, born on April 25, 2009. She weighed 8 pounds, 7 ounces. The family lives in Orlando, Florida, where Renee is director / senior counsel at Walt Disney World Company. Posted 6-17-09
Mark Alan Helm, ’97, died at his home in Salt Lake City, Utah, December 17, 2008. Before earning his law degree at Vanderbilt, Mark earned his undergraduate degree at Bates College and attended Oxford University. He worked as a public defender in New York City, Washington D.C., Las Vegas and Salt Lake City. Mark was an active member of the Trial Lawyers College and served in various capacities as part of the organization. He also served as a consultant to the Albert Ellis Institute. He was a true and compassionate advocate for those who struggled. Those who knew him appreciated his sense of humor and his sense of style. He is survived by his mother, Sandra Berlin Helm, his brother, Robert Helm, and his sister, Leslie Stone, and five nieces and nephews. Posted 4-8-09
Timothy W. Hoover has joined Phyllips Lytle in Buffalo, New York, as an associate. Tim focuses his practice on commercial litigation and white collar and federal criminal defense, including internal investigations, tax controversies, professional defense, sophisticated appeals and parallel proceedings. He is a member of the American, New York State and Erie County Bar Associations. Posted 4-3-09
Greg R. Wehrer has been elected to Squire, Sanders & Dempsey’s partnership. Greg had served as a trial lawyer in Columbus but will relocate to the Houston office to focus his practice on complex commercial litigation and appeals. Greg has substantial experience in toxic tort and product liability, business contract disputes, insurance coverage issues, constitutional claims, intellectual property and real estate tax appeals. He has represented several pro bono clients before the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals. He has been named a Rising Star by Ohio Super Lawyers. He was editor of the Vanderbilt Law Review and received his B.A., cum laude, in 1993 from Bowling Green State University. Posted 2-21-09.
Cheryl Johnson-Hartwell and her husband, Terrence Hartwell, became the proud parents of a daughter, Charlotte Olivia, on May 27, 2008. Cheryl and Terrence live in Toluca Lake, California, and Cheryl is an attorney with Waller Lansden Dortch & Davis.
Carter Brothers is now a member of Spilman Thomas & Battle, based in the firm's Roanoke, Virginia office, where his primary areas of practice are estate planning and administration, taxation, bond finance, and corporate law. Carter earned his undergraduate degree from Williams College, and earned a Masters of Law in Taxation from the University of Florida after earning his J.D. at Vanderbilt. He is admitted to the Virginia and Tennessee State Bars.
Lauri D. Chaudoin has opened ChaudoinLaw, a new legal and mediation practice serving the business community. Lauri will provide advice to businesses in the areas of employment law, construction law and general corporate issues. Her mediation practice will resolve all types of disputes, including labor and employment, commercial, personal injury and family law disputes. Lauri served as in-house counsel for Rogers Group, Inc., one of the largest aggregate and road construction companies in the southeast, for the past nine years. Prior to that, she was in private practice in the area of labor and employment law. She received her bachelor of arts in communications from Belmont University. Lauri is a member of the Nashville and Tennessee Bar Associations, the Lawyers Association for Women, and the Tennessee Association of Professional Mediators. She has served on various committees of the Tennessee Road Builders Association and the Council of Counsel for the National Stone Sand and Gravel Association. Lauri currently serves on the board of directors of the Ear Foundation, as a volunteer mediator for the Nashville Conflict Resolution Center, and as a worship leader in the Children’s Ministry at 24 Church. Posted11-3-08
Lucibeth Mayberry has been promoted to vice president, deputy chief development officer for Corrections Corporation of America (CCA). Lucibeth began her career at CCA in 2003 as a senior director, customer relationship manager (CRM). She has since served as managing director, state customer relations and most recently was vice president of research, contracts and proposals. Before joining CCA, Lucibeth served as a senior associate of the taxation and estate planning practice group at the Nashville-based law firm Stokes, Bartholomew, Evans and Petree. She holds a bachelor's degree from the University of Tennessee and a master of laws in taxation degree from the University of Florida. CCA was the first company in the private corrections management industry and represents the nation's fifth-largest corrections system. Posted 8-26-08
Alan C. Perkins, a top Tonkon Torp immigration attorney, has been selected by the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) to serve on a national committee that works with the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) on policy and adjudication issues, and the USCIS California Service Center Liaison Committee. Perkins has more than a decade of immigration law experience. A Portland native, he recently returned to Portland after practicing immigration law for eight years in San Francisco. Posted 8-19-08
Vanessa Scott has joined the tax practice in Sutherland, Asbill & Brennan's Washington, D.C. office. After graduation, Vanessa worked as an associate at a Birmingham, Alabama law firm, then served tax counsel for Congressman Artur Davis (D-AL). Before joining Sutherland, Vanessa served as corporate secretary and counsel for the ERISA Industry Committee (ERIC). Her article on tax code section 409A was recently published in The Tax Lawyer. Posted 7/9/08
Carter R. Brothers was recently promoted to Senior Attorney in the Roanoke, Virginia office of Spilman Thomas & Battle. His primary areas of practice are estate planning and administration, taxation, bond finance, and corporate law.
Cynthia Webb Fitzgerald was honored as a Top Lady of Distinction for 2008. Cynthia was one of ten women selected for the honor, which is bestowed by the Top Ladies of Distinction on ten African-American women whose professional accompishments support the organizations focus on promoting scholarship opportunities for today's youth, assisting the aged, improving the status of women, and promoting community beautification.
Darin M. Klemchuk founded the Intellectual Property practice of Cash Klemchuk Powers & Taylor in 2004. His Dallas practice includes all aspects of intellectual property with emphasis on patent, trademark, copyright, and trade secret litigation. Darin also assists companies by identifying and protecting branding, technological innovation, software and other property by procuring patent, trademark, and copyright registrations and through employment agreements. Darin is an avid country music and film fan who enjoys boxing and running and lives in Dallas with his wife and three children.
Amy Moss was named firm partner at Haynes & Boone in the firm's Houston office. A partner in the Corporate Securities Practice Group, Amy focuses on corporate and securities law, mergers and acquisitions, venture capital financing and AIM offerings. Representing public and privately-held companies, Ms. Moss advises clients on matters including mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, divestitures, private placements of stock and debt and venture capital transactions.
Phillip Fowler has been named Chair of the Indiana State Bar Association's Litigation Section.
Lara Peirce has left her position as a Felony Chief Prosecutor in Dallas to become a Policy Advisor with the Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, SMART Office in Washington, D.C. The SMART Office assists in the implemenation of the Adam Walsh Act, concerning sex offender sentencing, monitoring, apprehension, registration and tracking.
Cheryl Johnson-Hartwell has been named a partner with Waller Lansden Dortch & Davis. Cheryl practices in the areas of labor and employment, commercial litigation and trademark prosecution in the Los Angeles office.
Rebecca (Swanson) Jacobs has been named a partner with Ulmer & Berne in its Columbus, Ohio, office. Ms. Jacobs also serves as a lecturer on "Employment Practices and the Law" for the Masters in Labor and Human Resources program at the Ohio State University Fisher College of Business.
Phillip Fowler has been elected chair of the Indiana State Bar Association’s Litigation Section. The Litigation Section has over 1,200 member lawyers and is one of the largest sections of the State Bar.
Alan C. Perkins has joined the immigration practice group of Tonkon Torp, where he will focus on employment-related immigration and naturalization matters.
Phillip Fowler has been appointed chair of USLAW Network’s Electronic Discovery Committee. Phillip, an attorney with Bingham McHale in Indianapolis, focuses his practice in the representation of corporate clients and their owners, officers and directors in federal and state court litigation and in alternative dispute resolution, and also represents a variety of clients in other complex litigation. He actively participates in the Indianapolis Bar Association, and is the vice chair of the Litigation Section of the Indiana State Bar Association. He also does volunteer work for the Indianapolis Zoo, the Children’s Museum of Indianapolis, the Justice Center Task Force and other local non-profit organizations.
Maxwell N. Barnes of Indianapolis was elected partner at Baker & Daniels. Max, who joined the law firm in 2003, practices in corporate finance and corporate transactional matters.
Chris Robbins has been detailed to the office of FCC Commissioner Deborah Taylor Tate to assist in handling media issues. Prior to joining the FCC, Chris was an attorney in the media practice group at Wiley Rein & Fielding.
Jim Hippe was named deputy chief of staff by Sen. Bill Frist (R-Tenn.). Jim has been a member of the senator's staff since July 2000, and previously served as Frist's legislative director and directly handled telecommunications and intellectual property issues.
Paul Larsen and his partner, Blake Humphreys, welcomed a baby girl, Camille Larsen-Humphreys, on April 22, 2006. Camille joins older brother Aidan, who is 15 months. They live in Washington, D.C.
Robert F. Morris and Hilary Claire Trought married May 6, 2006 at the First Presbyterian Church of Cranbury, New Jersey. Robert is an associate at the Brennan Law Firm in Cranbury, but from 1998 to 2001 he served in active duty as a member of the U.S. Army Judge Advocate General's Corps at Fort Knox. Hilary teaches mathematics in the sixth and seventh grades at the Morristown-Beard School.
David Johnson is a member of Miller & Martin in Nashville, where he focuses his practice on civil litigation.
Jack W. (Jay) Campbell IV was selected as the new executive director of the North Carolina Board of Pharmacy, a state organization that exists to protect the public's health, safety, and welfare in the practice of pharmacy. Jay joined the staff of the North Carolina Board of Pharmacy on February 1, 2006. A native of Sanford, NC, Jay is a 1993 graduate of the UNC School of Pharmacy. After graduating from UNC, he worked in pharmaceutical research and in a community pharmacy before entering Vanderbilt Law School. Upon completion of his law degree, he served in a clerkship for The Honorable Bruce Selya on the US Court of Appeals for the First Circuit. He has practiced law with Jones Day, a large multi-national firm in Washington, D.C., and most recently in Charlotte with Helms Mulliss & Wicker, a large North Carolina-based law firm, and served as an adjunct professor at the Wingate University School of Pharmacy.
Danny Van Horn has joined the firm of Butler, Snow, O'Mara, Stevens & Cannada in East Memphis. Danny serves as the president of the Young Lawyers Division of the Tennessee Bar Association and is active in the ABA/YLD. He is serving as clerk of the National Assembly for 2005-06, and he will be the assembly speaker (the second-ranking position) in the ABA/YLD next year.
Thomas Wang has founded the law firm of Sedor, Wendlandt & Wang in Anchorage, Alaska.
Renee M.H. Yuen married Iain J. Juden on May 28, 2005 in Honolulu. The happy couple reside in Orlando, Florida, where Renee is employed by Walt Disney World Co. VULS alumni attending the wedding included Edward Carlisle and Christine (Davitz) Connolly from the class of 1997 and Daniela Stoia and Virgilio Crespo from the class of 1998.
Ellen Armentrout and Glen Staszewski, '96, welcomed a daughter, Nora Armentrout Staszewski, on May 10, 2005. She joined her big brother, Benjamin, now 3.
Adam Pechter and his wife, Lauren, welcomed a baby girl, Sasha Miriam, on April 23, 2005. Big sister Lila is two and a half.
Do you have news you would like to share or just want to let everyone know what you are up to these days? Submit your class note online, e-mail Grace Renshaw or call 615-322-2606.
Please check the "Alumni MIA" list to see if you can help us find any of your "lost" classmates!