The Top 25 Attorneys of Maryland for 2022

Attorney Intel is pleased to announce The Top 25 Attorneys of Maryland for 2022. These law professionals advise and represent individuals and corporations in a range of areas including corporate affairs, M&A, US economic sanctions, nonprofit, and education, among other areas. They are vital to the local and global economy with their contributions, helping businesses and individuals navigate legal matters year after year. By ensuring contractual obligations are met, resolving disputes, facilitating the flow of funds and investments, and encouraging innovation through the protection of intellectual property rights, they are enabling the growth of the economy.

Among this year’s awardees Glen Donath, Partner in Clifford Chance’s White Collar and Regulatory practice, who appears frequently in the media as an authority on white collar criminal defense and government investigations. David Marcinkus, Partner of Kirkland & Ellis, has a history working on high-profile status matters including applications for asset-light tech companies such as Lyft, Snowflake and Upstart. Also awarded is Sherri Sampson Vice President and General Counsel of the University of Maryland Global Campus, who leads a team providing legal advice and recommendations on matters related to higher education including labor and employment, military and global compliance, accreditation, as well as key business transactions and venture opportunities.

Please join us in celebrating the accomplishments of The Top 25 Attorneys of Maryland for 2022.

 

Glen Donath
Partner, Clifford Chance

Glen Donath is a Partner in Clifford Chance’s White Collar and Regulatory practice. His practice focuses on white collar criminal defense, governmental enforcement actions, internal investigations, health care fraud and abuse, corporate compliance and complex civil litigation. He first joined the firm in 2017. A highly regarded former federal prosecutor, Donath has successfully represented health care providers, financial institutions, investment funds, insurance companies and various other corporations in an array of complex civil and criminal proceedings, including matters arising under securities, tax, Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, environmental, healthcare, False Claims Act, bribery, Office of Foreign Assets Control, anti-money laundering and other criminal statutes.

Donath previously served for a number of years as a senior assistant US attorney in the Fraud and Public Corruption Section of the US Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia. During his time as a federal prosecutor, he first-chaired dozens of trials involving a wide range of criminal offenses to successful verdicts. He appears frequently in the media as an authority on white collar criminal defense and government investigations. He has also been quoted in various publications including the Wall Street Journal, Newsweek, Bloomberg BusinessWeek, Fortune, Forbes, LA Times, AP, Reuters, and many others. Donath earned a JD from the University of Chicago Law School and an undergraduate degree from Yale University.

 

Bill Sherman
Partner, Latham and Watkins

Bill Sherman is a Partner in the Litigation & Trial Department of Latham & Watkins and a member of the firm’s nationally recognized Antitrust & Competition Practice. He is an experienced trial lawyer who specializes in antitrust class action litigation.

Sherman represented numerous Fortune 100 companies and multinational corporations in connection with nationwide and worldwide antitrust class action claims. He has extensive experience in large, multi-party litigation, and has led the defense of complex, cutting-edge antitrust cases in federal and state courts, at both the trial and appellate levels. In addition, he represented a variety of clients in other types of both civil and criminal matters, including defending corporate business practices in court and before state and federal regulatory bodies; representing high-ranking government officials in First Amendment and other actions, including constitutional challenges to election results; representing state agencies, cities, municipalities and other organizations in actions of national significance. Prior to practicing law, Sherman clerked for Judge Royce C. Lamberth in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia. He graduated from American University Washington College of Law with a JD and from Cornell University with an undergraduate degree.

 

Doug Davison
Partner, Linklaters

Doug Davison is a Partner of Linklaters. With nearly 30 years of experience, he focuses on representing clients in a range of regulatory enforcement and compliance matters, including matters involving insider trading, securities registration, fraud, the FCPA, US economic sanctions, financial reporting, ESG, and disclosures.

Davison previously served as counsel to former SEC Chairman Arthur Levitt. Prior to that, he served as a staff attorney and then supervisor in the SEC’s division of enforcement. He has been an adjunct professor at the George Washington University School of Law, where he taught a course on securities regulation. He has also served as a mentor to students at the Pennsylvania State University, the Dickinson School of Law and the Smeal College of Business at the Pennsylvania State University. Davison holds a JD and an undergraduate degree from Pennsylvania State University. He is a member of the District of Columbia and Pennsylvania State Bars.

 

Hansel Pham
Partner, White and Case

Hansel Pham is a Partner in White & Case’s International Arbitration and Litigation Groups. He has experience representing clients in state courts, federal district courts, federal courts of appeals, international commercial arbitrations, and investment treaty arbitrations. In particular, Pham has substantial experience representing clients in investor-state disputes before the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes at the World Bank and the International Court of Arbitration at the International Chamber of Commerce. His clients include sovereign states, multinational corporations, international organizations, and nonprofit organizations.

Pham has 19 years of experience. He began his career in 2003. He graduated from Harvard Law School with a JD and from Harvard University with an undergraduate degree in economics.

 

Kelly Hardy
Partner & Global Head of the Consumer Industry Group, Hogan Lovells

With more than 20 years of experience representing clients in cross-border transactional matters, including mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, strategic alliances and other complex commercial contracting, Kelly Hardy is skilled at navigating different legal frameworks and managing global, cross-disciplinary teams seamlessly to achieve clients' goals and objectives. As co-head of Hogan Lovells' Consumer Industry Sector Group, Hardy works closely with corporate, commercial and regulatory colleagues around the world on manufacturing, supply chain, distribution and compliance issues, as well as acquisitions, dispositions and strategic reorganizations. She also has extensive experience in B-to-B manufacturing and in the petrochemical, diversified industrials, government contracting and life sciences sectors.

Hardy previously served as a partner and regional office head at DLA Piper. She graduated from the University of Maryland with a JD and an MBA, and from the University of Pennsylvania with an undergraduate degree in history.

 

Irvin Drummond
General Counsel and Secretary, TEKsystems

Irvin Drummond is the General Counsel and Secretary of TEKsystems, an Allegis Group Operating Company that accelerates business transformation by solving complex technology, business and talent challenges, across the globe. He first joined the organization in 2021. Drummond is responsible for overseeing all legal matters for the company. He provides advice and guidance on a variety of issues, including contracts, compliance, and risk management, and also serves as a liaison between TEKsystems and its legal counsel.

Over the past 20+ years, Drummond has acquired extensive experience in delivering counsel on complex commercial transactions, labor/employment matters, and regulatory compliance, supplemented by additional experience in private practice and the Judge Advocate General (JAG) Corps. He has previously served as group general counsel and secretary at MarketSource Inc. and Allegis Global Solutions, and as an associate at Rollins, Smalkin, Richards & Mackie, LLC. Drummond received his JD from Boston College Law School and an undergraduate degree in politics from Wake Forest University. He also has certification from USF Corporate Training and Professional Education in DE&I in the Workplace Certificate.

 

David Marcinkus
Partner, Kirkland and Ellis

David Marcinkus is a Partner of Kirkland & Ellis. He advises investment companies, boards, investment advisers and private credit and private equity sponsors on regulatory and compliance issues under the Investment Company Act and the Investment Advisers Act.

Prior to returning to private practice, Marcinkus was a branch chief in the chief counsel’s office of the Division of Investment Management. While at the SEC, he was involved in nearly every significant, novel or complex matter affecting closed-end funds and BDCs. In particular, Marcinkus has extensive experience with affiliated transaction and co-investment issues, often being consulted by Exams (formerly OCIE) on such matters. He has experience with investment company status issues, having worked on a number of high-profile status matters while on the SEC staff, including applications for asset-light tech companies such as Lyft, Snowflake and Upstart. While on the SEC staff, Marcinkus was also a member of the offering reform and fair value rulemaking teams. He earned a JD from The George Washington University Law School and an undergraduate degree in philosophy from Boston University.

 

Jeff Friedman
Partner, Eversheds Sutherland

Jeff Friedman is a Partner of Eversheds Sutherland, a global top 10 law practice. He advises Fortune 500 and industry-leading companies regarding state and local tax matters, including litigation and controversy, tax accounting, compliance, planning, legislation and policy. Their state tax practice monitors income, franchise, sales and use and property taxes across the United States. Friedman’s clients span a variety of industries, including e-commerce, energy, retail, technology and telecommunications.

Before joining Eversheds Sutherland, Friedman was a partner at KPMG and before that an attorney and adviser of the Office of Tax Policy at the US Department of the Treasury. Earlier in his career he worked with Council On State Taxation as a VP and counsel. Friedman graduated from the University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law with a JD, from Georgetown University Law Center with an LLM in tax, and from the University of Maryland with an undergraduate degree in accounting.

 

Sherri Sampson
VP & General Counsel, University of Maryland Global Campus

Sherri Sampson began her professional career 27 years ago. Today, she is the Vice President and General Counsel of University of Maryland Global Campus. Sampson joined UMGC to lead a team of in-house attorneys in the Office of Legal Affairs supporting a dynamic and innovative University environment. Within 6 months, she was given responsibility for establishing the Institutional Compliance and Risk function to provide University-wide enterprise risk management and compliance oversight. Reporting to the President of the University, she leads the team in providing legal advice and recommendations on matters related to higher education including labor and employment, information governance, ethics and compliance, student matters, real estate and procurement, state, military and global compliance, accreditation, as well as key business transactions and venture opportunities. She also serves as a member of the President’s Executive Committee.

Sampson joined the Graduate Management Admission Council as general counsel managed the legal department, staff, consultants, and outside counsel to include the areas of board governance, contracts, corporate compliance, transactions, tax, intellectual property, data protection and privacy, labor and employment, litigation, risk management, legislative affairs, membership policy and compliance and test security matters. She was the company's first chief privacy official. Sampson was promoted to CHRO in 2015, working collaboratively with the VP of HR to oversee, build and manage the HR function, including recruiting, organizational development, policies and programs covering employment, compensation, benefits, performance management, employee relations, staff development and training, retention and compliance. She graduated from the University of Washington Law School with a JD in international law and from Duke University with an undergraduate degree in comparative area studies.

 

James Gauch
Partner, Jones Day

James Gauch is a Partner of Jones Day. He first joined the firm in 1994 as an associate. Gauch handles litigation, crisis management, and regulatory compliance issues, with emphasis on US jurisdiction over foreign companies and individuals, including sovereign entities, and on federal regulation of financial and commodities markets.

Before joining the firm's Washington Office, Gauch clerked in the US Supreme Court and worked in the Department of Justice's Office of Legal Counsel, where he provided direct advice to the attorney general and counsel to the president. He has litigated claims involving the 2008 mortgage crisis, the September 11 terrorist attacks, Hurricane Katrina, the Firestone Wilderness tire recall, and the demise of Bank of Credit and Commerce International. He has previously represented matters include advising Middle Eastern and Asian companies regarding US litigation and regulatory compliance risks, served as lead counsel in a worldwide securities class action against the US subsidiary of a Japanese issuer, defended a foreign state against expropriation claims filed in the US, and led an internal investigation of alleged securities fraud for an Asian company. Gauch also has advised on Administrative Procedure Act claims and participated in rulemaking submissions and congressional hearings. He is a trustee of the Supreme Court Historical Society and past chairman of the Federalist Society's Administrative Law and Regulation practice group. Gauch earned a JD from the University of Chicago Law School and an undergraduate degree in classics from The Ohio State University.

 

Marianela Peralta
General Counsel and Corporate Secretary, Aerotek

Marianela Peralta is the General Counsel and Corporate Secretary for Allegis Global Solutions (AGS), one of the Allegis Group's five operating companies. The Allegis Group is an $15B+ privately held global human capital management and staffing company. It is headquartered in Hanover, Maryland with locations and operations around the world. In her role, Peralta leads and directs the management of all legal matters for AGS. This includes matters involving complex commercial contracts, employment, data privacy, HR, and other executive management matters. She recently led the legal team’s creation of a new technology company and the creation of a Healthcare vertical.

Prior to joining Allegis, Peralta was associate general counsel at Walmart where she advised multiple business units on international employment matters related to employment and labor compliance, global mobility, corporate issues, business immigration, and workplace policies in the global arena. Before joining Walmart, Peralta served as a senior counsel for employment matters at Hilton Worldwide, in McLean, VA. She previously served as a shareholder in the DC office of Littler Mendelson, PC and for seven years as an assistant United States Attorney in the US Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia. Early in her career, Peralta was a law clerk for the Honorable Stephen G. Milliken of the DC Superior Court and is a trained mediator. A graduate of Georgetown University's Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service and the University of Pittsburgh School of Law, Peralta is a past-president of the Hispanic Bar Association of DC, is active with the Hispanic National Bar Association and is a founding member of the DC Diverse Partners Network.

 

Ruta Skučas
Partner, K&L Gates

Ruta Skučas a Partner of K&L Gates and is a member of the Power practice group. Skučas advises her clients on energy issues, focusing primarily on electric and natural gas matters, before the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, as well as state and federal entities. She has particular experience in energy trading, including on compliance and enforcement issues. Skučas also counsels renewable generation and independent transmission developers on strategic considerations and requirements associated with participation in the markets operated by independent system operators and regional transmission organizations.

Prior to joining the firm, Skučas served as a partner at a full-service law firm where she focused her practice on reliability, project development, and energy trading. She has a unique background that provides value to her clients. Following graduation from law school, she served as law clerk to several FERC Administrative Law Judges (ALJs), where she assisted the ALJs in administrative litigation and settlements. Skučas returned to FERC after eight years of private practice, where she worked in FERC's Office of General Counsel where she drafted orders relating to PJM, MISO, electric reliability, and natural gas. She also served as Commissioner Cheryl LaFleur's legal advisor, focusing particularly on PJM, MISO, and natural gas issues. She helped the Commissioner shape electric and natural gas policy, including on transmission planning and cost allocation through Order No. 1000. Skučas earned a JD from Boston University School of Law, an MBA from the University of Maryland - Robert H. Smith School of Business and an undergraduate degree in political science from Boston College.

 

Ori Lev
Partner, Mayer Brown

Ori Lev is a Partner with Mayer Brown and a member of the Financial Services Regulatory & Enforcement practice and the Consumer Financial Services group. He concentrates his practice on representing financial institutions and other companies in government enforcement matters and internal investigations, and providing regulatory advice and counsel on federal consumer financial and economic sanctions law. Lev has an extensive regulatory enforcement background, both at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, where he served as a deputy enforcement director, and at the Office of Foreign Assets Control, where he led the Office of Enforcement and served in other leadership positions. He also has substantial litigation experience.

Prior to entering private practice, Lev served on the CFPB Implementation Team responsible for standing up the then-new agency. In that role, he was one of the principal drafters of the CFPB’s Rules of Practice for Adjudication Proceedings, which govern the agency’s handling of administrative enforcement actions, and helped develop the agency’s ARC process, governing the referral of matters from supervision to enforcement. Lev then served as a deputy enforcement director and oversaw enforcement matters from inception through investigation, settlement and litigation. Before joining the CFPB, he served as a senior advisor and then as the head of enforcement at OFAC, where he was involved in OFAC’s early dollar-clearing and wire-stripping cases. He was also the principal drafter of OFAC’s Economic Sanctions Enforcement Guidelines, which set forth the framework for resolving OFAC enforcement actions.

 

Thomas Lucchesi
Executive Vice President and General Counsel, Koalafi

Tom Lucchesi is Executive Vice President and General Counsel of Koalafi, a point-of-sale financing company that specializes in both lease-to-own and loan products. Koalafi helps thousands of merchants nationwide – in both the B&M and e-comm channels - grow their business by giving customers flexibility when making essential purchases.

Tom began his career in 2011 as a consumer finance litigator working at large regional law firms based in Philadelphia, PA and Washington, D.C. In those roles, Tom represented financial institutions responding to individual and class consumer disputes along with regulatory inquiries. Following his tenure as outside counsel, Tom transitioned in house as the Assistant General Counsel for Koalafi, before quickly being promoted to Executive Vice President and General Counsel. Tom received his JD with honors from Delaware Law School – Widener University, and his undergraduate degree from University of Delaware.

 

Grace Wirth
Partner, Goodwin

Grace Wirth is a Partner in Goodwin’s ERISA & Executive Compensation practice and represents a wide variety of clients, including both public and private companies at all stages of the corporate lifecycle, boards of directors and compensation committees, venture capital and private equity funds and members of management, with a focus on emerging growth companies in the technology and life sciences sector. Wirth advises on all aspects of executive and employee compensation, as well as on tax and securities law issues in connection with equity-based arrangements and other types of incentive plans.

Wirth works closely with clients on compensation issues that arise in connection with mergers and acquisitions, financings, initial public offerings and other corporate transactions. In addition, she regularly advises both employers and executives in the negotiation, design and implementation of employment, severance, change in control and equity arrangements. Ms. Wirth also counsels clients regarding compliance with tax rules relating to deferred compensation, tax planning with respect to the excise tax on excess parachute payments, limits on the deductibility of executive compensation and SEC rules governing executive compensation disclosure and reporting. Wirth graduated from Georgetown University Law Center with a JD and from Stanford University with an undergraduate degree in economics.

 

Gina Zawitoski
Partner of the Environmental Practice Group, DLA Piper

Gina Zawitoski began her professional career 34 years ago. Today, she is a Partner of the Environmental Practice Group of DLA Piper. Zawitoski has a diverse environmental law practice which includes corporate and real property transactions and environmental regulatory compliance and permitting matters, including wastewater management, hazardous waste and natural resource matters. She provides environmental counsel to manufacturers, mining and aggregates companies, private equity firms, real estate investment managers, developers and others. Zawitoski manages and evaluates environmental site assessments in a broad range of business transactions, including M&A, real property sales and acquisitions, loan origination, work outs and foreclosures.

In addition to her work with DLA Piper, Zawitoski is the president and a member of the board of trustees for Howard County Conservancy, a nonprofit environmental education center and land trust founded by a group of local citizens to help preserve the natural environment, agricultural farmland, and unique historic sites in Howard County, Maryland. She graduated from the University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law with a JD and from the University of Maryland Baltimore Country with an undergraduate degree in psychology.

 

Herb Frerichs
General Counsel and Corporate Secretary, Perdue Farms

Herb Frerichs manages Perdue’s legal function, consisting of the Legal Department and outside counsel, and provides daytoday legal advice to management and the company. Frerichs is a member of the Management Committee and also directs Perdue’s Government Relations function. He has been General Counsel since 2001 and previously represented Perdue while a partner at several national law firms, including Venable and DLA Piper.

Frerichs is a member of the board of the Virginia Chamber of Commerce and was previously on the board of the Maryland Chamber of Commerce. Additionally, he was appointed by Gov. Martin O’Malley to both the Appellate Judicial Nominating Committee and the Maryland Economic Development Corporation. He is a trustee of The Boys’ Latin School of Maryland, the Hippodrome Foundation, and the Athletic & Scholarship Programs, United States Naval Academy Foundation. Frerichs is a graduate of the US Naval Academy in Annapolis, MD. He received his JD from the University of Maryland.

 

David Morales
Executive Vice President and General Counsel, AARP

David Morales is an Executive Vice President and General Counsel with AARP. Previously, Morales headed the intellectual property, media and transactional group of the Office of General Counsel at AARP. He has over 20 years of broad-based experience as a lawyer and businessperson in a wide variety of emerging and established global businesses and nonprofit organizations relating to advertising, intellectual property, media and entertainment. Since joining AARP’s Office of General Counsel in 2008, he has been responsible for content acquisition, licensing, advertising, strategic alliances and new media.

Before joining AARP, Morales was a director of legal affairs at Discovery Communications for 11 years, including six years handling all legal matters for Discovery Latin America LLC, a subsidiary of Discovery. He earned his undergraduate degree in history from the University of Texas at Austin and his JD from Catholic University of America, Columbus School of Law.

 

Paul Besozzi
Partner, Squire Patton Boggs

Paul Besozzi is the Partner of Squire Patton Boggs. He concentrates his practice in the wireless, broadband and emerging technology areas. His extensive experience of more than 30 years in the telecommunications field includes regulatory, transactional, legislative and litigation matters for clients ranging from wireless service and infrastructure providers to resellers of long-distance service, including cellular, personal communications services, specialized mobile radio, point-to-point microwave, advanced wireless services and other emerging wireless technologies.

Besozzi’s extensive transactional experience includes asset and stock transactions and a broad variety of commercial and business agreements for the entities he advises, including spectrum leases, interconnection arrangements and wireless-infrastructure-related agreements. He was a partner in his own telecommunications law firm for a decade, after serving as general counsel and minority counsel to the US Senate Committee on Armed Services. Besozzi served as a member and editor of the Georgetown Law Journal during law school and was elected Phi Beta Kappa while attending Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service.

 

Sonia Nath
Partner, Cooley

Sonia Nath is the Partner of Cooley. She has deep experience in matters involving the FDA. Her practice encompasses regulatory counseling, investigations and litigation, as well as advising on transactional matters. She routinely counsels clients on FDA regulatory compliance including reviews of labeling, advertising, and promotion; developing go-to-market strategies for companies, particularly in the medical device space; and working hand-in-hand with business leaders to ensure the regulatory pathways align with the overall business strategy, including plans for developing and protecting intellectual property. Nath has experience working across all FDA-regulated product areas, with a particular emphasis on the biotech, medtech, and foodtech industries.

Before joining Cooley, Nath was an associate chief counsel for enforcement at FDA and before that, an associate at Latnam and Watkins. Earlier in her career she worked with PricewaterhouseCoopers as a consultant. Nath graduated from The George Washington University Law School with a JD and from Princeton University with an undergraduate degree in English.

 

Adam Smith
Partner, Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher

Adam Smith is a Partner of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher. He is an experienced international lawyer with a focus on international trade compliance and white-collar investigations, including with respect to federal and state economic sanctions enforcement, CFIUS, the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, embargoes, and export controls. Smith has been consistently ranked nationally by Chambers USA as a leading attorney in International Trade: Export Controls & Economic Sanctions since 2019. Most recently, he was featured in the 2023 edition of The Best Lawyers in America® for his work in finance litigation and international trade. He was also identified by Global Investigations Review as one of the leading sanctions practitioners in Washington, DC.

Smith first got his start in 1998 as a senior analyst and consultant at Lufthansa, AG. From there, he went on to the United Nations before eventually rising to become a senior advisor at the US Department of the Treasury, his most recent position prior to joining Gibson Dunn and Crutcher. Smith graduated from Harvard Law School with a JD, from the University of Oxford with an MPhil in politics, and from Brown University with an undergraduate degree in political science and economics.

 

Charles Capito
Partner, Morrison and Foerster

Charles Capito is a Partner in both Morrison & Foerster’s National Security and Government Contracts + Public Procurement practices. In the National Security space, he has significant experience counseling clients on the complex and evolving considerations related to the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS). Capito frequently helps investors and US businesses through every aspect of the CFIUS process, from understanding and allocating CFIUS risk on the front end, to presenting cases before the Committee, to negotiating appropriate mitigation measures, and ultimately to implementing and complying with mitigation agreements after the fact. Capito’s experience includes securing clearances for some of the largest and most sensitive cases reviewed by CFIUS, as well as dozens of more discreet transactions and investments.

Capito regularly advises clients on critical regulatory regimes in the national security space. Whether in the context of specific transactions or day-to-day counseling, clients rely on him to help them comply with and operate under US export controls, in particular, the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) and Export Administration Regulations (EAR). These regimes, especially the EAR, are undergoing noteworthy and complex changes, and now play key roles in other legal regimes like CFIUS. In addition, government contractors with access to classified information and their investors go to Capito to understand their obligations under the National Industrial Security Program and, in particular, the sensitive issues presented by foreign ownership, control, or influence in this space. Capito graduated from Washington & Lee University School of Law, where he served as senior articles editor of the Washington & Lee Law Review. He received his Bachelor of Arts degree from Duke University.

 

Thora Johnson
Partner, Orrick Herrington and Sutcliffe

Thora Johnson is a Partner of Orrick Herrington and Sutcliffe. She specializes in the intersection of health care, technology, cybersecurity and regulation. Johnson helps clients with regulatory challenges in the health care space, which puts her neck-deep in the technology, data privacy and cybersecurity industries, all of which are in high demand.

Johnson, a 25-year veteran of Venable and former co-head of that firm’s employee benefits, executive compensation and health practice, joined Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe as a member in its Washington, DC, office. She graduated from the University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law with a JD, from Middlebury College with a master's degree, and from Brown University with an undergraduate degree.

 

Benjamin Berkowitz
Partner, Foley and Lardner

Benjamin Berkowitz is a Partner and Intellectual Property Lawyer of Foley & Lardner LLP. He has experience counseling clients on legal and strategic issues related to intellectual property, drafting and prosecuting patent applications in the US and abroad, and evaluating intellectual property for due diligence analyses and freedom to operate opinions. Berkowitz has prosecuted a variety of chemical, biochemical and mechanical patents, in a broad spectrum of technologies including: plant molecular biology, antibodies, chemical sensors, optical equipment, small molecules, polymers, and pharmaceuticals. He practices in the firm's Chemical, Biotechnology & Pharmaceutical and International Practices, as well as the Life Sciences Industry Team. In addition, he was chair of the firm's National Associates Committee.

Berkowitz also counsels companies on due diligence matters for business deals and securities offerings. He has served as lead IP counsel for companies in deals totaling over $4.2 billion and worked with numerous companies in securities offerings, including IPOs. He maintains a niche practice in helping companies receive IP protection on plant varieties, including plant breeders rights protection, plant patents, and PVPA protection. Berkowitz received his JD, cum laude, from Georgetown University Law Center. While in law school, he interned for Judge Arthur Gajarsa at the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. He has a PhD in molecular biophysics and biochemistry from Yale University and a BS in chemical engineering from Columbia University.

 

Mark Polston
Partner, King & Spalding

Mark Polston is a Partner in King & Spalding’s Healthcare practice and Co-Chairs the firm’s Life Sciences and Healthcare Industry Group, which is comprised of more than 300 lawyers across the firm. As the former HHS Deputy Associate General Counsel for Litigation for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, Polston has over 20 years of experience in Medicare reimbursement policy and Medicare fraud defense and represents numerous health care systems and hospitals in navigating the Medicare regulatory environment. Polston has served as the lead litigator on numerous Medicare reimbursement litigation cases defending providers against government enforcement actions, and frequently advises clients on Medicare reimbursement strategy and regulatory and compliance requirements.

Polston earned a JD from Harvard Law School and with an undergraduate degree in political science from the University of Dayton.