Meet the Speakers
Rafik Abboud
Chief Executive Officer
H7b1 Legal Technologies - Europe
Mr. Abboud is the Chief Executive Officer of H7b1, the firm pioneering litigation technology services and headquartered on the European continent.
For several years, Rafik has provided direct technology support and data advisory services for various legal matters, such as M&A due diligence, SEC/DOJ investigations, international arbitrations, MLAT requests, regulatory compliance matters, internal compliance investigations and cross-border litigation.
As such, Rafik has developed an organization that is unique in continental Europe, and he is viewed as a precursor to a European’s litigation technology practice by many among law firm partners, general counsel and legal technology professionals both in Europe and the United States.
Prior to entering the legal industry, Rafik held various positions in the European technology industry. He graduated, with highest honors, from the Geneva School of Applied Sciences in 1988.
Josephine Belli
Associate General Counsel
Combe
Josephine Belli’s legal career has been varied, with experience as a law clerk to a judge, a litigation associate in an international law firm and in-house counsel at Combe Inc., a global manufacturer and marketer of drugs, medical devices, supplements and personal care products. As Associate General Counsel and Litigation Counsel at Combe’s NY headquarters, Jo handles a wide range of legal matters while partnering with the business and regulatory teams to grow the company domestically and internationally.
A frequent presenter at law conferences, Jo Belli is a member of the NYS Bar Association, American Bar Association, Association of National Advertisers’ (“ANA”) Legal Affairs Committee and a board member of the Association of Corporate Counsel (“ACC”).
An avid linguist (Italian, Spanish, French, Greek) Jo utilizes her language skills professionally at work and as a member of numerous cultural associations.
Richard M. Borden
Vice President and Assistant General Counsel
The Hartford Financial Services Group, Inc.
Richard M. Borden has been employed by The Hartford Financial Services Group, Inc., Hartford, CT since April 2002. He is currently Vice President and Assistant General Counsel. His responsibilities include management of the Technology & Intellectual Property Law Unit of the Law Department. The Unit is responsible for all information technology transactions and outsourcing activities at the enterprise. In addition, The Unit is also responsible for intellectual property matters, including trademarks and copyrights.
Prior to joining The Hartford, Mr. Borden served as Counsel at Brown Raysman Millstein Felder & Steiner LLP in Hartford, CT from October 2000 to April 2002. His experience included handling information technology transactions, mergers and acquisitions, securities, venture capital and general corporate matters.
Mr. Borden was Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary at Paradigm4, Inc. in Hartford, CT from August 1997 to July 2000. He was responsible for all legal affairs of wireless data communications services and systems integration company.
Mr. Borden began his legal career at Cravath, Swaine & Moore in New York.
Mr. Borden attended New York University School of Law. Mr. Borden received a B.A. in Psychology from Amherst College.
Mary Clark
Vice President, Law and Deputy General Counsel
LexisNexis
MARY B. CLARK is Vice President Law, Deputy General Counsel, for LexisNexis. With more than 10 years in the legal technology industry, Ms. Clark has been instrumental in developing and introducing consulting, technology and Internet products. She has shared her expertise at numerous conferences hosted by professional organizations such as the American Bar Association, LegalTech, and the Association of Corporate Counsel, and in 2007 was selected by her peers as a Northern California Super Lawyer in business law. Ms. Clark currently works with alliances and customer transactions in LexisNexis’s Global Practice Management products and services solution line. Her career also includes years of executive responsibility for business operations. Before joining LexisNexis, she practiced law as corporate counsel and in private litigation practice. Ms. Clark has a JD from the University of Kansas School of Law and is a member of the American Bar Association, the Association of Corporate Counsel, the State Bar of California, and the Kansas Bar Association and was formerly adjunct faculty at the University of Kansas School of Law.
Donald Butler
Deputy General Counsel
Seneca Resources Corporation
Don Butler, Deputy General Counsel of Seneca Resources Corporation, has held in-house positions at several energy companies handling transactional work, insurance, operational risk management, and litigation management. He has also had litigation stints at Vinson & Elkins after law school and for seven years with Fulbright & Jaworski on its energy litigation team in the 1990s. With Roger D. Townsend, he wrote Focusing on Litigation Results: The Role of the Case Manager in March 2006 ACC Docket, The Journal of the Association of Corporate Counsel. He is a past president of the Houston Chapter of the Association of Corporate Counsel and in 2009 received the Houston chapter’s first lifetime achievement award. He is certified by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization in Oil, Gas, and Mineral Law. He has served as an adjunct professor of law at the University of Houston Law Center.
Andrea Ciota
Assistant General Counsel
Computer Sciences Corporation.
Ms. Ciota is Assistant General Counsel supporting CSC’s commercial transactions. Prior to joining CSC in November 1999, she was an associate at Lerch, Early & Brewer in Bethesda, Maryland, where she practiced corporate and tax law.
Ms. Ciota received a BA, summa cum laude, from Boston University in 1990, a JD from Georgetown University Law Center in 1995 and an LLM in taxation, with distinction, from Georgetown University Law Center in 2001.
At CSC, Ms. Ciota provides legal and commercial advice for commercial transactions, with an emphasis on information technology outsourcing. Ms. Ciota has participated in the negotiation of multinational outsourcing transactions, acquisitions, alliances and licensing agreements and provides legal support for commercial opportunities, including preparation and review of proposals. Ms. Ciota also provides ongoing legal representation to outsourcing account teams, including agreement restructures and dispute resolution, and business and legal support as lead counsel for US based global chemical, energy and natural resources industry accounts.
Ms. Ciota is a member of the Maryland, District of Columbia and South Carolina Bars and holds a Corporate Counsel Certificate in Virginia.
Bob Echols
Vice President, Chief Compliance Officer
Chief Ethics Officer IAP
Bob Echols is responsible for IAP’s compliance and ethics programs, embedding the Company’s core values – Respect, Responsibility, and Integrity – into all IAP’s businesses and global operations. This includes the management of global program staffing, coordination with internal and external agencies, U.S. Government authorities, and the Company’s stakeholders. He also is charged with the development and delivery of effective training and internal audit programs throughout IAP.
Bob has over 20 years of experience in designing, implementing and directing award winning global corporate compliance and ethics programs, while holding crucial management positions in the military, the U.S. Government and the commercial sector.
Before joining IAP, Bob served as the Director of Business Conduct for the Monsanto Company in St. Louis, Missouri, an $11 billion multinational company with some 23,000 employees doing business in over 150 countries.
Prior to his tenure at Monsanto, Bob held comparable positions for other DoD companies. He also worked in philanthropic and consulting positions and managed a global program to promote the importance of judicial independence worldwide.
Earlier in his career, Bob was civilian counsel and Designated Agency Ethics Official for the U.S. Army Security and intelligence Command in Arlington Hall Station, Virginia. He also served as an active duty Judge Advocate General (JAG) attorney in the U.S. Army JAG Corps at the United States Military Academy at West Point.
Erik Eglite
Vice President, Chief Compliance Officer and Corporate Counsel
Lundbeck Inc
Dr. Eglite is Vice President, Chief Compliance Officer and Corporate Counsel for Lundbeck, a Global Pharmaceutical Company headquartered in Copenhagen, Denmark. Prior to that, he was Global Chief Compliance Officer and Corporate Counsel for Ovation Pharmaceuticals and Aspreva Pharmaceuticals. He also worked as Assistant General Counsel for the Department of Human Services and as a medical malpractice defense litigation and intellectual property attorney for Querry & Harrow in Chicago, Illinois. He is a licensed podiatric physician and surgeon and is registered to practice before the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
Maureen Fries
Assistant General Counsel, The Americas
Tupperware Brands Corporation
A 1980 summa cum laude graduate of Cumberland School of Law, Ms. Fries also holds a LL.M (Tax) from Emory University. Ms. Fries began her career at the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. She was selected to assist with the creation of the Eleventh Circuit in Atlanta, GA. After serving at the Court, she pursued a tax and transactional practice in Atlanta, GA representing clients in the M&A and venture capital arenas. She joined Tupperware Brands in 1993 as Associate General Counsel, U.S. She was promoted to her current position in 2001 when she assumed responsibility for the Americas. An acquisition in 2005 further expanded her role to include responsibility for the Nuvó and Armand Dupree cosmetic lines. She presently serves as Chair of Tupperware’s Volunteer Program and the Women’s Network.
Ned Greene
Vice President, Interim General Counsel and Secretary
NCR
Ned leads NCR’s Law Department and is responsible for all company legal affairs worldwide, including corporate governance and securities, ethics and compliance, intellectual property, regulatory matters, commercial legal matters, litigation and labor and employment.
Prior to his current role, Greene had been Vice President, Deputy General Counsel and Assistant Secretary. In prior roles Greene has worked closely with each of the Company’s businesses, including roles as Chief Counsel for the Retail and Services businesses, as well as for Teradata, NCR's former data warehousing business.
Greene joined NCR in 1992 as a senior attorney in the Law Department. Prior to joining NCR, Greene practiced law with the firm of Squire, Sanders & Dempsey in Columbus, Ohio.
Greene obtained a Bachelor of Arts in History from Miami University. (May 1985). He went on to earn his Juris Doctorate at Vanderbilt University School of Law in Nashville, Tenn. (May 1988).
Brian Lansing
Assistant General Counsel
Altria Client Services Inc.
As assistant general counsel, Altria Client Services, Brian Lansing manages commercial, IP, and regulatory cases for Altria Group operating companies Philip Morris USA, John Middleton Co., and U.S. Smokeless Tobacco Co. He first joined Altria subsidiary Philip Morris USA in 2004 as senior counsel, managing commercial and IP litigation, and his role expanded following Altria’s recent restructuring and acquisitions. Prior to his in-house career, Brian was associated with Arent Fox LLP in Washington, DC, where he litigated commercial, IP, and qui tam cases in state and federal courts, and before federal administrative agencies. Prior to Arent Fox, Brian served eight years’ active duty in the U.S. Navy Judge Advocate General’s Corps, in roles such as appellate defense counsel, trial (prosecution) counsel, and general (civil) litigation counsel. He continues to serve as a Commander in the U.S. Navy Reserve. Brian received a BA in political science from the University of Richmond in 1989 and his JD from Wake Forest University in 1992, and was an editor of the Wake Forest Law Review. The ABA named him Outstanding Young Military Lawyer for the U.S. Navy in 2000, and he has been named one of “Virginia’s Legal Elite for 2009” by Virginia Business.
R. Scott Mahoney
Deputy General Counsel
Iberdrola USA
Deputy General Counsel and Chief FERC Compliance Officer for super-regional energy services and delivery company serving about 3 million customers throughout upstate New York and New England. Mr. Mahoney has responsibility for legal matters and concentrates on federal regulatory proceedings. Mr. Mahoney was hired as a litigation counsel in 1996 and later served subsidiary VP, Controller & Treasurer. Mr. Mahoney was formerly a Judge Advocate in the U.S. Army with duty in Southwest Asia and Germany. Mr. Mahoney earned his JD from the University of Maine and a Masters in Environmental Law from Vermont Law School.
Eileen McCarthy
Director
Corporate Counsel JetBlue Airways
Eileen McCarthy is JetBlue’s Director, Corporate Counsel and Assistant Secretary. She handles the company’s securities-related and corporate disclosure work, corporate governance and assists with compliance functions. She also assists the General Counsel with supporting the Board of Directors.
A former corporate and securities partner of a national law firm, Ms. McCarthy is a graduate of Columbia University and Fordham University School of Law. Following law school, she clerked for the Hon. K. Michael Moore, U.S.D.J., S.D.FL.
Brandon Nelson
Vice President and Associate General Counsel
JetBlue Airways Corporation
Brandon Nelson joined JetBlue Airways Corporation Legal Department in 2005. Prior to JetBlue, Mr. Nelson practiced corporate and business litigation law at law firms in California and New York City, including Shearman & Sterling.
Brandon Nelson was lead in-house counsel on Lufthansa’s purchase of 19.0% of company’s outstanding common stock. Mr. Nelson has also handled various corporate governance matters, including drafting and filing 2005 Proxy Statement and coordinating attendant Annual Meeting, adoption of Change in Control Severance Plans, and attending and preparing minutes for Compensation Committee meetings. Mr. Nelson acted as securities counsel on preparation and filing of 2006 Automatic Shelf Registration under recently enacted SEC ASR Rules as well as 2006 periodic filings. He has also drafted and negotiated a variety of important maintenance agreements. and Aircraft Purchase Agreement Amendments with Airbus and Embraer, including amendments that modified aircraft delivery stream. Mr. Nelson is responsible for oversight of Corporate Contract Review Policy and has drafted and negotiated several sales and marketing agreements, including Dunkin Donuts and Bliss Partnership Agreements and all online distribution agreements.
Mr. Nelson attended Howard University in Washington, DC. At Howard, Brandon majored in International Business, with a concentration in Finance. During his second semester junior year, he studied abroad at the prestigious University of Paris—La Sorbonne. Because of such early travel experiences, Mr. Nelson continues to enjoy traveling abroad every chance he gets.
Chris Miller
Vice President, Employee Relations and Associate General Counsel
Southern Company
CHRISTOPHER S. MILLER is Vice President, Employee Relations and Associate General Counsel, for Southern Company, and also the Southern Company Services Compliance Officer. His responsibilities include, among other things, labor relations, EEO, Affirmative Action, information governance, HR internal controls and pre-employment and executive background screening, as well as employee concerns and investigations. He also serves on the Southern Company Business Assurance Council and Incident Response Team. He was formerly a partner in the law firm of Troutman Sanders LLP, where he served as chief labor counsel for Southern Company and Mirant Corporation, and represented many other energy service companies. He earlier served as law clerk to Judge H. Emory Widener, Jr. of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit.
He has published extensively in legal and human resources management journals, and has served as a management consultant on issues of compensation and human resources strategies to numerous Fortune 100 companies.
He received both his undergraduate degree and his law degree from Syracuse University in 1978 and 1981, respectively. He also received his M.A. (1986) in economics from the Maxwell School and Ph.D. (1991) in business administration from the Whitman School at Syracuse University.
Kenneth Niven
Assistant General Counsel
Juniper Networks, Inc.
Mr. Niven has been an Assistant General Counsel at Juniper Networks since December 2000. He manages the Trade Compliance function at Juniper and provides legal support for the manufacturing operations and customer support functions. He also provided legal support for the Public Sector sales organization at Juniper through 2007. Prior to his tenure at Juniper, Mr. Niven served in the legal departments at LSI Logic, Silicon Graphics and Cisco Systems. He received his B.A. at Stanford University and his J.D. at University of California, Berkeley (Boalt Hall).
Luiz Sette
Associate General Counsel
Microsoft
Luiz Sette is an Associate General Counsel for Microsoft Corporation and the Lead Attorney for the Worldwide Commercial Legal team. Luiz leads a community of more than 160 professionals across dozens of Subsidiaries providing legal support for worldwide commercial transactions. He is also responsible for all programmatic legal work for Microsoft sales organization.
Prior to the WW Commercial Licensing role, Luiz led the Microsoft Legal and Corporate Affairs practice in Latin America and Caribbean for 6 years out of Fort Lauderdale, FL. As the Regional Lead Counsel for Latin America, Luiz provided legal support and strategic advice on opportunities and trends in law and public policy to 21 subsidiaries in the region and its business leaders, and creates ties with governments, industry and community organizations across the region.
Luiz had originally joined Microsoft in 1998 as the lead attorney for Brazil, based in São Paulo. In this role, Luiz acted as the general advisor to the General Manager and subsidiary business leaders on legal and corporate affairs issues, including commercial transaction, antitrust, policy, anti-piracy and litigation.
Prior to Microsoft, Luiz was a partner of Azevedo Sette Advogados one of the top 10 law firms in Brazil where he was in charge of the International and M&A practice group and worked as Foreign Associate with Simpson Thatcher & Bartlett in New York.
He has a J.D from Catholic University of Minas Gerais, Brazil and a LL.M from University of Pennsylvania Law School, Philadelphia, PA. Luiz has been active representative of Microsoft in external forums on legal, regulatory, policy, and trade issues and has taught Negotiation for MBA students in several universities in Brazil. Luiz is an avid wine collector and a devoted runner and spends most of his spare time enjoying the good company of his wife and two daughters.
Eric Tilles
Assistant General Counsel/Manager Ethics and Compliance
Arkema Inc.
Eric Tilles is Assistant General Counsel and Manager of Ethics and Compliance at Arkema Inc., where he is responsible for providing legal advice concerning all aspects of employment, labor, employee benefits, ethics and compliance, equal employment opportunity, executive compensation, immigration law, occupational safety and health, and security, and for the day-to-day management of the company’s Ethics and Compliance Program. Mr. Tilles is a Lecturer-At-Law at the University of Pennsylvania Law School where he teaches Employment Law, and where he has taught Employment Discrimination Law. He is Treasurer of the Delaware Valley ACC and past Chair of the Chapter’s Ethics and Compliance Committee.
Prior to working at Arkema, Mr. Tilles was an Associate General Counsel at the University of Pennsylvania/ University of Pennsylvania Health System, and an associate at the law firm of Morgan, Lewis and Bockius. He clerked for Chief Judge A. Leon Higginbotham at the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit and for Senior Judge James L. Latchum in the District of Delaware. Mr. Tilles received his Bachelor of Science from the New York State School of Industrial and Labor Relations at Cornell University and his Juris Doctor from the University of Pennsylvania Law School, where he was a member of the editorial board of the Law Review.
Jill Witter
Vice President, General Counsel and Ethics and Compliance Officer
Novation, LLC
Jill Witter is Vice President, General Counsel and Ethics and Compliance Officer for Novation, LLC, the nation’s leading contracting service company providing services to over 14,000 acute care and other healthcare providers. Ms. Witter began her legal career in private practice, subsequently choosing to focus on an in house practice, where she has served as General Counsel for both public and privately held companies. Her clients have been respected industry leaders in such diverse areas as healthcare, forest products, apparel manufacturing, specialty retail, textile services, and finance and banking. Prior to joining Novation, Ms. Witter was General Counsel of the Forest Products Group of International Paper, where she oversaw the largest private land sale in U.S. history. In addition, Ms. Witter has served as Vice-President, General Counsel of such companies as Rayonier, Inc., Sunglass Hut International and Angelica Corporation.
Ms. Witter received her Juris Doctorate and Bachelor of Arts in English degrees at the University of Missouri. In addition to having served as a director of the National Association of Corporate Counsel, Ms. Witter is a founding member of the St. Louis Chapter, where she served as a director and president, and a past officer of the South Florida Chapter. She is a past member of the American Society of Corporate Secretaries and has served on the legal committees of various industry organizations, including the Healthcare Purchasing Industry Initiative. Ms. Witter has also served on several non-profit boards of directors, including the Rayonier Foundation and Big Brothers, a group home for troubled teens.
Ms. Witter is a frequent speaker for regional and national Continuing Legal Education (“CLE”) and industry related programs on corporate governance, law department management and other topics.
John Kenneth Menges, Jr
Co-Head, Corporate Section
Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld, L.L.P.
John Kenneth Menges, Jr. is co-head of the Corporate Section of Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld, L.L.P. He is a member of Akin Gump’s Firmwide Management Committee, and also serves as the partner in charge of the Dallas office. Mr. Menges is principally engaged in corporate governance and transactional matters.
Mr. Menges’ transactional experience includes representing numerous companies and investment partnerships in corporate governance matters, acquisitions, financings and dispositions. He is a frequent speaker on corporate governance topics.
Mr. Menges serves on the advisory council of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, the Board of Trustees of Boston University, and also serves as Chairman of the community work group for Project Pegasus, the reconstruction of the downtown Dallas highway system.
Mr. Menges joined the Firm in 1982 as an associate and became a partner in 1989. He received his BSBA summa cum laude in 1979 from Boston University and his JD in 1982 from Harvard Law School.
James Wells
Vice President and Associate General Counsel
ARAMARK
James (“Jim”) R. Wells is Vice President & Associate General Counsel at Philadelphia-based ARAMARK Corporation, a global food and facilities service provider. At ARAMARK, Jim serves as counsel to the Business & Industry Group, a group of four business units providing food and facilities services to leading businesses across North America. Jim also serves as counsel to ARAMARK Supply Chain Management, which houses ARAMARK’s global procurement function. In addition, Jim serves as intellectual property counsel for ARAMARK.
As counsel to a business group, offering outsourcing services to clients, and as counsel to a global procurement function, purchasing goods and services from suppliers to power ARAMARK’s client-facing business units, Jim has a unique perspective on addressing cost/price, and value. Jim applies that perspective, not only in serving his internal clients, but also in leading his team of lawyers and contract professionals.
Prior to ARAMARK, Jim was an associate in the Philadelphia-based law firm, Pepper Hamilton. Jim holds a B.A. in Economics and International Politics from the University of Pennsylvania, and earned his J.D. at Villanova Law School. After graduating from Villanova Law School, and prior to joining Pepper Hamilton, Jim clerked for a Justice on the Delaware Supreme Court.
Barbara Doherty
Partner, Business Law Group
Miller Thompson LLP
Barbara Doherty is a senior partner in the Business Law Group of Miller Thomson LLP in Toronto. Ms. Doherty is the past Co-Chair of the group and Chair of the National Securities and Capital Markets Practice. She has a broad-based corporate/commercial practice with specialties in securities, corporate finance and mergers & acquisitions.
Ms. Doherty has significant experience in structuring, negotiating, documenting, and in working with internal counsel and managing service teams for, large leading edge projects and for foreign companies wanting to establish or expand their business in Canada. Examples are: (1) a 25 person corporate and specialty team acting on a P3 project for a hospital in Ontario; (2) national multi-disciplinary team acting for the acquirer on one of the first acquisitions and mergers of 2 mutual fund dealers governed by the MFDA; (3) a national corporate and specialty team advising on establishment of the Canadian business of a global energy drink company; (4) an Ontario based corporate and specialty team advising on the establishment of the Canadian business of a global solar power company. Barbara advises clients engaged in a wide variety of other industry sectors, including investment funds, manufacturing, houseware, hotel management, specialty publishing, oil and gas, mining, real estate development, telecommunications, data communications and pharma.