Young Lawyers Division honors 40 up-and-coming attorneys
Katherine L. Kraschel: Yale Law School, New Haven, Connecticut
Kraschel is executive director of the Solomon Center for Health Law & Policy and co-teaches the Reproductive Justice Clinic. She has lectured and published on health law and bioethics, focusing on assisted reproductive technologies and reproductive rights.
Natassia Kwan: Greenberg Traurig, San Francisco
Kwan is a litigator who defends companies in product liability, class action and commercial matters. She is part of the ABA’s Young Lawyer Leadership Program and is a classically trained violist who has performed at Carnegie Hall.
James O. Lang: Greenberg Traurig, Tampa, Florida
Lang focuses his tax incentive, tax credit and project finance practice on current tax advantaged and incentive programs, particularly the new Qualified Opportunity Zone program in the recent Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.
Victor Liang: Morrison & Foerster, San Francisco
Liang represents borrowers, lenders, development/multilateral institutions, export credit agencies and other financial institutions in connection with domestic and cross-border financial transactions. He is on the Commercial Transactions Committee of the California Lawyers Association.
Sofia S. Lingos: Trident Legal, Boston
Lingos founded her firm to provide transactional legal services to small businesses and startups. She is an adjunct professor at the Northeastern University School of Law, where she teaches law practice management and access to justice.
Anna Lozoya: Jesse Brown VA Medical Center, Chicago
Lozoya is a risk manager, using her prior experiences as an attorney, auditor and nurse to ensure veterans receive optimal medical care. She is a board member of the Hispanic Lawyers Association of Illinois.
Lauren Marsicano: Marsicano & Leyva, Miami
Marsicano founded her firm to assist business owners in areas including complex commercial litigation, real estate law and international law. She is vice director of liaisons for the ABA Young Lawyers Division.
Michael Nguyen: San Francisco District Attorney’s Office
Nguyen is an assistant district attorney, practicing in the general felonies unit. He has tried more than 40 jury trials to verdict. He co-chairs the ABA Criminal Justice Section’s Young Lawyers Committee.
Karl O. Riley: Snell & Wilmer, Las Vegas
Riley defends Fortune 50 clients in federal and state forums against various consumer protection statutes, discrimination and harassment claims, and in wage and hour disputes. He is a fellow of the American Bar Foundation.
Kristen Rodriguez: Dentons U.S., Chicago
Rodriguez is a partner who handles various complex commercial and class action litigation cases, providing counsel on contracts, torts, advertising, media law, privacy and insurance. She is chair of Dentons’ Latino Professional Network.
Graham Ryan: Jones Walker, New Orleans
Ryan is a business litigation attorney and alternative dispute resolution practitioner. He had a three-year term as head of the Disaster Legal Services program in Louisiana and helped launch the first Hackcess to Justice event.
Maggie E. Schroedter: Higgs Fletcher & Mack, San Diego
Schroedter specializes in commercial litigation with special emphasis on business disputes, business reorganization and other insolvency matters. She is on the board of directors of the Lawyers Club of San Diego and is president of the San Diego Bankruptcy Forum.
John Spragens: Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein, Nashville, Tennessee
Spragens represents plaintiffs in large consumer class action and whistleblower cases in federal courts across the country. He has pursued multidistrict litigation against pharmaceutical industry participants, tobacco companies and robocallers.
Christopher Suarez: Williams & Connolly, Washington, D.C.
Suarez is a litigator who focuses on technology, privacy and intellectual property issues, including the emerging internet of things. A former teacher, he advocates on behalf of students who have special needs and disciplinary charges.
Danielle N. Twait: Mandell Menkes, Chicago
Twait defends clients in complex litigation matters including defamation, invasion of privacy, commercial contractual disputes, class actions, intellectual property disputes and consumer fraud claims. She is an executive committee member for the Coalition of Women’s Initiatives in Law.
Julia Ushakova-Stein: Fenwick & West, Mountain View, California
Ushakova-Stein focuses her practice on U.S. tax planning and tax controversy matters. She has represented Fortune 500 and major multinational companies in federal income tax matters and mergers and acquisitions transactions, counseling clients on cross-border complexities.
Kodi Verhalen: Briggs and Morgan, Minneapolis
Verhalen practices energy and environmental law. She is also a mediator for the Hennepin County Court Pro Bono Mediation Project. A licensed engineer, she is a past president of the National Society of Professional Engineers.
Jill Albrecht Weimer: Littler Mendelson, Pittsburgh
Weimer is a shareholder with the international labor and employment law firm focusing on litigation, investigations, auditing and training. She is a founding member of Law Bridge, a nonprofit organization providing community outreach in Pittsburgh.
Sheila Willis: Fisher & Phillips, Columbia, South Carolina
Willis is an associate who practices labor and employment law. She is president of the South Carolina Women Lawyers Association, president-elect of the South Carolina Bar Young Lawyers Division and membership director for the ABA Young Lawyers Division.
Robert Winning: Cooley, New York City
Winning practices in the corporate restructuring and creditors’ rights group, advising clients on restructurings, reorganizations and liquidations and representing official committees in Chapter 11 cases. He is on the board of the Samuel Field Y, a human services organization.
Diora Ziyaeva: Dentons U.S., New York City
Ziyaeva is an international arbitration specialist, licensed in New York and Uzbekistan, whose practice focuses on investor-state arbitration, commercial arbitration and cross-border enforcement of arbitration awards. She is an adjunct professor at Fordham Law School.
Photos courtesy of Richard Bonilla; Megan Browdie; Alex Chan; Natalie Chan; by Holland & Hart; courtesy of Caldwell Collins; Rashelle Davis; by Martyn Gallina-Jones; Wiley Rein; Eric Bern of Headshotstudio Atlanta; courtesy of Jason Freeman; by Megan J. Stanislaw with Intimate Portraits; courtesy of Samuel Greenberg; Bryan Heckenlively; by Matthew Peyton of Matthew Peyton Photography; courtesy of Montgomery McCracken Walker & Rhoads; courtesy of Daniel Horowitz; Richard Kelley; Alexia Korberg; by Harold Shapiro; courtesy of Natassia Kwan; by Jeff Young at Jeff Young Photography; courtesy of Victor Liang; Sofia S. Lingos; Anna Lozoya; by Sebastian Alvarez; courtesy of Michael Nguyen; Karl. O. Riley; courtesy of Kristen Rodriguez; Graham Ryan; by Paul Body of Paul Body Photography; courtesy of John Spragens; Christopher Suarez; by Jessica Tampas; courtesy of Julia Ushakova-Stein; Kodi Verhalen; Jill Albrecht Weimer; Sheila Willis; Robert Winning; Diora Ziyaeva.
This article was published in the September 2018 ABA Journal magazine with the title "Rising up: Young Lawyers Division honors 40 up-and-coming attorneys."
