Board of Directors

Laura Genao is the manager of Regulatory and Legislative Affairs in the Renewable and Alternative Power section of Southern California Edison Company. In that role, Laura coordinates the development of the Company’s policies with regard to renewable electricity. Prior to this policy position, Laura was a regulatory attorney for SCE. Laura received her J.D. from Columbia University School of Law and her undergraduate degree from Harvard College. Before becoming an attorney, Laura was a member of Teach for America, where she taught middle and high school English, Spanish, and Journalism in Pasadena, California. She also spent a few years as a newspaper reporter for the Philadelphia Inquirer, where she was part of a team of reporters nominated for the 1997 Pulitzer Prize. In addition to other pursuits, Laura serves on the Board of Directors of the Latina Lawyers Bar Association.

Damian J. Martinez – Vice President of the Board of Directors

Damian J. Martinez is a partner in the law firm Corbin, Fitzgerald & Athey LLP where Mr. Martinez practices white collar and complex civil litigation. Mr. Martinez is a former Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Central District of California. During his tenure as a federal prosecutor, Mr. Martinez tried 10 federal trials to completion, including merchant fraud, complex money laundering, and international narcotics trafficking cases. Prior to his employment at the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Mr. Martinez served as a law clerk for former U.S. District Judge Carlos R. Moreno, Central District of California (Ret.), and worked as an associate at a Los Angeles-based law firm. Mr. Martinez graduated from Columbia School of Law, where he was a Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar, a Property teaching fellow, and an articles editor for the Columbia Journal of Environmental Law. Mr. Martinez received his Bachelor of Arts from UCLA, with honors, in philosophy.

Jennifer L. Brockett – Secretary of the Board of Directors

Jennifer L. Brockett is a partner at Davis Wright Tremaine LLP. Jennifer practices in business torts and intellectual property litigation. She has a depth of experience in trade secret litigation and counseling, and is one of the primary drafters of the CACI Model Jury Instructions regarding trade secrets, required for use in all trade secret matters tried in California. She received her A.B. in Economics from Occidental College and her J.D. from UCLA School of Law.

Jaime Guerrero –Treasurer of the Board of Directors

Jaime Guerrero is a partner at Foley & Lardner LLP and a member of the firm’s Securities Litigation & White Collar Practice. Mr. Guerrero focuses in the areas of government enforcement actions, white collar criminal defense, accounting litigation, securities litigation, and partnership disputes. Mr. Guerrero is well-versed in accounting issues in light of his prior experience as a public accountant with Deloitte & Touche LLP before entering law school. Prior to joining Foley, Mr. Guerrero was an Assistant United States Attorney in the Criminal Division of the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Los Angeles, where he investigated and tried before juries different types of federal criminal cases. Mr. Guerrero served as a law clerk for the Honorable Robert J. Kelleher, United States District Judge for the Central District of California, in Los Angeles, California. Mr. Guerrero earned his J.D. from UCLA School of Law and his undergraduate degree from the University of California, Berkeley, Haas Undergraduate School of Business.

Mehran Arjomand

Mehran Arjomand is a partner at Morrison & Foerster LLP and is the head of the firm’s Patent Reexamination Group. His practice focuses on patent prosecution with an emphasis on patent reexaminations. In the past few years, Mr. Arjomand has handled more than 30 reexaminations. He has experience both initiating reexaminations through his representation of patent owners and, more typically, third parties and defending patents during reexamination through his representation of patent owners. He received his Bachelors of Science in Mechanical Engineering from Berkeley and then attended Berkeley School of Law for his J.D.

Adam Bass

Adam Bass is a Shareholder and member of Buchalter Nemer’s Board of Directors. He represents financial institutions, particularly in the mortgage banking and automobile finance industries. He is a member of the Board of Directors of the California Mortgage Bankers Association and the American Financial Services Association and the Civil Justice Association of California. Additionally, he is involved with the Mortgage Bankers Association of America and serves on the boards of a number of nationwide financial institutions. Mr. Bass received his Bachelor of Arts in History with a minor in Political Science, graduating with departmental honors from the University of San Diego. In addition, he studied International Relations at the University of San Diego Graduate School, and pursued coursework at the Institute on Comparative Law in London, before receiving his J.D. from the University of San Diego School of Law.

Ellyce R. Cooper

Ellyce R. Cooper is partner at Sidley Austin LLP and has extensive experience in handling both complex commercial litigation and government investigations. Ms. Cooper’s state and federal litigation practice includes representing clients in connection with False Claims Act matters, including qui tam “whistleblower” lawsuits, accountant liability litigation, and medical device and pharmaceutical matters. Prior to joining the firm, Ms. Cooper served as a judicial extern for the Honorable Alex Kozinski in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. She also served as a judicial extern for the Honorable Dean D. Pregerson in the United States District Court. Ms. Cooper graduated Order of the Coif from UCLA School of Law and was Articles Editor, UCLA Law Review. She received her Bachelor’s degree from University of California, Berkeley magna cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa.

Jennifer Elkayam

Jennifer Elkayam is an associate at Blecher & Collins. Since joining the firm in 2005 she has worked on complex litigation matters focusing on antitrust, class action and professional liability cases. Ms. Elkayam has represented a major Los Angeles vending machine company in its claims of price discrimination and unfair competition. She also represented a class of California auto body shops against national insurance companies alleging a conspiracy to unlawfully fix auto repair labor rates in violation of California’s unfair competition laws. Ms. Elkayam received her undergraduate degree cum laude from the University of California, Santa Barbara and received her J.D. from Southwestern Law School.

Michael M. Farhang

Michael M. Farhang is a litigation partner at Gibson Dunn & Crutcher LLP in Los Angeles, where he specializes in white collar criminal defense and securities matters. Prior to joining Gibson Dunn & Crutcher, Mr. Farhang was an Assistant United States Attorney in the Central District of California, where he served in the Major Fraud Section. Mr. Farhang also served as a Trial Attorney with the U.S. Department of Justice in Washington, D.C., and participated in overseas legal assistance projects for the Department, including an assignment in Iraq in 2003. Mr. Farhang received his undergraduate degree magna cum laude from Harvard College and his J.D. cum laude from Harvard Law School

Rod Guerra

Rod Guerra is partner specializing in Corporate and Securities Law at Skadden Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, LLP. He represents leading companies, investment banks and institutional investors in a broad range of corporate matters, including corporate finance, mergers and acquisitions, and restructurings. He has experience in numerous types of mergers and acquisitions, transactions, including negotiated and contested takeovers, leveraged buyouts, tender offers and joint ventures. He has represented both target and acquiring companies in transactions ranging from high profile, multibillion-dollar deals to middle market acquisitions in a wide range of industries. Rod obtained his J.D. and his Masters of Business Administration from UCLA.

Brian Hershman

Brian Hershman is a partner at Jones Day focusing on civil litigation and white-collar criminal defense in state and federal courts. He has experience handling witnesses and defendants in state and federal criminal proceedings and has represented numerous clients in all aspects of complex civil litigation. Prior to joining Jones Day, Brian was an Assistant U.S. attorney for the Central District of California of Los Angeles, where he was the deputy chief of the Public Corruption and Civil Rights section and deputy chief of the Public Corruption and Government Frauds section. As a federal prosecutor, Brian maintained an unblemished trial record, obtaining guilty verdicts against all defendants in all matters that proceeded to trial. He successfully prosecuted cases involving health care fraud, defense procurement fraud, telemarketing fraud, mail and wire fraud, tax fraud, and corruption by government officials, among other crimes. Mr. Hershman received his undergraduate degree summa cum laude from the University of California at Berkeley. He received his J.D. from Yale Law School where he was the recipient of the Potter Steward Prize and Harlan Fiske Stone Prize.

Naomi H. Kobayashi

Naomi H. Kobayashi is the Senior Vice President and Senior Counsel for Capital Guardian Trust Company and Capital International, Inc., which are part of The Capital Group Companies. She focuses on investment management and corporate securities matters, with a particular emphasis on private equity. Prior to joining Capital in1998, Ms. Kobayashi was an associate with Latham & Watkins in Los Angeles for four years. From 1993 to 1994, she was a law clerk with the Honorable William Matthew Byrne, Jr. in the United States District Court, Central District of California. She graduated from Columbia College, Columbia University and received her J.D. from Yale Law School.

Nelson N. Lee

Nelson N. Lee is a Vice President and Associate Counsel for Capital Guardian Trust Company and Capital International, Inc., which are part of The Capital Group Companies. He focuses on investment management and regulatory matters. Prior to joining the organization in 2002, he was an associate with Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom where he practiced general corporate law, with an emphasis on mergers and acquisitions and corporate finance. Mr. Lee graduated from University of California, Berkeley and received his J.D. from UCLA School of Law.

Douglas NeJaime

Douglas NeJaime is Associate Professor of Law at Loyola Law School of Los Angeles. Prior to joining the Loyola faculty in 2009, Douglas NeJaime was the Sears Law Teaching Fellow at the Williams Institute at UCLA School of Law, where he taught courses on law and sexuality and legal scholarship. Before that, NeJaime was an associate at the Los Angeles law firm of Irell & Manella. His practice included a variety of intellectual property matters as well as representation of women’s rights organizations in same-sex marriage litigation. NeJaime teaches in the areas of Family Law, Ethical Lawyering and Law & Sexuality. His research focuses on law and social movements, cause lawyering, and antidiscrimination law, with an emphasis on sexual orientation discrimination. In 2008, he was honored with a Dukeminier Award, which recognizes the best sexual orientation and gender identity law scholarship published in the previous year. NeJaime graduated cum laude from Harvard Law School, where he served as a Senior Editor on the Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review and as a Teaching Fellow to Professor Lani Guinier. He received his B.A. with Honors in American Civilization from Brown University, graduating Phi Beta Kappa and magna cum laude.

Adam Pines

Adam Pines is a partner in the law firm of Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, LLP. His practice focuses on complex business litigation, including unfair competition, banking and employment law, ERISA, trade secrets, fraudulent transfers, residential and commercial real estate and administrative, land use, franchise and environmental law, in all phases of litigation, including trial, appeals and complex settlements in both state and federal courts and before arbitrators and regulators throughout the country. He graduated from the University of Pennsylvania and New York University School of Law.

Kimberly Posin

Kimberly Posin is partner at Latham & Watkins and is a member of the Finance Department and Insolvency Practice Group. Ms. Posin specializes in representing corporate debtors and secured lenders in all aspects of bankruptcy proceedings, but she has also represented Unsecured Creditors Committees and equity holders. Ms. Posin previously served a two year term on the firm’s Associates Committee and is presently co-managing the firm’s bankruptcy training program. Ms. Posin is a member of the Financial Lawyers Conference, the American Bankruptcy Institute and the Business Law Section of the California State Bar Association. Ms. Posin received her Bachelor’s of Science from the University of Southern California and her law degree from Berkeley School of Law.

Nancy Ramirez

Nancy Ramirez is the Western Regional Counsel for the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF), a national Latino litigation, advocacy and educational outreach institution. MALDEF advances the civil rights of Latinos through litigation in the areas of immigrants’ rights, voting rights, education, employment, language access and public resource equity. Nancy joined MALDEF in 2007 as Regional Counsel and served as a voting rights staff attorney there from 1991 to 1997. Prior to re-joining MALDEF she was the executive director of the LACLJ from 2005-2007 and a managing attorney from 2001 to 2005. She is a graduate of Harvard Law School and University of California, Berkeley.

Heather Skinazi

Heather Skinazi is Senior Counsel for Occidental Petroleum Corporation where she focuses on litigation, general corporate and compliance matters. Prior to joining Occidental in 2005, Heather was an associate at Sidley Austin in the firm’s litigation group. Heather received her J.D. from the University of California, Berkeley School of Law (Boalt Hall) in 1997. During law school, Heather served as Senior Executive Editor of the California Law Reivew, worked with the Berkeley Family Violence Law Center and externed for the Honorable Wm. Matthew Byrne, Jr., United States District Court, Central District of California. Ms. Skinazi authored “Not Just A ‘Conjured Afterthought’: Using Duress As A Defense For Battered Women Who Fail To Protect,” 85 California Law Review, 993 (1997). Ms. Skinazi received her B.A. from the University of California, Los Angeles, summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa, in 1994.

Peter Salomon

Peter Salomon is a Director at Hemming Morse, Inc.. With over 25 years of professional accounting experience, Mr. Salomon provides accounting and auditing experience to attorneys in litigation, and specializes in determining damages and performing investigations of accounting irregularities. Mr. Salomon has provided expert testimony in Federal and State Courts on many occasions. Mr. Salomon has appeared before the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on several occasions related to alleged fraudulent financial reporting. Mr. Salomon is the Secretary of the Steering Committee and a former Chairman of the Fraud Section for the California Society of CPAs. Mr. Salomon received his Bachelor’s of Science from Bentley College and is a licensed certified public accountant in California and in New York.

Mary Ann Todd

Mary Ann Todd is a corporate partner at Munger, Tolles & Olson LLP. She practices general corporate law, focusing on mergers and acquisitions and joint ventures. She represents publicly traded and privately held companies and private equity funds. Ms. Todd’s practice also includes counseling clients with respect to corporate governance and securities law compliance. She received her B.A. in economics from the University of California, Berkeley with high distinction, Phi Beta Kappa, and her J.D. from Yale Law School, where she served as Articles Editor of The Yale Law Journal. Ms. Todd served as a law clerk to Judge Alex Kozinski, U.S. Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit from 1993 to 1994. She also serves as Secretary and a member of the Board of Governors of the Fulfillment Fund.