Careers in Service Symposium 2012
Speakers and Panelists
James J. Sandman, Keynote Speaker
James J. Sandman was appointed President of the Legal Services Corporation effective January 31, 2011. Mr. Sandman brings more than three decades of legal experience to LSC. He was with Arnold & Porter LLP from 1977 to 2007 and served as the firm's managing partner from 1995 to 2005. From 2007 to 2011, he was general counsel for the District of Columbia Public Schools. Mr. Sandman was president of the District of Columbia Bar from 2006-2007 and served on the Bar's Board of Governors from 2003-2008. He is currently the chair of the Bar's Pro Bono Committee and formerly chaired the Bar's Pro Bono Initiative Working Group. Mr. Sandman is the co-chair of the District of Columbia Circuit Judicial Conference Committee on Pro Bono Legal Services and is a member of the Pro Bono Institute's Law Firm Pro Bono Project Advisory Committee. From 2007-2008, he served on the American Bar Association's Standing Committee on Pro Bono and Public Service. He is a member of the U.S. Civil Rights Commission's District of Columbia State Advisory Committee. He also is vice chairman of the Washington Performing Arts Society and on the boards of the Meyer Foundation and the Women's Bar Association Foundation. Mr. Sandman previously served on the boards of the Neighborhood Legal Services Program of the District of Columbia, the International Senior Lawyers Project, the NALP Foundation for Law Career Research and Education, Wilkes University, the University of Pennsylvania Law School and the Whitman-Walker Clinic. He also has served on the scholarship selection committee of the Minority Corporate Counsel Association.
Mr. Sandman is a summa cum laude graduate of Boston College, where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa, and received his law degree cum laude from the University of Pennsylvania, where he served as Executive Editor of the Law Review. He clerked for Judge Max Rosenn of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. Mr. Sandman received the University of Pennsylvania Law School Alumni Award of Merit in 2007 and was named one of the "90 Greatest Washington Lawyers of the Last 30 Years" by the Legal Times in 2008. He also was recognized as a "Star of the Bar" by the Women's Bar Association of the District of Columbia in 2006. In 2011, he received the first annual Celebration of Service Award from D.C. Law Students in Court, the Tahirih Justice Center's Wings of Justice Award, and the University of Pennsylvania Law School's Howard Lesnick Pro Bono Award.
John Ahlers
John Ahlers is the Director of Financial Aid at Duke University School of Law. He has a particular interest in public service, education, and enabling access to higher education for historically underserved populations. Mr. Ahlers received his B.A in Religious Studies from Depauw University in Greencastle, Indiana. After graduating, he served as a charter corps member of Teach for America - Miami. He spent his time in the classroom at Miami Park Elementary, where he taught first grade. Once he completed his commitment to TFA, Mr. Ahlers then worked at the University of Miami before coming to Duke Law in the summer of 2007. Since arriving, he has worked to improve and expand the Law School's LRAP program.
Daryl V. Atkinson
Daryl Atkinson is a staff attorney at the Southern Coalition for Social Justice, focusing on criminal justice reform issues. Prior to coming to SCSJ, Mr. Atkinson was a staff attorney at the North Carolina Office of Indigent Defense Services where he co-managed the Collateral Consequence Assessment Tool (C-CAT). C-CAT is an online searchable database that allows the user to identify the civil disabilities triggered by North Carolina arrests, indictments, and convictions. C-CAT will officially debut in April 2012 making it the first tool of its kind in the country. Because of his intimate knowledge of collateral consequences, Mr. Atkinson was asked and agreed to serve on an advisory committee for the American Bar Association's collateral consequence project.
Since moving to North Carolina in 2007, Mr. Atkinson has been active in both the prisoner reentry and legal service communities. He is a founding member of the North Carolina Second Chance Alliance, a burgeoning statewide coalition of advocacy organizations, service providers, faith-based organizations and community leaders that have come together to achieve the safe and successful reintegration of adults and juveniles returning home from incarceration. Moreover, Mr. Atkinson served on a subcommittee of Governor Beverly Perdue's Task Force to Stop Repeat Offenders. He has led continuing legal education training sessions for criminal defense attorneys on how to address the reentry issues of their clients. Most notably, Mr. Atkinson and the Durham Second Chance Alliance led the first successful Ban the Box campaign in North Carolina, which resulted in the City of Durham adopting an administrative policy that removed the question about criminal convictions from the city employment application.
Mr. Atkinson received a B.A. in Political Science from Benedict College in Columbia, SC and a J.D. from the University of St. Thomas School of Law, Minneapolis, MN. He is a member of both the Minnesota and North Carolina Bars.
Jane Bahnson
Jane Bahnson is a reference librarian and senior lecturing fellow at Duke University School of Law. She teaches an advanced research class on health and medical information for lawyers, and co-teaches a section of Legal Analysis, Research and Writing. She also coordinates the library's Faculty Research Assistant and Empirical Legal Research programs.
Ms. Bahnson received her J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center and practiced law after graduation in southern California in the areas of products liability and business law. She later received her M.S.L.S. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Ms. Bahnson also holds a B.S. in Nutrition Science from the University of California at Berkeley. Prior to entering law, she worked at the National Institutes of Health as a Clinical Research Dietitian, where she co-authored a chapter on nutritional supportive care for a medical textbook on pediatric oncology.
A. Fleming Bell, II ('82)
Fleming Bell joined the University of North Carolina -Chapel Hill School of Government (then the Institute of Government) in 1982. Prior to that, he worked as a city-county planner in Rockingham and Richmond County, North Carolina. Mr. Bell is a member of the Continuing Legal Education Committee of the NC Bar Association, and he has served since 2005 as a gubernatorial appointee to the NC General Statutes Commission. His publications include Ethics, Conflicts, and Offices: A Guide for Local Officials (second edition published in 2010); County Government in North Carolina (co-editor); Construction Contracts with North Carolina Local Government, now in its fourth edition; procedure handbooks for city councils and small local government boards; and articles on citizen participation in board meetings and other topics. Mr. Bell earned an AB magna cum laude and a JD summa cum laude from Duke University, where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa and was first in his law school class. He also holds a master's degree in regional planning from UNC-Chapel Hill.
Joseph Blocher
Joseph Blocher is an assistant professor at Duke Law School, where he teaches constitutional law, capital punishment, and a seminar on legal scholarship. He is vice-chair of the board of directors for the Fair Trial Initiative, a Durham-based organization that works with young lawyers to provide quality defense counsel in capital cases. Professor Blocher's scholarly articles have been published or are forthcoming in the Stanford Law Review, California Law Review, New York University Law Review, Duke Law Journal, Georgetown Law Journal, and many other journals.
Professor Blocher received his J.D. from Yale Law School. While in law school, he was co-chair of Yale Law School's Legal Services Organization, participated in or directed several clinics, and assisted the research and briefing for Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, the successful challenge to the use of military tribunals at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. He received his B.A., magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa, from Rice University, and studied law and economic development as a Fulbright Scholar in Ghana and as a Gates Scholar at Cambridge University, where he received an M.Phil. in Land Economy.
Dan Conrad
Dan Conrad is the Legislative Counsel for the North Carolina Conservation Network, a state level environmental nonprofit that supports, trains, and coordinates diverse groups and directly advocates to achieve equitable and sustainable solutions for our environment. He joined the NC Conservation Network in May 2009 and provides legal counsel, policy support, bill and amendment drafting, and coalition coordination focused on State level environmental, energy, and regulatory issues in North Carolina. For example, during the 2010 legislative session he drafted, researched, and negotiated language for what eventually passed as Senate Bill 836 (Oil Spill Liability, Response, & Preparedness); a bill responding to the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill. Mr. Conrad holds a law degree (2009) and a BA in Economics (2001), both from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Before joining the NC Conservation Network, he worked full time in the summer and part time while in law school for the NC General Assembly Research Division (2007-2009) working primarily on environmental legislation. He also worked as a legal intern at the Natural Resources Defense Council (2008) and the US Department of Justice (2008.) Prior to law school he worked as an economic analyst for a consulting firm in Washington, D.C. and thru-hiked the Appalachian Trail.
Leslie Katherine Cooley ('05)
Leslie Cooley is an Assistant District Attorney with the Mecklenburg County District Attorney's Office, where she focuses on the prosecution of child sexual abuse crimes. She currently manages an inventory of 45 child sexual abuse and physical abuse cases, including child homicides, as well as most of the county's officer-involved shooting and injury cases. She also has managed a caseload involving a wide range of narcotics and trafficking cases. In addition, Ms. Cooley trains other ADA's in both District and Superior Court, and created training manuals for the Misdemeanor Appeals Section and the Drug Prosecution Team. She is a member of the Community Building Initiative's 'Leaders Under 40' group, sits on the Mecklenburg County Bar Board of Directors, and is President of the Duke Law Club of Charlotte. Ms. Cooley attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where she received a BA in Political Science with Honors and Distinction in 2001, and received her Juris Doctor with High Honors from Duke University School of Law in 2005.
Sean Devereux
Sean Patrick Devereux practices law in the firm of Devereux & Banzhoff, PLLC, in Asheville, North Carolina. His primary area of practice is criminal law, and he has represented people accused of everything from poaching ginseng in the National Forest to capital murder. Mr. Devereux graduated from Duke University in 1969 and received his J.D. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Law in 1977. He served on the Board of Governors of the North Carolina Academy of Trial Lawyers from 1997 until 2004. He was Vice President for Legal Affairs from 2001 to 2002 and Vice President for Membership from 2002 until 2004. In 2004, Mr. Devereux was appointed by the North Carolina General Assembly to the Commission for Indigent Defense Services. He also serves on the Board of Directors of the Federal Defenders of Western North Carolina. Mr. Devereux has lectured at seminars for the Academy of Trial Lawyers, Wake Forest University School of Law, and the Office of the Federal Public Defender. Mr. Devereux has been named among North Carolina's "Legal Elite" by Business North Carolina magazine every year since 2003, and recently was inducted in the American Board of Criminal Lawyers.
Annaliese Dolph
Annaliese Dolph is a lobbyist at the North Carolina General Assembly representing Disability Rights North Carolina and the Covenant with North Carolina's Children. Prior to her work with the General Assembly, she served as staff attorney at North Carolina Prisoner Legal Services, as the Assistant Dean of Career Services at the UNC School of Law, and as staff attorney and Director of Public Policy at Disability Rights North Carolina. Ms. Dolph received her BS from the University of Michigan and JD from Santa Clara University School of Law.
Mark Dorosin
Mark Dorosin is the Managing Attorney at the UNC Center for Civil Rights. In that role, he oversees and coordinates the Center's litigation and advocacy agenda. The Center's work primarily focuses on the most prominent impacts of racial exclusion, including inadequate or substandard housing; lack of basic infrastructure and beneficial economic development; targeting of environmental hazards or socially disfavored land uses; restrictions on civic engagement and political participation; and discriminatory school district boundaries, and school siting, attendance zones and student assignment decisions.
In addition to his work at the Center, Mr. Dorosin also teaches Political and Civil Rights, and in 2010 was voted Pro Bon Faculty Member of the year. He is a graduate of Duke University and received a master's degree from UNC-Greensboro and a J.D. from UNC-Chapel Hill in 1994.
Dennis M. Duffy
Dennis M. Duffy serves as Senior Litigation Counsel with the United States Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of North Carolina. He also teaches The Federal Prosecutor: A View From, the Trenches at Duke Law School and recently co-authored Federal Prosecution of State and Local Officials: Where's the Line?, 32 Campbell Law Review 191. Mr. Duffy prosecutes a variety of cases including white collar crimes, violent crimes, and public corruption crimes. He is also responsible for training newly hired Assistant U.S. Attorneys and for resolving certain ethical issues pertaining to discovery. Mr. Duffy received his undergraduate degree from the University of Rhode Island in 1984, and his law degree from Boston College Law School in 1987. From 1987-1991, he worked for private law firms in Boston, Massachusetts, and Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, practicing tax and securities law. Mr. Duffy served in U.S. Department of Justice's Tax Division as a civil trial attorney from 1991-98 and as Assistant U.S. Attorney in Raleigh from 1991 to the present.
Charles J. Dunlap, Jr.
Charles J. Dunlap Jr., the former deputy judge advocate general of the United States Air Force, joined the Duke Law faculty in July 2010. His teaching and scholarly writing focus on national security, international law, civil-military relations, cyberwar, and criminal law in the armed forces. He is a graduate of St Joseph's University, Villanova University School of Law, and the National War College.
General Dunlap retired from the Air Force in June 2010, having attained the rank of major general during a 34-year career as a military lawyer. He assisted the judge advocate general in the professional supervision of more than 2,200 judge advocates, 350 civilian lawyers, 1,400 enlisted paralegals, and 500 civilians around the world. The General served in the United Kingdom and Korea, and deployed for various operations in the Middle East and Africa, including short stints in support of operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. During his military career, General Dunlap served as a trial judge for a 22-state judicial circuit, and also was involved in an array of military justice, operational, international, and civil law issues, as well as providing legal advice to commanders at all levels.
David Elliott ('93)
David Elliott is the Director of the Victims and Citizens Service Section of the North Carolina Attorney General's Office. After law school, Mr. Elliott clerked for the Honorable Richard C. Erwin of the United States District Court, then managed his own law office. Two years later, he joined the North Carolina Department of Justice. As an Assistant Attorney General in the Consumer Protection Division, he litigated against both local and fortune 500 companies. In his current capacity as the Director of the Victims and Citizens Service Section, he develops and implements policy initiatives related to open government, hate crimes, domestic violence, sexual assault, child abuse, consumer fraud, methamphetamine, and internet safety. He briefed, and successfully argued, State v. Pierre Torez-Omar Farrar and State v. Harris before the North Carolina Supreme Court. State v. Harris helped restore the protections of North Carolina's rape shield laws.
Uchenna Evans ('07)
Uchenna Evans is a regulatory attorney in the Plan Benefits Security Division of the Office of the Solicitor at the U.S. Department of Labor in Washington, D.C. She works on regulations, advisory opinions, advice, and appellate cases related to ERISA. Ms. Evans has worked in this capacity since completing the Solicitor's Honors Program, a two-year program for entry-level attorneys interested in public service, providing broad exposure to labor and employment matters. During law school, she participated in the AIDS Legal Assistance Clinic and the Poverty Law Clinic, and was a member of the Duke Journal of Constitutional Law and Public Policy. Prior to entering law school, she was selected as an NAACP Legal Defense Fund Earl Warren Scholar. Ms. Evans earned a J.D. from Duke University School of Law in 2007 and a B.A. from Columbia University (NY). Ms. Evans is admitted to practice law in the District of Columbia.
Lisa C. Glover ('99)
Lisa C. Glover is the Assistant Town Attorney for the Town of Cary. She advises the Town on all aspects of municipal law and is counsel to the Planning and Zoning Board and the Zoning Board of Adjustment. Prior to working for the town, Ms. Glover was an Assistant Attorney General for the North Carolina Department of Justice, and represented the North Carolina Department of Transportation in environmental law matters for eight years. She began her legal career as a clerk to Judge Joseph R. John, Sr., of the North Carolina Court of Appeals. Ms. Glover earned her B.S. degree in Biology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and Juris Doctorate and Masters of Environmental Management degrees from Duke University in 1999.
Amy L. Horner ('02)
Amy Horner is an attorney-advisor in the Environmental Restoration Branch in the Office of the Solicitor for the U.S. Department of the Interior. She joined DOI in 2006 where she has primarily focused on advising clients on natural resource damage cases. Among other cases, since joining DOI, Ms. Horner has worked on the ASARCO bankruptcy case as well as the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill. She is the national bankruptcy coordinator for the solicitor's office on behalf of the NRDAR Program. Her practice also includes advising the National Park Service and Fish and Wildlife Service on other environmental statutes, including RCRA, CAA, and NEPA. Prior to joining DOI, she was in private practice at a law firm in Washington, D.C. working on environmental cases. She holds a Masters of environmental management and a law degree from Duke University. Ms. Horner is a member of the Pennsylvania and District of Columbia bars.
Johanna Jennings ('11)
Johanna Jennings is an Osborn fellow at the Fair Trial Initiative, a death penalty defense organization located in Durham, North Carolina. During her first year of the two-year fellowship, she has assisted in the defense of five individuals facing the death penalty, including participating in one capital trial. Her responsibilities include assisting attorneys of record on various tasks including mitigation investigation, legal research, motions writing, client-relationship building, and discovery management.
Ms. Jennings received her B.A. from Rice University in 2006 and her J.D. from Duke University School of Law in 2011. While at Duke Law, Ms. Jennings spent her summers and semesters interning for various capital and public defense organizations including the ACLU Capital Punishment Project, the Charlotte Public Defender's Office, the Fair Trial Initiative, and the Durham County Public Defender's Office. One of her most gratifying experiences while at Duke was her externship with the Federal Public Defender's Office in the Eastern District. In addition, she participated in the Children's Law Clinic, Streetlaw, PILF, and the Duke Forum for Law and Social Change.
John Keller ('87)
John Keller is a supervising attorney with Legal Aid of North Carolina - Wilson office. He handles a general civil poverty law practice, including unemployment compensation, federally subsidized housing, private landlord/tenant, mortgage foreclosure defense, unfair debt collection and special education cases, and supervises the office's staff attorneys and paralegals. He also participates in Legal Aid's Employment and Housing Task Forces. Mr. Keller has spent his entire career with Legal Aid's Wilson office. He received a B.A. in Economics from Williams College in 1984 and his J.D. from Duke in 1987. He has served on local boards for Habitat for Humanity and a domestic violence program and the diocesan board of Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Raleigh.
Maggie Lemos
Maggie Lemos is a scholar of constitutional law, legal institutions, and procedure at Duke University School of Law. She came to Duke Law in 2011 from the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, where she was an associate professor. Ms. Lemos focuses her scholarship on the institutions of law interpretation and enforcement and their effects on substantive rights. She writes in four related fields: federalism; administrative law, including the relationship between courts and agencies; statutory interpretation; and civil procedure. Her articles have been published in the Supreme Court Review as well as in the New York University, Texas, Minnesota, and Vanderbilt law reviews.
Prior to joining the Cardozo faculty, Ms. Lemos was a Furman Fellow and program coordinator at New York University School of Law, a Bristow Fellow at the Office of the Solicitor General, and a law clerk for Judge Kermit V. Lipez, U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, and for U.S. Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens. She graduated summa cum laude from New York University School of Law, where she was senior notes editor of the New York University Law Review.
Thomas Maher
Thomas Maher is the Executive Director of the Office of Indigent Defense Services, the agency responsible for funding and oversight of local and state-wide public defenders and private assigned counsel in North Carolina. Prior to assuming this position in 2009, Mr. Maher was the Director for the Center for Death Penalty Litigation, a non-profit law firm that represents inmates on death row, as well as capital defendants at trial and on appeal, and which provides consultation to capital attorneys and other defense team members throughout the state.
Mr. Maher graduated from Northwestern University in 1979 and from the University of North Carolina School of Law in 1982, and then spent two years clerking for the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. He returned to North Carolina, and from 1984 until 2006 was engaged in the private practice of law, focusing on criminal defense. He represented clients at trial, on appeal, and in post-conviction proceedings, both appointed and retained, including capital trials, appeals, and post-conviction proceedings. Mr. Maher has appeared on behalf of clients at every level of North Carolina's Court system, including arguing cases before the North Carolina Supreme Court, as well as appearances in federal district courts and the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit.
Carlos E. Mahoney
Carlos Mahoney is an attorney at Glenn, Mills, Fisher & Mahoney, P.A. in Durham, North Carolina. He practices civil litigation with a focus on civil rights claims and other tort, contract, and administrative claims against governmental entities, officials, and employees. He has litigated cases under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 involving excessive use of lethal and non-lethal force, false arrest, and wrongful conviction. In addition, Mr. Mahoney regularly litigates civil rights issues through his service on the Indigent Defense Services appointment list for criminal appeals and post-conviction capital cases. His notable civil rights cases include a federal jury verdict in 2009 against a deputy sheriff for excessive force and civil battery in the shooting of a Fort Bragg soldier and a successful motion for appropriate relief in 2008 which freed a young man who had been imprisoned for seven years after his wrongful convictions at the age of 15.
Mr. Mahoney received his undergraduate and law degrees from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Since passing the North Carolina State Bar in 1999, he has practiced with Glenn, Mills, Fisher & Mahoney, P.A. and has been a partner at the firm since 2004. He presently serves on the Boards of the ACLU, the ACLU of North Carolina, North Carolina Advocates for Justice, and North Carolina Prisoner Legal Services. He is also a member of the North Carolina Bar Association's Appellate Rules and Professionalism Committees. Mr. Mahoney is an Associate in the American Board of Trial Advocates and has been listed as a "Young Gun" by Business North Carolina (2008) and a "Rising Star" by North Carolina Super Lawyers (2010-2012). He is a frequent speaker at continuing legal education seminars on civil trial practice and handling civil claims against the government. He has also authored several chapters and articles in legal publications, most recently "Qualified Immunity in an Excessive Force Case" for Trial Briefs.
Veronica McClendon ('10)
Veronica McClendon is a staff attorney with the Macon Regional Office of Georgia Legal Services Program. She is a recipient of the Skadden Fellowship, which enables her to pursue her passion of advocating for the educational, health, and behavioral needs of students at-risk of dropping out of school. Her work entails representing students in school disciplinary hearings, advocating for the rights of students with disabilities, and presenting workshops on education rights and related issues. Ms. McClendon currently serves on the Youth Council of the Macon Office of Workforce Development, on the Partner Council of the Macon Children's Promise Neighborhood project, on the advisory board of Georgia Appleseed's School Discipline Tribunal Project, and in several other initiatives aimed at community-building and improving outcomes for youth in middle Georgia.
Ms. McClendon graduated from Duke University School of Law in 2010. While there, she served in leadership positions with organizations that include the Duke Bar Association, the Black Law Students Association, and the Public Interest and Pro Bono Board. She also founded an organization for public service-minded law students called Students Pursuing Careers in the Public Interest. Through her participation in the Duke Children's Law Clinic and externship with Legal Aid of North Carolina, Ms. McClendon gained experience addressing education issues and other problems affecting children. She also had the privilege of interning with the nationally-esteemed organizations Mississippi Center for Justice in Jackson, MS and New York Lawyers for the Public Interest in New York, NY.
T.C. Morphis, Jr.
T.C. Morphis, Jr. has been with the Brough Law Firm since the fall of 2002, where his primary practice areas include municipal, zoning, land use, environmental and coastal area management law. He is the Town Attorney for the Town of Aberdeen and works extensively with the Towns of Carrboro, Hillsborough and Pinebluff on general local government issues and more specifically on zoning, nuisance and code enforcement issues. Mr. Morphis has extensive ordinance and code writing experience, and he also regularly represents private clients in land use litigation throughout North Carolina.
Mr. Morphis is admitted to practice in the State courts in North Carolina and in the United States District Court, Middle District of North Carolina. He is a member of the North Carolina Bar Association and has been elected to serve on the North Carolina Bar Association's Zoning, Planning and Land Use Section Council. He previously served on the Triangle Land Conservancy's Land Protection Committee and as the Chairman of the Advisory Committee to the City of Durham's Community and Family Life Center at Lyon Park. Mr. Morphis received his BA from UNC-Chapel Hill in 1997 and his JD and Masters in City and Regional Planning from UNC-Chapel Hill in 2002.
Michelle Nowlin ('92)
Michelle Nowlin is the Supervising Attorney and Senior Lecturing Fellow for the Environmental Law and Policy Clinic at Duke Law. She has dedicated her career to the protection of natural resources and public health through the practice of environmental law. In 1995, she joined the Southern Environmental Law Center in Chapel Hill after completing a fellowship awarded by the Ford Foundation and two years in private practice. For the next 13 years, Professor Nowlin represented non-profit environmental and community organizations throughout the southeast on a wide variety of issues. She led SELC's Hog Industry Project and helped develop state laws and the first comprehensive regulatory programs for factory hog farms in North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia and Tennessee. She also participated in precedent-setting litigation establishing the authority to regulate factory hog farms under the federal Clean Water Act, and establishing the state's authority to address secondary impacts of permitting decisions. She also participated in a groundbreaking settlement between the state of North Carolina and agricultural corporations to study and develop new technologies to manage, treat and utilize waste from factory farms. During her tenure at SELC, she also developed regulations governing the protection and allocation of water during droughts and the protection of groundwater quality, drafted legislation to improve regulation of the inter-basin diversion of rivers, and represented organizations in court to protect coastal resources and wetlands. She participated in precedent-setting litigation to protect Pocosin Lakes National Wildlife Refuge by forcing the United States Navy to comply with the National Environmental Policy Act, and to protect the Catawba and Yadkin Rivers from massive diversions of water. For her advocacy work, Professor Nowlin received the North Carolina Audubon Society's Advocacy Award in 2006, and the Bill Holman Award for Environmental Advocacy, awarded by the Conservation Council of North Carolina in 1997.
Michael Oswalt ('08)
Michael Oswalt is a law fellow at the Service Employees International Union (SEIU). After graduating from Haverford College in 2000, Mr. Oswalt served as a legislative assistant in the U.S. House of Representatives, where he focused on labor and education issues. In 2008 he graduated with a joint degree in law and theology from Duke University. While in law school, he was active in the IAF-affiliated community organizing group DurhamCAN and was a founding member of Duke Organizing, a campus organization dedicated to building relationships between students, employees, faculty, and the Duke administration. During his law school summers, he participated in the AFL-CIO's law student union summer program, worked at the union-side law firm Bredhoff & Kaiser P.L.L.C., and interned in the Office of NLRB Chairman Wilma B. Liebman. Before coming to SEIU, Mr. Oswalt worked as a law clerk on the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.
Amy E. Pope ('01)
Amy E. Pope serves as the Deputy Chief of Staff & Counselor to the Assistant Attorney General of the Criminal Division in the U.S. Department of Justice. In this capacity, she oversees the Criminal Division's Office of Policy and Legislation, its Administrative Office, and its Training Center. She also has responsibility for coordinating the Division's extensive efforts in Mexico, which run the gamut from enhancing the investigative and prosecutorial abilities of Mexican federal law enforcement agencies to coordinating extraditions and requests for evidence.
Prior to assuming this position, Ms. Pope served as Senior Counsel to the Assistant Attorney General. In 2009, she was detailed as counsel to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, where she served as the liaison between Senate leadership and the Senate Judiciary Committee. Previously, from 2008-09, Ms. Pope served as Counsel in the Criminal Division's Office of Policy and Legislation. During her career in the public sector, she also has been Counsel to the Senate Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on Terrorism, Technology, and Homeland Security, and has served as a trial attorney in the Civil Rights Division's Criminal Section. From 2001-02, Ms. Pope clerked for the Honorable Kim McLane Wardlaw of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.
Ms. Pope is a 2001 magna cum laude graduate of Duke University School of Law and a 1996 graduate of Haverford College.
Anuja G. Purohit ('92)
Anuja Purohit is a Senior Counsel for Labor and Employment Law at Research Triangle Institute (RTI International), an independent, nonprofit institute formed in 1958 by the Governor of North Carolina and the Presidents and Chairmen of Duke University and The University of North Carolina. RTI International provides research, development and technical services to government and commercial clients worldwide. Health research is RTI's largest single field of study, encompassing research that ranges from studies of the human genome and the development of new drug compounds to national surveys of health behaviors and the implementation of global health programs.
In her current capacity, Ms. Purohit provides advice and counsel regarding domestic and international labor and employment related issues associated with RTI's staff of over 3,700 and has been instrumental in establishing RTI's corporate offices in various parts of the globe, including Abu Dhabi, India and China. Before joining RTI, Ms. Purohit was engaged in the private practice of law at Poyner Spruill in Raleigh, NC and in the San Francisco, CA office of Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal (now SNR Denton).
Ms. Purohit graduated summa cum laude with a BA in Sociology/Anthropology from Denison University in 1989 and completed both her Juris Doctorate and Masters in International and Comparative Law from Duke University School of Law in 1992. She was awarded a Ford Foundation Research Fellowship in Public International Law at the conclusion of her studies at Duke.
Seth P. Rosebrock ('02)
Seth P. Rosebrock serves as a Consumer Enforcement Counsel with the FDIC's Legal Division in Washington, D.C. In this role, he is tasked with investigating and analyzing whether FDIC-insured depository institutions and their institution-affiliated parties have violated consumer protection and civil rights laws and regulations. If violations are found, Mr. Rosebrock recommends and helps pursue appropriate regulatory actions, including the filing of administrative enforcement proceedings. Prior to coming to the FDIC, Mr. Rosebrock served as an Assistant Attorney General with the North Carolina Department of Justice assigned to the State Banking Commission and Credit Union Division. At NCDOJ, he served as lead counsel in over 250 administrative and regulatory enforcement actions, obtaining approximately $23 million dollars in borrower restitution and $4.25 million dollars in civil money penalties. For his efforts, he was presented with the Governor's Award for Outstanding Government Service by Gov. Beverly Perdue in 2010. Mr. Rosebrock has also served as litigation counsel for the Center for Responsible Lending and as a staff attorney with the Legal Aid Society of Northwest North Carolina. He received his BA from Boston University and his JD from Duke Law in 2002.
Vandana Shah ('96)
Vandana Shah is the Director for the South East Asia Program for the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids (CTFK), a U.S.-based non-profit organization that works in the United States and globally to reduce tobacco use in developing countries. Ms. Shah leads CTFK's efforts in South-East Asia for this global policy change initiative with an emphasis on programs in India, Bangladesh, and Indonesia. She works with governments and non-government partners in these countries to reduce the burden of tobacco-related death and disease by advocating for strong tobacco control policies and its effective implementation. She coordinates both direct and indirect advocacy, litigation, and media efforts, and works closely with staff and funded partners/grantees.
Prior to this position, Ms. Shah served as the Executive Director of the North Carolina Health and Wellness Trust Fund (HWTF), a state foundation responsible for key health care policy efforts and awarding grants over $30 million annually for the state of North Carolina (the 10th largest in the United States). She also advised the Governor of North Carolina on key healthcare programs. Ms. Shah designed several nationally recognized programs on prevention for tobacco control and obesity, as well as access programs for the underserved. She was a member of the North Carolina Institute of Medicine, was appointed to serve on the NC legislative Task Force to address childhood obesity, and has served on the Board of Care Share Health Alliance, North Carolina Network of Grantmakers. She also has been appointed to be a member of the North Carolina Institute of Medicine.
In addition, Ms. Shah was an Associate Attorney General with the North Carolina Department of Justice, working on health care and non-profit law issues. She has law degrees from Duke University and Calcutta University, India and is entered into practice in North Carolina and India.
Eric Stein
Eric Stein is Senior Vice President of Self-Help and Center for Responsible Lending, a nonprofit community development lender that creates ownership and economic opportunity. Center for Responsible Lending, an affiliate of Self-Help, is a nonpartisan research and policy organization dedicated to protecting homeownership and family wealth.
Mr. Stein has worked at Self-Help for 15 years, and has testified in Congress on predatory mortgage lending and foreclosure prevention. From 2009 to 2010, he served as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Consumer Protection in the U.S. Department of the Treasury. He was responsible for developing, and then working with Congress to enact, legislation to create an independent agency to protect consumers of financial products and services, to reform the mortgage market, and to protect investors. After enactment of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act in July, 2010, Mr. Stein led the transition team to stand up the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. For his work, he was awarded Treasury's Distinguished Service Award.
Mr. Stein was formerly executive director of CASA, a nonprofit organization that develops housing for primarily homeless persons with disabilities. In addition, he worked for Congressman David Price and U.S. Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Sam J. Ervin, III. Mr. Stein holds a law degree from Yale Law School and a B.A. from Williams College.
Howard Wachtel ('06)
Howard Wachtel is an adviser in the Political Section of the U.S. Mission to the United Nations in New York, where he focuses on sanctions and counterterrorism issues. He serves as the U.S. representative on two Security Council sub-committees: the Al-Qaeda/Taliban sanctions committee and the Counter-Terrorism Committee. He joined the U.S. Department of State as a Franklin Fellow in 2009 after spending three years as a litigation associate at Simpson, Thacher & Bartlett LLP in New York. Prior to practicing as an attorney, Mr. Wachtel worked as an extern in the Office of the Legal Adviser (Treaty Affairs) at the U.S. Department of State. He has also worked at the Center for Strategic and International Studies and the Royal United Services Institute for Defence Studies in London. This summer, he will be teaching a course at NYU's Center for Global Affairs. He has published three articles.
Mr. Wachtel is a 2006 graduate of Duke's J.D./LL.M. program. He received his undergraduate degree from Georgetown's School of Foreign Service and a General Course Diploma from the London School of Economics.
Jeff Ward ('09)
Jeff Ward is a lecturing fellow and supervising attorney in Duke Law's Community Enterprise Clinic, a clinic devoted to helping non-profit organizations and low-wealth entrepreneurs to improve the quality of life in low-wealth communities through community economic development and sustainable community development strategies. He also teaches courses on the law of the local food movement, empathy and the law, rhetoric and advocacy, and legal interviewing and counseling.
Before coming to Duke, Mr. Ward served as a Public Interest Law Initiative (PILI) Fellow at the Community Economic Development Law Project of the Chicago Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, Inc., where he counseled and developed resources for community nonprofits and, in partnership with the City of Chicago Department of Business Affairs, provided legal and planning advice to start-up entrepreneurs. As an associate with a corporate law firm in Chicago, he devoted his time to pro bono initiatives. He offered presentations on issues pertinent to nonprofits for The Law Project and taught issues of constitutional law to students in Chicago Public Schools as part of Lawyers in the Classroom, a program of the Constitutional Rights Foundation of Chicago.
Mr. Ward earned a JD/LLM in International & Comparative Law from Duke Law School in 2009, where, among other involvements, he was co-chair of the Public Interest Retreat, Student Director of the Innocence Project, an officer of the International Human Rights Law Society, and devotee of clinics.
Julie Furr Youngman ('94)
Julie Furr Youngman is a Senior Attorney at the Southern Environmental Law Center (SELC) in Chapel Hill. She is true blue, having graduated from Duke with a B.S. in Biology in 1987, and then returned to Duke to earn a joint law degree and masters degree in environmental science in 1994, after having served four years as an active duty officer in the United States Army in the interim. In 2007, Ms. Youngman joined SELC, a public interest law firm that works to conserve clean water, healthy air, wild lands, and livable communities, with primary offices in Charlottesville, VA, Chapel Hill, NC, and Atlanta, GA, and several smaller offices throughout the Southeast. At SELC, Ms. Youngman represents non-profit environmental and community organizations in litigation on a variety of issues, focusing on the protection of water quality, coastal areas, and endangered species. Prior to joining SELC, Ms. Youngman clerked for the Honorable J. Dickson Phillips on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, and then spent 12 years in private practice in Washington DC and Raleigh, NC, most recently as a partner at Ellis & Winters LLP.
