Business Law Section

Sheila Adams, Esq.

Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP

New York, NY

Sheila represents clients in a variety of civil litigation and government investigations, and her practice focuses on antitrust investigations and litigation and the antitrust aspects of mergers and acquisitions. Her clients have included firms in the media and entertainment, technology, pharmaceutical, financial services and manufacturing industries, as well as individual corporate directors.

In 2019, Sheila received a National Bar Association “40 Under 40 Nation’s Best Advocates” award, as well as one of the association’s five individual “40 Under 40” awards for Excellence in Leadership. She is Co-Chair of the Diversity Advanced Committee of the ABA Antitrust Law Section and a member of the Board of Directors of the Columbia Law School Association.

Antitrust Litigation and Investigations
A major technology company in parallel antitrust investigations by the FTC, DOJ and a coalition of state attorneys general

A manufacturer in one of the world’s largest antitrust class action matters, involving allegations of price-fixing in the global market for LCD panels in actions brought by hardware manufacturers, retailers, consumers and state attorneys general

Comcast and NBCUniversal in winning dismissal of a suit challenging NBC’s decision not to renew its affiliation agreement with a local broadcaster in Boston

Benchmark-rate antitrust litigation matters for major financial institutions, including suits alleging conspiracies to manipulate the ISDA fix rate and Canadian Dealer Offered Rate (COOR)

Other Civil Litigation and Investigations
The board of directors of a bankrupt alternative energy company in connection with its reorganization and defense of numerous securities litigation, federal whistleblower and creditor claims

Morgan Stanley in securities litigation related to residential mortgage-backed securities, including a False Claims Act and securities litigation brought by the California Attorney General related to investments made by California state pension funds

Underwriters of the Wanda Sports IPO in securities class action litigation arising out of the IPO

IBM in connection with wide-ranging FCPA investigations by the DOJ and the SEC

A financial institution in connection with an investigation by the Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program

Pro Bono
Successful clemency petition for an individual whose life sentence was commuted by President Barack Obama

Argued and won Fourth Amendment search case before Second Judicial Department – Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York. People v. Delroy Francis, 24 N.Y.3d 615 (2014)

Credentials

Recognition
Leadership Council on Legal Diversity- Fellow, 2021

National Bar Association – “40 Under 40 Nation’s Best Advocates,” 2019 National Bar Association – “40 Under 40 Nation’s Best Advocates, Excellence in Leadership,” 2019

Brooklyn Bar Association – Champion of Justice Award, 2017

Education
J.D., Columbia Law School Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar
Outstanding Clinical Student Award
Editor in Chief, Columbia Journal of Race and Law
B.A., Sociology, Harvard University

Clerkship
Law Clerk, Hon. Carl E. Stewart, U.S. Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit, 2012-2013
Law Clerk, Hon. Raymond A. Jackson, U.S. District Court, E.D. Virginia, 2011-2021

Professional History

Partner, 2021-present

Counsel, 2020-2021

Associate, 2013-2020

Qualifications and Admissions

State of New York

U.S. Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims U.S. Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit

U.S. District Court, Colorado

U.S. District Court, E.D. New York

U.S. District Court, S.D. New York

Professor Christopher M. Bruner

University of Georgia School of Law

Athens, GA

Christopher Bruner is the Stembler Family Distinguished Professor in Business Law at the University of Georgia School of Law. Bruner’s scholarship focuses on corporate law, corporate governance, comparative law, and sustainability. His books include Corporate Governance in the Common-Law World: The Political Foundations of Shareholder Power (Cambridge University Press, 2013), Re-Imagining Offshore Finance: Market-Dominant Small Jurisdictions in a Globalizing Financial World (Oxford University Press, 2016), and The Cambridge Handbook of Corporate Law, Corporate Governance and Sustainability (co-edited with B. Sjåfjell) (Cambridge University Press, 2019). Bruner serves as co-editor (with M. Moore) of the Hart Publishing/Bloomsbury Professional book series Contemporary Studies in Corporate Law. He has been a visitor to the law faculties of the University of Cambridge, the University of Hong Kong, the University of Leeds, the University of Sydney, the University of Toronto, the National University of Singapore, the Southwest University of Political Science and Law (Chongqing, China), and the University of the Witwatersrand (Johannesburg, South Africa). Prior to entering academia, Bruner practiced with Ropes & Gray in Boston, where he worked with public and closely held companies on a range of corporate, transactional and securities matters. He received his A.B., M.Phil. and J.D. from the University of Michigan, the University of Oxford and Harvard Law School, respectively.

Dale Byrk, Esq.

Senior Fellow for Energy & Environment, Regional Plan Association (RPA)

New York, NY

Dale Bryk is a widely-respected energy and climate policy expert and the Senior Fellow for Energy and Environment at Regional Plan Association. Dale works to build stakeholder alignment around an equitable, practical, and orderly transition to a decarbonized regional economy. Dale’s work with RPA focuses on scaling building energy efficiency and electrification and transitioning utilities away from fossil fuels to carbon-free energy sources.

Previously, she served as New York Deputy Secretary for Energy and Environment under Governor Andrew Cuomo. In that position she oversaw New York’s nation-leading clean energy and environmental agenda and directed the agencies and authorities responsible for developing and implementing the state policies and initiatives needed to build a sustainable clean energy economy and combat climate change, such as the Green New Deal, the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative and the New York Green Bank. Under Dale’s leadership New York passed the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act, putting us on track to decarbonize the electric sector by 2040 and all sectors of the economy by 2050.

Prior to this role, Bryk served in a variety of positions at the Natural Resources Defense Council, including Chief Planning Officer, Director of Programs, and Director of the Energy & Transportation Program. Throughout her 21 years at NRDC, she worked to develop and implement climate, energy efficiency, renewable energy and clean transportation policies. From 2002 to 2010, she also taught the Environmental Law Clinic at Yale Law School. Before joining NRDC, she practiced corporate law in New York. She holds a bachelor’s degree from Colgate University, a master’s from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, and a J.D. from Harvard Law School. She is based in New York City.

Franco Castelli, Esq.

Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz

New York, NY

Franco Castelli is a member of Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz’s Antitrust Department. He focuses on analysis of competition issues in U.S. and cross-border mergers, acquisitions, and joint ventures. He has represented clients before the Federal Trade Commission, the U.S. Department of Justice, the European Commission, as well as other antitrust regulatory agencies. He has worked on complex transactions involving a wide variety of industries, most recently representing companies in the high-tech, financial information and services, pharmaceutical, oil and gas, and chemical industries. Among recent transactions, Mr. Castelli is representing S&P Global in its pending $44 billion acquisition of IHS Markit Ltd., and has represented Celgene in its $98 billion acquisition by Bristol-Myers Squibb.

Mr. Castelli received a J.D. from the University of Milan in 2001 and an LL.M. from Columbia Law School in 2005, where he was a Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar. Mr. Castelli has been recognized in a number of publications, including, most recently, as a “Future Leader” by Who’s Who Legal: Competition.  Mr. Castelli has served as a guest lecturer on antitrust law at the Law School of the University of Milan, Italy.

David Curran, Esq.

Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP

New York, NY

Dave Curran is Co-Chair of Paul, Weiss’ Sustainability and Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) Advisory Practice and Executive Director of the ESG and Law Institute. He is responsible for continuing to develop and promote the firm’s ESG practices. In this role, he also works with the firm’s lawyers to lead its Sustainability and ESG Advisory Practice Group.

Dave is a recognized leader in helping complex organizations build resilience. In addition to his work in the ESG space, he has more than 30 years of experience in legal, technology, compliance, risk and ethics roles. Dave has led many popular Thought Leadership conversations with senior executives on a variety of topics where business and technology intersect with the legal, compliance and risk ecosystems, including Transforming Law, Big Data, #MeToo and many others.

Dave began his career as a media trial and appellate lawyer before moving to senior in-house legal, compliance and regulatory affairs positions. He was previously Senior Vice President and Chief Business Officer at FiscalNote, a legal AI/technology company, and held senior business and legal leadership roles with Thomson Reuters, IntraLinks, Integrity Interactive, Havas, Vertis and Campbell Soup Company.

Dave serves as co-chair of the New York State Bar Association’s ESG Committee, which aims to educate and engage New York lawyers, law students and faculty on ESG practices and developments through thought leadership and robust educational programs.

Professor Jens Christian Dammann

The University of Texas at Austin School of Law

Austin, TX

Prof. Michael Gerrard

Columbia Law School

New York, NY

Michael B. Gerrard is Andrew Sabin Professor of Professional Practice at Columbia Law School, and founder and Faculty Director of the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law.  He is a member and former chair of the faculty of the Columbia Earth Institute, and of the American Bar Association’s Section of Environment, Energy and Resources. From 1979 through 2008 he practiced environmental law full-time in New York, most recently as partner in charge of the New York office of Arnold & Porter, handling litigation, transactions and regulatory compliance. He is author or editor of 13 books on environmental law.

Paul Ghosh-Roy, Esq.

Long Island Power Authority

Uniondale, NY

Stacey Sublett Halliday, Esq.

Beveridge & Diamond PC

Washington, D.C.

Stacey advises utilities, energy, and electronics sector clients on issues including: ESG strategy and sustainability reporting; EJ risk assessment, policy development, and project-level implementation; product stewardship and circular economy strategy; and federal environmental investigations and enforcement. Stacey previously served as Special Counsel to the EPA General Counsel during which she coordinated agency response to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights investigation into EPA’s Title VI program, coordinated with the Office of Environmental Justice to effectively utilize EJ 2020 and EJ Legal Tools within the Office of General Counsel, and supported agency efforts to advance international and domestic climate and sustainability initiatives.

Jay L. Himes, Esq.

Special Litigation Counsel to the New York Attorney Generals Office

Special litigation counsel in the New York Attorney General’s Office, and previously a member and co-chair of Labaton Sucharow’s Antitrust & Competition Litigation Practice as well as Antitrust Bureau Chief in the Attorney General’s office, Jay Himes has more than 40 years of experience in all aspects of litigation, trial and appellate practice in both antitrust and complex litigation generally.

• Appointed by United States District Judge Orrick to serve as the monitoring trustee under the final judgment in United States of America v. Bazaarvoice, Inc., No. 13-cv-00133-WHO (ND Cal.).
  • Upon completion of the four-year appointment, recognized by the Court for having “diligently and effectively monitored the defendant’s compliance,” and for having “worked through innumerable complex issues . . . with obvious skill and sensitivity.”
• While Antitrust Bureau Chief, led significant, high-profile antitrust investigations and enforcement actions.
  • The States’ principal representative in the marathon negotiations that led to a settlement of the government’s 2001 landmark monopolization case against Microsoft, and a leader thereafter in the Microsoft judgment enforcement activity.
  • Partnered with DOJ officials over a multi-year period to monitor Microsoft’s judgment compliance, which included setting up and supervising a group of software engineers, referred to as “TC” (technical committee), to oversee Microsoft technical activity.
• The 2014 recipient of the William T. Lifland Service Award, presented by the Antitrust Law Section of the New York State Bar Association (NYSBA) for distinguished service.
• A regular author and speaker at conferences spanning a range of subjects, including competition law and online platform antitrust issues, class actions, international litigation, investigation, and arbitration, no-poach agreements and wage suppression, state aid under the TFEU, trade law, and related topics.
• Lectured and presented in Amsterdam, Antigua (Guatemala), Berlin, Dublin, Geneva, Hanoi, Krakow, Lisbon, Montreal, Paris, Sao Paulo, Seoul, Stockholm, Tokyo, Vienna, Winterthur, and Zurich, as well as throughout the U.S.
• Described by Chambers USA sources as very experienced, sophisticated and smart. He’s a plaintiffs’ lawyer who really knows his antitrust,” and one who “inspires respect from peers – thoughtful, well read and a first-rate lawyer.” And by The Legal 500s sources as “smart and trustworthy.”
• A member of the U.S. advisory board of the Loyola University Chicago School of Law’s Institute of Consumer Antitrust Studies, the advisory board of MLex, and the Steering Committee of the American Economic Liberties Project, and the editorial advisory group of the Antitrust Chronicle.
• A past chair of NYSBA’s International and Antitrust Law Sections and a delegate to NYSBA’s House of Delegates, as well as co-chair of the antitrust committees of NYSBA’s Commercial and Federal Litigation and International Sections. Also a member of antitrust, litigation, information technology and intellectual property groups in the American Bar Association, and the board of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law.
• Practiced complex litigation for 25 years at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP, representing plaintiffs and defendants in a wide range of litigation, including antitrust cases and securities class actions as well as civil rights, contract, construction, constitutional, entertainment, environmental, real property, tax, and pro bono matters.

Mr. Himes graduated from the University of Wisconsin Law School, where he served as the Articles Editor of the Wisconsin Law Review. Following law school, he pursued independent study at the University of Oxford in England.

Katayun Jaffari, Esq.

Cozen O’Connor, P.C.

Philadelphia, PA

Katayun Jaffari is chair of Cozen O’Connor’s Corporate Governance & Securities Group and Chair of the ESG Practice Group.  She devotes her practice to advising boards of directors and executive management teams on all aspects of corporate matters including governance as well as handling complex securities transactions for businesses in a variety of industries. Kathy has broad experience in capital market transactions, compliance matters, mergers and acquisitions, and ongoing business counseling.  Kathy guides boards of directors and management teams through the laws, rules, regulations, and practical realities that arise when leading an organization. She counsels clients on complying with federal governance laws as well and assisting clients with responding to stakeholder interests such as boardroom diversity and sustainability. She advises and counsels on a myriad of governance issues and helps clients develop compliance programs with respect to legislative, regulatory, and listing rule requirements. Kathy also assists non-profit corporations with respect to all aspects of corporate governance matters. In addition, Kathy provides training programs for boards, management, and employees with respect to many diverse compliance and governance matters.  Kathy serves as Co-Chair of the ESG Subcommittee of the Corporate Governance Committee of the ABA’s Business Law Section and launched and served as Chair of the Diversity in the Boardroom Taskforce for the Corporate Governance Committee of the ABA’s Business Law Section. Kathy writes and lectures extensively in the areas of corporate governance, including stakeholder issues such as sustainability and diversity, fiduciary duty matters, securities law compliance, and entity formations and transformations. A believer in the power of mindfulness as a tool to optimize one’s professional and personal capacity for excellence, Kathy has a particular interest in mindfulness in the practice of law as a way to support the needs of her clients.

Terri Mazur, Esq.

Immediate Past Chair, Women in Law Section

Terri A. Mazur is an experienced trial lawyer who focuses her practice on federal securities litigation and regulatory investigations, primarily in the financial services industry, antitrust, defense of financial institutions in the consumer financial services industry, and complex commercial disputes. She represents corporate clients, financial institutions, accounting firms, officers and directors in complex individual, class and multidistrict litigation involving securities fraud, lending, leasing, credit reporting and practices, breach of contract and fiduciary duty, professional responsibility and fraud claims. She also represents national and multinational corporations in the chemical, energy, airline and other industries in monopoly, cartel, price fixing, market allocation and conspiracy cases. She was a partner for more than 20 years at Mayer Brown LLP (in both the Chicago and New York offices), a partner at Arnold Porter Kaye Scholer LLP, and a shareholder of Greenberg Traurig LLP.

Terri has tried numerous cases, including bench and jury trials, and evidentiary hearings for injunctive and emergency relief, in federal and state courts across the country. She has written numerous appellate briefs and argued before the Courts of Appeals for the Third, Seventh, Ninth and Tenth Circuits, as well as in state appellate courts.

She frequently speaks and writes on securities and antitrust issues, as well as issues affecting women and diverse attorneys. Terri founded and chaired Mayer Brown’s Women’s Initiatives Committee, working closely with firm management to enhance the retention, professional development, and advancement of women attorneys at the firm, and has been very active in diversity and women’s issues throughout her career. Terri is the Immediate Past Chair of the New York State Bar Association’s (NYSBA) Women in Law Section. She also serves on the Executive Committee of NYSBA’s Antitrust Section, previously served on NYSBA’s Membership Committee, and was appointed to the Antitrust and Trade Regulation Committee of the New York City Bar Association. She was recently appointed to the NYSBA Task Force on Racism, Social Equity and the Law,

Terri earned her J.D. degree cum laude from Northwestern University School of Law and received her B.A. from Cornell University, magna cum laude.

Kenneth Reinker, Esq.

Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP

New York, NY

Matt Stoller

American Economic Liberties Project

Washington, D.C.

Paul Ghosh-Roy

Assistant General Counsel, Long Island Power Authority (LIPA)

Paul Ghosh-Roy is an Assistant General Counsel with the Long Island Power Authority (LIPA) and the Chair of the NYSBA Energy and Climate Law Committee. Mr. Ghosh-Roy has extensive experience as an energy attorney with exposure to virtually all aspects of the power sector. As part of his current role, Mr. Ghosh-Roy helps LIPA to navigate the energy transition by assisting with renewable energy project development and procurement, and related commercial, regulatory and policy matters. Prior to LIPA, Mr. Ghosh-Roy began his career at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and has worked in the project finance group of law firm Latham & Watkins, the energy group at the Dentons law firm, and at the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, Inc. Mr. Ghosh-Roy earned his BA from Georgetown University and his JD from American University’s Washington College of Law. Mr. Ghosh-Roy lives in New York City.