Nothing Works…but Everything Might

Managing Associate, Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe, October 2012 to present. Cybersecurity & Data Privacy cross-practice group; White Collar and Appellate practice groups.

Government Attorney, U.S. Government, October 2011 to October 2012.

Associate, Ramsey & Ehrlich, Berkeley, California, July 2010 to September 2011.  At Ramsey & Ehrlich I was a criminal and civil defense attorney engaged in all aspects of client representation, including discovery, motion drafting, interviews, and negotiations with the government. I specialize in criminal and civil defense of matters related to health care fraud, including off-label marketing, false statements in advertising, and the Anti-Kickback Statute; financial fraud, including the False Claims Act, the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, and the Bank Secrecy Act, including money laundering; false statements, alteration of records, and obstruction of justice; and major crimes including armed robbery and involuntary manslaughter.  Before working at Ramsey & Ehrlich, I was an associate in the Government Enforcement Practice Group of Ropes & Gray.  I graduated from Columbia Law School in 2007, where I was Editor in Chief of the Columbia Human Rights Law Review, President of the Columbia chapter of the American Constitution Society, and a Stone Scholar.

Member, Leadership Council, Volunteer Legal Services Program of the San Francisco Bar Association, 2010 to present.  Since 1977, VLSP has been providing civil legal counsel to low-income individuals in San Francisco.  Initiatives include the Family Law Project, the Homeless Advocacy Project, the Consumer Debt Defense and Education, the Eviction Prevention Project, and the Community Organization Representation Project.  Due to the VLSP’s efforts, the Northern District of California is one of the few federal courts to provide advice and counsel to pro se federal litigants.  Last year, VLSP staff and 1,800 VLSP volunteers served nearly 8,000 clients.

Member, Standing Committee on the Delivery of Legal Services of the California Bar Association, September 2011 to September 2014 (three-year appointed term).  The Standing Committee on the Delivery of Legal Services (SCDLS) is a 20-member advisory committee that:

• identifies, develops, and supports improvements in the delivery of legal services (civil and criminal) to low-and moderate-income individuals in California.
• serves as a resource to the Board of Governors on legal services issues and relevant legislation.
• develops and presents educational programs and materials to improve the delivery of legal services.
• maintains liaison relationships with other State Bar entities, such as the California Commission on Access to Justice and external entities such as the Legal Aid Association of California.
• works to encourage pro bono participation in California.

SCDLS supported the rollout of the first grants associated with the Sargent Shriver Civil Counsel Act, a pioneering law regarding the right to civil legal counsel in matters from child custody to eviction and foreclosure.

Admitted to practice law in Massachusetts (2007) and California (2009).  Admitted to practice in all courts of Massachusetts and California and in the Northern and Central Districts of California, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, and the Supreme Court of the United States.

English Literature Academic.  Prior to my legal career, I earned a Ph.D. in English literature with honors from the University of Washington (1995), specializing in British Romantic poetry.  I wrote a dissertation about the idea of sacrifice in the longer poems of William Blake.  After teaching at the UW throughout my graduate school years, I spent an additional year teaching upper-division literature at the U, then spent a year teaching and doing research in France and two years teaching college back in the States.  By that time, I had discovered my missed calling, and two years of high-school teaching and two years of civil-rights-related volunteering later, I was once again a student, this time at Columbia Law School in the City of New York. My work on Blake and Wordsworth has been cited repeatedly in academic literary criticism and included in key bibliographies in the years since.