Chicago Law Class of '95

And the names are....

Eileen and Jeff Richards have named their twin girls! Nora Catherine and Mary Claire are doing very well, thank goodness. Congratulations!

Twin Girls for Jeff Richards

Jeff Richards and his wife, Eileen Byrne, welcomed twin girls on Tuesday April 8. Jeff says, "At 3:42 am CDT, a beautiful baby girl arrived, 3 lbs, 13 ounces.  And two minutes later, another beautiful baby girl arrived, 3 lbs, 8 ounces. According to the doctors, the girls are good size for their age, are breathing under their own steam, have healthy color, and no real complications so far (knocking on wood as I type).  Basically, it wasn't ideal for them to arrive this early, but things are as good as we could hope for under the circumstances.... Foolishly thinking we had at least a couple more weeks, we were still in the middle of name discussions when this all started (we were most of the way through possible boys names, but hadn't started talking about girls yet .... oops!)   So names are still TBD." Jeff says the girls will be in the hospital for a while. Congratulations, and we can't wait to hear the names!

A Few More Bits and Pieces

Michael Frankel writes: "Some big news from me.  I was married to Shayna Klopott on October 21^st.  UC Law attendees included Derex Walker, Mike Buckner, Teresa Schiller, Sonia Bychkov Green and my best man….Charlie Torres.  Shayna and I got back from an amazing honeymoon in Thailand in January.  And now I’ve started a new job running global corporate development for LexisNexis (yes….that LexisNexis…a return to my mediocre legal research skills).  So now all my classmates are customers (so drinks are on me!).  For the moment I’m based out of Chicago but HQ is in New York."

And Brad Denton supplied his holiday letter. I can't seem to copy text out of it, so here it is: Download denton_family_newsletter_2007.pdf .

Deadline Day

There's still a bit of time to send me news, but not much... send ASAP please!

Dianne Kueck wrote for the first time in ages: "I married Kendall Gelner on 11/11/2007 in Boulder, Colorado.  The judge I clerked for, David Ebel of the Tenth Circuit, performed the ceremony.  Kendall and I honeymooned in Ecuador and on a sailboat in the Galapagos Islands, which was a fabulous trip!"

Tom LaWer had a lot to announce: "Last year in June I made a big career move, leaving the practice of law to become a compensation consultant.  Two attorneys I had worked with for many years in the executive compensation group at Wilson Sonsini co-founded a compensation consulting firm called Compensia.  They seemed to be having a lot of fun and business was booming, so I decided to join them.  I had become a victim of my own success at Greenberg Traurig and I was tired of the all-consuming nature of the work.  It’s been quite a change going from a national law firm of over 1,500 attorneys to a 5 year old, 25 person company.  While the transition has had its bumps, so far it has been a great move.  Compensia focuses on executive and equity compensation and advising compensation committees and boards of directors.  The potential of this business looks great, because boards of directors increasingly want an outside adviser to assist them on the process of determining executive compensation.  In addition, many of the incumbent consulting firms have conflicts of interest because they provide other consulting services to management, so they do not appear to be an independent adviser to the board.  In addition, my previous work in executive compensation is complementary to what I am doing now, and I can leave the focus on the minutiae of the law to legal counsel.  Additionally, while the work is challenging, I can better control the volume, so that I am have some free time to spend with my family. Speaking of which, since last I wrote a few years ago, Anne and I now have two children (see attached photo).  Max just turned 4 in December and Katie is 2 ½.  We just got back from a great weekend trip to Yosemite.  The park was spectacular in the snow.  The kids got to sled down a hill right below Half Dome. 

Best of all, the work was manageable over the weekend and I actually got to play with the kids (instead of my old law firm experience of being on the phone and the computer the whole time for the various weekend crisis)."

Susan Epstein writes: "I was elected President of the School Board in December. I have been doing management consulting for nonprofits, and was recently hired as the interim Executive Director of the Nonprofit Support Center (NSC).  NSC provides management training and consulting to 2300 nonprofits in Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties. My daughter Chloe is now in 3rd grade, reads many books each day and enjoys sports and dancing, and my son Leo is in 1st grade and really enjoys science experiments and building forts. Steve and I got divorced last year in what our friends say was the most amicable divorce they've ever heard of.  Both our kids are enjoying having two homes now.  Our homes are both zoned to the same elementary school, and the kids have lots of friends on both blocks.  Deciding to get divorced was a long process, but once we made the decision, things have gone really well.  I'm very happy with my life."

Watch Eli Stone!

Steve Lichtman has exciting news! "Lots to report from out here in Los Angeles.  Jane (four in March) loves pre-school, dressing up and the Berenstain Bears, Frank (17 months) loves dogs, balloons, trains and horses (a.k.a. "neigh-neighs"), Kath is starting to practice law again part-time while still doing an amazing job at home with Jane and Frank, and I can be found most mornings lately picketing outside the Disney studios in Burbank.  When not on strike, I'm on the writing staff of "Eli Stone" a great new t.v. show premiering this week on ABC.  It's on Thursdays, after "Lost".  Eli is a star lawyer at a high-powered San Francisco law firm whose crazy visions (e.g., George Michael singing "Faith" in his living room and in the lobby of his law firm) cause him to reassess his life and law practice.  The show mixes comedy, drama and romance, addresses social issues and questions of spirituality . . .  and it has musical numbers, too.  It's terrific, and I couldn't be prouder to be a part of it.  So please watch!"

Some People We Don't Hear From Often

Jim Benison writes: "As for news, I'm now on the Board of Directors of Safe Haven Ministries, a faith-based domestic violence shelter here in Grand Rapids, Michigan.  Otherwise, not much has changed.  My job remains the same: as my kids sometimes say, "Daddy puts mean people in jail."  Julie, J.D., and Anneke are all doing great."

Sarah Weil says: "I don't have anything terribly exciting, but I figured once every couple of years I should come up with an "update" just to see my name in print.  I am now a Senior Counsel in Abbott Laboratories' Commercial Litigation department.  I did an 18-month stint in our patent litigation group before returning to my roots doing general litigation.  The change back to commercial facilitated my running Erika Dillon, who looks just as great as she did 13 years ago.  Every so often, I read something of Sunstein's in the New Republic and wish I had had better conversations with him when I had the access.  I am expecting our third child any day now - we have a 5 year old boy and a 3 year old girl.  Other than going to law school, the 3rd baby is the most ill-informed and impulsive thing I have ever done!"

Still More News

Debra Tucker sent in this news for Ed Reilly, who may have been too modest to do it himself: "Ed Reilly recently started in his new position as Deputy General Counsel of Quantum Foods, LLC in the Chicago suburbs.  Quantum Foods is a leading independent meat processor whose products are sold to a variety of foodservice, military, and retail customers, including national restaurant chains, mass merchandisers, and grocery retailers."

And Yet Another Badly Titled Post

Jamie Green says: "After surviving fires, a couple of floods and an unusual cold snap (which resulted in a second consecutive year with a snow day in L.A.), things are pretty nominal for me here in Santa Monica.  My son Joseph is now 8 years old and in the Third Grade.  He is on a swim team, but his real passion is fencing.  I try to avoid the living room when he practices with the foil.  I continue to practice business and insurance litigation in Century City with the law firm of Charlston Revich & Wollitz."

From Rachel Laser (and Mark Davies):   "Hello class of '95.  2008 finds us (Rachel and Mark) all still enjoying the nation's capitol.  Mark is enjoying working with Walter Dellinger defending DC's gun safety law and Oxford Press will be publishing Mark's book on  how to write an IP brief early this year!  I am having fun "modernizing progressive thinking" at Third Way still.  What does THAT mean?  Check out www.third-way.com and let me know what you think.  The kids are getting old (Em is 10, Nicole is almost 9 and Xander is almost 7) and doing great.  We totally stuggled but succeeded at finding the Wii for them this Hannukah!  Give us a holler if you come to DC at 202-907-7676."

And I think this is the first time we've ever heard directly from Jeff Richards... "Well, after 12 long years, I finally feel I have news sufficiently worthy of a Class Notes submission!  This summer, I was fortunate enough to marry Eileen Byrne on Saturday, June 30, 2007.  Eileen, who hosted a talk radio show on WLS AM 890 in Chicago for 8 years prior to the wedding, originally hails from New York.  We married in the University Church at Fordham University in the Bronx, where Eileen attended college, followed by a reception at the Apawamis Club in Rye.  Dan Baker, Scott Toban (co-best men), and Dan McGuire stood as groomsmen.  Other '95ers in attendance include Greg Coules, Anastasia Katinas, Chris Kemnitz, Thies Kolln, Lisa Noller, Eric Rutkoske, and Wayne Yu."

I Need A Better Title for These Posts

George Lin writes: "We've now officially moved to Hong Kong.  The kids have all gotten into schools and I'm traveling a lot throughout Asia in my new role running the consumer, retail and healthcare effort for CS investment banking in Asia.  Before we finally made that final trip out here though, we were able to spend our Christmas vacation with Vicki and Jeff Shapiro and their two daughters - Isabel and Juliet - in Hawaii.  It was a blast and we're looking forward to planning the next vacation together in Asia!  In addition, on our first weekend here in HK, we were also lucky enough to have Katie and Wayne Yu visit us from Chicago and we had a lot of fun showing them a traditional good time in Hong Kong.  We're now going to try and settle down here in HK and Ann will be plenty busy as well learning Chinese and all the local customs, etc. Hope all is well with everyone else in the class."

Brogan Sullivan writes: "Nothing terribly noteworthy from the class outpost in Kansas City.  I'm still busy working as a partner in the corporate group at Blackwell Sanders, which has agreed to merge with a 300+ lawyer law firm based in St. Louis called Husch & Eppenberger.  The new firm will be called Husch Blackwell Sanders (our firm lost the coin flip), and the resulting entity will have 650+ lawyers in Kansas City, St. Louis, Omaha, and other regional offices.  The merger becomes effective February 1, and I think it's going to be a good combination. Lara opened her own pediatric urgent care clinic over a year ago, and that's been a success.  Our four kids are all healthy and happy, although our two oldest boys have been diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes.  They're dealing with that like champs." Brogan also wants everyone to know that his firm is available for local counsel purposes in Kansas, Missouri, or Nebraska, or if you need a lower cost (but still sophisticated) alternative to major-market law firms for a deal or other legal matter. You can reach him at bsullivan (at) blackwellsanders.com.

A little birdie also told me that Joe Klauke is engaged to a lovely woman named Terri. Joe - details?

More Updates

Scott Gaille has big news this time around - he raised private equity funding in 2007 to start West & East Africa Oil Group, which is building a portfolio of petroleum exploration licenses in Sub-Saharan Africa.

David Carthy writes: "I am a corporate partner at William Fry in Dublin practicing Irish law but travelling frequently to the US and working with very many US and international clients and lawfirms. I am frequently in touch with many of our LLM group including Yuval and Isabelle Tal, Pontus Hallengren, Anna Vilades, Stan Brijs and Pierre de Bandt. We met up recently in Barcelona in November and plan to do so again in Brooklyn in May. With families and kids in tow we may have to look to booking a convention centre for the growing numbers at these reunions."

Tom Brown reports: "All is well in SF.  I am happily ensconced at O'Melveny & Myers in San Francisco.  Although no one else from our class is in SF, we have a growing collecting of '95ers at OMM--Abby Rudzin is in NYC, Mark Davies is in DC, and Dan Shallman is in LA.  At home, Cait and I are on the census bureau track.  We have two kids--Amelia and Beatrice ("Bebe" to all who know her), ages 11 and 8.  We have two cats--Allegra and Charlotte.  And we will soon be getting a dog--name TBD.  I continue to practice antitrust law while moonlighting as an amateur law professor.  A second paper that I co-authored with Richard Epstein will be published by UofC's Law Review in the Winter/Spring.  I will be teaching a class at UC Berkeley's law school this coming term on the law and policy of modern consumer payments." 

John Eastman was named Dean of Chapman University School of Law on June 1, 2007, where he now holds the Donald P. Kennedy Chair in Law.  Among his first hires at Chapman was Nobel Laureate Vernon Smith (2002 Nobel Prize in Economics) and another U of C alumn, Steve Krone, a former law clerk to Justices Blackmun and Souter.  John’s wife, Elizabeth, began teaching 3 courses each semester in the undergraduate History and Political Science departments at Chapman. Benjamin started high school, continues with Boy Scouts (almost an Eagle Scout) and plays jazz trumpet.  Christina is in the 7^th Grade, still playing up a storm on her violin and now on the mandolin as well.  So as you might expect, there is never a dull moment at the Eastman house.  A highlight of the past year was a visit by Justice Clarence Thomas, part of his national book tour.