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Marc S. Firestone (President and Chair)
Executive Vice President, Corporate & Legal Affairs and General Counsel
Kraft Foods, Inc.
Marc Firestone is Executive Vice President, Corporate & Legal Affairs and General Counsel for Kraft Foods Inc. Marc is responsible for the company's corporate and government affairs, legal and compliance functions worldwide.
Marc previously served as Kraft's Executive Vice President, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary. In that role, he was responsible for the company's legal function worldwide and also served as Corporate Secretary of Kraft Foods Inc.
Prior to joining Altria Group, Inc. (formerly Philip Morris Companies Inc.) in 1988, where he held a number of senior management positions within Legal and Regulatory affairs, Marc was an attorney at Arnold & Porter. In 1993, Marc was named Regional Counsel for Philip Morris Europe, covering Central and Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Africa, based in Switzerland. From 1995 to 1997, Marc was Senior Vice President, Worldwide Regulatory Affairs and Associate General Counsel for Philip Morris Companies in New York.
Marc returned to Switzerland in 1998 as Chief Counsel for Philip Morris Europe. In 2001, he became Senior Vice President and General Counsel for Philip Morris International. Marc joined Kraft in 2003 as Senior Vice President and Associate General Counsel, Kraft Foods, and later that year was named Senior Vice President and General Counsel, Kraft Foods.
Marc earned his Bachelor of Arts in Romance Languages and Philosophy from Washington & Lee University and received his Juris Doctor from Tulane University School of Law.
Five Facts From Marc
- Joined Kraft Foods: In 2003 as Senior Vice President and Associate General Counsel
- Languages: English, French and Italian
- Favorite Kraft Foods product: Mini Chips Ahoy!. Small cookie, small bag - big flavor!
- Childhood career ambition: I wanted to be a copywriter at an advertising agency -- either that or a novelist. After I finished my bachelor's degree, I knocked on the door of every ad agency in Manhattan. With bruised knuckles, I applied to law school.
- Favorite quote: "Imagination is more important than knowledge." - Albert Einstein
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Lawrence R. Baca
Lawrence Baca, a Pawnee Indian, is President of the Federal Bar Association. Formerly a Deputy Director of the Office of Tribal Justice, United States Department of Justice, during his 32 years with the Department he also served as a Senior Trial Attorney in the Civil Rights Division. On the occasion of his retirement, February 1, 2009, he was presented the Attorney General's Medallion, the highest award the Attorney General can present to a retiring employee. The award has only been presented seven times in the past decade. Baca was the leading proponent on behalf of the civil rights of American Indians in the Civil Rights Division for 32 years. His civil rights work on behalf of American Indians in the areas of Credit, Voting Rights and Education was groundbreaking. The Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights has said that Mr. Baca filed more civil rights cases on behalf of American Indian victims than any other attorney in the history of the Civil Rights Division.
A 1976 graduate of Harvard Law School, Baca was one of the first American Indians to graduate from Harvard. He was the first American Indian ever hired through the Department of Justice's Honor Law Program. In 1973, Baca received his Bachelor of Arts Degree in “American Indian History and Culture” from the University of California, Santa Barbara, where he also taught two courses on Indian issues during his senior year. In 1974, while attending law school, he was a Harvard Teaching Fellow at Harvard University and, in 1976, he taught a course entitled “Perspectives On The Historical Development of American Indian Policy and Law” at the Harvard University Extension School. He was an Adjunct Professorial Lecturer teaching Federal Indian Law at American University Washington College of Law in 2004 and 2005. He initiated the course in Federal Indian Law at Howard University School of Law in 2007. |
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Elizabeth Chambliss
Professor of Law and Co-Director, Center for Professional Values and Practice
New York Law School
Elizabeth Chambliss is Professor of Law and Co-Director of the Center for Professional Values and Practice at New York Law School. Her research focuses on the management and regulation of large law firms and the dynamics of gender and race integration in the legal profession. Her most recent work examines the expanding role of law firm general counsel, and the implications of professional risk management for law firm culture. She also has served as the reporter for the American Bar Association Commission on Racial and Ethnic Diversity in the Profession and the New York State Bar Association Committee on Minorities in the Profession. Professor Chambliss received her J.D. and Ph.D. in sociology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Prior to joining New York Law School, she was Research Director of the Program on the Legal Profession at Harvard Law School. |
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Kim D. Hogrefe
Senior Vice President and Senior Specialty Claim Officer
Chubb & Son
Kim D. Hogrefe is a Senior Vice President of Chubb & Son. He is the Senior Specialty Claim Officer of Chubb's Claim Department, with responsibility for claims of the highest complexity and financial exposure.
Mr. Hogrefe joined Chubb in 1986 after nine years experience as a trial attorney, supervisor and administrator in the New York County District Attorney's Office. He is a graduate of Yale University and the University of Pennsylvania Law School.
He is a member of the American Bar Association and served from 2006 to 2009 on its Commission on Racial and Ethnic Diversity in the Profession. He was elected and served for three years as a member of the governing Council of the Tort Trial and Insurance Practice Section (TIPS) of the American Bar Association. He was Co-Chair of the Professionals' Officers' and Directors' Liability Committee of TIPS. He was also the Chair of the Directors' and Officers' subcommittee of the Insurance Law Committee of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York.
Mr. Hogrefe is a frequent speaker on the topic of Directors' and Officers' liability claim handling and related issues. He has made presentations at National and Regional RIMS, PLUS, the Stanford Law School Directors' College and various bar associations. He is the co-author of an article on D&O claim management published in 1997 by Risk Management Society Publishing, Inc. and a 1998 article on utilization of damage analysis in the settlement of securities class action claims. |
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Floyd Holloway, Jr.
Counsel
State Farm Insurance Companies
A native of Brooklyn, New York, Floyd Holloway received his B.A. degree in political theory and American government from Georgetown University College of Arts and Sciences in Washington, D.C., and his law degree (J.D.) from the Georgetown University Law Center. Floyd is Counsel in the Corporate Law Department. His responsibilities include legislative and regulatory monitoring and advocacy for the Company's New York operations. He also provides and coordinates advice and counsel on compliance issues and others matters in the State.
Mr. Holloway began his career with State Farm in 1989 as a specialist in complex casualty claims and environmental coverage. He joined the Legal Department of the Fire & Casualty Company's General Claims Division in 1993, where he served as coverage counsel and was appointed to the Board of Governors of the Insurance Environmental Litigation Association. In 1995, he transferred into the Corporate Law Department, and assumed his current position as counsel in 2000. In the past he has served as State Farm's year 2000 Counsel, and has provided advice on a variety of technology-related issues, including the development and deployment of the Companies' Intranet and security infrastructure.
In addition to his legislative and regulatory responsibilities, Floyd manages the Corporate Law Department's Legislative Services Unit, which, among other things, provides support to the general departments and the network of state counsel responsible for legislative and regulatory affairs. He also manages office support operations for the Corporate Law Satellite Office in the Northeast Zone. Floyd is a past participant in the Northeast Zone's Enterprise Development Group, and served as the Northeast Zone Diversity Coordinator from 2003 - 2005.
Floyd is the past chairman of the New York Insurance Association (NYIA) (2003-2005). He remains active in the Association's governance and strategic planning process, serving on the NYIA Board; and in the management of public policy initiatives as chairman of the PAC Committee and the Automobile Insurance subcommittee. He is also a participating member on NYIA's legal, legislative and education and planning committees.
Mr. Holloway is a past chair of the American Bar Association's Minority Counsel Program, a constituent project of the ABA Commission on Racial & Ethnic Diversity in the Profession. He was appointed Commissioner 2001, serving three consecutive terms through 2004. He is also an active member of the Tort Trial and Insurance Practices Section (TIPS) of the ABA where he currently serves as vice-chair of the Corporate Counsel Committee, and participates in the Section's Diversity Task Force. Floyd's previous assignments within TIPS include service on the Property Insurance and Emerging Issues Committees, and the TIPS Committee on Women and Minority Involvement. |
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Sharon E. Jones
Principal
Jones Diversity Group
Sharon is a lawyer by training and a consultant specializing in providing diversity/inclusion strategic consulting and training to leaders of law firms, corporations, government and not for profit organizations. She is the President of Jones Diversity Group LLC. Her firm's broad range of services enables organizations to fully utilize, retain and promote women and racial and ethnic minorities into leadership roles as well as create inclusive workplace cultures.
Jones Diversity Group conducts assessments of law firm cultures with respect to diversity and inclusion; provides diversity and inclusion training/education, mentoring program design and training; management leadership coaching around issues of diversity and inclusion and strategic plan design and implementation. Sharon's work with Jones Diversity Group is national in focus but has involved work with global entities. She is a regular speaker at conferences within the legal profession, including partners' retreats; women's and minority retreats, and bar association diversity conferences.
Sharon has practiced law and been a community leader over a 20 year career, including positions as a federal prosecutor, with major law firms and with Fortune 500 Corporations. She has been highly successful as a litigator, strategist, manager, counselor, an educator and a problem-solver with regard to extremely complex and sensitive matters.
From 1985-1989, Sharon served as an Assistant United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, based in Chicago, where she conducted federal grand jury investigations and trials in high profile white-collar criminal cases. In private law practice, she was a partner at Bird, Marella, Boxer, Wolpert & Matz in Los Angeles. In addition to her litigation practice, she was responsible for all in-house continuing legal education, as well as being an adviser to clients on a variety of employment and workplace harassment issues. She was Of Counsel at Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe in Los Angeles, where she created and implemented its litigation training as well as firm-wide orientation training and evaluation programs. Sharon has taught Trial Advocacy, both as an Adjunct Professor at Northwestern Law School and at the National Institute for Trial Advocacy.
In the corporate sector, Sharon managed litigation matters worldwide for Abbott Laboratories, as well as advising senior management in matters of crisis management and in fashioning creative solutions to highly complex business issues. Most recently, Sharon acted as Senior Counsel at SBC Communications (now AT&T).
From 2000-2001, Sharon served as Vice-Chair of the American Bar Association Private Antitrust Litigation Committee and from 1994-1995, she was Vice-Chair of the American Bar Association West Coast Committee of White Collar Crimes. She is a co-author of two bar association reports providing consulting advice to Los Angeles County: The City in Crisis—A Report by the Special Advisor to the Board of Police Commissioners on the Civil Disorder in Los Angeles (October 1992) and Report of the Los Angeles County Bar Association Advisory Committee for the Office of the District Attorney (September 1994).
Sharon was Counsel of Record in the amicus curiae briefs filed in the United States Supreme Court in 2003 and 2006 by the Black Women Lawyers Association of Chicago in Grutter v. Bollinger and the University of Michigan in support of diversity in higher education and in Parents Involved in Community Schools v. Seattle School District supporting the right to voluntarily desegregate public schools.
Sharon is a past President and co-founder of the Black Women Lawyers Association of Chicago. While Program Chair she created the innovative monthly BWLA Roundtable luncheon series designed to increase mentoring and networking opportunities for its members. Sharon is currently on the Board of Directors for the Women Employed. She also served as a consultant to the ABA General Counsel Steering Committee to the Minority Counsel Program. She is a past Chair of the Chicago Bar Association Committee on Racial & Ethnic Diversity and was instrumental in the 2006 adoption of the Chicago Bar Association's Diversity Initiative and Commitments on Racial & Ethnic Diversity for law firms and corporate legal departments. Sharon is the First Vice President of the Harvard Law School Alumni Association and will become its President in June 2010. She is an alumnus of Leadership Greater Chicago.
Sharon has received numerous awards including most recently the Black Women Lawyers Association of Chicago's Woman of Vision Award (2006); Chicago Bar Association's Breaking Barriers, Building Bridges Award (2008); and the Young Women's Leadership Charter School's Industry Leader Award (2008). She is co-founder of the Association of Black Radcliffe Women (1975) and Black Women Lawyers Association of Chicago (1986); two organizations which continue to thrive.
Sharon is a co-author of a guide published by the American Bar Association in May 2004 entitled, “Walking the Talk: Creating a Law Firm Culture Where Women Succeed” which deals with the retention and promotion of women in law firms.
Sharon is a graduate of Harvard Law School and Harvard College. |
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Dr. Sandra Madrid
Senior Advisor to the Dean
University of Washington School of Law
Dr. Madrid is the Senior Advisor to the Dean for Diversity and Community Engagement at the University Of Washington School Of Law. She has been with the Law School since l989 and has served in various capacities such as Dean of Students; Director of Personnel; has had oversight of the offices of Admissions; Financial Aid; Student Services and Career Planning. She has also been responsible for special projects and programs including but not limited to: Orientation; Graduation; Professional Mentor Program; Alumni Ambassador Program and diversity recruitment. She received her PhD and MA from the University of Washington and BA from Colorado State University in Pueblo.
Dr. Madrid is currently a member of the Executive Committee of the Association of American Law Schools' Section on Minority Groups, the Board of Directors of the Seattle Art Museum, United Way of King County, YWCA of Seattle and King/Snohomish Counties, Judicial Screening Committee of the King County Bar Association and a member of the Washington State Minority and Justice Commission.
Past memberships include being a member on the Northwest Minority Job Fair Committee; Law and Ethnic Diversity Committee at Western Washington University, First Year Minority Clerkship Program; Association of American Law Schools Task Force on Racial Diversity; Joint ABA, AALS, LSAC Committee on Diversity; LSAC Admission Council, Alternative Models Implementation Work Group, Past Chair of the LSAC Minority Affairs Committee and a Trustee of the Law School Admission Council.
Public service is a passion for Dr. Madrid and she has served on numerous boards and commissions over the years. She has chaired six boards, three at the national level. They include: National Hispana Leadership Institute, National Council for International Visitors, and the Law School Admission Council Minority Affairs Committee. Local boards she has chaired include: United Way of King County; Leadership tomorrow; KUOW/KCMU, and was a founding member and First Chair of the Washington State Hispanic Bar Association, now known as the Latina/o Bar Association of Washington.
Dr. Madrid has received numerous awards both at the local and national levels including: The Spirit of Excellence Award from the American Bar Association Commission for Minorities in the Profession; the Leadership Tomorrow Edward E. Carlson Outstanding Alumna Award; one of 75 Distinguished Leadership Award winners from the National Association for Community Leadership; the Oustanding Non-Lawyer Award from the King County Bar Association; the Champion of Diversity Award from the King County Bar Foundation; and the Excellence in Diversity Award from the Washington State Bar Association. In May 2007 she gave the commencement speech at her alma mater, CSU-Pueblo. |
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John H. Mathias, Jr.
Partner
Jenner & Block LLP
John H. Mathias, Jr. is a partner in the law firm of Jenner & Block. He is a senior member of its Litigation Department and Chair of the firm's nationally prominent Insurance Litigation and Counseling Practice. He is a veteran trial lawyer concentrating on business litigation with particular emphasis upon insurance coverage litigation, reinsurance arbitrations, class actions, directors and officers litigation, and professional liability litigation. He has co-authored over twenty legal publications, including Insurance Coverage Disputes (Law Journal Press 1996) and Directors and Officers Liability: Prevention, Insurance and Indemnification (Law Journal Press 2000).
Mr. Mathias is a member of the Illinois Capital Litigation Trial Bar and frequently provides pro bono representation to indigent defendants in death penalty cases at both trial and appellate levels. He is currently national Chair of the American Bar Association's Death Penalty Representation Project.
Mr. Mathias also serves on the boards of Chicago Sinfonietta (the nation's most diverse symphony orchestra), The Latin School of Chicago, and the Dartmouth Lawyers Association. He is the immediate past President of the Harvard Law Society of Illinois, and he is currently President of the Association of Alumni of Dartmouth College.
Mr. Mathias is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Dartmouth College (1969) and Harvard Law School (1972). |
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Willie J. Miller, Jr.
Senior Vice President and Deputy General Counsel, Corporate
Kraft Foods, Inc.
Mr. Miller joined Kraft Foods Global, Inc. in 2007 as Senior Vice President and Deputy General Counsel, Corporate with responsibility for managing Kraft's corporate legal activities. Prior to joining Kraft, Mr. Miller was a partner in the Chicago law firm Vedder, Price, Kaufman & Kamholz, P.C. as a member of the firm's Financial Institutions and Finance and Transactions Groups. Before joining Vedder Price, Mr. Miller was in the legal department of LaSalle National Corporation for 25 years where for the last six years he served as Executive Vice President and Chief Legal Officer. In his capacity as Chief Legal Officer, Mr. Miller led and managed the corporation's legal department consisting of 65+ attorneys and over 30 administrative and paralegal staff. He was largely responsible for the transformation and growth of the bank's internal law department. As a member of the senior management team, Mr. Miller was involved in the strategic direction of LaSalle's growth throughout the Midwest.
Mr. Miller is a former member of the Board of Directors of the Leadership Council of Metropolitan Chicago. He is also a former member and past president of the Board of Education for Evanston Township High School. Mr. Miller is an inaugural recipient of the Chicago United Business Leaders of Color Award and is a current member of the Fellowship of African American Men.
Mr. Miller earned his B.S. from the University of Illinois in 1975 and his J.D. from Loyola University Chicago School of Law in 1979. |
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Terrence M. Murphy
Executive Director
Chicago Bar Association
Terry Murphy is the Executive Director of the 22,000 member Chicago Bar Association and a past president of the National Association of Bar Executives.
He began his career with the CBA in 1971 after graduating from Loyola University of Chicago with a B.A. degree in history. He has participated on numerous educational programs and committees for the National Association of Bar Executives and authored a number of articles about bar association work. |
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Nam H. Paik
Partner and Chair, Diversity Committee North America
Baker & McKenzie
Mr. Paik joined Baker & McKenzie in 1988. He is a widely-experienced lawyer advising multinational corporations and banks with respect to their investments worldwide. He primarily advises multinational corporations on a wide variety of legal issues, including corporate, commercial, cross-border, employment, dealership, litigation and foreign investment issues. Mr. Paik has worked on a variety of transactions, including mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, restructuring projects, financings, leases, joint ventures, reorganizations, strategic alliances, and other business combinations and separations. He serves as Chair of the Firm's North American Diversity and Inclusion Oversight Committee.
Mr. Paik is active in several organizations. He currently serves on the Board of Directors of the Legal Assistance Foundation of Metropolitan Chicago, the Hearing Board of the Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission and Cook County State's Attorney Anita Alvarez's Asian American Advisory Council. He was past President of the Korean American Bar Association as well as a member of the Advisory Council of the Committee for Democratic and Peaceful Unification of Korea. Mr. Paik served on the Board of Directors of the Chicago Committee on Minorities in Large Law Firms, the Asian Human Services and the Korean American Community Services. Mr. Paik also was on the Board of Governors of the International Association of Korean Lawyers and was Chair of The Chicago Bar Association's YLS International Law and Practice Committee. He is a member of the American Bar Association, Chicago Bar Association and the Illinois State Bar Association.
Mr. Paik is a graduate of Northwestern University (B.A., 1985) and Northwestern University School of Law (J.D., 1988). Mr. Paik was licensed to practice law in Illinois in 1988. |
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James H. Wooten, Jr.
Senior Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary
Illinois Tool Works, Inc.
James H. Wooten, Jr. is the Senior Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary of Illinois Tool Works Inc., a Fortune 200 company with 16.2 billion dollars in revenues. James began his career with ITW in 1988 as a Senior Attorney providing legal counsel to the Company's decentralized business units around the world. He was elected to his current position in 2005 and is responsible for legal, environmental and safety, risk management and governmental affairs.
Born in Chicago, Illinois, May 31, 1948. B.A. University of Illinois (Chicago Circle), 1978; J.D., University of Chicago, 1982. Admitted to Illinois Bar, 1982. Gardner, Carton & Douglas: Associate, 1982-1987;
Member, American and Chicago Bar Associations, Executive Leadership Council, Minority Corporate Counsel Association, the Association of Corporate Counsel, the Society of Corporate Secretaries and Governance Professionals, the Leadership Council on Legal Diversity, Junior Achievement. Board member, Children Memorial Hospital, Goodwill Industries of Metropolitan Chicago, Congo Square Theatre Company, Window to the World Communications, Inc. (WWCI), University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC). |
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Hon. E. Kenneth Wright, Jr.
Presiding Judge, 1st Municipal District
Circuit Court of Cook County, Illinois
E. Kenneth Wright, Jr., the Presiding Judge of Municipal District 1 of the Cook County Circuit Court since 2003, is the immediate Past President of the CBA.
Judge Wright has distinguished himself as one of the most active and visible leaders of the Chicago legal community with roles in civic, judicial and bar association initiatives. A frequent speaker and prominent champion of accessibility to justice issues and legal outreach in Chicago, he currently serves as Treasurer and Finance Committee Chair of the Center for Conflict Resolution; on the Executive Committee of the Municipal District Presiding Judges Committee; on the Judges Mentoring Program; and on the Board of the Chicago Urban Day School. He is also a member of the Senior Review Board for the Guardianship Reform Project.
A frequent guest on Chicago-area legal affairs programs he has most recently appeared on CAN-TV's "Hotline 21," the Illinois State Bar Association's cable TV program; WBBM's "Morning News;" PBS Channel 11's "Chicago Tonight;" and CLTV News. He is a frequent lecturer and speaker at Chicago colleges and universities and at professional events and is the author of "The Other Shoe Drops," published in 2006.
He has been honored with numerous awards including the 2006 Vanguard Award of the CBA, presented to outstanding minority lawyers and judges; the 2007 Judge of the Year Award from the Illinois Commission for Honest Government; the Man of the Year Award from the Sweet Holy Spirit Full Gospel Baptist Church; the 2005 Dog Advisory Walk Group Award for community service on behalf of animals and pet owners; and the Gavel Award presented by the African American Employees Committee of the Office of the Clerk of the Circuit Court in 2005. In 2004, he was named by the Center for Conflict Resolution one its "25 Most Influential People." He also was honored with the 2003 Chairperson Award from the Illinois Judicial Council.
Before taking the bench in 1994, the year he was appointed to the Cook County Circuit Court, he ran a solo practice in Chicago and served as a guardian ad litem in the Probate Division of the Circuit Court. |
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Sandra S. Yamate
Chief Executive Officer
The Institute for Inclusion in the Legal Profession
Sandra S. Yamate is the CEO of the Institute for Inclusion in the Legal Profession. She was the Chief Marketing and Diversity Officer at Discovery Services LLC and spent the preceding ten years as the Director of the American Bar Association's Commission on Racial and Ethnic Diversity in the Profession. She was the first Executive Director of the Chicago Committee on Minorities in Large Law Firms. Prior to that, Sandra was a litigator in Chicago for ten years.
Outside the legal profession, Sandra is best known for her interest in multicultural children's literature. She and her husband are the founders of Polychrome Publishing Corporation, the only company in the country dedicated to producing children's books by and about Asian Americans. Sandra authored Polychrome's first two books, Char Siu Bao Boy and Ashok By Any Other Name. Polychrome books have been described as exemplary examples of anti-bias children's literature by Teaching Tolerance Magazine, a publication of the Southern Poverty Law Institute, and are included in the Anti-Defamation League's World of Difference Program bibliography of recommended children's books.
Sandra was a founding member of the Asian American Bar Association of the Greater Chicago Area and the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association, where she served as the first Central Region Governor. She is a former president of the Japanese American Service Committee, the oldest Asian American social service agency in the Midwest and the Harvard Law Society of Illinois. She is a former member of the boards of the Japanese American Citizens League, the Asian American Institute, the National Women's Political Caucus of Metropolitan Chicago, the Girl Scouts of Chicago, Friends of the Chicago Public Library, the Asian Pacific American Women's Leadership Institute, and Asian Americans for Inclusive Education. She has written and spoken extensively on diversity in the legal profession and on multicultural children's literature.
Sandra earned her AB in Political Science (cum laude) and History (magna cum laude) from the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign where she was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. She received her JD from Harvard Law School.
Sandra, her husband, Brian Witkowski, and their puppy live in Chicago's Ravenswood neighborhood. |
