Xavier Albàn, ’13

Assistant City Attorney, City of Miami
Miami, FL

Emily Brait, ’17

Associate, Baker McKenzie
New York, NY

Brait, who is now an associate at Baker McKenzie, regularly advises clients on government and regulatory investigations, complex commercial litigations, arbitrations, and antitrust matters. She was previously an associate at Sullivan & Cromwell LLP and also served as a judicial law clerk for the Honorable Bernice B. Donald on the Sixth Circuit.

Amy Cohen, ’91

Retired, Former SVP, Business and Legal Affairs, NBC Sports Group
Philadelphia, PA

Jill Cummins, ’98

Associate Judge, Montgomery County Circuit Court, State of Maryland
Bethesda, MD

Madeline Dang, ’16

Counsel, United States Senate
Washington, DC

Alex Johnson, ’05

VP, Public Affairs, Bryson Gillette
Los Angeles, CA

Alex Johnson has nearly 20 years of successful cross-sector experience working with policymakers, nonprofits, government agencies, and philanthropy to solve complex problems and advance change. Most recently, he served as chief of staff at the California Wellness Foundation, one of the largest private health foundations in the state, where his portfolio included leading the foundation’s violence prevention strategy. Throughout his career, Alex has built coalitions with diverse stakeholders, engaged in high-impact communications, and elevated marginalized voices. At Children’s Defense Fund-California, he led statewide policy advocacy, program and organizing efforts focused on promoting educational equity and ending child poverty, among other goals. Alex served two terms on the Los Angeles County Board of Education, including a term as President, working to effectively shape policies and programs in the best interests of students and families. He began his career in New York City advocating for domestic violence victims as an assistant district attorney in Bronx County.

Andrew Kawel, ’09

Attorney and Managing Member, Kawel PLLC
Miami, FL

Andy practices appellate and complex civil litigation. He furthers his clients’ objectives by prosecuting and resisting appeals, petitions for extraordinary writs, and intricate motions. His practice also encompasses issue preservation at trial, such as the drafting of judgments, verdict forms, jury instructions, and motions in limine.

Andy relishes discovering creative solutions to sophisticated legal problems. By way of example, his past work has resulted in opinions distinguishing the subject-matter jurisdictions of Florida’s circuit and county courts in the homestead-exemption context; overturning a life sentence for first-degree murder on double-jeopardy grounds; and thwarting an appellate attempt to commandeer a local church’s $10 million property. Other representative matters include a $30 million tax-refund appeal; federal criminal sentencing appeals; and defending the Government of the Republic of Nicaragua in federal court on sovereign-immunity grounds. He is admitted to practice in several federal courts of appeals as well as in the Supreme Court of the United States, where he has experience both seeking and resisting certiorari review.

Andy has practiced appellate law at Kawel PLLC since 2011. Before founding his own firm, he practiced commercial litigation as an associate at an AmLaw 100 firm in Washington, DC. He has been named as a Florida “Rising Star in Appellate Practice” several years running. And he has served on the boards of the Third District Court of Appeal Historical Society; the Rosemary Barkett Appellate American Inn of Court; and the South Miami–Kendall Bar Association.

Andy graduated with honors from The American University, Washington College of Law. During law school, he served as a Legal Rhetoric Dean’s Fellow for Research; was a member of the Negotiation Team; and oversaw 80 staff members as Editor in Chief of the ABA publication Administrative Law Review. In his capacity as Editor in Chief, Andy helped to revise the administrative-materials sections of The Bluebook: A Uniform System of Citation, earning the law review a credit in the front pages of that manual. And he hosted and introduced Justice Antonin Scalia as Keynote Speaker for Administrative Law Review’s annual Symposium, as well as Justice Scalia’s guest Bryan Garner, the Editor in Chief of Black’s Law Dictionary.

Kimberly LeBlanc-Ross, ’06

Senior Lead Counsel, American Red Cross
Washington, DC

Kimberly LeBlanc-Ross is a trusted thought leader and advisor that proactively engages with business leaders to execute mission driven strategies. Kimberly provides counsel and guidance on labor and employment issues ranging from compliance with various federal and state laws to negotiating union contracts. She also has extensive experience with class actions and general commercial litigation matters.

Kimberly is an Adjunct Professor at American University's Washington College of Law where she teaches a seminar on the practice of law. She is active in various community organizations and legal bar associations.

Roushani Mansoor, ’12

Senior Advisor, U.S. Department of State
Washington, DC

Roushani Mansoor is a Senior Advisor to the U.S. Special Envoy for Afghan Women, Girls, and Human Rights.

Previously, she was a Policy Advisor in the Secretary of State's Office of Global Women's Issues, assisting with implementation of the Women, Peace, and Security strategy and women and girls issues in Afghanistan. For several years prior, she was a Justice Advisor for the Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement, specializing in international criminal justice and rule of law reform, and worked in the Bureau of International Organizational Affairs, focusing on U.N. resolutions on peacekeeping operations. Internationally, she worked as a Special Legal Assistant for the Ministry of Law in Dhaka, Bangladesh as a Fulbright Public Policy Fellow in the inaugural year of the program.

Prior to becoming a Fulbright Fellow, Roushani worked at the Public International Law & Policy Group as a Senior Research Associate and as a Law Clerk at the Commercial Law Development Program at the Department of Commerce.

Roushani holds a Juris Doctor cum laude from Washington College of Law at American University, a M.A. in International Peace and Conflict Resolution from the School of International Service at American University, and a B.A. in International Political Economy from the University of California, Berkeley.

Dina Navar, ’17

Chairperson, Latino/a Alumni Association of the Washington College of Law (LAAW)
Los Angeles, CA

Ada (Esedebe) Okafor, ’12

General Counsel and Chief Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Officer, American Board of Surgery
Philadelphia, PA

Ada Okafor serves as General Counsel and Chief Diversity Equity and Inclusion Officer for American Board of Surgery.

Ada is the first person of color to hold the position and title of General Counsel (GC) in the American Board of Surgery's 85-year history. As GC, Ada she leads the organization’s legal, compliance, ethics and enterprise risk management function.

Ada is also the first person to hold the position of Chief Diversity Equity and Inclusion Officer (CDEIO). She is a dynamic individual who is passionate about DEI. She has contributed to a plethora of diversity efforts throughout her career. She believes it helps create an inclusive environment so that people can do their best work and have their individual skills and talents recognized, appreciated and utilized.

Ada’s background makes her uniquely suited for her dual roles at ABS. Born in Nigeria, she was raised in the United Kingdom before moving to the United States when she was a teenager. Because she moved so much, she had to be flexible, nimble, and able to adapt to new environments, new people, and new ways of life. These moves helped her develop a global perspective through which she saw, understood and interacted with the world and the people around her.

Ada has been involved with numerous conferences on increasing diversity in the legal profession and has received extensive training on implicit/unconscious bias, social justice, neurodiversity, health equity, disability, allyship, and microbehaviors (microaggressions, microassaults, microinsults, microinvalidations), and the appropriate ways to validate and respond to those impacted by such words and actions.

As ABS’s inaugural CDEIO, Ada is excited to use the skillsets that she has developed and honed over time to help drive ABS’ commitment to be a diverse, antiracist, equitable and inclusive organization.

Jonathan Ratchik, ’97

Partner, Kramer, Dunleavy & Ratchik
New York, NY

Jonathan R. Ratchik is a partner at Kramer, Dunleavy & Ratchik, PLLC, a boutique personal injury law firm located in downtown Manhattan. Mr. Ratchik’s practice focuses exclusively on personal injury, wrongful death litigation and medical malpractice.

For over twenty-five years, Mr. Ratchik has been helping New Yorkers who have been injured due to the negligence and wrongdoing of others. The cases that he has worked on have arisen out of incidents involving premises liability, motor vehicle crashes, pedestrian knockdowns, construction site accidents and medical malpractice.

During his distinguished career, Mr. Ratchik has recovered tens of millions of dollars on behalf of accident victims and their families. He has also amassed an impressive record on appeal, on both the state and federal level. His professional accomplishments have earned him a great deal of recognition from his fellow members of the bar, including an AV Preeminent* peer review rating through Martindale-Hubbell and a “Superb” peer review rating through Avvo.

Admitted to practice in New York since 1998, Mr. Ratchik is also admitted to practice before the U.S. District Courts for the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York as well as before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.

Mr. Ratchik attended New York University’s College of Arts and Science as an undergraduate, where he double-majored in French and political science and was a member of the school’s varsity swim team before receiving a Bachelor of Arts cum laude in 1994. He then went on to pursue his legal education at American University’s Washington College of Law where he served on the International Law Review before being awarded his Juris Doctor in 1997.

Fabiola Rivas Donnelly, ’12

Associate Principal Counsel, The Walt Disney Company
Los Angeles, CA

Rodney Villazor, ’00

Partner, Clark Smith Villazor LLP
New York, NY

Rodney Villazor is a trial lawyer representing companies, executives, and other professionals in white collar criminal cases, guiding clients through grand jury investigations, and conducting internal corporate investigations. He also handles high-stakes complex civil litigation matters including defending pharmaceutical companies and global financial institutions. Rodney has tried more than 14 jury trials as a partner at a global law firm and as an Assistant U.S. Attorney. He served as an AUSA for almost seven years in the District of New Jersey and in the Northern District of California. Rodney also clerked for US District Judge Jane Boyle in the Northern District of Texas and US Magistrate Judge Charles B. Day in the District of Maryland.

Zuberi Williams, ’03

Judge, Maryland District Court
Rockville, MD

Honorable Zuberi Bakari Williams believes that opportunity is the oxygen of our community. It is required to sculpt the true complexion of America’s future and shortens long odds.

Williams is no stranger to long odds and how opportunity changes them. His mother is an immigrant from a small South American village and his father was raised on the west side of Chicago's inner city. At the age of 36, he was appointed by Governor Martin O’Malley as one of the youngest judges in Maryland history.

Williams is obsessed with providing that oxygen to others, including the poor, people of color, women, and members of our LGBTQ community to allow them authentic access to the “American Dream.”

To provide this oxygen for law students of color, Williams runs the ABA’s Judicial Opportunity Program (JIOP) for Maryland. He took JIOP to new levels by singlehandedly forging powerful relationships with some of America’s top companies, including Facebook, Google, Discovery Channel, and Under Armour. He walks JIOP interns into the company’s headquarters to meet with high level executives. These meetings allow interns to learn how to be better candidates for employment while providing executives exposure to qualified diverse candidates in intimate settings.

Williams was recently appointed to the advisory board of Pipeline to Practice, a non-profit comprised of in-house counsel at Fortune 500 companies and associates working at the world’s leading law firms. The program’s express aim is to create pathways for diverse candidates at these companies. Judge Williams is the first judge to be invited to join its board.

Jordan Yeager, ’92

Judge, Court of Common Pleas, Bucks County, PA
Doylestown, PA

Judge Yeager was elected as a trial court judge in 2019 following a 27 year career as an advocate and counselor. He began his legal career in Washington, DC where he handled criminal defense, military law, and a wide range of civil litigation matters. After a brief period as a solo practitioner in Northeastern Pennsylvania, he returned to Bucks County in 1995 and opened the Doylestown office of the Philadelphia-based Sugarman & Associates, working primarily on complex civil litigation matters. From 1997 to 2008, he was a partner in the firm Boockvar & Yeager, and established a regional reputation handling plaintiffs’ civil rights and employment litigation. Joining Curtin & Heefner LLP in 2008, Yeager developed a statewide practice in the areas of local government, land use, environmental, and constitutional law. He chaired the firm’s Public Sector, Environmental, and Appellate practice groups, and served on the firm’s Management Committee. Over the course of his 27 year career as an advocate, Yeager practiced before trial courts in 23 different counties throughout Pennsylvania