| Speakers |
| Mei Lin Kwan-Gett Deputy General Counsel and Head of Global Litigation Citi Mei Lin Kwan-Gett is Citi’s Deputy General Counsel and Head of Global Litigation. She joined Citi this January from the law firm of Willkie Farr & Gallagher, LLP, where she was a partner and co-head of the firm’s white collar criminal defense practice group. Prior to joining Willkie Farr in 2006 Mei Lin worked at the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York as Deputy Chief of the Criminal Division. She also served as Special Investigative Counsel for the Office of the Inspector General for the U.S. Department of Justice, and as an Assistant United States Attorney for the U.S. Attorney’s Office. She began her career as a Law Clerk in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, and later served as a George Slaff Fellow at the ACLU Foundation of Southern California. Mei Lin earned her AB from Harvard College and her JD from Yale Law School. | |
| Sara Moss Executive Vice President and General Counsel The Estée Lauder Companies Sara E. Moss is Executive Vice President and General Counsel of The Estée Lauder Companies. She is responsible for the worldwide legal activities of the Company and its subsidiaries, including Board of Directors, corporate governance, acquisitions, U.S. and global filings, government relations, intellectual property, licensing, litigation and global security. She serves on the Company’s Investment Development Committee, Fiduciary Investment Committee, Executive Leadership Committee, Program Management Team, Diversity Committee and is Chair of the Company’s Ethics and Compliance Committee. Before joining The Estée Lauder Companies in 2003, Ms. Moss held the position of Senior Vice President and General Counsel at Pitney Bowes Inc., which she joined in 1996. Prior to joining Pitney Bowes, Ms. Moss was a senior litigation partner at Howard, Smith & Levin (now Covington & Burling), a New York City-based law firm. From 1978 to 1981, she served as an Assistant United States Attorney in the Southern District of New York, where she prosecuted a wide range of federal cases. Prior to that, she practiced at Davis Polk & Wardwell and was a law clerk for the Honorable Constance Baker Motley, U.S. District Judge in the Southern District of New York. Ms. Moss is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of the University of Massachusetts and New York University Law School.
Ms. Moss has received the Chambers Outstanding In-House Lawyer of the Year Award, the NYU Outstanding Alumna Award, the Anti-Defamation League Human Relations Award, the NOW Legal Defense and Education Fund “Aiming High” Award, the Minority Corporate Counsel Diversity Award, the Pro Bono Partnership Outstanding Contribution Award, and the Anastasia D. Kelly Transformative Leadership Award. She serves on the Board of Trustees of NYU Law School, the Board of Directors of the Legal Aid Society, the Board of Directors of the New York Common Pantry, and the Board of Directors of the M.A.C AIDS Fund. She has taught trial advocacy at Harvard Law School and the National Institute for Trial Advocacy. Since 2002, she has participated in Fortune Magazine’s Most Powerful Women in Business forum.
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| Judge Preska Chief Judge United States District Court for the Southern District of New York Judge Preska was appointed United States District Judge for the Southern District of New York on August 12, 1992 and entered duty on September 18, 1992. From June 1, 2009 to the present, she serves as Chief Judge of that Court. Judge Preska received a B.A. from the College of St. Rose in Albany, New York in 1970, a J.D. from Fordham University School of Law in 1973, and an LL.M. in Trade Regulation from New York University Law School in 1978. Following graduation from Fordham, Judge Preska was an associate at Cahill Gordon & Reindel LLP and an associate and, beginning in January 1983, a partner at Hertzog, Calamari & Gleason until her induction as a United States District Judge in September 1992. Judge Preska was nominated to the Second Circuit Court of Appeals in September 2008. She received the Louis J. Lefkowitz Public Service Alumni Award from Fordham University School of Law in 1992 and served several terms as a Vice President on the Board of Directors of the Fordham Law Alumni Association. The Fordham Law Alumni Association awarded her its Medal of Achievement in 1998. She received a Doctorate of Humane Letters, honoris causa, from the College of St. Rose, Albany, New York, in 1998, the Edward J. Weinfeld Award from the New York County Lawyers Association Federal Courts Committee for Excellence in the Administration of Justice in 2001, the Charles Carroll Award from the Catholic Lawyers Guild in 2004, the Stanley H. Fuld Award for outstanding contributions to the development of commercial law and jurisprudence in New York State from the Commercial and Federal Litigation Section of the New York State Bar Association in 2009, the President’s Special Award from the New York Women’s Bar Association in 2011, the Barbara Jordan Outstanding Public Service Award from Phi Alpha Delta Law Fraternity International in 2012, the Women in Business Law Lifetime Achievement Award in 2013, and the Boris Kostelanetz President’s Medal from the New York County Lawyers Association in 2014. She has lectured at Securities Industry Association Legal & Compliance Division, the International Bar Association, and numerous other venues, and was a contributing author to Federal Civil Practice published by the New York State Bar Association in 1989. Judge Preska is a member of the Federal Bar Association, the Federal Bar Council, the New York County Lawyers Association, and the New York State Bar Association. She has served as a member of the Committee on Federal-State Jurisdiction of the Judicial Conference of the United States, as chair of the Benchbook Advisory Committee, the Board of Directors of the Federal Judicial Center, and currently serves on the New York Federal-State Judicial Council. Judge Preska has also served on the Advisory Board of the New York Chapter of the Federalist Society and, from 2001-2009, on the New York Regional Panel for the Selection of White House Fellows. Judge Preska has also served as a Trustee of Fordham University. | |
| Patrisia Reyes Associate General Counsel & Regional Compliance Officer adidas Group Patrisia Reyes is Associate General Counsel & Regional Compliance Officer of the adidas Group. Ms. Reyes is responsible for overseeing Legal, Compliance, Intellectual Property Enforcement, Government Relations and Sustainability in Latin America and manages a team of 17 people including 12 attorneys located all throughout the region. Ms. Reyes graduated from Northeastern University with a Bachelor of Science degree in International Business and Management, and a JD from Suffolk University Law School. | |
| Dee Sekar Editor: Global Diversity Chambers and Partners Dee Sekar is a UK qualified solictor and Global Diversity Editor at Chambers & Partners. For the last 3 years, Dee has worked extensively on the Chambers Women in Law programme. She created the Chambers Women in Law blog which has established a global online discussion and community of female lawyers. In September 2013, she devised the Chambers Women in Law seminars. To date, Dee has moderated nine Women in Law seminars in the USA and Latin America. In just under a year, Dee has created a strong working relationship with hundreds of in-house lawyers in the USA and Latin America and works closely with the ABA Commission on Women in the Profession, DirectWomen, Juridico de Saias (Brazil) and Association of Corporate Counsel (Brazil). In January 2015, Dee launched the Chambers Diversity program which encompasses gender, minority lawyers, LGBT, physical and social mobility and corporate social responsibility in the legal profession. Through research, seminars and awards, Chambers Diversity will be bringing a unique perspective to global diversity in the legal profession. Covering UK, Europe, Asia, USA and Latin America, the programme will give a platform to the most outstanding lawyers who have shown a real commitment to advancing diversity in the law. Chambers Diversity will also investigate the recruitment, retention and promotion of diverse lawyers in companies, law firms and barristers' chambers and will monitor this progress over time. | |
| My Chi To Partner Debevoise & Plimpton LLP My Chi To is a corporate partner and a member of the firm’s Business Restructuring & Workouts Group. She has experience representing debtors, creditors and investors in complex restructurings, bankruptcies and acquisitions of troubled companies. Ms. To also advises a wide range of clients in connection with second-lien, mezzanine and infrastructure financings and workouts as well as insurance insolvency matters. Ranked as a leading lawyer in Chambers USA (2011-2014), clients describe Ms. To as having an “impressive set of credentials and experience,” adding that she is “unflappable” and that “she serves clients extremely well.” She is also recommended in The Legal 500 US (2011-2012), where she is considered to be “among the brightest young bankruptcy lawyers in the country.” She is the recipient of the Kathryn R. Heidt Memorial Award, which is the highest honor granted by the Business Bankruptcy Committee of the American Bar Association. Ms. To also received the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association’s “Best Lawyers Under 40” award. Ms. To frequently speaks and has written many articles on intercreditor issues relating to complex financing structures, distressed asset sales and other bankruptcy-related topics. Her recent speaking engagements include: “Section 363 Sales: New Cases, New Approaches, New Voices”, National Conference of Bankruptcy Judges, “Recent Issues in Plan Confirmation,” American Bankruptcy Institute’s 15th Annual New York City Bankruptcy Conference and “Avoiding Powers - Augmentation of the Estate,” PLI Nuts and Bolts of Corporate Bankruptcy. Her recent publications include: "Litigating Make-Whole Premiums in Bankruptcy," The New York Law Journal (2014), “Lifting The Cloud Of Uncertainty: Recent Cases Provide Clarity on Enforcing Intercreditor Agreements,” The New York Law Journal (2012) and “Discount Shopping: Making the Most Out of Distressed Asset Sales,” Bloomberg BNA’s Bankruptcy Law Reporter (2012). She is also the author of “Second-Lien Financings in Bankruptcy: Expectations vs. Reality,” The Review of Banking & Financial Services (2007). Ms. To is a member of the Business Bankruptcy Committee of the American Bar Association, and a member of the American College of Investment Counsel. She is also co-head of the Women’s Resource Group at Debevoise. Ms. To received an LL.L. and LL.B. from the University of Ottawa and was a Law Clerk to the Honorable Claire L’Heureux-Dubé, Supreme Court of Canada. She received an M.Phil. in Politics from the University of Oxford, where she was a Rhodes Scholar. Ms. To is bilingual in French and English. | |
