2011 - 2012 AJS Board of Directors

Peter D. Webster - President

Peter D. Webster is a shareholder in the Tallahassee, Florida, office of Carlton Fields.  He is a member of the firm’s Appellate & Trial Support, Business Litigation & Trade Regulation, and White Collar Crime & Government Investigations Practice Groups.  Webster retired from the bench after 25 years of service, most recently on the Florida First District Court of Appeal.  He has also been a general jurisdiction trial judge in Florida’s Fourth Judicial Circuit, a lawyer in private practice with a litigation firm, and a law clerk to a federal district judge, all in Jacksonville.  He has served on numerous bar and court committees, and has written articles on ethics and professionalism, judicial selection and retention, and judicial independence, among other topics.  Webster is currently a Trustee of the American Inns of Court Foundation, and was for nine years an adjunct professor at Florida Coastal School of Law in Jacksonville.  He holds a B.S.F.S. (magna cum laude) from Georgetown University, a J.D. (with distinction) from Duke University School of Law, and an LL.M. (in the judicial process) from the University of Virginia School of Law.



Dennis Courtland Hayes - President-Elect

 Mr. Hayes recently retired from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).  His regular duties as general counsel and Corporation Secretary entailed legal representation of the organization, its board of directors, 400,000 members and one thousand- plus affiliate units across America.  He also directed the organization's legal programs in all areas, including voting, housing, employment, and education.

Previous to joining the NAACP, Hayes maintained a private law practice in Indianapolis, Indiana, specializing in civil rights laws. He graduated from Indiana University, Bloomington (BS) and Indiana University School of Law at Indianapolis (JD) and is a member of the Indiana University School of Education's Board of Visitors.

 

Marla Greenstein - Vice President

Marla N. Greenstein is Executive Director of the Alaska Commission on Judicial Conduct, a position she has held since 1989.  She previously served as senior staff attorney for the Alaska Judicial Council and as senior staff attorney for the American Judicature Society in Chicago.  Ms. Greenstein served from 1996-97 as Chair of the Lawyers Conference of the American Bar Association’s Judicial Division and has served on the American Judicature Society’s Board and Executive Committee.  Ms. Greenstein also serves as Secretary of the Board of the Association of Judicial Disciplinary Counsel. She is a graduate of Loyola University of Chicago School of Law and holds an undergraduate degree in American Government and Philosophy from Georgetown University.  Ms. Greenstein has published articles in the areas of judicial selection and judicial discipline, including “Judicial Disqualification in Alaska Courts,” Alaska Law Review, June 2000.  She serves on the Alaska Bar’s Ethics Committee and Judicial Independence Committee. Most recently, Ms. Greenstein became the first Ethics Column Editor for the American Bar Association’s Judges Journal. She has lectured widely in the area of judicial ethics and has served as faculty for international judicial ethics seminars in Micronesia and Russia. Currently she serves as co-chair for the Khabarovsk-Alaska Rule of Law Partnership.

Honorable Martha Hill Jamison - Vice President 

Martha Hill Jamison is Justice of the 14th Court of Appeals, Place 5. Previously, Justice Jamison served as a Civil District Judge, General Counsel to the Harris County Tax-Assessor/Voter Registrar and a commercial mediator and arbitrator.  Justice Jamison is board certified in civil trial law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization.  She is a Life Fellow of the Texas Bar Foundation and the Houston Bar Foundation.  Justice Jamison graduated from the University of Texas in 1973, where she was selected Outstanding Woman Student and was inducted into the Friar Society, the oldest honorary association on campus, in its first class to accept women. She graduated from the University of Texas School of Law in 1977.

 

 

Jon Comstock - Secretary

Mr. Comstock, has been a member of Wal-Mart's Legal Department since 1994, after having served Wal-Mart in an outside trial counsel relationship for over 10 years.  He currently provides broad legal support to Wal-Mart's Security, Risk and Compliance group within its Information Systems business division, facilitating the direction of the company's data security posture and development of a comprehensive data security program. His support to Wal-Mart's Global Privacy Office is all-encompassing as well, ranging from policy development to the assessment of appropriate IT controls to assure consistent execution of policy goals.  He holds thought-leadership positions on several internal governance committees.  Prior to his current role, Comstock was lead attorney in Wal-Mart's in-house litigation group responsible for complex civil litigation.  He graduated from Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, Oklahoma (BA) and University of Tulsa, College of Law, Tulsa, Oklahoma (JD) and is currently admitted to Arkansas and Oklahoma bars.  He is a Certified Information Privacy Professional of the International Association of Privacy Professionals.  Serves as Board Member of Legal Aid of Arkansas and is active member of Arkansas' Access For Justice Commission's Pro Bono Committee.  He was past recipient of the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) Amigo Award and Department of Justice, Pro Bono Panel Member for Bureau of Immigration Appeals. After serving on AJS's Advisory Council, he has most recently  been a member of the Board of Directors.  Currently serves as Treasurer of AJS.

Thomas Leighton - Treasurer

Tom Leighton is Vice President of Content Acquisition & Government Relations at West, a Thomson Reuters business.  Tom is responsible for the strategic direction and execution of West’s content acquisition plan.  His team acquires a wide range of information, including cases, legislative documents and agency information, in many different formats, from a multitude of government sources at the federal, state and local level.  The team gathers all documents necessary to support existing product needs as well as new product initiatives, such as Litigator.  Tom joined the West editorial department in 1989 and worked in the cases and statutes editorial departments before his promotion to associate editor.  Prior to his current role he was Vice President of the Government Segment and before that was Vice President of Government Relations and Contracts. Prior to joining West Tom served for three years in the Judge Advocate General’s Corps of the United States Navy and then practiced at a law firm in Minneapolis.    Tom holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of St. Thomas and a law degree from the University of Minnesota. 

 

Martin H. Belsky - Chair of the National Advisory Council

Belsky is the Randolph Baxter Professor of Law and Dean of the University of Akron School of Law.  From 1995 to 2007, he served as Dean and then Professor of Law at the University of Tulsa College of Law.  From 1986 to 1995 he was first the President and Dean an then Dean emeritus and Professor at Albany Law School.  Belsky is a graduate of Temple University, College of Liberal Arts with a B.A., cum laude; Columbia University School of Law cum laude; Hague Academy of International Law; and the Cambridge University Institute of Criminology. Belsky was dean and professor of law at Albany Law School. From 1969 to 1974, Belsky served first as an assistant district attorney and then as chief prosecutor in Philadelphia. From 1975 to 1978, he served both as counsel to the Judiciary Committee of the House of Representatives and as chief counsel to the Special House Committee on the Outer Continental Shelf (offshore drilling). From 1979 to 1982 Belsky served first as deputy general counsel and then assistant administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.  From 1982 to 1986, Belsky was associate professor of law and director of the Center for Governmental Responsibility at the University of Florida. Belsky has served as board member and Chair of many civic and charitable organizations, including bar associations in Philadelphia, New York,  Oklahoma and Ohio; the American Law Institute; the Appleseed Foundation; Oklahoma Academy; the Child Abuse Network; Heritage Academy; the Fenster Museum; the Urban League; the Albany, Tulsa and Akron Jewish Federations; Tulsa Metropolitan Ministry; Interfaith Alliance; National Conference for Community Justice (NCCJ); and the Anti-Defamation League. Belsky has helped organize and has participated in numerous conferences on criminal and civil justice, the administration of justice, judicial independence, ethics, international law, the U.S. Supreme Court, environmental law, and religious understanding. He has written numerous articles and books on the administration of justice, civil rights, constitutional law, law and religion and theology, criminal law, international law, environmental law, ocean and coastal law, and professional responsibility.

Dawn Clark Netsch - Distinguished Lifetime Director

Since graduating from Northwestern University School of Law in 1952, Dawn Clark Netsch has been a powerhouse in the worlds of judicial, political, and civil service. Dawn has worked as a private practice attorney, a judicial clerk to Hon. Julius Hoffman, and an aide to Governor Otto Kerner. A professor of law at her alma mater since 1965, Dawn also served as a delegate to the Illinois Constitutional Convention in 1970 and two years later was elected to serve in the Illinois State Senate, a position to which she was re-elected five times. She also spent four years as the Illinois Comptroller.  In 2002, she received the American Civil Liberties Union’s Roger Baldwin Lifetime Achievement Award and the Chicago Bar association honored her with the First Annual United States Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens Award. She was chosen as the recipient of the Commitment to Justice Award by the Chicago Council of Lawyers/Chicago Appleseed Fund for Justice, and received the Alumni Merit Award from Northwestern University and the Public Service Award from Northwestern University School of Law.

Dwight D. Opperman - Distinguished Lifetime Director

Dwight D. Opperman, former chairman and CEO of West Publishing Company, is nationally recognized for his philanthropy and commitment to legal organizations and legal education.  He joined the American Judicature Society Board of Directors in 1974 and served on the Executive Committee as Vice President.  He received a Herbert Harley Award in 1984, established the Edward J. Devitt Distinguished Service to Justice Award in 1982 and received the AJS Justice Award in 1992.  In 2006 he was bestowed with the honor of Distinguished Lifetime Director.

A partial listing of the many organizations with which Opperman has been affiliated includes the American Bar Association, American Law Institute, Brennan Center for Justice, Fellows of the American Bar Foundation, National Legal Center for the Public Interest, the Dwight D. Opperman Institute of Judicial Administration (IJA), the National Center for State Courts, and the Supreme Court Historical Society.  He has been honored for his distinguished public service by the National Center for State Courts, the Conference of Court Public Information Officers, Drake University, Friends of the Law Library of Congress, the Minnesota State Bar Association, the National Conference of Appellate Court Clerks, and the William Mitchell College of Law.  He holds honorary doctor of law degrees from Drake, Dakota Wesleyan and Hamline Universities and was the recipient of the first Wickersham Award from the Library of Congress.

Mary H. Wechser - Distinguished Lifetime Director

Ms. Wechsler is a partner at Wechsler Becker LLP where she handles complex family law cases, and also serves as a mediator and arbitrator.  Ms. Wechsler  is the immediate Past President of the Washington Chapter of the American Judicature Society.  She received the King County Bar's 1999 Outstanding Attorney award and the State Bar Family Law Section's 1988 Outstanding Attorney Award. Ms. Wechsler serves as Vice-Chair of the Board for Court Education and is on the Judicial College Trustees.  She is a Past President of the King County Bar Association and a former President of the Washington Chapter of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers. 
In November, 2011 Mary left us after a courageous battle with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (Lou Gehrig's Disease).  Her commitment to maintaining the independence and integrity of the judicial system will truly be missed.  Click here to view a tribute about her life published in the King County Bar Association.

 

 

Honorable Richard Teitelman
AJS Delegate to the ABA House of Delegates

A native of Philadelphia, Judge Teitelman earned his bachelor’s degree in mathematics in 1969 from the University of Pennsylvania, and his law degree in 1973 from Washington University in St. Louis. Judge Teitelman worked in solo practice until 1975, when he joined Legal Services of Eastern Missouri. He served there for 23 years, including 18 as executive director and general counsel. During his tenure, the organization earned a national reputation for the wide range of programs it provides to Missourians who are unable to pay for civil legal services. His dedication to underrepresented people has earned him many honors, including the Missouri Bar President’s Award and the American Bar Association’s Make a Difference Award. In 1998, Teitelman was appointed to the Missouri Court of Appeals, where he served until his February 21, 2002 appointment to the state’s supreme court. He is the first legally blind and first Jewish judge to serve on Missouri’s highest court. He served as chair of the ABA’s Commission on Mental and Physical Disabilities Law. He was nominated to the American Bar Association's Appellate Judicial Network Steering Committee in 2007, and serves on the ABA's Standing Committee on Pro Bono and Public Service.  Judge Teitelman is the American Judicature Society's liaison to the ABA House of Delegates.

William D. Johnston, Esq. - Immediate Past President

William D. Johnston is a partner in the Wilmington, Delaware-based law firm of Young Conaway Stargatt & Taylor, LLP.   His practice concentration is corporate and other business counseling and litigation.  He is the immediate past chair of Young Conaway’s Corporate Counseling and Litigation Section. 

 

Leading cases in which Mr. Johnston has been involved include Paramount Communications v. QVC Network, 637 A.2d 34 (Del. 1993), Malpiede v. Townson, 780 A.2d 1075 (Del. 2001), In re:  IBP Shareholders Litig. v. Tyson Foods, Inc., 789 A.2d 14 (Del. Ch. 2001), Homestore, Inc. v. Tafeen, 880 A.2d 204 (Del. 2005), and Sun-Times Media Group, Inc. v. Black, 954 A.2d 380 (Del. Ch. 2008).  A special focus of his practice is advancement and indemnification under Delaware law, and he has written and spoken extensively on those subjects.  He also has extensive ADR experience, both as counsel and as an arbitrator or mediator.

 

Mr. Johnston is a past president of the Delaware State Bar Association.  He is a member of the Board of Bar Examiners of the Delaware Supreme Court.  He is president of the American Judicature Society, serves in leadership positions with the American Bar Association, and is State Bar Delegate to the ABA House of Delegates.  Mr. Johnston is a member of the Delaware State Human Relations Commission, serving in his fifth four-year term by gubernatorial appointment.  At Young Conway, he co-chairs the firm’s Diversity Committee.  Mr. Johnston is a graduate of Colgate University and of The Washington and Lee University School of Law.  He served as Law Clerk to the Honorable Daniel L. Herrmann, Chief Justice of the Delaware Supreme Court.  Mr. Johnston is married to The Honorable Mary M. Johnston, Judge of the Delaware Superior Court.  They have two daughters, Ellen Christine Johnston and Amy Elizabeth Johnston.

Carole Wagner Vallianos - Past President

Vallianos is a principal in the Law Offices of Carole Wagner Vallianos. She practices civil rights, nonprofit corporation law, and estate planning. She has just stepped down as president and CEO of Los Angeles BioMedical Research Institute at Harbor-UCLA (LABioMed). Vallianos was a member of  the California Judicial Council’s Standing Committee on Access and Fairness in the Courts, the Jury Improvement Task Force, the Advisory Committees on Race and Ethics Bias in the Courts and the Advisory Committee on Private Judging. Vallianos is a Fellow of the California First Amendment Coalition and was an advisory board member of the Citizen Access Project, University of Florida’s Brechner Center for Freedom of Information and a vice president of the Coalition for Justice. She is also a member of Women Lawyers of Los Angeles, the South Bay Bar Association, and the Benjamin Aranda III Inn of Court.   She is past president of the League of Women Voters of California, and she was on the Board of Directors of the League of Women Voters of the United States and the Board of Trustees of the League of Women Voters Education Fund. She has also served as an NGO/nonprofit consultant with the U.S. Department of State in Bosnia, Turkey, Cyprus and India. She is a graduate of Coro, a public policy training program and is a member of Pacific Council on International Policy. Vallianos received her B.A. from California State University, Fullerton, and her J.D. from Southwestern University School of Law.

Other members of the Board:
Angela Ciccolo

Ms. Ciccolo is responsible for the full range of legal functions handled by the Legal Department and by outside counsel, including contracts, employment law, trademarks, entertainment law, corporate law issues, compliance with U.S. and international legal requirements, exempt organization tax law, sponsorship and fundraising matters, litigation, biannual accreditation of every Special Olympics Program, risk management, and registration of Special Olympics offices around the world.  The CLO also has a special role to protect the mission of Special Olympics through oversight and maintenance of compliance with the Special Olympics General Rules, which are the principal governing policies of the Special Olympics movement.

Ms. Ciccolo spent the past decade with the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), the oldest and largest civil rights organization in the United States.  During her tenure at the NAACP, Ciccolo served as the organization’s first woman General Counsel and Secretary, managing all legal internal and external legal matters.  Ciccolo previously served as a civil trial attorney in the Washington, D.C.  She received her Juris Doctor degree from Georgetown University Law Center and a Bachelor of Science in Foreign Service from the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University.  She is a member of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights Virginia State Advisory Committee and has served as an election monitor and speaker on issues of diversity and inclusion in the United States and abroad.

Jon Gould
 

A lawyer and social scientist, Professor Gould combines empirical research with policy advocacy to advance government reform and administration. His work focuses on civil rights and liberties, justice policy, and legal change, helping to make academic research relevant and accessible to policymaking. He has published on the subjects of wrongful convictions, hate speech, police conformance with the Constitution, and judicial treatment of race and gender. His first book, Speak No Evil: The Triumph of Hate Speech Regulation, was a co-winner of the 2006 Herbert Jacob award for the best book in law and society. His second book, The Innocence Commission: Preventing Wrongful Convictions and Restoring the Criminal Justice System, was named an Outstanding Academic Title for 2008 by the American Library Association.

Prior to joining AU, Professor Gould was associate professor and director of the Center for Justice, Law and Society at George Mason. He has practiced law with the Washington, D.C. office of Mayer, Brown and Platt; helped to direct programming for the International Human Rights Law Institute; and worked on the national staffs of two presidential campaigns.

He holds a Ph.D. in Political Science from University of Chicago; a J.D. from Harvard Law School, cum laude; an M.P.P. from Harvard University, John F. Kennedy School of Government and an A.B. from the University of Michigan, highest honors.

Honorable Randy J. Holland

Randy J. Holland is the youngest person to serve on the Delaware Supreme Court, having been recommended to the Governor by a bipartisan merit selection committee.  Prior to his appointment and confirmation in 1986, Justice Holland was in private practice as a partner at Morris, Nichols, Arsht & Tunnell.  In March 2011, he was reappointed by Governor Markell and unanimously confirmed by the Senate for an unprecedented third twelve-year term.

Justice Holland graduated from Swarthmore College.  He also graduated from the University of Pennsylvania Law School, cum laude, where he received the Loughlin Award for legal ethics.  Justice Holland received a Master of Laws in the Judicial Process from the University of Virginia Law School. 

Justice Holland is the past national President of the American Inns of Court Foundation.  He chaired the national Advisory Committee to the American Judicature Society’s Center for Judicial Ethics.  He also chaired the American Bar Association National Joint Committee on Lawyer Regulation.  Justice Holland has also served on the ABA Presidential Commission on Fair and Impartial Courts, the Appellate Judges Conference’s Executive committee, the Standing Committee on Client Protection and the Judicial Division’s Ethics and Professionalism Committee.  Justice Holland is a member of the American Law Institute.  He serves on the American Judicature Society’s Board of Directors.

Justice Holland has received numerous awards, including the 1992 Judge of the Year Award from the National Child Support Enforcement Association, the 2011 Dwight D. Opperman Award for Judicial Excellence, the 2009 James Wilson Award from the University of Pennsylvania School of Law, the 2003 American Judicature Society’s Herbert Harley Award and the 2007 American Inns of Court Christensen Award.  In 2004, he was elected to be an Honorable Master of the Bench by Lincoln’s Inn in London.  Chief Justices Rehnquist and Roberts appointed Justice Holland as the state judge member of the Federal Judicial Conference Advisory Committee on Appellate Rules. 

Justice Holland has written, co-authored, or edited seven books:  Delaware Corporation Law, Selected Cases (2011 Chinese (Taiwan) only); State Constitutional Law, the Modern Experience, co-author (West 2010); Middle Temple Lawyers and the American Revolution, co-author (Thomson-West 2007); Appellate Practice and Procedure, co-author (West 2005); The Delaware Constitution:  A Reference Guide (Greenwood Press 2002); Delaware Supreme Court:  Golden Anniversary (2001), co-editor; and The Delaware Constitution of 1897 – The First One Hundred Years, co-editor.  He has also published several law review articles, primarily dealing with judicial ethics and legal history. 

His current term as a Justice of the Supreme Court of Delaware ends March 27, 2023.

Elizabeth Hubbard

Ms. Hubbard returns to the AJS Board after a 14year hiatus, where she served from 1991-1997.  She has a career of volunteer and professional service spanning 35+ years focused on issues related to court reform and improving prison conditions.  Ms. Hubbard was a member of the staff of the Fund and Committee for Modern Courts, including four years as Executive Director, and she recently completed a three year term on the New York State Commission on Judicial Conduct. She has been a member of two gubernatorial judicial screening panels, the State Bar Association's Committee on Courts and the Community.  She played an important role in instituting a workable system for judicial discipline in New York State and has assisted in work improving judicial selection, consolidating the court system, rebuilding courthouses and easing the burden of jury service.  Ms. Hubbard has also served in many positions in the League of Women Voters. 

She graduated from Smith College and received an M.A. from Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies.  She lives on Lloyd Neck in Huntington, Long Island with her husband who is a Doctor of Physics and the mother of three grown children who have chosen careers in Medicine, Physics and Electrical Engineering.

Richard H. Levenstein

Richard Levenstein was a member of the AJS National Advisory Council from the State of Florida.  His areas of practice include Commercial Litigation; Healthcare Litigation; Business Law; Hospital Law; Physician Practices; Medical Staff Issues; Trust Litigation and Probate Litigation.  He is a Board Certified Business Litigation Lawyer and has been admitted to the U.S. Supreme Court, U.S. Court of Appeals, Eleventh Circuit, U.S. Tax Court, Florida U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Florida, U.S. District Court, Southern District of Florida, Louisianan and U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Louisiana plus the U.S. District Court, Middle District of Florida.

Mr. Levenstein is a member of the Martin County Bar Association, serving as President from 2005-2006; the Louisiana Bar Association, American Bar Association, Florida Bar and is a Fellow of the American Bar Foundation.  Mr. Levenstein is a Founding President of the Justice Major B. Harding American Inn of Court.

Richard earned his B.A. and J.D. from Tulane University of Louisiana and has been an instructor at Florida Atlantic University.  He is based in Stuart, Florida at the firm Kramer, Sopko and Levenstein.

Ivan Lui-Kwan, Esq.

Mr. Ivan Lui-Kwan serves as vice chair of the Hawai'i State Chapter of AJS, which actively supports the effective administration of justice through special committees, awards and educational programs.  He served for sixteen years on the Disciplinary Board of the Hawaii Supreme Court, ensuring the integrity of legal ethics through enforcement of the Hawaii Rules of Professional Conduct, and for twenty years as a partner in Carlsmith Ball, LLP.    He served as Honolulu's Director of Budget and Fiscal Services, as Executive Vice President and COO of The Queen's Health Systems, and on the Hawaii Community Development Authority Board.  He currently serves as chairman of the St. Andrew's Priory School of Trustees and as director of St. Francis Development Corporation, and is a past chairman of the March of Dimes, Hawaii Chapter.  Mr. Kwan earned his law degree from Rutgers University School of Law and a Masters in International Relations from Rutgers University Graduate School.  Following law school, he clerked for former Chief Justice William S. Richardson of the Hawaii Supreme Court, who received the Herbert Harley Award from the American Judicature Society last fall.

 

Dr. Ruth Walsh McIntyre

Dr. McIntyre is career news broadcast journalist, former faculty member of the University of Phoenix, and consultant of corporate leadership development, crisis management, and organizational systems development.  For 39 years, she has served in a lay-member capacity on a wide variety of Judicial and Bar Association committee and board positions. A partial listing includes Board of Directors, National Center for State Courts; Chair, Walsh Commission of Washington State on Judicial Selection; member, Washington State Bar Association: (Committees) Disciplinary, Client Security Fund, Character & Fitness.

In addition, Dr. McIntyre served as a member of the Washington State Bar Association Task Force on Governance and is currently serving on the Washington State Public Trust and Confidence Committee, where she was instrumental in developing a media guide for Washington State Courts and material for Legal education.  She is an officer of the Washington State AJS. 

She moderated a televised AJS National Forum on Judicial Selection; participated as a panel member at the Conference on Judicial Selection in the US  (Chicago); Taskforce on Judicial Independence (New York City); ABA Taskforce – Selection/ Election of Judges. She has received the King County Bar Association Citizen Merit Award, and the Washington State Bar Association Award of Merit. She has received eight Emmy Awards for news broadcasting and been honored as the Outstanding Graduate Faculty Member at the University of Phoenix, Washington State.

Honorable Cara Lee Neville

Judge Cara Lee Neville has served on the District Court of Minnesota for Hennepin County since 1986.  She previously served on the AJS Board of Directors from 2001 to 2005.  Prior to judicial service, she was an Assistant Public Defender for Hennepin County and worked in the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office.  She has been an active leader in the American Bar Association, serving on the ABA Board of Governors and as a member of the Joint Commission to Evaluate the Model Code of Judicial Conduct, the Standing Committee on Judicial Independence, the Judges’ Advisory Committee to the Standing Committee on Ethics and Professional Responsibility, and the Commission on Judicial Selection Standards.  Judge Neville is a past Chair of the ABA Criminal Justice Section and Minnesota State Delegate to the ABA House of Delegates.  She recently completed a term as Hennepin County Bar Association delegate to the ABA House of Delegates.  Judge Neville is a past President of the National Association of Women Judges.  She received the Hennepin County Bar Association’s Professionalism Award in 2006 and the Minnesota State Bar Association’s Presidential Award in 2002.  Neville earned her J.D. from William Mitchell School of Law.

 

Drucilla Stender Ramey

Ramey has served as Executive Director of the National Association of Women Judges in New York since 2005 and was the Executive Director and General Counsel for the Bar Association of San Francisco from 1985 to 2002. She has worked in numerous other nonprofit organizations, including the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, the American College of Trial Lawyers and the Open Society Institute, and served as Chair of the San Francisco Commission on the Status of Women and the ACLU of Northern California. Ramey served on the faculty at GGU Law School from 1978 to 1985.

Over the course of her career, Ramey has received many honors, including the American Bar Association's Margaret Brent Women Lawyers of Achievement Award, the National Bar Association's Wiley Branton Award and the California Women Lawyers' Fay Stender Award. She has long been recognized as a national leader in efforts to increase diversity in the legal profession. Ramey holds a BA from Harvard University and a JD from Yale Law School.

 

Honorable Delissa A. Ridgway

Delissa A. Ridgway was sworn in as a Judge of the U.S. Court of International Trade in May 1998. The Court of International Trade – which is based in New York – is a nine-member federal trial court with exclusive nationwide jurisdiction over matters involving U.S. international trade and customs laws.

Prior to her appointment to the Court, Judge Ridgway served as Chair of the Foreign Claims Settlement Commission of the U.S. (“FCSC”), an independent quasi-judicial agency within the U.S. Department of Justice.  And before her 1994 appointment to the FCSC by President Clinton, Judge Ridgway was a member of the International Practice Group at Shaw, Pittman, Potts & Trowbridge in Washington, D.C. She is a recognized authority in the areas of international commercial law, international transactions and international commercial arbitration/litigation, and has published and lectured widely.

Judge Ridgway is currently an Adjunct Professor of Law on the international law faculty of Cornell Law School, and has previously taught International Business Transactions and International Commercial Arbitration in the LL.M. program at American University in Washington, D.C. She has also lectured in Georgetown University Law Center’s Summer Law Program in Florence. 

Judge Ridgway is a member of the American Law Institute and a Fellow of the American Bar Foundation, with a history of leadership in bar and community activities. She is a Charter Fellow of the Federal Bar Foundation, served for nearly a decade on the National Council of the FBA, and has held national offices in both the International Law and Administrative Law Sections of that association. In addition, she served for seven years on the Board of Governors of the 65,000-member District of Columbia Bar and is a past Secretary of that organization. A long time member of the Judicial Conference of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, Judge Ridgway also served as President (1992-93) of the 2,000-member Women’s Bar Association and on the Boards of various charitable organizations. Appointed in 2002 to the American Bar Association’s Commission on the Status of Women in the Profession, Judge Ridgway previously chaired the D.C. Bar Summit on Women in the Legal Profession and was a founding member of the Board of Directors of the D.C. Conference on Opportunities for Minorities in the Legal Profession. She now serves as a Delegate to the United Nations, representing the National Association of Women Lawyers.

Judge Ridgway was recently named Distinguished Scholar-in-Residence for 2003 by the University of Missouri-Columbia. She was honored as Washington, D.C.’s “Woman Lawyer of The Year” for 2001, and was also the 2000 recipient of the Earl W. Kintner Award – the Federal Bar Association’s highest honor – for “outstanding achievement, distinguished leadership, and continuing participation” in bar activities nationwide. Her many other honors include the D.C. Bar’s Frederick B. Abramson Award, conferred on her in 1996, “in recognition of extraordinary service to the profession,” as well as her 1997 recognition by the FBA as one of four “Distinguished Women in International Law,” an honor she shared with First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton, U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, and Singleton McAllister, General Counsel of the U.S. Agency for International Development.

Judge Ridgway is a 1975 honors graduate of the University of Missouri-Columbia, where she completed coursework for an M.S. in Community/International Development. She received her law degree from Northeastern University School of Law in 1979.

Honorable Frederic Rodgers

Judge Rodgers was a part-time municipal judge in several mountain communities and in private practice when Governor Richard Lamm appointed him judge of the Gilpin County Court in 1986, and he was retained by election five times.  In addition to presiding over civil, criminal, domestic relations, juvenile, mental heath and probate cases, he served as Jefferson County probate judge from 2005-07, and was assigned to the Gilpin county and district courts at the conclusion of his sixth term in 2011.  He assumed senior judge status and currently serves on the Denver County Court.  He has published articles in legal journals including Judicature and the Judges’ Journal.  Over 50 of his trial court opinions are reported in West Law.  Recipient of national, state and local judicial awards, he served as Judicial Liaison for NHTSA. He is a graduate of Amherst College and Albany Law School, and became a judge in 1969 when he was one of the first U.S. Army military judges in Vietnam.  There, he was awarded two Bronze Star Medals and the Air Medal.  He has also been chief deputy district attorney in Denver and magistrate of the Denver Juvenile Court.  He has volunteered  for many boards including Big Brothers, Yellow Ribbon Foundation (teen suicide prevention), Family Builders by Adoption, Gilpin Historical Society, Westminster Community Education Foundation, Teen Court and Planned Parenthood.  In 2002, 2003 and 2004 he provided judicial training and legislative drafting assistance to the Supreme People's Court in Vietnam, sponsored by the USAID, helping Vietnam accede to the World Trade Organization.  He is past Chair of the Board  of Trustees of the National Judicial College, of the ABA Judicial Division, was President of two state judicial associations and was Senior Vice-president of the Colorado Bar Association, on its board of governors, and on the national boards of the American Bar Association and the American Judicature Society.  He is a member of the committees responsible for writing editorials for the journals, Judicature and the ABA Judges' Journal, and was at-large member of the ABA House of Delegates.

Laura Stein

Laura Stein returned to The Clorox Company on January 18, 2005, and serves as senior vice president – general counsel with responsibility for the company's worldwide legal, ethics and compliance, corporate secretary, corporate communications, crisis management, risk management and internal audit matters. Stein serves on the Clorox executive committee, chairs the Clorox women's employee resource group, and co-sponsors the company's social responsibility programs, among other responsibilities. She works closely with Clorox's board of directors on governance matters.

Previously, Stein was senior vice president – general counsel of the H.J. Heinz Company, a member of the Heinz senior management committee, a director of the H.J. Heinz Company Foundation and president of the H.J. Heinz women's group, among other responsibilities. Prior to joining Heinz, Stein was assistant general counsel – regulatory affairs of Clorox, and before that was a business lawyer with Morrison & Foerster in San Francisco and Hong Kong.

Stein is a director of Franklin Resources, Inc. (a global investment organization known as Franklin Templeton Investments), and was previously a director of Nash Finch Company. She is chair of the nominating committee and the international committee and is also the immediate past chair of the board of the Association of Corporate Counsel. Stein is chair of the ABA Asia Rule of Law Initiative and co-chair of Corporate Pro Bono. She is on the board of Equal Justice Works. She is a member of the American Law Institute, the Association of General Counsel, the ABA International Law Section Council and the ABA Rule of Law Initiative Board. Stein participates in the Diversity and Flexibility Connection of the Project for Attorney Retention. Stein has served on the advisory boards of ABA DirectWomen and the LexMundi Foundation and on the State Bar of California Task Force on Lawyer Support for Legal Services. Previously, she was also chair of the ABA Commission on Domestic Violence, vice-chair of the East Bay Community Law Center and a director of Global Education Partnership and of the Pittsburgh Ballet Theater. She received her J.D. from Harvard Law School, and is a graduate of Dartmouth College where she earned an undergraduate and master's degrees.

H. Thomas Wells, Jr.

Mr. Wells returns to the AJS Board after previous service from 1996-1999. His trial practice at Maynard Cooper & Gale P.C. concentrates on complex mass tort, environmental and product liability cases, often handling the defense of class actions or mass consolidated cases throughout the South. He has handled cases in Alabama, Virginia, California, Texas, Ohio, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Indiana, Tennessee, Georgia, Mississippi and the District of Columbia. Mr. Wells is listed in the Best Lawyers in America® and is a Fellow of the International Academy of Trial Lawyers. In 2008, he was listed as one of the Top Ten attorneys in Alabama by Super Lawyers and was named Birmingham “Lawyers of the Year” for 2011 by The Best Lawyers in America
for his work in the area of Natural Resources Law.

Dean Joan Wexler

Dean Wexler has been Dean of the Brooklyn Law School since 1994. She joined the faculty in 1985, and served as the Law School's Associate Dean for Academic Affairs for six years before being named Dean. She also taught at New York University School of Law, worked as an associate with the firm of Debevoise & Plimpton, and served as a Law
Clerk to Judge Jack B. Weinstein of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York.

Dean Wexler is a prominent member of the legal community. She was President of the Federal Bar Council from 2004-2006, was Vice-President from 2001-2002, chaired its 2002 Winter Bench and Bar Conference, and has served on the Board of Directors; she was also the President of the Federal Bar Council Foundation from 1998-1999. She has been an active member of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York, where she served as Vice-President from 1996-1997, and has served on many of its committees, including chairing the Committee on Honors. She has been a long-time member of the New York Women's Bar Association, sitting on its Board of Directors as well as serving twice as its Vice-President. She is a member of the American Bar Association's Independent Law Schools Forum Committee. Dean Wexler is a member of the American Law Institute, and
serves on the boards of a number of other organizations, including the Practising Law Institute, where she is a member of the Executive Committee, the Executive Committee of the Downtown Brooklyn Partnership, and the American Law Deans Association. She has served
as a director of the Fund for Modern Courts, where she was a member of its Task Force on Court Facilities. She was also a member of the NYS Unified Court System's Commission on Alcohol and Substance Abuse in the Profession, a member of the Committee to Restore
the Thurgood Marshall Landmark Courthouse at Foley Square, the Planning and Program Committee of the Judicial Conference of the Second Circuit, and the Second Circuit Task Force on Gender, Race and Ethnic Fairness in the Courts. She has served as an attorney
member of the Judicial Conference of the State of New York.

At Cornell University, Dean Wexler has been a member of the Cornell Council. She continues to serve on its Admissions and Financial Aid Committee. She is a member of the President's Council of Cornell Women, and was a member of its Committee on University Relations. At Yale University, she has served as a member of the Yale Law Journal Alumni Advisory Board.

Dean Wexler has published extensively in the areas of family and matrimonial law and is a frequent lecturer before bar groups on legal education. She has received numerous honors for her commitment to the advancement of the interests of adolescents and their families,
including an Honorary Doctor of Laws from St. Francis College. Among her other awards are the President's Special Award and the Special Recognition Award from the New York Women's Bar Association, a Special Award from the National Association of Women Judges, the Good Scout Award from the Greater Boy Scouts Council of New York, and the William Shoenfeld Award from the Society for Adolescent Psychiatry.

Rebecca Lee Wiggs

Ms. Wiggs was admitted to the Mississippi bar, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit in 1985. Her experience spans from general product liability, medical malpractice to labor and employment, and appellate advocacy. Her cases of note include Shields v. Sturm Ruger, 864 F.2d 379 (5th Cir. 1989); Foster v. Bass, 575 So.2d 967 (Miss. 1990); Dixie Ins. Co. v. Mooneyhan, 684 So.2d 574 (Miss. 1996). Rebecca also served on the defense team for successful Baycol litigation, PPA litigation and HRT litigation. Prior to joining Watkins & Eager, she was a law clerk to the Honorable Paul. H. Roney, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit.

 

 

Seth S. Andersen - Executive Director, American Judicature Society

Andersen directs the daily operations and staff of the Des Moines-based national headquarters of AJS, as well as its Chicago staff.  He works to promote the Society's unique engagement of non-lawyer citizens in justice system improvements and bring together diverse constituencies around the country to safeguard the independence and integrity of the judiciary.

Andersen is a nationally-recognized authority on judicial selection, judicial independence, and improvements to the administration of justice.  From 1993 to 2000, he served the American Judicature Society in several capacities, including as Director of the Center on Judicial Independence and Director of the Elmo B. Hunter Citizens Center for Judicial Selection.  While at AJS, he also performed research on certification of questions of law, produced a video program on sentencing policies and practices, and implemented a national project to improve access to the courts for people who are deaf or hard of hearing.

In 2005-2006, Andersen served as Special Assistant to the President of the American Bar Association, providing advice and counsel on a wide range of policy matters and coordinating the ABA president’s speaking engagements, meetings, and special events.  He also served previously as Project Manager for the ABA Standing Committee on Judicial Independence, directing special projects to promote an independent judiciary. 

Andersen has published articles on merit selection of judges, diversity in state court judiciaries, and the role of the organized bar in promoting an independent judiciary.  He has directed research projects on judicial performance evaluation systems, state judicial compensation, and citizen response to jury summonses. He has testified before state legislative committees and spoken at numerous conferences on judicial selection and judicial independence issues.  He holds a degree in history and American Studies from the University of Kansas.