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Chair
Jeremy Protas is an associate at Marshall, Gerstein & Borun LLP in Chicago. Jeremy’s practice focuses on securing patent protection in the United States and abroad, counseling clients on patent-related matters, and participating in complex patent litigation. He also serves on the firm’s Diversity and Pro Bono Committees. Jeremy holds a J.D. from DePaul University College of Law and a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Case Western Reserve University. Active in the LGBT community, Jeremy joined the National LGBT Bar Association in 2007 and is also involved with many other organizations including the Lesbian and Gay Bar Association of Chicago, AIDS Legal Council of Chicago, and Lambda Legal. In 2009, he established the Jeremy D. Protas LGBT Patent Law Scholarship, which aims to raise awareness of patent law among LGBT law students with the goal of increasing the number of LGBT persons in the field of patent law. |
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Co-Chair
Alan Boudreau is a solo practitioner at the Law Office of Alan H. Boudreau LLC in Chicago, concentrating his practice on providing high quality family law, estate planning and other legal services to the LGBT community, their friends and allies. He is licensed to practice law in Illinois and Missouri. Prior to starting his own firm, Alan was an associate at Schiff Hardin LLP’s Chicago office practicing general litigation and product liability. He has also served as a Public Interest Law Initiative Fellow at the AIDS Legal Council of Chicago (ALCC) and a Pride Law Fellow at the San Francisco Human Rights Commission. Alan graduated from the University of California, Davis School of Law (King Hall) where he served as a board member and chair of the board of the King Hall Legal Foundation (KHLF) and a leader in the Lambda Law Students Association. Prior to attending law school, Alan lived in San Francisco and worked for more than a decade in the software industry on development teams that created consumer products and products for the financial services industry. He received his undergraduate degree from Harvard University in psychology and spent a year studying at the University of Bristol, U.K. In addition to being a board member of the National LGBT Bar Association, Alan serves on event committees for the AIDS Legal Council of Chicago and is an active member of the American Bar Association, Illinois State Bar Association and Chicago Bar Association. |
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W. Cleveland Acree II works for the Orlando office of Quintairos, Prieto, Wood & Boyer, P.A., a firm with multiple offices in the state of Florida, as well as Ohio, Illinios and Arizona. Both at QPWB as well as at prior firms he has practiced with, Cleve’s litigation practice has been quite extensive and has included professional, premises, product, general, medical and legal liability representation. On behalf of his corporate clientele, Cleve also has extensive experience handling product, commercial and corporate liability actions in both state and federal courts. Cleve is also a third generation Floridian and received his bachelor’s degree at the University of Central Florida in Orlando and thereafter attended St. Thomas University School of Law in Miami where he graduated with honors. Locally, he is a member of the Equal Opportunities Law Section of The Florida Bar, the Central Florida Gay & Lesbian Law Association – a Voluntary Association of The Florida Bar, as well as the Metropolitan Business Association. Cleve and his husband have two children. |
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David Ahlvers works for Target Corporation as a Business Partnerships & Negotiations Leader. Prior to joining Target, David practiced complex family law at Lindquist & Vennum before starting his own firm – Family Solutions Law Group – in 2009. David also clerked for Minnesota District Court Judge Regina M. Chu. David is former Chair of the Minnesota Lavender Bar Association and former Chair of the Minnesota State Bar Association’s (MSBA) Diversity Committee. He currently Chairs the MSBA’s Diversity Strategic Planning Committee. David received his B.A. with All-College Honors from Carthage College with a dual major in Political Science and Philosophy. He received his J.D.cum laude from the University of Minnesota Law School with recognition for public service. David is on the Board of the Mill City Summer Opera and is a founding member of BOOM! Theater of Minnesota. |
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Daniel Benjamin |
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Christopher Brown is a partner at Ackerman Brown PLLC. |
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Ashley Dunn is an associate in the real estate department at Dewey & LeBoeuf LLP. Before joining Dewey & LeBoeuf, Ashley spent a year with Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders where she participated in their Defense of Marriage Act litigation and worked with their Transgender Rights Project. Ashley recently graduated from Harvard Law School after earning a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from Clarion University of Pennsylvania, where she majored in Economics and Finance. |
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Heron Greenesmith is Legislative Counsel for Family Equality Council, advocating for inclusive policies for LGBT families at the state and federal level. Heron is a recent graduate from American University, Washington College of Law. During law school, she worked for the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, Whitman-Walker Clinic Legal Services, and the ACLU LGBT Project. Heron has written about protections for transgender employees, the invisibility of bisexuality, and the impact of the elite Supreme Court bar on LGBT advocates, among other topics. |
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Jaron Luttich |
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Casey Payton is a student at Howard University School of Law. She is the President of Howard Law’s LGBT student organization, OUTLaw, and a member of the Huver I. Brown Trial Advocacy Moot Court Team. Before law school she was Congresswoman Barbara Lee’s district scheduler in Oakland, California. Casey volunteered as a precinct captain for Oakland City Councilmember At-Large Rebecca Kaplan, and as a crisis counselor for Alameda County’s 24-hour suicide hotline. Her early work as a data collection assistant for the California Black Health Network ignited her interest in advocating for underserved populations in Oakland. She received her B.A. from the University of California, Berkeley, where she majored in Latin American Studies. |
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Nathan Pearman is an associate at Bickel & Brewer’s Dallas office practicing in the areas of complex commercial litigation and securities. While attending law school, Mr. Pearman served as an intern for Judge Susan G. Braden, United States Court of Federal Claims in Washington, DC, and Judge Myron H. Thompson, United States District Judge for the Middle District of Alabama. |
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Erin Wright is the associate director of Career Development at Roger Williams University School of Law. She recently worked at May Oberfell Lorber, a full-service law firm in South Bend Indiana, where she practiced corporate litigation, employment law, and immigration. Erin earned her Juris Doctor from the University of Notre Dame Law School in 2006, where she was a member of the Women’s Legal Forum and the Asian Law Students’ Association. She also earned her Masters of Human Relations, with a focus in Women’s Studies from the University of Oklahoma in 2000 and her Bachelor of Arts degree with a major in Humanities and a minor in music from Providence College in 1998. |
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