LGBTBAR | Board of Directors

Board of Directors

Executive Committee

President

Kate Fletcher is a solo practitioner in Chicago and its surrounding suburbs practicing in the areas of Tax and Estate Planning with an emphasis on estate planning for same-sex couples. She graduated from Loyola University Chicago School of Law with a J.D. and an LL.M. in Taxation. Ms. Fletcher began her career with the LGBT Bar as a Law Student Division representative, where she coordinated the most successful writing competition in the organization's history. Ms. Fletcher is also a pilot with a major US Airline.

President-Elect

O. Kim Byrd is a native of Florida and currently resides in Palm Harbor, Florida. Kim received his Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from the University of Florida and his Juris Doctorate from New York Law School. He is admitted to practice in New York, New Jersey and Florida. In 2001, Kim established Byrd Legal Counsel, PA, as a general practice law firm that strives to meet the legal needs of Tampa Bay’s LGBT community. Kim practices primarily in the areas of traditional and alternative family law, estate planning, and criminal defense. He is a member of the Central Florida Gay and Lesbian Law Association, a cooperating attorney with NCLR and Lambda Legal and a volunteer lawyer with Bay Area Legal Services, Inc.

Past President

Laura Maechtlen joined the LGBT Bar Board of Directors as the affiliate representative for Sacramento Lawyers for the Equality of Gays and Lesbians in 2004. She has assumed responsibilities as the Membership Chair and most recently the President-Elect. Laura graduated from the Boston University School of Law after attending the University of Colorado at Boulder for undergraduate studies in Music and Political Science. She works at Seyfarth Shaw LLP in labor and employment litigation in their San Francisco, California offices.

Secretary

Kelly Olmstead is a Minneapolis-based litigator with Robins, Kaplan, Miller & Ciresi L.L.P., focusing in the areas of intellectual property, family law, and juvenile protection. She is co-chair of the Minnesota Lavender Bar Association and has served on that organization's board of directors since 2002. She also sits on the Minnesota State Bar Association General Assembly and the Ramsey County Bar Association Board of Directors. Kelly graduated from William Mitchell College of Law, where she maintains an active volunteer presence. She is active in a variety of other community and pro bono service pursuits, including domestic violence and juvenile protection casework.

Treasurer

Joseph T. Gasper received his BA in 1998 in Comparative Literature from the Pennsylvania State University. Following college, Joe served two years in the United States Peace Corps, teaching English to high school students in Poland. Afterwards, Joe studied for a year at the Friedrich Schiller Universitat in Jena, Germany before returning to the US to begin graduate studies at Howard University. Joe graduated in 2006 with a JD and MA in Philosophy from Howard University. While in law school, Joe was both a member and later an editor of the Howard Law Journal. Throughout his second year, he interned with Servicemembers Legal Defense Network--an experience that culminated in a 2005 student note published in the Howard Law Journal. Joe was also active in the school's OUTLAW group and helped found its American Constitution Society (ACS) student chapter. In his last year, he served as one of five Dean's Fellows responsible for teaching legal citation and basic legal writing principles to a section of first-year law students. Originally from Scranton, Pennsylvania, Joe currently lives in New York and has worked as an associate with Clifford Chance US LLP in the firm's litigation department. He joined the LGBT Bar in 2003 as a law student and began serving on the board in 2008 and chairs the board's law student division subcommittee.

ABA Delegate

Jeffrey G. Gibson is a civil litigator in San Francisco and a partner with the law firm of Goldstein, Gellman, Melbostad, Gibson and Harris. A graduate of the University of Texas and Pepperdine Law School, he has served on the national board of the Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund and was an originating board member of the Bay Area AIDS Legal Referral Panel. He organized programs on gay/lesbian children and youth for the Second World Congress on Children in San Francisco. From 1993-2000, he chaired the ABA's IRR committee on the rights of lesbians and gay men, and has served since 2000 on the Steering Committee on the Unmet Legal Needs of Children.

Delegates

Delegate to the ABA's Commission on Women in the Profession

Jaime Todd-Gher is the Legal Fellow for Global Advocacy with the Center for Reproductive Rights. Ms. Todd-Gher engages in human rights advocacy for sexual and reproductive health rights before the United Nations and regional human rights bodies, and supports national-level advocacy strategies with partner organizations worldwide. Before joining the Center, Ms. Todd-Gher earned a J.D. from the University of San Francisco and an LL.M. in international law, specializing in gender and international human rights, from American University, Washington College of Law (WCL). Through WCL’s International Legal Studies Program, Todd-Gher developed advocacy strategies to eradicate female genital mutilation and sought immigration relief on behalf of women fleeing gender-based violence. She has practiced employment law with a prominent firm in San Francisco, California and served on the Executive Board for the AIDS Legal Referral Panel, and currently sits on the Public Policy Committee for the National LGBT Bar Association and serves as the Association's delegate to the ABA's Commission on Women in the Profession. Ms. Todd-Gher has published articles on international and regional human rights standards supporting women’s right to abortion as a human right, the human right to health, international criminal law, U.S. foreign policy, intersections between polygamy and same-sex marriage, and discrimination in law firms.

Representative to the ABA's Council of the Young Lawyers Division

Malcolm 'Skip' Harsch is a solo practitioner in the Chicago land area focusing on family law. He is a native of Illinois. Malcolm received his bachelor of science from the University of Iowa and his JD from DePaul University College of law. While at DePaul, Malcolm began his LGBT legal crusade as a summer inter for lambda Legal. He is now a sitting board member of the Lesbian and Gay Bar Association of Chicago, along with a number of other positions within the Chicago Bar Association.

Delegates to the ABA's Young Lawyers Division

Jason S. Gibson is an associate with Holland & Knight LLP in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. He practices in the area of transactional real estate law - focusing on retail, office, and industrial leasing. Jason has been a member of the LGBT Bar since 2006. He graduated from the University of Miami School of Law after attending Harvard College for undergraduate studies in Economics.

Lousene Hoppe is an associate attorney in Fredrikson & Byron’s White Collar & Regulatory Defense, Commercial Litigation, and Health Care Fraud & Compliance Groups. She recently graduated from the University of Michigan Law School, where she sat on the leadership board of OUTLaws, the law school's advocacy group for GLBT rights. Since moving to Minneapolis, she has joined the LGBT Bar's regional affiliate organization, the Minnesota Lavender Bar Association. Her current pro bono work focuses on providing criminal defense services to underserved minorities and advocating for fair and equal access to the criminal justice system for the hearing impaired.

Law Student Division Representatives

ABA Law Student Division Chair

Craig Konnoth is a second-year law student at the Yale Law School. He holds a B.A. from Fordham University in Math-Economics and History, and an M.Phil. from Cambridge University in the History of Political Thought. Craig has worked with the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission and the ACLU-LGBT Project on various assignments and has clerked for both organizations. At Yale, Craig works as an Activism co-chair for OutLaws, and is working to put together an LGBT Litigation Clinic. His research and writing centers on the early gay rights movement, and international human rights law.

Law Student Competitions Chair

Samuel Pearson-Moore is a second-year law student at American University Washington College of Law (WCL). He holds a BA in Political Science with a minor in Women Studies from Augsburg College. Sam worked as a clerk this past summer at the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia Pro Se Unit and is currently working at the Montgomery County State's Attorney's Office. Sam is currently the president of the WCL Lambda Law Society, a member of the American University International Law Review, and a member of the ICC International Commercial Mediation Competition. Before attending law school, Sam served in the United States Army Reserves for eight years, which included a deployment to Iraq in 2003, and worked as an Office & Program Manager of the Center for Lobbying in the Public Interest.

At-Large Board Members

William T. Eveland is an attorney with the law firm of Arnstein & Lehr LLP in Chicago where he concentrates his practice on complex civil litigation at the trial and appellate levels. Mr. Eveland also counsels a number of not-for-profit organizations in the city. Additionally, in 2008, he was elected to the Lesbian and Gay Bar Association of Chicago’s Board of Directors, and was recently appointed to the Illinois State Bar Association’s Task Force on Diversity and Committee on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity. Mr. Eveland is also the immediate past chair of the Chicago Bar Association’s Committee on LGBT Rights, and currently serves on the AIDS Foundation of Chicago’s Board of Directors. He is also an instructor for Loyola University Chicago School of Law's Moot Court program, and in 2007, was recognized by the Windy City Times as one of Chicago’s 30 Under 30 for his professional and civic contributions.

James W. Gilliam is an associate in the Los Angeles office of Paul, Hastings, Janofsky & Walker, where he serves as the Associate Pro Bono and Community Involvement Coordinator. He is also an Adjunct Professor at Loyola Law School, where he teaches seminars on Sexual Orientation and the Law and Public Interest Law Practice. Gilliam received his B.S. in Sociology from Middle Tennessee State University. He earned his J.D. from Loyola Law School in Los Angeles, during which time he interned for Lambda Legal and received a research fellowship from the Center for the Study of Sexual Minorities in the Military. For the past five years, he has served as the Chair of the Los Angeles County Bar Association’s Sexual Orientation Bias Committee, and he is a member of the Board of Directors for the ACLU of Southern California, serving as its Affirmative Action Officer. Recently, Gilliam was the lead associate on an amicus brief filed with the California Supreme Court in the Proposition 8 case on behalf of the LGBT community centers of most of the major cities in California. He is the author of Toward Providing A Welcoming Home for All: A New Approach To Address The Longstanding Problems Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Youth Face in The Foster Care System, 37 Loy. L.A. L. Rev. 1037 (2004); he has also published a book review in the Journal of Homosexuality, reviewing “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell: Debating the Gay Ban in the Military.” Gilliam joined the Board of Directors of the LGBT Bar in 2009.

Sarah Alexander Goldfrank is a counsel in the Washington, D.C. office of O'Melveny & Myers LLP. Her practice focuses on the representation of financial services institutions in litigation, regulatory and enforcement matters. She also has served as outside general counsel to Women for Women International, a 501(c)(3) corporation, since 2003. Sarah is an active member of her firm's community, where she serves as Secretary to the Office of the Chair and is a member of the Washington, D.C. office's Employment Committee. She previously chaired the office's 2006 Summer Committee, and served on the firm's Diversity Task Force.

Alvin Lee is a third-year student at Harvard Law School. Prior to attending Harvard, Alvin studied violin performance at the Cleveland Institute of Music and received a bachelor's degree in Government from Cornell University. Since starting law school, he has served as a legal intern for the Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders (GLAD) and as a law clerk for the American Civil Liberties Union's (ACLU) LGBT & AIDS Project. His research on transgender prisoners' health care has been published in the Harvard Journal of Law & Gender, and he has worked in conjunction with the National Human Rights Commission of Korea to persuade the Korean Constitutional Court to overturn South Korea's military sodomy ban. He is the President of HLS Lambda, Harvard Law School's on-campus LGBTQ group.

Paul S. Marchegiani is an entertainment attorney at NBC Universal in Los Angeles, where he drafts and negotiates high level talent, licensing, digital media, and brand integration contracts for Universal Media Studios and the NBC, USA, SyFy, and Oxygen television networks. Prior to moving to LA, Paul worked as a litigation associate in the San Francisco offices of Morrison & Foerster and Orrick, where he focused on securities, white collar, IP, antitrust, contract, and civil rights litigation (including co-authoring an international law amicus brief for the successful 2008 In re Marriage Cases in the California Supreme Court). Paul holds a J.D. from U.C. Berkeley School of Law (Boalt Hall), and both a B.A. in History and a B.Mus. in Voice & Opera from Northwestern University. In addition to practicing entertainment law, Paul enjoys public speaking, and is a frequent musical theatre performer in the Los Angeles area.

Barry Parsons is Counsel with the Washington, D.C. office of Crowell & Moring LLP. He represents companies in tort (including products liability, business torts, and privacy issues), class action, and complex commercial litigation matters. He has also represented clients in a number of antitrust and insurance law cases and counseled clients on e-discovery and document retention issues. He has served on his firm’s Diversity, Recruiting, Summer Associate, and Associate Committees. Barry chairs the National LGBT Bar Association’s Diversity Committee. Prior to becoming a member of the Board of Directors, he served the Association as a member of the Diversity and Governance Committees. He has also been active on LGBT issues within the legal community including litigating several LGBT civil rights cases, serving as a panelist at the first Minority Corporate Counsel Association Annual Meeting to address inclusion of LGBT attorneys in law firm diversity efforts, and being a long-time member of Whitman Walker Clinic’s Legal Services Operating Committee. Barry received his J.D. with distinction from George Mason University School of Law. He also holds a M.B.A. from American University and a B.S. in Economics from King’s College. Barry and his partner have three children.

Jason Plowman is an associate in the Labor & Employment Practice of Foley & Lardner LLP in Milwaukee. He serves on Foley's National Diversity Committee and also co-chairs the recruiting subcommittee for the firm's LGBT affinity group. Jason also serves on the board of directors for the Friends of the Milwaukee Repertory Theater, the Cream City Foundation and the Miami University LGBT Alumni Association. A native of Little Rock, Arkansas, Jason completed his undergraduate studies in political science at Miami University. He then worked a number of years as a flight attendant for a major commercial airline before graduating from Washington University School of Law in 2008.

Kevin Ray practices in the Philadelphia office of Greenberg Traurig LLP, focusing on corporate bankruptcy, business reorganization, corporate finance and secured lending. He is a graduate of Washington University School of Law. Prior to entering the law, he served as director of the rare books, manuscripts and art collections at Washington University. From 2004 through 2009, he chaired the board of directors of Equality Forum, and has also served on the boards of directors of Equality Advocates Pennsylvania, GALLOP, and the Philadelphia Bar Association’s Committee on the Legal Rights of Lesbians and Gay Men. He concentrates his pro bono work in the areas of AIDS law, First Amendment law and Art law.

Brad Evan Rosen is an associate in the New York office of Quinn, Emanuel, Urquhart, Oliver & Hedges, and a Lecturer in Computer Science at Yale University. He received his B.S and M.S. from Yale University in 2004, and his J.D. from Harvard Law School in 2008. While at Harvard, Brad was a 3-year board member of Lambda, serving as a 1L Representative, Communications Director and Treasurer. He also served on the Dean's Committee for Solomon Amendment Amelioration, and helped launch HLS Lambda's GALLA (now HaLLA) Conference. He spearheaded the release of a unified statement from a coalition of law school LGBT groups following the Supreme Court's deicison in Rumsfeld v. FAIR.

Jeff Schimelfenig is the Washington DC based National Director of Project Management for Kelly Law Registry, a business unit of Kelly Services. He consults law firms and corporate general counsel clients on e-discovery project management and staffing alternatives for data intensive litigation and government investigations. Previously, Jeff was a general practice sole practitioner for over 15 years in Northeastern Pennsylvania with focus on small business and individual clients. He also had numerous years of business experience owning and managing small businesses. He is a graduate of the American University Washington College of Law and of the University of Scranton. He is an active member of the Pennsylvania and the District of Columbia Bars. Jeff is a member of GAYLAW in Washington DC, including a past Board member.

Mario Sullivan is an associate at the Law Offices of Peter Anthony Johnson, P.C. He counsels clients on a wide range of issues relating to real estate, evictions, business formation, and estate planning. Mr. Sullivan is a member of the Chicago Bar Association (CBA), the Illinois State Bar Association, and the American Bar Association (ABA). In addition, he is a member of the National LGBT Bar Association, the Lesbian and Gay Bar Association of Chicago (LAGBAC), and the American Constitution Society (ACS). Mr. Sullivan serves as the LGBT Bar's National Representative to the ABA Young Lawyers Division (YLD), Committee Member for the ABA YLD Diversity Team, Board Member and Chair of the Program Committee for LAGBAC, Chair of the CBA Committee on the Legal Rights of Lesbians and Gay Men; and Board Member and Programming Committee Member of the ACS Chicago Lawyer Chapter. Mr. Sullivan graduated from the Illinois State University in 2000 and obtained his J.D. from The John Marshall Law School in 2005.

Justin A. Xenitelis serves as Senior Counsel to Thor Equities, LLC, a commercial real estate owner, manager and developer of retail shopping centers and mixed-use buildings across the United States. His responsibilities include managing the company’s day-to-day legal affairs, including drafting and negotiating retail and office leases for its eleven million square feet of commercial space, and managing outside counsel. Justin received his J.D. from New York Law School in 2006, where he earned the Dean’s Award for Student Leadership for his contributions to the student community, including co-founding and serving as president of the Stonewall Law Student’s Association, founding an annual HIV/AIDS fundraiser (raising over $30,000 for research), and establishing his school’s inaugural participation in the NYC Pride March. While in law school, Justin interned in the LGBT Rights department at Human Rights Watch, working extensively on transgender rights. He has previously served on the LGBT Rights Committee of the New York City Bar Association.

General Counsel

William S. Singer has been in the private practice of law in New Jersey for over 30 years. His practice concentrates on the creation and protection of non-traditional families and as counselor to numerous, varied non-profit organizations throughout the United States. He has worked to extend rights to lesbian and gay families through the Court system and the legislative process in New Jersey. In 2005, he won a landmark victory by convincing a court to establish a non-biological mother’s parentage as of birth by applying New Jersey’s artificial insemination statute, thus avoiding the delay and intrusive nature of the adoption process. In re Parentage of Robinson, 383 N. J. Super. 165, 890 A. 2d 1036 (Law Div. 2005). He is also the attorney who convinced the NJ Department of Health to change its birth certificates for same-sex couples from mother/father to parent/parent. Bill co-authored an article entitled “The State of Gay and Lesbian Adoption in New Jersey” in the April 2006 New Jersey Lawyer Magazine. In the non-profit world, Bill has counseled many different types of organizations through the process of their creation, securing their tax exempt status and the ensuing complex of issues they confront as an ongoing entity. For over 25 years he has represented numerous condominium and homeowner associations, trade associations, bar associations, foundations, political action committees and social welfare organizations. He has served as the General Counsel of the National Lesbian and Gay Law Association since its inception in the 1980’s and, among others, serves as general counsel to ACLU-NJ, the Sierra Club in New Jersey and the Trial Lawyers of America-New Jersey Branch. Mr. Singer received a degree in history with distinction from Rutgers College and his Juris Doctorate degree from the Columbia University School of Law.