News

Charles Becton ’69 was honored by the North Carolina Bar Association as a 2024 Legal Legend of Color. A renowned career litigator, Charles served for nine years on the North Carolina Court of Appeals and has been president of the North Carolina Bar Association, the North Carolina Academy of Trial Lawyers, and the North Carolina Association of Black Lawyers. He has trained lawyers around the world in trial advocacy skills, taught students at Duke Law School, UNC School of Law, and North Carolina Central University School of Law, and served as interim chancellor at NCCU and Elizabeth City State University. His numerous accolades include three national trial advocacy teaching awards, Elon Law’s Leadership in the Law Award, and, in 2021, the Distinguished Service Award from Duke University’s Samuel DuBois Cook Society.

Chris Boone ’15 has been promoted to partner at Venable. Based in its Washington, D.C., office, Chris focuses his practice on regulatory issues related to payment processing, blockchain, advertising and marketing, transportation, and telecommunications, providing counsel on regulatory compliance, contract negotiations, and general business matters to clients including banks, merchants, payment networks, and fintech businesses to address the legal, operational, and business challenges of payment and transaction processing.

Chris Clare ’09 was elected a member of Clark Hill, effective Jan. 1. Chris is based in the firm’s Washington, D.C., office, where he advises clients on state and federal environmental litigation matters, regulatory compliance matters, and business transactions involving environmental issues. He represents clients in cases of national significance, including numerous complex federal multi-district litigation matters.

Kyle Doiron JD/MA ’17 has been promoted to partner at Bradley, effective Jan. 1. Kyle works in the firm’s Nashville office and represents owners, general contractors, and subcontractors in the construction industry. He advocates for clients both in advance of and subsequent to problems arising by drafting contracts designed to avoid disputes and litigating matters.

Bernice Donald MJS ’18 has been hired by the City of Memphis to serve as a neutral, independent monitor after the city and the Memphis Police Department were found liable for multiple federal civil rights violations following the death of Tyre Nichols at the hands of police officers. The city declined to enter into a consent decree with the Department of Justice after a 17 month investigation found use of excessive force, unlawful stops, searches, and arrests, and unlawful discrimination against Black people, and opted to have Judge Donald, who retired from the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit in January 2023, guide its community response and action plan and oversee a nine-person task force.

Rebecca Goldberg '11 has been named partner at Berchem Moses, where she is an employment and labor attorney in its Milford, CT, office, advising clients including human resources professionals and business managers on workplace issues. Rebecca frequently publishes articles to help employers keep up with new Connecticut and federal laws, provides preventive strategies to keep employers’ operations running smoothly and in compliance, conducts workplace investigations in response to employee complaints, and handles labor and employment matters in state and federal courts and administrative agencies.

Denise Harle ’09 was appointed by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis to Florida’s Second Judicial Circuit Judicial Nominating Commission for a term ending July 1, 2028. Denise is a partner in the Tallahassee office of Shutts & Bowen where she is a member of the Appellate Practice Group and Constitutional Law Practice Area. She served as Deputy Solicitor General in the Office of the Florida Attorney General from 2015 to 2017.

Timothy R. Johnson ’87 has retired after a 21-year career in the Foreign Service with the U.S. Department of State. His assignments included overseas postings to El Salvador, Colombia, Russia, Iraq, and Chad as well as several Washington, DC positions. Tim makes his retirement home in the Columbia, South Carolina metro area.

Michael Kaplan ’09 has been promoted to partner at WilmerHale. Based in Denver, Michael is currently Counsel in the practice of Real Estate in the firm’s Transactional department, where he counsels clients on complex real estate projects and transactions, including acquisitions, dispositions, financings, joint ventures and leasing matters.

Allison Kostecka ’10 has been elected partner at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, as of Jan. 1, 2025. Allison focuses her practice on securities litigation, antitrust investigations and litigation, other complex commercial litigation, and data privacy in the firm’s Denver office and has advised clients facing a broad range of commercial disputes in state and federal courts, as well as with regulatory agencies.

Ronald Krotoszynski JD/LLM ’91 published Free Speech as Civic Structure, his fifth book since entering the legal academy and second title with Oxford University Press (Privacy Revisited was the first). He is also the author of The Disappearing First Amendment (Cambridge Press), Reclaiming the Petition Clause (Yale Press), and The First Amendment in Cross-Culture Perspective (NYU Press), as well as casebooks on First Amendment and administrative law.

He is co-editor and contributing author of Disinformation, Misinformation, and Democracy, which will be published by Cambridge this spring. Ronald is the John S. Stone Chairholder of Law and director of the Program in Constitutional Studies & Initiative for Civic Engagement at the University of Alabama School of Law; prior to joining Alabama Law he was on the law faculty at Washington and Lee University and Indiana University School of Law-Indianapolis.

Erin Malone-Smolla ’16 has been promoted to partner at Bradley, effective Jan. 1. Erin is based in the firm’s Nashville office, where she handles bankruptcy, complex business litigation, commercial litigation, judgment enforcement and execution matters, as well as various matters relating to compliance and risk management.

South Moore ’19 has been named deputy general counsel in the office of North Carolina Governor-elect Josh Stein. South has served in the North Carolina Department of Justice since 2021, most recently as Deputy General Counsel. Before joining NCDOJ, he clerked on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit and the U.S. District Court for the District of Oregon.

Nurlan Mukhitdinov LLM '09 has been promoted to partner in the Astana, Kazakhstan, office of Curtis, Mallet-Prevost, Colt & Mosle. Nurlan focuses his practice on the oil and gas sector and represents States and State-owned entitles in investor-state and commercial arbitrations under the rules of the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes and the UN Commission on International Trade Law. He has also advised the country’s national oil and gas company on negotiations relating to production sharing agreements covering several of the world’s largest oil and gas fields.

Tomás Nassar LLM ’08 reports that his firm Nassar Abogados Centroamérica of which he is partner and founder, was the Costa Rican and Salvadoran counsel for Logistic Properties of the Americas (LPA) in a deal that made it the first Costa Rican company listed on the New York Stock Exchange. Nassar Abogados assisted LPA in the due diligence process, negotiations of local aspects of the Business Combination Agreement, and other corporate matters. Tomás says a highlight of the deal was attending the opening bell ceremony at the NYSE with colleagues and LPA senior leadership on May 30, 2024. 

Matthew W. Sawchak JD/LLM ’89 was named to Business North Carolina’s Legal Elite Hall of Fame as the overall winner in the appellate law category. Matt is a partner at Robinson Bradshaw in Raleigh, where he focuses his practice on appeals, antitrust cases, and other complex lawsuits. From 2017 to 2020 Matt was Solicitor General of North Carolina.

Joe L. Webster MJS ’16 published a memoir, Dual Callings of Law and Ministry, in November. Judge Webster, a federal magistrate judge for North Carolina’s Middle District, tells his life story as a federal judge, a lawyer, and an ordained minister, as well as his family history. He is also the author of The Making and Measure of a Judge: Biography of the Honorable Sammie Chess, Jr. (Chapel Hill Press, 2017), detailing the life of North Carolina’s first African American Superior Court Judge. In 2023 he was honored as a Legal Legend of Color by the North Carolina Bar Association. 

Aaron Wolfson JD/LLM ’03 has joined Fox Rothschild’s New York office as a partner in its litigation department. Aaron focuses his practice on financial crimes compliance, representing clients around the world in white-collar defense and civil litigation matters. Previously he was a partner at King & Wood Mallesons; he also served as a prosecutor in the Manhattan District Attorney's Office and as a Trial Attorney in the U.S. Department of Justice, Antitrust Division, prosecuting fraud and price fixing in the municipal bond industry.