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Marcus Benning JD ’17 was elected vice chair of the board of directors for Status: Home, Atlanta’s largest provider of housing for low-income and homeless individuals and families impacted by HIV/AIDS. Marcus joined the organization’s board in 2023. He is vice president, head of capital markets compliance team for Regions Bank and also serves on the Georgia Bankers Association’s Bank Counsel Board of Directors.

David Byers JD ‘98 has rejoined the franchise team of Miller Nash in Seattle, where he worked with franchise clients from 1999 to 2009. Following that, he served for 15 years as in-house counsel for Starbucks, directing legal support for the U.S. store licensing/franchising program and collaborating with franchise attorneys in international markets.

Benjamin Collins-Wood JD/LLM ’13 has been named partner at Debevoise & Plimpton. Benjamin is based in the New York office and a member of the firm’s Mergers & Acquisitions, Private Equity and Private Funds Transactions Groups, where he advises public and private companies, especially private equity clients, in connection with mergers and acquisitions and other significant corporate matters, including private equity buyouts, cross-border transactions, corporate carve-outs, joint control transactions, joint ventures, debt and equity investments, restructurings, continuation funds and fund secondaries.

Dana Cosby JD ’94 has joined legal remote staffing company Stafi as vice president of Legal Staff Coaching & Outsourcing. In her role, Dana oversees a team of legal and administrative subject matter experts who, through Stafi’s proprietary software, The Legal Delegation Hub, provide coaching and serve as escalation points to the over 350+ remote staff assigned to Stafi’s law firm clients. Dana has also been leading the development of Stafi’s OUTSOURCE, a new legal outsourcing offer to help Law firms manage case loads more efficiently.

Former Duke Law professor and dean Pamela Gann JD ’73 has been elected to a two-year term as chair of the board of directors for the Scholarship Foundation of Santa Barbara. Pam first joined the Duke Law faculty in 1975 as a professor of tax and international law and became dean in 1988, serving for 11 years until being named president of Claremont McKenna College, a post she held from 1999 until 2013.

Pam is currently a senior fellow of the Kravis Leadership Institute and a faculty affiliate of the Center for Studies in Higher Education, UC Berkeley, as well as a board director for Cottage Health. 

Eric Horsley JD ’22 has joined Caldwell Cassady & Curry as an associate. Eric backs his practice in complex patent litigation with a doctorate in physics, which provides a foundation for understanding clients’ technologies in cases involving areas artificial intelligence, medical devices, mobile communications, and numerous other areas.

Cole Randle JD ’16 has been promoted to chief of staff and head of corporate affairs and joined the executive leadership team at Heart Aerospace, a Swedish startup developing electric commercial aircraft. Cole joined Heart in 2024 as head of strategic engagement.

Prior to that, he was a strategic advisor at transatlantic corporate affairs consultancies Finsbury (now FGS Global) and Freuds and practiced corporate law at the New York and London offices of Freshfields. He began his career at the White House as a traveling aide to President Barack Obama, supporting strategic messaging, public engagement, and foreign diplomacy across two presidential terms.

Michael Rennock JD ’85 joined White and Williams as partner. Michael Rennock is a member of the Corporate and Securities practice group and based in the firm’s New York office. He has more than 30 years of experience advising buyers and sellers in mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures and divestitures across multiple industries, as well as advising startups and handling securities offerings, venture financings, corporate governance, and private equity matters.

Danielle Reyes JD/LLM ’05 has joined Holland & Knight as a partner in Austin. Previously a partner with Goodwin Procter, Danielle’s practice focuses on regulatory assistance with private companies going public and advising on fair responsible banking, financial inclusion and Community Reinvestment Act issues. Previously Danielle was in-house counsel for USAA, where her roles included lead banking regulatory attorney.

Kristy Dahl Rogers JD ’15 has joined Dentons Davis Brown as a shareholder in its Litigation Division. Kristy's practice focuses primarily on guiding energy sector clients through trial and appellate litigation and complex state and local permitting processes, including those required to develop and construct large-scale renewable energy projects. Prior to joining Dentons, Kristy practiced at the Des Moines office of Fredrikson & Byron, where she focused on energy permitting and trial and appellate litigation.

Teddy Schwarzman JD ’06 has been elected to the board of trustees of the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures. He is the CEO of Black Bear, a media company that produces, finances, and distributes film and television globally. An Academy Award nominee, Teddy’s feature film credits include The Imitation Game, Mudbound, Sing Sing, and Nyad. Most recently he produced Train Dreams, which Netflix will release this fall, an upcoming Christy Martin biopic, and The Rivals of Amziah King, and executive produced A Working Man, Longlegs, and the documentary October 8.

Rod Smolla JD ’78 has joined Meier Watkins Phillips Pusch as senior counsel. Rod is a renowned First Amendment and defamation law expert who recently stepped down as president of the Vermont Law and Graduate School to focus on representing clients in private practice and teaching constitutional and media law. During his long career in academia, Rod published numerous books and scholarly articles on defamation and First Amendment law, including the treatise The Law of Defamation and Deliberate Intent, which chronicles his successful advocacy against the publisher of a hitman instruction manual (and was made into a movie starring Timothy Hutton). Rod was part of the legal team representing Dominion Voting Systems in its landmark case against Fox News that resulted in a $787 million settlement in 2023.