News

On September 30, Judge James C. Dever III JD '87 completed a three-year term as Chair of the Advisory Committee on Criminal Rules, the committee within the Judicial Conference that recommends amendments to the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure. He was appointed to that position by Chief Justice John Roberts, who also appointed Judge Dever as a member of the committee in October 2014, a position he served in until September 2021. 

On October 1, 2025, Roberts appointed Judge Dever to serve as chair of the Committee on Rules of Practice and Procedure (“the Standing Committee”), which coordinates the Judicial Conference’s rulemaking activities by five committees: the Advisory Committee on the Federal Rules of Evidence and of Appellate, Bankruptcy, Civil, and Criminal Procedure.

Hon. Allyson K. Duncan JD ’75 was honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award at The American Lawyer Industry Awards. Judge Duncan has been a neutral at JAMS, a leading provider of alternative dispute resolution services, since retiring from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit, where she spent 15 years and was selected by U.S. Chief Justice John Roberts to lead the International Judicial Relations Committee of the U.S. Judicial Conference. 

Prior to her appointment to the bench, Judge Duncan served as legal counsel to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, as a professor of law, and as a partner at Kilpatrick Stockton specializing in regulatory issues. 

Judge Duncan was the first African American woman to serve on both the North Carolina Court of Appeals and the Fourth Circuit and was the first African American president of the North Carolina Bar Association. Read an interview with Judge Duncan at Law.com.

DeAnna E. Evans JD ’13, MDiv ’14 has joined Johns Hopkins University as Deputy General Counsel. In this role, she provides legal advice and strategic counsel to the President, Board of Trustees, and other members of the University on complex and high-impact matters.

Before joining Johns Hopkins University, DeAnna served as Associate Counsel in the Office of the White House Counsel and as Senior Counsel in the Office of Legal Policy at the Department of Justice. In government service, her portfolio spanned criminal justice reform, access to healthcare, civil rights, public safety, equity and opportunity, and international matters. 

DeAnna began her legal career at WilmerHale in Washington D.C., where she represented clients in crisis management, white collar defense, congressional oversight, and national security matters.

Carla Gonzalez Gerard LLM ’15 was interviewed on her career for Hispanic Executive magazine. Carla is senior counsel for cybersecurity products at Mastercard and is based in Miami. She joined the company in 2020. Previously Carla was associate general counsel for Melia Hotels International. Before that, she worked for Greenberg Traurig in Miami and a leading corporate law firm in Mexico City.

David Ichel JD ’78 was selected as a member of the College of Commercial Arbitrators CCA Fellows Class of 2025. David has a distinguished career as a full-time as a mediator, arbitrator and special master after spending more than 37 years specializing in complex commercial litigation at Simpson Thacher & Bartlett, from which he retired as partner in 2015. Since January David has chaired the Advisory Board of the Bolch Judicial Institute at Duke Law. 

Surya Korrapati JD/LLM '25 has joined Robinson Bradshaw as an associate. At Duke Law, Korrapati was a member of Order of the Coif. Korrapati also received his bachelor’s degree cum laude from Duke University with a double major in economics and computer science and a minor in Latin.

Arlinda Locklear JD ’76 received the Karen Burroughs Jones ’74 Distinguished Alumni Award from the College of Charleston Alumni Association. Arlinda is a nationally recognized expert in federal recognition of tribes and Indian land claims. 

She has spent nearly 50 years representing tribes throughout the country in federal and state courts on treaty claims to water and land, taxation disputes with states and local authorities, reservation boundary issues and federal recognition of tribes. She was among the first Native American women to argue before the U.S. Supreme Court. 

Arlinda began her career as an attorney at the Native American Rights Fund and served as directing attorney of its Washington office for seven years. Since 1987 she has represented only Indian tribes as a solo practitioner. An enrolled member of the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina, Arlinda serves as Special Counsel on Recognition and testified in November in support of the Lumbee Fairness Act (S.107) before the U.S. Senate Committee on Indian Affairs.

Sabrina McKenna MJS ’25, acting chief justice of the Hawaii Supreme Court since October 1, was the featured guest on the Law360 podcast "Approach the Bench." Justice McKenna discussed her decision to get her master's degree in judicial studies and how it will benefit her when she reaches the mandatory retirement age for jurists in two years, how she approaches constitutional interpretation, how attorneys can uphold the rule of law, and why it was important for her to come out publicly. The podcast also can be heard on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

Justice McKenna has served on the Hawaii Supreme Court since 2011 and is the longest-serving active jurist in the state judiciary, having also served in the district, circuit and family courts in the Oahu Circuit, including as senior family court judge. 

Sammy Sawyer JD '25 has joined Robinson Bradshaw as an associate. At Duke Law, Sammy was lead editor of the Alaska Law Review. He received his bachelor’s degree summa cum laude in English and economics from the University of Alabama’s Honors College where he was a member of Phi Beta Kappa and the Blount Scholars Program.