JEAN-CLAUDE (“J.C.”) ANDRÉ is a partner in Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner’s Los Angeles office, where he co-chairs the firm’s Appellate and Supreme Court Group and focuses on complex federal and state appeals. Before his return to private practice, he served for ten years as an Assistant United States Attorney in the Central District of California, including two years as Deputy Chief of the Criminal Appeals Section and four years as Chief.  Between private practice and government, J.C. has personally briefed and/or argued hundreds of distinct appeals before the U.S. Supreme Court, various U.S. Circuit Courts of Appeals, the California Supreme Court, and the California Court of Appeal, including dozens of briefs and 3 arguments before the U.S. Supreme Court and over 100 briefs and 40 arguments before the Ninth Circuit.  He clerked for Ninth Circuit Judge Harry Pregerson and United States District Judge A. Andrew Hauk of the Central District of California. He received his B.A. and B.S. from the University of California, Davis, and his J.D. and M.A. from the University of Virginia.

BENJAMIN AU is a partner at Durie Tangri in Los Angeles. His practice focuses on complex civil litigation at both the trial and appellate levels, primarily on behalf of technology-facing clients in matters ranging from trade secret misappropriation, founder / funder disputes, breach of contract, and business torts. Ben also maintains an active white collar criminal defense and government enforcements practice. The Daily Journal has recognized Ben as one of the “Top 20 under 40” lawyers in California, and Benchmark Litigation named him a “Future Star” and listed him on its “Hot List” of top attorneys in the nation aged 40 and under. He is also the recipient of the ACLU of Southern California’s “First Amendment Award.” Ben began his legal career as law clerk to Ninth Circuit Judge M. Margaret McKeown. He received his B.A. from Duke University and his law degree from Yale Law School.

RYAN BOUNDS is an assistant United States attorney in Portland, Oregon.  He prosecutes criminal cases involving fraud and environmental offenses. Before joining the U.S. Attorney's Office in 2010, he served at the White House as special assistant to President George W. Bush for justice and immigration policy, at the U.S. Department of Justice as chief of staff and deputy assistant attorney general for the Office of Legal Policy, and in the United States Attorney’s Office for Washington, D.C., as a prosecutor and appellate lawyer.  Ryan began his legal career as a law clerk to Ninth Circuit Judge Diarmuid F. O’Scannlain.  He obtained his bachelor's degree from Stanford University and his J.D. from Yale Law School.

H. THOMAS BYRON III is Senior Appellate Counsel on the Appellate Staff in the Civil Division at the U.S. Department of Justice in Washington, D.C., where he has worked since 1997, supervising and personally handling appeals on behalf of the United States, federal government agencies, and their officers and employees. Tom serves as the Solicitor General’s representative on the Judicial Conference’s Appellate Rules Advisory Committee, which considers proposed amendments to the Federal Rules of Appellate Procedure. Tom is also an Adjunct Professor at Georgetown University Law Center. Before joining the Appellate Staff, he was an associate at Mayer, Brown & Platt in Washington, D.C., and served as a law clerk to Judge Carolyn Dineen King on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. Tom received his law degree from the University of Chicago, and both Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from Georgetown University.

JAMIE CROOK is the Director of Litigation at the Center for Gender & Refugee Studies at UC Hastings College of the Law, where she leads the Center's affirmative litigation, direct representation work, and appellate practice before federal courts and immigration agencies. Jamie was previously a senior staff attorney at the ACLU Foundation of Northern California; counsel at the Washington D.C.-based civil rights firm Relman Colfax; counsel for the Fair Housing and Community Development Project of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law; and a joint fellow with the labor and employment firm Altshuler Berzon and the Natural Resources Defense Council in San Francisco. Jamie clerked for Ninth Circuit Judge Richard Paez. She received her B.A. from Brown University and her J.D. from Berkeley Law School.

NADIA DAHAB is a Senior Staff Attorney at Innovation Law Lab, a Portland-based nonprofit dedicated to protecting the rule of law and upholding the rights of immigrants and refugees. At Innovation law Lab, Nadia focuses on local, state, and national strategic reform, advocacy, and litigation. Nadia graduated from the University of Oregon School of Law and served as a judicial law clerk to Justice Rives Kistler of the Oregon Supreme Court and Ninth Circuit Judges Susan P. Graber and Mary H. Murguia.

KIM DEMARCHI is Senior Associate General Counsel in the Office of General Counsel at Arizona State University. Kim is responsible for overseeing the employment practice group in the Office of General Counsel, which advises on academic and non-academic personnel matters, student matters, and law enforcement matters; providing administrative oversight to the Athletics Compliance group; and advising on government law matters including legislation and lobbying functions. Prior to joining the Office of General Counsel, Kim was in private practice in Phoenix where her primary areas of practice were government law, education law, and appellate advocacy. Kim is a member of the American Academy of Appellate lawyers, a past chair of the State Bar of Arizona’s Appellate Practice Section, and the co-editor of the Arizona Appellate Handbook. A native of Tucson, Arizona, Kim graduated from Arizona State University’s Honors College summa cum laude and received her J.D. from the Yale Law School. She served as a law clerk to Justice Ruth V. McGregor on the Arizona Supreme Court and to then-Chief Judge Mary M. Schroeder of the Ninth Circuit.

ERIC M. FRASER is a partner at Osborn Maledon PA in Phoenix, Arizona, where his primary focus is appeals and major issue litigation in which an appeal is likely. He coauthors a monthly column in Arizona Attorney magazine covering civil appeals, coedits the azapp.com blog, and contributes to SCOTUSblog. He received his J.D. and M.B.A. from the University of Chicago and his B.A. in Physics from Pomona College. Before joining private practice, Eric clerked for D.C. Circuit Judge Douglas H. Ginsburg.

BRIAN P. GOLDMAN, Chair, is Deputy Legal Affairs Secretary in the Office of Governor Gavin Newsom, where he oversees litigation involving the Governor and the State of California and provides legal advice to the Governor.  Previously, Brian was a partner in the Supreme Court and Appellate Practice at Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP in San Francisco.  Brian also served in the U.S. Department of Justice’s Civil Division, where he briefed and argued cases on appeal for the federal government.  Brian is a graduate of Yale College and Stanford Law School.  Following law school, he served as a law clerk to Ninth Circuit Judge Stephen Reinhardt and Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor.

HELEN H. HONG is a Deputy Solicitor General with the California Office of Solicitor General, which oversees appeals handled by the California Department of Justice in the California Courts of Appeal, the Ninth Circuit, and the California and U.S. Supreme Courts. Before joining the Office of Solicitor General, Helen served for ten years as an Assistant United States Attorney, including three as the Chief of Criminal Appeals for the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of California. As Chief, Helen reviewed and edited over 400 criminal appeals before the Ninth Circuit, and personally authored over 100 briefs and participated in approximately 30 oral arguments. Helen previously served as a Trial Attorney in the Federal Programs Branch for the Department of Justice, worked as a litigator at Kirkland & Ellis, and clerked on the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. She received her B.S. and B.A. in chemistry and political science from U.C. Berkeley, and her J.D. from Harvard Law School.   

DAN KAPLAN is an Assistant Federal Public Defender in Phoenix, Arizona, focusing on direct criminal appeals and habeas corpus litigation. He served two terms on the Ninth Circuit's Advisory Committee on Rules of Practice and Internal Operating Procedures, and is a past President of the Phoenix Chapter of the Federal Bar Association. Before joining the Federal Public Defender’s Office, Dan was a member of the Phoenix law firm Osborn Maledon PA, and a member of the Department of Justice’s Civil Appellate Staff. He earned a B.A. from Amherst College, an M.P.P. from the University of Michigan, and a J.D. from Harvard Law School, and clerked for D.C. Circuit Judge Patricia M. Wald.

KRISSA M. LANHAM is the Appellate Chief in the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Arizona, supervising all appellate litigation for the  office and regularly appearing before the Ninth Circuit. When Krissa first joined that office, she prosecuted cases in the Organized Crime/Drug Enforcement and Southwest Border groups, and she also served as the Human Trafficking Coordinator. Earlier, she clerked for Ninth Circuit Judge Barry Silverman and then-Chief Judge Robert Chatigny of the United States District Court for the District of Connecticut. Krissa received her B.A. summa cum laude from Yale College and her J.D. from Yale Law School, where she was the recipient of the Khosla Memorial Fund for Human Dignity Prize and the Ambrose Gherini Prize for the best paper on a subject of international law.

TEAL LUTHY MILLER is an Assistant United States Attorney in the Western District of Washington who handles civil and criminal appeal on behalf of the United States. Before she joined the U.S. Attorney’s office, she worked in the Appellate Section of the Civil Division of the Department of Justice for ten years. Between law school and Civil Appellate, she clerked for Third Circuit Judge Edward R. Becker, served as a Bristow Fellow in the Office of the Solicitor General, and worked as an associate at a firm in Washington, DC. She graduated from the University of Chicago law school with high honors.

BRIANNA MIRCHEFF is the Chief of Writs and Appeals for the Federal Public Defender's Office for the Central District of California. Ms. Mircheff attended Loyola Law School as a Public Interest Scholar. After graduation, she clerked for Ninth Circuit Judge Harry Pregerson. Ms. Mircheff has been with the Federal Public Defender's office since 2006, and specializes in federal post-conviction litigation and criminal immigration and detention work.

NANCY OLSON has a variety of federal court and appellate experience and is currently serving as an attorney to the Patent Pilot Program in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California. Before returning to the court, Nancy served as an Assistant United States Attorney in the trial division (District of Oregon) and appellate division (District of Nevada). As an Appellate AUSA, she practiced almost exclusively before the Ninth Circuit, briefing and arguing a wide array of federal criminal appeals. As a U.S. Attorney’s Office Training Officer, Nancy designed and implemented a multi-week training program for new AUSAs. She has also served on the faculty of the National Advocacy Center’s Discovery Bootcamp course for new criminal attorneys, and has taught a law school course for judicial and public service externs. Nancy serves the ABA’s Council of Appellate Lawyers as Editor of CAL’s online publication Appellate Issues. Previously, Nancy worked in private practice and served as a law clerk to Ninth Circuit Judge N.R. Smith, and Central District of California District Judge Alicemarie H. Stotler. She obtained her J.D. from UCLA School of Law, and B.S. in Finance from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Before law school she worked as a financial analyst in the music and real estate industries.

CASEY PITTS is a partner at Altshuler Berzon LLP in San Francisco. His practice focuses on representing workers, labor unions, consumers, and public interest organizations in complex impact and appellate litigation, particularly in cases involving constitutional law, employment discrimination, federal and state wage-and-hour and labor laws, voting rights, and attorneys’ fees. Casey is a graduate of Yale College and Yale Law School, where he served as a senior editor of the Yale Law Journal. After law school, he served as a law clerk to Ninth Circuit Judge Stephen Reinhardt.

CHRISTOPHER POOSER is a partner at Stoel Rives LLP in Boise, Idaho. He specializes in appellate practice and handles federal and state appeals involving a broad range of commercial and environmental matters. Christopher practices before the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals and the Idaho appellate courts and also assists trial counsel across all Stoel Rives’ offices in accessing appellate issues and preparing appellate briefs. He is the co-founder and past-chair of the Idaho State Bar’s Appellate Practice Section and is an editor and contributor to the Idaho Appellate Handbook (6th ed. 2019). Christopher is a member of the Idaho Supreme Court’s Appellate Rules Advisory Committee and regularly represents pro bono clients in appeals through the Idaho Volunteer Lawyers Program. He grew up in Georgia and attended the Georgia Institute of Technology, receiving a Bachelor of Arts in architecture. Christopher received his law degree from Tulane University Law School.

DAVID PORTER is an assistant federal defender in the Eastern District of California. He specializes in appellate and post-conviction law in the appellate and non-capital habeas unit. David recently returned to the Federal Defender’s Office after serving temporary assignments at the United States Sentencing Commission and the Defender Services Office. Before becoming a federal defender, he taught at the Georgetown University Law Center and clerked for the Honorable Stanley Mosk at the California Supreme Court. David is the co-chair of the amicus curiae committee for the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers and a visiting lecturer at the U.C. Davis School of Law, where he received his law degree. After his undergraduate work at the University of California, Los Angeles, he was a Peace Corps volunteer in the West African country of Burkina Faso.

JOHANNA SCHIAVONI is a San Diego appellate litigator who handles civil appeals and writs in state and federal courts, in addition to criminal appeals for indigent defendants by court appointment. With nearly two decades of experience, she is a certified specialist in appellate law by the California Board of Legal Specialization and Counsel with California Appellate Law Group LLP, heading up the firm’s San Diego office. Johanna completed two judicial clerkships with Hon. Christina A. Snyder of the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California and Hon. M. Margaret McKeown of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. She also worked as a trial and appellate litigator at Latham & Watkins LLP in New York and San Diego, was an appellate litigation partner with boutique firm Jacobs & Schlesinger LLP, and ran her own solo appellate practice for more than seven years. Johanna, who grew up in Louisville, Kentucky, is a graduate of Washington University in St. Louis and the UCLA School of Law. She is deeply involved in the San Diego community, serving as the 2020 President of the San Diego County Bar Association and, by Mayoral Appointment, as the 2021 Board Chair of the San Diego County Regional Airport Authority, which oversees San Diego International Airport.

LEAH SPERO has a solo appellate practice in San Francisco focused on indigent defense. She is also a supervising attorney for the UC Hastings Appellate Project, helping law students provide pro bono representation in immigration and civil rights cases before the Ninth Circuit. Prior to starting her own practice, Leah worked at the Ninth Circuit for five years as a law clerk to Judge Consuelo M. Callahan and as a staff attorney. In addition, Leah has litigated numerous civil cases at the trial and appellate levels as an associate and contract attorney at Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe. Since 2014, she has served on the Committee on Appellate Courts, first under the California State Bar and later the California Lawyers Association, and currently serves as chair of the committee, as well as a member of the Amicus Committee. Leah received her undergraduate degree from Duke University and her J.D. from UC Hastings, where she served as the Executive Editor of Hastings Law Journal.

CYNTHIA STEIN is a Deputy City Attorney in the Law & Motions unit of the Oakland City Attorney's Office. Her practice focuses on appeals in the Ninth Circuit and California Court of Appeal, writs, and dispositive motions. Her cases span a wide variety of subject matters, including civil rights, housing and development law, and the California Public Records Act. She previously worked in the Supreme Court and Appellate practice at Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP, where she regularly briefed cases before the U.S. Supreme Court and federal courts of appeals. Cynthia is a graduate of New York University School of Law and Stanford University. Following law school, she clerked for Ninth Circuit Judge Marsha Berzon.

RANDY TANNER is a shareholder at Boone Karlberg PC in Missoula, Montana. Randy has a diverse civil practice, primarily handling cases involving commercial litigation, constitutional law, professional malpractice, personal injury, and state and federal appeals. Randy also regularly represents immigration clients, pro bono, before the Ninth Circuit. Randy began his legal career clerking for Ninth Circuit Chief Judge Sidney Thomas (2010–2011) and Judge Donald Molloy of the District of Montana (2011–2013). He received his law degree and a Ph.D. in Forestry from the University of Montana and graduated summa cum laude from Southern Illinois University with a B.S. in Mathematics.

SUSAN YORKE is counsel at the California Appellate Law Group in San Francisco, where she handles and consults on a diverse array of appellate matters. She previously served as an Assistant Attorney General in the Appellate Division of the Oregon Department of Justice, where she regularly appeared before the Ninth Circuit and state appellate courts. Earlier, she clerked for Ninth Circuit Judges Susan P. Graber and Edward Leavy, and served as court counsel to the Supreme Court of the Republic of Palau. A graduate of Columbia Law School, she also received a master's degree in public policy from Princeton University and an undergraduate degree in mathematics and English from Williams College.

 

(last revised 04/14/2021)