Class Notes Updated as of October 17, 2011
Stephanie Dieringer currently serves as the Chief Academic Officer and Vice Chancellor, Academic Affairs at Southern States University in San Diego. In addition to these responsibilities, she also holds a faculty appointment and is currently teaching Economics, Statistics and Business Law in SSU's MBA program.
Grace Arupo has exciting news…she is now engaged to Luis Rodriguez. The proposal was in Puerto Rico at El Yungue Forest in June 2011. Grace and Luis plan to wed next year in September locally. Grace is still keeping busy as corporate counsel at the California ISO and representing the Asian Bar Association of Sacramento (ABAS) as President this year. Grace says that ABAS celebrated its 30th Anniversary this year and it was wonderful to have our own alum, Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye as the keynote speaker.
Cecilia Tsang reports that in 2009 she and a business partner opened their own firm in Sacramento, CA practicing exclusively in the areas of Estate Planning and Estate Settlement. Since that time Cecilia’s firm has employed recent King Hall graduates as well as King Hall law students (clerks).
Good news! Allen Lee is now stress-free, well almost. Allen has his own law practice in Santa Clara for the past two years, specializing in intellectual property and corporate law. Allen is now in the process of moving to a larger firm, Fish & Richardson, in Redwood City. Allen and his wife Cinthia Lee welcomed a baby girl in December 2010, Jazmine Allison Lee.
Damien Spieckerman reports that on March 10, 2011, he and his wife welcomed a little boy, Kiran. Kiran and his big sister, Kalyani, are getting along well (mostly). Damian is working in the juvenile delinquency unit of the Solano County Public Defender's Office.
Martin Zackor is still living/working in Frankfurt/Germany, and just returned from a short trip to California where he finished the San Francisco Marathon (URL with video: http://results.bazumedia.com/athlete/index/e/755605).
Ali Chalupa resides in Washington, D.C. where she works as a Democratic political operative. For the past six years Ali has served at the Democratic National Committee as the Chief of Staff to the DNC Officers, the Director of the Ethnic Outreach program, Executive Director of Democrats Abroad, and most recently, as Senior Advisor to DNC Chair Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz. She currently works as a political strategy consultant, helping with President Obama's re-election. She and her husband Jeff Roof are proud parents of two daughters, four year-old Sophia and one year-old Mika.
Anna (Cartaino) Endter still lives in Seattle with her husband and six-year old twin boys. She is in the Law Librarianship Program at the University of Washington and will earn her Masters of Library and Information Science in 2012. She is hoping to work as an academic law librarian in Seattle.
As for myself, Rina Gonzales, I am still living in Riverside and working for the City of Riverside. My summer vacation this year was to Spain and Portugal and I can happily report it was one of the best vacations I have ever taken. My job with the City is great, and I provide assistance to the City’s Development Department which includes Housing and Arts and Culture Divisions, Parks & Recreation Department, as well as the City Library and Museum. I also provide assistance to the City of Riverside Housing Authority and Redevelopment Agency. If you have any class notes and/or photos, please feel free to email me anytime at rinagonzales@gmail.com.
Class Notes Updated as of July 28, 2009
Class of 2002 - King Hall (July 2009)
Rando Rodriguez works as a personal injury attorney in Stockton at the law firm of Mayall Hurley Knutsen Smith & Green. The firm is a civil litigation firm with 15-20 lawyers. The partners are accomplished trial lawyers so he has plenty of good mentors. Rando has tried 2 civil cases in front of a jury. Rando and his wife Jennifer have a 3 year old son Daniel who always brightens their day.
Vera Cha is an associate attorney at Diepenbrock & Cotter, LLP in Sacramento. The firm specializes in civil defense litigation. Vera resides in North Sacramento with her husband and one year old daughter, Eva. This summer her family plans to visit Waikiki and Las Vegas.
Tiffany St.Claire-King was hired by a small alternate public defender's office in Humboldt County (Alternate Conflict Counsel) back in 2003 and worked there for about five years. Currently, Tiffany is a stay at home mom; and moved to Oregon. She has 2 kids - Tenzin (4) and Charlotte (20 months). Tiffany and her husband, Brian, are currently buying a house that should be called Blackacre because the sales contract is proceeding like a law school hypothetical (credit goes to Megan Smith for pointing out that they are attempting to purchase Blackacre).
Grace Arupo joined the California ISO January 2007 and serves as its Corporate Counsel. She bought her first home in Rancho Cordovo in 2007 as well. Grace has embraced salsa dancing and performed at Cal Expo's Festival de la Familia. You can even youtube some of her performances!
Since March of 2007, Avantika Rao has been an immigration attorney with La Raza Centro Legal, a multi-ethnic organization in San Francisco's Mission District. She has worked on challenging humanitarian cases and also provided trainings to local organizations and service providers. Avantika lives in Sacramento with her significant other and crazy canine; hence, she is a regular on the Amtrak and Bart trains. Last fall, they were able to travel to Korea and India.
Ted Schneider made partner at the law firm of Myers, Widders, Gibson, Jones & Schneider, L.L.P. in January 2009. Ted was appointed City Attorney of the City of Fillmore in January 2008, and continues to serve in that capacity, while also representing businesses in and around Ventura County (both public and private) in transactional matters.
Scott Harkless and his wife Kristen welcomed their third child, Josiah William Harkless, last August. The Harklesses still reside in Thousand Oaks. As a result of the Countrywide/Bank of America merger, Scott is now a corporate executive with Strategic Business Alliances for the Bank of America.
Ray Allen and his wife Katherine Westfall will celebrate their third wedding anniversary this September. They currently reside in San Francisco. They just got back from a two-week trip in Norway. Ray is in his sixth year as the Government Relations & Legal Affairs Director of Burning Man.
Jesse Mulholland is with Howrey, LLP where he focuses his practice on patent litigation. He has recently been engaged with the Patent Reform Act of 2009, publishing a few articles on the subject earlier this year. He devotes a lot of time to pro bono work with the Public Law Center which is committed to providing access to justice for low income residents in Orange County. Law & Politics Southern California Super Lawyer magazine recently recognized him as a "Rising Star." Jesse lives in San Clemente with his wife Bridget and two kids West (4) and Stella (1).
Sue Painter-Thorne is still teaching at Mercer University School of Law in Macon, Georgia. This July, Sue was promoted from Assistant to Associate Professor. She teaches Indian law, legal writing, and client counseling. She is also having a blast coaching moot court. Sue and her husband Nate will celebrate nineteen years of marriage this October. Since the move to Macon, they've been able to buy their first home and are learning how to remove wallpaper, clean gutters, and operate a tractor. They share their home with six dogs and three cats and are still adjusting to living in a place where so many people still believe Bush did a heckuva job.
Martin Zackor is now working at Commerzbank (Group Taxes, Structured Finance & Transactions) in Frankfurt, Germany. Martin participated in the Ironman European Championship and says it was a great atmosphere, a lot of fun, only a little bit too hot.
Ali Chalupa spent the last year working to help elect Barack Obama President while working for the national Democratic Party as a senior staffer in the Washington, D.C. headquarters. She is the Director of the Office of Party Leaders at the Democratic National Committee, the political arm of the White House, where she is part of the seniorleadership team and works on political strategy and outreach with a variety of electedofficials and constituency groups,helping support thePresident Obama's agenda. After selling their town-house on Capitol Hill, she and her husband Jeff Roof bought a new home earlier this year in theForest Hills area of Washington, D.C.where they reside with their adorable 2 year old daughter, Sophia Bella.
Katy (Kawaichi) and Aaron Schultz have been busy with their two boys. Their son Everett was born last October and big brother Trey is 3 years old. Katy's legal practice areas are insurance coverage litigation and appellate work. Aaron practices medical malpractice defense and other civil litigation.
Dawn Belcher Neufeld passed the TX Bar Exam.
I, Rina Gonzales, am going on 4 years as a Deputy City Attorney for the City of Riverside. I live and work in Downtown Riverside. I work for various City Departments, but in particular handle the Housing Division, Arts & Culture Division and various redevelopment projects. On occasion I also staff the Planning Commission. I am very involved with a fair share of community groups, including the Inland Empire Latino Lawyers Association - a legal aid project. I also am the Past Chair of Inland Agency's Shop to Stop Breast Cancer (see my blog at http://shoptostopbreastcancer.blogspot.com). Last year, my winter vacation was to the Dominican Republic (Casa de Campo/La Romana and Bayahibe).
You all know the law school loves alumni updates! If you have some fun news (job, family, travel, home buyer status, etc.) send it to me and I will include it in my Class Notes update. E-mail me at
By Class Agent Rina Gonzales
King Hall’s Class of 2002 is certainly on the move and full of exciting news in terms of career, homebuyer status, marriage, kids and travels. I’m happy to give the report on the following classmates who answered my request for updates:
Vera Cha reports that after law school, she practiced civil litigation in Contra Costa County with a law firm called McNamara, Dodge, Ney, Beatty, Slattery, Pfalzer, Borges & Brother, LLP. Vera worked there for three years. She moved to Sacramento two years ago, continuing her civil litigation practice at Diepenbrock & Cotter, LLP.
Arthur Lipscomb says he’s still working for the same company (PAI) and has moved to PAI’s Fresno office. Arthur is a Clients’ Rights Advocate (Attorney) for consumers of the Central Valley Regional Center. He also bought his first house.
Scott Harkless remains an executive with Countrywide where he was recently promoted to Senior Vice President. In August, Scott's wife Kristen is expected to give Elijah (4) and Evangeline (2) a sibling. Apart from this, he is demoralized regarding the prospect of a Democrat in the White House but is putting trust in the Clintons to screw that up.
Rusty Hoover now works as a Deputy Attorney General for the State of Nevada, after working for a few years in private practice. Rusty developed a six-hour course in Negotiations and team-teaches it with another lawyer for the State Bar of Nevada. In her spare time, she teaches an online Journalism course for the University of Nevada, Reno. Rusty also trained my nearly three-year-old St. Bernard, Mojo, to be a therapy dog. He charms folks at a nursing home, a hospital, and at the library’s “Paws to Read” program in which little children read their books to the dogs.
Gwen Young now lives in Seattle. She moved from working with MSF (Doctors Without Borders) as a Humanitarian Affairs Advisor to working with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation as a Policy & Advocacy Officer. Gwen works in the Global Development program specifically with the Agricultural Development initiative and the Special Initiatives initiative and with Kofi A. Annan, chair of the Board of the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa.
Erick Jenkins and Randi Jenkins are working for UC Davis. Randi works at InnovationAccess managing University IP, and Erick works at Health System Contracts, managing contracts for the medical school faculty. They are the proud parents of a baby daughter, Alice (now 15 months old). The Jenkins stay in touch with classmates Kathleen Palmer and Virginia Sawyer Radding.
Candace Gomez (now Candace Harrison) is still enjoying doing labor and employment work (defense) at Allen Matkins in Orange County, California. Candace married Todd Harrison (a plaintiff's employment attorney) in Sonoma, CA on March 10, 2007 and, as such, is officially "sleeping with the enemy"! Classmates Jennifer Derwin (who was bridesmaid) and David Canty were in attendance (they are engaged to be married this year). Candace and Todd reside in Huntington Beach, CA with their dog Chopin and are expecting their first child (a boy) in September.
Erlend Bakken, his wife and their two boys (ages 2 and 5) are doing well. Erlend is now a partner with the Norwegian law firm Arntzen de Besche (www.adeb.no) specializing in oil and energy work.
Grace Arupo has gone in-house. She serves as corporate counsel for the California Independent System Operator. Grace bought a house and has learned salsa dancing. Grace is quite the traveling woman – her trips recently have included Puerto Rico, Croatia, Slovenia and the Czech Republic. She is also planning to do a home build in the Philippines this summer and is also planning to head to Costa Rica.
John Andon is now living in Portland, Oregon, and working at a general practice law firm. John reports that Andrew Svitek is also in Portland, doing well as a solo practitioner.
Brandon Simpson is currently work as a Special Agent for the Federal Bureau of Investigation, stationed in Honolulu, HI. Brandon handles white collar crime violations, and has also been assigned "collateral duties" including being the Honolulu Division media spokesperson and a member of their SWAT team. Brandon has been in Hawaii for 3 years now and in that time he and his wife, Kimberly, have been blessed with two beautiful boys: Kailer James (2 years) and Kodiak Brandon (2 months).
Martin Zackor says he’s still working 24/7 at Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer in Frankfurt/Germany (tax and finance law). His project for the summer is the Ironman Switzerland – he’ll report back later on his success…
Damien Spieckerman is living in Oakland and working in Fairfield for the felony trial unit of the Solano County Public Defender's Office. He says he’s liking this job, but hating the commute. Damien and his wife are expecting their first child, a daughter, in late June.
Charles Lee reports that his daughter Carolina Kim Lee just celebrated her first birthday. Charles just accepted a position at the Federal Defenders, Eastern District of California, at their Fresno Branch, leaving the Fresno County Public Defender’s Office after about 3 years.
Dawn Belcher Neufeld will be moving back to Texas in June. She says Ryan’s contract with the Buffalo Bills recently expired and he's in the midst of free agency. Dawn is expecting – Baby #2 is about to arrive - at the end of May!
Alexandra Chalupa currently resides in Washington, D.C. where she works at the Democratic National Committee (DNC) as the Director of the Office of the Vice Chairs. As she eagerly awaits the Party's nominee, Ali is focused on Convention planning, general election strategy, and works closely with the DNC Voting Rights team on election protection efforts. She recently traveled to Taipei as part of a DNC Delegation invited to observe Taiwan's presidential election. She and her husband, Jeff Roof, welcomed their first baby last year, Sophia Bella Roof, who turned one year old in February.
Carrie Rosenbaumhas transitioned from providing direct legal services to immigrants to providing appellate briefs to other attorneys handling complex immigration matters. Her new business is "Rosenbaum Immigration Appeals," www.immigrationappellatelaw.com.
She is marrying Ryan LeBlanc, a graphic designer, and the two hope to move to Portland, Oregon in the Fall of 2008.
As for me, Rina Gonzales, I have been keeping busy working as a Deputy City Attorney for the City of Riverside. Still living, working and volunteering all throughout Riverside. Most recently, I was Co-Chair of a very successful fundraiser called “Inland Agency’s Shop to Stop Breast Cancer” – I helped to raise over $57,000 to help low-income women in the Inland Empire gain access to breast health programs. I have been traveling a lot. I was in Cabo San Lucas last summer and have been continuously traveling to the Nation’s Capitol. I will be heading to the Dominican Republic to be in my best friend’s wedding in December. All in all, I like to think that I’m working hard, volunteering as much as possible and just really enjoying life…
As always, the Class of 2002 is always welcome to send me an update and photos and I will include it in the upcoming King Hall Class Briefs. Please send your update to me at: rina.gonzales@sbcglobal.net