Business and Law Focus of Alumni Mixer

Guest post by Afra Afsharipour, Senior Associate Dean for Academic Affairs

From left, Jon Lieberman JD/MBA '11; Afra Afsharipour, senior associate dean for academic affairs; Victoria Lee JD '93 and Zane Shahroody MBA '94.

On Tuesday, Jan. 29, I attended a terrific alumni mixer co-hosted by the School of Law and the Graduate School of Management. The event was held at the law firm of WilmerHale in Palo Alto.

The mixer included a panel that I moderated with three wonderful Davis alums participating: Victoria Lee, JD '93, a partner at DLA Piper (one of the world’s largest law firms); Jon Lieberman, JD/MBA '11, senior product counsel  at Airbnb; and Zane Shahroody MBA '94, director of legal at Google.

 The panelists reflected on what they value the most from their UC Davis experience and network. They also offered valuable suggestions on how to be a successful business lawyer and how to manage the “business” aspects of a legal practice. The panelists ended with a set of recommended books and podcasts relating to business and the law, including “What Trump Can Teach us About Con Law” by my colleague Elizabeth Joh. Jon Lieberman also recommended that people follow Elizabeth’s Twitter feed!

It was wonderful to have an engaged alumni audience and to be back in Silicon Valley. I was particular pleased to see some of my former students including Lugar Choi '18 (an associate at our host, WilmerHale), Remy Goldsmith '11 (senior community leadership officer at Silicon Valley Community Foundation), Kelley Harrington '17 (associate at my old law firm, Davis Polk & Wardwell), Raj Pai '17 (associate at Squire Patton Boggs), Shree Sharma '17 (associate at Baker McKenzie) and Maggie Trinh '11 (associate at Curley, Hurtgen & Johnsrud).