Board: Board Alumni

Hon. Nancy Gertner

Judge Gertner is a senior lecturer on Law at Harvard University. For 17 years, she served as a federal judge for the District of Massachusetts. In 2012, Gertner was appointed to the ACS board of directors.

At Harvard, Gertner teaches courses on criminal law, criminal procedure, forensic science, and sentencing. She continues to write and lecture about women’s issues around the world. She has also worked as a professor at Yale Law School, and is a Leadership Council Member of the International Center for Research on Women.

Gertner is the author of an autobiography “In Defense of Women: Memoirs of an Unrepentant Advocate,” and co-author of “The Law of Juries with attorney Judith Mizner.” She has also published articles and book chapters on sentencing, discrimination, forensic evidence, women's rights, and the jury system.

Gertner received the Thurgood Marshall Award from the American Bar Association’s Section of Individual Rights and Responsibilities, and the Margaret Brent Women Lawyers of Achievement from the ABA’s Commission on the Status of Women in the Profession. She has also received the Morton A. Brody Distinguished Judicial Service Award from the Colby College Goldfarb Center for Public Affairs, the Massachusetts Bar Association's Hennessey Award for judicial excellence, the Arabella Babb Mansfield Award from the National Association of Women Lawyers, and the Leila J. Robinson Award of the Women's Bar Association of Massachusetts. She was awarded an honorary Doctor of Laws degree from Brandeis University in 2011.

Gertner received her J.D. and M.A. in political science from Yale University. She received her B.A. from Barnard College (Columbia University). She clerked for the Hon. Luther Swygert of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit.

David C. Frederick

David C. Frederick is a partner at Kellogg Hansen Todd Figel & Frederick, where he has focused primarily in appellate litigation. He has argued over 100 appeals – including 40 that rose to the U.S. Supreme Court, in every U.S. Court of Appeals, and in five state supreme courts. In 2014, Frederick was appointed to the ACS board of directors.

Noteworthy cases Frederick has either won or settled in the Supreme Court include Tyson Foods v. Bouaphakeo, Tibble v. Edison Int’l, Jesinoski v. Countrywide Home Loans, Amgen Inc. v. Connecticut Retirement Plans and Trust Funds, Pacific Operators v. Valladolid, CSX v. McBride, Matrixx v. Siracusano, Jones v. Harris Associates, Merck v. Reynolds, Wyeth v. Levine, and Altria v. Good. He also worked for the U.S. Department of Justice, first as Counselor to the Inspector General, then as Assistant to the Solicitor General.

Frederick’s published books include “Supreme Court and Appellate Advocacy,” “The Art of Oral Advocacy,” and “Rugged Justice: The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals and the American West, 1891-1941.”

During Frederick’s work as Assistant to the Solicitor General at the Department of Justice, he received the Guard Medal for Distinguished Public Service in 2000, the Inspector General’s Award for Exceptional Service in 1997, and the Attorney General’s Distinguished Service Award in 1998.

Frederick received his J.D. with honors from the University of Texas in Austin, his D.Phil from the University of Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar, and his B.A. summa cum laude from University of Pittsburgh. He also clerked for Supreme Court Justice Byron R. White, and the Hon. Joseph T. Sneed on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

Steve Fineman

Steven E. Fineman is the managing partner of Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein, LLP, resident in the firm’s New York office. The American Lawyer Magazine has called Lieff Cabraser one of the “nation’s premiere plaintiffs’ firms,” and the National Law Journal, U.S. News and World Report, Law360, and Benchmark Litigation have repeatedly recognized Lieff Cabraser as one of the top plaintiff-side litigation law firms in the United States. In 2016, Fineman was appointed to the ACS board of directors.

Fineman represents plaintiffs in class, group and individual civil litigation in the areas of securities and financial fraud, mass torts, and consumer fraud. He has been recognized as a top lawyer in his fields by Best Lawyers in America, Super Lawyers, Benchmark Plaintiff, and the National Law Journal.  Lawdragon has identified Fineman as one of the nation’s “100 Managing Partners You Need to Know.”

Fineman is also a member of the Advisory Forum for Stanford Law School’s Center on the Legal Profession, and is a frequent guest lecturer at Stanford Law School. He is a past president of the Public Justice Foundation, which oversees and funds the national public interest law firm, Public Justice, P.C., and is a past co-chair of the American Association for Justice’s Securities Litigation Group. Fineman is also vice-chair of the New York regional board of directors of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), and is a member of the executive committee of ADL’s national commission.

Fineman received his J.D. from University of California Hastings College of the Law, and his B.A. from University of California San Diego.

 

Michael J. Faris

Michael Faris is Vice President & Assistant General Counsel -- Litigation at Stericycle, Inc. Previously, Faris was a partner at Latham & Watkins, where he was the local co-chair of the Litigation & Trial Department. He has significant experience in complex litigation matters, with a focus on securities and professional liability litigation. Faris also has expertise in complex commercial litigation in the areas of antitrust, trademark and patent infringement, and insurance litigation. Faris serves on the ACS Board of Advisors and previously served on the ACS Board of Directors.

Faris’ noteworthy client representations include a public company in 11 consolidated class actions, two state court derivative actions, and one federal court derivative action alleging violations of federal securities laws and fiduciary duties. He has represented clients in private securities suits under blue sky statutes, as well as a large venture capital fund in litigation over several contractual and fiduciary duty claims. He made an oral argument on the client's motion for a partial summary judgment. He began his career at Latham & Watkins as an associate.

Faris received his J.D. from the University of Chicago and his A.B. in social studies from Harvard.

Erwin Chemerinsky

Erwin Chemerinsky is Dean and the Jesse H. Choper Distinguished Professor of Law at Berkeley Law. Over his academic career, his courses have focused on constitutional law, First Amendment law, federal Courts, criminal procedure and appellate litigation. He also has frequently argued appellate cases, including several in the U. S. Supreme Court. Chemerinsky sits on the ACS Board of Academic Advisors.

Prior to joining Berkeley Law, Chemerinsky was the founding dean and Distinguished Professor of Law, and Raymond Pryke Professor of First Amendment Law, at the University of California Irvine School of Law, with a joint appointment in Political Science. Prior to that, he was the Alston and Bird Professor of Law and Political Science at Duke University. Earlier in his career, he was a professor at the University of Southern California Law School, working as the Sydney M. Irmas Professor of Public Interest Law, Legal Ethics, and Political Science. He has previously taught at the DePaul College of Law and UCLA Law School.

Chemerinsky has authored 10 books, including “The Case Against the Supreme Court,” and “Closing the Courthouse Doors: How Your Constitutional Rights Became Unenforceable.” He co-authored “Free Speech on Campus.” He has also published more than 200 law review articles. He has a weekly column in the Sacramento Bee, and regular columns in the ABA Journal and the Daily Journal. He frequently authors op-eds in national newspapers.

Chemerinsky was named a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2016. The National Jurist magazine named him the most influential person in legal education in the United States in 2017.

Chemerinsky received his J.D. from Harvard cum laude and his B.S. from Northwestern University with highest distinction.

Mark Califano

Mark Califano is a Partner at Dentons. Prior to this, he was Chief Legal Officer and Regional Managing Director of the Americas at Nardello and Company. Previously, he was Senior Vice President and Managing Counsel for Litigation at American Express and managed major litigation, significant investigations and other sensitive matters. In 2014, Califano was appointed to the ACS board of directors.

Prior to joining Amex, Califano was Senior Vice President and head of litigation & legal policy at GE Capital. Previously, he was head of litigation in GE Commercial Finance at GE Capital. He served as Chief Legal Counsel for the Independent Inquiry into the United Nations Oil-for-Food Programme at United Nations, and co-authored “Good Intentions Corrupted: The Oil-for-Food Scandal and the Threat to the U.N.” As Chief Legal Counsel, he managed the global investigation and the over 75-person staff, including lawyers, investigators, analysts, and experts.

Califano also served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the District of Connecticut, investigating and prosecuting federal white-collar offenses, including public corruption, corporate and securities fraud, domestic and foreign bribery, terrorism, intellectual property, and Internet offenses. Earlier in his career, he was an associate at Skadden, Arps, Slate. Meagher & Flom.

He has also taught programs on litigation and trial practice, Foreign Corrupt Practice, Internet, terrorism, fraud, and money laundering investigations and prosecutions.

Califano received his J.D. from Duke University, and his B.A. in history of philosophy from Princeton. He clerked for the Hon. Stanley Sporkin of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia.