Karen Barker Marcou, a DCVLP co-founder, transitioned to the Board of Directors in 2019 after 12 years as Co-Executive Director and Executive Director at DCVLP. Prior to co-founding DCVLP, Ms. Marcou was an attorney at Neighborhood Legal Services and has over ten years of experience handling family law cases and representing low-income individuals in the District of Columbia. Ms. Marcou received her J.D. magna cum laude from Washington College of Law, American University, and her B.A. from Middlebury College. She has served on the Board of Directors of School for Friends, Guy Mason Recreation Center, and the Rosedale Conservancy.

Alexis Collins is Vice President and Associate General Counsel at Amazon. In 2001, Alexis joined Cleary Gottlieb. Her practice at Cleary focused on complex civil and antitrust litigation, criminal and regulatory enforcement matters, and cybersecurity. In 2003, she joined the U.S. Department of Justice, where she served in numerous positions for more than a decade. She returned to Cleary Gottlieb as a senior attorney in 2015 and became a partner in 2019.

Trish Kelly is a certified public accountant and attorney, and employed at Marcum LLP. Prior to transitioning to accounting, Ms. Kelly was Deputy Director of the Maryland Center for Assault Prevention, a child abuse prevention organization, and before that she was a staff attorney for the Maryland Legal Aid Bureau’s Child Advocacy Unit. She received her J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center and her Certificate in Advanced Accounting from the University of Maryland, University College.

Hal Brewster is a voting rights and election law litigator at Elias Law Group. In that capacity, he brings constitutional challenges to laws across the country that make voting more difficult. Hal holds a bachelors and JD from Georgetown University and a masters in public affairs from Princeton University. Hal has been a volunteer with DCVLP since 2015. Before law school, Hal spent four years serving as an active duty Army officer and deployed in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Amy is a senior HR executive with over 30 years experience in building the HR function in growing companies.  She is skilled in organizational design, HR compliance, policy, and procedure, retention and training programs, full-cycle recruitment, benefits plan design and administration and has a proven track record in employee relations. Amy worked with Four Seasons Hotels & Resorts for twenty years and has also developed HR programs at First Potomac Realty Trust, The Acacia Group, The Network for Good, Commerce One, and ARBROS Communications.  Amy is a graduate of Rice University. For more on Amy, click here.

Tracey Coates, a Partner and Co-Chair of DMV Family Law Practice Group at Cipriani & Werner, P.C., has volunteered as a DCVLP attorney for the past eight years. She has taken some of the most difficult cases on behalf of domestic violence victims and at-risk children.

“I cannot say enough positive things about Ms. Coates. Our clients have benefited enormously from her outstanding representation. We are lucky to have her,” says Sara Tennen, Executive Director at the DC Volunteer Lawyers Project.

Prior to her role at her current firm, Ms. Coates was a Litigation and Family Law Partner at Paley Rothman. She has also served as a staff attorney with Maryland Legal Aid Bureau and clerked for a judge in Arizona. From 2019 to present, Ms. Coates has been designated as a Top Family Law Attorney by Washingtonian and Bethesda Magazines. Ms. Coates graduated from Smith College and Hamline University School of Law. She is also a certified mediator.

Matt Cohen is a Director & Associate General Counsel at Meta, where he leads a team responsible for counseling business groups on compliance with global anti-corruption laws and administering Meta’s anti-corruption compliance program. Matt joined Meta from Hewlett Packard Enterprise, where he worked as a Director & Managing Counsel, Anti-Corruption in HPE’s Ethics & Compliance Office. Before moving to the private sector, Matt served as an Assistant Chief Litigation Counsel at the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission, as an Associate Deputy Attorney General at the U.S. Department of Justice, and for over ten years as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the District of Columbia. Earlier in his career, Matt worked as an associate at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP and clerked for a United States District Court judge in the Eastern District of Virginia. Matt received his B.A. with distinction from the University of Virginia, and he received his J.D. from William & Mary School of Law, where he was an Articles Editor on the Law Review. Matt also has volunteered with DCVLP, serving as a guardian ad litem in the Child Advocacy Program, and he previously served on the Committee on Grievances for the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

Jamillia Ferris is a partner in the Washington, D.C., office of Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer LLP, where she is a Chambers-ranked partner in our antitrust, competition and trade group and a member of the firm’s global antitrust leadership team. Jamillia represents industry-leading companies before the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the US Department of Justice (DOJ) on merger matters and civil conduct investigations as well as provides antitrust counsel on a wide range of business practices.

Jamillia served in leadership positions and has overseen mergers at both the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). At the FCC, she served in the Office of General Counsel, where she led the FCC’s review of AT&T’s proposed $49 billion acquisition of DIRECTV. In this role, she directed all aspects of the FCC process, including coordination with the DOJ. She was also a member of the steering committee overseeing the FCC’s review of Comcast’s proposed $45 billion acquisition of Time Warner Cable.

Prior to being recruited from private practice to the FCC, Jamillia served as chief of staff and counsel to the assistant attorney general of the DOJ’s Antitrust Division. In addition, she served as the acting assistant attorney general and acting deputy assistant attorney general on numerous enforcement matters.

Previously, Jamillia was a partner in the antitrust and competition practice at Hunton & Williams, where she primarily focused on antitrust and consumer protection matters and represented clients in merger and conduct investigations before the Federal Trade Commission, the DOJ, and the state attorneys general. Jamillia began her legal career as an associate at two international law firms.

Dale Harburg has been active as a Child Advocacy Program volunteer since 2008, and received the Volunteer of the Year award in 2012. Since 2009, Ms. Harburg has been sharing her expertise with other volunteers as a GAL supervisor, reviewing investigative strategy and recommendations with new volunteers. She also is a certified mediator. Previously, Ms. Harburg worked at the law firm of Baker Hostetler, specializing in trademark prosecution, and volunteered with CASA of Montgomery County as a court-appointed special advocate in neglect cases in Maryland. She received her law degree from the University of Pennsylvania Law School.

Tom Hentoff is a partner at Williams & Connolly, where he chairs the firm’s Pro Bono Committee. His private practice is concentrated in three areas: intellectual property, First Amendment and media law, and complex civil litigation. Mr. Hentoff graduated from Wesleyan University with honors in 1985, and received his J.D. from Columbia Law School, where he was a senior editor of the Columbia Law Review. He is a member of the bars of the District of Columbia and Pennsylvania and has been admitted to practice before the U.S. Supreme Court as well as the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia.

Phil Hurst is an Assistant General Counsel at Capital One, where he advises senior leadership and the business teams responsible for emerging payments, platforms, and commercialization. Prior to his current role, Phil was counsel for Capital One’s Card data sciences teams, where he helped his clients navigate legal issues applicable to applications of artificial intelligence and machine learning. Phil joined Capital One from Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP, where his practice focused on commercial litigation, internal investigations, and regulatory enforcement. Before Cleary, Phil served as a law clerk in the District of Columbia Court of Appeals and the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio. Earlier in his career, Phil worked as a Fellow for U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown. Phil received his J.D. cum laude from the University of Michigan Law School and his B.A. from Miami University. Phil has a long-standing commitment to pro bono work, and he has represented victims of domestic violence, as well as refugees seeking parole and asylum, doctors opposing solitary confinement, and the Cornell Center on the Death Penalty Worldwide.

Heather Lamberg is a partner in the firm’s Washington, D.C. office. She has experience handling worldwide internal investigations of cartel activity. She frequently represents companies and individuals in criminal cartel cases before the Department of Justice. Heather has launched Cartel Digest, a website that monitors international cartel enforcement and frequently counsels and speaks on anti-cartel compliance. In addition to antitrust litigation, Heather also represents clients in a variety of commercial litigation and arbitration matters, including bankruptcy cases, contract disputes, false advertising cases, judgment enforcement matters, and foreign corrupt practices act investigations.

Ms. McDuffie is a Supervisory Community Supervision Officer in the Domestic Violence Unit at the Court Services and Offender Supervision Agency in Washington, DC. She has spent years advocating for domestic violence survivors, both professionally and as a volunteer. She currently serves as a Commissioner for Women through the Mayor’s Office on Women’s Policy and Initiatives which fosters economic and social equity for women. She is also a board member at Imagination Stage and volunteers with the District Alliance for Safe Housing (DASH), which provides housing and services for survivors of domestic violence. Ms. McDuffie is looking forward to sharing her experiences working with batterers, victims and the court system to enhance DCVLP’s programs.

Steve Raptis is Counsel at Reed Smith LLP, where he is a member of the Insurance Recovery Group practice. Steve has a long-standing commitment to pro bono work, and has represented victims of domestic violence for more than two decades, as well as victims of human trafficking, clients with developmental disabilities, and African-American farmers subject to discriminatory loan practices. His private practice focuses on resolution of complex insurance claims on behalf of commercial policyholders, as well as counseling clients regarding a broad range of insurance-related issues. Before joining Reed Smith, Steve worked at major law firms in D.C. and Pittsburgh. Steve earned his B.A. and his J.D. from West Virginia University.

Pam Sauber began volunteering with DCVLP in 2012. Formerly a white collar criminal lawyer, she brings strong investigatory and litigation skills to her work as a Guardian ad litem in DCVLP’s Child Advocacy Program. Ms. Sauber was a law clerk for a federal district court judge, a litigator at Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson, and a senior litigation counsel at AT&T, before leaving the practice of law to stay home with her two daughters. She received her B.A. from the University of Virginia and her J.D. from the University of Richmond.

Kamil Shields is a partner in Sullivan & Cromwell’s Litigation Group. Her practice focuses on investigations and regulatory enforcement proceedings involving cybercrime matters, public corruption, and bank and wire fraud. Ms. Shields rejoined Sullivan & Cromwell in 2019 from the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia, where she served as an Assistant United States Attorney in both the Cyber Crime and Fraud and Public Corruption sections. In her capacity as an Assistant United States Attorney, Ms. Shields served as lead prosecutor in 13 jury trials, investigated and indicted dozens of cases, drafted and argued procedural and substantive motions, worked with expert witnesses, and coordinated with victims of fraud and other crimes. Prior to her government service, Ms. Shields was an associate in Sullivan & Cromwell’s New York office, where she focused on complex financial litigation and investigations. While an associate at S&C, Ms. Shields was recognized as a “Rising Star” by New York Super Lawyers (2013, 2014). Ms. Shields received her B.A. from Harvard University and her J.D. from Yale Law School.

Rachel Louise Snyder is the author of Fugitive Denim: A Moving Story of People and Pants in the Borderless World of Global Trade, the novel What We’ve Lost is Nothing, and No Visible Bruises: What We Don’t Know About Domestic Violence Can Kill Us. Her work has appeared in the New Yorker, the New York Times magazine, the Washington Post and on NPR, and she has been a Guggenheim recipient. No Visible Bruises was awarded the 2018 Lukas Work-in-Progress Award and received starred reviews from Kirkus, Book Riot and Publisher’s Weekly. It was a named one of the best books of 2019 by the Los Angeles Times, Esquire, Amazon, Kirkus, the Library Journal, the Economist, BookPage, and others. The New York Times included it in their “Top Ten” books of 2019.  No Visible Bruises was also a finalist for the Kirkus Award, the National Book Critics Circle Award, the LA Times Book Award, and the Silver Gavel Award. It won the 2020 Book Tube Prize and the 2020 New York Public Library’s Bernstein Award for Excellence in Journalism and the Sidney Hillman Book Award for social justice. Snyder holds a joint appointment as a professor in journalism and creative writing at American University.

Annette M. Stanley is intrigued by our human capacity to engender fairness, equality, and equity. Annette believes that we all recognize how fairness, equality, and equity can transform lives, communities, companies, and cultures, and how modeling these behaviors can create a new and positive dynamic. As a Principal at Gaillard Consulting, Annette looks to serve clients that allow her to stand in this truth and imbue these elements in the work that she does.

Before joining Gaillard Consulting, Annette held management positions in the chemical, pharmaceutical, and airline industries. She has consulted with and been a thought-partner to senior-level executives at numerous global firms, government agencies and non-profit institutions, including Pfizer, Southwest Airlines, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Columbia University, and the Ministry of Education in Lima, Peru. Annette was also an Adjunct Professor at the University of Maryland, where she taught the capstone course in Entrepreneurship and Innovation.

Alongside her work with Gaillard Consulting, Annette engages in various activities and forums that seek to uplift underserved communities. In this capacity, she has served on the Board of Directors to the YWCA-NCA. She is currently an advisor to Aspiring Women Now, an organization dedicated to empowering girls and women.

Annette has practitioner certifications in Change Management (Prosci) and Essential Facilitation (Interaction Associates). She has certifications in diversity, equity and inclusion, as well in design thinking. Annette has an MBA in Finance and an MA in International Affairs from Columbia University. Annette’s BA in Biology was conferred by Hampton University. Annette has also completed some graduate work in neurobiology, psychopharmacology, and non-profit management.

In her downtime, Annette enjoys the challenge and sereneness of sailing. Sailing lets her mind, body, and spirit imagine infinite possibilities and fulfills her sense of wanderlust.

Sara Tennen oversees the entire programmatic, operations, and development functions of DCVLP, ensuring ongoing programmatic excellence, rigorous evaluation, and consistent quality of finance and administration, fundraising, and communications. She leads strategic outreach to law firms and community partners, and works with our Director of Development to oversee fundraising efforts. She started her legal career as a prosecutor with Maricopa County Attorney’s Office in Arizona, where she prosecuted sex crimes against children. Sara later practiced family law in Arizona, Maryland, and the District. Sara has served as a court appointed guardian ad litem on behalf of numerous children in DC Superior Court. Ms. Tennen serves on the Superior Court Domestic Relations Branch Subcommittee and was a member of the Best Practices in Child Testimony Task Force, alongside other legal services providers and Superior Court Judges. She has extensive litigation experience questioning experts, dealing with foundational issues in trial, and interviewing children, both inside and outside the courtroom. Ms. Tennen, a trained mediator and forensic interviewer, earned a law degree and a Master’s degree in Social Work from Case Western Reserve University and a B.A. in Psychology and Women’s Studies from the University of Rochester.