Women's Leadership Conference

Moderator:

Roselind Hallinan ‘14
Counsel, Wollmuth Maher & Deutsch

Roselind represents clients, financial institutions, insurance companies, and individuals in a broad range of complex civil litigation. She has experience in both state and federal courts, and handles all aspects of litigation, including analysis of claims and defenses, fact discovery, depositions, motion practice, expert discovery, trial preparation, and settlement. She’s the founder and chair of Wollmuth Maher & Deutsch’s Women’s Committee, which focuses on community development, networking, and professional advancement. During her time in law school, she was an associate managing editor of the St. John’s Law Review and Journal of Catholic Legal Studies. Today, Roselind serves on the Steering Committee of the St. John’s Law Alumni Association Alumnae Leadership Council. 

Panelists:

Rose Charles ‘98
Senior VP - Client Engagement Executive, Sompo International 

Rose is an established litigator who handles a broad and varied range of civil litigation, with a focus on complex premises security, false arrest, excessive force, labor law, life science, transportation, environmental, and general liability matters with multi-million-dollar exposures. She’s a strategic leader with an established history of creating departments, identifying needs, and being customer-centric with a strategic and analytical approach. Rose also has experience in executive and senior management, contract drafting and negotiation, complex coverage, class action matters, claim strategy, and litigation management. Formerly, she was Executive VP and head of Sompo GRS Casualty, Auto and Environmental Claims. Before joining Sompo, she was VP - Primary and Excess Claims Counsel at Endurance. Rose was also a partner at Wilson Elser. She serves as advisor to the Board of the Association of Professional Insurance Women. 

Erika Lee, ‘99
Managing Director & Global Head of Business Unit Risk, Morgan Stanley

Erika is a corporate lawyer with over 20 years of experience in business, finance, and corporate law matters. In her role at Morgan Stanley, Erika combines a comprehensive understanding of the firm’s core institutional businesses and products, including investment banking, capital markets, and sales and trading, all with strong legal and regulatory analytical and communication skills. She develops and implements a business risk framework that aligns with the firm’s capital markets business strategy. Upon graduation from St. John’s Law, Erika practiced corporate and securities law with Wall Street firm Cahill, Gordon & Reindel. Erika has had an accomplished career at Morgan Stanley, becoming Head of Americas Business Unit Risk, and most recently, she rose to her current role as Global Head of Business Unit Risk. During her time at St. John’s Law, she was the editor-in-chief of the St. John’s Journal of Legal Commentary. Erika was born in Harare, Zimbabwe and immigrated to the United States with her family at a young age. She is the second in her immediate family to obtain an undergraduate and juris doctorate degree.  

Lyris Malajian, ‘08
Vice President and Assistant General Counsel, Pandora Media LLC 

Lyris provides strategic legal advice to clients in advertising, marketing, tech, media, and content. At Pandora, she negotiates complex commercial agreements for digital advertising and brand marketing initiatives, advises the data operations and monetization teams, and leads the rights and clearances process for all custom content produced by the marketing, social media, and creative teams. In addition, she provides legal guidance and negotiates contracts for co-branded initiatives, experiential marketing, sales marketing, virtual events, editorial, social media, talent, and influencers. As a leader, she manages a team that supports and counsels the advertising, marketing, creative, and revenue operations organizations. Before joining Pandora, she worked at A+E Television Networks, where she provided legal support on rights and clearances issues to the international programming, consumer products, and digital media teams. She began her legal career as a law clerk at the New York County Supreme Court, Civil Division. 
 

Here are written and other materials that support and supplement this session:

How to Find Mentors & Sponsors During the COVID-19 Era (Thomson Reuters)

Proactively Establishing a Valuable Mentor Network (Law Practice Today)

The Why and How of Networking (ABA) 

How to Find the Time to Connect with Colleagues When You’re Very, Very Busy (Harvard Business Review)

Advice for the Young Lawyer: Why Self-Promotion is Savvy, Not Shameless (DRI, For the Defense Magazine)

Mastering the Art of Self-Promotion for Lawyers of Color, Part 2 (Thomson Reuters)

How to Develop a Focused Personal Brand (The National Law Review)

How to Build and Leverage Your Legal Brand on LinkedIn (ABA Journal)

TED Talk: How to Find the Person Who Can Help You Get Ahead at Work (Carla Harris)

TEDx Talks: If Networking Feels Gross, You’re Doing it Wrong (Dr. Daniel Hallak)

Podcast: The Art of Shameless Self-Promotion (Legal Talk Network)

Moderator:

Queenie Paniagua ‘12
Associate, Sack & Sack

Queenie’s practice focuses on representing employees, executives, and partners primarily in the financial services industry, and in all areas of employment law against the most reputable law firms worldwide. As a former Brooklyn prosecutor, Queenie employs her extensive litigation experience in the zealous pursuit of her clients’ interests. Before joining Sack & Sack, Queenie spent over six years at the Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office. There, she prosecuted hundreds of criminal cases from arrest to plea or trial, including attempted murders, robberies, and vehicular fatalities. In less than five years at the DA’s Office, Queenie was promoted to Deputy Bureau Chief, where she supervised and trained 20 assistant district attorneys and oversaw their prosecution of thousands of misdemeanor cases. Queenie began her legal career as a staff attorney with the New York Legal Assistance Group. She’s very involved with her law school alma mater, sitting on the St. John’s University Board of Governors, the St. John’s Law Dean's Council, and the Steering Committee of the St. John’s Law Alumni Association Alumnae Leadership Council. Queenie chairs the disciplinary committee of Community Board 12, where she was appointed by the Bronx Borough President. She’s a former president of the Dominican Bar Association. 

Panelists:

Cindy Chen Delano ‘04 
Co-Founder and Partner, Invictus Global Management LLC 

In early 2019, Cindy co-founded Invictus after serving as the Senior Legal Analyst on the credit investment team at Whitebox Advisors. She and her co-founder paired their complementary investing and legal expertise to build the cornerstone of Invictus’ differentiated investment strategy. Cindy implements holistic legal analysis and bankruptcy and litigation expertise into every stage of the investing process. She also leads the firm’s strategic activism in its investments. Earlier in her career, Cindy served as Associate General Counsel at AIG Investments. Prior, she was a practicing bankruptcy attorney at various firms, including Kirkland & Ellis; Weil, Gotshal & Manges; and Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy. In those roles, she represented both debtors and creditors in complex, high stakes bankruptcies and restructurings.  

Kristin Going ‘02LLM
Co-Managing Partner, NY Office, McDermott, Will & Emery 

As a partner in the business restructuring practice at McDermott, Kristin represents clients in bankruptcy and insolvency proceedings. She concentrates her practice in commercial bankruptcy and insolvency matters, creditors’ rights, out-of-court workouts and restructurings, and financial services litigation. She has represented a broad array of clients, including loan agents and indenture trustees, secured lenders, corporate boards, officers, directors, creditors’ committees, bondholder committees, unsecured creditors, chapter 11 debtors, commercial landlords, insurance companies, and entities seeking to acquire assets through a chapter 11 bankruptcy. She’s also a member of the firm-wide management committee. Kristin has been named one of the top 100 female lawyers in New York City by Crains New York Business and was recognized by Chambers USA as a leading restructuring lawyer. Kristin is an adjunct professor at St. John’s Law. 

Valerie Capers Workman ‘90
Chief Legal Officer, Handshake (Former VP, People, Tesla)   

As a global, C-Level business executive and recognized hyper-scale expert, Valerie fuses 20 years of corporate governance, strategic operations, human capital management, regulatory compliance and M&A experience. Currently, she serves as the CLO for Handshake, the #1 place where college students find their first job. She’s guided iconic consumer brand growth and new market entry for Tesla, FOCUS Brands, Realogy, and Wyndham Hotels & Resorts. As Tesla’s People Leader, Valerie reported directly to the CEO and steered the governance and legal compliance operations that paved the way for the construction of Tesla’s Shanghai and Berlin Gigafactories. Her work helped double Tesla’s global workforce. She published Tesla’s first ever DEI Report, created a comprehensive online Employee Guidebook, enhanced pay equity processes, and expanded mental health benefits. Valerie also led the creation and roll out of Tesla's company-wide "Respectful Recharge" training. Valerie is the author of the soon-to-be-released book, Quantum Progression: The Art & Science of Career Advancement in the Age of A.I., now available for pre-order at Barnes & Noble online. She’s also a proud member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority and Black Women on Boards. She’s admitted to practice law in New York, Texas, and Washington, D.C. 

Here are written and other materials that support and supplement this session:

Networking: How Successful Lawyers Do It and Why You Should, Too (ABA Journal)

Five Impactful Lessons For Female Leaders In All Stages Of Work (Forbes)

Seven Tips For Female Lawyers From Women Who Made it to The Top (Law.com)

The Right Way to Find a Career Sponsor (Harvard Business Review)

Why It’s Important To Take Risks To Further Your Career (Forbes)

20 Effective Ways to Build Your Personal Brand (The National Law Review)