Faculty (R-Z)

A – H | G – Q | R – Z

Jason Romrell

JASON ROMRELL

President and Chief Legal Officer, Budget Van Lines

Jason Romrell is President and Chief Legal Officer for Budget Van Lines, the country’s largest licensed household goods interstate transportation broker, where he is responsible for regulatory and corporate compliance, contract negotiation and administration, privacy and data protection and litigation management (primarily through hiring and supervising outside counsel). He is actively involved in the company’s reputation-management, social media and strategies.

Prior to joining Budget Van Lines, Jason was General Counsel for a national consumer data aggregator in Los Angeles where he helped position the company for rapid growth and a high-value acquisition. He continues to share his legal expertise in online lead-generation as CEO of tech-startup Attorney Boost LLC, which generates quality leads for lawyers working in small firm and solo practices.   He has coached solo practitioners and multi-national corporations in areas such as project planning, forecasting, sales strategies, goal setting, time management and a host of other business topics.

Jason received his J.D. cum laude from the University of Idaho College of Law where he served two terms as Student Bar President and received a BS with high honors in Communication from Idaho State University.

Roger Royse

ROGER ROYSE

Founder, Royse Law Firm

Roger Royse has practiced tax and corporate law since 1984. He provides services to a wide spectrum of clients, from newly formed startups to publicly traded multinationals, in a broad range of industries.

Roger sits on the boards of advisors to several companies and takes an active role in the strategic planning decisions of his client companies. Roger also acts as trusted advisor to a national and international clientele of high net worth individuals.

Roger is a thought leader on technical tax and legal topics, and is a prolific blogger, speaker and writer for industry, trade and technical organizations and publications, and has recently published Dead on Arrival: How to Avoid the Legal Mistakes that Could Kill Your Start-up. Roger is a participating instructor of corporate law for the Center for International Studies (Salzburg Austria) and has been an adjunct Professor of Taxation (Property Transactions and International Taxation) for Golden Gate University. Prior to founding the Royse Law Firm, Roger practiced with the Silicon Valley law firms of GCA Law Partners LLP (formerly General Counsel Associates LLP), Montgomery Law Group, LLP and Berliner Cohen, and the New York City office of Milbank Tweed Hadley and McCloy. Roger is an active member of the American Bar Association Tax Section and the Section of Business Law.

Roger is the founder of the philanthropic organization “Team Motion to Dismiss Cancer” which conducts high profile auctions of meetings with venture capitalists to raise money for charity and has been recognized for his efforts on behalf of The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society by being named the 2012 San Francisco bay area chapter Man of the Year.

Sheenika Shah

SHEENIKA SHAH

Business Development Website & CRM Coordinator, Knobbe Martens Olson & Bear

Sheenika Shah combines her love of law, technology and marketing as the Business Development Website & CRM Coordinator for Knobbe Martens Olson & Bear in Irvine, CA. Sheenika primarily focuses on maintaining the firm’s website, spearheading the firm’s social media use and ensuring CRM quality and success. As an attorney herself, Sheenika enjoys advising Knobbe Martens attorneys on how to optimize their website bios and how to use LinkedIn for business development purposes.

Sheenika earned her B.A. in International Relations and Business Administration from the University of San Diego and J.D. at California Western School of Law. In her free time, she serves as the Co-Chair of the Young Jains of America, a non-profit organization with over 4,000 active members, explores vegan restaurants in Southern California and enjoys traveling. You can connect with her on Twitter (@sheenikashah) and LinkedIn.

Yaacov Silberman

YAACOV SILBERMAN

Managing Partner, Rimon P.C.

Yaacov is Rimon’s Managing Partner, focusing on the internal operations and infrastructure of the firm. Yaacov’s innovations with Rimon have appeared in a wide array of publications, including the The Economist, The American Lawyer, AmLaw’s Law Technology News, Bloomberg, the California Daily Journal, the San Francisco Business Times, eLawyering and the National Post. He has been characterized as a “Legal Rebel” by the American Bar Association for his role in developing Rimon’s alternative business model.

Yaacov’s practice currently focuses on private equity, leveraged buyouts, and securities representation of founders, executives, and employees of some of the largest private companies in the world. He offers counsel on private sales of stock of Facebook, Twitter, Zynga, Bloom Energy, Gilt Groupe, Solar City and other pre-IPO companies.

Yaacov is a frequent volunteer for Legal Services for Entrepreneurs, a division of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights, providing pro bono representation to entrepreneurs in underserved communities. He is also a frequent speaker on the topic of cloud computing and Internet technologies in the legal industry.

Prior to Rimon, Yaacov was an attorney with the private equity and debt finance practice group of Ropes & Gray, LLP. Yaacov also clerked for Judge A. Jay Cristol of the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Florida. Before law school Yaacov was the Assistant Director of Web Content for TheLaw.com, one of the earliest legal resource websites on the Internet.

Nathaniel Slavin

NATHANIEL SLAVIN

Partner, The Wicker Park Group

At the Wicker Park Group, Nathaniel helps law firms strengthen and deepen their relationships with in-house counsel through client feedback and other client facing programs.

He is also the former publisher of InsideCounsel (Corporate Legal Times), the management monthly for corporate legal executives, as well as a series of specialty publications. His monthly column, Interactions, explored the issues that challenge legal departments and their law firms and businesses advisors. He was also cofounder and publisher of Business Without Borders. He is the author of more than 100 articles on legal department management and frequently speaks on legal department management and marketing strategies.

He was the 2007 President of the International Board of Directors of the Legal Marketing Association and was first elected to the Board in 2003. He is also on the Board of Directors of Across The Table and Open Books, He has been to 49 states and visited almost as many countries and briefly taught bilingual/bicultural English and History in Southern California.

Morgan C. Smith

MORGAN C. SMITH

President and Founder, Cogent Legal

Morgan C. Smith founded Cogent Legal in early 2011 to build a distinguished firm that specializes in litigation presentations and case consulting. He began his career as a trial attorney in 1993 and was a founding partner at The Arns Law Firm of San Francisco, where he excelled at complex litigation, class actions, personal injury and products liability. As a trial attorney, he enhanced his case presentations by leveraging his passion for art, photography and computer-assisted graphics. Morgan and his partners tried many cases with multimillion-dollar verdicts and settlements. He also handled over 30 appellate matters in State and Federal court, with numerous amicus briefs before the California Supreme Court.

Morgan’s in-depth understanding of every phase of litigation, combined with his hands-on and personable approach, enables Cogent Legal to offer its clients unparalleled and invaluable strategic collaboration.

Morgan’s blog addresses News, views and tips on litigation graphics, trial strategy and the law.

James Stapleton

JAMES STAPLETON

Chief Marketing and Business Development Officer, Littler Mendelson P.C.

James J. Stapleton is the Chief Marketing and Business Development Officer at Littler, Mendelson P. C. His responsibilities include:

• Developing and implementing business development and marketing strategy
• Overall business development results
• Marketing and business development initiatives
• Supervision of Client Relations staff
• Business development metrics and reports
• Business and market intelligence
• Client relations, feedback and post mortems
• Sales training, coaching and sales management
• Business development budget and vendor relations

Stapleton conducts efficiency analyses of partner business development efforts, including analysis and review of client wins, sourcing and retention. He also adapted measurement scorecards and dashboards to predict and measure effectiveness of business development activities and implemented client satisfaction and service programs to measure impact on individual client relationships.

Stapleton also reviews partner business development efforts and instituted weekly, monthly and quarterly sales and marketing reporting tools.

Prior to joining Littler Mendelson, James served in various national and international marketing, sales and knowledge management roles for PricewaterhouseCoopers, Arthur Andersen, Grant Thornton and Fenwick & West. He is a member of the Legal Marketing Association and the American Marketing Association.

Stacy Stern

STACY STERN

President, Justia.com

Stacy Stern is President of Justia.com, which is dedicated to enhancing the availability of legal resources for the benefit of society. She oversees all revenue and client operations, as well as marketing and partnerships. She also provides leadership on Justia’s legal portal’s content and community features. Stacy and her team have helped hundreds of law firms throughout the nation grow their practices with online marketing.

Previously, Stacy co-founded FindLaw in 1995 and was the President of that company until its acquisition by West Publishing in 2001. She graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Stanford University with an AB in communication. Stacy received her JD from Harvard Law School, where she served as an editor for the Harvard Environmental Law Review.

Adam L. Stock

ADAM L. STOCK

Director of Marketing and Business Development, Allen Matkins Leck Gamble Mallory & Natsis LLP

Adam Stock brings his passion of marketing and technology to helping law firms doing a better job providing value to their clients. Before joining the legal profession, Adam hired outside law firms as a high technology executive for Adobe Systems, Electronics for Imaging, Inc., and several start-up companies — two of which went public. Sales and Marketing Management Magazine named Mr. Stock a “Sales & Marketing Pioneer” and “Motivator of the Year” for his work in implementing sales systems in the legal industry.

He is frequent speaker on law firm sales, technology and video. Adam is the Chair of the 2012 Legal Marketing Technology Conference/West and on the Advisory Committee of the 2013 LMA National Conference. He is President-Elect of the LMA Bay Area Chapter and Co-Chair of Hildebrandt and West LegalEd’s Social and Digital Media for Law Firms 2012. He is a Board Member of the Legal Sales and Service Organization (LSSO), an educational and networking organization for legal sales and service professionals. He is also a co-founder of the Personal Broadband Industry Organization (PBIA), a marketing and lobbying organization in the telecommunications industry. He received his BS in computer science from Yale University.

John Stueve

JON STUEVE

Vice President and General Counsel, Glam Media

Jon Stueve is responsible for the company’s legal strategy and protection, intellectual property matters, and contractual obligations. He joined Glam Media from Ning where he served as Vice President and General Counsel. Prior to Ning, Stueve was Corporate Counsel at Opsware, where he oversaw corporate legal matters and helped guide the company through its sale to Hewlett Packard in 2007. Jon was previously an Associate at Fenwick & West LLP. He received a B.S. in Accounting from the University of Florida and earned his J.D. from the University of Pennsylvania School of Law.

Maggie Watkins

MAGGIE WATKINS

Chief Marketing and Business Development Officer, Best Best & Krieger LLP

Maggie Watkins is the Chief Marketing and Business Development Officer of Best Best & Krieger LLP. She is responsible for all of the firm’s marketing, business development and communications initiatives.

Prior to joining BB&K, Maggie was the Chief Marketing Officer and Director of Marketing and Communications at an international publicly traded expert services and consulting firm and President/CEO of a network of independent full service business law firms in 60 countries, encompassing 5,000+ lawyers. She has tenure with a large regional law firm and several local and international accounting and insurance firms.

She is a Past Chair and Board Member of the international Board of the Legal Marketing Association(LMA), and past Chair of the national  Board of the Association of Accounting Marketing ( AAM). Maggie is a frequent speaker talking on a variety of marketing, business development and communications topics. In 2012, Maggie was named by the San Diego Business Journal as one of San Diego’s Marketing Professionals of The Year.

Jeff Yerkey

JEFF YERKEY

Interactive Director, Right Hat LLC

As Right Hat’s web/interactive director and head of the San Francisco office, Jeff Yerkey brings a remarkable breadth and depth of experience to every project. Jeff was hands-on in the Internet at its first developing years, and with San Francisco at the epicenter of the Internet boom, he was involved with many of the formative issues and companies of the commercial development of the web. As a web designer and art director, Jeff has the background to understand and integrate the specialized skills of site architecture, user experience, mobile and brand integration, search experience, SEO, and more.

Jeff’s expertise in  design for law firms dates back to Orrick and other clients in 1986. Recent global website projects that Jeff has helmed include Pillsbury Winthrop, Fried Frank, K&L Gates, Keker & Van Nest, Waller, Miller & Chevalier, Foley Hoag, to name a few.

A graduate of Michigan State University, Jeff began designing 30 years ago as an editorial designer for The Lansing Star and he later served as a multimedia designer and producer at Studio Arts in Louisville, Kentucky. While there, he designed and produced creative for accounts, including Coca-Cola, General Electric, Ford Motor Company, and KFC. In 1996 he then founded Charette Communication Design, Inc. A design and web studio, Charette’s representative clients included DLA Piper, Shearman & Sterling, Skadden, Chronicle Books, and 20th Century Fox/Blue Sky Studios.

He is frequently called on as a public speaker and has participated in speaking engagements at the Bay Area Legal Marketing Association, the ALA, Computer Arts Institute, and University of California at Berkeley. He has been a three-time judge for the Bay Area Legal Marketing Association “Your Honor” Awards and is currently web design chair for the LMA 2011-2012 Technology Conference/West.