Personal Jurisdiction

Jennifer Belmont Jennings is an estate planning attorney at MGD Law in St. Louis, Missouri.  Prior to her current role, Jennifer was a wealth advisor at Wells Fargo Advisors and Hightower Wealth Advisors, both in St. Louis. Jennifer is a Certified Financial Planner. She is also one of the co-authors of Women in Law: Discovering the True Meaning of Success. Jennifer is a committed community volunte...

Elissa Knoff is a partner at Bookoff McAndrews, a boutique patent counseling and prosecution firm in Washington, D.C. In her role at the firm, Elissa counsels companies on developing and leveraging their patent portfolios. She represents clients ranging from startups filing their first patent application to Fortune 500 companies. Through secondments, Elissa has worked in-house at a major medical d...

Sherri Burr is the Dickason Chair and Regents Professor Emerita at the University of New Mexico School of Law . Sherri joined the UNM faculty in 1988, after receiving her bachelors from Mount Holyoke College, a master’s in International Relations from Princeton’s School of Public and International Affairs, and her JD from Yale Law School. Sherri was the first African American woman to receive tenu...

Sophie Dye Gayle is the Director of Legal Education and Innovation at Themis Bar Review . She has been with Themis for over 15 years. Sophie earned her JD from Loyola University Chicago School of Law and her BA from Loyola University New Orleans .  Get new episodes by email by subscribing to our Substack !  Thank you to our sponsor, Themis Bar Review !  Find us online at https://www.pers...

Victoria is a global government enforcement attorney at Trafigura in Geneva, Switzerland.  Before her current role, Victoria was an internal monitor and senior legal counsel at HSBC in London. Victoria has experience in private practice both in the UK and in the US. She was a white collar attorney at Steptoe and Johnson and at Katten in Chicago. She has experience guiding financial institutions, m...

Michael Bloom is the founder and CEO of Praktio , an interactive online learning platform for training in contracts, transactional skills, and litigation skills. Michael has also served as a Clinical Assistant Professor at the University of Michigan Law School, where he founded and directed the Transactional Lab & Clinic, as a Lecturer in law at the University of Chicago Law School, and as an asso...

Patrick Maillet is currently Government Relations Counsel at the Legal Services Corporation (LSC) in Washington, DC. LSC is the largest national funder of civil legal aid for low-income Americans, ensuring equal access to justice for those who need it most. Since it was established by Congress in 1974, LSC has operated as an independent nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization, providing essential grants...

The views expressed in this interview are those of the guest and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the United States Air Force Academy, the United States Air Force, or the U.S. Government. PA#: USAFA-DF-2025-765 Christopher Bailey is an Assistant Professor of Law and Senior Military Faculty at the United States Air Force Academy , as well as a United States Air Force Ju...

Diana Tafur is a Senior Technical Advisor at the International Rescue Committee. She is based in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Prior to this role, Diana was a Supervising Attorney at the Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services (RAICES) in San Antonio, Texas. Diana also served as a Supervising Attorney at the National Immigrant Justice Center in Chicago and a Legal Advocate at K...

Clare Diegel is the Director of the Professional Standards Division at the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office in Minnesota. Prior to this role, Clare was a staff attorney at the ACLU of Minnesota, and a public defender in both Minnesota and Seattle. Clare also clerked at both the federal district and circuit court levels, first in the Central District of Illinois and later on the Ninth Circuit. Bet...

Tamany Vinson Bentz is the founding partner of California IP Law , a boutique law firm in Manhattan Beach, California dedicated to helping small and growing businesses establish and protect their intellectual property. Tamany helps clients navigate the landscape of technology and media, focusing her efforts on intellectual property matters, including copyrights, patents, trade secrets, and tradema...

The Honorable Kevin Newsom is a graduate of Samford University and Harvard Law School. After law school, he clerked for Judge O’Scannlain on the Ninth Circuit, and went on to clerk for United States Supreme Court Justice David Souter. Between and after his clerkships, Judge Newsom worked at Covington & Burling in Washington, D.C. In 2003, he was appointed the State of Alabama’s Solicitor General....

Tom Peabody is an Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois. Prior to becoming an AUSA, Tom worked at Katten in Chicago, and clerked for the Honorable Amy St. Eve first at the district court level in the Northern District of Illinois and later on the Seventh Circuit.  Tom is a graduate of Washington University School of Law, in St. Louis, and DePaul University in Chicago.  *All...

Christina Otero Geeza is a partner at Otero Geeza Law in Miami, Florida. She has a broad corporate practice with a concentration on various types of lending transactions and real estate matters, as well as trust and estate matters. Prior to moving back home to Miami, Christina worked at Katten Muchin Rosenman in Chicago in the commercial finance department, where her practice focused on representi...

Zac Byer is the Director of Litigation and Intellectual Property at Activision Blizzard. Prior to going in-house, Zac worked at Kirkland & Ellis in both Washington, D.C. and California, where he started as an associate and later made partner. He has also worked at King & Spalding in their Los Angeles Office, and he clerked on the Sixth Circuit for the Honorable Deborah L. Cook.   Zac is a 2010 gra...

Is the July 2025 bar exam already stressing you out? Are you thinking about adding another jurisdiction to your practice? If you're taking the bar exam, this episode is for you! We chat with Rebecca Petrilli, the bar exam expert from Themis Bar Review, about the top 5 tips for bar exam study, common roadblocks in studying, how to personalize your bar exam studying to work best for you, strategies...

Chris Louis-Jacques is a 3L at the University of Georgia School of Law in Athens, Georgia. He will graduate from UGA Law in May 2025. Chris serves on the editorial board of the Georgia Journal of International and Comparative Law, was a Teaching Assistant for Professor Anna Howard’s Legal Writing Class, and spoke at the 2024 HBCU Pre-Law Summit last September.  Chris is a 2021 graduate of Kennesaw...

This episode was created in partnership with the University of New Mexico School of Law’s Association of Public Interest Law (or APIL) and New Mexico’s very own Equal Access to Justice . APIL provides funding and education related to public interest law to UNM’s law students. And EAJ supports some of the most important public interest organizations in the state, including New Mexico Legal Aid, the...

Yvette Diaz is an attorney at Freese & Goss, PLLC in Dallas, Texas, where she focused her practice on personal injury and mass tort law. As a plaintiff’s attorney, Yvette represents individuals injured in car accidents, 18-wheeler collisions, motorcycle collisions, pedestrian collisions, slip and falls, general negligence, work injuries, and dog bite cases. Yvette is a trial attorney. She tries ca...

Episode #74 compiles the "success" responses from the following wonderful Season 3 Guests: E34: David Lat, Lawyer Turned Writer and Commentator on the Legal Profession E35: Abimbola Oladokun, Lead Counsel, General Litigation at Meta E36: Nathan Brenner, Attorney, Mergers IV at the Federal Trade Commission E37: Wookie Kim, Legal Director at the ACLU of Hawaii  E38: Sharonmoyee Goswami, Partner at C...

Jeremy Wilson is VP of Legal at Fabletics and TechStyleOS in Los Angeles, California, where he has worked for over three years. Jeremy began his legal career at Vedder Price in Chicago doing mergers and acquisitions work before moving to Winston & Strawn LLP, where he was an associate in the Venture Capital and Private Equity group.  He then moved in-house and became the Director of Legal at JLL,...

Stacy Rummel Bratcher is the Chief Legal Officer at Cottage Health in California, where she has worked for over four years. Prior to joining Cottage Health, Stacy held many in-house roles during her nearly fifteen years at the University of Southern California . Stacy started her legal career at Hooper, Lundy & Bookman , PC (in Los Angeles), the nation's largest healthcare firm.  Stacy hosts The L...

Jason Burch is the Legal Director of US Regulatory at Uber , where he has worked for over six years. Prior to joining Uber, Jason was an associate in the Chicago and New York offices of Sidley Austin . He has served on the Board of Directors of the National LGBTQ+ Bar Association , and currently serves on the Board of Directors of Dibbs . He was also a professional baseball player for over five ye...

Amy Chua is the John M. Duff, Jr. Professor of Law at Yale Law School where she teaches contracts and international business transactions, among other things. Her areas of expertise include international business transactions, law and development, ethnic conflict, and globalization and the law. You may also recognize Amy as the author of the international bestselling memoir Battle Hymn of the Tige...

Bryan Nese is a partner in the D.C. office of Mayer Brown where practices complex patent litigation, both in district court and at the International Trade Commission.  Bryan is a graduate of Rowan University and George Washington University Law School. He also has a Master of Science from Pennsylvania State University.  Thank you to our sponsor, Themis Bar Review !  Listen to this episode for a sp...