Perspectives on Litigation Best Practices (Oakland)

MCLE: 1 hour

The Practice Program for the Northern District of California invites you to an informal program that will provide an opportunity for attorneys to hear from Northern District Judges, in-house counsel, and a private practitioner regarding Litigation Best Practices. The Panel will include:

Magistrate Judge Donna M. Ryu was a Clinical Professor of Law at U.C. Hastings and at Golden Gate University Law School, prior to taking the bench in 2010. She began her career as a commercial litigator at a large San Francisco firm and has extensive experience in complex civil litigation, including discovery, motions and trials. She graduated with honors from Yale University and received her law degree from U.C. Berkeley Law School, where she continues to teach as a Lecturer.

Magistrate Judge Kandis Westmore began her legal career at an Oakland-based boutique plaintiff’s civil rights law firm, prior to taking the bench in 2012. She was an Oakland Deputy City Attorney for 13 years, defending the City and its employees on a wide range of complex litigation in federal and state trial and appellate courts. She graduated from the U.C. Berkeley and received her law degree from the USF School of Law. As a law student, she served as a judicial extern to the Honorable Saundra Brown Armstrong of this Court.

Makesha Patterson is Senior Litigation Counsel at Google, Inc., San Francisco, handling a wide variety of matters, including defamation, consumer class actions, trademark, copyright, privacy, commercial, and environmental litigation. Previously, Makesha was a litigation associate at Allen Matkins Leck Gamble Mallory & Natsis in San Francisco. She earned her bachelor’s degree in architectural engineering from Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo and her law degree from U.C. Davis School of Law.

Nora Puckett is also Senior Litigation Counsel at Google Inc., handling regulatory and litigation matters, such as class actions, trademark, copyright, and commercial disputes. Prior to joining Google, Nora was counsel at O’Melveny & Myers in San Francisco, where she defended patent infringement, insurance coverage, and employment classification class action cases. Nora began her career as an associate in New York in Dewey Ballantine’s litigation department, after graduating from NY University School of Law.

Justina Kahn Sessions is an associate at Keker, Van Nest & Peters LLP, focusing on antitrust and IP litigation, representing established companies and startups in complex matters in the Northern District and across the US. Tina graduated from Yale University and received her law degree magna cum laude from the University of Michigan Law School. Before joining KVP, she clerked for the Honorable Claire V. Eagan of the Northern District of Oklahoma and the Honorable Mary Beck Briscoe of the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals.

The Program will include opportunities to learn:

• The expectations of judges, in-house counsel, and private practitioners regarding discovery, briefwriting, oral argument, and more, as well as the nuts and bolts of getting these done, and
• From each other by asking questions of the panelists and sharing your own experiences

New attorneys and summer associates are especially encouraged to attend.

There is no charge for this Program; however, since space in the courtroom is limited,
please register online in advance. If you have questions, call Daniel Bowling, Executive Director of the Practice Program at 415-331-5158.

The Northern District of California Practice Program is a State Bar of California
Approved MCLE Provider.