Class of 1995
Marsha Ferziger Nagorsky
University of Chicago Law School
1111 E. 60th St.
Chicago, IL 60637
It's the fall of 2002, which means something special to me. Jamie Green said it best: “I can’t believe it’s been 10 years since Orientation.” That's right – we've all known each other for ten years. And what an interesting ten years it has been! Just the sheer number of children that the class of 1995 has brought into the world since we started out together is enough to make my head spin!
Now that we've gone to twice-yearly issues of the Record, there's considerably less to write about each time. As always, however, there is much good news. It's getting harder to break down the news into categories, especially since a bunch of people wrote in who never have before….so here goes!
First, Dan Hulme and his wife Kat welcomed Anne Olivia into the world in March, 2002. She's quite beautiful! Second (only in time, not in importance!) Sarah and Salil Mehra also have a new baby girl! Genevieve Elizabeth Mehra was born March 15 at a lucky 7 pounds, 20-1/4 inches. Photos of Genevieve (known affectionately as "Baby G") are available on the website. Congratulations to all the former residents of 5635 S. Dorchester! Sarah reports that all is well with her and Salil – She reports that Salil is playingMr. Mom this summer watching Genevieve all day when Sarah is at her office and trying to sneak in work on articles while she naps. You can look for two pre-Genevieve articles by Salil in the Columbia Journal of Transnational Law and the Virginia Journal of International Law. Sarah says, "other than that, we mainly spend our time doting on Genevieve, which she accepts as her due for learning how to sleep through the night for 10 hours at a clip by the time she was 3 months old. Seems like a good deal to us."
Ramona and Brian Massengill welcomed baby Eleanor into their home on February 18, 2002. You can see a photo of Eleanor and Ramona on the web page…. Yuval Tal wrote to announce the birth of his son, Emile Chaim Demenge Tal, born March 22, 2002. He says, “as you can see, he is the cutest child on earth and its more and more fun every day.” You can see a photo on the web. Yuval reports that he is still at Proskauer and still enjoying it. He and Isabelle are still looking for an apartment “so junior will have more to demolish.”
Dan Shallman wrote for the first time since graduation, saying that he “might as well finally share some news for the Record”. Dan is currently an Assistant U.S. Attorney in Los Angeles, prosecuting public corruption and fraud cases (he recently prosecuted a developer for trying to bribe a local mayor) and can report that “L.A. is just as corrupt as Chicago.” In November '01, Dan married the “wonderful and talented Ellen Smooke Shallman” who he met a few years ago before leaving Gibson, Dunn….. David Hoffman is still fighting crime in Chicago, but more importantly married Monique Moore in August. He says she is “fantastic.”
Kortney Kloppe-Orton and husband guy recently moved back to their hometown of San Antonio. Kortney took a position as a staff attorney with Akin Gump. Guy is working for a start-up that offers various video internet services (Kortney was quick to say “not porn”). Kortney has been busy as well spending time on “vacation” with her four neices and nephews!….Bjarne Tellmann is living quite the life, as always. He and Alessandra have relocated to Vienna Austria. He is still Deputy General Counsel at Coca-Cola HBC. He says “for now we are loving life here and are considering taking waltz lessons to cope with the Ball Season which apparently requires you to know something about these things (which I absolutely do not!)... I also suspect that this Winter we will be skiing much more than we were in London...” Don’t you feel sorry for him?
Katherine Strandburg has had a big year! This fall she begins full time on the faculty of DePaul College of Law teaching intellectual property law. She also remains of counsel to the almost-two-year-old firm of Mulroy Scandaglia Marrinson Ryan…. Liam McEntegart is now working as a barrister in the commercial litigation area. He’s still in New Zealand.
Stan-Pierre Louis has been promoted at RIAA. In mid-May, Stan was promoted to Vice President of Legal Affiars. Congratulations!…Jamie Green says he’s still serving as “lawyer to the stars” at Santa Monica’s Greenberg Traurig. His son Joseph, turned three in June and started pre-school in July!
John Eastman recently appeared on The O'Reilly Factor to discuss the Ninth Circuit generally and its recent Pledge of Allegiance decision in particular. He did a great job, and looks just like I remember him!….Ana Dias (now Ana Luiza Domene) has also never written but she says that “this seemed like a good time.” Ana is doing very well and just came back from vacationing in an island located on the northeast part of Brazil called Fernando de Noronha. She and her husband Rogerio were there to celebrate their forth wedding anniversary. She recently left her old firm together with another 30 lawyers to form a new firm called Koury Lopes Advogados. She is now the partner responsible for the banking and finance practice. She reported that she and Rogerio attended Yuval Tal’s wedding in France and while there saw David Carthy, Ana Viladas, Stan Brijs and Pontus Halengren.
Robert Pfeffer will be attending Oxford University starting the Fall – he’ll be pursuing a M. Science in Criminology. For now, he’s still practicing at Cravath. More excitingly, he’s participating in the Greenwich Village Songwriter’s Exchange, having written approximately 100 songs since 2000 and performing in local venues!….Tom Savage has recently started working with the China practice group at Wilson Sonsini, saying “notwithstanding that I don’t speak a word of Chinese.” He says the work is interesting, but can be challenging, given that the work week in China begins at about 5pm on Sunday, California time.
Scott Toban wrote to tell me that he, Lindsey and Drew have moved to the burbs! They’ve bought a house out in Deerfield, but Drew is still spending lots of time with his best friend, Brooke Baker. I also got a postcard from Lindsey saying that she and Scott are expecting baby #2 in November! Scott also let me know that congratulations are in order for Jeff Richards, who recently made partner at Kirkland & Ellis!….John Cox dropped me a line to say that he and Julie have moved back to Chicago! John returned to Jenner & Block, which Julie will continue to be at McDermott, Will & Emery. John also mentioned that their son Matthew will be getting a new little sibling in August!
And on a final note, we have another author in our class! Scott Gaille has recently published his first novel! It’s called The Law Review and you can order it at Amazon.com or at Barnes & Noble. The review at barnesandnoble.com begins, "In The Law Review attorney S. Scott Gaille sets the record straight about how lawyers get their start. Himself a graduate of the law school at the University of Chicago, he writes knowingly about the pressure, the collision of exigency and idealism, the cost to personal relationships, as the brightest, if not the best, begin their legal studies. "In other words - it’s sort of about us! At least the nasty, murdering, novelized version of us... Congrats to Scott, and I can’t wait to read it!
That's all the news that's fit to print. Brian and I are well in Chicago, and I am still greatly enjoying working at the Law School. I hope all remains well with all of you, and that you look back on this ten years as fondly as I do.