Page 45 - NYLS Magazine • 2015 • Vol. 34, No. 1

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tesSeND uS Your NewS!
New York Law School Magazine would like to hear from you! Please let us know about
your professional accomplishments, personal milestones, and/or any other news you would like to share with the New York Law School community. Send us your news via e-mail to magazine@nyls.edu or via the Web at www.nyls.edu/magazine.
Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center as Law School were mentioned Contracts at the U.S. Department
planning and in Surrogate’s Court litigation, and residential real estate in and around New York City.
Katherine Blostein was elected partner in Outten & Golden LLP’s New York office. She is co-chair of the firm’s Executive and Professionals Practice Group and the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Workplace Rights Practice Group. She mainly represents individuals in negotiation of matters related
to severance, employment, noncompetition, expatriate,
and international assignment agreements, as well as partnership and equity ownership matters. She is also a member of the
firm’s Financial Services, Family Responsibilities and Disabilities Discrimination, and Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender (LGBT) Workplace Rights Practice Groups.
William Vidal received the Municipal Affairs Award, presented by the New York City Bar Association in June 2014 to recognize outstanding achievement as an Assistant Corporation Counsel. He is an attorney in the New York City Law Department’s Commercial and Real Estate Litigation Division.
2008
Michelle Benedetto received
the Municipal Affairs Award, presented by the New York City Bar Association in June 2014 to recognize outstanding achievement as an Assistant Corporation Counsel. She has since August 2014 been an associate at Kaufman Borgeest & Ryan LLP in New York.
well as a Cantor in the Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn and Queens. She has a bachelor’s and master’s degree in Music from Augsburg College and the Manhattan School of Music.
2005
Zachary A. Aria was elected partner in the Philadelphia office of Blank Rome LLP effective January 1, 2015. He focuses on all aspects of intellectual property law, including trademarks, copyrights, domain names, fair use, unfair competition, right of privacy, right of publicity, false advertising, and counterfeiting. His emphasis is on counseling, negotiation and litigation, global portfolio management, trademark clearance, prosecution of trademark applications, oppositions, cancellations, Ex Parte Appeals at the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board, and copyright protection and domain name acquisition and litigation.
Frank Chaney joined Rosenberg & Estis, P.C. in New York as of counsel in the firm’s transactional department in June 2014. Mr. Chaney is an expert in zoning,
land use, and environmental law. He has served in New York City’s Department of City Planning and the Mayor’s Office of Construction. He advises and represents clients on a wide range of land use
matters such as rezonings, special permits, variances, air rights transfers, zoning lot mergers, and development agreements.
Michael Santorelli and the Advanced Communications Law and Policy Institute at New York
in “City, State and Federal Governments Are Fighting Over Chattanooga’s Effort to Bring Broadband to Rural Consumers” in The Washington Post and Bloomberg Law in August 2014 and “The Net’s Fallow Lands” in The New York Times in November 2014. He is a Director of the Advanced Communications Law and Policy Institute (ACLP) at New York Law School. In that capacity, he oversees all aspects of the ACLP’s research and scholarly writing, as well as developing and maintaining the ACLP’s core program. Prior to joining the ACLP, he was the Policy Director for the New York City Council’s Committee on Technology in Government.
Cheryl Foster Smith joined Robinson Waters & O’Dorsio
as an associate attorney in July 2014. She will be expanding the firm’s family law and domestic relations practice areas in its Denver, Colorado, office. Her work includes drafting and negotiating prenuptial agreements and post- nuptial agreements; dissolution
of marriage; high net-worth matters; custody battles including parental alienation, maintenance, and child support; modifications to orders and agreements; enforcement; and contempt. Prior to joining Robinson Waters, Ms. Smith worked in two boutique matrimonial law firms in New York City.
2006
Michael Lazzeri writes that
he was appointed as Assistant Administrator for Government
of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division in April 2014. He oversees production of prevailing wages on federal contracts and enforcement of the various federal prevailing wage laws. He was previously Director, Division of Enforcement Policy and Procedures, at the Department of Labor.
Camille Mackler was featured in “New York Immigration Groups Prepare to Meet Demands of New Policy” in The New York Times
in November 2014 and quoted
in “Preparing for Immigration Reform, and Warning of Potential Fraud” in The New York Times
in December 2014. She is the director of legal initiatives for the New York Immigration Coalition and the co-chair of the Media and Advocacy committee for the New York Chapter of the American Immigration Lawyers Association
Debbie Yee was elected to partnership at Latham & Watkins LLP in Houston, Texas in October 2014 and featured as a “Dealmaker of the Week” in American Lawyer in January 2015. She is a member of the Corporate Department, whose practice focuses on representing companies and investment banks in equity and debt capital markets transactions, as well as companies in M&A transactions and other general corporate matters.
2007
Matthew B. Abrams writes that he and David M. Deemer ’09 formed Abrams Deemer PLLC at the beginning of 2015. Their firm focuses primarily on the fields of trusts and estates, both in estate
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