Orange County WIL Conference: The Power and Influence that Comes from a Law Degree

The 3rd Annual JRCLS WIL Regional Conference is scheduled for September 19, 2015 in Orange, California. Addressing the topic of “The Power and Influence That Comes From a Law Degree” are panelists, Rick Richmond, Melissa Richmond and Catharine Richmond.

                                            

Those that wish to attend can find more information at http://jrclswilconference.yolasite.com/

 

We hope to see you there. #jrclswilca2015

 

Rick Richmond

 

Rick Richmond manages the Los Angeles office of the international law firm Jenner & Block. He founded the office in 2009 with one younger attorney. The office is now home to 40 attorneys who litigate cases and handle corporate transactions at the highest levels of quality and sophistication. Jenner & Block has been selected multiple times as one of the 20 elite national firms on the American Lawyer’s “A-List” and has been recognized as the #1 law firm nationwide by the American Lawyer for pro bono efforts in five of the last eight years. Rick represents clients in commercial litigation matters ranging from contracts, class actions, and fraud to intellectual property, employment, and construction defects. He has tried two dozen cases in state and federal courts and in arbitrations and argued nearly 20 appeals.

 

Prior to Jenner & Block, Rick was an associate and partner at the law firm of Kirkland & Ellis for 20 years. He also served for two years on the Appellate Staff of the Civil Division of the U.S. Department of Justice and was a law clerk to Judge Harlington Wood Jr. of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. Rick is an honors graduate of the law school at George Washington University and a cum laude graduate of Brigham Young University.

 

Rick has served as: Chair, Criminal Justice Legal Foundation; Chair, J. Reuben Clark Law Society (Los Angeles chapter); Chair, Los Angeles Eagle Scout Association; President, George Washington Law Alumni Association; Secretary, California Club; Director, Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce; Director, Los Angeles Area Council of the Boy Scouts of America; Advisory Committee Member, Claremont Institute’s Center for Constitutional Jurisprudence; Mormon Studies Council, The Claremont Graduate University; Advisory Board Member, George Washington University Law School; and Advisory Committee Member, The Federalist Society (Los Angeles chapter).

 

Rick has been married to the former Linda Ann DeGraw for 33 years. They are the parents of Melissa and Catharine, who join Rick on this panel, and a teenage son, David.

---

Melissa Richmond

 

Melissa Richmond is the Vice President of Running Start. Running Start is a Washington, DC based nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that trains young women to run for political office. In her role as Vice President, Melissa co-leads the organization and oversees Running Start’s five programs that train more than 2,000 young women from around the country to run for office each year. In addition, Melissa regularly speaks to outside groups about the importance of getting more women into elected office.

 

Prior to joining Running Start, Melissa worked for Governor Mitt Romney over the course of ten years, starting in high school. Melissa worked for Governor Romney in the Massachusetts State House and at both of the PACs of which he was the Honorary Chair, the Commonwealth PAC and the Free & Strong America PAC. Melissa also fundraised for the Super PAC, Restore Our Future, which was formed to support Governor Romney’s second presidential run. Melissa served on both of the Romney for President campaigns, as Assistant to the National Finance Director at Romney for President 2008 and as Deputy Director of Internal Operations and Director of Donor Relations at Romney for President 2012.

 

Melissa is involved in the BYU Management Society, her local church congregation, Daughters of the American Revolution, Daughters of Founders & Patriots of America, Daughters of Utah Pioneers, her Home Owners Association Board, and the J. Reuben Clark Law Society, and hopes to serve as a Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) in the fall. Melissa recently authored two articles with her sister, Catharine, which appeared in The Student Appeal on “Why Female Law School Students Should Consider Running for Office” and in the Cardozo Journal of Law & Gender on “The Future of Sex Offense Courts.”

 

Melissa graduated from the Brigham Young University with a degree in political science, the George Washington University Law School, and the Women’s Campaign School at Yale.   She lives in Arlington, Virginia with her rescued dog, Lady, where she hopes to run for office in the not-too-distant future.

---

Catharine Richmond

 

Catharine Richmond practiced at Jones Day, an international law firm, for a year after law school. While at Jones Day, in addition to her litigation practice, Catharine was active in pro bono work. She helped secure asylum for two persecuted clients from Mexico and maintained, through filings and court appearances, a TRO for an abused 90-year-old Holocaust survivor. This summer, she was asked to clerk for the California Court of Appeal by a senior partner after he was reappointed to the bench.  She is currently clerking.

 

At the University of Virginia School of Law, Catharine served as the Executive Editor of the Virginia Journal of Criminal Law, the Notes Development Editor of the Virginia Sports and Entertainment Law Journal, and the Director of Mentoring for UVA’s JRCLS chapter. During law school, she spent a summer working for the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office in the Major Crimes Division assisting in prosecuting homicides and serial murders. 

 

Catharine graduated magna cum laude from Brigham Young University, majoring in philosophy and anthropology. During college, Catharine spent a summer interning for the Learning Rights Law Center, an organization that litigates and advocates pro bono for economically disadvantaged special needs students.  The following summer, she taught in sign language at a Deaf high school in Mampong, Ghana. In her senior year, Catharine was selected to present her senior ethnographic field research, about Deaf education in Los Angeles, at the David M. Kennedy Center for International Studies.

 

Catharine has been published several times, including with the ABA, the Cardozo Journal of Law and Gender, the Student Appeal, and the Brigham Young Pre-Law Review. Catharine remains active in the community, serving as the Women in Law Committee Chair for the Los Angeles JRCLS chapter and as a member of the Association of Business Trial Lawyers, Women Lawyers Association of Los Angeles, and the Federalist Society. 

 

Catharine loves living in downtown Los Angeles, hiking with her family’s beagle, Duke, and baking for family and friends.