Haynes and Boone, LLP has promoted to counsel 11 lawyers from the firm’s Austin, Dallas, Dallas-North, Denver, Houston, London, Orange County, Palo Alto, and San Francisco offices.
The new counsel are Kelli Bills, Calmann Clements, Emily Fuller, Daniel Kwok, Taryn McDonald, Nick Monier, Kristin Santamaria, Hong Shi, Michael Smith, Robin Smith, and Michael Stoner.
“We are pleased to promote these deserving attorneys to counsel,” said Managing Partner Taylor Wilson. “They have distinguished themselves through strong leadership and their dedication to providing the highest level of client service.”
The new counsel class includes 55% women and 27% racial and ethnic minorities.
“As with our latest new-partner class, our newly promoted counsel are an embodiment of our commitment to recruit and train associates in a robust, equitable, and inclusive manner, providing them with the mentorship and meaningful client and leadership responsibilities they need to advance their careers,” said Haynes Boone’s Chief Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Officer Sharon E. Jones.
Learn more about the firm’s new counsel below:
Kelli is a member of the Appellate Practice Group, based out of the firm’s Denver office. Kelli draws on a passion for appellate advocacy and the intricacies of the law to assist clients at every stage of litigation, from pretrial dispositive motions to complex appeals. She has assisted clients in an array of industries with a variety of legal issues, from partnership and contract disputes to bankruptcy and arbitration. Kelli has also accepted several pro bono representations, including amici briefing in noteworthy federal appeals on behalf of multiple public-interest organizations. She is an active member of the bars of Colorado, Texas, and Utah, including serving on the Colorado Bar Association Pro Bono Screening Committee and previously authoring quarterly updates for the State Bar of Texas Appellate Advocate publication. She received her bachelor’s degree in government from the University of Texas and her juris doctor degree from the University of Texas School of Law.
Calmann is a member of the IP Practice Group in the firm’s Dallas – North office. Calmann practices before the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) on post-grant proceedings including inter partes review and ex parte reexamination. His practice also involves patent drafting and prosecution to assist clients with building patent portfolios in various technical fields. Calmann further uses his experience to provide clients with patentability assessments, clearance assessments, and opinions. Calmann worked as a patent agent before and throughout law school. His patent experience covers a variety of complex technical fields including networking, optical communications, cloud computing, software, and semiconductor fabrication. He received his bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from Brigham Young University and his juris doctor degree from George Washington University Law School.
Emily is a member of the Finance Practice Group in the firm’s London office. She acts on a full range of finance transactions, with a particular focus on fund finance, including syndicated and bilateral leveraged/NAV facilities, SMA deals, hybrid facilities, GP support lines and capital call facilities. Emily has experience in the formation of closed-ended and open-ended offshore fund structures and prior to joining Haynes Boone undertook a secondment at a real estate fund. Her practice focuses on acting for bank and non-bank lenders and a variety of sponsors. Emily is a ranked lawyer in Chambers UK, Chambers and Partners, 2022 in Banking & Finance: Fund Finance - London (Firms) in the ‘Associates to Watch’ category. She received her bachelor’s degree in English from the University of Sussex and an LL.B. from the College of Law Bloomsbury.
Daniel is a member of the IP Practice Group in the firm’s Orange County office. His practice focuses on patents. Daniel has experience developing and maintaining U.S. and international patent portfolios covering the fields of machine learning, blockchain technologies, objection recognition, encryption and authentication, image and video processing, antenna and wireless technologies, telecommunications, video processing, database management, IC design and manufacturing, nanofabrication, and radio frequency. He received his bachelor’s degree in computer science and master’s degree in information system management from Carnegie Mellon University and received his juris doctor degree from Loyola Law School.
Taryn is a member of the Government Enforcement and Litigation Practice Group in the firm’s Dallas office. Taryn focuses her practice on government investigations and healthcare litigation, representing individuals and companies facing actual or threatened government enforcement actions. Her clients are often under civil or criminal investigation by various government agencies, including the U.S. Department of Justice, the Office of Inspector General, the Texas Attorney General’s Office, the Securities and Exchange Commission, and FINRA. Taryn has extensive experience defending clients in False Claims Act matters and regularly provides counsel on regulatory issues, including compliance with the Anti-Kickback Statute and the Stark Law, and anti-bribery and anti-corruption laws. Taryn also helps her clients investigate and navigate sensitive internal compliance and disclosure issues. She received two bachelor’s degrees in government and communication studies from the University of Texas and received her juris doctor degree from Southern Methodist University Dedman School of Law.
Nick is a member of the Finance Practice Group in the firm’s Dallas office. He represents financial institutions and borrowers in commercial loan transactions. He has represented agents, lenders and borrowers in syndicated credit transactions involving revolving credit facilities, term loans, letters of credit, and acquisition financings. He has helped lenders enter into loan facilities, represented agents in amending and restating existing credit agreements, and aided borrowers in financing for acquisitions of over 75 companies. Nick was an in-house secondee attorney in the syndicated loans legal group for a large international banking institution from May 2020 to October 2021, where he assisted and managed outside counsel in a variety of lending transactions. He taught 4th grade and 5th grade Special Education for two years in the Bronx as a Teach for America Corps member prior to attending law school. He received his bachelor’s degree from Middlebury College, his master’s degree from Pace University, and his juris doctor degree from Tulane University Law School.
Kristin is a member of the Investment Management Practice Group in the firm’s Dallas office. Her practice focuses on corporate and business planning matters, with a concentration on investment fund formation and management, capital raising, private equity investments, joint ventures, reorganizations and other strategic transactions across a range of industries. Kristin has experience in a range of corporate matters, including assisting private equity funds, hedge funds and other domestic and offshore private funds pursuing a variety of investment strategies, assisting clients in buyouts, recapitalizations and restructurings, and representing partnerships and limited liability companies in connection with joint venture transactions. Kristin received a bachelor’s degree and a bachelor’s in business association from Southern Methodist University and her juris doctor degree from Southern Methodist University Dedman School of Law.
Hong is a member of the IP Practice Group in the firm’s Austin office. She advises clients on patent office trials before the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB), including inter partes review and post grant review proceedings, and has prepared briefings and argued before the PTAB. Hong’s practice also includes negotiating patent licenses and preparing and prosecuting patent applications. Hong works with clients in a variety of technical fields including artificial intelligence, semiconductor processing, circuit design, computer software and hardware, telecommunications, and medical devices. Hong serves as co-chair of the artificial intelligence practice of the IP group, which produces podcast series that cover a broad range of technology and legal topics in AI and deep learning. Hong was recognized as a Rising Star in 2021. She is also active in efforts to support diversity and inclusion in the legal community and serves as a board member of Mother Attorneys Mentoring Association (MAMAs) Austin Chapter. She received two bachelor’s degrees in economics and engineering from Tsinghua University, her master’s degree in electrical engineering from Yale University, and her juris doctor degree from the University of Texas School of Law.
Michael is a member of the IP Practice Group in the firm’s San Francisco office. Michael has assisted clients on a wide array of issues from support on patent matters to drafting agreements for protecting and exchanging IP rights. Currently, Michael uses his past and current experience to protect clients’ IP, provide counseling in IP matters, strategically plan patent portfolios, and put into place legal frameworks for both offensive and defensive legal purposes. Michael has accepted several pro bono representations in non-IP legal matters and is currently an active member of Rotary International. He received his bachelor’s degree in molecular, cellular, and developmental biology from the University of California, Santa Cruz, his master’s degree in biophysics from Boston University, and his juris doctor degree from Golden Gate University.
Robin is a member of the Finance Practice Group in the firm’s Houston office and specializes in public finance. Robin represents cities, counties, school districts, junior college districts and charter schools as bond counsel and disclosure counsel, including some of the region’s largest issuers of municipal bonds. She also works on transactions where the firm serves as underwriter’s counsel, representing major national and regional investment banking firms throughout Texas and the Southwest. Prior to coming to Haynes and Boone, she had 18 years of prior experience as a non-lawyer professional in another major Texas public finance practice. She received her bachelor’s degree from the University of Houston and her juris doctor degree from the University of Houston Law Center.
Michael Stoner is a member of the Insurance Recovery Practice Group in the firm’s Dallas office. Michael has successfully represented public and private policyholders in disputes across the country on all types of insurance matters, including commercial generally liability, owner-controlled insurance programs, employment practices liability, director and officer, errors and omissions, cybercrime, builder’s risk, and commercial property policies. Michael’s practice also involves proactively assisting companies with negotiating favorable terms to insurance policies at the point of sale. He received his bachelor’s degree from Carleton College and his juris doctor degree from Pepperdine University, and an L.L.M. from American University Washington College of Law.
Haynes and Boone, LLP is an international corporate law firm with offices in Texas, New York, California, Charlotte, Chicago, Denver, Washington, D.C., London, Mexico City and Shanghai, providing a full spectrum of legal services in energy, healthcare, life sciences, technology, financial services and private equity. With 600 lawyers, Haynes Boone is ranked among the largest U.S.-based firms by The National Law Journal, The American Lawyer and The Lawyer. It was recognized for excellence in the BTI Consulting Group’s 2021 “A-Team” report, which identifies the law firms that in-house counsel commend for providing superior client service.
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