Free CLE for all members of The Florida Bar. Wednesday Wisdom Zoom webinar. Course number 4671. Approved for 1.0 General CLE credit. REGISTER
“Managing Up: A Primer on Interfacing with Young Attorneys” is a research-based discussion for legal leaders seeking to enhance and engage young attorneys. Hear from new practitioners in a variety of industries and legal educators on cultivating, retaining, and maximizing the potential of the young attorneys in your workforce. After several major shifts in the law practice landscape in light of COVID-19, join this insightful panel discussion as the Solo & Small Firm Section re-examines traditional best practices on how to on-board and enhance new attorneys, and hear candid advice on how to innovate your law model.
Moderator: Diriki Geuka, Associate, Townsend & Lockett, LLC (Atlanta)
Panelists:
1) Professor Alicia Jackson, Stetson University College of Law, Gulfport, will discuss her research on how law entities can better engage new attorneys.
2) Brijesh Patel, Seminole County Attorney’s Office, Sanford, former in-house attorney, transactional attorney, government practice.
3) Zoila Lahera, Associate, Macfarlane Ferguson & McMullen, Tampa, second-year litigation and appellate attorney, private practice.
4) Ian Dankelman, Associate, Freeborn & Peters LLP, Tampa, former federal judicial law clerk.
Diriki T. Geuka, Moderator
Diriki Geuka is an Associate in Townsend & Lockett, LLC’s transactional practice group, where he works on a team focusing on mergers and acquisitions, private equity, and venture capital agreements. Diriki was previously a Pinellas Assistant County Attorney where he represented County agencies and elected and appointed officials. Diriki began his career as a federal staff attorney for the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, where he served for a year and was an intern for the Honorable Julie S. Sneed in the United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida while in law school. Diriki was president of Stetson University College of Law’s Student Bar Association before graduating in 2017 with the Dean Richard Dillon Excellence in Real Property and Marc L. Levine Awards. Diriki is a frequent mentor, community volunteer, and currently serves as a member of Morris Brown’s President’s Advisory Board.
Professor Alicia R. Jackson, Panelist
Professor Alicia Jackson is a member of the law faculty and the Director of Academic Success and Bar Preparation Services at Stetson University College of Law. Before joining Stetson, she was the Associate Dean for Student Learning and Assessment at her previous institution. Professor Jackson’s presentations, publications, and scholarship interests include racial equity and bias in education, cultural competency, generational learning, and educational psychology. Professor Jackson also served on the research team that published, in 2020, Building a Better Bar: The Twelve Building Blocks of Minimum Competence, sponsored by the Institute for the Advancement of the American Legal System. She also co-authored Contemporary Teaching Strategies: Effectively Engaging Millennials Across the Curriculum.
Brijesh Patel, Panelist
Brijesh Patel is a Seminole Assistant County Attorney and graduated from Florida A&M University College of Law in 2012. He is a transactional attorney in city, county, and local government law providing counsel to multiple departments in Seminole County. He has prior experience in the private sector in the legal departments of Universal Orlando and Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy and in the public sector with the Office of Regional Conflict Counsel and the Pinellas County Attorney’s Office. Mr. Patel also currently serves as Chair of the Student Education/Admissions to the Bar Committee of the Florida Bar and is actively involved in the Diversity and Inclusion Committee and the Social Media Committee of the city, county, and local government section of the Florida Bar.
Zoila Lahera, Panelist
Zoila Lahera is a third-year associate in MacFarlane Ferguson & McMullen’s litigation group, where she represents clients in a variety of complex civil, professional, insurance, and business matters in state and federal courts. Additionally, Zoila’s litigation practice emphasizes issues of fraud and malfeasance, in which Zoila provides representation to clients in whistleblower actions from detection, through fact-gathering, drafting complaints, litigation and appeals, all of which allow her to work cooperatively with governmental agencies to protect whistleblowers. Zoila graduated from Stetson University College of Law in 2018, cum laude, in the top 15% of her class. Born in Cuba, Zoila and her family were granted political asylum in the United States, for opposing the Castro regime, in 1996, and she speaks fluent English and Spanish.
Ian J. Dankelman, Panelist
Ian Dankelman is an Associate in the Litigation Practice Group at Freeborn & Peters, LLP. Ian focuses his practice on complex commercial litigation. Ian graduated from the University of Florida Levin College of Law in 2014. Before joining Freeborn, Ian counseled large commercial clients at a nationwide law firm that specialized in first-party property cases. For nearly two years, Ian served as a judicial law clerk for the Honorable Elizabeth Kovachevich in the United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida. He began his legal career as an Assistant State Attorney in Florida’s Fourth Judicial Circuit, where he tried over a dozen jury trials to verdict.
