LCLD and Davis Wright Tremaine will be hosting an Alumni event at the DWT Seattle office on Thursday, January 18 that features a panel discussion on navigating DEI in the current legal landscape. Panelists include Mike Jackson (Microsoft), Ramina Dekhoda-Steele (Wong Fleming), Kimberly Ambrose (University of Washington School of Law), and Vicky Slade (Davis Wright Tremaine), and will be moderated by Keyuna Evans (Microsoft). The panel will be followed by dinner.

Special thanks to Davis Wright Tremaine for hosting.

Speakers:

Kimberly Ambrose

Kimberly Ambrose is a Teaching Professor and directs the Tools for Social Change: Race and Justice Clinic at the University of Washington School of Law. Professor Ambrose founded the Race and Justice Clinic in 2011 focusing on racial disparities in the juvenile justice system. She joined the clinic faculty part time in 2001 and full time in 2005, as supervising attorney for the Children and Youth Advocacy Clinic. Professor Ambrose also created and taught the Legislative Advocacy Clinic. She serves on the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee at the school. Before joining the faculty, she was a public defender representing indigent adults and juveniles in both child welfare and criminal proceedings and worked as a resource attorney for the Washington Defender Association, providing training, technical assistance, and resources to public defense attorneys around Washington state. She serves on the Washington Advisory Committee to the United States Commission on Civil Rights and the Juvenile Justice Subcommittee of the Washington State Minority and Justice Commission.

Ramina Dekhoda-Steele

Ramina Dehkhoda-Steele is the Partner-in-Charge of the Firm’s Redmond, Washington office of Wong Fleming and manages the west coast operations for the firm. Ramina is the Chair of the Transactional Group and the Co-Chair of the Commercial Litigation practice group. She is an avid litigator and has extensive experience in various areas of the law. In addition to litigation, Ramina focuses on complex technology transactions, complex real estate transactions. She has represented many Fortune 500 companies in transactional matters and has been representing large companies with respect to general liability, employment law for the past 20 years. Ramina has an active arbitration and mediation practice and she is an Arbitrator with the AAA.

Mike Jackson

Mike Jackson serves as Associate General Counsel and Head of Microsoft’s Compliance & Ethics Governance, Training, and Culture team. Mike’s team is responsible for advancing Microsoft’s culture of trust and ethics through several centers of excellence, including anti-corruption and regulatory legal advice, compliance training, compliance communications, culture of compliance analytics, and global readiness which ensures that Microsoft’s products, goods, and marketing is localized, inclusive, and reflect the company’s values globally. Mike is a member of the Corporate, External, Legal Affairs (CELA) Leadership Team and has held other leadership roles within the department. Prior to joining Microsoft, Mike led teams at several Fortune 500 companies, including Target and The J.M. Smucker Company. Mike is a member of the Minority Corporate Counsel Association (MCCA)’s N-Gen Advisory Board and previously served on the Board of Directors for the National LGBTQ+ Bar Association. Mike has also been recognized by Yahoo U.K. as part of its OUTstanding LGBTQ+ Role Model List.

Vicky Slade

Victoria (Vicky) Slade is Counsel in the Employment Services group with Davis Wright Tremaine in Seattle. Vicky advises businesses on personnel matters, conducts investigations, and defends businesses in employment-related disputes. Vicky holds a Certified Diversity Professional credential from Cornell University and leads DWT’s DEI Counseling practice, in which capacity she partners with clients to identify DEI gaps, conducts training on DEI issues, and evaluates programs to mitigate risk. Vicky is also Co-Chair of DWT’s LGBTQ+ Attorneys Affinity Group.

Keyuna Evans (Moderator)

Keyuna Evans is Corporate Counsel for Microsoft’s Marketing and Consumer Business. As an attorney, she advises and supports product marketing for Data and Artificial Intelligence, a multi-million-dollar commercial marketing organization. Prior to her role as Corporate Counsel, Keyuna worked as an IP (Intellectual Property) Associate with the Surface Team in Patent Portfolio Development. In this role, she worked closely with engineers and attorneys to develop IP strategies, drafted patent applications, Invention Disclosures (ID), participated in harvesting sessions, and reviewed patent cases. In addition to her involvement with the Surface Team, Keyuna offered patent counseling to potential inventors and managed the Patent Portfolio for Microsoft’s Corporate Division.