WASHINGTON — Jan. 2, 2026 — BakerHostetler is pleased to announce that 26 lawyers have been elected to firm partnership, effective Jan. 1. The new class includes attorneys from all six of the firm’s core practice groups and from 12 of the firm’s 18 offices across the United States.

“I am delighted to welcome this talented group of 26 lawyers to the BakerHostetler partnership! These outstanding individuals have demonstrated a strong commitment to delivering exceptional client service and to fostering a culture of collaboration and innovation. Congratulations to this remarkable group whose efforts help us grow and become an even stronger firm,” said Paul M. Schmidt, chairman of BakerHostetler.

New partners

Kamran Ahmadian (Los Angeles) is a highly skilled litigator on the firm’s Class Action Defense team. He represents businesses and institutions in a wide range of litigation matters, focusing on class actions and complex litigation, including the defense of consumer protection claims, data privacy matters, mass torts, products liability and commercial disputes. Ahmadian has extensive experience in all aspects of litigation in both state and federal courts, including pre-suit negotiation, motion practice, discovery and trial.

Lauren Attard (Los Angeles) focuses her practice on complex mass tort matters, including damages, claims administration and large-scale liability resolution, representing both individuals and companies in high-stakes disputes. She draws on her experience in restructuring and capital markets, including service as assistant general counsel at the Securities Investor Protection Corp. and counsel to Rep. Brad Sherman on financial services, tax and legal issues.

J’Naia L. Boyd (New York) has represented a diverse range of clients in high-stakes litigation. Her practice spans complex contract disputes, intellectual property litigation, bankruptcy, business torts, fraud, insurance matters and cross-border discovery proceedings under 28 U.S.C. § 1782. Boyd has successfully argued appeals before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and New York’s appellate courts, with experience across a wide spectrum of legal issues including commercial litigation, trademark infringement, attorney malpractice, labor and employment law, and premises liability.

Mary Pat Brogan (Cleveland) approaches her practice with a commitment to client success. She draws upon a passion for research, a gift for writing and experience as an appeals court clerk to help advance a range of matters, including criminal defense, class action defense, commercial disputes and appellate litigation.

Alexander Campbell (Cleveland) serves as outside general counsel to public charities, private and community foundations, and other tax-exempt organizations, advising on issues that run the gamut from taxation and corporate governance to contracting. He also counsels philanthropy-minded individuals and families on estate planning and wealth management matters, and helps companies develop corporate giving and sponsorship programs.

Ryan Christian (Atlanta) is a former federal prosecutor and seasoned international lawyer with experience in domestic and international investigations and disputes involving cybercrime, illicit finance, national security, corruption and transnational criminal organizations. His practice focuses on advising clients in responding to cybersecurity incidents and handling related investigations and litigation.

Nate Goldfinger (Cleveland) represents public and private companies on strategic acquisitions and divestitures and private equity firms on portfolio company acquisitions, add-on acquisitions and exits, and advises investment firms on minority equity investments. He also frequently counsels corporate clients and portfolio companies of private equity clients on general corporate matters.

Justin Guilfoyle (New York) focuses his practice on complex employment-related litigation and brings a wealth of experience in defending against class and collective wage and hour matters. He helps clients navigate the many facets of the employer-employee relationship and works with employers of all sizes and across industries, defending them in employment disputes of all varieties in both federal and state courts, as well as in arbitration and before administrative agencies.

Sean Killeen (San Francisco) defends major technology companies, retailers, credit unions, law firms, health care providers, insurance companies and private universities, among others, in large-scale privacy litigation. This includes data breach class actions alleging violations of California’s Confidentiality of Medical Information Act, Consumers Legal Remedies Act, Consumer Privacy Act and Unfair Competition Law; New York General Business Law sections 349 and 350; and other statutes, as well as advertising technology litigation alleging violations of the California Invasion of Privacy Act and the Electronic Communications Privacy Act.  

Renee Knudsen (Washington) is a litigator with experience in a diverse range of subject matter areas, including defamation, mass tort, commercial disputes, intellectual property and constitutional law. She has represented clients in complex cases at every stage of litigation in federal and state courts across the country and has experience in nearly every federal court of appeals.

Jonathan Lombardo (Philadelphia) focuses his practice on patent prosecution in the electrical and computer fields, patent portfolio review work in support of litigation, intellectual property due diligence and intellectual property audit. His areas of concentration include wireless technologies, communications networks, video processing, computer software, machine learning and other artificial intelligence technologies.

Daniella Martinez (Houston) focuses on complex commercial disputes in state and federal court, with notable experience in business torts and energy and trade secret litigation. She has been a part of high-stakes litigation involving large teams and millions of dollars in damages and has experience in both protecting corporations through defensive litigation and recovering funds through aggressive plaintiff strategies.

Sean McIntyre (Cleveland) represents clients in complex commercial litigation throughout the country. He frequently represents corporations in large commercial disputes, and he has significant experience in an array of commercial litigation, including health care, breach of contract, commercial torts, data privacy, RICO and securities litigation matters.

Kyle Morse (New York) concentrates his practice on the preparation and prosecution of patent applications, focusing on software technologies related to human machine interaction, operating systems, extended reality, speech processing, virtualization, computer animation, payment processing and security. He also supports patent litigations and advises clients on patent portfolio management and assessment, open-source contributions, risk of standards participation, freedom to operate and other opinion work.

Katie Legband O’Brien (Dallas) focuses on representation of public and private companies, including private equity sponsors, in connection with complex transactions involving mergers, acquisitions, dispositions and general corporate matters. She has experience in a wide range of industries, with a focus on the health care, aerospace and transport and logistics sectors.

Michael Parente (Columbus) advises and represents employers on labor relations, employment litigation and employment compliance issues, developing strategic and preventive measures that avoid disputes and reduce risk. He represents employers in collective bargaining and labor relations disputes at arbitration and before the National Labor Relations Board, as well as employment litigation matters before state and federal courts and administrative bodies.

Charlotte Pasiadis (Cleveland) focuses her practice on mergers and acquisitions, financing transactions, and corporate governance and other corporate matters. She works on a broad range of transactions for public and private companies in a variety of industries, including aerospace and defense, manufacturing, steel and waste management.

Anthony Ponikvar (Cleveland) is a go-to litigator for clients’ most important and contentious cases. From pre-suit investigations to trial advocacy, he has extensive experience with nearly every aspect of litigation. Ponikvar has overseen complicated discovery efforts and is well-versed in modern e-discovery protocols.

Kayla Prieto (Columbus) has a complex commercial litigation – including securities and governance litigation – practice that concentrates on large-scale discovery management, in which she focuses on streamlining the discovery process in mass-action and multijurisdictional cases. She advises clients and trial teams on best practices for data preservation, collection, review and production; ensures discovery positions are consistent with overall case strategy; develops defensible processes that ensure compliance with discovery obligations; manages relationships with e-discovery vendors and platforms; and advises stakeholders on the potential operational, reputational and financial impact of complex litigation.

Erika Dackin Prouty (Columbus) focuses her practice on commercial litigation and election law matters. She has experience litigating at the trial and appellate levels in state and federal courts across the country, including the U.S. Supreme Court. Prouty helps clients develop litigation strategy at the outset of the case and guides them through the discovery and pretrial process, presents their cases at trial and, if necessary, represents them on appeal.

Nikki Sanford (Seattle) focuses her intellectual property practice on patent prosecution and global intellectual property portfolio development for emerging U.S. market leaders and multinational corporations. Drawing on extensive research and academic experience in physics, mathematics and biomedical engineering, she advises across scientific fields such as artificial intelligence, software, mechanical and electrical systems, and life sciences technologies. Sanford has contributed to multinational research initiatives ranging from nuclear physics to computer science, and builds portfolios that protect complex, cross‑disciplinary innovations.

Whitney Schneider-White (Washington) focuses her practice on evolving U.S. state and federal privacy legislation, cross-border data protection, emerging technology regulation and compliance, and the intersection of technology and financial services. With both law firm and in-house experience, she provides clients with practical solutions to domestic and cross-border matters related to privacy, data protection, technology and information governance.

Kristin Shapiro (Washington) provides legal advice and representation in complex constitutional, statutory and administrative matters at the trial and appellate levels. She has experience with a wide variety of executive branch agencies and has represented both Fortune 500 companies and individuals in high-profile litigation involving a wide variety of constitutional issues ranging from the taxing power to the appropriations clause and numerous statutes including the Administrative Procedure Act, the Lanham Act, the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act, the False Claims Act, the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act, the California Private Attorneys General Act and state motor vehicle franchise laws.

Sammantha Tillotson (Denver) has experience litigating a wide range of complex issues, including products liability, intentional torts, contractual disputes, construction disputes and state and federal appeals both in and out of the class action context. She also has robust experience in navigating insurance bad faith disputes, as well as providing high-dollar coverage analyses to insurers and representing insureds in high-exposure personal injury cases at the trial and appellate level. Tillotson is involved in all aspects of complex litigation in trial and appellate courts, with ample experience managing and navigating multifaceted discovery matters. 

Alexander Vitruk (Seattle) advises clients on complex data privacy and cybersecurity matters, offering practical solutions to help companies comply with rapidly evolving privacy and data protection laws and defending class actions. He advises and defends clients across different industries on multifaceted issues such as biometric privacy, artificial intelligence, pixel-related technologies and HIPAA compliance. Vitruk also has substantial experience defending clients in securities, consumer protection, ERISA and employment class actions.

Benjamin Wanger (Philadelphia) works closely with clients to proactively assess and mitigate cyber risk, develop privacy and information security policies, and respond to data security incidents. He works with organizations across sectors, with a strong focus on higher education. Wanger is known as the go-to cybersecurity attorney for educational institutions, having provided cybersecurity counsel to more than 65 colleges, universities and other educational institutions across the country.

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About BakerHostetler

BakerHostetler helps clients around the world address their most complex and critical business and regulatory issues. Our highly ranked attorneys deliver sophisticated counsel and outstanding client service. We have six core practice groups — Business, Digital Assets and Data Management, Intellectual Property, Labor and Employment, Litigation, and Tax — and more than 1,000 lawyers coast to coast. For more information, visit bakerlaw.com.