John L.Ray
Office Administrative Partner
Manatt, Phelps & Phillips LLP
Mr. Ray represents clients in their relations with the United States Government and with state and local governments. His law practice draws upon his expertise in government relations, which includes an international, national, regional, and local practice, in both the legislative and regulatory areas.
He also provides legal counsel in healthcare, banking, telecommunications, real estate, land use, historic preservation and general corporate law.
Mr. Ray's involvement in local, national and international affairs and the political processes of Washington spans the past 27 years. He has a long record of leadership in Democratic Party activities and was chairman of the District of Columbia delegation to the 1980 Democratic National Convention. He served as counsel to the United States Senate Antitrust & Monopolies Subcommittee and as an attorney-advisor with the Office of Legal Counsel of the United States Department of Justice.
Mr. Ray served as an at-large member of the District of Columbia City Council for eighteen years. During that period, he served as Acting Chairman, Chairman Pro Tempore of the Council, and Chairman of the Committee on Consumer and Regulatory Affairs. In those positions he dealt with consumer protection, business licensing and regulation, insurance and health care licensing and regulation, housing regulation, public utilities and some aspects of banking. He also served on the Judiciary, Economic Development, Housing and Human Services Committees.
As a legislator, he authored and won Council approval of some of the District's most progressive and wide-ranging reform legislation including; a major overhaul of the District's system of licensing and regulating health care professionals and health maintenance organizations; significant revisions to the District laws governing corporations and partnerships; and, to laws affecting government regulation of corporations, rental housing and the insurance industry.
Mr. Ray served as law clerk to Judge Spottswood W. Robinson, III of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, and as an attorney-advisor with the Office of Legal Counsel of the United States Department of Justice.
While attending law school, Mr. Ray clerked for two and one-half years for former Supreme Court Justice Abe Fortas.
Judith L.Harris
Market Managing Partner
Reed Smith LLP
Judith is the head of the Communications Group. She joined the firm in 1974 and has practiced with the firm since then with the exception of two periods of government service. Judith concentrates on telecommunications and antitrust/trade regulation matters before the FCC, the Justice Department, the Federal Trade Commission in the courts and on Capitol Hill, especially on behalf of companies in emerging technologies.
Experience:
1997 - Reed Smith.
1994 - Served during the Clinton Administration as Director of the Office of Legislative and Intergovernmental Affairs at the Federal Communications Commission.
1980 - Reed Smith. Practice primarily focused on antitrust and trade regulation counselling and litigation, general civil and criminal litigation, including the defense and prosecution of class action lawsuits, and grand jury, merger and other investigations involving the Antitrust Division and the Federal Trade Commission, with a particular emphasis on the telecommunications and health care industries.
1978 - Served as a senior trial attorney with the Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice, both in Washington, D.C. and in San Francisco.
1974 - Associate at Pierson, Ball & Dowd (later merged with Reed Smith).
1973 - Law clerk to the Honorable James A. Belson, now of the D.C. Court of Appeals.
U.S. Department of Justice, Antitrust Division Federal Communications Commission.
J. WarrenGorrell Jr.
Firm Chairman
Hogan & Hartson LLP
Mr. Gorrell is the Chairman of the firm and a co-director of the Corporate and Securities Practice Group. He has served on the firm's Executive Committee for several years and is the managing partner of the firm's New York office. Mr. Gorrell has been active in virtually all corporate, securities and other financial areas on behalf of many different types of clients, including domestic and non-U.S. corporations, partnerships, investment banks, and individuals. Mr. Gorrell was one of twelve corporate lawyers in the United States recognized as a "Dealmaker of the Year" for 1999 by The American Lawyer magazine and and is the #1 ranked corporate lawyer in Washington, D.C. by Chambers USA.
Mr. Gorrell's practice, which is primarily transactional, covers several different areas and has involved many different industries. He represents publicly and privately held companies and their controlling shareholders in all aspects of their businesses, including mergers and acquisitions, equity and quasi-equity securities offerings and private placements, senior and subordinated debt financings, tender offers and exchange offers, restructurings and recapitalizations, joint ventures, and general business matters. Mr. Gorrell also represents a number of major national and regional investment banking firms in connection with domestic and international offerings of both debt and equity securities, including initial public offerings, primary and secondary offerings (including 144A placements), and corporate restructurings and reorganizations.
In the last several years, a significant part of Mr. Gorrell's practice has been focused on the real estate industry and related businesses. He has been the partner principally responsible for the major publicly and privately offered real estate investment trust (REIT) offerings and mergers and acquisitions in which numerous public company and investment banking clients have been involved.
Mr. Gorrell received his undergraduate degree in economics in 1976 from Princeton University, where he graduated magna cum laude. He received his law degree in 1979 from the University of Virginia School of Law. Mr. Gorrell joined Hogan & Hartson L.L.P. as an associate in 1979 and became a partner in 1986. He is a member of the New York and District of Columbia Bars.
William R.Charyk
Managing Partner
Arent Fox Kinter Plotkin & Kahn, PLLC
William Charyk is the Managing Partner at Arent Fox. His practice in the tax area focuses primarily on two specialty areas: taxation of partnerships and employee benefit/executive compensation tax planning.
Mr. Charyk's work in the partnership tax area has involved serving as tax counsel to a number of publicly-traded master limited partnerships, as well as providing representation to a wide variety of syndicated and closely-held limited partnerships. He is an Adjunct Professor of Law at The Georgetown University Law Center where he has taught a graduate-level course in Taxation of Partnerships since 1979. He is also a Contributing Editor of the Journal of Real Estate Taxation, a Warren, Gorham and Lamont publication, authors The Partnership Corner column for this publication and contributes periodic feature articles on major changes in the partnership tax law. His articles have been reprinted in the Bureau of National Affairs Tax Management Portfolio series. Mr. Charyk has spoken at a number of seminars in recent years including the D.C. Federal Tax Institute, the Georgetown University/District of Columbia Bar Continuing Legal Education programs, the Tulane Tax Institute and a variety of ALI-ABA seminars.
Mr. Charyk is in charge of the tax aspects of our employee benefits practice. As such, he ultimately supervises the planning and implementation of a wide variety of compensation vehicles, including defined benefit pension plans, Section 401(k) programs, employee stock ownership plans (ESOP), and various executive deferred compensation arrangements such as Rabbi and secular trusts, stock appreciation right plans and phantom stock bonus programs. Mr. Charyk has been involved with a wide variety of transactions involving retiree medical liability and underfunded defined benefit pension plans. His practice includes individual representation of a number of public company executives, as well as consultation for local legal and medical professional firms.
As in the partnership area, Mr. Charyk is a frequent writer and has lectured on a wide variety of topics in the employee benefits area, ranging from post-mortem estate planning to compliance problems for qualified retirement programs.
During his tenure at Arent Fox, Mr. Charyk served as Manager of the Firm's General Business Department.
Thomas J.Cawley
Managing Partner
Hunton & Williams LLP
Practice focuses on Business Litigation and Labor and Employment Law (Management). He has tried numerous jury and non-jury trials in the Eastern District of Virginia as well as in the state courts of every jurisdiction in Northern Virginia. He frequently argues appellate matters in the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals and the Virginia Supreme Court. He has represented clients in major litigation concerning commercial transactions, patent and trademark matters, construction, substantial personal injuries and constitutional law. His clients include technology companies, national corporations, and the largest school board in Virginia.
Relevant Experience
Argued over 35 cases in Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals and Virginia Supreme Court.
Tried recent federal court jury trials regarding patent infringement claims and ADA issues.
Tried recent non-jury trials involving substantial commercial lease disputes (Fairfax County Circuit Court), an undue influence claim involving real property (Rappahannock County Circuit Court), and a commercial dispute involving the sale of a major Hollywood film library (U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Virginia).
Handled arbitrations involving the Telecommunications Act of 1996 for a major ILEC.
Handled complex case involving restrictive covenants among high tech companies and employees (settled) (Alexandria Circuit Court).
Best Lawyers in America - Business Litigation.
Best Lawyers in America - Labor & Employment Law.
Voted Among "The Legal Elite," Virginia's Top Lawyers in Litigation, Virginia Business (December 2000, 2001, 2002).
Named one of the D.C. Area's Go-To Lawyers in Leading Lawyers - "Legal Times Identifies Twenty of the D.C. Areas Go-To Litigators," Legal Times, (June 2003).