Board of Managers

Jeffrey E. Stone concentrates his practice on white-collar criminal defense, complex commercial litigation, internal investigations and counseling to boards of directors and senior business executives. He represents corporations, boards of directors, senior executives and other individuals in a variety of complex civil litigation and criminal prosecutions involving a broad range of industries, including health care, manufacturing and financial services. During his 28 year tenure at McDermott, Jeffrey has served as chairman of the Firm’s Management Committee, global head of McDermott’s Trial Department and head of the White-Collar Criminal Defense Practice Group.

A nationally recognized trial lawyer and Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers, Jeffrey has tried more than 40 cases to verdict before juries in federal and state court. He has been ranked for many years in Best Lawyers in America for complex litigation, and is consistently named as one of the Top 10 Lawyers in Chicago. He has taught trial advocacy at Harvard Law School, as an adjunct professor at Northwestern University School of Law, and at the US Attorney General’s Advocacy Institute in Washington, DC. He currently serves as an Adjunct Professor at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.

Maja Eaton retired from her work as a partner in Sidley’s Chicago office in July 2021. At Sidley, she was a co-leader of the firm's Product Liability practice, and its Global Life Sciences practice. She was also a member of the firm's Executive Committee, and was a co-chair of the firm's Committee for Retention and Promotion of Women. Her practice focused on the defense and trial of a wide variety of products liability cases, ranging from toxic tort litigation to mass tort litigation involving pharmaceutical drugs and medical devices. She specialized in the defense of cases and trials involving complex medical, scientific and legal issues.

Maja was recognized as “Top Female Litigator of the Year” for the Midwest by Benchmark Litigation in 2013. Benchmark Litigation also named her as one of the Top 250 Women in Litigation and one of the Top 10 Female Litigators in the nation in 2013 and 2014. She was also featured as a Life Sciences Star in LMG Life Sciences 2012-2014 for outstanding litigation work. She was ranked as a leading lawyer nationally in Litigation-Products Liability by Chambers USA: America’s Leading Lawyers for Business – The Client’s Guide (2008-2014), and as a Leading Lawyer in “Product liability and mass tort defense: pharmaceuticals and medical devices” by The Legal 500 – The Clients’ Guide to the US Legal Profession (2008-2014). She was also named in Who’s Who Legal 2010-2014 for Product Liability Defense and Life Sciences, as a “Litigation Star” nationally in Product Liability by Benchmark 2010-2015, and listed as a “local star” for Illinois in Benchmark 2011-2015.

Karina Ayala-Bermejo currently serves as President and CEO of Instituto del Progresso Latino, a leading community-based organization that provides education and social and legal services, She has nearly 30 years of combined professional experience in multiple areas of leadership, non-profit management, HR and law. This includes leadership positions with the Chicago Board of Education, City of Chicago, the Chicago Bar Association, and Metropolitan Family Services.

At Metropolitan Family Services Karina served as General Counsel and Executive Vice President. She also served as the Executive Director of the Legal Aid Society of MFS and previously served as Vice President of Human Resources for MFS. She is also a former president of the Hispanic Lawyers Association of Illinois, and Regional President, General Council, and VP for the Hispanic National Bar Association. She created the HLAI JD mentoring program now in its 20th year paring Latinx college students, with Latinx law students and Latinx lawyers in a trio mentoring program.

Under Karina’s leadership Instituto del Progreso Latino has evolved into a leading community-based educational organization, providing high-quality innovative programs in Workforce Development, Adult and Secondary Education, English as a Second Language (ESL), Immigration and Citizenship Preparation, and Legal Aid. Instituto also encompasses two charter high schools: Instituto Justice Leadership Academy (IJLA) and Instituto Health Sciences Career Academy (IHSCA). Under Karina’s leadership, the Instituto College of Nursing was launched and recently graduated its first three cohorts of nurses. Also occurring under Karina’s leadership, Instituto is providing legal services and for the first time in Instituto’s history has several attorneys on staff in addition to its robust pro bono program.

With her own lived experience as an immigrant added to her substantial professional experience, Karina is a leading voice for Chicago’s status as a welcoming city. She is Chair of the Chicago Commission on Human Relations New Americans Advisory Council.

She holds a Bachelor in Science from Loyola University Chicago, and a Juris Doctorate from DePaul College of Law. She has received numerous awards including the Mayor’s Medal of Honor and Latina Leader of the Year Award. She and her husband are raising three young adults in the Hegewisch neighborhood.

Alice Brathwaite provides pivotal employment law expertise and manages complex litigation in the tech industry. She currently serves as Counsel – Employment & Litigation at Upwork, where she helps enable the company’s global mission to create economic opportunities so people have better lives. Before Upwork and her previous role as Counsel at Grubhub, Alice spent nearly 5 years as an associate in the Labor and Employment group at Jones Day. Alice launched her legal career as judicial clerk to the Honorable Ann Claire Williams of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. She previously served as a member of the North Lawndale College Prep’s Associate Board, is an active member of the Black Women Lawyers’ Association and the National Employment Law Council, and has mentored high school students at Legal Prep and North Lawndale schools, as well as through iMentor Chicago. She has also been a Big Sister through Big Brothers Big Sisters.

During her time at American University’s Washington College of Law in Washington, DC, Alice served as Note and Comment Editor on the American University Law Review, Chapter National and Regional Liaison for the Black Law Students Association, member of the Moot Court Honor Society, and clinical student in the International Human Rights Law Clinic. Prior to law school, Alice began her career working at the Southern Center for Human Rights. She then joined Barack Obama’s first presidential campaign in 2008, serving as a field organizer in several states before ultimately being promoted to Deputy Field Director of Georgia during the general election. After the election, Alice served as a political appointee in the Office of Violence Against Women at the U.S. Department of Justice, where she assisted the director in running the office and victim response funding programs. Alice received her B.A. in International Relations from Stanford University in 2005.

James L. Brooks serves as the Senior Pastor of Harmony Community Church and the Vice President of Mission & Community Engagement at Lawndale Christian Health Center. James is a summa cum laude graduate of Concordia University where he majored in organizational management. He holds a Master of Divinity degree from Northern Theological Seminary, where he was the first Dr. John Perkins Scholar graduate. James also completed his youth and theology certification at Princeton Theological Seminary and a clinical pastoral education unit at the University of Illinois Medical Center. In November 2020, he completed the Community Health Center Executive Fellowship at the University of Kansas Medical Center. To add to his wide array of empowering strategies and techniques, he is a highly sought after John Maxwell Certified Life Coach.

For his service, Reverend Brooks has humbly received numerous awards and accolades, including being a recipient of Northern Seminary’s distinguished Bryan F. Archibald Award for Excellence in preaching. James is grateful to participate in God’s work of proclaiming liberty to the oppressed and breaking down the walls that so easily divide us from one another. He enthusiastically facilitates workshops in leadership development, spiritual resiliency, margins, boundaries, and Christian community development. He sits on boards for North Lawndale College Prep High School and the Lawndale Christian Legal Clinic. As a proud member of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc., he believes in serving with excellence in every field of human endeavor. James is currently a doctoral student at Northern Theological Seminary. He is happily married to his beautiful wife, Jacqueline, a Registered Nurse. They have two brilliant and energetic daughters, Jaylah and Janay.

John Gallo is the former CEO and Executive Director of Legal Aid Chicago. He is now a shareholder in the law firm of Gair Gallo Eberhard LLP. Before joining Legal Aid Chicago in 2017, John was a partner at Sidley Austin LLP for twenty-one years. He was Firmwide Co-Chair of Sidley’s White Collar Practice from 2010 to 2017, and Head of Litigation in Sidley’s Chicago office from 2014 to 2017. While at Sidley, he represented institutional clients in criminal and civil matters before federal and state agencies and conducted internal investigations for those clients in response to allegations of wrongdoing. In 2005, John created Sidley’s Capital Litigation Project, designed to ensure that inmates incarcerated on Alabama’s death row had effective legal representation, perhaps for the first time since their arrest. In connection with this project, In 2007, the American Bar Association gave Sidley the Pro Bono Publico Award for the firm’s work on this project. From 2000 to 2017, John served as Trial Counsel to the Illinois Judicial Inquiry Board, the body responsible for investigating allegations of misconduct by Illinois judicial officers. In that capacity, John was responsible both for investigating complaints and prosecuting cases before the Illinois Courts Commission.

From 1989 to 1996, John served as a Criminal Assistant United States Attorney in the Northern District of Illinois, and from 1994 to 1996, he also served as a Deputy Chief. From 1994 until he departed from the office in 1996, John was the lead prosecutor in the public-corruption investigation commonly known as “Operation Silver Shovel.”John has been an Adjunct Professor at Notre Dame Law School since 2002, and he clerked for the Honorable Ann C. Williams in federal district court in Chicago from 1986 to 1988. John received his undergraduate degree from the University of Notre Dame and a law degree from Harvard Law School.

Ted Helwig retired from Katten Muchin Rosenman LLP in early 2022, where he had been a partner for over 34 years. Ted focused his practice on financial services enforcement litigation and corporate internal investigations. He also served as Katten’s General Counsel and Co-Head of the Chicago Litigation Department. Before Katten, Ted was as an AUSA in the United States Attorney’s office in Chicago for six years, and he served as a law clerk to two federal judges. Ted’s previous non-profit Board service includes 15 years at Legal Aid Chicago and 25 years at the Friendship Center in Chicago, which operates a food pantry on Chicago’s north side.

Jordan Matthews is an attorney with the law firm of Jones Day. She is an experienced trial lawyer and former Assistant United States Attorney. Jordan currently focuses her practice on internal and government investigations; high-stakes civil, criminal, and administrative litigation; and compliance counseling. As a federal prosecutor, Jordan investigated and prosecuted a wide range of crimes, including national security, espionage, theft of trade secret, cybercrime, extortion, RICO, civil rights, financial fraud, and tax offenses.

Prior to becoming a federal prosecutor, Jordan was a litigator at the law firm of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher, and Flom, where she handled commercial litigation matters with an emphasis on products-based class actions, mass torts, and consumer fraud. Jordan is a graduate of Yale University and the University of Pennsylvania Law School. After graduating from law school, Jordan clerked for a federal judge in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. Jordan is an active member of the Black Women Lawyers' Association and the Yale University Alumni Schools Committee.

Lisa Scruggs is a Partner at Duane Morris LLP and nationally recognized expert in school reform law. At Duane Morris, she provides litigation and counseling services for a full range of education industry clients. She served as the first general counsel to the Illinois State Charter School Commission, and co-founded Chicago’s first all-girls public charter school. Most notably, she served as Senior Policy Advisor to the Chief Executive Officer. She has also served as an Expert Review Panelist for U.S. Department of Education's Office of Innovation and Improvement grant competitions. As a litigator, Lisa has represented numerous companies and businesses in state and federal court. In 2018, she was appointed to serve as Special Assistant Attorney General by the Illinois Attorney General to help negotiate a consent decree addressing discriminatory practices and constitutional policing at the Chicago Police Department. She is a member of the Aspen Global Leadership Network and was selected as a Pahara-Aspen Education Fellow.

Lisa graduated cum laude from Georgetown University in 1993, is a 1998 graduate of the University of Chicago Law School, and holds an M.A. in Education Policy from the University of Chicago, Division of the Social Sciences. She also served as a judicial law clerk to the Honorable Ann C. Williams on the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois and the United States Court of Appeal for the Seventh Circuit. Lisa now lives on the south side of Chicago with her husband, Luther Riley and her three children Maya (16), Jacob (16) and Zachary (10).

Katherine W. Shank is the CEO and Executive Director of Legal Aid Chicago. Prior to becoming CEO, Kate served as Legal Aid Chicago’s Deputy Director and Chief of Staff and was responsible for identifying and managing organizational issues regarding recruitment, hiring and retention of legal staff, development and implementation of program policy, support of directors in personnel and other matters, and work with administrative staff on matters of grant funding, program operation and governance.

Kate joined Legal Aid Chicago following her graduation from law school and began her career representing clients in family law matters and spent several years as a general litigator also handling bankruptcies and subsidized housing eviction defense. As a supervising attorney, Kate concentrated her practice in the areas family law, domestic violence, and custody matters. She has also served as the Interim Executive Director and the Director of Volunteer Services where she oversaw all of Legal Aid Chicago’s pro bono efforts including project development, volunteer recruitment, volunteer training, law firm and corporate relations, law student recruitment and management, and volunteer recognition and management of the legal aid statewide AmeriCorps VISTA program. Kate is an Adjunct Professor at Northwestern Pritzker School of Law and serves on their Law Board.

Kate received her undergraduate degree in Social Work from Miami University, law degree from Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law, and Certificate of Civic Leadership from the Harris School of Public Policy at the University of Chicago.

Kimberly Skaggs is a retired public interest attorney and a long-time supporter of Legal Aid Chicago. After a short career as a dentist, Kim found her true calling in the law. Following law school, she clerked for two federal judges and served as an Assistant Federal Public Defender for the Southern District of Ohio. She then became the Executive Director of a legal services nonprofit, the Equal Justice Foundation, a group that provided impact services to low-income Ohio citizens.

Upon moving to Chicago, Kim became associated with Legal Aid Chicago and volunteered numerous hours in the Children’s Law Group, ultimately specializing in Education Law. Kim has a strong interest in abolishing the death penalty and is currently assisting in the post-conviction proceedings of an inmate on Federal Death Row.  Kim also serves on the Board of Reprieve US, an organization that fights human rights abuses.

Sylvia A. Stein is the Vice President, General Counsel, Corporate Secretary and Chief Compliance Officer at Modine Manufacturing Company. She joined Modine in January 2018 as Vice President, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary. Ms. Stein serves as a legal advisor to Modine’s senior management team, business unit leaders, and Board of Directors. She also leads the global Legal, Compliance and Intellectual Property functions. Before joining Modine, Ms. Stein served as the Associate General Counsel, Marketing & Regulatory at the Kraft Heinz Foods Company, a global food and beverage manufacturer headquartered in Chicago, IL. Over her tenure there, she held a series of legal roles of increasing responsibility, most recently, leading the legal team supporting the U.S. retail business units, food regulatory, marketing services and data privacy functions.

Earlier in her career, Ms. Stein was a member of the Complex Commercial Litigation practice at Latham & Watkins in Chicago. Prior to that, she served as a law clerk for the Honorable Ann C. Williams of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. Ms. Stein holds a bachelor’s degree in Economics from Northwestern University in Evanston, IL, and a Juris Doctor (JD) from the University of Michigan Law School, where she was a member of the Michigan Law Review. She presently serves on the Board of Directors of Just the Beginning—A Pipeline Organization and the Westside Justice Center, and is a member of several local and national bar associations.

Kruti Trivedi holds the position of Assistant General Counsel at JPMorgan Chase & Co., where she specializes in significant government investigations, regulatory enforcement, and crisis counseling in the United States and abroad. She also serves as the government investigations trial liaison and is Chicago location lead for the Legal Diversity Council. Previously, Ms. Trivedi served as an assistant U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Illinois. Ms. Trivedi has been recognized by both the FBI and the Department of Justice for her previous work, and has received a national Organized Crime and Drug Enforcement Task Force award. In 2017, Ms. Trivedi was chosen as to be a part of the Chicago Council on Global Affairs' Emerging Leaders Class of 2017, and in 2019 served on the selection committee for the program. Ms. Trivedi is currently the President of the Harvard Law Society of Illinois and serves on the executive committee of the Harvard Law School Association. In addition, Ms. Trivedi previously taught international law, with a focus on human rights, for the University of Chicago's Program in International Political Economy.

Prior to her time at the Justice Department, Ms. Trivedi clerked for the Honorable David H. Coar in the Northern District of Illinois. She received an A.B. from the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University and a J.D. from Harvard Law School. During her time at Harvard Law School, she served as Articles Editor for the Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review. Before attending law school, Ms. Trivedi completed reporting fellowships with The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times. For several years, she has held different positions on the leadership council of the parents’ association at her children’s school. She has also spent over a dozen years as a docent at Chicago's Museum of Contemporary Art.

Jon Paul Valadez is a director at Kivvit, a nationally recognized communications firm based in Chicago. At the firm, he has worked on and led several award-winning media and communications campaigns in energy, education, transportation and infrastructure, and not-for-profit clients. He also provides strategic public affairs support to national and local clients. Prior to joining Kivvit, JP worked for the Illinois House of Representatives, serving as a regional coordinator for the Democratic Caucus, where he managed communications and public outreach campaigns for state legislators across all of Illinois. Additionally, JP managed political campaigns for the Democratic Party of Illinois, working on some of the state’s most contested state house races.

A graduate of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, JP currently resides in Chicago’s Edison Park neighborhood with his wife and son. Additionally, he also serves on the board for the AIDS Foundation of Chicago and has recently been named an ambassador for Hispanic Star Chicago.