Subject to change.
Devon Ackerman
Ackerman is a managing director with Kroll's cyber risk practice, based in New York. He is an authority on digital forensics and has extensive experience in the investigation and remediation of cyber-related threats and incidents from his years with the Federal Bureau of Investigation as well as in the private sector. In his current role, Ackerman leads engagements for clients across a wide range of industries involving investigative digital forensics, intrusion response (unauthorized access), and malware analysis. He also serves as a senior forensic science team lead, where he conducts and oversees digital evidence collection, triage, and preservation. Ackerman joined Kroll from the FBI, where he was a supervisory special agent and senior digital sciences forensics examiner in the Digital Evidence Field Operations Unit. In this role, he oversaw and coordinated all FBI digital forensics-related field operations across the U.S., spanning a variety of matters such as domestic terrorism, mass shootings, critical incident response events, and large-scale electronic evidence collections. Ackerman also has provided expert witness testimony in federal and state courts.
Dana R. Baughns, Esq.
In her role as vice president, general counsel, and secretary for Aerotek, Baughns collaborates with senior-level executives and business partners across the company’s professional, industrial, and engineering and sciences business units. She has extensive, complex litigation and mediation experience, and supervises the strategic defense of Aerotek in lawsuits, claims, and government investigations. Baughns also provides counsel on a variety of labor and employment laws, government contracting obligations, service and vendor agreement negotiation, bankruptcy, noncompete compliance, and overall enterprise risk mitigation. She has supported Aerotek in various legal capacities since 2008 and is an effective business partner with a proven track record of developing solutions that successfully balance business goals, client objectives, and legal compliance. Baughns earned a bachelor’s degree in business management from Howard University in Washington, DC, and later received a juris doctorate degree from the University of Connecticut. She is admitted to practice in the state of Connecticut as well as the federal district of Connecticut and southern and eastern district courts of New York. Baughns also currently serves as chairman of the Center for Workplace Compliance.
Katharine Beattie, Esq.
Beattie is a member of the law firm Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky, and Popeo PC. Her work primarily involves litigation and counseling on federal and state labor and employment matters, including issues involving discrimination and harassment, leaves of absence, wage and hour disputes on an individual and class-wide basis, employee classification, wrongful termination, trade secret protection, and the enforcement of noncompetition and nondisclosure agreements. Beattie frequently provides employment and labor guidance on corporate merger and acquisition transactions, and regularly negotiates and drafts executive employment, separation, and related agreements on behalf of both publicly and privately held companies. In her labor practice, she advises clients on a range of collective bargaining issues and represents clients before the National Labor Relations Board with respect to unfair labor practice charges and union election proceedings.
Monte Block
Block is chief executive officer of Rotator Staffing Services Inc., headquartered in East Brunswick, NJ. He has more than 35 years of experience in the staffing industry, in which he has successfully marketed, serviced, and administered both staff augmentation and vendor partner relationships with many clients. Block has been recognized multiple times as one of the top 100 most influential people in the staffing industry by Staffing Industry Analysts and is a sought-after subject matter expert, speaker, and trainer at various conferences and seminars. He is a graduate of Brooklyn College and earned a master of business administration degree from Pace University.
Sofia Bowden
In her role as director of compliance at ASGN, Bowden supports the company’s business units by keeping them informed and compliant with constantly evolving employment laws and regulations across the U.S. She also supports the organization with general employment and legal counseling and managing corporate compliance initiatives, such as the organization’s readiness plan for compliance with the California Consumer Privacy Act. Bowden received her juris doctorate degree from the University of Texas School of Law and is licensed to practice in Texas and California. She is on the board of directors of Meet Each Need With Dignity, a Los Angeles-area nonprofit organization that serves homeless and other vulnerable populations.
Charlie Cook
Cook is editor and publisher of the Cook Political Report. Widely regarded as one of the nation’s leading authorities on U.S. elections and political trends, he has appeared on the ABC, CBS, and NBC evening news programs, as well as on “Good Morning America,” the “Today Show,” “Nightline,” “Meet the Press,” and “This Week.” He has also appeared many times on CNBC, MSNBC, CNN, C-SPAN, and NPR. He is the political analyst for the National Journal Group, where he writes weekly for National Journal magazine and “CongressDailyAM.” Cook also writes a regular column for The Washington Quarterly, published by the Center for Strategic and International Studies, and is a political analyst for NBC News.
Diane J. Geller, Esq.
As a partner in the law firm Fox Rothschild LLP, Geller provides strategic general counsel services to a wide array of private and public companies, both large and small, offering informed and experienced guidance on business and employment law issues that arise as a matter of operations. A former general counsel for a major public company in the staffing and funding industry, Geller is a season practitioner who helps clients stay compliant with the everchanging federal and state regulations governing the workplace. She also has authored legal articles for Staffing Success magazine, published by ASA for its members.
Pat Haggerty, Esq.
Haggerty is a member of the BakerHostetler privacy and data protection team. Businesses, government, and other organizations turn to Haggerty for sound advice on compliance, developing response strategies, breaches implicating domestic and international laws, and defense of regulatory actions. Leading clients have entrusted him with hundreds of breach responses. He has advised companies on major cybersecurity incidents across virtually every sector of the economy, including the banking, educational, health care, insurance, retail, media and entertainment, information technology, and manufacturing industries. Haggerty provides companies that have experienced security incidents with business-focused, practical solutions that minimize regulatory and litigation risk.
Diana R. Karabelas, Esq.
Karabelas has served as in-house counsel for staffing companies for more than 25 years. In her current role as general counsel for the Advanced Group, she applies her expertise in business strategy, corporate law, regulatory compliance, government affairs, franchise relations, workforce solutions, and international experience. Karabelas served on the ASA board of directors from 2010 to 2014 and has served as a presenter to ASA audiences. She received her juris doctorate degree from Syracuse University College of Law and her bachelor’s degree from New York University.
Jonathan Klorfein, CSP
Klorfein joined Labor Finders International in 2000. As chief customer officer for the company, he is the primary liaison between franchise operations and franchise support. He also serves as company lobbyist on legal issues concerning Labor Finders in the industry. An ASA Certified Staffing Professional, Klorfein serves on the association’s legal and legislative committee and belongs to the ASA industrial section. Additionally, he serves as the director of human resources for the company-owned Labor Finders franchise, LF Staffing Services, with offices in California, Missouri, Arizona, North Dakota, New Mexico, and Iowa. Prior to joining Labor Finders, Klorfein was employed at Palm Beach Community College for 10 years, where he served as director of admissions and as college registrar. He coached the men’s tennis team to six straight Florida state championships and the women’s team to two, while being named Florida coach of the year seven times. Klorfein holds a bachelor's degree in political science from Tulane University, where he served as captain of the tennis team, and a master's degree in education from Florida Atlantic University.
Helen L. Konrad, Esq.
Konrad is director in the immigration practice group of the law firm McCandlish Holton PC, where she concentrates on work site compliance, defending employers in U.S. Department of Labor, Office of Special Counsel, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement investigations, as well as employment-based and professional immigration. She has worked directly with the staffing industry for nearly 20 years and has shared her extensive expertise with staffing professionals at Staffing World®, through ASA webinars, and at past ASA Staffing Law Conferences. Konrad has regularly been recognized as one of the best immigration lawyers in America and she is consistently one of the highest-rated speakers at ASA events.
Jason B. Klimpl, Esq.
Klimpl is a partner in the employment law group of Tannenbaum Helpern Syracuse & Hirschtritt LLP. In this capacity, he advises clients on a broad range of employment law matters, such as wage and hour compliance, health care, equal opportunity actions and policies, employment agreements and restrictive covenants, independent contractor and consulting issues, reductions in force, technology and privacy concerns, and other human resource counseling. He is associate general counsel of the New York Staffing Association, an ASA-affiliated chapter, and is heavily involved in legal and legislative efforts to support the staffing industry. He has written numerous employment law articles and is a contributing faculty member of both Lawline and the National Academy of Continuing Legal Education. Klimpl also is a member of the Manhattan Chamber of Commerce speakers bureau and help desk. He was awarded Martindale-Hubbell’s “preeminent” peer review rating, named 2013–2019 New York Super Lawyer (Rising Star), and won the “Rising Star Attorney” category in New York Enterprise Report’s 2012 Best Attorneys and Accountants list.
Joanna S. Monroe, Esq.
Monroe is president and CEO of Consult JSM, a firm that specializes in helping staffing companies grow revenue and profit while reducing risk. She recently retired from her position as chief compliance and risk officer for TrueBlue. As a founder of the legal function, she was part of the senior team that transformed TrueBlue from a $1 billion domestic, day-labor company into a $3 billion international workforce solutions company, with 6,000 employees placing more than 800,000 people into jobs each year. Monroe has deep expertise in business strategy, regulatory compliance, risk management, contractual negotiations, outside counsel management, government affairs, and human resources with proven success in aligning legal expertise with organizational needs for achieving business growth. She is highly regarded for providing practical, solutions-focused advice that enables leaders to take appropriate risks to unleash business growth.
Jon Neff
Neff co-founded Hire Dynamics with former college roommate Dan Campbell in 2001, on the premise that great companies to work for are also great leaders of industry. He is a certified public accountant and active in his field, holding memberships with both the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants and the Georgia Society of CPAs. Neff currently serves on the board of Junior Achievement of Georgia and 21st Century Leaders, and is a past board member of the Atlanta Chapter of Financial Executives International and the Georgia Chamber. Prior to Hire Dynamics, Neff spent eight years with KPMG as a senior manager in the assurance practice, primarily working with public and private companies in the high-tech industry, and spent two years at KPMG’s office in London. Neff graduated with honors in accounting from Millsaps College and earned his executive master of business administration degree from Emory University’s Goizueta Business School in 2012.
Eric H. Rumbaugh, Esq.
Rumbaugh is a partner in the law firm Michael Best & Friedrich LLP and represents management in all areas of labor and employment law. In addition, he is chairman of the firm’s trade secret and non-competition team. Rumbaugh litigates cases nationwide involving unfair competition, breach of contract, trade secret misappropriation, and other issues involving incoming and departing employees, and business-to-business disputes involving intellectual property, trade secrets, and unfair competition. He also regularly represents users and providers of temporary employees, consultants, independent contractors, and other contingent talent.
Brittany Sakata, Esq.
As associate general counsel for the American Staffing Association, Sakata is an integral part of the ASA legal team and its advocacy efforts on behalf of the staffing industry. She is an experienced labor and employment attorney with more than a decade of experience litigating matters on behalf of individuals and employers. Sakata advises members on labor and employment law and policy issues, including EEO, wage and hour, immigration/I-9, OSHA, and NLRB issues. She earned her juris doctorate degree from the American University Washington College of Law.
Donald W. Schroeder, Esq.
Schroeder is a partner and labor and employment attorney with Foley & Lardner LLP. He has extensive trial experience in both state and federal courts, where he focuses on representing Fortune 500 clients on matters including restrictive covenant litigation, wage and hour class actions, and single plaintiff discrimination cases. Schroeder’s trial experience includes a number of federal and state court jury trials involving claims under Title VII, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA), and the Massachusetts antidiscrimination statute. Additionally, Schroeder regularly handles traditional labor matters (focusing on the management side) for clients, including unfair labor practice proceedings, union elections, mass picketing, labor arbitrations, and collective bargaining negotiations.
Erin Stewart, Esq., TSC, CSP
Stewart serves as general counsel for Pinnacle Group, a workforce solutions provider headquartered in Dallas that currently serves clients in six countries. Stewart, whose primary professional interests are employment law and human capital management, also serves as the company’s vice president of human resources. She leads the Pinnacle Group’s legal, human resources, supply chain, compliance, and risk management functions and is a member of the company’s executive leadership team. She has deep expertise with all legal issues impacting workforce solutions programs. Stewart combines that knowledge with a business-forward approach to create effective operational solutions for managing risk. By customizing these solutions for each client company based on its unique risk profile and tolerance, business objectives are achieved while compliance is maintained. Before joining Pinnacle Group as associate general counsel in 2012, Stewart was assistant general counsel at the University of North Texas System and worked with all campuses on legal issues related to employment, litigation, intellectual property, and contracts. Prior to moving to Texas in 2006, Stewart was a litigator with New York City-based Kasowitz, Benson, Torres & Friedman LLP. She is licensed to practice law in Texas and New York. She earned her juris doctorate degree at Columbia Law School and her bachelor’s degree in history and English literature from the University of Maryland College Park.
Robert T. Szyba, Esq.
Szyba advises clients on a wide range of issues under federal, state, and local laws, including background check and Fair Credit Reporting Act violations, ban-the-box issues, prevailing wage requirements, wage-and-hour and overtime compliance, whistleblower retaliation, family and medical leave compliance and interference/retaliation claims, paid sick leave, and a wide range of discrimination, harassment, and retaliation issues. As a skilled trial lawyer, Szyba handles complex employment litigation—including class, collective, and multidistrict litigation—as well as single-plaintiff lawsuits. He has extensive experience in New Jersey and New York state and federal courts, as well as federal district courts across the country. He also represents clients before federal and state administrative agencies, such as the U.S. Department of Labor, New Jersey Division on Civil Rights, New York State Division of Human Rights, and New York City Commission on Human Rights, among others. Szyba also represents clients in arbitrations, mediations, and prelitigation negotiations.
Liza Zamd, Esq.
Zamd is a senior trial attorney in the immigrant and employee rights section of the U.S. Department of Justice. In her role, she investigates and prosecutes employment discrimination based on citizenship status and national origin. Zamd has substantial experience with large, complex matters relating to the Form I-9/E-Verify processes, and frequently travels throughout the U.S. to train attorneys, human resource professionals, and government officials on compliance. Zamd graduated from the University of Michigan Law School and received her bachelor of arts degree from Yale University.
