Rebecca Bovinet, Esq.
Senior Corporate Counsel and Director of Compliance, MedPro Healthcare Staffing
Bovinet serves as the senior corporate counsel and director of compliance at MedPro Healthcare Staffing, bringing more than seven years of dedicated service and expertise to the team. In her role, Bovinet has demonstrated a steadfast commitment to ensuring legal compliance and ethical standards within the organization, contributing significantly to its success. Over the last two years, she has dedicated significant time to state staffing law compliance as well as effectuating change concerning the placement of long-term, foreign-educated health care professionals. Bovinet holds a juris doctor degree from Florida International University College of Law, where she served as editor-in-chief of the FIU Law Review.
Sirmara J. Campbell
Chief Human Resources Officer, LaSalle Network
Campbell is chief human resources officer at LaSalle Network, a national staffing, recruiting, and culture firm. She has nearly 25 years of experience within staffing and human resources and her expertise has helped LaSalle Network be recognized by more than 100 culture and revenue-based awards, including being named to Crain’s Chicago Business’s Best Places to Work list more than eight times. Campbell herself has been named to Crain’s Chicago Business’s list of Notable HR, DEI & Black Leaders; Workforce Magazine’s Workforce Game Changers; Diversity Journal magazine’s Women Worth Watching; and Staffing Industry Analysts’ Global Power 150 Women in Staffing.
Lauren A. Champaign, Esq.
Senior Counsel, Foley & Lardner LLP
Champaign is a senior counsel and litigation lawyer with Foley & Lardner LLP, where her practice includes commercial litigation and counseling clients in the areas of securities litigation, product liability defense, antitrust, and consumer finance matters. She represents clients on a broad range of matters, including enforcement actions before state and federal regulatory agencies as well as in complex, multistate litigation—including large class actions based on allegations of anticompetitive conduct. Champaign’s professional recognitions include Best Lawyers: Ones to Watch for antitrust law (2021–2023); American Lawyer Industry Awards’ Young Lawyer of the Year—Beyond Practice finalist (2022); Corporate Counsel Women of Color’s Next Gen Emerging Leader Millennial Leader award (2022); and DCA Live’s Emerging Women Leaders in Private Practice (2022).
Jessica Chasin, Esq.
Associate General Counsel, AMN Healthcare
Chasin serves as associate general counsel at AMN Healthcare, where she leads the employment law function for the legal department. Her team provides enterprise-wide advice and counsel on issues including pay practices and compliance, DEI, human resources, team member engagement, and issue resolution. Chasin also leads AMN’s litigation function and holds several areas of compliance responsibility. She has been litigating primarily employment matters for more than 20 years. Prior to joining AMN in 2016, Chasin worked in private practice at a law firm in San Diego.
Benjamin M. Ebbink, Esq.
Partner, Fisher & Phillips LLP
Ebbink is a partner in the Sacramento, CA, and Washington, DC, offices of Fisher & Phillips LLP and is co-chair of the Government Relations Practice Group. With two decades of experience in labor and employment law and in assisting the development of California labor law and regulations, he focuses on legislation introduced at the federal, state, and local levels. For nearly 15 years, Ebbink served as chief consultant to the California Assembly Committee on Labor and Employment, where he was the primary policy expert on labor and employment matters for the California State Assembly. He played a key role in virtually every major labor and employment issue to come before the legislature during his tenure, and personally drafted hundreds of legislative proposals. During his service in the legislature, Ebbink earned a reputation for his integrity, his ability to work with diverse stakeholders on all sides, and his skill as a problem-solver.
James Hauser
Director of Government Affairs, Aya Healthcare
Hauser is the director of government affairs for Aya Healthcare, which is headquartered in San Diego and is the nation’s largest travel nurse and allied staffing agency, as well as a leading provider of locums, per diem, and nonclinical staffing. As the director of government affairs, Hauser looks to strengthen the effectiveness and efficiency of the health care staffing industry. He has been involved with many successful local and statewide elections in California and in the U.S. He most recently served as the chief of staff in the city of San Diego and has worked for elected officials in both the state of California and Congress. Hauser currently serves on the San Diego Ethics Commission.
Claudia A. Joly, MPA, BSW, CHC
Senior Director of Legal Compliance and Regulatory Services, AMN Healthcare
Joly is the senior director of legal compliance services and regulatory services at AMN Healthcare, where she has led compliance, regulatory, audit, ethics, and specialty licensing programs. She serves as a key compliance leader across the AMN enterprise and leads cross-departmental, multiyear compliance projects including Covid-19 response, health care staffing regulatory reform, and Project Nightingale taskforce. Joly provides strategic and operational guidance in Joint Commission, National Committee for Quality Assurance, and Compliance Leader Verification certification processes and chairs the AMN Regulatory Committee. Prior to her seven years in the health care total talent solutions sector, she fulfilled various senior government official roles encompassing legislative, regulatory, investigative, and licensing leadership functions. Joly’s 15 years of executive and operational government experience serve to support strong and collaborative working relationships between government and the private sector. She serves on the ASA and National Association of Travel Healthcare Organizations legislative and regulatory affairs committees. She is certified by the Health Care Compliance Association in health care compliance.
Jack Kingston
Principal, Squire Patton Boggs
Former U.S. Rep. Jack Kingston helps clients address public policy challenges in legislatures and regulatory agencies around the world. His leadership in Congress of the largest domestic appropriations subcommittee and his senior position on the defense appropriations subcommittee gave him a deep understanding of the policy and financial challenges global clients face. In addition, Kingston assists with business development and strategic counseling for the firm’s leadership in specialty areas, including agriculture, defense, education, energy, financial services, health care, tax, transportation, trade, and international business.
Jason B. Klimpl, Esq.
Partner, Tannenbaum Helpern Syracuse & Hirschtritt LLP
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 and compliance counseling. He is also 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 Speaker Bureau. He was awarded Martindale-Hubbell’s “preeminent” peer review rating; named as a Super Lawyer: Rising Star from 2013–2022 as well as Super Lawyer: New York Metro Area–Employment and Labor in 2023; and recognized on the 2024 list of Best Lawyers in America.
Sarah Kroll-Rosenbaum, Esq.
Partner, Akerman LLP
Kroll-Rosenbaum is the team leader of Akerman’s Staffing Law sector, which offers staffing companies coordinated counsel as they navigate a complex landscape of novel compliance, regulation, and litigation challenge. She is a trusted strategic advisor to her clients, with whom she collaborates closely to design and execute litigation strategies through the lens of their business priorities. In recent years, Kroll-Rosenbaum has led the defense of dozens of temporary staffing companies in class, collective, and representative actions, including California Private Attorneys General Act claims. In these cases, among others, she has argued extensively in state and federal courts across the country, including the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, and in arbitration.
Dawn M. Lurie, Esq.
Senior Counsel, Seyfarth Shaw LLP
Lurie is a senior counsel in the Washington, DC, office of Seyfarth Shaw LLP. She leads the firm’s Immigration, Compliance, and Enforcement specialty team. Clients regularly turn to Lurie for assistance with immigration-related government I-9 audits, internal assessments, and electronic I-9 due diligence reviews. She offers forward-thinking advice on I-9 hiring practices, tackling issues such as immigration-related discrimination and navigating the E-Verify process, alongside monitoring and compliance matters. Lurie also defends employers in civil and criminal workplace enforcement actions and conducts immigration-related internal investigations and analysis of I-9 issues in mergers, acquisitions, and other corporate transactions. Furthermore, she aids federal government contractors in adhering to the Federal Acquisition Rule’s E-Verify compliance mandates and the associated flow-down clause. Lurie also supports employers with state E-Verify inspections and acts as a third-party auditor for companies that must provide certifications of I-9 compliance. She takes particular pride in her policy-oriented endeavors—especially her work on the Alternatives to the Physical Document Inspection (Virtual) rule’s implementation and her collaboration with key stakeholders in updating I-9 guidance and policies.
Gerald L. Maatman Jr., Esq.
Partner, Duane Morris LLP
Gerald “Jerry” Maatman Jr. is a Chambers-recognized workplace class action defense litigator, eight-time Law 360 Employment Law MVP, nine-time recipient of BTI Consulting Group’s distinguished Client Service All-Star Award, and 2021 Legal 500 Hall of Fame inductee. Maatman is a partner at Duane Morris LLP, where he chairs the firm’s Class Action Defense Group. Among his various cases, Maatman successfully defended the largest Equal Employment Opportunity Commission pattern or practice lawsuit ever prosecuted in the history of the commission, the largest age discrimination collective action ever brought in Illinois, the first sexual harassment class action brought by a state attorney general in the U.S., and the largest wage and hour class actions ever litigated in Florida, Illinois, and New York. A graduate of Washington and Lee University and the Northwestern University School of Law, where he has served as an adjunct professor for 34 years, Maatman is based out of Duane Morris’ Chicago and New York offices. Among his areas of focus, he represents many American Staffing Association members in litigation and has handled amicus briefing for ASA on issues of key concern to the staffing community in both federal and state courts. The author of eight books on law, Maatman is often consulted by major news organizations for his views on significant court rulings and legal issues. He has served as a legal commentator on PBS, NPR, MSNBC, CNBC, and USA Talk Radio, and his comments have appeared in such publications as the Wall Street Journal, The Economist, Business Insurance, USA Today, Fortune, and Forbes. In 2023, Business Today included Maatman in its rankings of the Top 8 Most Influential Labor & Employment Lawyers in the U.S. Further, Chambers selected him as one of the leading class action defense lawyers in its 2006 to 2024 rankings of U.S. lawyers.
Toby Malara, Esq.
VP, government relations, American Staffing Association
Malara is vice president of government relations for the American Staffing Association. He advises on all staffing-related legislation and regulation, including the Affordable Care Act, immigration/I-9, paid sick leave, sales tax, and per diem issues. He also directs the association’s political activities through its political action committee, StaffingPAC.
Peter Mecouch, MBA, MSN, RN, CNE
Chief Clinical and Compliance Officer, GHR Healthcare
Mecouch serves as the chief clinical and compliance officer at GHR Healthcare. With more than 30 years of experience in health care, he brings an extensive education, 18 years of clinical nursing experience, and 13 years of progressive health care leadership experience—including as chief nurse executive and chief executive officer—to his role in health care staffing. Overseeing clinical operations, Mecouch advises clinicians, ensures compliance with state and federal regulations, and maintains Joint Commission certification for the company. This comprehensive approach guarantees quality assurance throughout GHR Healthcare’s staffing operations.
Joanna Monroe
Co-Managing Partner, Staffing GC
Monroe is a senior legal executive and c-suite adviser with a proven track record of helping staffing companies transform and grow profits while reducing risk. A legal and compliance expert with more than 25 years of industry experience, Monroe is passionate about providing affordable, solutions-focused advice. In 2021, she launched Staffing GC, a legal services firm exclusively serving the staffing industry. Through this innovative law firm, she partners with staffing leaders to drive down legal expenses and make risk-informed decisions that move businesses forward. Prior to launching Staffing GC, Monroe served for more than 15 years as vice president, deputy general counsel, and chief compliance and risk officer at TrueBlue Inc., a publicly traded staffing company.
Steve Pedersen, Esq.
Chief Legal Officer, Medical Solutions
Since 2018, Pedersen has served as the chief legal executive of Medical Solutions, one of the nation’s largest health care staffing companies. He oversees all legal matters, including regulatory compliance, contracts, litigation, risk management, government affairs, and enterprise-wide legal strategy. He is a member of the American Staffing Association’s legislative and chief legal officer committees. Prior to joining Medical Solutions, Pedersen served as general counsel to privately held, high-growth businesses in e-commerce and specialty finance. Pedersen is a summa cum laude graduate of Creighton University and obtained his law degree from Duke University School of Law.
Marianela Peralta, Esq.
General Counsel and Corporate Secretary, Aerotek Inc.
Peralta is general counsel and corporate secretary for Aerotek Inc., a staffing and human capital management company and one of the Allegis Group’s five operating companies. As general counsel, she oversees the management of legal matters for Aerotek. This includes matters involving complex commercial contracts, employment, data privacy, human resources, and other executive management matters. Prior to joining Allegis, Peralta was associate general counsel at Walmart. She previously served as a shareholder in the Washington, DC, office of Littler Mendelson PC and, for seven years, as an assistant U.S. attorney in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia.
Michael R. Phillips, Esq.
Partner, McGuire Woods LLP
Phillips, a partner at McGuireWoods LLP, has been defending employers nationwide in labor and employment claims for more than 25 years. He has represented employers in virtually every state in cases brought under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Family and Medical Leave Act, Erisa, and other state and federal employment statutes. These cases have included many class and collective actions under the Fair Labor Standards Act and state wage payment laws. Phillips also guides employers on their obligations under federal labor law and collective bargaining agreements and has arbitrated dozens of grievances, securing many important victories for his clients. He is also an experienced commercial litigator, representing businesses and individuals in breach of contract, business tort, professional liability, and other business disputes. Although his practice spans numerous industries, Phillips has particular expertise in the staffing industry, where he has represented staffing companies both large and small, as well as in the food and beverage, energy, health care, transportation, and telecommunications fields. Phillips has been honored as an Illinois “Super Lawyer” in labor and employment law 11 times and has been named a BTI Client Service All-Star.
Deborah R. Pierce, Esq., SPHR
SVP and General Counsel, Integrity Staffing Solutions Inc.
Pierce is senior vice president and general counsel for Integrity Staffing Solutions Inc. As a member of the senior leadership team, Pierce develops and implements strategic business plans, crisis management response, employee relations policies, and contract risk management. She launched a dispute resolution program that includes an anonymous ethics hotline and mandatory arbitration, reducing external legal claims and average per-case costs. Pierce led the revision of employee handbooks, Americans with Disabilities Act compliance processes, and restrictive covenant agreements.  She earned undergraduate and law degrees from the University of Pennsylvania and has presided as mediator in more than 200 government agency cases. Pierce was recognized by the Philadelphia Business Journal as 2020 Best of the Bar and on the Staffing Industry Analysts Global Power 150 Women in Staffing list in 2022. She is a member of the American Staffing Association’s legal and legislative committee.
Evan M. Rosen, Esq.
Principal, Jackson Lewis PC
Rosen is a principal in the Atlanta office of Jackson Lewis PC. He is a labor and employment litigator and counselor who has been recognized nationally for his expertise by The Best Lawyers in America for the past six years in the practice areas of employment law, management and litigation, and labor and employment. Rosen specializes in the staffing industry and advises staffing companies throughout the country. He served on the board of directors for the Georgia Staffing Association for the past 10 years and serves as a founding and leading member of Jackson Lewis’s staffing and independent workforce practice group. Rosen works with staffing companies nationwide on a variety of issues, including defending companies against discrimination, harassment, retaliation, wage hour, breach of contract, Fair Credit Reporting Act, noncompete, and wrongful termination administrative charges and lawsuits; counseling companies on a wide range of employment policies and practices; and drafting agreements and policies such as employment agreements, separation agreements, employee handbooks, independent contractor agreements, and other employment policies.
Nick Rudman, Esq.
Associate General Counsel, Medical Solutions
Rudman serves as associate general counsel for Medical Solutions, where he oversees management of all litigation matters. Prior to joining Medical Solutions in 2021, Rudman was a litigator and trial attorney based in Omaha and Milwaukee for 13 years, acting as outside counsel for health plans, hospitals, and health care staffing agencies. He is admitted to practice before the state and federal courts in Nebraska and Wisconsin, as well as the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals. Rudman is a graduate of the Creighton University School of Law, and earned his master’s degree in political science from the University of Missouri-Columbia.
Brittany Sakata, Esq.
General Counsel, American Staffing Association
Sakata is an experienced labor and employment attorney with more than 11 years of experience litigating matters on behalf of individuals and employers. She advises American Staffing Association members on labor and employment law and policy issues, including equal employment opportunity, wage and hour, immigration/I-9, Occupational Safety and Health Administration, and National Labor Relations Board issues.
Robert W. Sanders, Esq.
Partner, Taylor English Duma LLP
Sanders is a partner at Taylor English Duma LLP, where he helps companies across the country understand legal risks and strategies to avoid claims—empowering them to make confident, business-minded employment decisions. He routinely counsels employers on best practices in handling employee discipline and discharge, leave and accommodation, discrimination and harassment, wage and hour, worker safety, noncompete, and other issues.
Donald W. Schroeder, Esq.
Partner, Foley & Lardner LLP
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, Age Discrimination in Employment Act, 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.
Andrew L. Scroggins, Esq.
Partner, Seyfarth Shaw LLP
Scroggins, partner at Seyfarth Shaw LLP, focuses his practice on complex class- and collective-action proceedings brought under Title VII, the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act, and the Equal Pay Act, as well as alleged wage and hour and wage payment violations brought under the Fair Labor Standards Act and similar state laws. A significant portion of Scroggins’s practice includes matters concerning the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, ranging from the handling of administrative charges to systemic investigations, subpoena enforcement proceedings, and pattern and practice litigation. His clients have included major U.S. employers in the staffing, hospitality, health care, manufacturing, retail, financial services, and pharmaceutical industries. Prior to earning his law degree, Scroggins worked for nine years in the human resources department of a global accounting and consulting firm—a role that he first obtained through a staffing firm. In that capacity, he gained first-hand insight into the challenges of managing diverse workforces spread across multiple states and countries with different regulatory schemes. That experience helps him to work collaboratively with his clients to devise practical solutions to workplace issues.
Montaye Sigmon, Esq.
Partner, Akerman LLP
Sigmon, partner at Akerman LLP, is a trusted legal advisor to her clients—particularly with respect to regulatory compliance and contract matters. Her expertise spans a variety of employment tax and employee benefits-related laws and state staffing industry regulations. Sigmon helps clients navigate the complex framework of federal laws governing employer-sponsored benefit plans and the related tax implications of such plans. She counsels plan sponsors and service providers regarding compliance with Erisa, the Internal Revenue Code, the Affordable Care Act, COBRA, and the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act. In her staffing industry practice, Sigmon provides advice concerning health care staffing regulatory requirements and compliance best practices. She assists in drafting and negotiating staffing services agreements and a variety of vendor/service provider agreements. She also works closely with staffing clients on accountable plan-related operations geared toward maintaining tax compliance.
Collin Williams, Esq.
Founder and chairman, New Era ADR
Williams is the founder and chairman of New Era ADR. He was previously general counsel at Reverb.com, a preeminent digital marketplace for the buying and selling of musical instruments, gear, and equipment. Prior to Reverb, Williams was the first attorney at a health care technology start-up in Chicago that was one of Inc. magazine’s fastest growing companies in the country, as well as corporate counsel in the first cloud-computing legal department of Oracle, a Fortune 100 company. The inspiration for New Era came from the first 11 years of Williams’s practice, which was spent as a litigator at Greenberg Traurig LLP and Butler Snow LLP, where he litigated hundreds of cases—many of which he took fully through trial or arbitration/mediation. He has also been a director for Streetwise, one of the largest homeless aid organizations in the Midwest; an associate board member of Make-A-Wish Illinois; and a mentor with Real Industry. Williams holds a bachelor of arts degree from Middlebury College and a juris doctor degree from Tulane University School of Law.
Vanessa P. Williams, Esq.
SVP, general counsel, and corporate secretary, Kelly
As senior vice president, general counsel, and corporate secretary for Kelly, Williams oversees the legal, governance, investor relations, enterprise risk management, insurance, corporate security, and communication strategy teams. She joined Kelly in 2020 with 24 years of senior legal experience, and currently manages regulatory and legal compliance, directs strategic legal initiatives, and provides senior management with actionable counsel. Williams also oversees the global legal team and manages outside counsel relationships. She is a fellow of the American Bar Foundation and the State Bar of Michigan Foundation, former chair of the State Bar of Michigan Representative Assembly, and past president of the Association of Defense Trial Counsel. Williams is a recipient of the Crain’s General & In-house Counsel Award for large private companies. In 2021, she was named to the EMpower Ethnic Minority Executives list, initiated by diversity and inclusion membership organization Involve.
Ariel D. Zion, Esq.
Chief Legal Officer, Insight Global
Zion serves as chief legal officer of Insight Global, where she oversees both the legal and security organizations for the company—including all legal compliance and litigation, physical and industrial security, and safety. A former private practice commercial and employment litigator, Zion joined Insight Global in 2017 and has been instrumental in building teams and critical functional areas within the company’s legal department, as well as focusing on developing excellent legal talent. She counsels the business on all areas of risk and compliance, while first and foremost being a partner to enable business growth. Zion graduated from the University of Texas at Austin and earned her juris doctor degree from Cumberland School of Law at Samford University.
