Founders
Shawnna Yashar
Shawnna Yashar, Esq. serves as the Director of Global IP Litigation at Lenovo where she manages both offensive and defensive IP litigations across the world. Before joining Lenovo, Shawnna served as Assistant General Counsel for Technology at ManTech International, where she worked to protect the company’s intellectual property, navigate the complexities around data privacy and cyber security, and help ManTech partner with various commercial technology companies. Prior to ManTech, Shawnna was Principle Senior Counsel at MicroStrategy, where she was responsible for complex commercial litigation, intellectual property, data privacy, and cyber security.
Before becoming a lawyer, Shawnna worked as a software engineer for a business intelligence company and managed her own independent software consulting company focused on data warehouse design and data mining. After law school, Shawnna worked as a litigation associate for several law firms in Washington, D.C., and served as a law clerk at the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. She was previously a partner with Baker & Hostetler in Washington, D.C., focusing on intellectual property litigation, technology agreements, complex commercial litigation, and IP acquisition and licensing strategy.
Shawnna serves as a mentor with the Society of Women Engineers and is on the executive Board of the Falls Church Community Services Council, a group dedicated to preventing homelessness. She is also a board member of the Fairfax County Parents Association, which works closely with the Virginia legislature and local public school administration to prioritize academic and special needs programming.
Richard Coel
Richard Coel is now Litigation Lead - Americas for Hitachi Rail, where he directs complex commercial dispute resolution and builds out the in-house litigation function for his company. Richard previously worked eight years in private practice trying cases, gaining significant first chair experience, before spending the next six years as Senior Counsel for the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority.
Richard enjoys networking and brainstorming the future of the practice with other corporate counsel. In addition to his work with the Ad Idem Network, Richard serves as the 2024 Chair for the ACC Global Litigation Network. Away from work, Richard and his wife, Canby, spend their weekends chasing after their two fun-loving daughters. As a Texas native, Richard loves UT football and cooking his own BBQ.
Shawn Rabin
Shawn Rabin is a partner in Susman Godfrey’s New York City office where he litigates bet-the-company cases in courts across America. In the last few years alone, Shawn won a jury trial for General Electric in the Southern District of New York (upheld by the Second Circuit), won a bench trial in the District Court of Puerto Rico for the world’s largest retailer (upheld by the First Circuit), and settled several cases weeks before or even during trial for companies like Uber, Match.com, Everly Health and individuals like Adam Neumann.
Shawn personally handles all aspects of his cases, from evaluating claims before a complaint is filed to selecting juries and seeing cases through to verdict. Having tried cases all across America—from San Francisco to San Juan—Rabin’s creativity and strategic thinking give his clients the extra margin necessary for victory.
Michelle Kallen
Michelle Kallen is a partner at Jenner & Block specializing in appeals and litigation crisis management. Michelle served as the seventh Solicitor General of the Commonwealth of Virginia and then as Special Litigation Counsel in the United States House of Representatives representing the January 6 Committee in high-profile litigation. Before her government service, Michelle spent seven years in private practice. Michelle clerked for the Honorable Jane B. Stranch on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. She holds a bachelor's degree from Stanford University and a J.D. from Vanderbilt Law School.
Canby Wood
Canby Wood serves as the National Director of Business Development at Blueprint Trial Consulting, a litigation strategy firm which provides jury research and consulting, graphics consulting and production, and trial presentation services. A Washingtonian “Super Connector”, Canby loves to connect her trial attorney friends and clients to Fortune 500 legal departments, and has a passion for brainstorming topic ideas for her legal communities (“now THAT would make a great topic for a CLE program!”).
A lawyer by training and an entrepreneur at heart, Canby is committed to providing innovative solutions to meet her clients’ legal and business development needs. Among her many ventures, in 2019, Canby co-founded the Washington Area Women Trial Attorneys, a DC-based network that is committed to advancing accomplished trial attorney women in the profession.
Director of Operations
Jeanne Billings
Jeanne has over 25 years of experience in the legal industry in both business development and conference planning and development. Most recently she was Director of Conference Programs at a litigation services company, creating unique and interactive networking and learning events for attorneys. Jeanne enjoys working with attorneys to help them create compelling programs on the most important issues affecting their world.
