Communication Skills That Improve Agility and Adaptiveness in the Face of Change

Cari Almo Gallman is Assistant General Counsel and Head, Global Commercial Oncology Legal and Compliance, leading the team of commercial and regulatory lawyers for Bristol Myers-Squibb’s Oncology Business Unit. In that capacity, Cari and her team provide advice regarding the strategy and execution of commercial and medical tactics for BMS’s oncology medications in market as well as in development. Cari’s team also provides legal support for BMS’ Worldwide Commercial Operations, including on key commercialization areas such as BMS’s multichannel strategy; Field Force capabilities and training; HCP meetings and Congresses; and Strategy and Operations. In her role supporting multiple parts of BMS, Cari sits on the leadership teams for BMS Oncology R&D, BMS Commercial Oncology, and BMS Worldwide Commercial Operations and serves as a strategic partner directly delivering practical, effective, and innovative legal solutions to support business needs while mitigating and defending against legal risks to enable the delivery of innovative medicines to patients.

Prior to joining BMS, Cari was an associate at Debevoise & Plimpton, LLP in New York City, representing pharmaceutical and health care clients in white collar and regulatory matters in a variety of areas, including potential off-label marketing of products, violations of the Anti-Kickback or Anti-Bribery Statutes or the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, and good manufacturing issues.

Cari holds a J.D. from Harvard Law School and an A.B. from Princeton University, magna cum laude.

Jessie Silverthorne serves as legal counsel for Freddie Mac’s multifamily loan production business units. In this role, Jessie regularly counsels her clients on structuring and closing loans and advises on various loan purchase and securitization matters. Jessie also provides guidance to Freddie Mac’s Seller/Servicer clients regarding multifamily loan matters. She collaborates with legal department colleagues to ensure consistency in providing legal advice and in negotiations with Seller/Servicers’ counsel.

Prior to joining Freddie Mac in 2018, Jessie was an attorney in the Real Estate Housing Finance practice group at Fox Rothschild LLP, and a Real Estate Finance attorney at Krooth & Altman LLP in Washington, DC, where she represented lenders and borrowers in multifamily and healthcare transactions insured by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Jessie began her legal career as an associate in the Structured Finance practice group at Thacher Proffitt & Wood LLP in New York.

Jessie holds a law degree from Georgetown University Law Center and a B.A. from Duke University.

Elise Zealand is the In-House Counsel at Rising Ground. Elise spent 18 years in the for-profit world, serving as general counsel of Penton Media, and as a litigator at Gibson Dunn & Crutcher, among other positions. Although she performed pro bono services on a regular basis, her day-to-day work involved mergers and acquisitions, labor law, intellectual property, and litigation matters. But not nonprofit work.

A partner at New York-based litigation boutique Holwell Shuster & Goldberg, Blair Kaminsky has a wide-ranging practice focused on complex commercial litigation, representing both individuals and corporations in litigation and investigatory matters frequently touching on large-scale transactions and the financial services industry. She represents Visa in putative nationwide class actions and dozens of individual antitrust actions brought by some of the largest retail merchants in the world, including Target and Amazon. She has also represented HSBC, U.S. Bank, and BNY Mellon in cutting-edge RMBS “putback” cases, which are resolving billions in liability stemming from the bursting of the housing bubble.

Ms. Kaminsky is an equally passionate advocate for pro bono clients. She oversees HSG’s relationship with Her Justice, and organized two HSG-Visa clinics for Her Justice clients seeking uncontested divorces. In an unrelated matter, she advised a college freshman survivor of sexual assault on her rights and remedies under Title IX, guiding her through her University’s investigatory process and preparing submissions to the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights.

She is a member of The American Lawyer’s first-ever Young Lawyer Editorial Board, and was recently named to the first-ever Euromoney Legal Media Group Rising Stars shortlist in the Best in Litigation: General Commercial category and to The National Law Journal’s Elite Boutique Trailblazers List. She also has been named a Woman Worth Watching by Profiles in Diversity Journal, and has been recognized on Benchmark Litigation's Under 40 Hot List since 2017 and as one of Super Lawyers' Top Women Attorneys in the New York Metro Area and as a Rising Star.

Ms. Kaminsky clerked for the Honorable Judith Rogers of the United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, and previously practiced at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, where she represented JPMorgan in the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy litigation and NYSE Euronext in litigation over a contemplated $10 billion merger that would have created the world’s largest stock market. She graduated magna cum laude from Harvard Law School, where she was Supervising Editor of the Harvard Law Review.

Daniele is the Assistant General Counsel at Indo-MIM Inc., a leading global supplier of precision-engineered products using Metal Injection Molding (MIM) as the core manufacturing technology. Daniele provides advice and legal support on a broad array of matters and is responsible for ensuring that the company is in compliance with federal, state and local regulatory requirements. Daniele is also responsible for Indo-MIM’s compliance with all applicable U.S and foreign trade laws, including export controls, customs regulations, and other import/export requirements.

Previously Daniele worked as an associate in the Washington, D.C. office of Skadden Arps. She represented clients in connection with congressional, government and internal investigations. Daniele graduated with honors from the American University Washington College of Law.

Prior to attending law school, Daniele spent five years as a Senior Policy Analyst at the U.S. Government Accountability Office, investigating how the federal government spends taxpayer dollars and briefing congressional staff on her findings.