Maximizing the Value of Relationships Between In-House Counsel and Outside Counsel

Beth Brinkmann is an experienced appellate and Supreme Court litigator who has served in high-level positions in the Department of Justice, most recently as Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the Civil Division. She has argued 24 cases before the Supreme Court of the United States. Ms. Brinkmann also has argued in numerous federal and state appellate courts across the country.

As the Civil Division’s top appellate lawyer, she was responsible for supervising much of the federal government’s civil litigation in appellate courts, including constitutional challenges, administrative law issues, intellectual property matters, and national security cases. During her tenure at the DOJ, Ms. Brinkmann presented oral argument in several high-profile court of appeals cases, including the successful defense of the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act and the government’s victory in federal immigration preemption litigation. She also regularly consulted with trial lawyers for the government on legal arguments and strategy at early phases of litigation, made recommendations on appellate matters to the U.S. Solicitor General, and advised senior leadership of cabinet-level departments and at regulatory agencies regarding litigation risk, legislative proposals, and rulemaking matters.

From 1993 to 2001, Ms. Brinkmann served as an Assistant to the Solicitor General in the Department of Justice. In this role, she briefed and argued cases to the Supreme Court on behalf of the United States and also provided advice and analysis on whether to authorize appeals, petitions for certiorari, and petitions for rehearing en banc.

Ms. Brinkmann served two years as an Assistant Federal Public Defender, where she represented indigent criminal defendants in federal district court, including approximately a dozen felony jury trials. She also previously handled both trial and appellate litigation in state and federal court at a small boutique litigation firm.

Ms. Sinsley is the General Counsel & CCO of FactorTrust, Inc. She nationally known for her intelligent, aggressive representation of servicers, creditors, debt collectors and debt buyers, with a focus on developing and improving Compliance Management Systems and handling CFPB, FTC, and Attorneys General investigations and examinations. She is AV rated by Martindale Hubbell.

Ms. Sinsley practiced with Barron, Newburger & Sinsley from 2007 to 2011 and was of Counsel to Barron & Newburger from 2011 to 2016. Prior to that, Ms. Sinsley was Vice President for Asset Acceptance Capital Corp during the time when that company launched its Initial Public Offering.

She previously served as General Counsel of DBA International. In this capacity, she negotiated significant legislation impacting the operations of the collections industry.

In 2010, she obtained a rare. Obtained a rare FTC “closing” letter for a large debt collector in the deceased collection industry and in 2011 she had a case brought before U.S. Supreme Court in a Telephone Consumer Protection Act (“TCPA”) case - Mims v Arrow, which was heard before the U.S. Supreme Court on November 28, 2011.

She is a frequent speaker and author and is a member of the National Association of Retail Collection Attorneys, Co-Chair, In-House Counsel Roundtable. She has been a panelist on numerous FTC workshops and has given testimony before numerous state legislatures.

Sharis Pozen is Vice President, Competition Law and Policy, leading GE’s global competition team. She joined GE from Skadden Arps, Slate, Meagher & Glom, LLP, where she was a leader of their antitrust competition practice, focusing on global merger clearance, conduct investigations and criminal antitrust matters.

Prior to joining Skadden in 2012 she served as the acting Assistant Attorney General of the Antitrust Division in the US Department of Justice and, before that, as Chief of Staff to the head of the Division. While serving as acting assistant attorney general at the DOJ, Ms. Pozen led many high profile matters, including the eBooks and Autoparts matters, and the challenge of AT&T’s proposed acquisition of TMobile. She worked extensively with leaders of international antitrust authorities. Additionally, she has represented the US on international competition issues on behalf of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development and the International Competition Network.

Prior to her DOJ experience, Ms. Pozen was a partner at a major Washington, D.C.-based firm, where she served as director of the firm’s Antitrust Group. Her practice focused on antitrust issues and trade regulation across a broad spectrum of industries. She began her professional career at the Federal Trade Commission where she held several positions, including attorney adviser to two Commissioners, assistant to the director of the Bureau of Competition and staff attorney. Ms. Pozen has been profiled as a leading antitrust attorney in the past three issues (2009, 2013 and 2016) of Global Competition Review’s “Women in Antitrust” report. She also was selected for inclusion in Chambers USA: America’s Leading Lawyers for Business 2014, the Best Lawyers in America 2014 and 2015, and Washingtonian Magazine’s 2013 “Best Lawyers” list.

In addition, she is listed in the 2014 Competition and Antitrust edition, and Women in Business Law edition of Expert Guides, Who’s Who Legal 100 2013 and The International Who’s Who of Competition Lawyers and Economists 2014.

Wendy L. Hufford is Chief Operating Officer, Legal Department & Vice President, US Litigation, Risk Management & Human Resources at Boehringer Ingelheim USA and its subsidiaries, where she is responsible for all litigation, government investigations, risk management and human resources counseling functions. She was previously Vice President, Deputy General Counsel and Assistant Secretary of ITT Corporation, a public global manufacturer of highly engineered critical components and customized technology solutions.

In this role, from 2010 to 2014, she was responsible for managing the global intellectual property and contracts team and handling global employment, benefits, executive compensation, privacy, compliance and corporate governance matters. She also led legal operations, including managing all outside counsel and significant vendor relationships. Wendy has also been President of Effective Dispute Management, LLC, a consulting firm, since 2009, specializing in assisting companies in reducing outside counsel spend through process improvements.

Wendy was previously Executive Vice President and Chief Litigation Counsel of Cardinal Health in Dublin, Ohio from 2006 to 2009. From 1997 through 2004, Wendy was Senior Litigation Counsel for GE Consumer Finance – Americas and from 2004 to 2006 was Senior Global Litigation Counsel for GE Consumer Finance, both based in Stamford, CT.

Before working at GE, Ms. Hufford was Vice President and Senior Litigation Counsel at the global investment bank of Credit Suisse First Boston, based in New York. She was in private practice from 1988 to 1995 at Davis Polk & Wardwell in New York, specializing in litigation. She previously served as a law clerk for the Honorable Robert J. Ward on the U.S District Court of the Southern District Court of New York.

Ms. Hufford is a graduate of Colgate University and a graduate of The Yale Law School.