Triage Advice for GCs - What to Take Care of First

Nadira Clarke is a formidable litigator with first-chair trial experience, she focuses her practice on technically complex, high-stakes matters. She is sought after for her aggressive defense of corporations and executives facing large-scale, multi-faceted governmental investigations. Calm and decisive by nature, she provides leadership and valuable counsel in a crisis.

Nadira previously served as an Assistant United States Attorney for the District of Maryland, and a Special Assistant United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia. Well versed in the area of corporate compliance and business ethics, she works with two separate corporate monitor teams appointed by the court to oversee compliance of companies in the wake of criminal prosecution. She previously served as counsel to the Department of Justice's Office of Professional Responsibility, where she led internal professional ethics investigations involving federal prosecutors and high-ranking Department of Justice officials.

Early in her career, Nadira served in the highly selective U.S. Attorney General's Honor Program for the Department of Justice, and worked as a trial attorney with the Environment and Natural Resources Division, including the Environmental Crimes Section and the Natural Resource Section. She was also selected to serve as a Special Assistant to the Assistant Attorney General for the Environmental and Natural Resources Division of the Department of Justice.

Nadira is a frequent industry speaker, and has been recognized as a "Rising Star" by the Minority Corporate Counsel Association (2013). Her pro bono work includes mentoring and litigating sex-discrimination and political asylum cases.

Melissa is a senior executive with an entrepreneurial drive that has evolved throughout a multi-faceted career spanning various business experiences. Melissa currently serves as Executive Vice President and General Counsel of MovieTickets.com, Inc. MovieTickets.com is the worldwide leader in advance movie ticketing with over 260 theater chains in its group, offering moviegoers a quick and convenient way to purchase tickets online, via mobile device, and at 877-789-MOVIE. The company currently enables remote ticketing for consumers across 22 countries/territories including the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Ireland, Spain, Argentina, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, and the Caribbean.

Melissa oversees all legal aspects of operations and plays a significant role in developing and executing on strategies and initiatives to grow MovieTickets.com. She came to MovieTickets.com with extensive experience and expertise in the fields of mergers and acquisitions, financing, intellectual property, corporate, securities and entertainment law, helping to direct and shape the path of MovieTickets.com’s success.

Prior to joining MovieTickets.com, Melissa was Associate General Counsel of Hollywood Media Corp. (Nasdaq: HOLL), a provider of Broadway ticketing, entertainment related data, news and other content to consumers and businesses covering the entertainment, Internet and media industries. Melissa began her legal career practicing corporate, securities and entertainment law with Greenberg Traurig, P.A. and Thelen Reid & Priest, LLP, representing public and private clients in a broad range of corporate, telecommunications, regulatory, entertainment and intellectual property matters, including, corporate and debt restructuring, public and private securities offerings, mergers and acquisitions, securities law compliance, corporate governance, and business and strategic planning. Melissa has had the opportunity to counsel a wide-range of clients, using her knowledge and experience to play a critical role for all business ventures in which she is involved.

Melissa also serves on the Board of Directors and as Vice President of the Samaritans365 Foundation -Kindness Matters, a non-profit organization that educates and inspires children to become socially responsible, to positively impact the world and spread the message that Kindness Matters by partnering with local charities and activating on projects and drives on a monthly basis, in nearly 80 schools throughout Palm Beach, Broward and Dade Counties in Florida and an additional 7 other states. The mission of the Samaritans365 / Kindness Matters Foundation is to create and sustain a global kindness movement by inspiring and educating on how to positively contribute to the world through acts of kindness, compassion and gratitude.

Melissa holds a Bachelor of Arts from University of Pennsylvania, a Juris Doctorate from University of Pennsylvania Law School, and is a member of the Florida and New York Bar Associations. 

Jodi Golinsky serves as General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer of FS Card Inc., Fenway Summer LLC's credit card venture. She is also the Secretary of the FS Card Board of Directors.

Jodi has worked in house in financial services for more than a decade. She has extensive experience and expertise in various areas, including Dodd Frank (UDAAP & Durbin Amendment), Credit CARD Act, FCRA, FACT Act, Regulations Z, DD & E, FCPA, OFAC, overdraft, information security, privacy, compliance and risk management. She also has testified before two congressional committees on the subject of commercial child pornography.

Just prior to joining FS Card Inc., Jodi was the Deputy U.S. General Counsel for Wonga U.S., Inc., where she was responsible for driving the legal and regulatory strategy for expanding Wonga.com global financial services into the U.S. small business lending market.

Jodi was Chief Prepaid Counsel at American Express prior to Wonga. At American Express, Jodi led and managed a ten-person team there that proactively drove legal, regulatory, and compliance strategies to advance business objectives for the Global Prepaid business unit. She oversaw approximately fifteen new product launches, most notably the October 2012 launch of “Bluebird,” an industry ground-breaking banking alternative general purpose reloadable prepaid product with Walmart as exclusive distribution partner. In addition, Jodi managed American Express’s U.S. money transmitter licensing function, maintaining two sets of licenses for American Express corporate entities in 47 states. She also served on the executive leadership team for the Global Prepaid business unit.

Prior to joining American Express, Jodi was Vice President, U.S. Regulatory & Public Policy Counsel for MasterCard Worldwide, where she was responsible for managing all U.S. regulatory affairs and public policy matters, with an emphasis on regulatory and legislative issues impacting financial institutions.

Jodi began her legal career clerking first for the Honorable Denny Chin in the Southern District of New York and then for the Honorable Ralph K. Winter, who was at that time the Chief Judge of the Second Circuit Court of Appeals. Jodi then worked as an associate at Davis Polk & Wardwell, where she concentrated on regulatory investigations and securities fraud litigation. She is admitted to practice in New York State, the Southern District of New York, and the Eastern District of New York.

In 2008, Jodi was honored by the Westchester New York Business Council as a “Forty Under Forty Rising Star.” She also served a two-year term on the Board of Directors of Legal Services of the Hudson Valley, which is a non-profit organization providing free legal services to residents of various counties in the New York Hudson Valley area.

Ms. Denise C. McWatters has been Senior Vice President of HollyFrontier Corporation (formerly Holly Corp.) since January 2013 and has been its General Counsel and Secretary since April 08, 2008. Ms. McWatters has been Senior Vice President of Holly Logistic Services, LLC, General Partner of Holly Energy Partners L.P since January 2013.

She served as Vice President of HollyFrontier Corp. from May 08, 2008 to January 2013. She has been General Counsel and Secretary of Holly Logistic Services, LLC, General Partner of Holly Energy Partners L.P since May 12, 2008. She served as Vice President of Holly Logistic Services, L.L.C., General Partner of Holly Energy Partners L.P since April 2008 until January 2013. She joined Holly in October 2007 as Deputy General Counsel.

She has more than 20 years of legal experience. Ms. McWatters served as the General Counsel of The Beck Group from May 2005 to October 2007. Prior to Beck, she served at Lord Bissell & Liddell LLP as Counsel in the Legal Department at Citigroup, N.A. From 2002 to May 2005, Ms. McWatters practiced law in the Law Offices of Denise McWatters. Ms. McWatters holds B.S. and M.A. in Psychology from Southern Methodist University and J.D. from The University of Texas School of Law.