Maurer Notable Alumni

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  Charlotte Westerhaus-Renfrow

  Charlotte Westerhaus-Renfrow (JD '91) has worked in academia since 1996, and at the Kelley School of Business, Indiana University – Indianapolis since 2012, where she is currently a clinical assistant professor, the faculty chair of the undergraduate program and the Dean’s Faculty Fellow. Prior appointments and positions include Vice President of Diversity and Inclusion for the NCAA, Interim president of Martin University, and the Assistant to the President and Director of Equal Opportunity and Diversity at the University of Iowa. She was an adjunct faculty of the Maurer School of Law from 2008-2010.

  In 2020 she received an Indiana University Bicentennial Medal for her service to Indiana University. She has served as the first president of the Black Law Student Association (BLSA) to hold a three-year term and awarded BLSA's Samual S. Dargan Award in 2018.

  While in law school Westerhaus-Renfrow clerked for the Honorable Justice Brent E. Dickson of the Indiana Supreme Court. She served as an associate and then an editor for the Indiana Law Journal, the first African-American woman to be selected for these editorial positions.

  Westerhaus-Renfrow is active in state professional organizations. She was a past board member and secretary of the board of governors for the Indiana State Bar Association, the Indiana Bar Examiners and the Supreme Court of Wisconsin Board of Bar Examiners.

  She is a 2022 inductee to the law school's Academy of Law Alumni Fellows.

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  Judith A. Waltz

  Judith A. Waltz (JD 1981) has spent her career as a health care attorney in California, where she has been a partner with Foley & Lardner LLP in San Francisco since 1998. She is the co-chair of the firm’s Health Care Practice Group and Health Care Industry Team and former co-chair of the Life Sciences Industry Team. She focuses her practice on government investigations, false claims act, corporate integrity agreements, reimbursement strategies, bankruptcy, Medicare and Medicaid compliance counseling, and Medicare/Medicaid overpayments and enrollment disputes.

  She is a member of the Government Enforcement Defense & Investigations and Bankruptcy & Business Reorganizations Practices.

  Prior to joining Foley in 1998, Waltz served as assistant regional counsel for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in San Francisco and has held appointments as a special assistant United States Attorney for the Eastern and Northern Districts of California. She was formerly a chair of Foley’s Women’s Network Steering Committee.

  In addition to her law degree, Waltz obtained a Masters in Public Administration from the IU School of Public and Environmental Affairs (SPEA). At IU Waltz was an associate instructor in the School of Business and a teaching assistant at SPEA. As an undergraduate student at IU she held leadership positions including vice president of the Indiana University Student Association, and served as a student member of the Bloomington Faculty Council and the Student Advisory Committee to the Dean of Students.

  In service to the law school, Waltz has served on the Board of Visitors since 2009. She is a 2022 inductee to the law school's Academy of Law Alumni Fellows.

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  James G. Parker

  James G. Parker (JD 2012) is the 2019 recipient of the Maurer School of Law's Young Alumni Distinguished Service Award. He is a partner at Davis Wright Tremaine in Portland, Ore., where he maintains a general litigation, counseling, and transactional practice, with a focus on insurance-related matters. He represents clients in cases involving professional negligence, class action defense, breach of contract, and post-employment restrictive covenants. He counsels self-insurance trust/pools, captive managers, insurers, and intermediaries on corporate governance, insurance regulatory matters, and program management. He also represents insurance intermediaries in mergers and acquisitions. Parker has been a leader in alumni affairs at the Law School. He is a founding member of the Young Alumni Steering Committee and currently serves on the Law Alumni Board.

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  Jay Chaudhary

  Jay Chaudhary (JD 2009) is the director for the Division of Mental Health and Addictions with the Indiana Family and Social Services Administration. Prior to joining the Indiana Family and Social Services Administration, he served as managing attorney and director of medical Legal Partnerships for Indiana Legal Services. Chaudhary holds an undergraduate degree from Ball State University.

  During his time with Indiana Legal Services, Chaudhary developed a medical-legal partnership between Indiana Legal Services and Eskenazi Midtown Community Mental Health Center that began on a part-time basis and later turned it into a full-time, multi-lawyer program. For his dedication to this partnership, Chaudhary received the Innovation Award from ARC of Indiana. In 2015, the partnership between Indiana Legal Services and Eskenazi Midtown Community Mental Health Center received the Outstanding Medical Legal Partnership award from the National Center for Medical Legal Partnership. Chaudhary currently serves as a board member for the Indiana Health Advocacy Coalition and the Indiana Protection and Advocacy Commission. His level of engagement with the mental health community and energy that he puts into his work set an example for all of our recent graduates.

  In 2020, Chaudhary was a receiptent of the Maurer School of Law's Young Alumni Distiguished Service Award.

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  Derek R. Molter

  A native of northwestern Indiana’s Newton County, Derek R. Melter earned his bachelor’s degree from Indiana University (2004) and a law degree from the Indiana University Maurer School of Law (2007) where he earned a place in the Order of the Coif Honor Society and graduated in the top three percent of his class.

  After graduation, Molter served as a judicial law clerk for the Honorable Theresa L. Springmann, a United States District Court Judge for the Northern District of Indiana. He then practiced at Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer LLP in Washington D.C. In 2008, Molter returned to Indiana where he became a partner in the Indianapolis-based firm of Ice Miller. In October of 2021 he was appointed to the Indiana Court of Appeals and in June 2022 Governor Eric Holcomb chose Molter to serve on the Indiana Supreme Court.

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  Stephen E. Reynolds

  Raised in Sebastian, Florida, Stephen E. Reynolds became interested, and proficient, in computers as a child. By the time he was in high school, he was designing websites for local business. Reynolds attended the University of Florida where he studied to be a computer engineer, while also working as a software tester for an aviation textbook and software manufacturer. During his final year of college, however, he took some introductory law classes and decided he would become a lawyer. Reynolds received his B.A. from Florida in 2004 and then spent a year as a computer programmer and IT analyst, before enrolling at the Indiana University School of Law. Reynolds received his JD degree from Indiana in 2008.

  Since graduating from Maurer Law, Reynolds has been employed in the Indianapolis offices of Ice Miller. He is currently a partner in the firm’s Litigation Group and co-chair of the firm’s Data Security and Privacy Practice. Reynolds has been a member of the Maurer School of Law’s Black Law Student Association Advisory Board since 2015 and served as President in 2018. In addition, Reynolds was named the inaugural recipient of the law school’s Young Alumni Distinguished Service Award in 2018.

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  Doris L. Pryor

  Doris (Clark) Pryor was born and raised in Hope, Arkansas. An honor student at Hope High School (Class of 1994), where she served as president of the school’s student government, Pryor then attended the University of Central Arkansas. She graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in 1999. She enrolled at the Indiana University Maurer School of Law in 2000 and received her JD in 2003. After law school she clerked for Chief Judge Lavenski Smith of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit (August 2003-August 2004) and followed that with a second clerkship, for Judge J. Leon Holmes in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas (August 2004-August 2005) From August 2005 through August 2006, Ms. Pryor served as a Deputy Public Defender in the State of Arkansas Public Defender’s Commission. From August 2006 until September 2014, she served as an Assistant United States Attorney for the Southern District of Indiana. She was then appointed National Security Chief for the U. S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Indiana. In March of 2018 she was appointed U.S. Magistrate Judge for the Southern District of Indiana and in May of 2022, President Joseph Biden nominated Pryor her to serve on the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. She was confirmed by the United States Senate on December 5, 2022.

  Judge Pryor has been actively involved with the Law School since she graduated. In 2015 she began teaching a pre-trial litigation course during the school’s Winter session, and in August 2021, she delivered the keynote address at orientation and administered the oath of professionalism to the incoming 1L class.

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  Marisol Sanchez

  Marisol Sanchez (JD 2002) currently serves as Vice President and General Counsel (North America) for Endress+Hauser, Inc., a Swiss industrial process engineering firm. She is responsible for the company’s legal policies and procedures and for a variety of risk management and compliance functions. She also manages three business units: quality, safety, and compliance; procurement; and commercial contract management. Before joining Endress+Hauser, Sanchez was a partner in the litigation, appellate, and white-collar crime practice group at Bose McKinney & Evans in Indianapolis, which she joined in 2003. From 2002–2003, she served as a clerk to Hon. Chief Justice Randall Shepard of the Indiana Supreme Court. Sanchez is active in numerous civic affairs, including the Law School’s Alumni Board and Latino Alumni Advisory Board (past president), and is a trustee and secretary of the Indianapolis Zoo, where she serves on its diversity committee.

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  Christopher Michael Goff

  Christopher Michael Goff was born in Wabash County, Indiana, and raised in the Wabash-Huntington area. Goff is a summa cum laude graduate of Ball State University (1994). After Ball State, he enrolled at the Indiana University School of Law, where he received his J.D. degree in 1996. From 1997 to 1999, Goff was an associate with Mills & Northrop, in Huntington, Indiana. In 1999, he became a partner in the firm (Mills, Northrop, & Goff) and remained with the firm until 2005. Goff also served as a public defender in Huntington County.

  In 2005, Goof was appointed to serve as Wabash Superior Court Judge. While serving as Superior Court Judge, Goff implemented two courts to help the community address the devastating effects of drug abuse in the community – the Wabash County Drug Court, and the Family Drug Treatment Court. Goff was reelected to the position in 2014. In 2017, Goff was appointed by Governor Eric Holcomb to serve as Indiana’s 110^th Justice of the Indiana Supreme Court. At age 45, Goff was, at the time of his appointment, the youngest member of the court by almost a decade.

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  Kenneth L. Parker

  A lifelong resident of the Cincinnati Ohio region, Kenneth Parker received his undergraduate degree from Tuskegee University (1994) before receiving his JD from the Indiana University Maurer School of Law in 1997. After law school he clerked for the Hon. S. Arthur Spiegel in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Ohio. From 1999 until 2021, Parker served as Assistant United States Attorney in the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Ohio. Additionally, he served as Chief of the Criminal Division from 2011 to 2019 and as Chief of the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force from 2010 to 2011. He has also served as an Adjunct Professor at the University of Cincinnati College of Law.

  In September 2021, President Joseph Biden nominated Parker to serve as the 45th United States Attorney for the Southern District of Ohio. Parker was unanimously approved by the United States Senate on November 19, 2921.

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  Laurie N. Robinson Haden

  Born in our nation’s capital, Laurie N. Robinson Haden graduated from Oxon Hill High School (Prince George’s County, Maryland) in 1990. She then enrolled at North Carolina Central University, where she received her B.A. degree in political science in 1994. In 1995, she enrolled at the Indiana University School of Law and received her JD degree in 1998. While in law school she served as an Associate (1996-97) and then Executive Notes Editor (1997-98) on the Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies.

  Haden’s legal career began as an Associate at the New York offices of Epstein Becker & Green (1998-2000). She then spent two years at Seyfarth Shaw, specializing in labor and employment issues, before being hired by the CBS Corporation as the Assistant General Counsel and Director of Training and Development. She was promoted to Vice President and Assistant General Counsel in 2002 and Senior Vice President and Assistant General Counsel in 2009. In 2015, she was tapped by CBS for a new role within the Litigation Department reporting to the Head of Litigation. In this position, she oversees and manages outside counsel, directs legal strategy, and participates in alternative dispute resolution.

  In addition to her work at CBS, Haden is founder (2004) and CEO of Corporate Counsel Women of Color, a non-profit professional organization which advances women of color attorneys and fosters diversity in the legal profession. Haden has been recognizes by numerous organizations for her work and public service efforts, including a 2010 Indiana University Maurer School of Law Distinguished Service Award.

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  Sonia Miller-Van Oort

  Sonia Miller-Van Oort (JD 1997) has spent her legal career in Minneapolis, where she focuses her practice on a variety of litigation cases involving commercial disputes, product liability cases, non-competition matters, breach-of-contract cases, franchise disputes, and more. In addition to her law degree, she holds a B.A. degree from the University of Notre Dame (1993). Miller-Van Oort began her career at Flynn Gaskins & Bennett and later joined Faegre & Benson, now known as Faegre Drinker Biddle & Reath.

  In 2011 after more than a decade of working at large law firms, she co-founded Sapientia Law Group where she is currently chief manager. One of the few minority owned and women owned law firms in the Midwest, the firm conducts more than half of its client business with an alternative fee structure. Driven by a desire to make a change in the way law firms work, Sapientia Law is still going strong.

  Miller-Van Oort is well-known for her skill as an attorney and for her service to the community. She was named a “Rising Star” by Minnesota Law and Politics in 2005, 2006, 2008, and a “Super Lawyer” in 2013, 2014, and 2015. In 2007–2008, she was elected the 89th president of the Hennepin County Bar Association (one of the 15 largest county bar associations in the country), serving as the Association’s first Hispanic president and the second-youngest president in its history. In 2017 she served as the Minnesota State Bar Association’s first Hispanic bar president.

  Sonia Miller-Van Oort also has a history of serving the Law School. She was a member of the Alumni Board from 2003–2009 and is a founding member of the Latino Alumni Advisory Board. In 2020, Miler-Van Oort was a receiptient of the Maurer School of Law's Distinguished Service Award.

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  Damon Ray Leichty

  Damon Ray Leichty was born in Rensselaer, Indiana, and raised in the tiny Hoosier town of Argos. A graduate of Argos Junior Senior High School (1990), he then enrolled at Wabash College, receiving his A.B. degree, summa cum laude, in 1994. Leichty returned to his hometown after graduation and worked for the Lobdell Emery Manufacturing Company, before traveling overseas to attend the University of Aberdeen, in Scotland. He received his M. Litt. degree, in literature and law, from Aberdeen in 1996. Upon returning to the United States he enrolled at the Indiana University School of Law. While in law school he served, first as an Associate (v.5) and then as Book Review Editor (v.6) on the Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies. Leichty received his JD degree from Indiana in 1999.

  Leichty’s legal career began in South Bend, Indiana, where he joined the offices of Barnes & Thornburg, LLP. From 2001 until 2003, he clerked for Judge Robert Miller, of the United States District Court of the Northern District of Indiana. Once his clerkship was completed he returned to Barnes & Thornburg, where he represented clients in civil litigation across the country and regularly counseled manufacturers on issues such as product liability, contracts, and warranties. In addition, Leichty has served as an adjunct professor of law at the University of Notre Dame Law School sicne 2017.

  In 2018, Leichty was nominated to fill the position that he had once clerked for in the Northern District of Indiana. On July 10, 2019, the U.S. Senate confirmed his nomination as Judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Indiana.

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  Ralph Christopher Reynolds

  A native of Peoria, Illinois, Ralph Christopher Reynolds received his JD from the Maurer School of Law in 1996. Prior to law school, Chris Reynolds was known for his skills on the basketball court. He led the Peoria High Lions to a 24-1 record in his junior year and a 25-0 regular season record in 1989. After high school he was recruited to play basketball at Indiana. In his four years at IU, playing for legendary coach Bob Knight. Reynolds appeared in 129 games and shot at an amazing .657 shooting percentage rate (third highest in IU history). His leadership and ball-handling skills helped lead Indiana to two Big Ten Conference titles (1991 and 1993) and a Final Four appearance the 1992 National Collegiate Athletic Association tournament.

  After law school, Reynolds began his career in academic athletic administration. He has held positions of increasing responsibility at Michigan State University, Western Michigan, Notre Dame, Indiana, and Northwestern. In 2015 he was hired as the Director of Athletics at Bradley University in his hometown of Peoria. In 2018 he was elevated to that school’s Vice President for Intercollegiate Athletics. In addition to his Indiana B.A. (1993) and JD, Reynolds received his Ph. D in Human Performance from Indiana in 2012. Reynolds has a long history of NCAA committee work and most recently chaired the 2022-23 NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Committee.

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  Alonzo Weems

  Alonzo Weems (JD 1995) is vice president and deputy general counsel of Eli Lilly and Co., where he oversees Lilly’s corporate legal functions including litigation, human resources, commercial transactions, regulatory and privacy, and serves as general counsel for the company’s global biomedicines business unit. Having spent most of his career with Lilly, he has held several positons within the company including general counsel and corporate secretary for Eli Lilly Canada and director of global workforce diversity among others. In addition to his demanding corporate duties, Alonzo is active in many ways. From 2000-2006, he served as a member of the State Board of Law Examiners, serving as president from 2005-2006. He is past chair of the Indiana State Bar Association's Diversity Committee and serves on the boards of the International School of Indiana and Early Learning Indiana. In 2018 was named by Savoy magazine of one of the most influential Black lawyers in the United States.

  Alonzo's service to the school has been long-standing and remarkable. He served on the Alumni Board from 1996-1999; is a founding member of the BLSA Alumni Advisory Board where he served from 2003-2005 and rejoined the board in 2015. And in 2019 he joined the Law School’s Board of Visitors. In addition to his time serving on boards, Alonzo also works closely with our development office in the role of corporate solicitor at Lilly. He is also known as a go-to mentor and advisor to all of our students. Weems is a 1992 graduate of Wabash College

  In 2020, Weems was presented the Distinguished Service Award by the Indiana Univesity Maurer School of Law

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  Martin Montes

  Born and raised in Chicago, Martin Montes is a graduate of that city’s Roberto Clemente High School (1988). He received his undergraduate degree in finance from the University of Illinois at Chicago in 1992 and then enrolled at the Indiana University School of Law. He received his JD from Indiana in 1995.

  Montes’ legal career began as an associate with the firm of Barnes and Thornburg. In 1998, he clerked for the Honorable Joan B. Gottschall of the United States District Court of the Northern District of Illinois. He then spent three years as a senior associate with Seyfarth Shaw. From 2002 until 2011, Montes served as Associate General Counsel for the International Legal Division of Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. In 2011, he became Assistant General Counsel-Legal Operations & Administration with Exelon. In 2011, Montes became the Director of Regulatory Affairs with the Chicago-based Commonwealth Edison, and in 2019 became ComEd’s Vice President for Large Customer Services.

  A longtime community volunteer, Montes is active in the Hispanic National Bar Association, having served as a regional president and on its corporate advisory board. Through his efforts with the Mexican-American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, he has been active in promoting the civil rights of Latinos in America. Montes also serves as a board member for the Legal Aid Society Legal Prep Charter Academies, and the Hispanic Lawyers Scholarship Fund. Montes served on the law school’s Alumni Board from 2006 through 2007 and the school’s Latino Alumni Advisory Board since 2009. He served as President of the Board in 2017. Montes received an Indiana University Maurer School of Law Distinguished Service Award in 2017.

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  Andrea M. Morehead

  Andrea Morehead is an Emmy Award-winning journalist, originally from Anderson, Indiana. She attended Howard University in Washington DC, graduating summa cum laude with a B.A, in Communications/Journalism in 1991. While at Howard, she began her television career as a Production Intern with Koppel Communications. From 1992 to 1993, she was a reporter/anchor for the weekday evening newscast with WGMC-TV in Worchester, Massachusetts. In 1993, she entered the law school at Indiana University, Bloomington. During her time in law school, she worked as a Management Council law clerk with the National Football League in New York. Upon graduation with her JD in 1996, she joined WXIN-TV in Indianapolis as a reporter, assistant producer, and assignment editor. From there she went to WOOD-TV in Grand Rapids, Michigan where she anchored the 6 and 11 weekend evening newscasts.

  In 1999, Morehead joined WTHR-TV in Indianapolis, anchoring the 5 p.m. and 11 p.m. weeknight news. She has field-anchored various major events, including the 2000 NBA Championship, the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, Australia, the 2002 Final Four in Atlanta, Georgia, and the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, Utah. She is also active in numerous organizations, including the Susan G. Komen Indianapolis Race for the Cure, the Mayor’s Diversity Awards Program, the George Rawls Public Health Awards, Indiana Black Expo Summer Celebration and Circle City Classic, the United Negro College Fund Scholarship Program, the 5K Run/Walk for Sickle Cell, and the Indiana Humanities Council Leadership Summit.

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  Yu-Chi Wang

  Born in Taipei City, Taiwan (Republic of China), Yu-Chi Wang earned his Bachelor’s degree in law from National Taiwan University. At the suggestion of one of his professors, Wang applied and was accepted into the Indiana University School of Law’s LLM program. He received the degree in 1993, and later returned to Indiana to become the school’s first Doctor of Juridical Science (SJD) degree recipient.

  Wang returned to Taiwan and began a career as an academic, teaching at the Graduate School of Social Informatics at Yuan-Ze University. He also taught in the Department of Law at Shih-Hsin University, becoming a respected and known expert in privacy and telecommunications law. In 2005, Wang joined the Science and Technology Law Center of the Institute for Information Industry, and ultimately became the Center’s Director. From 2008 until 2016, Wang served in the administration of President Ma Ying-Jeou, in a variety of positions, including: Secretary and Spokesperson, Senior Advisor to the National Security Council, and Minister of the Mainland Affairs Council. During his government service, he was the first cabinet member of Taiwan to lead and official delegation to mainland China since the two countries separated. He also was the first Minister to hold official meetings with his mainland China counterpart.

  Wang returned to the Department of Law at Shih-Hsin University in 2016 as an associated professor. Yu-Chi Wang is a founding member of the Indiana University Maurer School of Law’s Global Advisory Board and was inducted into the Maurer School of Law’s Academy of Law Alumni Fellows in 2018.

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  Courtney Rene Tobin

  Courtney Rene Tobin was raised in Belvidere, Illinois, where she graduated from Belvidere High School in 1985, She then enrolled at the University of Illinois. She received her B.S. degree in Speech and Hearing in 1989 and then enrolled at the Indiana University School of Law. Tobin received her JD degree from the law school in 1992.

  Tobin practiced law with the Indianapolis firm Krieg DeVault, LLP, before moving to the public sector. She served as General Counsel for the Indiana Department of Commerce and the Office of the Commissioner of Agriculture, where she helped interpret and develop policy for the state’s economic community. She then became the General Counsel and Executive Director for the Indiana Development Finance Authority, where she managed the state’s capital access, industrial development bond, and brownfield redevelopment programs. Tobin relocated to Georgia, to become Associate Director of the J. W. Fanning Institute, the economic development unit of the University of Georgia. She returned to Indiana as Senior Vice President and Chief Compliance Officer of Sycamore Advisors, LLC. She is responsible for the firm’s regulatory compliance and manages bond transactions.

  Tobin has served on the Indiana University Maurer School of Law Alumni Board since 2008, and served as President of the board in 2016. A recipient of a Sagamore of the Wabash award from the Governor Frank O’Bannon, Tobin received a Distinguished Service Award from Maurer Law in 2017.

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  Christopher David Lee

  Christopher David Lee was born and raised in Bedford, Indiana. He graduated from that city’s Bedford North Lawrence High School in 1985, before enrolling at DePauw University in Greencastle, Indiana. A member of the DePauw varsity football and track teams, Lee was elected Student Body President during his senior year. He graduated from DePauw with a B. A. in Political Science in 1989. Later that year he enrolled at the Indiana University School of Law. Lee received his JD degree from the law school in 1993.

  Chris Lee has spent his entire legal career in Southern Indiana. He rose to become a partner at the Evansville firm of Kahn, Dees, Donovan & Kahn, and is currently partner at Wooden McLaughlin. Lee has a broad based civil litigation practice, frequently managing complex litigation involving multiple attorneys and parties. He is a frequent speaker on trial practice and advocacy issues.

  As a member of the Indiana National Guard, Lee was deployed to Bosnia in 2001 and Afghanistan in 2004. While in Afghanistan he founded the Afghanistan Relief Fund, which supports three orphanages, three hospitals, several refute camps, and a school. Lee was awarded the Army Bronze Star for his service in Afghanistan. Lee is a recipient of the Evansville Bar Association's James Bethel Gresham Freedom Award, the Raymond L. White Award for Distinguished Military Service, and is one of the youngest attorneys to have been named an Indiana Super Lawyer. Additionally, Christopher D. Lee received a 2014 Indiana University Maurer School of Law Distinguished Service Award.