The ABWA Board

ABWA Board Members 2008-2009

Jamila D. Smoot Burrell, President
Jeanine Conley, Vice-President
Zakiyyah Salim, Secretary
Celeste Chase, Treasurer
Paula Barnes
Margo K. Brodie
Leslie Jones-Thomas
Shea Owens
Johane Severin

Margo Brodie – Ms. Brodie has been a member of ABWA since the mid 1990s. She served on the ABWA Board of Directors for several years including three years as Vice President and two years as President. Ms. Brodie has also been an active member of several other organizations including: The Association of the Bar of the City of New York where she previously served on the Criminal Law and Environmental Law committees; Practicing Attorneys for Law Students, Inc. where she was in charge of the mentor matching program for several years; and the National Black Prosecutor's Association.

Since 1999 Ms. Brodie has been as Assistant United States Attorney in the Eastern District of New York and is currently a the Chief of the General Crimes Unit of the Criminal Division. Prior to her work as an Assistant United States Attorney, Ms. Brodie was an associate at Carter, Ledyard & Milburn for five years, and an Assistant Corporation Counsel for three years . Ms. Brodie is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania School of Law.

Jamila D. Smoot Burrell (formerly Jamila Smoot) – Mrs. Burrell has been a member of ABWA since 2003, serving as Treasurer from 2005 – 2007 and Vice President from 2007-2008. She has also served as the ABWA liaison to the Urban Network.

Mrs. Burrell currently works for Morgan Stanley as an ISDA Negotiator for the Fixed Income Division's Institutional Securities Documentation Group. Prior to joining Morgan Stanley, Mrs. Burrell worked as an associate in the Securitization and Structured Finance Department of Sidley Austin LLP. She also clerked for the Honorable Samuel G. Wilson, Chief Judge of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Virginia.

Mrs. Burrell is a graduate of the University of Virginia School of Law and graduated Phi Beta Kappa from the University of Virginia College of Arts and Sciences with a B.A. in Mathematics and Spanish.

Celeste Chase – Ms. Chase has served as ABWA's Treasurer since October 2007. Ms. Chase joined the staff of the Securities and Exchange Commission in 2000. Currently, she is a branch chief in the New York Regional Office of the Securities and Exchange Commission, Division of Enforcement, where she investigates violations of the federal securities laws and supervises other attorneys. Prior to joining the SEC, Ms. Chase was a litigation associate at Morgan Lewis in Philadelphia, Dewey Ballantine in New York and Grant & Eisenhofer in Wilmington.

Ms. Chase is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania Law School and the Wharton School of Finance, where she earned her Bachelors of Science in Economics. Ms. Chase is a member of the bars of Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New York.

S. Jeanine Conley – Ms. Conley has been an ABWA member since 2003 and has served on the board for two years. She is secretary of the Committee on Minorities in the Profession of the City Bar. Ms. Conley has worked as an active member of several community groups and currently is on the advisory board of the Urban Assembly School for Criminal Justice.

Ms. Conley began her career as a litigation associate at Arnold & Porter, LLP before clerking for New Jersey U.S.S.D.C. Judge William G. Bassler from 2005-2006. She joined the law firm of Baker & Hostetler LLP in 2006 and practices in the areas of white collar and corporate criminal matters and general commercial litigation.

In 2007, Ms. Conley received the Stakeholder 100 Award, which was awarded to top performing minority attorneys from law firms across the country. This year, Ms. Conley was selected as a 2008 Council of Urban Professionals ("CUP") Fellow. The CUP Fellows Program is dedicated to training and developing minority political and civic leaders. Ms. Conley is a graduate of Georgetown University Law Center and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Leslie Jones-Thomas – Ms. Jones-Thomas is a former ABWA President and has been an active member of several area bar associations including the Metropolitan Black Bar Association.

Ms. Jones-Thomas is a former prosecutor who served in the Bronx for 8.5 years. She worked for two years with Special Narcotics Prosecutor Sterling Johnson before starting her own legal practice in 2005. The Law Offices of Leslie Jones-Thomas and Associates specializes in litigation, federal and state criminal defense, matrimonial, real estate, estate and elder law, and business. Ms. Jones-Thomas is a graduate of Georgetown University Law Center.

Shea Owens – Ms. Owens has been a member of ABWA since 1999. Prior to her current position as an Assistant General Counsel at Ernst & Young LLP, she practiced international transactional law at Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen & Hamilton and at Allen & Overy LLP (New York and Hong Kong), where she represented foreign governments, multinational corporations and international financial institutions. Prior to entering firm practice, Ms. Owens clerked for federal District Court Judge Raymond A. Jackson and worked as a human rights fellow at the Center for International Environmental Law in Geneva, Switzerland.

Ms. Owens has co-authored several articles, including "Survey of International Commercial Law Developments: 1999-2000," (56 Bus. Law. 1967-1875) and "NGO Briefing Paper on Africa: Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance" (Global Justice 1-9).

Ms. Owens is a graduate of Columbia University School of Law and Princeton University, and she was a Fulbright Fellow in Kenya and a Center for International Studies Fellow in Brazil.

She serves on the National Women Law Center's Leadership 35 Committee and as the Deputy Chairperson-At-Large of the National Bar Association's International Law Section, is a former director of the Practicing Attorneys for Law Students Program (PALS) and currently serves as a PALS mentor.

Zakiyyah Salim – Ms. Salim has been an ABWA member since 2004 and is currently an associate at the law form of Heller Ehrman LLP. Prior to joining Heller Ehrman, Ms. Salim was a law clerk for the Honorable Sterling Johnson, Jr., United States District Court, Eastern District of New York, and for the Honorable Carl E. Stewart, U.S. Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit, in Shreveport, Louisiana.

Previously, Ms. Salim was an associate with the New York office Willkie, Farr & Gallagher. In addition, prior to, and while attending law school, she was an intern with the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund and with the Office of Counsel to the President in Washington, D.C. Ms. Salim also served as a research assistant to Professor Jack Greenberg during law school. Ms. Salim is the 2007 recipient of the New York City Bar Association's Diversity Champion Award.

Johane Severin – A 2008 graduate of Brooklyn Law School, Johane Severin's legal experience thus far has involved representing clients who were appealing their adverse social security benefit decisions, applying for asylum and family reunification benefits on behalf of undocumented immigrants and asylees, and working as a Judicial Intern for Judge John M. Leventhal of the 2nd Judicial District of the State of New York.

Prior to attending Brooklyn Law School, Johane worked in higher education and human resources. A recipient of the Ruth Whitehead Whaley Scholarship awarded by ABWA in 2008, Johane earned her B.A. at Wesleyan University and her M.S. Ed. at the University of Pennsylvania.

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