WESTERN JUSTICE CENTER ELECTS 2023 BOARD MEMBERS INCLUDING NOTABLE REPRESENTATIVES FROM THE FEDERAL COURTS, CALTECH, KAISER PERMANENTE, MATTEL, SIGNATURE RESOLUTION AND THE SOMOS GROUP, AND WELCOMES THEIR NEW BOARD PRESIDENT, MICHAEL J. WALLACE OF TM FINANCIAL FORENSICS
LOS ANGELES – The Western Justice Center is pleased to announce the newest appointees to their Board of Directors. The group includes two current members of the federal judiciary, Hon. André Birotte Jr. of the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, and Hon. Holly A. Thomas of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit; two former judicial officers, Hon. Jennifer T. Lum (Ret.), General Counsel for Caltech, and Hon. Suzanne H. Segal (Ret.) of Signature Resolution; as well as key leaders in the California legal community, Alfred Fraijo Jr., founder of The Somos Group, Carri Becker Maas, Senior Counsel for Kaiser Permanente, and Shari M. Wollman, Vice President and Assistant General Counsel for Mattel, Inc. WJC also welcomes its new board president, Michael J. Wallace of TM Financial.
This group's combined decades of experience and collective dedication to the field of conflict resolution will do much to advance WJC's mission.
“We are deeply honored to welcome these seven new members to our Board. Their commitment to empowering the next generation of changemakers through conflict resolution education and the unique perspectives they bring to the table will influence our efforts to deepen and expand school and community partnerships in Los Angeles and beyond,” said WJC Executive Director, Elissa Barrett.
“I am so excited and proud of the positive impact the Western Justice Center has made in our schools and communities in these past few – difficult – years. I am even more excited about how well the Western Justice Center is positioned to significantly expand our work of teaching and growing the conflict resolution skills and capacity of youth, educators, schools, and our community partners. I can’t wait to see the positive changes that we teach blossom and multiply as our ideas touch an ever-expanding network of current and future community leaders,” said Michael Wallace, WJC Board of Directors President.
The Western Justice Center was also thrilled to have their newest board members attend their annual Peer Mediation Invitational. As a core vehicle for driving change, the Peer Mediation Invitational is a cross-generational event that empowers those in the school communities – students, administrators, facilitators, and more – to make a long-lasting impact in efforts to decrease violence, resolve conflicts and promote restorative practices. Find more information about the Peer Mediation Invitational here.
Through their Board of Directors and Leadership Council, WJC has a unique set of connections to the legal community through the judiciary, law firms, corporate counsel offices, commercial arbitration firms and solo and group mediation practices.
WJC also has strong connections to top regional civic, business and labor leadership that is unparalleled in the field. WJC has a base of more than 500 program alumni – educators, counselors, administrators, and mediators – trained to implement youth-focused conflict resolution programs and practices, many of whom have advanced to positions of leadership in their school districts and communities. These relationships continue to help the organization create and innovate. Read more about the new board members below:
Hon. Holly A. Thomas is a judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Judge Thomas was nominated for the judgeship on September 20, 2021, and confirmed by the Senate on January 20, 2022. She received her judicial commission on January 24, 2022. Judge Thomas previously served as a trial judge on the California Superior Court for the County of Los Angeles (2018-2022), as judge pro tem on the California Second District Court of Appeal (2022), as deputy director of executive programs at the California Civil Rights Department (2016-2018), as special counsel to the solicitor general at the New York State Attorney General’s Office (2015-2016), as senior attorney in the Appellate Section of the Civil Rights Division at the United States Department of Justice (2010-2015), and as assistant counsel at the NAACP Legal Defense & Educational Fund, Inc. (2005-2010), where she was also an Arthur Liman Fellow (2005-2006). Judge Thomas served as a law clerk for the Honorable Kim McLane Wardlaw on the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit (2004-2005). Judge Thomas received her bachelor’s degree, with honors and distinction, in political science and African and African American studies from Stanford University in 2000; and her Juris Doctor in 2004 from Yale Law School, where she was an essays editor of the Yale Law Journal.
Hon. André Birotte Jr. is currently serving on the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California. Judge Birotte was appointed by President Obama and unanimously confirmed by the Senate in July 2014, and is the first Black person to lead the DOJ Office for Central California. The son of Haitian immigrants, Judge Birotte graduated from Pepperdine University School of Law and Tufts University. Prior to his nomination to the federal Bench, Judge Birotte served as the United States Attorney for the Central District of California, the first African-American to hold this position in the District. Judge Birotte also served as the Inspector General of the Los Angeles Police Department, an Assistant Inspector General, the Assistant United States Attorney in the Central District, and as a Deputy Public Defender in Los Angeles County. He also worked as an associate for Quinn Emanuel, where he represented clients in white-collar crime and commercial litigation matters.
Alfred Fraijo Jr. is founder and principal of The Somos Group. Mr. Fraijo specializes in managing the design and permitting of complex development projects for government and private sector clients. Under his leadership, a team of planners and consultants have developed some of the most transformative planning and research projects in urban communities spanning the commercial, residential, hospitality, and healthcare sectors. In addition to building a legal practice of renown, Mr. Fraijo founded Somos Group to spearhead innovative projects for his clients that depend on partnerships and a broad range of disciplines to reimagine urban placemaking. Prior to Somos Group, Mr. Fraijo was a partner at Sheppard, Mullin, Richter and Hampton LLP in the Real Estate, Land Use & Natural Resources Department, brought significant experience working with complex housing and mixed-use development projects statewide, and advised multiple non-profit housing development corporations. He also serves as a board member for organizations such as the Los Angeles LGBT Center and the USC Lusk Center for Real Estate. Mr. Fraijo received his J.D. from Loyola Law School, Los Angeles, in 2002 and in 1999, he graduated, cum laude, from Harvard University with a B.A. in Government.
Jennifer Lum became Caltech’s General Counsel on September 1, 2019. Ms. Lum joined Caltech in 2010 as Deputy General Counsel. Prior to joining Caltech's Office of the General Counsel, Ms. Lum served as a federal United States Magistrate Judge for eight years handling both civil and criminal matters. She was previously an Assistant United States Attorney in the United States Attorney's Office in Los Angeles, California, where she served as Chief of the Major Frauds Section and prosecuted complex white-collar criminal cases. Ms. Lum also worked in private practice in Los Angeles where she focused on general business litigation. She obtained her Juris Doctor from Cornell University and her Bachelor of the Arts degree from University of Southern California.
Carri Becker Maas has been Senior Counsel of Health Plan and Payor Operations for Kaiser Permanente since 2019. Previously, she was a partner at Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, LLP with a focus on healthcare litigation. Ms. Maas is a dedicated healthcare attorney with over 15 years of experience representing health plans in high stakes matters and assisting clients in successfully navigating regulatory disputes including by proactively identifying regulatory challenges, and suggesting and implementing process redesign in order to reduce both litigation and regulatory compliance risks. Ms. Maas received a Juris Doctor from the University of California College of the Law, San Francisco (formerly known as Hastings), and a BA in Communications, with honors, from UC Santa Barbara. She has been previously affiliated with WJC as a member of the Empower Committee.
Hon. Suzanne H. Segal (Ret.) currently serves as a mediator, arbitrator, Special Master and Discovery referee in complex business disputes with Signature Resolution. Prior to that, Judge Segal served as a U.S. Magistrate Judge from 2002 to 2018, including a four-year term as the Chief Magistrate Judge. Before her appointment to the bench, Judge Segal served as an Assistant United States Attorney in the Civil Division of the Los Angeles U.S. Attorney’s Office, and the Chief of Civil Appeals for the U.S. Attorney’s Office, and was previously a civil litigator at Dewey, Ballantine and Adams, Duque and Hazeltine. Judge Segal received her Bachelor of the Arts from Claremont Mckenna College and her Juris Doctor from Cornell Law School.
Shari M. Wollman is currently Mattel’s Head of Global Litigation, Advertising & Marketing, and Data Privacy. Prior to that, she was a partner at Manatt in Los Angeles where she focused on litigation, intellectual property, antitrust, and entertainment, co-chaired the Intellectual Property Practice, and chaired the Trademark & Copyright Litigation Group. Ms. Wollman is a certified mediator and served on the Central District of California’s ADR panel, which helped develop beneficial skills for her current in-house role. Ms. Wollman also served as a Board Member of the Association of Business Trial Lawyers.
WJC is also proud to share information about its current board president:
Michael Wallace is the Chief Operating Officer and a founding member of TM Financial Forensics, LLC. He was previously a Managing Director at Navigant Consulting and a founding Vice President at Tucker Alan Inc. Mr. Wallace has over 24 years of experience providing consulting and testimony services to clients regarding financial, economic, accounting and damages issues. Mr. Wallace received an MBA in Finance and Accounting from the University of California, Berkeley, and a BS in Mechanical Engineering from the University of California, Los Angeles.
The Western Justice Center is a Los Angeles-based nonprofit that empowers people to strengthen their communities by growing the conflict resolution skills and capacity of youth, educators, schools, and community partners. Their work inspires young people and educators to become conflict-adept leaders who can shift the culture and climate in their schools and communities.
For more information about the Western Justice Center and their leadership team, please visit the website at www.westernjustice.org/leadership. Please direct media inquiries to Executive Director Elissa Barrett at ebarrett@westernjustice.org or call (626) 584-7494, ext. 108.
