Category: Class Notes

Adam A. Field was promoted to head of the Violent Crimes Unit at the St. Louis Circuit Attorney’s Office, where he oversees prosecutions of homicides, aggravated assaults, and robberies within the City of St. Louis, Missouri.

Prateek Viswanathan is an IP trial lawyer at Robins Kaplan LLP in Minneapolis. He advocates on behalf of inventors and creators, as well as pro bono clients.

John Keller has joined Walden Macht Haran & Williams LLP as a partner. From July 2014 to February 2024, Keller was part of the Department of Justice, ending his tenure there as Acting Chief of the Public Integrity Section.

Ronald Berman has retired as a shareholder, director, and officer of Neider & Boucher, S.C. as of April 30, 2025. He was with Neider & Boucher, S.C. for over 30 years; prior to that he was a partner with Grant Thornton, working with that CPA firm for over 20 years. He will continue as Of Counsel at Neider & Boucher to assist in serving clients. Ron obtained AV status with Martindale-Hubbell as well as being named as a Best Lawyer in America, a Super Lawyer of Wisconsin, and a Top Lawyer of Madison.

Former Assistant Secretary of the Army and defense consultant Tom Lamont has retired as a consultant for the Boeing Company.

Justice Debra B Walker of the Illinois Appellate Court, First District, received the Illinois State Bar Association’s Carole Bellows Woman of Influence Award on May 13th. This was very meaningful to Debra because former Judge Carole Bellows, the first female ISBA President and first female President of any statewide bar association in the nation, served as Debra’s presiding judge when she was on the Cook County Circuit Court.

Michelle Preiksaitis, JD, PhD (Dr. P), has launched Coastal Organizational Research and Learning Strategies, LLC (CORALS LLC) and its peer-reviewed scholarly journal, C’JAR (CORALS’ Journal of Applied Research). CORALS LLC provides research and strategy services to small business owners seeking to leverage data-driven models for growth through publication and national conference engagement. C’JAR welcomes submissions from legal, business, and healthcare professionals focused on applied, practice-oriented research. In April 2025, Dr. Preiksaitis presented a case study on a foundation subsidence remediation project, along with her small business concrete engineering client, at the AEI Conference 2025 in Kansas City, MO. Her part focused on “Fight or Flight Responses in Construction Litigation.” The presentation was supported, in part, by an immersion grant from the University of the Cumberlands, where she is an Associate Professor of Strategy in the doctoral business program.

Karen P. Layng was elected in May 2025 as the Chair of the Board of Directors of the American Arbitration Association in its 100th year.

Paul Lisnek recently received the 2025 Alumni Award for Liberal Arts and Sciences, the 2020 Award for Chicago Alumni of the Year (due to Covid, finally presented this year), and the Krannert Award for Alumni Lifetime of Giving.

After a career of private practice in western Colorado, two terms as District Attorney for Gunnison County, Colorado, serving as Acting Attorney General in Guam and later as Assistant Attorney General in St. Croix, and having a case featured on Unsolved Mysteries, Michael Stern has retired. He is enjoying his life after law in Florida.