Wilkinson Stekloff is pleased to announce its selection of three rising leaders to participate in the Leadership Council on Legal Diversity (LCLD) Fellows and Pathfinder Programs. Being a Member of LCLD means that your organization is helping to make history by bringing more diversity to the U.S. legal profession and justice system. This year, Wilkinson Stekloff is sponsoring Counsel Anastasia Pastan as a Fellow and Associates Hannah Bedard and Chelsea Shaffer as Pathfinders.
Lawyers selected for the LCLD programs demonstrate leadership skills, impact in their organization, engagement within the community, and commitment to diversity and inclusion. Participants will receive professional and personal development opportunities, leadership training, and relationship-building opportunities, including access to LCLD members and alumni throughout the year-long program.
Anastasia, who was recently promoted to Counsel and participated as an LCLD Pathfinder last year, has represented clients in a variety of areas including product liability, environmental, and contract matters. She was a member of the defense team for Bayer that won a complete defense verdict in the third state-court bellwether trial involving Xarelto, and played a key role on the defense team in Northrup v. Covidien, litigation involving hernia mesh products. Most recently, Anastasia has focused her work on the FTC suit challenging Microsoft’s proposed acquisition of Activision Blizzard King. As a student at Harvard Law School, Anastasia interned for the Federal Defenders of New York and for the judges of the Suffolk County Juvenile Court.
Hannah joined Wilkinson Stekloff from Kirkland & Ellis in 2022. She has worked on a variety of complex civil litigation matters including patent, trade secret, contract, and False Claims Act cases, and has worked on cases at all stages of litigation, representing clients in motions for injunctive relief, summary judgement, and post-trial relief. She has also been a member of numerous appellate teams. She is currently a member of the team representing 3M in multidistrict litigation involving PFAS aqueous film-forming foams. During law school, Hannah served as a law clerk to the Honorable Raymond C. Clevenger, III of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. She graduated from the University of Pennsylvania Law School.
Chelsea has worked on complex civil litigation and is currently part of the team representing Altria Group in multidistrict litigation arising out of Altria’s minority investment in JUUL Labs, Inc. Chelsea clerked for Judge Victor A. Bolden of the United States District Court for the District of Connecticut before joining the firm. She graduated from Yale Law School, where she served as Chair of Yale Law Women. While studying at Yale, she was also a member of the Veterans Legal Services Clinic and argued before the Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims.