Douglas Evan Ress, Esq. Chair

Doug Ress was a co-founding shareholder of and now is Of Counsel to Kaufman, Coren & Ress, P.C., located in Philadelphia, PA, and is a member of the Pennsylvania and New York Bars. Following his graduation magna cum laude from Queens College in 1976, where he was its first state finalist for a Rhodes Scholarship and its Scholar Athlete, and his graduation cum laude from Georgetown University Law Center in 1979, Mr. Ress began the practice of law in Philadelphia, PA. In 2023, Mr. Ress was inducted as a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers. For 2022, Mr. Ress had been recognized by The Best Lawyers in America as Philadelphia’s Lawyer of the Year for bet-the-company litigation. Mr. Ress has continuously been selected for inclusion in The Best Lawyers in America from 2007 to the present, and has been repeatedly recognized as a Pennsylvania "Super Lawyer" in Philadelphia Magazine. For 2007, Mr. Ress was recognized as one of the Top 100 Super Lawyers in Pennsylvania, and for 2013, Mr. Ress was recognized as one of the Top 100 Super Lawyers in Philadelphia. Mr. Ress served as a Hearing Officer for the Pennsylvania Disciplinary Board from 2002 to 2008. He has also served on the Board of Directors of Temple Beth Hillel-Beth El, Wynnewood, Pennsylvania, and currently serves as a Trustee of its Endowment Fund. Mr. Ress also currently serves on the Board of Directors of The JDOG Foundation. In addition, Mr. Ress has authored articles in his field, including a co-authored article: Tax-Affecting and Beyond: Dela. Radiology Experts Discuss "Landmark" Case, Business Valuation Update, Vol. 13, No. 5, May 2007. Mr. Ress is also a Fellow of the Litigation Counsel of America, a Trial Lawyer Honorary Society, and a contributing author to its e-journal: Thoughts From a Road Trip: Exploring What it Takes for Someone to be Truly Great in His or Her Profession, 4 Litigation Commentary & Rev. 29 (January/February 2011). In 2012, Mr. Ress was inducted as one of nine inaugural Members of the Queens College Athletics Hall of Fame, and currently serves as a Trustee of the Queens College Foundation. By Order of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, in 2017, Mr. Ress commenced his initial three-year appointment to the Continuing Legal Education Board, was re-appointed and then served as Vice-Chair in 2021, and commenced his current service as Chair effective January 1, 2022.

Candice Komar, Esq. Vice Chair

Candice L. Komar is a founding member of Pollock Begg, a leading Pennsylvania firm devoted exclusively to the practice of family law.

Recognized as a top practitioner, litigator and highly skilled negotiator in matrimonial law, Candice handles divorces involving closely held businesses and high net worth individuals. She has considerable trial experience in Allegheny and surrounding counties, is a certified mediator and is trained and active in the newest area of practice known as Collaborative Law. Prior to joining Pollock Begg, Candice was a shareholder in the family law division of Buchanan Ingersoll (now Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney PC).

Candice majored in English and business at the University of Pittsburgh and is a graduate of the University of Dayton School of Law.

Candice is a fellow of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers, the Allegheny County Bar Foundation, the Collaborative Law Association of Southwestern Pennsylvania and the International Academy of Collaborative Professionals. Candice helped found the Pittsburgh chapter of the Matrimonial Inns of Court, where she served in various capacities. She is a member of the Pennsylvania and Allegheny County bar associations’ Family Law sections and actively participates in the ACBA’s Women in the Law Division.

The recipient of numerous awards and honors for her exceptional work, Candice earned designation as one of the Pittsburgh Business Times Top 25 Women in Business for 2012. Candice has been named to the list of Pennsylvania Super Lawyers every year since 2007, the Super Lawyers Top 50 Women Lawyers in Pennsylvania list since 2009, and the Top 50 Attorneys in Pittsburgh list repeatedly. She is honored to have been listed annually in The Best Lawyers in America since 2008 and to receive the Martindale-Hubbell Peer Review Rating of AV Preeminent.

Candice is a frequent guest on WPXI’s Pittsburgh Cable News Channel “NightTalk” and “Pittsburgh Now” programs, a lecturer for the Pennsylvania Bar Institute and Cyril H. Wecht Institute of Forensic Science and Law and a requested presenter for women’s leadership conferences.

Candice lives in Downtown Pittsburgh with her husband, Ivor Hill. She is a dedicated supporter of the area’s cultural attributes and a volunteer through several nonprofit and community organizations including Neighborhood Legal Services, YWCA Legal Resources for Women and Uptown Legal Clinic at Bethlehem Haven Women’s Shelter. She has served as vice president of the Pittsburgh chapter of the Executive Women’s Golf Association and as a board member of the Dance Alloy and the Junior League of Pittsburgh. She is a graduate of Leadership Pittsburgh, Class XIV.

Ana Gomez Esq.

Ana Paulina Gomez, Esq. Ms. Gomez works for the Pennsylvania Insurance Department where she represents the Department in litigation before administrative tribunals and appellate courts. She also provides the Department with legal advice regarding complex insurance issues, legislation and regulations. Ms. Gomez is also an Adjunct Professor at Penn State Dickinson Law where she teaches Insurance Law. Prior to joining the Insurance Department, she worked for the Pennsylvania Department of Education where she litigated educator misconduct cases and Right-to-Know Law matters at the administrative and appellate level. Prior to joining the OGC, Ms. Gomez was an Assistant District Attorney at the York County District Attorney's Office from 2012 until 2015. Prior to her work as an ADA, Ms. Gomez clerked for the Hon. Thomas Kelley in York County immediately after graduating from law school. Ms. Gomez attended the Penn State Dickinson School of Law where she interned for the Hon. Yvette Kane, U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania and served as a Senior Editor for the Penn State Environmental Law Review and a Miller Center for Public Interest Fellow. Ms. Gomez is admitted to practice before the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania and the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. She is also a trained mediator.

Manning J. O'Connor II, Esq.

Manning J. "Jim" O'Connor II is a Member at Metz Lewis Brodman Must O'Keefe LLC. Jim has more than 30 years of trial experience in state and federal courts in Pennsylvania and several other states. He represents businesses in a wide range of disputes involving all aspects of employment litigation. These include breaches of contract, harassment, and discrimination claims; non-compete/non-solicitation agreements; and trade secrets, among others. He also handles complex commercial litigation matters.
In addition, Mr. O'Connor has many years of experience in health care litigation, and he has represented hospitals and physicians in, and advised on, regulatory and patient care issues, contract disputes, licensing and credentialing matters, insurance disputes, and corporate compliance.
Mr. O'Connor has negotiated contracts for media personalities and other celebrities. He has also served as special counsel to numerous municipalities on a variety of legal issues.
An educator and frequent speaker, Mr. O'Connor serves on the adjunct faculty at Duquesne University School of Law, and he regularly speaks at seminars and conferences on the topics of trial evidence, employment litigation, and commercial litigation. He was appointed by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court to serve on the Pennsylvania CLE Board, which oversees the rules and regulations for continuing legal education in the Commonwealth.
EDUCATION

• 1983 J.D., Duquesne University
• 1980 B.A., cum laude, Duquesne University

ADMISSIONS

• Pennsylvania
• United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit
• United States District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania
• United States District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania
• United States Tax Court

PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS AND HONORS

• Pennsylvania Bar Association
• Allegheny County Bar Association
• Pennsylvania CLE Board
• AV� Preeminen� 5.0 out of 5 peer rated in Martindale-Hubbell
• Selected for inclusion on the 2010-2013 Pennsylvania Super Lawyers� lists in the field of business litigation.
• Selected for inclusion on the 2012 Top Rated Lawyers list by Corporate Counsel's Guide to Health Care Law.
• Selected for the Allegheny County Bar Foundation Class of 2015 Fellows

Mark Powell, Esq.

Mark Powell is the District Attorney of Lackawanna County and is a member of the Pennsylvania District Attorneys Association (PDAA) Executive Committee. In 2018, he was named to the association’s Education and Training Committee and elected to the Board of Directors of the Pennsylvania District Attorneys Institute, the educational and training arm of the PDAA, in 2020. In addition, Powell serves as a faculty member for the National Institute of Trial Advocacy in Washington, D.C., and was awarded its Teaching Excellence Award in 2016. Before being elected DA, he co-chaired the Lackawanna County Bench Bar Conference for several years and remains active on the Lackawanna Bar Association’s Educational Committee.
Prior to public service, Powell was a partner in the Powell Law firm in Scranton for 27 years. He earned many professional accolades, including the distinction of being a Board-Certified Trial Specialist in both criminal law and civil law by the National Board of Trial Advocacy. While in private practice, Powell served on the Board of Governors of the Pennsylvania Association for Justice and the Board of Directors of the Northeastern PA Trial Lawyers Association. For 12 years, he served as a Hearing Committee member for the Pennsylvania Disciplinary Board and is a past president of Northeastern Pennsylvania Trial Lawyers Association where he received its highest award for his Exemplary Character and Compassion for Victims.
Powell earned his undergraduate degree from Villanova University, his Juris Doctorate from the Catholic University Columbus School of Law, and his Master of Laws in Trial Advocacy from the Temple University Beasley School of Law where he graduated with honors.

Tuan Samahon, Esq.

Professor Tuan Samahon is a full-time legal educator and tenured faculty member at Villanova University’s Charles Widger School of Law where he teaches civil procedure, constitutional law, and federal courts. His published scholarship has appeared in the Stanford Law Review, the University of Chicago Legal Forum, and Intelligence and National Security, among others. In 2017, Tuan served as a Fulbright Scholar in Croatia with the University of Zagreb’s law faculty.

In addition to his academic work, Tuan remains active as a litigator. He has briefed cases before the Supreme Court of the United States, the U.S. Courts of Appeals, and the U.S. District Courts, where he has handled separation-of-powers and Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) cases. He has handled matters against the CIA, DOJ, FBI, and IRS, among others, on behalf of fellow academics, book authors, and journalists who sought the release of federal records. These documents have ranged from a draft undisclosed CIA history of the 1961 Bay of Pigs operation to FBI investigatory records about the theft and laundering by U.S. servicemen of the royal family of Hesse’s jewels.

Beyond his scholarship and litigated matters, Tuan is engaged in public service by interpreting and implementing federal law. He has testified before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, Subcommittee on the Constitution, and assisted individual members of Congress on questions of federal law. In 2020, the Archivist of the United States appointed Tuan to the FOIA Advisory Committee, where he advises the National Archives and Records Administration on FOIA reform. Locally, he assisted the federal court in Philadelphia with the selection of a new federal magistrate judge. Finally, Tuan is actively involved with the Pennsylvania Bar Association and the Asian Pacific American Bar Association of Pennsylvania.

He is now pleased to join the Pennsylvania Continuing Legal Education Board. Over the years, he has taught numerous CLEs on constitutional and transparency law topics.

Tuan earned his J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center, cum laude, where he was jointly awarded the Olin Prize in Law and Economics and published his student scholarship in the Georgetown Law Journal, Law & Policy in International Business, and the Federal Communications Law Journal. Following graduation, he clerked for the Honorable Raymond A. Jackson on the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia and later the Honorable Jay S. Bybee on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Prior to becoming a faculty member, Tuan practiced law in the Washington, D.C. office of Covington & Burling.

Barry Simpson, Esq.

Mr. Simpson has served as executive director of the Pennsylvania Bar Association since 1999 and also as the Pennsylvania Bar Institute executive director since 2018. As executive director, he is responsible for the day-to-day operations of the 21,000-member professional association. He recently served as Chair of the Pennsylvania Interest on Lawyers’ Trust Accounts Board of Directors and had previously served on the Pennsylvania Lawyers Fund for Client Security, including serving as Secretary and Treasurer during his term. Prior to leading the PBA staff, Simpson was a partner for 16 years in the Pittsburgh firm of Brennan, Robins & Daley, where he managed the daily business operations of the firm and the legal and administrative staffs. He then became a shareholder in the Pittsburgh law firm of Ecker, Rome, Simpson and DeAngelis for ten years. While in Allegheny County, he was a member of the PBA House of Delegates and served as a delegate to the American Bar Association. He served as president of the Allegheny County Bar Association in 1998 and is a member of the Academy of Trial Lawyers of Allegheny County. In addition, he is also a member of the Western Pennsylvania Trial Lawyers Association, the Pennsylvania Association for Justice and the American Association for Justice. He received his Juris Doctorate degree from the University of Pittsburgh School of Law and his Bachelor of Science degree in Marketing Management from The Pennsylvania State University.

Kiandra D. Steffy, Esq.

Kiandra Steffy is Senior Counsel at Saxton & Stump practicing in the Labor and Employment, Title IX, Investigations and Commercial Litigation groups. She has experience with state and federal employment law and provides representation to employers in the investigation of allegations of discrimination, harassment, and other types of workplace misconduct. Kiandra also represents higher education entities in all aspects involving violations of Title IX.

Prior to joining Saxton & Stump, Kiandra focused her practice on fiduciary litigation, employment litigation and education law. She previously served as an Assistant City Solicitor with the City of Philadelphia Law Department as well as an arbitrator for the Office of District Court Administration in Lancaster, PA. Kiandra began her career by serving as a Judicial Law Clerk for the Honorable Dennis E. Reinaker.

As a participant of the Clemency Project 2014, which allows non-violent, low-level offenders to receive pro bono representation, Kiandra successfully petitioned for an incarcerated individual to receive a commuted sentence after being granted clemency by the 44th President of the United States, Barack Obama. She was the first member of the National Bar Association to file a successful petition for clemency.

Kiandra is an active member of the Lancaster community and has served in many leadership roles. She is currently Director at Large for the Lancaster Bar Association’s Board of Directors and serves as Chair of the Diversity Committee whose role is to strengthen and expand the LBA’s commitment to diversity and inclusion within the Lancaster legal community. Kiandra serves as a Board Member for The LINK Foundation which provides monetary grants to local non-profit organizations.

Honorable Clyde Waite

Howard Univ. (B.A.) 1968; Yale Law (J.D.) 1971; Bucks County Legal Aid Society Volunteer Atty. and Asst. Public Defender. 1971-72; Law Clerk Judge Edmund V. Ludwig, 1972; Law Clerk Judge Harriet M. Mims, 1977; Waite Real Estate Brokerage, 1979-2003; Solicitor Bristol Twp 1981; Solicitor Bucks County Ind. Dev. Auth. 1984; Partner, Stief, Waite, Gross, Sagoskin & Gilman, 1972-2003; Bucks County Bar Assoc. Bd Dir.; NAACP – Exec. Com.; Enterprise Zone of Bucks County – Pres.; Aldie Foundation Bd. Dir.; Bristol Twp. Ind. Dev. Corp. Founder; B. C. Bd. Realtors; Lower Bucks Cham. Com.; Bucks County Housing Group Pres. of Bd; Bucks County Playhouse Bd. of Dir.; Yardley Country Club Bd. Of Governors; B.C. Legal Aid Soc. Bd. of Dir.; PA State Planning Board/Futures Council; Kingswood Betterment Soc., Founder; Local Merit Judicial Selection Com.; Lower Bucks County Family YMCA Bd. of Dir.; St. Mary Hospital Authority – Bd. of Dir.; United Way of Bucks County. Elected Judge Court of Common Pleas Nov. 2003. Member of the Supreme Court’s Judicial Ethics Committee; Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Rules of Civil Procedures Committee; Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Superior Court’s Pro Se (Unrepresented Litigant) Committee; Founder, Bucks County Bar Association Diversity and Inclusion Committee.

Libby A. White, Esq.

Libby A. White is a former Professor of Legal Writing at the Villanova University Charles Widger School of Law, Visiting Professor at the Drexel University Thomas R. Kline School of Law, and Professor in the LSAC Prelaw Undergraduate Scholars (PLUS) Program. In addition to Legal Analysis, Writing, and Oral Advocacy, Professor White has taught Animal Law, Contracts, Advanced Appellate Advocacy, International Entertainment Law, Professional Responsibility, and Logic for Lawyers. Prior to teaching, she was a transactional and securities lawyer for Saul Ewing LLP, a sole practitioner in business law, and performed free-lance litigation overflow for the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Eastern District of Pennsylvania (Civil Division). Currently, Ms. White works as a consultant for law firms to (a) train associates on transactional and litigation drafting and (b) advise on, negotiate, and draft contracts for their clients. Professor White is the author of articles on theater law, oral advocacy, legal analysis and writing, and pedagogy. She has also presented numerous seminars concerning oral advocacy, practical law practice, pedagogical practices, and legal writing. She is the author of “Fundamentals of Legal Writing and Lawyering,” and “Contract Drafting.”