Our People

See the menu on the left for profiles of our full team, including attorneys and fellows not pictured below.

Attorneys

Photo of Faaris (Fares) Akremi — FAARIS (FARES) AKREMI
Associate

Photo of Robert Alexander — ROBERT ALEXANDER
Member

Robert Alexander is a member of the firm and represents clients in litigation matters at both the trial and appellate level, with a particular emphasis on ERISA litigation, class action litigation, and other complex, multiparty litigation, often involving novel or unsettled legal issues. Robert has written or co-authored briefs in the United States Supreme Court, in eleven federal courts of appeals, in numerous federal and state trial courts, as well as administrative and arbitral tribunals. He has also argued on behalf of the firm’s clients in injunction proceedings and in a wide variety of motion proceedings at the trial level in state and federal courts, and has argued appeals in state and federal appellate courts. Robert has represented clients in both jury and bench trials, and in arbitration proceedings.

In addition to ERISA litigation, Robert represents clients in connection with First Amendment, union governance, RICO and employment rights matters. Robert also provides the firm’s clients with advice and counseling regarding employee benefits and employee rights issues, and assists clients in mediation proceedings. Robert has spoken on various litigation issues related to employee benefit matters to ABA and Union Lawyer Alliance (ULA) audiences. Robert served on the ULA Board of Directors from 2012-2015 when the ULA was known as the AFL-CIO Lawyers Coordinating Committee.

Prior to joining the firm, Robert worked in the Denver office of a large firm headquartered in Washington, D.C., was a teaching fellow at Stanford Law School, and a law clerk to Hon. Carlos F. Lucero, United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit.

Robert received an LL.M. from University of Michigan Law School in 1995, and a J.D. from University of Colorado School of Law in 1992. While in law school, Robert served as editor-in-chief of the University of Colorado Law Review and was a member of the Order of the Coif. Robert received a B.A. from Roosevelt University with honors in 1989.

Photo of Oluwadamilola Animashaun — OLUWADAMILOLA ANIMASHAUN
Fellow

Photo of Adam Bellotti — ADAM BELLOTTI
Member

Adam Bellotti (he/his) joined Bredhoff & Kaiser as an associate in 2015 and became a member of the firm in 2022. His practice consists of transactional work and dispute resolution for labor unions and their associated employee benefit funds.

Adam serves as labor counsel to public and private-sector labor unions, including the United States Women’s National Team Players Association. As labor counsel, Adam negotiates collective-bargaining agreements, represents unions at all steps of the grievance and arbitration process, and advises unions on their compliance obligations under state and federal laws, including the Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act (LMRDA). Adam also represents unions as transactional counsel in a variety of commercial transactions designed to provide unions with revenue streams that can serve as alternatives to traditional member dues.

As a litigator, Adam represents unions and funds in state and federal court and alternative dispute resolution. He has litigated cases arising under the LMRDA, the National Labor Relations Act and Labor Management Relations Act, the Employee Retirement Income Security Act, state and federal employment-discrimination laws, and a variety of state tort and contract laws. Adam has also guided unions and employees through administrative proceedings before the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), and the Maryland Commission for Civil Rights.

Before joining the firm, Adam clerked for the Honorable John M. Walker, Jr. of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and served as an honors attorney and attorney adviser to Chairman Mark Gaston Pearce of the NLRB.

Adam received his J.D., magna cum laude, from Georgetown University Law Center in 2011. During law school, Adam served as an Articles Editor for the Georgetown Law Journal and participated in Georgetown’s Appellate Litigation Clinic. He received his B.S., cum laude, from Georgetown University in 2008. He is a member of the Maryland and District of Columbia bars.

Photo of Rachel Casper — RACHEL CASPER
Fellow

Photo of Matthew Clash Drexler — MATTHEW
CLASH-DREXLER
Member

Photo of Jenifer Cromwell — JENIFER CROMWELL
Member

Jenifer A. Cromwell advises plans, trustees, unions, and employers on a wide range of federal tax and ERISA matters regarding employee benefits. Her practice encompasses health and welfare benefit plans and qualified retirement plans.

Jen’s work with health and welfare plans includes counseling on the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (“Affordable Care Act”), including waiting period rules, the employer shared responsibility requirements, and the insurance market reforms. Jen’s practice also includes counseling plans and plan sponsors on the establishment, design, and operation of their health and welfare plans, including compliance with HIPAA privacy and security, claims procedures, cafeteria plan regulations, COBRA, Form 5500 reporting, and participant disclosures and notices. Jen also works with a federal health plan advising on compliance with OPM FEHB requirements and health plan accreditation standards. Her work with qualified retirement plans includes counseling on compliance with the Internal Revenue Code, plan design and amendments, corrections, and participant disclosures. She also has extensive experience negotiating contracts with third-party administrators, record keepers, insurance carriers, consultants, and vendors.

Jen speaks regularly on employee benefits matters, including the Affordable Care Act, HIPAA privacy, health plan vendor selection and management, wellness programs, and benefits and tax issues related to providing benefits for same-sex spouses and domestic partners. She regularly writes articles on employee benefits matters, and she authored the Disclosure and Reporting Obligations for Group Health Plans chapter in Benefits Compliance: Strategies for Plans, Programs & Policies published by BLR.

Jen volunteers, along with her family, as a puppy raiser for Guiding Eyes for the Blind.

Jen graduated magna cum laude from the American University Washington College of Law. She is a member of the bars of Maryland, Virginia, and the District of Columbia, and she served for six years on the Steering Committee of the District of Columbia Bar Association’s Health Law Section.

Leon Dayan is a member of the firm and has represented clients in numerous appellate and trial-court matters. Leon has co-authored several briefs in the United States Supreme Court and has argued more than two dozen appeals. He has argued cases in nine different federal circuit courts as well as in two state supreme courts. At the trial-court level, Leon’s practice has included the representation of unions in First Amendment matters as well as in RICO, union-governance, election, and employment matters; the representation of retirees in complex employee-benefit class-actions; and the representation of employee benefit plans in ERISA breach-of-fiduciary-duty cases.

Leon’s practice also includes counseling national unions on immigration-related questions. In addition, Leon has represented numerous individual attorneys on matters pertaining to professional ethics and bar disciplinary proceedings.

Leon received his JD degree from the University of California, Berkeley Law School in 1989, where he was Order of the Coif. In 1985, he received his A.B. degree in History from Stanford University, where he graduated with honors and distinction.

After completing law school, Leon served as a law clerk to the Honorable Betty B. Fletcher of United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Leon then practiced law in Los Angeles at a public interest law firm for three years before becoming an associate at Bredhoff & Kaiser in 1994. From 1999 through 2001, Leon taught employment law as an adjunct professor at the George Washington University School of Law.

Representative Cases Argued:

McCutcheon v. Colgate-Palmolive Co., 62 F. 4th 474(2d Cir. 2023) (affirming $300 million judgment in favor of class of Colgate retirees and other former Colgate employees in complex ERISA pension plan dispute).
Brown v. AFSCME Council No. 5, 41 F.4th 963 (2022) (holding that a good-faith defense is available to private-party defendants under Section 1983 and that the defense extends to First Amendment “compelled subsidization of speech” claims)
Rozenblit v. Lyles, 243 A.3d 1249 (N.J. 2021) (state constitution’s “gift clause” is not violated by collective bargaining agreements that provide for paid leave to public school teachers who are elected union officers so that they can perform full-time work helping to administer a collective bargaining agreement and performing other representational functions on behalf of the union)
Ogle v. Ohio Civil Service Employees Association, 951 F.3d 794 (6th Cir. 2020) and Lee v. Ohio Education Association, 951 F.3d 386 (6th Cir. 2020) (unions need not refund fair-share fees collected from nonmembers during the period before the Supreme Court issued its 2018 decision declaring such fees to be unconstitutional).
SEIU v. NUHW, 718 F.3d 1036 (9th Cir. 2013) (upholding jury verdict finding that local union officials breached their fiduciary duty to their union by expending local union resources to plan the formation of a rival organization while they still were employed by the local)
United Bhd. of Carpenters & Joiners v. Bldg. & Constr. Trades Dep’t, AFL-CIO, 770 F.3d 834 (9th Cir. 2014) (holding that the non-violent use of economic pressure, including “intense” economic pressure that may be tortious under state law, is not “extortion” under the federal Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO))
Wisconsin Education Association Council v. Walker, 705 F.3d 640 (7th Cir. 2013) (holding, over a strong dissent, that Wisconsin statute stripping “general employee” unions, but not “public safety” unions, of ability to finance associational activities through dues deduction was consistent with the First Amendment and the Equal Protection Clause)
AFL-CIO v. Chao, 409 F.3d 377 (D.C. Cir. 2005) (invalidating a Labor Department regulation requiring unions to file detailed financial reports on trust entities that are neither financed nor controlled by unions)
Smith v. District of Columbia, 413 F.3d 86 (D.C. Cir. 2005) (holding that the District of Columbia had been deliberately indifferent to the physical safety of youths placed by the District in “independent living” facilities)
Herman v. Springfield Mass. Area Local 497, 201 F.3d 1, 4 (1st Cir. 2000) (upholding validity of union election and rejecting Secretary of Labor’s position that a union rule setting forth a qualification for candidacy is per se invalid merely because a high percentage of members choose not to take the steps needed to qualify).

Photo of Richard Griffin — RICHARD GRIFFIN
Of Counsel

Photo of Cole Hanzlicek — COLE HANZLICEK
Associate

Photo of Jacob Karabell — JACOB KARABELL
Member

Photo of Caitlin Kekacs — CAITLIN KEKACS
Member

Photo of Kathleen Keller — KATHLEEN KELLER
Member

Kathleen Keller joined Bredhoff & Kaiser as an associate in 2003 and is now a Member of the firm. Kathleen represents labor organizations, multiemployer benefit funds and individuals in litigation and arbitration involving a wide range of legal issues, including ERISA, the Fair Labor Standards Act, anti-discrimination statutes, RICO, labor law and tort and contract law. She advises her fund clients on fiduciary considerations and plan design, and she is experienced in working with fund actuaries on issues relating to plan valuation and funding.

Kathleen also represents unions and non-profits in collective bargaining, on both the management side (for her union and non-profit clients) and the labor side of the table. She provides advice and assistance regarding development of management policies and compliance with labor and employment laws, regularly develops and provides staff training on inclusion and anti-discrimination, and has conducted numerous outside investigations into allegations of sexual harassment or other misconduct by staff or officers.

Kathleen’s representative cases include: WestRock RKT Co. v. PACE Industry Union-Management Pension Fund, 856 F.3d 1320 (11th Cir. 2017) (affirming dismissal of suit challenging pension fund’s rehabilitation plan); Rincon v. AFSCME, 638 F.3d 631 (9th Cir. 2016) (affirming judgment for union on organizer’s exempt status and essential functions); National Integrated Group Pension Plan v. Dunhill Food Equipment Corp., 938 F. Supp. 2d 361 (E.D.N.Y. 2013) (granting summary judgment against individual owner of corporation for withdrawal liability owed to plan); Ronches v. Dickerson Employee Benefits, 2009 WL 10669571 (C.D. Cal. 2009) (denying defendants’ motion to dismiss health trust fund’s ERISA claims against former vendors and fiduciaries); Wackenhut Corp. v. Service Employee International Union, 593 F. Supp. 2d 1289 (M.D. Fl. 2009) (granting motion to dismiss employer’s RICO claims against union); Baltimore County FOP Lodge 4 v. Baltimore County, 565 F.Supp. 672 2d (D. Md. 2008) (denying summary judgment to employer on employees’ joint employment FLSA claims); and Tucker v. Talladega City Schools, 171 Fed. Appx. 289 (11th Cir. 2006) (reversing summary judgment for school board on teacher’s First Amendment retaliation claim and Section 1981 retaliation claim).

Kathleen has presented continuing legal education and training on topics including electronic discovery, attorney-client privilege, the LMRDA, the FMLA, and anti-discrimination policies.

Photo of Bruce Lerner — BRUCE LERNER
Member

Bruce began working for Bredhoff & Kaiser as an associate in 1984, where he has spent the entirety of his career.

During those years, Bruce’s practice has touched upon most of the areas in which Bredhoff has worked. From 1992 through 2022, Bruce served as General Counsel for the National Postal Mail Handlers Union. In that role, he counseled union leadership on all manner of legal issues, including union governance and elections, collective bargaining, and the resolution of disputes via arbitration and litigation. He was lead counsel for the NPMHU in ten rounds of national negotiations, scores of national arbitrations, and many legislative battles. He has also participated in the development and administration of the NPMHU’s popular health benefit plan, among other programs.

At the beginning of 2023, Bruce transitioned into Senior Counsel for the NPMHU when he was named General Counsel of its international parent body, the Laborers’ International Union of North America. In addition to the NPMHU and LIUNA, Bruce advises numerous other unions, both national and local, on matters of Union Governance and Administration. That practice includes counseling leadership on compliance with federal laws governing union elections, trusteeships, financial reporting, and financial audits by the Department of Labor. He has also developed substantial expertise in the administration of fair-share fee and other union-security systems in the private sector.

Early in Bruce’s career, his practice focused on trial and appellate litigation. He continues to supervise an active litigation practice that includes disputes arising out of the full range of issues facing labor organizations.

Bruce clerked for William J. Brennan, Jr. of the U.S. Supreme Court during its 1983 Term, following a year-long clerkship with Abner J. Mikva of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. He obtained his J.D. degree, summa cum laude, from the University of Pennsylvania, where he served as Executive Editor of the Law Review. He holds an M.P.A. degree from Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, and a B.A. degree from the State University of New York at Binghamton’s Harpur College.

Photo of Benjamin Love — BENJAMIN LOVE
Staff Counsel

Photo of Tzvi Mackson — TZVI MACKSON
Of Counsel

Tzvi Mackson joined the firm as Of Counsel in 2021 specializing in employee-benefits matters. His practice focuses on representing union-affiliated employee-benefit plans in compliance and administrative matters.

Prior to joining Bredhoff & Kaiser, for more than a decade Tzvi represented union-affiliated employee benefit plans – including an I.U.P.A.T.-affiliated plan and a construction industry plan -- in compliance and administrative matters and in litigation, including collection actions, benefit claim cases, and withdrawal liability suits at Cohen, Weiss and Simon LLP.

Tzvi graduated magna cum laude from the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law in 2007, where he was a Notes Editor of the Cardozo Law Review, a Public Service Scholar and Dean’s Distinguished Scholar, a member of the Order of the Coif, and a recipient of the ABA/BNA Award of Excellence in the Study of Labor & Employment Law.

While attending law school, Tzvi served as an intern at the Judges Division of the National Labor Relations Board and worked as a summer clerk in the General Counsel’s office of District Council 37, AFSCME. Tzvi is the author of an article published in the Cardozo Law Review on secondary picketing under the National Labor Relations Act.

Tzvi was a chapter editor for the treatise Employee Benefits Law, Fourth Edition. He was named as a Rising Star for Employee Benefits on the 2014-2018 Annual Lists of Super Lawyers magazine.

Before attending law school, Tzvi served as a shop steward in local unions affiliated with AFSCME and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters.

Tzvi earned an undergraduate degree from Wesleyan University in 1989 and an MBA from Baruch College of the City University of New York in 1995.

Tzvi provides services to at least 7 multiemployer retirement plans, with average assets of $1.2B and approximate average participant count of 4,300.

Photo of Anne Mayerson — ANNE MAYERSON
Member

Photo of Kara Naseef — KARA NASEEF
Associate

Photo of Elisabeth Oppenheimer — ELISABETH
OPPENHEIMER
Member

Photo of Roger Pollak — ROGER POLLAK
Member

Roger is a member of the firm. His practice focuses on assisting non-profit organizations, including unions, in managing a wide variety of organizational matters.

He is outside general counsel of Union Privilege, a non-profit organization that develops and promotes member benefits for unions affiliated with the AFL-CIO. In this capacity, he handles all of Union Privilege’s legal matters, including its business, tax, HR, privacy and information security, and governance issues.

For Union Privilege, Roger negotiates arrangements with banks, insurance companies, telecommunications companies, and numerous other product and service providers pursuant to which the services of these businesses are made available by Union Privilege to more than ten million union members. Most notably, Roger is responsible for managing both legal and business aspects of Union Privilege’s affinity credit card program, which – with more than one million cardholders – stands as one of the largest such programs in the world.

Roger also has responsibility for significant business-to-business contracting undertaken by the AFL-CIO itself – a $100 million year organization – including Internet, software, telecommunications, data management, and other business relationships. Roger handles similar responsibilities for numerous other firm clients.

Roger helped establish and is outside general counsel for Vital HealthCare Capital, a national charitable loan fund that provides financing and development services to support quality healthcare and good healthcare jobs in low-income communities, and the BlueGreen Alliance, a partnership of unions and environmental organizations that focuses on developing commonsense solutions to environmental challenges in a way that creates and maintains quality jobs.

Roger has assisted with the creation of many other non-profits, some that have involved the creation of sister 501(c)(3) and 501(c)(4) arrangements or for-profit subsidiaries. And Roger provides ongoing legal support for board and committee functions and other governance activities for many of these organizations.

Roger assists clients with trademark and copyright issues. He has negotiated numerous trademark licensing agreements, helping clients obtain fair royalties, comply with IRS requirements for ensuring the tax exempt treatment of such royalties, and protect the ownership of their marks. He also assists non-profits more generally in protecting intellectual property assets and dealing with trademark and copyright issues.

Roger addresses novel legal and managerial issues related to efforts of clients to make effective use of the Internet. He helps clients negotiate contracts for website development, hosting and other web-related services. He assists clients in crafting appropriate privacy policies, user agreements, and community guidelines for their websites and acceptable policies for use of email and the Internet by their employees. He also counsels clients on information security issues.

In addition to his work with non-profits, Roger has also represented clients in complex arbitrations, including interest arbitrations in the steel, postal, and airline sectors and airline pilot seniority list integrations. He has also assisted in major renegotiations of pilot and flight attendant collective bargaining agreements.

In approaching commercial contracting situations, Roger draws on his legal and business experience and skills to assist his clients with conceptualizing how best to structure a business relationship, how to reduce oral agreements to effective contract language, and, frequently, how to manage such relationships on a continuing basis.

Roger obtained his J.D. at Yale University, where he also received an M.B.A. from the Yale School of Management. Roger received his B.S. from the University of California at Berkeley, College of Natural Resources and was Valedictorian of his class. Prior to graduate school, Roger was executive director of a non-profit environmental group in Connecticut. During graduate school, he worked as a consultant for the firm of Brody & Weiser, providing financial and organizational consulting services to non-profits.

Roger helped found and is President Emeritus of The Rosedale Conservancy, a Washington, D.C. land trust that owns and manages a small urban historic landscape and park.

Photo of Ian Postman — IAN POSTMAN
Associate

Photo of Brooke Priestas — BROOKE PRIESTAS
Associate

Photo of Ramya Ravindran — RAMYA RAVINDRAN
Member

Ramya Ravindran joined Bredhoff & Kaiser in 2007 and re-joined the Firm in 2019. Ramya is an experienced litigator who has represented labor unions, employee benefit funds, and other organizations in a wide range of matters in state and federal courts in both appellate and trial-court matters. Her work includes litigating on behalf of clients on First Amendment and other constitutional claims, labor law, ERISA, RICO, union governance, trusteeships, breach-of-fiduciary-duty cases, common-law tort and contract matters, and employment issues.

Ramya has written or co-authored briefs in the United States Supreme Court, seven federal courts of appeal, numerous federal and state trial courts, the National Labor Relations Board, and other administrative and arbitral tribunals. She has argued cases in multiple federal courts of appeal and in a wide variety of motion proceedings at the trial level in federal and state courts. She has also represented clients in jury trials, administrative hearings, and arbitrations.

In addition to her litigation practice, Ramya advises multiemployer benefit funds and trustees on a wide range of legal issues relating to employee benefits, including plan administration and design, regulatory and compliance issues, fiduciary-responsibility questions, collections matters, and withdrawal liability. Ramya’s benefits practice involves both health and welfare benefit plans and qualified retirement plans.

From 2015-2018, Ramya was Deputy General Counsel for the National Basketball Players Association, where her practice included collective bargaining, grievance arbitrations, contract negotiation and drafting, and union governance and compliance matters.

Ramya graduated magna cum laude from Harvard Law School in 2004. Prior to initially joining Bredhoff & Kaiser, Ramya served as a law clerk to the Honorable Rosemary S. Pooler on the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and practiced as a litigation associate at a large law firm in Chicago. Ramya graduated magna cum laude from Rice University in 2001 with a Bachelor of Science degree in computer science.

Ramya is a member of the bars of the District of Columbia and New York. In 2020, Ramya was elected to the Board of Governors of the District of Columbia Bar.

Photo of Derrick Rice — DERRICK RICE
Associate

Photo of Andrew Roth — ANDREW ROTH
Member

Photo of Joshua Segal — JOSHUA SEGAL
Member

Photo of Joshua Shiffrin — JOSHUA SHIFFRIN
Member

Photo of Ernest Zho — ERNEST ZHU
Associate

Senior Counsel

Photo of Julia Penny Clark — JULIA PENNY CLARK
Senior Counsel

Photo of Jeremiah Collins — JEREMIAH COLLINS
Senior Counsel

Photo of Mady Gilson — MADY GILSON
Senior Counsel

Photo of Robert Weinberg — ROBERT WEINBERG
Senior Counsel

Photo of John West — JOHN WEST
SENIOR COUNSEL