Adjunct Instructors

Roy L. Austin, Jr. is the Inaugural Director of the Howard University School of Law’s Artificial Intelligence Initiative. Previously, he spent over four years as Meta's Vice President of Civil Rights and Deputy General Counsel, where he led the company's civil rights strategy and compliance efforts.

Before joining Meta, Austin was a partner with Harris, Wiltshire & Grannis LLP and McDermott Will & Emery, focusing on criminal defense, civil litigation, and civil rights cases. His extensive government service includes serving as a trial attorney with the Criminal Section of the U.S. Justice Department's Civil Rights Division, where he investigated and prosecuted hate crime and police brutality cases, and as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in DC, where he focused on sexual assault, homicide, human trafficking, fraud and public corruption prosecutions. Austin has tried thirty jury trials.

As Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the Civil Rights Division, Austin supervised the Criminal Section and the Special Litigation Section's law enforcement portfolio. He also served as Deputy Assistant to the President in the White House Domestic Policy Council's Office of Urban Affairs, Justice and Opportunity.

Austin received his B.A. from Yale University and his J.D. from the University of Chicago.

Abby Anna Batko-Taylor served as an Immigration Judge with the Executive Office of Immigration Review from 2023 to 2026 at the Falls Church Immigration Adjudication Center.

Ms. Batko-Taylor earned a Bachelor of Science magna cum laude in 2002 from Columbia University, Barnard College, a Juris Doctor in 2013 from the University of Texas School of Law, and a Master of Science in Social Work in 2013 from the University of Texas School of Social Work.

From 2017 to 2022, she was a Staff Attorney on the Immigration Team at Texas RioGrande Legal Aid (TRLA) in Austin, Texas, representing survivors of violence before the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, Department of Homeland Security; the immigration courts; the Board of Immigration Appeals; and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.

From 2016 to 2017, she managed a Medical-Legal Partnership at TRLA in Austin. From 2013 to 2015, she was awarded a Julius Glickman Fellowship in Public Interest Law to manage a legal project at Volunteer Legal Services of Central Texas in Austin.

Ms. Batko-Taylor is a member of the State Bar of Texas and the District of Columbia Bar.

Chief Judge Anna Blackburne-Rigsby has served for 31 years as a judge on the trial and appellate levels of the D.C. Courts. She has served on the D.C. Court of Appeals since 2006 and became Chief Judge in 2017.

She served as President of the National Conference of Chief Justices and as Chair of the Board of Directors of the National Center for State Courts for the 2023-2024 term.

She Chairs the Conference of Chief Justices and Conference of State Court Administrators Committee of Public Trust and Confidence in State Courts and Chairs the National CCJ/COSCA AI in State Courts Rapid Response Teams.

She also Chairs the national AI Governance and Ethics group of the NCSC/TRI AI Consortium for Law and Courts and established the D.C. Courts AI Taskforce.

She is a Past President of the National Association of Women Judges and serves on the Board of Managerial Trustees for the International Association of Women Judges. She has trained judges nationally and internationally on ethics and AI. She also teaches ethics at Georgetown Law.

C. Nicole Gaither is an Adjunct Professor and Supervising Attorney in the Intellectual Property Trademark Clinic at Howard University School of Law, where she has guided student attorneys practicing before the United States Patent and Trademark Office through its Law School Clinic Certification Program since 2023.

Professor Gaither is the Founder of Cloth & Code Legal PLLC, a boutique law firm in Washington, DC, that provides trademark and copyright counsel to fashion, beauty, wellness, and art-centric brands. Her practice spans trademark clearance, prosecution, and enforcement; copyright registration strategy; licensing; TTAB proceedings; and UDRP domain disputes. She has secured multiple federal trademark registrations and has led international brand expansion initiatives in collaboration with counsel.

Before entering law, she was a Certified Public Accountant and brings business fluency to brand strategy. Her writing on trademark law and culture has appeared in the ABA's Landslide magazine and Bloomberg Law, and she has presented at the Practicing Law Institute and the Alt Legal Conference.

She holds a J.D. from Loyola University New Orleans College of Law, completed Fordham Law School's Fashion Law Institute intensive, and is admitted to practice in the District of Columbia and Louisiana.

Aimee D. Griffin, Esq., LL.M., is the Principal Attorney of Life & Legacy Counselors, an estate and business succession planning firm committed to helping individuals, families, and business owners create, protect, and transfer wealth.

Aimee is the Founder and Board President of the Association of Black Estate Planning Professionals (ABEPP), a national organization advancing collaborative economic empowerment and working to bridge the racial wealth gap by strengthening the capacity of estate planning, financial, tax, insurance, and other wealth professionals.

Her commitment to Black entrepreneurship and economic development extends more than two decades. Aimee was an incorporator of the U.S. Black Chambers, Inc., helping build a national platform dedicated to strengthening Black businesses and Black chambers of commerce.

Aimee holds an LL.M. in Elder Law and Estate Planning and serves as a co-supervising attorney for the Estate Planning and Heirs’ Property clinic. She is a mentor and community educator.

Through her legal practice, teaching, writing, and organizational leadership, she champions an intentional approach to legacy building grounded in collaboration, education, and economic empowerment. Her guiding belief is simple: “When we know better, we can do better.”

Philip G. Hampton, II, is a senior partner at Polsinelli PC. He has more than four decades of experience in patent and trademark litigation, patent and trademark counseling, trademark prosecution, and the enforcement, maintenance, and licensing of all types of intellectual property. He has been an expert witness in several trademark infringement actions and has served as a Special Master in several patent infringement actions.

Phil was nominated to be the Assistant Commissioner for Trademarks at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) by President Clinton and confirmed unanimously by the U.S. Senate in May 1994. Under his leadership, the Trademark Office achieved all of its production goals and became one of the first federal agencies to institute work-from-home and to accept all electronic applications. Phil also championed the award-winning Trademark Assistance Center and increased the number of black and brown attorneys by more than 400%.

In 2023 Phil was inducted into the Washington Bar Association’s Hall of Fame. He is also the winner of the INTA’s President’s Award, the ABA’s IP Section’s Mark T. Banner Award and was the inaugural recipient of the Diversity in Tech Award presented by the NBA’s IP Section.

The Honorable Adam R. Hunter was appointed a magistrate judge by Chief Judge Milton C. Lee, Jr. on March 30, 2026.

Prior to his appointment to the Superior Court, Judge Hunter served as the Chair and Chief Administrative Judge of the D.C. Rental Housing Commission. He was appointed to the Commission by Mayor Muriel Bowser and confirmed by the D.C. Council in April 2022 and assumed the role of Chair and Chief Administrative Judge in February 2024.

Judge Hunter has extensive experience as a litigator in Washington, D.C. Before his appointment, he was a founding partner of Hunter & Johnson, PLLC, a boutique D.C. litigation firm. His practice included representing both landlords and tenants before the Office of Administrative Hearings and in the Superior Court of the District of Columbia, as well as handling civil litigation and criminal defense matters. He also dedicated a portion of his practice to representing defendants in criminal cases as a member of the Criminal Justice Act (CJA) Panel.

Prior to forming Hunter & Johnson, PLLC, Judge Hunter was Of Counsel with Harden & Pinckney, PLLC in the District of Columbia with a primary focus on criminal defense and civil litigation. He clerked for the Honorable Lorraine Pullen (Ret.) in Middlesex County Superior Court Criminal Division in New Jersey.

Judge Hunter is currently an adjunct professor of trial advocacy at Howard University School of Law, where he also coaches the Huver I. Brown Trial Advocacy Moot Court Team. This advanced course focuses on teaching second- and third-year law students trial advocacy skills and the rules of evidence. Judge Hunter has also served as visiting faculty for Harvard Law School’s Trial Advocacy Workshop and has guest lectured at several law schools and universities.

Judge Hunter graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Economics and Political Science, cum laude from Howard University and received his Juris Doctor from Howard University School of Law. While in law school, he was captain of the Huver I. Brown Trial Advocacy Moot Court Team and a Marshall-Brennan Fellow teaching constitutional law at Eastern Senior High School and the Department of Youth Rehabilitation Services, Youth Services Center.

AJ Link is openly autistic. He earned his JD from The George Washington University Law School and his LL.M in Space Law at the University of Mississippi School of Law.

He was the inaugural director of The Center for Air and Space Law Task Force on Inclusion, Diversity, and Equity in Aerospace. AJ serves as a research director for the Jus Ad Astra project and the space law and policy chair for Black in Astro. AJ is the human rights and policy lead for the Palestine Space Institute Association and an accessibility lead for AstroAccess. He is board president of Crip the Law and the founding president of the National Disabled Law Students Association and the National Disabled Legal Professionals.

AJ currently works as the director of policy for New Disabled South and New Disabled South Rising. He sits on the JustSpace Alliance board and previously served as the steward of The Potter’s House DC, a nonprofit bookstore and café.

He is the 2020 recipient of the Michael Dillon Cooley Memorial Award, a 2020 inductee of the Susan M. Daniels Disability Mentoring Hall of Fame, and the first ever winner of the Above Space Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Award.

Synda Mark is an adjunct professor at Howard University School of Law, where she teaches antitrust. Her scholarship has been published in the William & Mary Journal of Race, Gender, and Social Justice. Currently, Synda serves as an attorney advisor at the Federal Trade Commission’s Office of Policy Planning.

Her previous roles include Deputy Assistant Director for Policy & Coordination at the FTC and attorney advisor to Commissioner Rebecca Kelly Slaughter. Prior to her policy work, Synda was a staff attorney with the FTC’s Health Care Division, investigating and litigating high-stakes pharmaceutical cases.

She is a graduate of Howard University School of Law. She also holds an M.A. from Columbia University and a B.A. from Virginia Commonwealth University. She clerked for Judge Clarence Cooper of the Northern District of Georgia.

Molefi McIntosh advises individuals and families on estate planning and tax matters. His estate planning practice focuses on developing and implementing wealth transfer strategies designed to preserve and grow multigenerational wealth. Molefi works closely with clients to create estate and succession plans and guides fiduciaries and beneficiaries through all stages of estate administration.

Molefi also advises clients on federal and state tax issues, including tax-efficient planning for individuals with international connections and representation in potential and active controversies before the IRS and state tax authorities.

Molefi serves as Co-Chair of the Student Membership Committee of the Washington, D.C. Estate Planning Council.

John Powers serves as the Legal Director at Advancement Project, where he litigates civil rights cases around the country and oversees the organization’s legal work. John has worked at AP since January 2024.

In addition to co-teaching the Howard University School of Law’s Civil Rights Law Clinic, John has also served as an adjunct law professor at the American University Washington College of Law, where he’s taught a class called the American Political Process.

From 2021 to 2024, John served as a political appointee in the front office of the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice.

From 2015 to 2021, John worked at the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, where he was one of the most active voting rights litigators in the country. Before that, John worked for over eight years as a career employee in DOJ’s Voting Section, where he reviewed voting changes submitted for preclearance under Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act and worked on legal challenges to the Texas voter ID and North Carolina omnibus election laws in federal district court.

Neil Roman is senior counsel at Covington & Burling LLP in Washington, D.C. Following a federal court clerkship, Mr. Roman started at Covington as an associate in 1986, and he was a litigation partner at the firm from 1993 until he took senior status in 2023.

Mr. Roman’s practice has involved all forms of commercial litigation, including trademark and insurance coverage, for a wide variety of clients in a number of industries, including the National Football League, the American Automobile Association, and Boyd Gaming Corporation. He has been involved with high profile cases such as the NFL free agency litigation, the World Trade Center insurance coverage litigation, and the BP oil spill litigation. Mr. Roman also has an active pro bono practice, including trying a defamation action against former chief justice of the Alabama Supreme Court Roy Moore.

Before becoming a lawyer, Mr. Roman was a journalist. He started as a junior reporter with The Washington Star newspaper and, after that paper folded, moved to Atlanta, where he was one of the first CNN writers.

Mr. Roman is a magna cum laude graduate of Bowdoin College and a cum laude graduate of Harvard Law School.

Bruce Sanders has considerable experience in financial law and investor protection law. After earning his law degree from the University of Michigan School of Law, he began his legal career with the Securities and Exchange Commission - Enforcement Division where he handled numerous financial and investor protection cases involving financial professionals, including stock brokers, investment advisors, and investment bankers, publicly traded corporations, and private placements, and investment companies.

He later served as Regional Counsel for the predecessor to the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (“FINRA”), continuing the important work of protecting investors and enforcing investor protection laws against financial professionals, investment bankers, broker-dealers, and other companies. Mr. Sanders also served as Trial Attorney in the Department of Justice- Bank and Securities Fraud Section in Washington, DC, and was responsible for prosecuting some of the DOJ’s most important financial fraud cases. He was selected to serve on the DOJ’s Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI) Task Force, as well as the DOJ’s Dallas Financial Fraud Task Force.

Since entering private practice, Mr. Sanders has served as counsel to many investors, corporations, broker-dealers, investment bankers and others. He has represented investors involved in transactions and disputes with some of Wall Street’s largest financial services firms. He has also represented professional athletes in the NBA and NFL involved in financial transactions, and served as lead counsel to the Wall Street investment banking syndicate that financed the construction of the Verizon Center in Washington, DC (no called the Capitol One Arena), home of the NBA’s Wizards and NHL’s Capitols.

Mr. Sanders has represented many investors in FINRA sponsored securities arbitration matters which have resulted in substantial monetary recoveries of investor money from financial professionals and firms. He has also served as Chairman on FINRA sponsored arbitration panels rendering final decisions in disputes between investors and FINRA member broker-dealers.

Mr. Sanders also served as Chairman of numerous FINRA sponsored securities arbitration cases, where he heard and decided many securities arbitration cases involving customers and their securities broker-dealers, including many Wall Street financial firms and regional broker-dealers.

Mr. Sanders was delighted when Howard University School of Law in 2009 requested that he return to the law school, where he previously taught Securities Law, to develop and run a new Investor Justice & Education Clinical Law Program (the “IJEC”), which was initially funded by a generous grant from the FINRA Investor Education Foundation.

Mr. Sanders developed the curriculum for the IJEC, and has taught and trained numerous Student Attorneys who represent investors under his supervision. The IJEC provides free legal services to underserved investors involved in disputes with their financial professionals in FINRA arbitration proceedings, and has obtained substantial monetary recoveries for investors harmed by the misconduct of their securities brokers and investment advisers.

The IJEC also develops and conducts investor education programs for the investing community, including schools, colleges, universities, churches, senior citizen groups, scout troops, fraternities, sororities, and other organizations. These programs are designed to help investors protect themselves from investment scams, financial fraud, and other misconduct of financial professionals.

In 2017, HUSL requested that Mr. Sanders enhance the law school’s SEC Externship program, which he revitalized and has helped place over 200 HUSL students in internships at the SEC. In addition, Mr. Sanders teaches a class which helps the interns learn the fundamentals of the federal securities laws, and the practical aspects of working at the SEC.

As a result of his considerable financial and investor protection experience, Mr. Sanders has been retained to provide expert legal and regulatory counsel on many financial market development projects in Asia, Africa, Eastern Europe, and the Caribbean. He has developed and conducted financial law education and training programs for investors, financial professionals, regulatory organizations and government agencies over fifty countries, including the Republics of Ethiopia, Philippines, Lithuania, Moldova, India, Malaysia, Romania, as well as the Eastern Caribbean Securities Market based in St. Kitts & Nevis, West Indies.

In addition to his Juris Doctor degree from the University of Michigan, Mr. Sanders also holds a B.S degree in Economics, with High Honors.

Deirdre Stanley is an independent director and former public company Chief Legal Officer, with over 25 years of C-suite experience in complex, global organizations spanning the information technology, media and beauty sectors. Recognized as a strategic and collaborative leader, she has proven success in enterprise risk management, crisis response, global legal and regulatory affairs, mergers and acquisitions, and intellectual property.

Prior to her retirement in 2024, Ms. Stanley was Executive Vice President & General Counsel of The Estée Lauder Companies, and from 2008–2019 served as EVP & General Counsel of Thomson Reuters. In each of these roles, Ms. Stanley transformed and/or built legal and compliance teams known for strategic partnership and commercial sensibilities, incorporating strong risk awareness and mitigation skills.

Ms. Stanley serves on the board of directors of PayPal Holdings, Inc. and of Consolidated Edison, Inc., where she chairs the Compensation Committee. She is also a Trustee of the Hospital for Special Surgery and the Dalton School.

Ms. Stanley holds an A.B. from Duke University and a J.D. from Harvard Law School, where she was a member of the Harvard Law Review.

Kayla Strauss, is a Legal Consultant with the World Bank Group Administrative Tribunal and an Adjunct Professor in the Howard University School of Law–World Bank Group Externship Program. Her practice and scholarship focus on international administrative law, labor and employment law, and alternative dispute resolution, with particular interests in mediation, institutional dispute resolution, and the resolution of complex workplace disputes within international organizations. She is a 2026 American Arbitration Association Higginbotham Fellow, a competitive fellowship recognizing emerging leaders in the field of alternative dispute resolution.

Professor Strauss brings both domestic litigation and international institutional experience to the classroom. Before joining the Tribunal, she practiced labor and employment law on both the management and employee sides, representing employers and employees in federal and state courts, advising organizations on workplace compliance, conducting workplace investigations, and resolving disputes through litigation and alternative dispute resolution.

Her scholarship explores the intersection of civil rights, technology, and institutional accountability. She is the author of publications in the Seattle Journal for Social Justice and the Drexel Law Review. Professor Strauss is committed to preparing students for careers in international organizations, dispute resolution, and public service.

Professor von Spiegelfeld has been an Administrative Appeals Judge on the Medicare Appeals Council at the Department of Health and Human Services since January 2021.

Previously, she served as Senior Counsel to several Board Members at the NLRB where she first started her legal career as an Honors Attorney. At the NLRB, Prof. von Spiegelfeld served details in the Region 5 Washington Resident Office and in the Contempt, Compliance, & Special Litigation Branch.

In 2019, she also completed a detail assignment as a Senior Advisor at the Small Business Administration's Office of International Trade as part of the President's Management Council Interagency Rotation Program.

Prior to her legal career, she worked in international development supporting the implementation of USAID and State Department-funded international health and education projects.

She earned her J.D. from The George Washington University Law School and B.A. in International Studies from American University.

Jason Veny is a labor and employment attorney at Murphy Anderson PLLC in Washington, D.C., where he practices across the private, public, and federal sectors. His work centers on union-side representation, including collective bargaining, grievance arbitration, day-to-day labor relations counsel, internal union matters, and representation of unions and their members before administrative agencies.

He also conducts workplace investigations and provides training on labor relations and employment law issues. He serves on the Council of the ABA Section of Labor and Employment Law and was recently elected as a Fellow in The College of Labor and Employment Lawyers.

He teaches Labor Law at Howard University School of Law, regularly serves as an instructor on labor relations at the Scheinman Institute on Conflict Resolution at Cornell University's ILR School, and previously taught Arbitration Law at Penn State Dickinson School of Law.

A frequent speaker and presenter, he addresses a wide range of topics in labor and employment law. He brings to the classroom a practitioner's perspective on how labor law operates in practice, from the bargaining table through contract enforcement.

Jamie Lynn Walter is the Global Chair of the Investment Funds Regulatory Strategy group at Latham & Watkins LLP, where she advises clients on a broad spectrum of legal, regulatory, and compliance matters affecting the asset management industry.

Her practice centers on SEC regulation of investment advisers and private funds, with particular depth in matters arising under the Investment Advisers Act and the Investment Company Act. Drawing on extensive experience in both the public and private sectors, Jamie helps investment managers and financial institutions navigate the full range of SEC regulatory and compliance challenges.

As a former regulator, she brings invaluable insight into the SEC’s policies, procedures, and operational dynamics—enabling her to anticipate regulatory concerns and develop pragmatic, commercially viable solutions.

Jamie is a recognized thought leader on issues affecting investment advisers and private funds and is a frequent speaker at leading industry conferences. She has served as an adjunct professor at Howard University School of Law since 2018, teaching a course on private equity and hedge fund regulation.

Earlier in her career, Jamie served as a law clerk to the Honorable Jacques L. Wiener, Jr., of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.

Professor Wilkins founded the first global sustainability practice at a major law firm. At Freshfields he advised on environmental, social and governance matters and led partnerships with clients, public policy makers and regulators.

Prior to taking this role, he served as an M&A partner for over 20 years advising on high-profile cross-border mergers in the firm’s New York and Tokyo offices.

Professor Wilkins is currently a Lecturer in Law at Columbia Law School and an Adjunct Professor at University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School. He currently serves on the Board of the University of Chicago Laboratory Schools and previously served as Chair of the New York Public Radio Board and the Governance Co-Chair of the NYC Economic Development Corporation.

He has worked in Tokyo for 11 years as an investment banker and lawyer, appointed as Vice-Chair of the Legal Services Committee of the American Chamber of Commerce.

Empower has recognized him seven times as a Top 100 Ethnic Minority Executive, and he was also named a Ford Foundation Fellow in Public International Law.

Professor Wilkins is a graduate of Harvard College (magna cum laude), Harvard Business School and Harvard Law School.