A native of eastern Pennsylvania, Maggie Master moved to the Midwest to attend college at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. She graduated in 2007 with a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology and Political Science. Pursuing an interest in public interest work, Maggie joined Teach for America where she worked with middle school special needs children in Brownsville, Brooklyn and Gary, Indiana. Maggie left Teach for America and began her legal education at Chicago-Kent in 2009. In the summer following her 1L year, she worked in the Low-Income Taxpayer Clinic under Professor Jon Decatorsmith. In her 2L year, she externed in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois for Judge Samuel Der-Yeghiayan. As a 2L Maggie also worked as a research assistant for Professor Joan Steinman. Following her 2L year, Maggie was a summer associate at Greenberg Traurig in Chicago. Upon graduation from Kent, she will return to Greenberg Traurig as a permanent associate. In her free time, Maggie enjoys running, reading, and going to Ann Arbor to relive the college days with old friends.
Travis Bayer
Managing Editor
Travis Bayer started out in Arlington, Texas. After leaving the sunny south, he graduated from the University of Notre Dame’s Honors Program in 2005 with a degree in Honors Mathematics and a double major in Philosophy. After college, he worked on the floor of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange before moving on to briefly trade options.
After his first year at Chicago-Kent, Travis worked in the City of Chicago’s Department of Law and then externed for the Honorable Morton Denlow, a magistrate judge for the Northern District of Illinois. This past summer, he worked at Kirkland & Ellis, LLP. In his free time, he enjoys reading, hiking, and spending time with family and friends.
Daaron Kimmel
Executive Notes and Comments Editor
Daaron Kimmel graduated from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign with a B.A. In Creative Writing. After that he spent two years in rural Zambia as a Peace Corps volunteer, training remote schools to use an interactive, radio-broadcast curriculum. He then worked for two Chicago non-profit organizations, doing grant writing and large scale event production.
While at Chicago-Kent, Daaron has competed in appellate advocacy competitions as a member of the Moot Court Honor Society. He has served as a judicial extern for the Honorable Henry Simmons of the Circuit Court of Cook County, Law Division, and worked for the Office of the State Appellate Defender. As a 3L, he will also extern for the Honorable Morton Denlow of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. Daaron is a drummer and a home beer brewer, he loves basketball, and he may or may not be training to do a triathlon with his lovely wife Amanda.
Jeffrey Blake
Executive Articles Editor
Jeff grew up in Bolingbrook, IL. He attended Univ. of IL @ Chicago where he earned a B.S. in Biology. After college, Jeff worked in an Irish Pub and at the Du Page County Coroner’s Office. He enjoys completing the Wednesday through Saturday NY Times crossword puzzles (as Mondays’ and Tuesdays’ are too short for his liking, and Sundays’ too long), running, golfing, cooking, and playing the guitar and drums. His legal experiences include: law clerk for Driscoll Law Offices, extern at C-K Law Office’s Center For Open Government, judicial extern for the Honorable Judge Der-Yeghiayan in the Northern District of Illinois, intern for General Counsel at VSA Partners, a design and branding consultancy. He also worked under Professor Harris over his 2L summer.
Lauren Emery
Executive Articles Editor
Lauren Emery grew up in Vermont, and graduated from Washington University in St. Louis in 2007 with a B.A. in Psychology. After graduation, Lauren moved to Chicago, where she worked as a project assistant at the law firm Vedder Price. While at Chicago-Kent, Lauren has externed for the Honorable Jeanne Cleveland Bernstein and the Honorable Barbara Meyer in the domestic relations division of the Circuit Court of Cook County, and worked as a research assistant for Professor Sungjoon Cho. This past summer, she interned at the National Labor Relations Board. Lauren is a member of the student editorial board of the Employee Rights and Employment Policy Journal, and is a Legal Writing teaching assistant for Professor Suzanne Ehrenberg. She enjoys skiing (downhill), running, reading, and is currently learning to play tennis.
Jacquelyn Hill
Executive Articles Editor
Jackie Hill is in her third and final year at Chicago-Kent, and her main area of interest is litigation. Originally from St. Louis, Missouri, Jackie attended college at Illinois Wesleyan University in Bloomington, Illinois. She graduated summa cum laude with a B.A. in American Studies and a minor in Hispanic Studies.
During her first year at Chicago-Kent, Jackie became a Kent legal scholar. She spent the summer of 2010 doing property research for Kent Professor Stephanie Stern. In her second year at Kent, Jackie earned CALI awards in Products Liability and Sports Law, and her Case Comment was selected for publication in the Chicago-Kent Law Review. Jackie spent the summer of 2011 clerking for Chuhak & Tecson, P.C., and she plans to continue working there as a law clerk this upcoming fall. In her free time, Jackie enjoys traveling, running, playing sports, and spending time with family and friends.
Brian Kebbekus
Executive Articles Editor
A native of Milwaukee, Brian Kebbekus graduated from the George Washington University in 2009 with a BS in Electrical Engineering. Brian spent his first law school summer at the Cyber Privacy Project working against voter ID laws and TSA regulations restricting the rights of citizens to travel within the US. During his second summer, he worked for Global IP Law Group on patent portfolio sales and licensing–including the recent Nortel auction. Brian enjoys playing the trombone and curling.
Joshua Lurie
Executive Articles Editor
A native of Cleveland, Ohio, Josh Lurie is in his third and final year at Chicago-Kent. He graduated magna cum laude from Elon University in North Carolina with a B.A. in Philosophy and Psychology in May 2009. While at college, one of Josh’s essays, entitled Emerson on Technology and its Influences on American Identity, was published in the book The Only Sin is Limitation: Essay’s on R.W. Emerson’s Multi-Faceted Influence on America. Josh enrolled at Chicago-Kent immediately after college. While at Chicago-Kent, Josh has completed a judicial externship for Justice Robert E. Gordon of the Illinois Appellate Court, First District, and has interned with the Illinois Institute of Business Law. After deferring his acceptance for one year, Josh will begin as a member of the Chicago-Kent Moot Court Honor Society this fall. Currently, he works as a law clerk at Nielsen, Zehe & Antas, P.C. focusing on complex litigation, including subrogation and workers compensation. Josh’s interests include baseball, travelling, working out, cooking and The Discovery Channel.
Andrew Medeiros
Executive Articles Editor
Andrew Medeiros serves as an Executive Articles Editor for the Chicago-Kent Law Review, while also working as Executive Editor for the Seventh Circuit Review, an online journal published by the the Seventh Circuit Review Honors Seminar. Andrew also sits on executive board for the Military Law Society and is a Student Manager at the Self-Help Web Center. This summer he worked as an intern with the Air Force JAG Corps at Scott Air Force Base, assisting service members with personal legal matters involving family law, tort law, and estate planning. Andrew also spent two semesters working with Prof. Richard Kling in the Criminal Defense Clinic at the Law Offices of Chicago-Kent where he argued in the Northern District of Illinois as a Senior Law Student under Illinois Supreme Court Rule 711, and he previously clerked for Immigration and Customs Enforcement during the Summer of 2010.
Before starting law school, Andrew studied journalism and history at Seton Hall University in New Jersey, and he worked for NBA Entertainment, North Jersey Media Group, and Playboy Magazine. Andrew grew up in East Providence, R.I.; earned the rank of Eagle Scout, BSA; and was awarded the 2011 Flieschman Family Award for Excellence in Criminal Clinic, the Chicago-Kent Certificate of Service, and the CALI Award for Legal Writing IV focusing on Criminal Appeals. He enjoys running along Lake Michigan and listening to classic rock and blues music. His legal interests include military and immigration law, as well as criminal litigation and appellate advocacy.
Charles Spiekerman
Executive Articles Editor
Charles Spiekerman came to Chicago-Kent College of Law after spending three years as a financial auditor in the insurance industry. In 2006, he graduated from the University of Michigan Ross School of Business with a Bachelors of Business Administration focusing in accounting. After his first year at Chicago-Kent, Charles served as a judicial extern to Judge Kathleen Pantle in the Cook County Chancery Court during the summer of 2010. In the fall of 2010, Charles then served as a judicial extern to United States Magistrate Judge Arlander Keys in the Northern District of Illinois. Following his positions as a judicial extern, Charles began working as a law clerk for Daniel P. Costello & Associates in December 2010, and currently retains his position there part-time during law school. When not working, attending class, or editing law review articles, you can find Charles exploring the BYOB restaurant scene in Chicago, walking his dog at Montrose Street beach, or bicycling to one of those two.
Grant Swanson
Executive Articles Editor
Grant Swanson grew up in Peoria (“Ptown”), IL. Grant graduated from the University of Illinois in Champaign-Urbana in 2006 with a B.S. in Accountancy and continued his schooling by receiving an M.S. in Accountancy in 2007. Prior to law school, Grant worked for two years at the public accounting firm, Grant Thornton LLP, in Chicago as a corporate auditor. He also became a Certified Public Accountant. During his first summer at Chicago-Kent, Grant interned for the Honorable Michael Mihm in the Central District of Illinois in his hometown Peoria. He spent his second summer interning at the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the federal banking regulator of the Department of Treasury, in Washington, D.C. He is also interning with the Securities and Exchange Commission in Chicago during his 3L year and frequently volunteers at Cabrini Green Legal Aid. He enjoys running on Chicago’s lakefront and experiencing Chicago’s nightlife, as well as watching the Chicago Bulls, Buffalo Bills, and the Fighting Illini.
James Vergara
Executive Articles Editor
James Vergara is law student and a runner, and not necessarily in that order all the time. Although James has enough fun putting his Computer Science degree from Purdue University to use by studying intellectual property law at Chicago-Kent, he also loves spending time training for marathons. In the past, he has run the Tokyo Marathon, Chicago Marathon, and Berlin Marathon. In addition to running, James also enjoys cooking, writing short stories, and playing the ukulele in his free time.
During James’ 1L summer, he externed for the Honorable Judith M. Brawka in the law division of the Sixteenth Circuit Court of Illinois. As a 2L, he participated in the legal externship program at Mitsui Rail Capital, LLC. During his summer following 2L year, he interned for the Computing Technology Industry Association, writing legal memos on intellectual property issues and drafting the company’s new IP enforcement policy. He also spends a day every month volunteering at the Chinatown Pro Bono Legal Clinic. And as masochistic as it may sound, James enjoys being a part of the Chicago-Kent Law Review. He experiences a zen-like sense of calmness reading the Bluebook. Besides being an Executive Articles Editor of the Law Review, at Chicago-Kent, James has also been the president of the Asian Pacific Law Students Association and the treasurer of the Intellectual Property Law Society. He currently serves as the Editor-in-Chief of the Chicago-Kent Journal of Intellectual Property.
