Sexual Assault Litigation in Entertainment and Fashion

Joshua Kushner is a former sexual crimes and homicide prosecutor who has committed his life to fighting for victims and their families. For nearly a decade, Joshua guided families through the arduous process of seeking justice for their loved ones in criminal court. Today, he continues that work as a civil justice attorney – seeking compensation for victims and families who have suffered trauma and loss as a result of crime or another’s negligence.

Following a long and successful career as a government prosecutor, Joshua served as a trial attorney with elite international litigation firms based in New York City and London. In those roles, he represented and went up against some of the largest organizations and wealthiest individuals in the world in contentious litigation matters – including Major League Baseball, Major League Soccer, Wells Fargo Bank and Bayer Pharmaceuticals.

When he is not fighting for his clients, Joshua is a passionate educator in the field of trial advocacy. With a highly successful track record throughout more than 100 trials as lead counsel, Joshua is a proud faculty member of the National Institute of Trial Advocacy – the country’s premier advocacy skills organization for lawyers and law students. In this role, Joshua travels the United States teaching personal advocacy and litigation skills to prosecutors, public interest groups, private lawyers and law students. Two to three times a year, he also proudly serves as an advocacy skills trainer for the ACLU. Locally in South Florida, Joshua is a volunteer lecturer at multiple law schools and worked for several years as an undergraduate professor of criminal justice.

Personally, Joshua finds motivation from his loving wife Danielle, a career clinical social worker with the U.S. Department of Veterans’ Affairs, and their three-year old son, Nate. Joshua is an avid reader and former two-sport athlete.

Neda Saghafi is an attorney at Panish | Shea | Ravipudi LLP and an integral member of the Firm’s sexual abuse litigation team. Neda is a fierce advocate for survivors of sexual abuse and empowers survivors to tell their stories using a client-centered philosophy that places the individual at the heart of every matter.

Prior to joining the Firm, Neda’s experience included working in product liability matters related to pharmaceutical and biologics products, representing students in Title IX actions, and engaging in pro bono work including securing state predicate orders for special immigrant juvenile status, ensuring the confidentiality of a non-party witness in a sexual abuse matter, and serving as co-counsel with the ACLU of Louisiana in a federal civil rights action. Neda was a policy intern at the United Nations in the Ending Violence Against Women section and has worked alongside agencies advocating for survivors of trafficking and intimate partner violence. She is a Teach for America alumna, and a former advisory committee member for LifeBridge Health’s Center for Hope.

After earning her Juris Doctor from the University of Maryland Carey School of Law, Neda clerked for one of seven judges on Maryland’s highest court, and was published in the Northeast University Law Review (The American Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man: Using a Human Rights Framework to Deconstruct Systemic Police Misconduct Against Low-Income Women of Color, 10 NE.U.L.Rev. 502 (2018)). She graduated with her B.S. in Business Administration, B.A. in Psychology, and a minor in Global Poverty and Practice from the University of California, Berkeley and received her Master’s in Education from Johns Hopkins University.

Licensed to practice in multiple jurisdictions, including California, New York, the District of Columbia, and Maryland, Neda is fluent in Farsi and a member of numerous legal organizations including the Women Lawyers Association of Los Angeles, the Consumer Attorneys Association of Los Angeles, the Los Angeles County Bar Association, and the Beverly Hills Bar Association.

Victoria Burke is a legislative reform advocate focused on survivor rights and a privacy attorney representing plaintiffs in class actions involving data breaches and consumer privacy violations. She’s the architect and driving force behind the Speak Your Truth Act, groundbreaking legislation that protects survivors of sexual assault from retaliatory defamation lawsuits. The law has been enacted in multiple states and is now advancing toward federal adoption.

In addition to her advocacy and litigation work, Victoria is an adjunct professor of law, teaching Fashion Law, and the author of an amicus brief submitted to the U.S. Supreme Court in the H&M v. Unicolors copyright case. Her work bridges law, policy, and lived experience to build systems that protect truth, autonomy, and voice.

Uduak Oduok (“Ms. Uduak”) is a fashion and entertainment lawyer, former fashion model, and the founder of FASHIONENTLAW, a boutique law firm serving clients in the fashion, music, film, and digital media industries. Widely recognized as a pioneer in U.S. fashion law, she launched the first Fashion Law Seminars at San Francisco Fashion Week in 2005 and developed the first West Coast modeling law curriculum. She also created and taught the first fashion law course at California State University, Sacramento. 

In her legal practice, Ms. Uduak combines transactional expertise with deep litigation experience, having successfully resolved complex disputes in California courts. Her work includes advising on intellectual property, music and media licensing, talent agreements, modeling contracts, and brand sponsorships. She also handles cross-border deals, particularly between the U.S. and Africa, with a focus on the Afrobeats music industry. 

A sought-after speaker and thought leader, Ms. Uduak has presented at major conferences and institutions including SXSW, the Fashion Law Institute, the Wharton School, and at the invitation of the South African government. She has also been recognized by the American Bar Association Journal, National Bar Association, American University Washington College of Law, and the State of California Senate for her impact in the field.