The Elemental Lawyer: Freedom Quest - The Art of Influence

Commissioner Susanne Blossom was elected by the judges of the Los Angeles Superior Court on March 20, 2026.  She practiced in court daily for nearly 20 years as an LA County public defender and served in the Chief Executive Office of LA County in civil rights litigation compliance and policy implementation related to LA County jails in the 3 years prior to her election.

Commissioner Wendy C. Shapero is a commissioner for the Los Angeles County Superior Court, elected by a vote of the court’s judges on March 14, 2025, with assignments that include family law matters. She earned her bachelor’s degree from the University of California, Santa Cruz, and her J.D. from Southwestern Law School in 1998, where she was named to the dean’s list, served as an associate editor of the Southwestern University Law Review, and received the American Jurisprudence Award for Constitutional Law I. Prior to her appointment, Shapero spent 26 years (February 1999 to February 2025) as a Deputy City Attorney with the Office of the Los Angeles City Attorney, during which she also served on the Executive Board of the Los Angeles City Attorneys Association and later as its treasurer.

Jen is an associate in the New York office where she is a member of the firm’s global sanctions, export controls, and trade practice. Jen advises clients on regulatory compliance and enforcement issues related to sanctions, export controls, and human rights and engages with government regulators on behalf of her clients in a range of industry sectors. She has experience advising on issues related to sanctions, export controls, import and customs, human rights, AML, and ABC.

Her experience also includes representing clients in complex commercial litigation and advising clients on ESG-related compliance and disclosure risks. She also maintains an active public international law practice and is a member of the firm’s business and human rights skills group.

Sam is Compliance and Regulation Co-Lead of our global ESG Risk & Advisory Group. He is a strategic regulatory advisor to companies navigating evolving regulatory regimes, bringing new products to market, or facing regulatory scrutiny. He counsels companies on regulatory strategy and compliance, investigations, audits and controversies, as well as product design and commercial matters in complex and highly-regulated industries. He counsels global brands on sustainability matters, including California’s new landmark climate laws, and is recognized in the 2026 Lawdragon 500 Leading Environmental Lawyers guide (“The Green 500”).

Sam previously served in senior legal roles in government. From 2010 to 2016, he served in the White House Counsel’s Office, ultimately as Associate White House Counsel, where he advised senior White House and executive branch officials on high-scrutiny matters and led the White House compliance team. During 2020 and 2021, Sam served as a legal director to the Biden-Harris Presidential Transition Team.

Dave Hall is a partner of Midtown Legal working primarily in Midtown’s Family Law, Civil Litigation, and Civil Rights Practice Groups. Dave helps shepherd families through difficult periods of change with a steady, reassuring hand. He fights to preserve the rights guaranteed to us by our Constitution when those rights are threatened by unlawful government actions. In short, Dave’s passion is fighting bullies in whatever form they take.

In addition to his legal work with Midtown, Dave is also a teacher and small business owner. Dave founded Velocity Test Prep, an online learning program that helps aspiring lawyers prepare for admission to law school.

Professor Areheart focuses his study on the subjects of contracts, employment law, and labor law. Prior to his time in academia, he worked in commercial litigation for half a decade at the law firms of DLA Piper (Austin, TX) and Jenner & Block (Dallas, TX). Since he joined UT in 2012, Professor Areheart has regularly taught contracts, labor law, employment law, and employment discrimination. He has a keen interest in arbitration as it relates to all of these subjects.

Professor Areheart writes primarily about employment discrimination law. He is particularly interested in the structure of discrimination laws and the major theories that animate them. His articles have been published or are forthcoming in the Yale Law Journal, University of Chicago Law Review, Michigan Law Review, Georgetown Law Journal, and Minnesota Law Review – among other law reviews.

In 2017, Professor Areheart was awarded the Michael J. Zimmer Award, a national prize that recognizes “a rising scholar who values workplace justice and community, and who has made significant contributions to the field of labor and employment law scholarship.” He is a current member of the Labor Law Group, an invitation-only organization of law professors dedicated to producing quality scholarship and teaching materials on labor and employment law. He is a past chair of the AALS Employment Discrimination section, the AALS New Law Professors section, and the SEALS Prospective Law Teachers Workshop.

A litigator for over eleven years, on both sides of the docket. A full-time neutral since 2026.

Tionna Carvalho, Esq., owner and founder of Tionna Carvalho Mediation Corp, came to mediation following over eleven years of civil litigation in California. She began her legal career clerking for the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office, conducting preliminary hearings and arguing motions. She defended clients at Estelle & Kennedy. She then rose from supervising attorney to partner at a large consumer protection firm, where she led litigation strategy and settlement negotiations, resolving thousands of cases for her clients.

The thread runs further back than law school. She studied psychology at UCLA because she wanted to help people resolve the disputes in their lives. Resolving the most challenging disagreements with empathy and creativity continues to be her passion. In June 2026 she opened Tionna Carvalho Mediation Corp and became a member of the Woodruff Dispute Resolution Center as a full-time neutral. Mediation is now her entire practice.

“Dispute Resolution is where I feel I can provide the most help—to consumers, companies, attorneys, and heavily impacted courts.”