Alumni

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Chapter Officers:
 

President
Doug Panzer (WCL/JD '06)

Doug is a partner at Caesar Rivise and provides litigation, counseling, portfolio management, prosecution (application / registration processes), and transactional expertise to help clients develop, protect, and enforce their valuable and strategic IP rights.

From pre-litigation evaluation to filings with the Supreme Court of the United States, Mr. Panzer has engaged in litigation in all areas of IP (trademarks, patents, copyrights, trade secrets) and in relation to business dealings involving those assets. This has included cases involving microprocessors, pharmaceutical drugs, RFID highway tolling systems, financial instruments, consumer goods, and personal care products.

Doug devotes a significant portion of his practice to advising clients on their trademark strategy and managing their portfolios. This presently involves management of clients’ trademark registrations in approximately 50 countries through a worldwide network of foreign associates.  Doug regularly represents clients before the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board in opposition and cancelation proceedings.  His practice also includes drafting, review, negotiation, and counseling relating to licensing and other transactions for the commercialization of intellectual property, representing clients as either the licensor/buyer or the licensee/seller.

As a registered patent attorney with the US Patent and Trademark Office Mr. Panzer also advises clients in procuring patents and/or protecting innovation through trade secret protection. Recent industries and technologies have included chemical filtration systems, intelligent robotics, vision systems, artificial intelligence, active shooter security systems, and life sciences.

Vice President
Rahul M. Shah, (WCL/JD '02)

Rahul is a Partner and Immigration Attorney with the law firm of Fragomen, based in the firm’s New Jersey office.  He has practiced immigration law for over 20 years and specializes in supporting clients across a variety of industries with the immigration components of global mobility and the movement of international talent.  Rahul’s corporate immigration experience includes a wide-range of employment-based nonimmigrant visa matters - including the H-1B, L-1, TN, E, O-1 and B-1 visa categories - as well as permanent residence matters involving PERM labor certification applications, complex immigrant worker petitions and multinational executive and manager petitions. He also regularly advises clients on U.S. immigration compliance and provides counsel on the immigration implications of corporate mergers and acquisitions, Labor Condition Application (LCA) regulations, and USCIS anti-fraud efforts.  Prior to joining Fragomen, Rahul served as a Staff Attorney with the U.S. Department of Justice, Board of Immigration Appeals through the Attorney General’s Honors Program.  Rahul earned his J.D. from American University – Washington College of Law and his B.A. in Political Science and Asian Studies from the University of Michigan.
 

Secretary
Emma Pachon (WCL/JD '21)

Emma is an associate at a boutique law firm in Philadelphia, where she regularly advises clients on practice acquisitions and sales, buy-ins, entity formation, employment matters, real estate matters and general corporate and transactional issues. Prior to joining her current firm, she was an associate at a large law firm in its Corporate, Mergers and Acquisitions and Securities practice group, where she advised multinational companies and privately held business on a range of corporate transactional matters. During her time at AUWCL, she served as Articles Editor and Chair of the Diversity and Inclusion Committee for the American University Law Review. She was also named to the Hot List 2022 by Lawyers of Color, which “recognizes early to mid-career attorneys excelling in the legal profession.” She is currently on the board for the Hispanic Bar Association of Pennsylvania. She lives in South Jersey with her husband and three dogs.
 

Communications & Marketing

Vlad Kachka (WCL/JD '12)

Vlad is an associate at the Law Offices of Spear Wilderman, P.C. He mainly practices union-side labor law and debtor-side consumer bankruptcy in Philadelphia and the adjacent counties. While in law school, Vlad was an editor on the Business Law Review. After law school, he served a two-year clerkship with a judge for the Superior Court for the U.S. Virgin Islands.

As an AUWCL alum, he has participated in the bar exam mentorship program to help graduates study for the bar exam and, when he can, he has recommended AUWCL graduating students for jobs.

In his spare time, he enjoys exploring Philadelphia, trying  new restaurants/bars, and spending time outside.

 

Treasurer

Scout Henninger (WCL/JD '21)

Scout is a Senior Associate at PwC focusing on international tax. During law school she was the Note & Comment Editor for American University Law Review and interned at the United States Mint. Prior to law school, she earned her BA in Global Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and worked as an investigations and intake specialist for Whitley Law Firm in the Raleigh, NC area.