Lawyer Prep is a collaborative venture involving legal practitioners, law professors, and consultants. With years of experience designing and delivering cutting-edge legal education programs, Lawyer Prep’s team is well-positioned to service a variety of educational needs. Contact us »

Management Team

Warren "Skip" Newberry, President

warren@lawyerprep.com

Skip attended the University of Connecticut School of Law where he was a member of the Connecticut Law Review. During law school, Skip interned for Senior United States District Court Judge Ellen Bree Burns and also worked for a mid-size law firm in Connecticut. Following graduation, he clerked for the Honorable Ellen Ash Peters, former Chief Justice of the Connecticut Supreme Court. He also has served as counsel and as a consultant to a number of companies in the software and media industries. Before law school, Skip served as Vice President of Business Development for a web content provider and as a paralegal for law firms in Boston and London. Skip is a graduate, magna cum laude, of Colby College where he was a George F. Baker Scholar. Skip is a member of the bars of New York and Oregon.

Richard Diebold Lee, Executive Vice President

richard@lawyerprep.com

Mr. Lee is an international consultant in the development and implementation of innovative education and training for the legal profession, especially using web-based technologies. He is the former Director of California Continuing Education of the Bar (CEB). He directed professional development for two major international law firms -- Morrison & Foerster and Baker & McKenzie -- where he pioneered the concept of professional in-house training in law firms. He was the first Director of the American Institute for Law Training in the Office (AILTO) (now ALI-ABA In-House) and a co-founder of the Professional Development Consortium (PDC), a national professional organization for law firm training and education leaders.

He was a law professor for 20 years, teaching at the University of California, Davis (where he was the Associate Dean); Temple University, Philadelphia; Golden Gate University, San Francisco; and the Georgetown University Law Center’s special summer program for foreign lawyers (where he was co-author of the teaching materials). Prior to law teaching, he was a partner in the Sacramento, California, law firm, of McDonough, Holland, Schwartz, Allen & Wahrhaftig. Prior to private practice he was a Deputy Attorney General of California.

Mr. Lee’s professional activities include active membership in the American Bar Association, where, among other responsibilities, he was a member of the Standing Committee on Specialization and the Standing Committee on Paralegals. He is also an active member of the State Bar of California and the Bar Association of San Francisco, where, for many years, he has been a member of the Ethics Committee. He is a Fellow of the American Bar Foundation and an elected member of the American Law Institute.

Advisory Board

Ida O. Abbott, President, Ida Abbott Consulting LLC

idaabbott@aol.com www.idaabbott.com

Ida Abbott has been advising professional service firms, professional associations and corporations about talent development, management and retention since 1995. She has long been recognized as a leader in the fields of mentoring and professional development, and has been elected a Fellow of the College of Law Practice Management. Ida is a Faculty Fellow at the University of California Hastings College of the Law, where she is the co-founder and Director of the Hastings Leadership Academy for Women, a leadership development program for women law firm partners. She also serves as Vice-Chair of the Academic and Professional Development Committee of the International Bar Association.

Before starting her consulting firm, Ida practiced law for 20 years. She specialized in complex litigation at a large international law firm, where she also ran the firm's professional development and pro bono programs. She often served as a judge pro tempore in the San Francisco Superior Court and as a private and court-appointed mediator and arbitrator.

Ida has authored numerous articles and resource materials, and four highly acclaimed books, including The Lawyer's Guide to Mentoring and Lawyers’ Professional Development: The Legal Employer’s Comprehensive Guide. She has been a columnist for Diversity & the Bar Magazine and serves on the Editorial Board of www.WomeninLaw.com and the Advisory Council of the Women in Law Empowerment Forum.

Matan Feldman, CEO, Wall Street Prep, Inc.

mfeldman@wallstreetprep.com

Matan Feldman is Chief Executive Officer of Wall Street Prep. Matan has served in several capacities on Wall Street - first as an Analyst in Chase Manhattan Bank's Mergers & Acquisitions Group in New York, and most recently as an Associate within JP Morgan's Equity Research Group, covering Food & Drug Retail Equities. Matan has worked at Lehman Brothers in London and Liberty Mutual in Boston. Matan holds a Series 7 and 63 license and is currently a candidate for CFA certification. Matan received an MA in Economics with Honors from Boston University.

Arkady Libman, COO, Wall Street Prep, Inc.

alibman@wallstreetprep.com

Arkady Libman is Chief Operating Officer of Wall Street Prep. Before joining Wall Street Prep Inc., Arkady was an Associate within the Energy & Natural Resources of the Equity Research Group at Friedman, Billings, Ramsey & Co., Inc. (FBRC), covering Integrated Oils & Independent Refiners Equities. Arkady also has served as an Investment Banking Analyst within J.P. Morgan Chase's Global Oil & Gas Group, where he was involved in a number of complex transactions, involving hostile takeovers, recapitalizations, and cross-border Mergers & Acquisitions. Arkady has held internships at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, in the Asset Management Division at Morgan Stanley (Boston), and in the Emerging Markets IBD at Deutsche Bank (London). Arkady completed coursework at the London School of Economics and graduated with Honors from Bowdoin College with a BA in Economics.

Lewis Kurlantzick

Zephaniah Swift Professor of Law, University of Connecticut School of Law

lkurlant@law.uconn.edu

A 1965 graduate of Wesleyan University, Professor Kurlantzick received his law degree in 1968 from Harvard where he was a member of the Board of Editors of The Harvard Law Review. He teaches Contract, Copyright, Sports and the Law, and Arbitration. Professor Kurlantzick writes on copyright and sports law issues for both popular and legal newspapers and journals. His most recent book is Copyright Duration: Duration, Term Extension, The European Union, and the Making of Copyright Policy (1999).

Professor Kurlantzick sits regularly as an arbitrator for the National Association of Securities Dealers, the New York Stock Exchange, and the American Arbitration Association; and he has served as a Special Master for the United States District Court in Connecticut. He is a member of the American Law Institute, the American Arbitration Association, and the American Law and Economics Association.

Michael E. McDonough

Partner, Murtha Cullina LLP

mmcdonough@murthalaw.com

Mr. McDonough chairs Murtha Cullina's Public Finance Law Practice Group and is a member of the firm's Health Care Department. Mr. McDonough represents issuers, national and regional investment banks, non-profit institutions and trustees in tax-exempt financings. Mr. McDonough has extensive experience representing underwriters and non-profit institutions in conduit financings through the Connecticut Health and Educational Facilities Authority and the Connecticut Development Authority. He also represents participants in Massachusetts Development Finance Agency and New Hampshire Health and Education Facilities bond financings. He regularly participates in the financing of hospital systems, nursing homes, assisted living facilities, universities, colleges, private secondary schools, utilities and governmental entities.

Mr. McDonough has worked as a member of financing teams which have created unique pool-financing vehicles designed for the ease and efficiency of conduit issuers and borrowers. He also acts a general counsel to political subdivisions and non-profit corporations. Mr. McDonough is a member of the National Association of Bond Lawyers and serves as a panelist on Health Care Finance at NABL's annual Bond Attorneys Workshop.

Tanya A. Durkee

Shareholder, Lane Powell PC

durkeet@lanepowell.com

Tanya A. Durkee is a commercial litigator with significant experience in the areas of securities, banking, consumer defense and antitrust and trade regulation. Tanya has defended financial institutions against a variety of consumer claims, including fair debt collection, wrongful foreclosure, Truth-in-Lending Act, Consumer Protection Act and fraud claims. Tanya has also represented manufacturers and retailers in Unlawful Trade Practices Act, Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act, breach of contract, and tort claims. And, she has defended broker-dealers and securities professionals in a variety of civil disputes.

Tanya previously served as the Deputy Commissioner of Securities for the State of Vermont. She also served on the board of directors and broker-dealer section of the North American Securities Administrators Association. As the Vermont state securities administrator, Tanya was in charge of the investigation and prosecution of securities fraud and oversaw the registration and licensing of securities firms and their representatives. Tanya has prosecuted regulatory investigations into Internet-based securities fraud, ponzi schemes and broker-dealer and investment adviser misconduct arising out of various subjects including market timing in mutual funds and variable annuities, market manipulation, and abusive naked short-selling. Tanya has also had extensive experience investigating suitability and other point of sale violations relating to mutual funds, variable annuities, equity-indexed annuities, 529 plans, tenancy-in-common interests, equities and bonds.