Crowell & Moring Elects 15 New Partners, Promotes One to Senior Counsel and 26 to Counsel

Washington – January 9, 2026: Crowell & Moring elected 15 new partners effective January 1, 2026. The firm also promoted 26 associates to counsel, and one counsel to senior counsel.

The new partners practice in a wide range of areas, including Antitrust and Competition, Government Contracts, Health Care, Litigation, Patents, Financial Services, and International Trade.

“Each of our newly elected partners embodies the client service commitment and solution-driven collaboration that are foundational to our firm. Their election reflects the trust our clients have placed in these talented attorneys and the contributions they have made to the growth, culture, and achievements of our firm,” said Philip T. Inglima, chair of Crowell & Moring. “We’re pleased to welcome them to the partnership and know they will continue to be valuable counselors to our clients navigating a complex and evolving business environment.”

The newly elected partners are:

Charles Baek (Washington) – Baek, a member of Crowell’s Government Contracts Group, serves government contracts clients of all sizes, with an emphasis on claims and recovery matters. His practice focuses on litigation before the boards of contract appeals (ASBCA and CBCA), as well as the Court of Federal Claims and litigation and arbitration for prime-sub disputes. He also provides counseling to clients on compliance, contract administration, and cost accounting, among other topics. His recent focus includes contract terminations for convenience, stop work orders, changes, and de-scopes.

Robert Deegan (Chicago) – Deegan, a member of Crowell’s Health Care Group, represents managed care organizations (MCOs) in a wide range of litigation matters. He has defended clients in individual and class action cases brought by both providers and members. His experience includes defending MCOs against claims of violation of ERISA, facial violations of the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equality Act, breach of fiduciary duty, breach of contract, statutory and common law insurance bad faith, and false advertising.

Eric Homsi (New York) – A member of Crowell’s Tax Group, Homsi’s practice concentrates primarily on advising public and private companies on the tax issues associated with domestic and cross-border mergers, acquisitions, dispositions, joint ventures, financings, and restructurings. He also counsels private investment funds, family offices, and emerging companies on their tax structuring and other transactional needs.

Molly Jones (San Francisco) – A member of Crowell’s Litigation and Intellectual Property groups, Jones focuses on helping companies protect their technology assets, drawing on her deep litigation experience that encompasses the full range of intellectual property law, including patents, trade secrets, trademarks, and copyright issues. Combining her background as a patent litigator and stand-up trial attorney with core skill sets in a wide range of technology-related matters, she counsels clients in complex litigation across the country and across industries, including software, biotechnology, higher education, health care, and food and beverage.

Justin Lurie (New York) – A member of the firm’s Corporate Group, Lurie advises emerging growth companies on a wide range of corporate matters throughout their lifespan, including venture capital financings, mergers and acquisitions, restructurings, and general corporate governance matters. In addition to his company practice, he also advises venture capital firms in a variety of financing transactions.

Melissa Moravec (Denver) – Moravec, a member of the firm’s Corporate and Health Care Groups, advises public and private companies on cross-border and U.S. domestic transactions, including mergers and acquisitions, dispositions, reorganizations, and joint ventures. She also advises clients on general corporate and complex commercial matters. Her corporate practice spans multiple industries, including health care, hospitality, sports and entertainment, and technology.

Neil Nandi (Chicago) – A member of Crowell’s Litigation Group, Nandi maintains a broad litigation practice, including complex commercial disputes, class actions, False Claims Act suits, antitrust cases, and appeals. He appears regularly in arbitrations and state and federal courts, with a particular focus on representing healthcare payors in contract and reimbursement litigation. Nandi previously served as a judicial law clerk for Judge James B. Loken of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit.

Mary-Caitlin Ray (Washington) – Ray, a member of Crowell’s Transportation practice, represents aircraft owners, operators, and manufacturers, as well as private equity funds and investors involved in the aviation industry.  She advises on regulatory and transactional matters, aircraft acquisition, sale, and leasing transactions, and mergers and acquisitions of aviation businesses. She has significant experience advising clients on the impacts of and solutions for emerging technologies in the aviation sector, including uncrewed aircraft systems (UAS or drones) and electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft.

Laura Schwartz (Los Angeles) – A member of Crowell’s Litigation and White Collar & Regulatory Enforcement groups, Schwartz represents corporate and individual clients in high-stakes litigation, including healthcare fraud, intellectual property and trade secrets theft, data privacy, and related criminal investigations in state and federal courts. Her clients include Fortune 500 corporations, multinational health care services companies, investment bank and financial services companies, university systems, and technology start-ups.

Roma Sharma (Washington) – A member of Crowell’s Health Care Group, Sharma’s practice entails counseling and representing health care providers, managed care organizations, distributors, pharmacies, laboratories, and other health care entities in various regulatory, transactional, and litigation matters. Roma primarily works with health care clients seeking to comply with federal and state laws and regulations, including those related to fraud and abuse.

Josh Smith (Chicago) – A member of Crowell’s Patents Group, Smith helps corporations and individuals gain a competitive edge in their respective marketplaces through procurement, protection, and enforcement of intellectual property rights. He uses his real-world engineering experience to quickly understand the technology behind innovation. His practice involves patent prosecution, appellate litigation, and post-grant matters, focusing primarily on the electrical and software arts.

Marieke Van Nieuwenborgh (Brussels) – Van Nieuwenborgh, a member of Crowell’s Antitrust and Competition Group, focuses her practice on antitrust damages recovery, assisting clients in proceedings relating to actions for damages for competition law infringements. She has represented national and international companies before the Belgian Competition Authority and the European Commission in both merger control proceedings and cartel investigations, and regularly litigates competition cases before the Belgian and European courts.

Alvino van Schalkwyk (London) – A member of Crowell’s Financial Services Group, van Schalkwyk has extensive experience representing some of the biggest global financial institutions, private equity funds, and corporate entities in connection with the structuring of derivatives products and related transactions involving derivatives and other financial instruments. His practice includes advising investment banks on derivatives transactions with hedge funds. He regularly represents clients in the UK, European and U.S. markets and has been on secondment with two major financial institutions.

Maria Vanikiotis (New York) – Vanikiotis, a member of Crowell’s International Trade Group, centers her practice around the cross-border movement of goods, with a particular focus on U.S. customs matters. She has specific experience in leading customs investigations, building compliance programs, and counseling importers on tariff management strategies, country-of-origin determinations and marking rules, free trade agreement verifications, complex customs valuations, e-commerce issues, and other regulatory import matters.

Yuan Zhou (Washington) – A member of Crowell’s Government Contracts Group, Zhou advises government contractors on their most pressing legal challenges at the federal, state, and local levels. She guides clients through complex internal investigations, concurrent government proceedings, crisis management, suspension and debarment, as well as mandatory and voluntary disclosures. She also advises contractors on a wide range of regulatory compliance requirements and helps companies with enhancing and standing-up contractor compliance programs. 

Amy Karnikian (Los Angeles), a member of the Aviation Group, was promoted to senior counsel.

Crowell associates promoted to counsel are: Tiffany Aguiar, Kevin Cacabelos, Jonathan Camello, Leslie Castello, Jessica Chao, Emilie Condie, Christopher Dumont, Rachel Ellis, David Favre, Eric Felleman, Ryan Flynn, Elizabeth Heredia, Philippa Lai, Chandler Leonard, Rachel Lesser, Melissa Nguyen, Paul Park, Lynn Phan, Katherine Quinn, Samuel Ruddy, Laurel Saito, Allison Skager, Sarah Burgart Styles, Will Tucker, Beth Warner, and Nikita Yogeshwarun.

About Crowell & Moring LLP

Crowell & Moring is an international law firm with operations in the United States, Europe, MENA, and Asia. Drawing on significant government, business, industry, and legal experience, the firm helps clients capitalize on opportunities and provides creative solutions to complex regulatory and policy, litigation, transactional, and intellectual property issues. The firm is consistently recognized for its commitment to pro bono service, as well as its comprehensive programs and initiatives to advance the professional and personal development of all members of the Crowell community.

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