Fighting Antisemitism Through the Courts: ADL’s Litigation Impact and What’s Next

As a first-chair trial lawyer and senior counselor, Mike tackles “big problems” for Cooley clients across business sectors throughout the US. He routinely advises boards of directors and CEOs on high-profile, bet-the-company matters. Mike has more than 30 years of experience handling high-stakes business litigation in US federal and state courts. He has acted as lead trial counsel in many high-profile complex commercial matters, including dozens of trade secret cases in more than 20 states. Mike has led many sensitive internal investigations on a range of issues for both for-profit and not-for-profit clients. His diverse practice also includes representing senior business executives. For much of his career, Mike has negotiated employment agreements (either company-side or on behalf of management) involving senior management teams, CEOs and other C-level executives.

Mr. Dince is the Director of Litigation and New York Senior Counsel at the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law. He is a former Assistant District Attorney for Kings County, NY, an accomplished trial lawyer, and a veteran of several prominent New York City law firms. He has been repeatedly recognized as one of NY-Metro’s “Super Lawyers.” He is also an adjunct clinical professor at Brooklyn Law School. Mr. Dince is admitted to practice law in the State of New York and the United States District Courts for the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York.

Dan Shallman is the grandson of Jewish immigrants who came to America fleeing antisemitism, political repression, and economic hardship in late 19th century Eastern Europe. The youngest of five children, Dan grew up in Rock Island, Illinois, in a family shaped by resilience, service, and creativity. His father, a U.S. Marine veteran, industrial engineer, and career civil servant with the Department of Defense, and his mother, an accomplished artist and small business manager, instilled in him a deep respect for integrity, public service, and community responsibility.

After attending the University of Illinois where he was President of ZBT, Dan graduated from the University of Chicago Law School, becoming the first lawyer in his family. He moved to Los Angeles in 1995, where he has lived and worked for over three decades. From 1999 to 2007, Dan served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Central District of California, where he gained prominence prosecuting public corruption and white collar crime. That experience reinforced his lifelong commitment to accountability, fairness, and the rule of law.

Dan later returned to private practice and is now the Managing Partner of Covington & Burling LLP’s Los Angeles office, where he focuses on complex white collar and investigations matters, mentors younger lawyers, and helps shape the firm’s culture of public service. He has been frequently called upon to handle matters of significant public interest, including efforts to combat the rise of antisemitism and to protect civil rights.  Dan served as lead counsel for a coalition of Jewish advocacy groups, including the ADL, the Brandeis Center, and the AJC in a successful challenge to the Santa Ana, California school district’s adoption of a biased, antisemitic curriculum.

Community involvement has always been central to Dan’s life. He serves on the Board of Directors and Executive Committee of Bet Tzedek Legal Services and previously served as Chair of the Legal Division of the Jewish Federation of Los Angeles.

Dan is married to Ellen Smooke Shallman, Executive Vice President for Business Affairs at Universal Pictures. They are the proud parents of two children, Noah and Evie.

Katherine Marquart is a partner in Gibson Dunn’s Los Angeles office and is the Firm’s Pro Bono Chair.  In this role, Ms. Marquart manages and coordinates the Firm’s pro bono efforts globally, which have totaled more than 1.5 million hours valued at more than $1 billion under her leadership.  She also maintains an active practice in areas including criminal justice, civil rights, constitutional law, and immigration.  Ms. Marquart previously spent seven years as a litigation associate at the Firm, where her practice focused on complex business litigation, transnational litigation, and internal investigations and regulatory inquiries.

Since taking the helm of Gibson Dunn’s pro bono practice in 2013, Ms. Marquart has played an integral role in many of the Firm’s most significant pro bono engagements.  In addition to personally representing clients in a variety of litigation matters—including lawsuits focused on civil rights, immigration, and the First Amendment—Ms. Marquart has spearheaded the Firm’s efforts to respond to some of the most pressing issues of the day.  In this role, she liaises with corporate clients and nonprofit community partners to collaborate on pro bono matters, including facilitating and overseeing numerous partnerships in the areas of criminal justice, racial justice, and immigration, among other sectors of public interest law.

Corena G. Larimer joined ADL in 2024, leveraging her experience navigating complex legal issues in high-stakes litigation and regulated industries to expand ADL’s litigation practice. As ADL’s Senior Counsel for National Litigation, Corena is instrumental in the organization’s litigation efforts combatting hate and antisemitism in schools, including providing pro bono legal assistance to students and families through the ADL Legal Action Network with a consortium of partnering law firms. She also manages to ADL’s growing portfolio of litigation to hold businesses and organizations accountable in court for discriminatory business and employment practices.

Prior to joining ADL, Corena developed a deep expertise in the life sciences industry as in-house and outside litigation counsel, playing significant roles in trial, regulatory, briefing, litigation coordination, and product launch teams. She has handled all phases of civil litigation and earned recognition for her expertise in complex legal analysis and briefing. She has also served as amicus counsel to national and state healthcare professional associations in appeals with industry-wide impact. She graduated from Oberlin College and earned her law degree from Case Western Reserve University School of Law.

James Pasch is the ADL’s Vice President, Litigation, after serving as ADL’s Cleveland Regional Director (serving Ohio, Kentucky, West Virginia and Western Pennsylvania). James is leading a legal advocacy practice for ADL during a particularly important time, as antisemitism and extremism become more mainstream.

Notably, he oversaw the launch of ADL Legal Action Network – a Nationwide pro-bono network that provides victims of antisemitism with rapid access to free legal assistance anywhere in the U.S. Victims of antisemitic incidents in K-12 schools, college campuses, private businesses, public companies, political environments or other spaces can now access this rapid-response system of 50+ of the nation’s leading law firms, consisting of more than 55,000 attorneys.

James is also leading ADL’s legal efforts in fighting back against the deadliest antisemitic attack since the Holocaust. ADL (the Anti-Defamation League) filed a federal lawsuit alleging Iran, Syria and North Korea provided material support to Hamas that enabled it to commit atrocities in Israel on October 7, 2023. In a world in which October 7th denialism took hold almost immediately after the attack, this case will set the record straight about the horrors of what occurred on that day, who was responsible for providing material support for this heinous terrorist attack, and will ultimately provide a path for justice, accountability and redress.
In his time leading the ADL Cleveland Office, James launched a pro-bono legal assistance program to assist victims of hate crimes in Ohio and drove the region’s response in the aftermath of the Tree of Life synagogue attack in Pittsburgh.

James Pasch graduated from University of Vermont and earned his law degree at Case Western Reserve University School of Law. Prior to entering the legal profession, James worked on Capitol Hill, first for Senator Frank Lautenberg and then as a law clerk on the Senate Judiciary Committee for Senator Patrick Leahy. He then built a thriving small firm litigation practice in Cleveland. James served as the Case Western Reserve Law School’s Assistant Dean of Development and External Affairs and also served two-terms as a Councilman in Beachwood, where he led the City’s passage of its anti-discrimination ordinance.