In celebration of Black History Month, please join us for a dynamic panel conversation with three distinguished speakers who will reflect on their career paths, the challenges and opportunities of navigating elite legal spaces, and the responsibility—and possibility—of leading authentically.
Fitz Reid, General Counsel and Chief Operating Officer, Hunterbrook Media; Co-Founder, Cotogna Sports Group; Co-Founder & GP, VeraWest Sports and Entertainment
Fitz is a sports junkie who figured out how to turn her obsession into a career. A die-hard Knicks and Giants fan born in New York, she co-founded Cotogna Sports Group which bought Pallacanestro Trieste, a Serie A basketball club in Italy. In the first year of the acquisition, they won the Italian Championship. She sold her majority stake and reinvested the proceeds into investments in over 20 sports teams, leagues, ventures, and tech companies. She has since co-founded VeraWest Sports and Entertainment Group with her friend and business partner Connor Barwin - former NFL linebacker and defensive end, best known for his Pro Bowl season with the Philadelphia Eagles.
For her day job: Fitz is the General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer at Hunterbrook, a startup hedge fund and media company. Before that, she was Deputy General Counsel at Engine No. 1, the activist investment firm, and spent seven years in the federal government prosecuting financial crimes. She holds a BBA from Pace, an MBA from Wharton, and a JD from Washington University in St. Louis. Fitz has lived all over the world but currently calls Berkeley, CA
Terrance J. Evans is a nationally recognized trial lawyer with substantial appellate experience who has secured victories for clients in numerous multimillion-dollar cases in federal and state trial and appellate courts across the United States. During his more than 20 years of practice, Mr. Evans has made history multiple times and distinguished himself as a leader in several of the largest bar associations in the United States. Mr. Evans is also a dynamic speaker who gives presentations on legal issues across the United States and around the world.
Mr. Evans is a Partner in the San Francisco and Los Angeles offices of Duane Morris LLP, where he serves as the Co-Leader of the firm’s Banking and Financial Services Practice. Mr. Evans is the Co-Chair of the Duane Morris San Francisco Diversity and Inclusion Committee. Mr. Evans is also a Member of the Duane Morris ESG Working Group. His practice is focused on representing clients in federal and state trial and appellate courts across the United States including the United States Supreme Court. Mr. Evans also regularly counsels clients regarding racial justice and diversity and inclusion issues. He has led dozens of diversity trainings for judges, lawyers, law students, and members of the community around the United States.
Mr. Evans is the President and Immediate Past Chair of the California Lawyers Association (“CLA”), the largest voluntary state bar association in the United States representing the interests of more than 260,000 California lawyers. Mr. Evans is the first person of color and the first Black person in California history elected to these high-profile positions. Mr. Evans is also the Director of Region IX of the National Bar Association, the largest Black Bar Association in the world. Mr. Evans is also Vice President North of the California Association of Black Lawyers (“CABL”), the umbrella organization for all Black bar associations and judicial organizations in California.
Mr. Evans graduated from Cornell University, where he made multiple appearances on the Dean's List, and was a Cornell Tradition Fellow. He also graduated from Loyola Law School in Los Angeles with recognition, and he was ranked as the Third Best Oral Advocate in the United States at the Frederick Douglass Moot Court Competition.
Sean Bland, Assistant Professor of Law, Santa Clara School of Law
Sean Bland works at the intersection of law and public health with teaching interests in health law, contract law, race and the law, and sexuality, gender, and the law. He is interested in legal and social issues that impact the health and wellbeing of marginalized communities, including racial and ethnic minorities, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) people, people who engage in sex work, and people who use drugs. His scholarship draws on his background in public health research and his policy work focused on building robust and equitable legal and policy responses to the HIV epidemic and the intersecting epidemics of other infectious diseases and substance use disorders. His scholarship has appeared in the Arkansas Law Review, the Journal of the American Medical Association, The Lancet, and other journals. He has also authored and co-authored numerous reports and policy briefs.
Before coming to Santa Clara Law, Bland was a Senior Associate at the O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law based at Georgetown University Law Center. Prior to that, he was a litigation associate at Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson LLP, and he served as a law clerk with the United States Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions, the American Psychological Association, and Lambda Legal, where he held the 2011 Tyron Garner Memorial Fellowship for African-American LGBT Civil Rights. He earned a J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center and a B.A. in psychology and German Studies from Yale University.
