Keynote Speakers

David D. Leitch
David G. Leitch is general counsel and a group vice president of Ford Motor Company, where he leads the company’s litigation, tax, corporate, and intellectual property efforts. He is also responsible for the company’s General Auditor’s Office. Since Leitch arrived at Ford, he and Ford’s Office of General Counsel have won numerous awards, including being named as Corporate Counsel magazine’s Best Legal Department in 2006. Immediately prior to joining Ford, Leitch served in the White House as Deputy Counsel to President George W. Bush. In that capacity, he advised the President and his staff on a variety of legal issues, including issues involving national security, judicial nominations, legislative proposals and ethics. From June 2001 through December 2002, Leitch served as Chief Counsel for the Federal Aviation Administration. He is also a past deputy assistant attorney general in the U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Legal Counsel. Leitch’s law career includes serving as law clerk to U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist, as a law clerk to Circuit Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson, III, and as a partner in the Washington, D.C. law firm of Hogan & Hartson, L.L.P. Leitch is a graduate of the University of Virginia School of Law, where he graduated first in his class, and received his undergraduate degree from Duke University. Leitch is a member of the boards of the Detroit Institute of Arts and the National Chamber Litigation Center, and serves on general counsel advisory committees for the National Center for State Courts and the Civil Justice Reform Group. He also serves as Chair of the Supreme Court Fellows Commission, a position to which he was appointed by Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr.

Deborah Platt Majoras
Deborah Platt Majoras was recently appointed Chief Legal Officer and Secretary for The Procter & Gamble Company, which she joined in 2008. In that position, she oversees a legal department that includes 280 lawyers around the globe and is responsible for the broad scope of legal functions for all of P&G and its 130,000 employees. From 2004-2008, she served as Chairman of the Federal Trade Commission, where she focused on ensuring data security and protecting consumers from emerging frauds, such as identity theft and spyware and served as co-chair of the President’s Identity Theft Task Force. She also worked to implement sound antitrust policy regarding intellectual property, increase the efficiency and transparency of the merger review process, and strengthen cooperation among antitrust agencies around the world. Prior to the FTC, she served as Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General at the Department of Justice Antitrust Division. After clerking in federal court in D.C., she joined Jones Day, where she ultimately became a partner in the firm’s antitrust practice. She continues to pursue her strong interest in sound competition and consumer policy as Co-Chair of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce International Competition Policy Working Group, as a member of the governing council of the American Bar Association’s Antitrust Section, and as an advisor to the International Competition Network. She also serves on the Boards of the Cincinnati Legal Aid Society, the Georgetown Law Corporate Counsel Institute, the Ohio Chamber of Commerce, and Westminster College, from which she has a B.A. She earned her J.D. from the University of Virginia.

Michele Coleman Mayes
Michele Coleman Mayes is senior vice president, general counsel and chief legal officer for Allstate Insurance Company. She is also a member of the Allstate senior management team. Mayes is responsible for guiding Allstate's strategy to ensure sound compliance of governance practices, and fostering a healthy legal, legislative and regulatory environment. She joined Allstate in November 2007. Mayes brings extensive legal, corporate and government experience to Allstate. From 1976 through 1982, she served in the United States Department of Justice as Assistant United States Attorney in Detroit and Brooklyn, eventually assuming the role of Chief of the Civil Division in Detroit.

In 1982, Mayes entered the corporate sector as managing attorney of Burroughs Corporation. Her career continued to evolve as Burroughs and Sperry Corporation merged, creating Unisys Corporation, for which she was appointed staff vice president and associate general counsel for Worldwide Litigation. In 1992, she joined Colgate-Palmolive Company as vice president and associate general counsel U.S. In 1993, she was promoted to vice president of Human Resources and Legal for North America. She next became vice president, deputy general counsel and assistant secretary, and in 2001 she was promoted to vice president, legal and assistant secretary, and elected a corporate officer. In 2003, she transitioned to Pitney Bowes, where she served as senior vice president and general counsel.

Mayes is the recipient of numerous awards, including American Bar Association, Commission on Women in the Profession - The Margaret Brent Award and the Minority Corporate Counsel Association Trailblazer Award. She also was named one of America's top black lawyers by Black Enterprise in 2003. In 2009, Mayes was recognized as one of the most Influential General Counsels in America by The National Law Journal. Her influence is felt in business as well as the private sector where she is recognized as a sought after speaker. Mayes is proud to serve as a positive role model and mentor who works tirelessly for causes that help minorities and women. Mayes serves on numerous boards including: Legal Momentum, RAND Corporation, the American Bar Association Center for Racial and Ethnic Diversity, and Leadership Counsel for Legal Diversity. She received her bachelor's degree from the University of Michigan and her JD from the University of Michigan Law School.

Theodore B. Olson
Theodore B. Olson is a partner in Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher's Washington, D.C. office; a member of the firm's Executive Committee, Co-Chair of the Appellate and Constitutional Law Group and the firm's Crisis Management Team.

Mr. Olson was Solicitor General of the United States during the period 2001-2004. From 1981-1984 he was Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Office of Legal Counsel in the U.S. Department of Justice. Except for those two intervals, he has been a lawyer with Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher in Los Angeles and Washington, D.C. since 1965. . Olson is one of the nation's premier appellate and United States Supreme Court advocates. He has argued 56 cases in the Supreme Court, including Bush v. Palm Beach County Canvassing Board and Bush v. Gore, stemming from the 2000 presidential election; prevailing in over 75% of those arguments. Mr. Olson's practice is concentrated on appellate and constitutional law, federal legislation, media and commercial disputes, and assisting clients with strategies for the containment, management and resolution of major legal crises occurring at the federal/state, criminal/civil and domestic/international levels. He has handled cases at all levels of state and federal court systems throughout the United States, and in international tribunals. . Olson's Supreme Court arguments have included cases involving separation of powers; federalism; voting rights; the First Amendment; the Equal Protection and Due Process Clauses; sentencing; jury trial rights; punitive damages; takings of property and just compensation; the Commerce Clause; taxation; immigration; criminal law; copyright; antitrust; securities; telecommunications; the environment; the internet; and other federal constitutional and statutory questions.

As Solicitor General, during the presidency of George W. Bush, Mr. Olson was the Government's principal advocate in the United States Supreme Court, responsible for supervising and coordinating all appellate litigation of the United States, and a legal adviser to the President and the Attorney General. As Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Legal Counsel during the Reagan Administration, Mr. Olson was the Executive Branch's principal legal adviser, rendering legal guidance to the President and to the heads of the Executive Branch departments on a wide range of constitutional and federal statutory questions, and assisting in formulating and articulating the Executive Branch's position on constitutional issues. Mr. Olson has served as private counsel to two Presidents, Ronald W. Reagan and George W. Bush, in addition to serving those two Presidents in high-level positions in the Department of Justice. He has twice received the United States Department of Justice's Edmund J. Randolph Award, named for the first Attorney General, its highest award for public service and leadership. He has also been awarded the Department of Defense's highest civilian award for his advocacy in the courts of the United States, including the Supreme Court, on behalf of that Department. He was a visiting scholar at the National Constitution Center in 2007.

Eric M. O'Neill
Eric O’Neill is a founding partner of The Georgetown Group, where he specializes in counterintelligence and counterterrorism operations, security risk assessment, investigations into economic espionage, internal investigations, and background investigations. Eric served as an undercover operative for the F.B.I., where he conducted national security field operations against terrorists and foreign intelligence agents. His role in the investigation and capture of Robert Phillip Hanssen, the most notorious spy in United States history, became the subject of Universal Studio’s movie Breach, released to critical acclaim in 2007.

Eric graduated from Auburn University (B.A., Psychology, Political Science, with honors) and The George Washington University School of Law (J.D., with honors). He is admitted to the bars of Maryland and the District of Columbia. Raised in Washington, D.C., Eric graduated from Gonzaga College High School, just north of the United States Capitol.

Before he founded The Georgetown Group, Eric practiced for five years in the Government Contracts Group at the law firm of DLA Piper. He has extensive legal experience in the areas of homeland security, border protection, risk and liability mitigation for anti-terrorism technologies (the SAFETY Act, Subtitle G of Title VIII of the Homeland Security Act), and other national security matters. Eric worked as both a counselor and litigator on a range of legal and investigative matters, including due diligence for mergers and acquisitions, procurement fraud, internal investigations of companies and employee corruption cases. Eric is a frequent public speaker who lectures nationally and internationally on a number of espionage-related topics, including: security issues, legal compliance, industrial and economic spying, counter-fraud and Hollywood.