Matt is a Senior Vice President & General Counsel at Navient Corporation, based in Herndon, Virginia.  He is responsible for a wide variety of matters, including corporate transactions, secured and unsecured financing, securities, litigation, intellectual property, employment and benefits matters, and regulatory compliance.

Prior to joining Navient, Matt was a partner at the international law firm of Reed Smith LLP, with a concentration on litigation matters.  In 2013, Matt joined the legal department at Sallie Mae, formerly a government-sponsored enterprise (GSE) that originates and manages a portfolio of student loans.  In 2014, Sallie Mae underwent a corporate restructuring, resulting in the separation from Sallie Mae of the company’s student loan servicing and asset management businesses (Navient).  Matt eventually became head of Navient’s litigation team, and was later promoted to Deputy General Counsel (2022) and General Counsel (2024).

Matt has been recognized as one of Virginia’s “Legal Elite,” including under the Young Lawyers and Intellectual Property categories.  He has written and lectured many times on the attorney-client privilege and work product doctrine, particularly as those protections apply to the role of in-house counsel.  Matt also served for 15 years on the board of one of the largest regional homeless shelters in the Washington, DC area.

Matt obtained his B.A. from Boston College and graduated with honors from the George Mason University School of Law.  He and his wife reside in Northern Virginia and have two adult children.

Caren K. Lock is the Regional Vice President and Associate General Counsel of TIAA.  In her role at TIAA, Caren is the primary interface for the company and its subsidiaries on all legislative, executive, regulatory, and administrative matters for the South and Midwest regions.  Her expertise includes board governance and risk, policy development, regulatory compliance, government relations and crisis management.

Prior to joining TIAA, Caren was general counsel with a consumer financial company.  Be-fore entering the corporate world, Caren spent over a decade litigating complex business matters including copyright and trademark infringement, employment discrimination, shareholder and partnership disputes, aviation, and toxic tort.

Caren serves on The Dallas Mavericks Advisory Board, State Bar of Texas Board, Dallas Holocaust and Human Rights Museum Board and President’s Advisory Board of UT Southwestern Medical Center.  She is Past President of The Dallas Assembly and Past Board Chair of The Texas Bar College. In 2015, Caren co-founded The Orchid Giving Circle which provides community grants to support social change and services to the North Texas Asian Community. Her community engagement includes past service on multiple nonprofit and bar association boards including Past Board Chair of The Texas Women’s Foundation. Caren is a sought-after speaker and has received multiple awards for her diversity and inclusion efforts including from The State Bar of Texas Asian Pacific Interest Section and The Texas Diversity Council to name a few.

Caren lives in Allen, Texas with her husband and mother.  She is the proud mother of two adult sons and a rambunctious puppy.

Robin Pou is an Executive Coach, Author, and Founder of a leadership development firm with a mission to make bad leadership extinct by building people into high-achieving leaders who grow meaningful businesses and value their teams in the process.

As an executive coach and frequent keynote speaker on leadership trends, he works with Fortune 500 executives and CEOs of high-growth organizations.  Robin has also authored two books, and shares his latest leadership insights in a popular weekly newsletter called The Confident Leader.

Robin’s leadership development programs operate to inspire, teach, and train leaders to become confident leaders who build businesses that matter by overcoming their doubts to reach their potential.

Robin lives in Dallas, Texas with his wife Karen. They have three kids: Robert, Cate, and Boyd.

Bridget M. McCormack is the president and CEO of the American Arbitration Association-International Centre for Dispute Resolution® (AAA-ICDR®), the preeminent global provider of alternative dispute resolution services. She has an extensive background in judicial service, court administration and scholarship and a track record of advocacy for innovation and technology in dispute resolution. Before her tenure at AAA-ICDR, which commenced in February 2023, McCormack served as the Chief Justice of the Michigan Supreme Court from 2019 to 2022 after being an associate justice since 2013. Her leadership led to pioneering reforms in Michigan’s court system, notably the launch of the state’s first online dispute resolution platform and an eviction diversion program, both crucial during the COVID-19 pandemic.

McCormack’s dedication to education and legal reform is evident in her academic roles. As an esteemed educator at the University of Pennsylvania Law School, she has been instrumental in exploring the implications of artificial intelligence in the legal sector and advocating for responsible AI practices within the profession. Her leadership as the chair of the American Bar Association’s Section on Legal Education and Admission to the Bar and her involvement with key legal education and reform committees have been pivotal in modernizing legal education and practice.

Her early career began in New York City, where she worked as a trial attorney at the Legal Aid Society and then at the Office of the Appellate Defender, followed by academic positions at Yale and the University of Michigan Law Schools. Notably, she co-founded the Michigan Innocence Clinic, the first non-DNA innocence clinic in the country, which has led to the exoneration of 41 individuals as of April 2024.

McCormack’s achievements have been widely recognized, earning her numerous awards, including the Sunshine Award from the Michigan Press Association for promoting transparency in public service and the Rebuilding Justice Award, acknowledging her dedication to legal reform. Her influential work earned her the title of “Influential Woman in Law” by Michigan Lawyers Weekly in 2022.

A graduate of Trinity College and New York University Law School, where she was a Root-Tilden Scholar, McCormack’s professional journey reflects a pursuit of justice, innovation and education in the legal field. She is married to Steven

Richie Butler is a multi-faceted leader who builds people, builds community, and solves problems. He is committed to finding solutions to society’s most daunting problems.

As a business leader, he has over 25 years of experience in private equity real estate investment, development and institutional asset management that has resulted in nearly $1 billion of urban development and workforce housing in 23 U.S. metro markets. He currently leads an impact investment team actively seeking investment opportunities in real estate and strategic growth enterprises.

As a faith leader, Richie Butler is Senior Pastor of the historic St. Luke “Community” United Methodist Church in Dallas, where he is leading the congregation in a multimillion-dollar strategic expansion to multiply its current $6 million annual community impact.

As a community innovation leader, he is the founder of Project Unity. Under his visionary leadership, Project Unity offers community building and societal problem solutions through its “Together We” programs including Together We Ball, Together We Dine, Together We Learn, and Together We Sing.

Examples of Richie’s innovative leadership include the launch Together We Test and Together We Vaccinate, two community health initiatives that helped address the lack of COVID-19 testing and vaccinations in low-income communities over the span of two and half-years. With his leadership and community partnerships, these programs tested and vaccinated over 10,000 individuals. In 2020, he co-launched the Together We Can initiative to address the question many people had of “what can I do” in response to the death of George Floyd. The Together We Can program attracted Fortune 500 companies, universities, foundations, and grassroot organizations as partners.

As a civic leader, in response to the five Dallas police officers who were ambushed in 2016, Richie launched the Year of Unity in 2017, a community wide initiative to help bridge racial divides in Dallas. The initiative included support from the 43rd President of the United States, George W. Bush, who served as the Honorary Chair.

Current board appointments include Southern Methodist University Board of Trustees, Communities Foundation of Texas Board of Trustees-Immediate Past Chair, Texas Methodist Foundation Board of Trustees, and an Independent Board of Director of Brookshire Grocery Company.

He is a recipient of the Dallas Business Journal’s Leaders in Diversity Award and the Collin County Business Alliance Leadership Award. He is also a past recipient of the SMU Distinguished Alumni Emerging Leader Award, the Minority Business Leader award from the Dallas Business Journal, National Bar Association Heman Sweatt Award and the Dallas Bar Association Martin Luther King, Jr. Justice Award.

Richie is a proud graduate of Southern Methodist University and Harvard University with extended studies in Urban Planning at MIT.

He is happily married to Neisha Strambler-Butler who is an accomplished corporate executive. They are the proud parents of two young adults, Emily and Ford.

Trey Cox is Co-Chair of Gibson Dunn’s Global Litigation Practice Group and Co-Partner-in-Charge of the Dallas office. Widely regarded as one of the nation’s top trial lawyers, he represents clients across diverse industries in complex, high-stakes disputes. He is consistently ranked Band 1 in Chambers USA for Trial Lawyers and General Commercial Litigation, with clients calling him “a super-dynamic trial lawyer” and “incredible in court and also incredible with clients.” He has been honored by Benchmark Litigation, Best Lawyers in America, Super Lawyers, and was named to D CEO’s 2025 Dallas 500 as one of the region’s most influential business leaders. His work has appeared in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Bloomberg News, and others. Trey has tried more than 35 cases, covering trade secrets, fiduciary duties, securities fraud, product liability, and energy litigation. Highlights include a $667 million jury verdict for Energy Transfer LP in North Dakota, a biometric privacy case for Meta Platforms Inc., a high-value contract dispute for GameStop Corp., bellwether opioid litigation for Purdue Pharma, and a full defense jury verdict for the world’s largest wind farm in Texas, later upheld by the Texas Supreme Court. He also represented Dakota Access Pipeline in a defamation suit against Greenpeace International. Beyond the courtroom, Trey is a leading voice in trial strategy and legal communication, known for leveraging technology to enhance jury understanding. He frequently lectures at law schools including the University of Virginia, the University of Texas, and SMU, and authored The Jury Rules, a practical guide for trial lawyers based on post-trial juror interviews. He is double Board Certified in Civil Trial and Civil Pre-Trial Law by the National Board of Trial Advocacy and is a fellow of both the American Board of Trial Advocates and the Litigation Counsel of America. Trey earned his B.A., magna cum laude, from Washington & Lee University and his J.D., with honors, from the University of Virginia School of Law. He began his legal career clerking for the Honorable Jacques L. Wiener, Jr. on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.

Alan Dabdoub, Partner at LPHS, represents plaintiffs and defendants in high stakes commercial disputes. Clients credit his outstanding results to his meticulous preparation, creativity, and courtroom presence.

Alan is a first-chair trial lawyer with experience trying cases to juries, judges, and arbitrators, including winning a $12 million dollar judgment for his client in a large commercial dispute after a week-long trial in one of the few cases tried during the COVID pandemic. He possesses expertise in business torts, contract disputes, trade secrets litigation, fiduciary duty litigation, partnership disputes, and bankruptcy litigation.

Alan has handled complex disputes in the energy, healthcare, financial, banking, real estate, retail, technology, telecommunications, manufacturing, logistics, and construction industries.

Alan earned his B.A with honors, cum laude, as a scholarship recipient from Louisiana State University, where he achieved Dean’s List recognition for seven consecutive semesters. He then earned his J.D. from Louisiana State University’s Paul M. Hebert Law Center, excelling academically and twice receiving the Corpus Juris Secundum Award for achieving the highest grades in Torts I and Torts II.

Alan has repeatedly been recognized by his peers in D Magazine as one of the “Best Lawyers in Dallas” (2016, 2020-2022, 2024-2025). Alan was also selected as a Rising Star (business litigation) by “Texas Super Lawyer” (2011) and has repeatedly been selected as a Super Lawyer (business litigation) (2023-2024). Alan has also been recognized by Best Lawyers in America since 2024 for his exceptional representation of clients in business litigation.

Alan is admitted to the State Bars of Texas, Louisiana, and Tennessee, and is a prolific speaker on cutting-edge topics in business litigation. He served as a Planning Committee Member for the Texas State Bar inaugural CLE in December 2024: “Handling Your First (or Next) Business Court Case”.

Alan lives in Dallas with his wife Michelle Ackal Dabdoub and their three children, Grant, Ava, and Sloane.