William Smelko (Moderator) Bill is a partner in the San Diego Office of Procopio, Cory, Hargreaves & Savitch, LLP. He focuses on business bankruptcy, restructuring and appeals. He advises landlords, tenants, corporations, LLC’s, banks, credit unions and other financial institutions on a variety of bankruptcy related matters, including plan confirmation objections, asset disposition and use motions, stay relief litigation, lease disputes and the prosecution and defense of clawback litigation, discharge objections and nondischargeability complaints. Bill litigates all aspects of bankruptcy matters and appeals from both the creditor’s and debtor’s perspective. He is an experienced federal and state court litigator having received his BA summa cum laude from the University of Redlands in 1975, his H.D. Litt from the University of Dublin, Trinity College in 1976 and his J.D from the University of Michigan Law School in 1980.

Arezoo Jamshidi is a partner in the San Diego Office of Hanson Bridgett, LLP who graduated with a B.A. from Berry College in 2004 and who received her J.D from the University of Baltimore School of Law in 2010. Arezoo is a Certified Specialist in Appellate Law by the State Bar of California Board of Legal Specialization. Recognized in Best Lawyers, as “One to Watch” from 2021-2024, Arezoo has also received annual Super Lawyer San Diego Rising Star designations every year between 2018-2025. She brings strategic insight and sharp legal writing to complex appellate matters in state and federal courts. Her appellate practice spans a wide range of subject areas, including complex business disputes, product liability, employment and labor, civil rights, constitutional law, toxic torts, environmental law, public entity litigation, probate litigation, and construction law. Arezoo is also a trusted partner to trial counsel, bringing an appellate lens to litigation from the outset. She works alongside trial teams to identify and preserve appellate issues. She regularly contributes to dispositive motions, trial briefs, jury instructions and verdict forms and monitors trial proceedings. Her involvement continues through post-trial motions and appeals.

Jonathan Massey is a founding partner in the Washington D.C. Office of Massey & Gail. A National Debate Tournament Champion at Harvard University, Jonathan has over three decades of experience representing clients in high-stakes matters involving complex legal questions before trial and appellate courts and regulatory agencies. He clerked for Justice William J. Brennan, Jr. (1989 Term) and Judge Abner J. Mikva of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit (1988-1989). Jonathan argued over 60 cases in federal and state courts, including three in the U.S. Supreme Court. He filed briefs in dozens of other matters, including more than 90 in the U.S. Supreme Court. In addition, he represented clients before the U.S. Department of Justice, Federal Communications Commission, Federal Trade Commission, Environmental Protection Agency, and other federal agencies. His experience spans antitrust, bankruptcy, telecommunications, securities, financial services, intellectual property, tax, environmental law, civil procedure, and constitutional questions. His clients included many leading business corporations, former Vice President Al Gore (in Bush v. Gore), Members of Congress, U.S. states, foreign countries, and Harvard, Yale, and Princeton universities. He has secured impressive wins for clients, including: Successfully briefing and arguing a Class Action Fairness Act case (Mississippi ex rel Hood v. AU Optronics Corp., 571 U.S. 161(2014)) (winning 9-0), after another CAFA action had been decided 9-0 the other way during the previous Term. Successfully briefing the first-ever Supreme Court stay of an agency regulation prior to judicial review in the lower courts. West Virginia v. EPA, 136 S.Ct. 1000 (2016). Successfully briefing and arguing an en banc appeal (Chavez v. Dole Food Company, Inc., 836 F.3d 205 (3d Cir. 2016) (en banc) (unanimously reversing panel decision), and persuading the original authoring judge to switch his vote as well. Jonathan received his BA, magna cum laude from Harvard University in 1985 and his J.D magna cum laude from Harvard Law School where he served as a research assistant to Professor Laurence Tribe, who wrote in the preface to his Constitutional Law Treatise, “Jonathan knows more law than Lexis and Westlaw combined and can access it in a nanosecond.”