Working Effectively With Your Stakeholders

Ms. Dougall is AIG’s Associate General Counsel for Compensation and Benefits. She has over twenty-five years of broad-based experience in the employee benefits and executive compensation field, and has held a wide range of positions: in-house counsel, consultant, legal advisor, policymaker and lobbyist. She is currently AIG's chief compensation and benefits attorney for its U.S. workforce programs (and advises on some products). For the last 15 years in that role, she has counselled the Company’s HR infrastructure on its ERISA plans and executive compensation programs with respect to matters including plan design, drafting, amendments, compliance, contracts, communication and operational issues. She has been the lead HR lawyer on AIG's corporate divestitures and acquisitions, and directed several large ERISA litigation matters. She also advises AIG’s ERISA fiduciary committees (and conducts fiduciary training), delves into pension investment matters, and manages AIG’s ongoing 409A compliance efforts.

Prior to joining AIG, as a Director at PricewaterhouseCoopers, she advised both private and public clients (with an emphasis on emerging companies) on executive compensation and qualified plan matters from a tax, accounting, securities and regulatory perspective. She designed PwC’s prototype manual for auditors conducting Sarbanes Oxley controls and process reviews of the executive compensation sections of clients’ proxy statements. As an associate at Shearman and Sterling, she assisted clients in navigating the myriad of legal issues relating to compensation and benefit programs in the context of corporate transactions such as mergers, acquisitions, and IPOs.

Prior to law school, Ms. Dougall held various positions on Capitol Hill. She was a junior staff member of Senator Max Baucus’s office, a Research Analyst for the Employee Benefits Research Institute, and a Legislative Analyst for the American Benefits Council. She is a regular speaker at various ERISA conferences (PLI, ABA, ACI, BNA), a long-time Board Member and Call Moderator for the In-House Benefits Counsel Network, and was named as a leading ERISA attorney in the Legal 500, Corporate Counsel 100 list.

Ms. Dougall holds a BS from the University of Pennsylvania, the Wharton School, a BA from its College of Arts and Sciences, and a JD from the University of Virginia.

Jodi has more than 20 years of experience with all aspects of employee benefits, with a particular focus on defined benefit plans and 401(k) plans. She is particularly adept at managing integrations after acquisitions, setting up new benefit platforms, pension plan lump sum windows and terminations, and advising qualified plan committees regarding their fiduciary duties.

Jodi’s practice includes day-to-day compliance issues, such as assisting with implementation of new legislation and regulations, trouble-shooting when glitches arise in plan operations, and helping qualified plan committees monitor plan investments and plan vendors. She has experience with government entities as well as corporate clients. Her practice also includes the one-of-a-kind issues that arise in connection with M&A activity.

Jodi is well-versed in the complexity and challenges raised by large controlled groups. Clients appreciate Jodi’s ability to manage projects involving multiple plan vendors, often on a tight timetable. Her client service and responsiveness are unsurpassed. Jodi has been individually recognized by Chambers & Partners for Employee Benefits & Executive Compensation multiple times, most recently in 2021.

Jodi holds a B.A. from Stanford University (with distinction), and a J.D. from Harvard Law School (cum laude).

As a member of Apple’s Litigation team Kate leads a variety of efforts that span the docket for Apple including managing a team who addresses global consumer claims, managing the appeals and amicus activity for all non-IP cases, as well as managing a variety of individual matters including class actions, B2B disputes and a bit everything in between.

Kate is passionate about and committed to D&I efforts and currently serves as a lead for the Women in Legal and Global Security at Apple and is an active member of the Apple Legal Pro Bono Committee. She was also selected as a 2021 Fellow for the Leadership Counsel for Legal Diversity.

Prior to joining Apple, Kate was a an associate at Latham and Watkins, San Francisco, focused on Securities and Appellate litigation.

Val?rie Demaret-Fleming is a senior member of AAR Corp. Legal Department where she is Lead counsel and Strategic Advisor for the Commercial Programs, Distribution, Aircraft Component Services, Global Procurement and Digital divisions. Val?rie also serves as a member of the Privacy and Compliance Governance Committee. Before joining AAR in August 2020, Val?rie advised various divisions throughout her 12 years career at Caterpillar Inc., both in the United States and in Belgium, covering activities in the US, Europe, Middle East, Africa and Southeast Asia.

Prior to becoming an in-house counsel, Val?rie provided transactional and regulatory support for corporate clients in the insurance and financial services industries at Sidley Austin and in the financial and brokerage industries at Foley Lardner in Chicago. In addition to her transactional support at both companies, Val?rie focuses on advising clients on corporate governance, compliance, data privacy, bankruptcy, and litigation. She has developed processes and training programs for her clients throughout her career. In her role as in-house counsel she is a strategic advisor and partner to her internal clients. After five years working in Belgium for Caterpillar, Val?rie and her family repatriated to Alabama in 2019 before moving back to their home state of Illinois this past summer.

Val?rie graduated from the Universit? Catholique de Louvain with a Licence en Droit and received her L.L.M. and J.D. from the University of Illinois - College of Law. She is fluent in French and English.

Marla G. Zwas is the inaugural General Counsel and Secretary of Truck Hero, Inc., the world’s largest manufacturer and online retailer of pickup truck and Jeep accessories. With the support of her legal team located in Ann Arbor, Michigan, she oversees the company’s governance, compliance, commercial and intellectual property matters.

She was previously Deputy General Counsel for Flagstar Bancorp, Inc., a NYSE-listed full-service bank and one of the nation’s largest residential mortgage companies. At Flagstar, Ms. Zwas oversaw the corporate and employment legal teams as well as the office of the corporate secretary. Ms. Zwas was also Senior Counsel-Corporate Affairs for Chrysler Group LLC (now FCA), where she managed all public company matters and played a key role in the company’s historic refinancing to repay $7.6B in government loans.

Prior to Chrysler Group, Ms. Zwas was General Counsel for Toyoda Gosei North America and Associate General Counsel for PulteGroup, where she handled a broad range of compliance, commercial and government affairs matters.

Ms. Zwas received a B.S. from Cornell University and, after spending her final year of law school as a Visiting Student at the University of Michigan Law School, she received her J.D. from Fordham University School of Law.