Jamila Jones was a member of the Hofstra Law Review and is a recipient of the Hofstra University Benjamin Weintraub and Alan N. Resnick Award in Bankruptcy Law and the Pro Bono Gold Level Award.
Jamila focuses her practice on the formation and administration of Delaware statutory trusts in connection with securitizations, debt restructurings, and multi-series mutual funds. She advises financial institutions and trust companies acting as indenture trustees, owner trustees, and in other representative capacities in complex financial transactions. Prior to joining the firm, Jamila worked at Potter Anderson & Corroon LLP in the Bankruptcy, Restructuring and Creditors’ Rights group.
PRACTICES
- Legal Opinions
- Corporate Trust & Agency Services
- Structured Finance
Clerkships
- The Honorable Jil Mazer-Marino, United States Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of New York, 2020-2022
- The Honorable Thomas L. Ambro, Third Circuit Court of Appeals, 2022
- The Honorable Mary F. Walrath, United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware, 2022-2023
Education
- St. John’s University School of Law, LL.M., Bankruptcy, 2025
- Maurice A. Deane School of Law at Hofstra University, J.D., 2018
- Binghamton University, B.A., 2010
Recognition
- The Best Lawyers in America, Ones to Watch, 2027
Bar Admissions
- New York, 2019
- Delaware, 2025
Doneene Damon is President of Richards, Layton & Finger, where she also serves as Co-Chair of the firm’s Business Department and Chair of the Corporate Trust and Agency Services Group. She is widely recognized for her extraordinary leadership and depth of experience in complex commercial and financial transactions.
Ms. Damon focuses her practice on formation and operational issues relating to Delaware statutory trusts and Delaware and New York common law trusts. She represents issuers, underwriters, investors, trustees, banks, and trust companies across a broad range of commercial and capital markets transactions. Her work includes advising clients on common law trusts, statutory trusts, owner trusts, master trusts, series trusts, and titling trusts.
Her corporate trust and agency practice includes representing financial institutions in their roles as trustee, collateral agent, verification agent, custodian, master servicer, depository agent, securities intermediary, paying agent, registrar and transfer agent, and exchange agent under Delaware and New York law. Ms. Damon also represents health-care clients in transactional matters, including the purchase and servicing of health-care receivables and the issuance of tax-exempt bonds.
Ms. Damon has played a leading role in innovative and first-to-market transactions, including serving as primary Delaware counsel in structured finance transactions utilizing blockchain distributed ledger technology.
Her transactional experience spans a wide range of asset classes and structures, including asset-backed securities (auto loans and leases, credit cards, student loans, consumer loans, residential mortgages, home equity loans, equipment leases, litigation settlements, insurance policies, and intellectual property), collateralized loan obligations, cross-border leasing transactions, project finance, defeasance transactions, royalty trusts, liquidation trusts, voting trusts, private equity funds, mutual funds, and exchange-traded funds.
Ms. Damon is consistently praised by clients and peers and has been described as “terrific” and “experienced, careful, smart, and very personable” by Chambers USA. In 2021 alone, she was named among the Philadelphia Business Journal’s Diversity Leaders in Business, the News Journal’s Most Influential Delawareans, Savoy Magazine’s Most Influential Black Lawyers, and a Women, Influence & Power in Law Managing Partner of the Year.
Education
- J.D., cum laude, Temple University School of Law, 1992
- B.S., cum laude, Accounting, Saint Joseph’s University, 1989
Recognition and Honors
- Fellow, American College of Commercial Finance Lawyers
- Fellow, American Bar Foundation
- Chambers USA, since 2010
- The Best Lawyers in America, since 2017
- Wilmington, DE Securitization and Structured Finance Law Lawyer of the Year, 2022
- The Legal 500, 2021
- Super Lawyers, since 2018
- Delaware Today Top Lawyer, 2021
- Managing Partner of the Year—Law Firm, Women, Influence & Power in Law Awards, 2021
- Diversity Leaders in Business, Philadelphia Business Journal, 2021
- Most Influential Delawareans, News Journal, 2021
- Most Influential Black Lawyers, Savoy Magazine, 2021, 2018
- VIP Woman of the Year Circle, National Association of Professional Women, 2015–2016
- Jean Allard Glass Cutter Award, American Bar Association, 2015
- Leadership Excellence in the Law Award, National Diversity Council, 2014
- Leadership in Law Award, Pennsylvania Diversity Council, 2014
- Gallery of Success, Temple University Beasley School of Law, 2014
- YWCA Trailblazer Award, International Women’s Review Board for Excellence in Law
Bar Admissions
- Delaware, 1992
- District of Columbia, 1994
- New York, 2012
Retired Judge Zuberi “Judge Zu” Williams transforms conflict into clarity. As Chair of Bayard’s Business Alternative Dispute Resolution practice, he brings judicial insight, practical strategy, and a people centered approach to high stakes disputes. His philosophy is simple: the most durable outcomes occur when parties actively participate in and take ownership of their resolution.
Judge Zu leads an innovative ADR platform designed to resolve complex matters with speed, dignity, and lasting impact. Over the course of his career, he has conducted hundreds of mediations and settlement conferences across commercial, civil, employment, and government disputes. Clients and counsel consistently praise his even keeled demeanor and his ability to make complex cases manageable.
Before joining Bayard, Judge Zu served for a decade on the Maryland bench, first as an Administrative Law Judge and then as a Maryland District Court Judge in Montgomery County. Appointed at age 36, one of the youngest judicial appointments in Maryland history, he served from 2015 until retiring in 2025. While on the bench, he chaired the District Court’s ADR Sub Committee, modernizing programs and training judges statewide. He is widely respected for guiding high conflict disputes with neutrality, clarity, and momentum. His leadership has been recognized with honors including the Peacemaker Award from the Conflict Resolution Center of Montgomery County.
Prior to his judicial service, Judge Zu was an Administrative Law Judge at the Maryland Office of Administrative Hearings and an Assistant Attorney General for the District of Columbia. Earlier in private practice, he worked in Washington, D.C., at an AmLaw 100 firm in its White Collar Crime and Investigations group and at a prominent Baltimore intellectual property boutique firm.
Judge Zu clerked for Chief Judge Robert M. Bell of Maryland’s highest court, then the Court of Appeals and now the Supreme Court of Maryland, and for the Honorable Gerald Bruce Lee of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, widely known as the Rocket Docket for its swift timelines and complex civil caseload.
A dedicated educator, Judge Zu serves on the faculty at Georgetown University Law Center and American University Washington College of Law, where he has taught trial advocacy, torts, and his popular Law and Popular Culture course. He also teaches nationally through the National Institute for Trial Advocacy, the National Association of Attorneys General, and the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges. He regularly speaks at judicial roundtables and conferences across the country and internationally.
Karen Y. Vicks earned her Juris Doctorate degree from Temple University’s James Beasley School of Law. Prior to earning her law degree, Karen Y. Vicks attended Howard University graduating magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics. Karen Y. Vicks is licensed to practice in Delaware, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania.
Affiliations
Attorney Vicks is a member of the National Organization of Social Security Claimant Representatives (NOSSCR). She has lectured for the Organization on Social Security Disability Law at national conferences. She is also a member of the National Organization of Veterans Advocates (NOVA), the Delaware Bar Association and the American Bar Association. Attorney Vicks is also a volunteer Attorney Guardian Ad Litem for the Office of the Child Advocate.
Service
Attorney Vicks has developed a specialized practice that caters specifically to Delaware’s disabled population. She has successfully represented hundreds of claimants before the Social Security Administration who have been unjustly denied their right to Social Security disability benefits. She prides herself on representing her clients and serving her community with expertise, compassion, and commitment.
History
Karen Y. Vicks worked as an auditor for the New York City Comptroller’s Office and the Delaware Department of Transportation after completing her undergraduate studies at Howard University. Upon completion of her law degree, she clerked for Judge Walrath of the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware after which, she joined a local law firm where she worked for an extensive number of years as the senior associate for the downstate Social Security practice. Karen Y. Vicks has since opened her own practice with a team of paralegals serving clients who have been unjustly denied their rights to government disability benefits. She has lectured at local and national conferences educating individuals and groups on matters pertaining to disability law. She has served as an adjunct professor at Delaware State University lecturing on constitutional law and criminal justice.
Dami Omotunde represents clients in complex commercial disputes before state and federal courts, as well as in arbitration proceedings. Her practice spans shareholder challenges, breach of contract, business torts, corporate governance, product liability and other high-stakes issues. Dami’s experience extends across industries including financial services, life sciences and health care, technology, and consumer products and retail. Prior to joining Faegre Drinker, Dami practiced in the Wilmington office of one of the world’s largest law firms.
Corporate Litigation
Dami counsels clients on disputes arising under Delaware corporate law. She advises boards, executives and shareholders on fiduciary duties, mergers and acquisitions, and shareholder rights. Dami regularly handles litigation involving challenges to mergers, stockholder derivation actions, books and records demands, appraisal proceedings, and contested board or deal terms.
She has drafted pleadings, managed discovery in high-value disputes, and prepared motions in multimillion-dollar shareholder and corporate governance cases. Her experience also includes advising on pre-litigation strategy to mitigate risk and protect shareholder value.
Commercial Litigation
Dami also represents clients in a range of commercial disputes. She has handled matters involving breach of contract, fraud claims, product liability and other business torts. She has worked on all phases of litigation, from drafting dispositive motions and discovery requests to preparing for hearings and arbitrations. Dami assists clients with early dispute strategy, risk assessment and settlement negotiations.
Representative Experience
- Represented clients in Delaware Court of Chancery matters involving fiduciary duty claims, shareholder derivative suits and merger challenges.
- Assisted Fortune 500 companies in evaluating litigation risks tied to multimillion dollar M&A transactions, including due diligence and board-level reporting.
- Collaborated with deal teams to draft and review corporate documents, such as merger agreements, stock purchase agreements and disclosure schedules.
- Supported litigation teams in commercial disputes involving breach of contract, fraud and product liability, including drafting dispositive motions and managing discovery.
- Prepared briefs, assisted with witness preparation, and contributed to hearing and arbitration strategy.
Personal Interests
In her free time, Dami enjoys cooking, listening to podcasts, spending time with family and friends, and traveling.