April 18th 6PM
Greg Hall Room 319
Brian Pitts, Assistant Director of PR at Mayer Brown
Brian Pitts is assistant director of public relations at Mayer Brown, a prominent global law firm. In this role, Brian manages practice PR in the U.S. with an emphasis on media relations for the firm’s transactional and Supreme Court & Appellate practices. In addition, Brian works with the firm’s management and other members of the PR staff on brand building initiatives, crisis and internal communications. Prior to joining Mayer Brown, Brian was firmwide public relations manager at Kirkland & Ellis, another prominent global law firm.
Before law firm PR work, Brian worked at PR agencies for nine years, including five years at Porter Novelli where as director of media relations, he led PR campaigns for blue chip clients such as Hewlett Packard, Nike and Qualcomm. Brian also had a successful stint in sports PR for the Chicago Wolves hockey team and in the sports information office at the University of Illinois at Chicago.
In addition to PR, Brian has had a concurrent career as a sports writer, including the last 18 years as a sports correspondent for the Daily Herald where he writes about high school sports, the Chicago Marathon and occasionally the Chicago Cubs, Chicago White Sox and Chicago Bulls. Brian has also written for the Associated Press, Chicago Sun-Times, Cleveland Plain-Dealer and Long Beach Press-Telegram.
Brian is active in a number of professional organizations. He serves on the board of Legal PR Chicago and the Chicago Headline Club, the local chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists. Brian is also a member of the Legal Marketing Association and the Public Relations Society of America.
Brian received his master’s degree in sports management from the University of Illinois at Chicago and a bachelor’s degree in English at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
A lifelong resident of the Chicago area, Brian lives in the near west suburbs with his wife, two sons and a chocolate Labrador retriever named Wrigley. Sports are a big part of Brian’s life. In addition to helping coach various sports teams for his boys, Brian is a Chicago Bears season ticket holder and is an avid Chicago Cubs, Chicago Blackhawks and Fighting Illini fan.
March 30th
Greg Hall Room 223
University of Illinois Law School Student Panel
Stephanie Mills (mills15@law.illinois.edu)
Stephanie earned her Bachelor of Arts in General Business Administration Pre-Law from Michigan State University. She is currently enrolled as a joint-degree student at the University of Illinois, pursuing a law degree and an MBA. She has participated in two study abroad trips: London, England (undergrad) and Hyderabad, India (MBA). Last summer she interned in the legal department at Dow Corning and in the chambers of a state judge in Michigan.
Jaimy Urbach (urbach1@law.illinois.edu)
I am originally from Oregon. I attended undergrad at Chapman University, a small school in southern California. I took three years off from the time I graduated until I returned to law school where I worked in a HR department. I chose the University of Illinois as my first choice school because of the JD/MHRIR degree- that is a masters in human resource and industrial relations. I am currently finishing my second year of law and my first semester of Labor and Employment Relations. I will be working with Boeing's HR group for the 787 in Seattle this summer and I finish both degrees in December 2012.
Shannon Burkhead (burkhea1@law.illinois.edu)
I graduated from USC (univ. Of southern california) in 2008 with degrees in political science and criminology/forensics. I took a year off and worked as a stock analyst in chicago and traveled around the world. Started law school here in 2009 and am finishing up my second year of law school right now. I just got accepted into the MBA program and am starting my business degree this fall. Ill be graduating with a JD/MBA in 2013.
JR Glenn (jrglenn2@law.illinois.edu)
Here is the email for Mr. Ryan Bradley, our speaker from Feb. 24th. You can contact him with any questions. rbradley@phebuslaw.com