ABOUT THE SPEAKERS
Pamela Amusa, Navy Federal Credit Union / Washington, DC
Pamela is an Assistant General Counsel at Navy Federal Credit Union, where she – specifically but not exclusively – focuses on anti-money laundering (AML), Bank Secrecy Act, and economic sanctions regulations. Prior to her role inhouse, Pamela worked in Skadden Arps’ Washington, D.C. office where she advised multinational banks, fintechs, and other financial institutions in the development of enterprise-wide, risk-based AML and sanctions compliance programs to promote compliance with domestic and international regulatory frameworks.
She also managed legal aspects of complex financial transactions specifically addressing or implicating sanctions and AML compliance in acquisition and other related national and cross-border M&A activity. Pamela earned her undergraduate degree from Georgetown University, her M.Sc. from the University of Oxford in England, and her J.D. from Harvard Law School. She is admitted to practice in Washington, D.C.; New York; and as corporate counsel in Virginia.
Donnie Kidd, Virginia State Corporation Commission / Richmond
Since 2018, Donnie has served as General Counsel to the Financial Services divisions of the State Corporation Commission. He oversees legal services concerning the Commission’s regulatory authority over financial institutions, insurance and securities, and manages a talented team of attorneys in the Commission’s Office of General Counsel. As part of his role, Donnie is involved in many of the complex issues that come before the Commission in each of the Financial Service divisions, including administrative proceedings, rule-makings, enforcement cases, and legislative matters.
Donnie also advises the Clerk of the Commission, as well as the Health Benefit Exchange division, which currently is working to establish a State Based Exchange in Virginia under the Affordable Care Act. Prior to joining the Commission in 2010, Donnie spent more than a decade as a litigation and dispute resolution attorney with a global law firm in Washington, D.C.
James Wheaton, Boston University School of Law / Boston, MA
Jim Wheaton is a Clinical Associate Professor and Director of the Startup Law Clinic at Boston University School of Law. In that clinic, BU Law students represent MIT and BU students in various aspects of establishing and operating early-stage business ventures and protecting intellectual property. Wheaton joined the faculty of BU Law in 2018, after a career as a public company general counsel and partner and national practice group leader at Troutman Sanders (now Troutman Pepper) LLP.
He also taught adjunct business entity courses at the University of Virginia and William and Mary Law Schools, and teaches a seminar in alternative business entities at BU Law. Wheaton’s legal practice focused on corporate and securities law. He represented companies in startup, M&A and general corporate work in a variety of industries, as well as both issuers and underwriters in public and private securities transactions. During his Virginia practice, he chaired the Business Law Sections of both the Virginia State Bar and Virginia Bar Association.
Wheaton became involved in the early stages of the national development of the limited liability company when he joined the drafting committee for the first Prototype Limited Liability Company Act, and since then has served as chair of the ABA Business Section’s LLCs and Unincorporated Entities committee, and as an ABA representative to Uniform Law Commission drafting committees. He is presently the Director of Research for the ABA/ULC Joint Editorial Board on Uniform Unincorporated Organization Acts, and is the co-author of an LLC practice manual.
In 2015, Wheaton received the Martin I. Lubaroff Award from the American Bar Association for leadership, scholarship and service in the field of LLCs, partnerships and unincorporated entities law. He is a fellow of the American Bar Foundation, and serves as an expert witness in LLC and other business entity disputes. From 2013-2016, Wheaton was a member of the ABA Commission on Disability Rights. Wheaton received his law degree from the University of Virginia School of Law, where he was Executive Editor of the Virginia Law Review and a member of Order of the Coif. Following law school, he clerked for Judge J. Dickson Phillips, Jr. of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit.
