Alumni at Large

Colby Magazine Volume 101 Issue 4 Winter 2013 Article 11 April 2013 Alumni at Large Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.colby.edu/colbymagazine Recommended Citation (2013) "Alumni at Large," Colby Magazine: Vol. 101 : Iss. 4 , Article 11. Available at: https://digitalcommons.colby.edu/colbymagazine/vol101/iss4/11 This Contents is brought to you for free and open access by the Colby College Archives at Digital Commons @ Colby. It has been accepted for inclusion in Colby Magazine by an authorized editor of Digital Commons @ Colby. CATCHING UP | ALUMNI PROFILES Crime and Punishment | Annie Chen ’12 The workday flies by when you’re putting thugs, terrorists, and other assorted bad guys behind bars. Just ask Annie Chen ’12, a paralegal with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York. Chen recently found herself sitting in a courtroom with a terror suspect accused of bombing embassies in Africa and conspir- ing to set up a terrorist training camp in Oregon. It’s a nice gig to get right out of college—one for which she laid some seri- ous groundwork by completing intern- ships in that same office in 2011 and 2012. But even with years of mock trial experience, when Chen first heard about the U.S. Attorney’s Office, she didn’t neces- sarily know what she was getting into. “Law and Order is all about the New York District Attorney’s Office. I didn’t even know there was a federal version,” she said. Chen learned fast. Last winter, while on a Jan Plan internship, she was directly involved in the successful prosecution of State Sen. Carl Kruger of New York, who was convicted of accepting more than $1 million in bribes. Just a few months ago, Chen helped two witnesses in the trial of a man accused of assaulting two deputy U.S. marshals fine-tune their accounts and presentation. That kind of hands-on experience has offered her valuable insight into a career she’s been targeting since high school. “I didn’t realize I was actually going to be able to be so involved in the inves- tigation process and the legal process of prosecuting,” she said. “It’s been great.” Chen’s success was made possible in part Hill remain strong. She draws regularly Colby prepared her well for it. She says through the David Descoteaux Student on experiences she gained in mock trial working in the U.S. District Attorney’s Internship Fund, which offers financial sup- and attends alumni events in New York Office has solidified her intention to port to Colby students who can’t otherwise City. She has even remained involved in attend law school. It’s a demanding place afford to take unpaid or low-paying intern- Professor Adam Howard’s project exam- to work, but also an opportunity to learn ships. She received support from the fund ining the effects of affluence on students, from and be energized by colleagues to pursue her Jan Plan internship at the U.S. turning interview data into full chapters dedicated to keeping the public safe, Chen Attorney’s Office, after which they offered for a book Howard is coauthoring with said. “Everyone’s here,” she said, “because her a permanent position. students and recent graduates. they want to prosecute criminals and get Even as she learns the ropes of pros- Working in law has been Chen’s goal criminals off the street.” ecution, Chen says her ties to Mayflower for a long time, and her experiences at —Jacob McCarthy COLBY / WINTER 2013 57 CATCHING UP | ALUMNI PROFILES Full Court Press | David Marcus ’82 David Marcus ’82 has witnessed his public service,” Marcus said. a very complicated puzzle.” share of drama, intrigue, and deceit in the His most memorable case occurred after Ultimately, Marcus said, the lawyer was courtroom. he moved to California to prosecute federal convicted and received a seven-year sentence. His cases have covered bank robber- crimes for the U.S. Attorney’s Office. The In 2000, when Marcus left the U.S. At- ies, drug shootings, white-collar crime, case involved a Los torney’s Office and joined a private firm, political corruption, insurance fraud, and Angeles attorney his caseload landed him in the business technology wars. Over 25 years Marcus accused of insur- world and battles over patent infringe- has prosecuted scores of criminals and ance fraud and per- ment, breach of contract, and antitrust litigated complicated civil cases with bil- jury. The lawyer laws. Though the cases do not involve lions of dollars at stake. He served as an bought high-end criminal jail time, the financial stakes assistant U.S. attorney in California and yachts and then are high. Marcus has litigated disputes as assistant attorney general in Massachu- filed insurance between cell phone giants and some of the setts. He earned a place among Southern claims on boats he world’s top technology companies, cases California’s Super Lawyers, a rating said had been dam- in which a company may face millions or awarded to attorneys with high peer rec- aged or stolen. even billions of dollars in damages. David Marcus ’82 ognition and professional achievement. “He was trying “My first case out of the U.S. Attor- “I’m lucky,” said Marcus, now a to get millions of ney’s Office, I was defending a company partner at WilmerHale in Los Angeles. dollars, and he had twice done it success- where there was a two-billion-dollar “Every day I wake up and look forward fully,” Marcus said. “One of his stories claim against them,” Marcus said. “It was to coming to work. My days are fast and was that his yacht had been hijacked by a big problem if they lost.” furious, and I handle all kinds of cases, thieves off the coast of Italy.” The case was settled, and Marcus has which keeps things interesting.” Unlike bank robbery cases where since represented scores of other compa- After earning a Yale law degree in 1985 photos and eyewitnesses provide a simple nies whose futures depended on whether and spending a few years at a private firm, evidence trail, the attorney fraud case re- they won or lost in court. Still, Marcus Marcus was an assistant attorney general quired months of piecing together docu- doesn’t lose sleep over the pressures and in Massachusetts in public protection and ments and sales transactions. The case challenges of his job at WilmerHale. consumer protection. He also spent time took Marcus to Italy, where he convinced “It doesn’t derail me,” Marcus said. “I prosecuting street crimes in Dorchester, a coconspirator to testify. focus on keeping the pace moving, making locking up violent offenders. “It was a lot of painstaking work,” sure things get done and get done right.” “It gave me the chance to do some Marcus said. “It was like putting together —Barbara Walsh Itchy Feet | Gabriel Duncan ’02 Somewhere between touring the Salvador, Gambia, Bolivia, China, Israel, American West in a 1976 Winnebago Albania, Brazil, Cuba, Poland, Malaysia, and freestyle rapping in an underground Morocco, Australia, New Zealand, hip-hop competition in Shanghai, China, and more. Gabriel Duncan ’02 turned his globe- In 2005 he trekked through Patagonia trotting lifestyle into a business and with two childhood friends from Denver, a life. Luke Mueller and Paul Laurie. Walk- He left the confines of Mayflower ing through the high deserts at the end Hill in spring 2002, and within months of the world, the trio realized they were his life had become wanderlust made apostles of a common faith: the transfor- manifest, as he filled his passports with mative power of world travel. Gabriel Duncan ’02, second from right. stamps from more than 45 countries: El They launched Walking Tree Travel, 58 COLBY / WINTER 2013 Guerilla Gastronomics | Tiffany Ng ’08 Tiffany Ng ’08 has created a gastro- Corner Kitchen, Wine & Grub, and nomic niche that is part food, part fash- Guerilla Dining, her flagship brand. ion, part musical theater. Really. For Guerilla Dining each event is cre- The genesis of what would become ated by three teams: dining, visuals, and Ng’s Silver.Spoon enterprise began when sounds. For instance, patrons might go to she spent the first six months after gradu- a three-course meal that is also a fash- ation writing white papers and delivering ion show, with each segment backed by talks for the Danish Atlantic Treaty Asso- original music. It’s akin to dinner theater ciation. A master’s program (international where the dinner is the theater. law, economics, and management) at the Ng talks like an M.B.A., referring to Copenhagen Business School followed, synergies and connections. But she’s built and Ng elected to stay in Denmark for a brand known for putting on events on another two years. the bleeding edge of creative gastronomy. That summer Ng went home to San “If you just gave my creative side free Francisco to visit friends and family—and rein,” she said, “these events would hardly to eat. Dining out is expensive in Den- resemble what they end up being when mark and mostly limited to New Nordic we come down to it. And of course along and bit of French cuisine. San Francisco, Tiffany Ng ’08 at a Guerilla Dining event. with the business side comes the legal a city of underground restaurants and spur of the moment I said, ‘Would you side. I can’t just shut down Copenhagen’s pop-up shops, offers variety and value, so ever consider cooking in Copenhagen?’ harbor to put on an event on the water— Ng spent a lot of time “dragging” friends And he was like, ‘Yeah, of course.’ It took much as I would like to.” to that event or this.

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