2024 Blackshear Presidential Fellows

Claudia M. Coleman

Claudia Coleman is an associate in the firm’s Litigation practice group. Claudia regularly represents clients against employment-related claims brought under federal and state employment laws, including claims of discrimination, harassment, retaliation and whistleblower claims. Claudia also has experience representing clients against claims of wage and hour violations of California’s Labor Code, class and representative Private Attorneys General Act (PAGA) actions.

Experienced in pretrial matters, she is skilled at drafting motions for both state and federal courts as well as preparing and responding to discovery, and conducting depositions of the parties and fact witnesses. Claudia is involved in fact investigation, developing and implementing litigation strategy, consulting expert witnesses, and participating in mediations/arbitrations.

Claudia also has experience representing debtors, creditors, trustees and committees in Chapter 7 bankruptcy and Chapter 11 business reorganization cases, as well as related adversary proceedings.

Dominique K. Mayfield

Dominique K. Mayfield is the newest staff attorney for the Chapter 13 Trustee of the Western District of Tennessee (Memphis Division). She is responsible for representing the Chapter 13 Trustee, Sylvia Ford Brown, in all aspects of the bankruptcy legal process and has over 17 years of legal experience from private practice. 

In 2023, Dominique served as chairman of the Memphis Bar Association’s Bankruptcy Section. During her term as chairman, she assisted the board with renaming the section’s annual seminar after the late Honorable David S. Kennedy and with revamping the section’s fundraising efforts for the Duberstein Bankruptcy Moot Court Competition. She now serves as an active board member for the section as well as a three-year appointed member of the Bankruptcy Court Liaison Committee for the Western District of Tennessee (Western Division). One of her proudest achievements is spearheading the Liaison’s Ad Hoc No-Look Fee Committee in its efforts to increase the district’s no-look fee in Chapter 13 bankruptcy cases.

Prior to her work with the Chapter 13 Trustee’s office, Dominique worked as a law clerk for one of Billboard’s top music lawyers in Southern California. She assisted with drafting and negotiating talent agreements, music publishing deals, endorsement/sponsorships and recording artist agreements. Additionally, Dominique has worked at her father’s private practice in Mississippi and Tennessee representing consumer debtors obtain a fresh start. In addition to being an insolvency practitioner, Dominique handled firmwide cases for social security disability claimants significantly increasing the firm’s revenue in attorney fees three times by enhancing the administrative litigation process. While working in private practice, she quickly became known for her compassion, firm execution and drive to help clients receive maximum past due benefits.

Within the community, Dominique has served as an attorney volunteer at the Second Saturday Legal Clinic in Memphis, Tennessee. She has also participated in speaking engagements and community radio broadcast networks informing the public on their legal rights, financial literacy, women empowerment. In the near future, Dominique will serve as a volunteer for CARE Western Tennessee, the district’s chapter of the national Credit Abuse Resistance Education designed to educate the community on financial literacy. In addition to law, she enjoys spending time with family and exploring other cultures through travel, music and dance.  

Miles Taylor

Miles is an associate in Dechert LLP’s Financial Restructuring practice in New York. His practice focuses primarily on corporate bankruptcy and restructuring matters, including the representation of debtors, creditors, and other interested parties in chapter 11 bankruptcies, out-of-court workouts, chapter 15 and cross-border proceedings, and related transactions. 

Prior to joining Dechert LLP, Miles was an associate at White & Case and served as a law clerk to the Honorable Craig T. Goldblatt, Bankruptcy Judge for the District of Delaware. 

Re’Necia Sherald

Re’Necia Sherald is an associate in the Restructuring Practice Group in Haynes Boone’s Houston office. Her practice focuses on all areas of restructuring, including in- and out-of- court workouts, bankruptcy litigation, counterparty insolvency and risk management, distressed M&A, lender representation, creditor representation, and Chapter 11 debtor representation. Re’Necia also has experience of representations in Chapter 11 Subchapter V bankruptcy cases.

Re’Necia’s restructuring experience includes representation of debtors and creditors in a variety of industries including aerospace, agriculture, cryptocurrency, mass toxic tort, oil and gas and retail.

Prior to joining Haynes Boone, Re’Necia clerked for United States Bankruptcy Judge Christopher M. López in the Southern District of Texas for two years.

Re’Necia is an active member of Houston’s legal community. As a formal judicial clerk, she serves as Co-Chair of the Judiciary Committee for the Houston Young Lawyers Association. Within Houston’s bankruptcy bar, Re’Necia serves as Events Co-Chair for the Houston Chapter of the International Women’s Insolvency & Restructuring Confederation, also known as “IWIRC,” and is committee member on the NextGen Committee for the Houston Chapter of the Turnaround Management Association, also known as “TMA NextGen.” TMA NextGen focuses on developing the next generation of turnaround and corporate restructuring professionals.

Raychelle Tasher

Raychelle Tasher is an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida where she represents the United States in bankruptcy cases and civil litigation matters. Prior to this role, Raychelle was an associate in the Restructuring Group in the New York office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP where she represented debtors in complex Chapter 11 bankruptcy cases. Raychelle also served as a law clerk to U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Kathy A. Surratt-States at the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Missouri. Raychelle earned her law degree from Florida A&M University College of Law and her undergraduate degree, magna cum laude, from Florida A&M University in Political Science and Economics. Raychelle currently serves as Co-Chair of the ABA Business Bankruptcy Membership, Marketing, and Webinar Committee. She is also the immediate past chair of the Lawyers Advisory Committee for the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Florida and a member of the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee for the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Florida. Raychelle is one of the founding Co-Chairs of the National Association for Women Lawyers “Women in Bankruptcy & Restructuring” Affinity Group and a member of IWIRC and the ABI. For her commitment to public service, Raychelle received the National Bar Association’s Womens Lawyers Division “Outstanding Public Service Award.”

Reema Lateef

Reema Lateef is a Trial Attorney at the Office of the United States Trustee, Department of Justice with 5+ years of experience as a bankruptcy litigator. Since joining the office through the highly competitive DOJ Honors Program, Ms. Lateef has been instrumental in ensuring Debtors’ and Creditors’ compliance with the Bankruptcy Code. As a Trial Attorney, Ms. Lateef focuses on reviewing Chapter 11 plans and disclosure statements, sale motions, and Chapter 7 cases for potential fraud. Ms. Lateef has successfully handled a wide range of complex legal matters, including issues arising in Subchapter V cases and a recent case in which the Debtor had committed over $20 million in healthcare fraud resulting in the successful appointment of a chapter 11 trustee.

A graduate of the University of Illinois College of Law, Ms. Lateef is licensed to practice in both Illinois and New York. She is also a member of the Federal Bar Council in New York.

In her spare time, Reema enjoys outdoor adventures like hiking and scuba diving, logging over 50 dives. She’s currently training for the 2025 New York Marathon.

Destiney Parker-Thompson

Destiney Parker-Thompson practices in the Corporate Restructuring and Bankruptcy Group at Baker Donelson in Raleigh, North Carolina. Destiney primarily represents financial services companies, lenders, and individuals in restructuring and insolvency matters, including collections, out-of-court workouts, and creditors’ rights issues.

Prior to joining Baker Donelson, Destiney clerked for Judge Craig T. Goldblatt on the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware. She then worked briefly as a bankruptcy and restructuring finance associate in New York before accepting a one-year clerkship with Judge Tamika Montgomery-Reeves on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.

Prior to becoming an attorney, Destiney worked across various industries, including retail, gaming, hospitality, and banking. With more than 10 years of work experience, and almost three years of learning from judges on two of our nation’s distinguished courts, Destiney enjoys using all that she has learned to solve complex issues and service clients at the highest level.

Destiney attributes all of the success that she has enjoyed to the network of people who generously give her their unwavering support, advice, and guidance. When Destiney is not dissecting various provisions of the Bankruptcy Code or consuming the latest headline from Bill Rochelle, she enjoys playing chess, fishing on the lake, watching NCAA football, and defending her title as the reigning “Scattergories” champion against her husband and two children.