Jeffrey M. Lepon
Manager
Jeff Lepon is the law firm’s founder. Prior to opening this office, he was a member and the manager of Lepon Holzworth & Kato, PLLC, a firm he established in 1983. In addition to a domestic commercial practice, he regularly represents foreign clients doing business in the United States and U.S. businesses abroad. His areas of practice include corporate law, export licensing, import regulation, international commercial agreements and disputes, and immigration law.
Mr. Lepon speaks Japanese and for more than ten years he taught Japanese Law as an Adjunct Professor at the Georgetown University Law Center. He has also taught United States commercial law at Sophia University in Tokyo, Japan.
From 1994 until 2001 Jeff was appointed by President Clinton to serve as a Member of the Japan–United States Friendship Commission and the United States–Japan Conference on Cultural and Educational Interchange (CULCON). He was formerly a Trustee, Acting President and General Counsel of the Japan–America Society of Washington, Inc. and was formerly a Director of the United States–Japan Bridging Foundation, Inc.
He currently serves as General Counsel to International Student Conferences, Inc. Since 1992 Mr. Lepon has been an Associate of the Reischauer Institute at Harvard University.
Mr. Lepon is admitted to practice before the U.S. District Court of the District of Columbia, U.S. Court of International Trade, U.S. Court of Appeals District of Columbia Circuit, and the U.S. Supreme Court. He is a member of the District of Columbia and Virginia State Bars and is a member of the American Immigration Lawyers Association.
Mr. Lepon received his J.D. (cum laude) from Harvard University Law School and his A.B. (magna cum laude) from Harvard College. He has also studied at Waseda University in Tokyo, Japan.
Robin M. Taylor
Ms. Taylor is a experienced business attorney with over twenty years of legal experience. She is a Certified Public Accountant with an advanced law degree in taxation.
Ms. Taylor’s areas of practice include business transactions, intellectual property law, and regulatory compliance. She has substantial experience in the areas of commercial contracts, business entities and operational structures, mergers and acquisitions, debt and equity financing, investment real estate, and taxation.
Ms. Taylor also provides strategic advice on the business and legal aspects of intellectual property-related transactions. She is involved in structuring the financial and operational aspects of technology companies, patent and trade secrets licensing, acquisitions of intellectual property portfolios, and research/joint venture agreements.
Ms. Taylor is an Adjunct Professor in the George Mason University School of Law where she teaches Contract Drafting.
Prior to joining the firm, she was senior counsel to Holland & Knight LLP, a co-founder of the law firm of Millstein & Taylor, PC, and a shareholder in the Washington, D.C. law firm of Counts & Kanne, Chartered.
Ms. Taylor is a member of the District of Columbia and Virginia State Bars. She is admitted to practice before the U.S. Tax Court, U.S. Court of Federal Claims, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.
She is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with a B.S. in Business Administration, an honors graduate of the University of North Carolina School of Law, and holds a Master of Laws in Taxation degree from the Georgetown University School of Law.
William M. Berenson
Until recently, Mr. Berenson served at the Organization of American States, where he occupied a number of high level posts, including that of General Counsel. He is also an adjunct professor at American University’s Washington College of Law, where since 1984 he has taught a survey course in United States law for foreign lawyers in the LL.M. international legal studies program. Mr. Berenson has worked in both the private and public sectors as a litigator and a legal advisor on a wide range of issues including tax, labor, corporate, energy, antitrust, development banking, estate planning, contract, real estate, transportation, immigration, trade and public international law. He has also advised on privatization efforts in Latin America. Mr. Berenson is the author of articles on privatization, telecommunications regulation, international banking, and other legal and political subjects. He has also lectured throughout Latin American and the United States on issues related to his practice and teaching, including: the privileges and immunities of public international organizations; the relationship between the United Nations and OAS in peacekeeping; technical cooperation for development; the OAS Charter; the OAS and democratic development; privatization; estate taxation and planning, particularly for non-resident aliens; and constitutional law.
During 1972 and 1973, Mr. Berenson lived in Uruguay where he completed research on interest-group politics under a Ford Foundation Foreign Area Fellowship. Since then, Mr. Berenson has traveled on business throughout Latin America and has worked extensively on projects in Bolivia, Brazil, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, and Puerto Rico. In 1997, 2001, and 2004, he was a visiting professor in the Post Graduate Studies in Comparative Law Program of the Law School of the Universidad Central in Caracas, Venezuela, where he taught a survey course in United States law.
Mr. Berenson received his J.D. from Boston University (1978), where he was Note and Case Editor of the Boston University Law Review. He received both M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in political science from Vanderbilt University (1972 and 1975) and an A.B from Dartmouth College (1969). He also completed studies in statistics at the University of Michigan in 1970 and was a Research Fellow at the Center for International Studies of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (“MIT”) during 1974. From 1990-92, he served as the Chairman of the International Development and Investment Committee of the Federal Bar Association. In 1982, Mr. Berenson was elected president of AYUDA, Inc., the non-profit bilingual legal services agency in the District of Columbia, where he served as a board member for many years. He is admitted to the practice of law in the District of Columbia, Virginia, and Massachusetts.