Speakers

For the last five years, Patty has been a Regional Director of Finance with Interstate Hotels and Resorts, a publically held independent operator of all hotel brands.  In her present position, Patty oversees  22 hotel accounting offices, which include franchise systems as prescribed by Hilton, IHG, Starwood,  and various restaurant Point of Sale systems.  Prior to her current position, Patty was a Property Controller for multiple brands and ownership groups for twenty years.

Robert Foster is a partner of Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough LLP in Columbia where he practices in the areas of business litigation, premises liability, and product liability. Additionally, he is experienced in Uniform Commercial Code litigation. Mr. Foster serves as national product liability counsel for one of the largest manufacturers of home appliances in the United States. As national and regional counsel for several leading hotel chains, Mr. Foster has handled violent crime and premises liability cases. He has tried over 80 cases to verdict, and handled oral arguments at every level of appeal in South Carolina and Georgia. 

Fran has successfully represented clients in complex business, high stakes litigation and alternate dispute resolution matters for over 27 years, including clients in the hospitality, foodservice, event planning, and gaming industries.  She has served the City of Philadelphia as Chair of the Litigation Group and she handled legal matters involving the City's most popular tourist venues, including Veterans Stadium, the Pennsylvania Convention Center, Penn's Landing/Delaware Avenue, Fairmount Park, historic Olde City and Main Street Manayunk .  She has also written and presented on business and legal topics, including hospitality industry issues, alternate dispute resolution, risk management, negotiation and presentation skills, and professional ethics.

Hilary has been in the firm’s Litigation Group since graduating from law school in 1998. She practices primarily in the areas of premises liability, healthcare defense, products liability, and insurance coverage. She has extensive experience representing clients in all phases of litigation. Hilary has been active in Bar-related activities, and served on the Board of the Hillsborough County Bar Association’s Young Lawyers Division. Hilary is also active in the community. She coaches youth soccer and is an active volunteer in two local schools.

J. Scott Humphrey is a partner in Seyfarth Shaw’s Trade Secrets, Restrictive Covenants and Corporate Espionage Group.  He serves on the Group’s National Steering Committee and has successfully prosecuted and defended trade secrets and restrictive covenant cases throughout the United States for clients in the technology, securities and financial services, transportation, electronics, software, hospitality, medical, insurance, healthcare, consumer products, and manufacturing industries.  Scott has also led trade secret audits for both public and privately held corporations, and is a contributing author to “Trading Secrets,” a legal industry blog that monitors and discusses trade secrets, restrictive covenants and computer fraud issues.

Darryl G. McCallum is a partner with Shawe Rosenthal who represents management in employment law matters, including the defense of race, sex and other discrimination suits, sexual harassment claims, and claims involving wrongful discharge and wage and hour issues. He also routinely advises hoteliers and other employers on human resources issues and matters involving traditional labor law. Mr. McCallum is a Board Member of both the Maryland Hotel and Lodging Association and the Maryland State Bar Association Section of Labor and Employment Law.  He also serves as a subcommittee chair of the American Bar Association Litigation Section’s Labor and Employment Committee and Corporate Counsel Committee. 

As a former Supervisory Special Agent with the Federal Bureau of Investigation and as the Director of Corporate Security for a New York based hotel chain, Mr. McShane has over forty years of experience in all aspects of both public and private sector security management. His FBI experience as a Supervisory Special Agent included managing both technical and security programs as well as diversified investigative experience. Assignments included both field supervision and complex program management responsibilities. As the Director of Security for the Denihan Hospitality Group, he administered and directed the activities of the loss prevention and life safety force for ten hotels, corporate offices and other commercial holdings of the company.

Jerry Trieber, CFE, CFF, CPA, CHAE, is a Director of Field Accounting at Crestline Hotels & Resorts, where he is responsible for financial oversight of a portfolio of ten full-service hotels across the United States ranging in size from 143 to 434 rooms.  Jerry is formerly the Director of Internal Audit at Hersha Hospitality Management, where he was responsible for leading Hersha’s internal audit function, was involved in Hersha’s Sarbanes-Oxley Act Section 404 compliance efforts, and was responsible for helping to implement Hersha’s PCI Compliance program.  Jerry was also the Director of Internal Audit at Noble Investment Group and was a Manager of Financial Review & Analysis at Interstate Hotels and Resorts.