Founding member Alais Griffin provides clients across the country with strategic and practical counsel based on her extensive and broad experience in the government, private, and nonprofit sectors.

Government Service

In 2009, President Obama appointed Alais to serve as Counselor to the General Counsel of the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) and then as Chief Counsel for the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA). As FMCSA’s chief legal officer, Alais managed the agency’s litigation matters as well as the legal and strategic review of agency policies, programs, and regulations. She worked regularly on legislative, regulatory, and enforcement matters with the White House, Congress, and the Department of Justice, and has extensive experience with the rulemaking process as well as with regulatory compliance.

Law Firm and Private Sector Experience

Alais brings private sector legal and governance experience to her clients. She began her career as a litigation associate at Davis Polk & Wardwell in New York City and was a partner in the Chicago and Washington DC offices of two other leading global law firms, counseling domestic and international clients on a wide range of federal civil and criminal matters; commercial, products liability, and securities litigation; internal investigations; and regulatory and compliance matters. She represented a Fortune 50 company in a global Foreign Corrupt Practices Act compliance investigation, assisting in the development of the company’s compliance programs in Sub-Saharan Africa, and counseled clients on compliance with USDOT regulations. Alais assisted private and state entities in successfully obtaining federal project finance assistance and drafted public comments for clients on various federal rulemakings and programs.

Alais also served as an independent board member and Interim Board Chair for a publicly-traded transportation company.

Non-Profit Experience

Alais spent five years as both pro bono outside counsel and General Counsel for one of the nation’s largest and oldest youth-serving nonprofits. As the organization’s chief legal and ethics officer, she oversaw all legal issues including federal grants, intellectual property, cyber security, board and federation governance, HR and employment, youth protection, contracts, litigation, and ethics, as well as strategic initiatives such as the development of a DEI program. She helped counsel the company through a federal-grants investigation and assisted in the rebuilding of the organization, developing and drafting new policies and processes, HR documents, a federal grant compliance program, contract templates, and governance documents and agreements.

Alais assisted with the formation of a nonprofit elementary school and currently serves as its Board President. She is also a member of the Board of Trustees of American Stage Theatre Company. She has served as a member of the ACLU of Illinois’s Board of Directors; as a founding board member and secretary of the Chicago Training Center, a non-profit that uses competitive rowing to create opportunities for Chicago youth; and as a board member of the Chicago Public Interest Law Initiative. In law school, she worked in the Bluhm Legal Clinic’s Center on Wrongful Convictions.

Education and Other Professional Background

Alais graduated cum laude from Northwestern Pritzker School of Law, where she was Executive Editor of the Northwestern University Law Review and a member of the Order of the Coif. She received her B.A., cum laude general studies, from Harvard University, where she was a four-year varsity letter winner in track and cross-country, captain of the cross-country team, Academic All-American, and Rhodes Scholar finalist. After law school, she clerked for Judge Harry D. Leinenweber of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.

Alais has served as an expert witness in transportation litigation and is a frequent speaker on compliance, transportation, and regulatory matters as well as on diversity issues. She has presented to audiences in the United States, in South Africa, and across Asia. Alais has served as a repeated guest lecturer and as an Adjunct Professor of Trial Advocacy at Northwestern Pritzker School of Law and is a recipient of the Outstanding 50 Asian Americans in Business Award from the Asian American Business Development Center.