PilotLegis Team
Aon Team
Alison Buchanan
Chair
Alison Buchanan is the Chair of PilotLegis RPG and a member of the Board. Alison also serves as Chair of Pilot’s Claims Management Committee. She is a shareholder with Hoge, Fenton, Jones & Appel, Inc., where she serves as the firm’s General Counsel and is Chair of the firm’s Business Litigation Practice Group. Alison focuses her practice on business litigation, professional liability/professional malpractice, and legal ethics.
Alison is a Certified Specialist in Legal Malpractice Law, as certified by the California State Bar’s Board of Legal Specialization. She is the current Chair of the Ethics Committee for the California Lawyers Association. From September 2011 to September 2014, Alison served a three-year term as a member of the California State Bar’s Standing Committee on Professional Responsibility and Conduct (COPRAC). Alison is a member of the Santa Clara County Bar Association and was the 2016 and 2015 Chair of its Professionalism Committee. Alison is also a member of the Bar Association of San Francisco. Alison frequently lectures throughout the state of California and publishes articles on the subject of attorney ethics. Alison recently completed six years’ of service on the Board of Directors for the Humane Society Silicon Valley.
Alison earned her undergraduate degree from University of California at Irvine and her J.D. from Chicago-Kent College of Law.
Jessa Baker
Vice Chair
Jessa Baker is the Vice Chair of PilotLegis RPG and a member of the Board. She is the Chief Operating Officer at Applegate & Thorne-Thomsen, a boutique affordable housing and community development firm based in Chicago. As COO Jessa leads the firm’s strategic planning, operations, succession planning, compensation design and talent strategy. She is a member of the management committee and partner compesnation committee.
Prior to joining Applegate & Thorne-Thomsen Jessa advised law firms and their leaders in the United States, Caribbean and Latin America on strategy development, mergers, governance, talent structure design, associate and partner compensation systems, partnership issues and financial matters as a consultant with LawVision and Hildebrandt Baker Robbins.
Jessa holds a BS in Human and Organizational Development from Vanderbilt University, a JD from University of Wisconsin and an MBA from Northwestern University Kellogg School of Management.
Maryanne Trevisan
Chair, Membership & Standards Committee
Margaret Hepper
Executive Director
Since August 1999, Margaret Hepper has served as PilotLegis’ Executive Director. Her responsibilities include recruiting and underwriting new members, developing risk management programming for the membership, overseeing the group’s day-to-day administration, and strategic planning. Ms. Hepper sits ex officio on PilotLegis’ Board of Directors and all other committees.
Ms. Hepper served on the ABA Standing Committee for Professional Liability from 2004-2007, during which she twice served as Conference Chair.
Prior to PilotLegis, Ms. Hepper spent seven years in the field of law firm risk management, working with midsized and large law firms around the country. Between 1986 and 1992, Ms. Hepper practiced law in Minneapolis-St. Paul. She is a graduate of Northwestern University and William Mitchell College of Law.
Brandon Martin
Assistant to Executive Director
Gulden Apprendi
Assistant Vice President
Jim Belding
Senior Vice President and Executive Director
Products Represented
Matt Corbin
Senior Vice President
Dan Klauss
Senior Vice President
Fran Murray
Vice President
Brian Padgett
Associate
Doug Richmond
Managing Director
Tom Ricketts
Cyber Practice Leader
Products Represented
Mark Webster
Vice President and Director
Chester White
Vice President and Director
