Our Team

Crista Gantz is the Virginia State Bar (VSB) director of Access to Legal Services. In this role she develops, promotes, and coordinates the VSB’s pro bono and access to justice initiatives. She oversees the VSB Standing Committee on Access to Legal Services, a statewide access to justice body which encourages participation in pro bono and addresses issues concerning legal representation of individuals who cannot afford counsel or are otherwise underserved. She is also a member of the Virginia Access to Justice Commission and the state administrator for Virginia Free Legal Answers. Ms. Gantz received her law degree from the University of Richmond and her undergraduate degree from The University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.

Jessica is a partner at Hunton Andrews Kurth and her practice focuses on the representation of corporate borrowers and lenders in connection with secured and unsecured credit facilities. She is a member of the Richmond office pro bono committee. Jessica attended the University of Richmond School of Law and received a B.A. in political science from the University of New Hampshire.

Larry Mulligan is the Chief Operating Officer for Richmond Metropolitan Habitat for Humanity, where he is responsible for oversight of ReStore, as well as Construction and Homeowner Services, in addition to his duties in Finance and Administration. Larry has worked in the nonprofit sector since 2015, after spending years providing consulting services to nonprofits. He has deep experience in Finance and operations oversight, in both the nonprofit and for-profit sectors.

Allison Held is the Associate General Counsel and Director of the Medical Legal Partnership (MLP) - Richmond at VCU Health System, where she is responsible for the development and execution of MLP’s strategic business plan and leading a team responsible for MLP’s mission of integrating legal assistance into the holistic delivery of patient care. She has significant experience working with community partners on projects to address health disparities and to increase the impact of MLP. Allison and VCU Health have been partners with GRBF on the Wills for Healthcare Heroes clinic, providing wills to hundreds of frontline healthcare worker clients.

Massie focuses her practice on complex corporate and commercial litigation with an emphasis on post-closing merger and acquisition disputes. She regularly litigates matters involving business torts and contract claims arising out of mergers and acquisitions of privately held companies, including disputes relating to working capital adjustments, earn-out milestones, voluntary disclosure agreements, and escrow distributions. Her post-closing dispute experience involves a diverse array of industries, including medical devices, publishing, semiconductor equipment, and life sciences. Massie also represents consumer-facing companies, including national banks, mortgage investors, and loan servicers in class actions and high-stakes litigation arising under federal and state law. She has experience handling a wide range of litigation issues, including bankruptcy, corporate contract disputes, patent and trademark infringement, shareholder disputes, corporate dissolution, and corporate derivative actions.

Cassie Powell is the inaugural Director of the Access to Justice Clinic at the University of Richmond School of Law. The Clinic advances the rights of Virginians experiencing poverty through civil litigation services in housing, public benefits, family, and education law matters. Prior to directing the Clinic, Professor Powell was the Managing Attorney of Virginia Legal Aid Society’s Suffolk office. As Managing Attorney, she led a team of attorneys, paralegals, outreach and administrative staff serving families and individuals with limited incomes in a broad range of civil legal areas, including housing, public benefits, domestic violence, family and education law. Professor Powell previously worked as an attorney with the Legal Aid Justice Center’s Youth Justice Program, focusing on education and civil rights law. She earned her dual law and Master of Social Work degrees from the University of Richmond School of Law and Virginia Commonwealth University. Upon graduation from law school, she received the Professor Nina R. Kestin Service Award. Professor Powell earned her undergraduate degree in English from the College of William and Mary, where she received the President’s Award for Service to the Community.

A Richmond native, Peter Askin knows the city by heart, and its diverse array of courts by hand. Having previously served as a law clerk for various judges, Peter has profound civil litigation insight to better represent clients in all forums – state and federal, trial and appellate.

Sean Beard is an Assistant General Counsel at Altria Client Services, where he leads the group that negotiates and manages all contracts for the company and its affiliates related to the purchase of assets, goods, and services. Sean had extensive experience in private practice at Hunton & Williams representing Fortune 500 companies in acquisitions and finance transactions, and he has served on several nonprofit Boards, including the Historic Richmond Foundation and SCAN. Sean has volunteered for GRBF’s Pro Bono Clearinghouse to assist nonprofits with their legal needs.

Ashley Davis is an attorney in the Richmond, Virginia office of Allen & Allen. She is a legal strategist and litigator who focuses her practice on complex litigation, products liability, foodborne illness, sexual assault, federal litigation, and appellate practice. Ashley is an adjunct professor teaching trial advocacy at the University of Richmond’s T. C. Williams School of Law, and a former instructor of Legal Research and Writing for the Paralegal Studies program at VCU. She is a member of the Boyd-Graves Conference of the Virginia State Bar and serves on the Board of Governors of the Virginia Trial Lawyers Association (VTLA). She is the former chair of the pro bono committees of the Richmond Bar Association and the VTLA. Ashley was recently named as an Influential Woman of Law by Virginia Lawyers Weekly. She is also honored to be listed as one of the Viriginia Super Lawyers, and as one of the Best Lawyers in America – “Ones to Watch,” in 2022. Before attending law school, Ashley lived and worked as an archaeologist in Mexico and the Caribbean. She is a fluent Spanish-speaker.

Drew is a litigator, with a primary focus on class actions, mass tort lawsuits, high-stakes commercial litigation, and litigation arising out of catastrophic incidents. His expertise includes handling multidistrict litigation (MDL) and providing counsel on punitive damages in high-stakes personal injury actions. Drew has a wealth of experience representing clients facing investigations by various regulatory bodies such as the National Transportation Safety Board (“NTSB”), Department of Transportation (“DOT”), the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (“PHMSA”), the Consumer Product Safety Commission (“CPSC”), state attorney general offices, and public utility commissions. His clients span diverse industries, including energy, transportation, construction, and product manufacturing.

Alan Hutson is the managing partner of The Monument Group, a leading US-based consultancy that for 27 years has helped nonprofit organizations tap their fundraising potential. He is also a senior partner consultant at =mc consulting and serves on the Decision Science team.

Whether he is revamping annual fund structures or managing capital campaigns, Alan’s recommendations include staff and volunteers involved, in a sustained way, in the fundraising process. Alan’s work has resulted in nonprofit organizations raising over $250M (US-based clients). Alan uses his US-based fundraising expertise and background in economics to support the work of =mc consulting. Specifically, he has worked with =mc to help define the global fundraising strategies for Smile Train, Médecins Sans Frontières, Adeso, UNICEF, and IFRC.

He is a recent board member of AFP Global and has served on AFP Foundation for Philanthropy’s Executive Committee. He is also a member representative for the Giving Institute where he sits on the Methodology Committee for the Giving USA annual study. Alan is routinely invited to speak nationally and internationally at fundraising conferences.

Chris Jones is Counsel at Sands Anderson where he practices in Cybersecurity & Technology, Litigation, and Product Liability. He has worked with corporations of all sizes in complex litigation and helping his clients avoid litigation, via risk management. He has served on the nonprofit board of CodeVA, after helping them with their pro bono legal needs via GRBF’s Pro Bono Clearinghouse.

Lesley is an experienced in-house business counsel, a skilled litigator, a savvy adviser and a pro bono champion. She's a leader and loves being part of a team; a quick and strategic thinker and also a thorny problem solver. She has represented and counseled clients in complex civil and business litigation, financial services litigation and regulatory matters, corporate internal investigations, and criminal investigations and prosecutions, including first-chair trial lawyer and jury trial experience