07 Jul 2026
Nixon Peabody welcomes five new counsel across departments
"Nixon Peabody adds five counsel across Tax, Government Investigations & White‑Collar Defense, Higher Education/Construction & Real Estate Litigation, Intellectual Property, and Environmental practices."
Arsalan Memon joins the Business & Finance Department in New York City as counsel on Nixon Peabody’s Tax team. He focuses on tax matters arising in a broad range of domestic and international transactions, including mergers and acquisitions, reorganizations, corporate restructurings, and private equity investments in both taxable and tax‑deferred structures. He also advises on the tax aspects of capital markets transactions, financial instruments, federal renewable energy tax credits, investment funds, and regulated investment companies. He earned his JD from Touro College Jacob D. Fuchsberg Law Center, his LLM in Taxation from Georgetown University Law Center, and his BBA from the University of Sindh.
John Havranek joins the Litigation Department in Washington, DC as counsel in the Government Investigations & White‑Collar Defense practice. He is an experienced security and homeland security professional and litigator with more than 35 years of government service with the United States Department of Homeland Security and the United States Department of Defense. He served as Principal Deputy General Counsel for DHS, Associate General Counsel for the Operations and Enforcement Law Division of DHS, and Deputy Legal Counsel to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. His federal government experience encompasses government civil and criminal enforcement matters, international law, cybersecurity, foreign investment regulation, supply chain resilience, sanctions, investigations, cross‑border authorities and regulations, drone operations, and maritime law. He earned his JD and BSBA from Creighton University.
Alexandra Mitropoulos joins the Litigation Department in Boston as counsel in Construction & Real Estate Litigation and as a member of Nixon Peabody’s Higher Education team. She represents private and public colleges and universities nationwide and serves as a strategic partner to senior institutional leadership and stakeholders across institutions. She guides institutions through high‑risk situations where legal exposure, reputational concerns, and institutional mission intersect, addressing matters such as contract negotiations, complex student discipline, internal investigations, tenure issues, and federal regulatory compliance. She has extensive experience advising senior leadership and serving as a GC‑level strategic advisor on governance challenges, regulatory scrutiny, investigations, crisis response, and mission‑aligned growth. She earned her JD from Boston College Law School, an MA in Higher Education Administration from Boston College Lynch School of Education, and a BA from Boston College.
Sean O’Hanlon joins the Litigation Department in Washington, DC as counsel in the Intellectual Property practice. He brings more than 25 years of intellectual property experience, including a decade as an administrative patent judge at the US Patent and Trademark Office’s Patent Trial and Appeal Board. During his tenure at the PTAB he presided over more than 230 America Invents Act trials—authoring over 80 of those proceedings—and participated in more than 740 ex parte appeals, authoring over 200 decisions. He leverages this PTAB experience to build challenges and advise patent owners on effective defensive strategies. He earned his JD from George Mason University Antonin Scalia School of Law and his BME from the Georgia Institute of Technology.
Allison Smith joins the Project Finance, Infrastructure & Real Estate Department in San Francisco as counsel in Affordable Housing & Real Estate and as a member of Nixon Peabody’s Environmental team. She works with companies and organizations nationwide on environmental, energy, carbon, and ESG matters, leading carbon transactions for voluntary and compliance markets and advising on the development of carbon offset projects and interventions. She counsels clients on air quality and greenhouse gas regulations, including California climate risk disclosure laws and the cap‑and‑invest program, and has defended companies in enforcement actions before the California Air Resources Board, the California Energy Commission, the California Department of Pesticide Regulation, and California air districts. She also has extensive experience in permitting and financing energy, agribusiness, residential, commercial, and industrial facilities, having worked on over one hundred projects across the United States. She earned her JD from Tulane University Law School and her BA from the University of Virginia.