Our Board
The Orange County Coalition for Diversity in the Law (OCCDL) is a collaborative effort of professionals from leading Orange County law firms and other community partners committed to achieving cultural diversity in recruiting and retaining law students and attorneys in Orange County.
– Our Mission Statement
Kristin Fabella
Chair
Kristin Fabella is an associate attorney at Ropers Majeski. She joined OCCDL’s Board after attending their Professional Development workshops in 2021.
She attended Chapman Law School, where she served as President of the Public Interest Law Foundation and graduated with the class of 2020 Community Service award. She was trained in Trial Advocacy under Hon. Halim Dhanidina, former justice of the California Court of Appeal (2nd District) and competed in Alternative Dispute Resolution. Practicing the art of conflict resolution, she earned awards in Mediation/Negotiation, Family Law, and International Law & Organizations.
She has hosted numerous successful legal dialogues, including “The Restitution of Nazi-Looted Art” (2019) involving attorney Randon Schoenberg’s recovery of stolen Jewish property, as portrayed by Ryan Reynolds in the 2015 film Woman in Gold.
Diana Chao
President
Diana Chao is a litigation attorney at Everett Dorey with extensive experience in all facets of litigation. Her innovative case handling has benefited clients in pre-litigated and litigated matters. Diana’s practice focuses on complex and catastrophic injuries and mass tort litigation. She also provides risk management services, focusing on transfer and elimination of risk.
Diana is a member of her firm’s Diversity Leadership Committee, Recruiting Committee, and speaks conversational Vietnamese. She is also involved in the Orange County Asian American Bar Association and Orange County Women Lawyers Association.
Mark Lezama
Vice President
A partner at Knobbe Martens, Mark Lezama focuses on trials and appeals in patent disputes. He has handled patent cases in numerous jurisdictions across the country; and everywhere he has litigated, the need for more diversity in the intellectual property bar has been apparent. Committed to advancing DE&I in the law, Mark serves on his firm’s Diversity Committee, participates in community outreach programs, and has joined the OCCDL Board because he has seen firsthand the local impact OCCDL has had.
Mike Olsen
Treasurer
Mike Olsen is an Associate Attorney at Kading Briggs LLP, where he exclusively represents management and employers in litigation before state and federal agencies, courts, and in arbitration—including class actions, individual claims of discrimination and harassment under civil rights laws, and trade secret disputes.
Immediately before joining Kading Briggs, Mike was in-house legal counsel, serving as the sole Labor & Employment Counsel for North America for a publicly traded e-commerce and logistics company with two thousand employees. Before his role in-house, Mike was an associate who began his career at the international and national law firms of Ogletree Deakins, Bryan Cave, and Manatt, Phelps & Phillips LLP.
During law school, Mike held roles as an extern for U.S. District Judge Thelton E. Henderson in the Northern District of California, extern in the U.S. Attorneys’ Office for the Central District of California, and as a research assistant at the Williams Institute at UCLA School of Law. Mike graduated manga cum laude from the University of California, Hastings College of the Law in 2015, and his article on the Americans with Disabilities Act, Disabled but Unqualified, was published the same year.
Mike has provided a wide range pro bono legal services, including representing foster parents in adoption proceedings, preparing an amicus brief on behalf of the Family Equality Council, obtaining immigration relief for juvenile immigrants in a class action suit against the federal government, preparing an amicus brief filed before SCOTUS in support of upholding DACA and serving at various legal clinics supporting low-income individuals.
Since 2018, Mike has served on the Board of Directors and as an officer of the Orange County Lavender Bar Association, Orange County’s LBTQ+ bar association, and he presently serves as its President.
Crispin Collins
Secretary
Crispin Collins is a litigation attorney in Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton LLP’s Orange County office, with significant experience handling a wide variety of matters in state and federal court, before state and federal administrative agencies, and in various forms of alternative dispute resolution. Before joining Sheppard Mullin, Crispin worked in the Los Angeles office of another AmLaw 100 firm, focusing his practice on representing large motor vehicle manufacturers in the areas of dealer franchise law, class action defense, and high-stakes breach of warranty cases.
Crispin is an Orange County native and alumnus of St. Catherine of Siena Parish School in Laguna Beach and Mater Dei High School in Santa Ana. He is dedicated to serving his home community, particularly through his pro bono work. In 2021, in recognition of his work representing indigent client’s in Orange County who had been denied Social Security disability benefits, the California Lawyers Association awarded Crispin with the Wiley W. Manuel Certificate for Pro Bono Legal Services.
Crispin is deeply committed to promoting diversity and inclusion, having been helped by numerous mentors and diversity organizations to achieve his career goals. As an undergraduate at the University of Southern California, Crispin was a McNair Scholar and became, to the USC history department’s knowledge, the first black USC student to receive a Bachelor of Arts in history with honors. At Notre Dame Law School, Crispin was Vice President of the school’s Black Law Student Association (BLSA). Crispin continues to support both his alma maters: volunteering as a mentor through the USC Black Alumni Association’s Legacy Through Leadership and Notre Dame Law School BLSA programs.