Today, the RNLA recognized the distinguished new members of its Board of Governors for 2019. These elite attorneys will help to lead the over 6,000-member-strong organization in 2019.

RNLA Chair Manuel Iglesias stated: “The 2018 RNLA Board class is one of our best ever, featuring geographic and career diversity, including our first sitting elected official."

The Honorable Tim Griffin was elected Lieutenant Governor of Arkansas in 2015 and was recently re-elected to a second term. He previously served as a Member of Congress from 2011-2015, representing Arkansas’s Second District where he served on the House Ways and Means and Judiciary Committees and as a Deputy Whip. He also served as the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Arkansas, and Special Assistant to the President and Deputy Political Director for George W. Bush at the White House. He has been an Army Reserve officer in the Judge Advocate General’s (JAG) Corps for over 22 years and was recently promoted to Colonel. He lives in Little Rock, Arkansas, with his wife Elizabeth and their three children.

Lee Goodman served as Chairman (2014) and Commissioner (2013-2018) of the Federal Election Commission, where he championed First Amendment rights of the press and political parties and free speech on the internet. He is a former legal counsel and policy advisor to the Governor of Virginia and general counsel to the Republican Party of Virginia. He is a partner with Wiley Rein LLP in Washington.

Linda Knight is a commercial lawyer in private practice in Nashville, Tennessee.   She is a member of the American, Tennessee and Nashville Bar Associations and the American, Tennessee and Nashville Bar Foundations, and is a Special Member of the Alabama State Bar. She is Treasurer and Past President of the Tennessee Lawyers’ Associations for Women and is a member of the Nashville chapter. She is Secretary, former President, and a board member of the Tennessee Supreme Court Historical Society and is a past Secretary of the Nashville Bar Association. She is Treasurer of the Nashville Chapter of the Federal Bar Association, a past member and Secretary of the Tennessee Economic Council on Women, appointed by the former Governor, and a past member of the Tennessee Ethics Commission, appointed by the former Speaker of the House. Linda is a past Hearing Panel member for the Tennessee Board of Professional Responsibility. She serves on the board of Tennessee Woman Suffrage Monument, Inc. and is a member of Phi Beta Kappa.

Audrey Perry Martin is Of Counsel to Bell, McAndrews & Hiltachk, LLP, where she advises corporations, candidates, political action committees (PACs), political parties, and major campaign donors in the areas of political and election law. Previously she served as Deputy General Counsel for Romney for President in 2008 and as counsel to the McCain-Palin campaign. She has also worked on the Committee on House Administration of the U.S. House of Representatives and at the Federal Election Commission. She currently teaches an election law class at Brigham Young University Law School.

Stefan Passantino is a former Deputy White House Counsel. Stefan is chair of Michael Best's Government Regulations & Public Policy practice where he heads the Firm's Political Law practice. Leveraging his nearly 25 years of experience to serve clients, Stefan focuses on representing corporations, interest groups, political figures, and other entities with respect to state and federal election law, ethics, campaign finance, pay-to-play, state and federal lobbying laws, internal investigations, crisis communications, Congressional oversight, and other issues. Stefan joins Michael Best after serving as Deputy Assistant to the President and Deputy Counsel where he headed the White House Compliance and Ethics programs. He maintains offices in Washington, D.C. and Atlanta.

RNLA President David Warrington said: “I am honored to be President of an association that has such outstanding Board members such as these five new members."

Thank you to these new members and the incumbent members of the Board of Governors for serving the RNLA and its members.