Attorney General Brian L. Schwalb today announced three new appointments within the Office of the Attorney General.
“District residents deserve to have the best legal minds and talents representing their interests. We are committed to institutional excellence, continuous improvement, and being the best public law firm in the country. I am grateful to Christina for her sound counsel and willingness to assume additional responsibilities, and I am thrilled to welcome Erika and Zenia to the team,” said Attorney General Schwalb. “Their impact is already evident - their unique expertise, experience, and dedication have already enhanced our office’s ability to fight for all Washingtonians, to advance the public interest, and to work towards a safer, more equitable DC.”
Christina Okereke, Special Counsel for Opioid Abatement
Christina Okereke serves as the Special Counsel to the Attorney General for Opioid Abatement, advising the Attorney General with respect to the Opioid Abatement Advisory Commission and providing advice to the Commission and the Department of Behavioral Health on legal and policy issues concerning the Commission’s governance. Ms. Okereke also continues to serve as Chief of General Litigation Section II in the Civil Litigation Division, a position she has held since 2019. In that role, she directly supervises a team of Assistant Attorneys General and legal support staff in all aspects of defending the District of Columbia and its employees in civil cases. From November 2023 until May 2024, Ms. Okereke also served as Senior Counsel to the Attorney General in a six-month detail, where she assisted and advised the Attorney General and Chief Deputy Attorney General on a variety of civil litigation and policy matters. Before her promotion to Section Chief, Ms. Okereke served as an Acting Section Chief and as an Assistant Attorney General in the Civil Litigation Division, where she handled a variety of employment discrimination and constitutional civil rights cases. Prior to joining OAG, Ms. Okereke served as an Assistant Attorney General in the New York State Office of the Attorney General, where she handled complex constitutional civil rights and employment law matters.
Ms. Okereke received her Bachelor of Arts degree from Columbia University, her Master of Public Administration degree from Syracuse University’s Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, and her Juris Doctor from Fordham University School of Law.
Erika Stillabower, Ethics and Compliance Counsel & FOIA Officer
Erika Stillabower serves as the Office of the Attorney General’s Ethics and Compliance Counsel and FOIA Officer, where she provides ethics and legal compliance advice to the Attorney General and all other OAG personnel. Ms. Stillabower assists in developing OAG ethics policies, provides ethics training to all new OAG employees, and evaluates conflicts of interest with respect to outside counsel engagements and requests by OAG employees to participate in activities outside their government duties. In addition, she manages OAG's responses to FOIA requests and OAG's FOIA reporting.
Ms. Stillabower previously served as Senior Legal Ethics Counsel at the D.C. Bar, where she provided guidance to lawyers seeking information on the interpretation and application of the D.C. Rules of Professional Conduct. She authored numerous articles on legal ethics for a column that appeared regularly in the Washington Lawyer and frequently served as faculty for MCLE-accredited ethics courses. Prior to that, Ms. Stillabower spent eight years as an associate at a D.C. law firm, where her practice focused on white collar criminal defense and government litigation. She received her Juris Doctor from the Georgetown University Law Center.
Zenia Wilson Laws, Special Counsel for Nuisance Abatement
Zenia Wilson Laws serves as Special Counsel for Nuisance Abatement in OAG's Public Advocacy Division, where she collaborates with community members and stakeholders to identify and implement solutions for nuisance activity. Ms. Laws’ public interest legal career is rooted in community-focused advocacy. Prior to joining OAG, she was a Senior Staff Attorney at Legal Aid DC, where she represented low-income District residents in debt collection and foreclosure matters and engaged in related systemic and policy advocacy. Prior to that, as a Community Lawyer in Maryland, Ms. Laws provided community-based legal services to returning citizens and jobseekers facing legal barriers to employment.
She received her B.A., summa cum laude, from Morgan State University, and her Juris Doctor from the University of Baltimore School of Law, where she was a Fannie Angelos Scholar and law clerk with the NAACP’s Office of the General Counsel. Following law school, she also served as an AmeriCorps VISTA volunteer.