2018 Faculty
(speaker names linked to full professional biography on firm/company web site)
Keynote Speakers
Partner
Eric Holder served as 82nd Attorney General of the United States from 2009-2015. As the third longest serving Attorney General in U.S. history and the first African American to hold that office, Mr. Holder is an internationally recognized leader across a broad range of regulatory enforcement, criminal justice, and national security issues. Including his tenure as Attorney General, Mr. Holder has served in government for more than thirty years, having been appointed to various positions requiring U.S. Senate confirmation by Presidents Obama, Clinton and Reagan. Before leaving his firm to serve as Attorney General, and after rejoining the firm, Mr. Holder has maintained a wide-ranging investigations and litigation practice at Covington. He advises clients on complex investigations and litigation matters, including those that are international in scope and involve significant regulatory enforcement issues and substantial reputational concerns. Among numerous significant engagements, he led the firm's representation of a major multi-national agricultural company in related civil, criminal, and investigative matters; acted as counsel to a special investigative committee of the board of directors of a Fortune 50 technology company; successfully tried a complex discrimination lawsuit on behalf of a leading financial services company; and represented several life sciences companies in litigation and investigations. Mr. Holder received his undergraduate and law degrees at Columbia University.
Herman Phleger Visiting Professor of Law
Michelle Lee has served in public office as the Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and most recently as the Director of the US Patent and Trademark Office, providing leadership and oversight to one of the largest intellectual property offices in the world, with over 12,000 employees and an annual budget of more than $3 billion. Ms. Lee served as the principal advisor to President Obama on domestic and international intellectual property policy matters, and is the first woman to serve as Director of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
Prior to public service, Ms. Lee advised some of the country's most innovative companies on technical, legal, and business matters. She was Deputy General Counsel for Google and the company's first Head of Patents and Patent Strategy. She joined the company when it was relatively young, and was responsible for formulating and implementing its patent strategy for all of its products and services worldwide. She also served as a partner at the Silicon Valley-based law firm of Fenwick & West LLP, where she advised a wide range of high-technology clients from startups to Fortune 100 companies intellectual property, licensing, litigation and corporate matters. Ms. Lee worked in the federal judiciary as a law clerk on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit for Judge Paul R. Michel and the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California for Judge Vaughn R. Walker. Prior to her legal career, Ms. Lee worked as a computer scientist at the M.I.T. Artificial Intelligence Laboratory and Hewlett-Packard Research Laboratories. She holds a B.S. and M.S. in electrical engineering and computer science from M.I.T., as well as a J.D. from Stanford Law School.
Prior to public service, Ms. Lee advised some of the country's most innovative companies on technical, legal, and business matters. She was Deputy General Counsel for Google and the company's first Head of Patents and Patent Strategy. She joined the company when it was relatively young, and was responsible for formulating and implementing its patent strategy for all of its products and services worldwide. She also served as a partner at the Silicon Valley-based law firm of Fenwick & West LLP, where she advised a wide range of high-technology clients from startups to Fortune 100 companies intellectual property, licensing, litigation and corporate matters. Ms. Lee worked in the federal judiciary as a law clerk on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit for Judge Paul R. Michel and the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California for Judge Vaughn R. Walker. Prior to her legal career, Ms. Lee worked as a computer scientist at the M.I.T. Artificial Intelligence Laboratory and Hewlett-Packard Research Laboratories. She holds a B.S. and M.S. in electrical engineering and computer science from M.I.T., as well as a J.D. from Stanford Law School.
Presenters
 | SVP, General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer In addition to Bill.com, Raj Aji has served in a number of capacities as an in-house lawyer for both fintech and other technology companies. As General Counsel and VP Business Affairs for Xoom.com, Inc. he helped shepherd the company through exponential growth and its ultimate merger to form NBC Internet, a subsidiary of General Electric. At Cisco Systems, he served as Director, Global Projects in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia and as Managing Attorney for Cisco's operations in India. In the fintech sector, he served as SVP and General Counsel of Obopay, Inc., a market-leading global payments company and as Assistant General Counsel for Intuit, where he was responsible for all legal matters related to Intuit's payments and financial services businesses. |
 | Deputy General Counsel Tammy Albarrán joined Uber in early 2018 as its Deputy General Counsel. In this role, she oversees Uber's global legal teams and advises on internal and government investigations. Ms. Albarrán, a former partner at Covington & Burling, specialized in internal investigations, anti-corruption matters, regulatory investigations and SEC and securities issues at the firm. While at Covington, Ms. Albarrán co-authored a report on Uber's culture, along with former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, also a partner at the firm. |
 | Senior Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary Marshall Anstandig is the Senior Vice-President and General Counsel to Digital First Media. He previously served as Vice President and Senior Labor & Employment Counsel for Knight Ridder Inc. Prior to that he was in private law practice for 24 years specializing in labor and employment law, where he had extensive negotiation, labor arbitration and litigation experience. Mr. Anstandig was managing partner of the Phoenix, Arizona office of Bryan Cave where he was head of the labor and employment practice. He is also an adjunct professor of law at Santa Clara University School of Law where he currently teaches a course on labor law. |
Partner | |
Associate General Counsel, Global Employment Law Nicole Armstrong's practice impacts all areas of the employee experience and life cycle. Her areas of focus include US and international employment law and compliance; best HR practices and risk mitigation; compensation programs; employee relations matters; internal investigations; wage and hour issues; contingent workforce; leaves of absence; accommodations; scalable policy development and implementation; learning/development/training; IP matters; M&A, reorgs; grievances/disciplinary processes; performance management; corporate compliance matters; restrictive covenants; separations/terminations; and management of outside counsel on litigation and immigration matters. Prior to joining Pure Storage, Ms. Armstrong was Associate General Counsel of Global Employment Law at Nutanix, Inc. | |
 | Shareholder Ian Ballon is an intellectual property and Internet litigator who is the Co-Chair of Greenberg Traurig's Global Intellectual Property & Technology Practice Group. He represents clients in copyright, DMCA, trademark, trade secret, right of publicity, privacy, security, software, database and Internet- and mobile-related disputes and in the defense of data privacy, security breach, behavioral advertising, TCPA and other Internet-related class action suits. Mr. Ballon, who splits his time between the firm's Silicon Valley and Los Angeles offices, is the author of the five-volume legal treatise, E-Commerce and Internet Law: Treatise With Forms 2d Edition (Thomson Reuters West 2008 & 2016 Cum. Supp., www.ianballon.net) and the earlier first edition, which has been cited in state and federal court opinions. He is also the author of The Complete CAN-SPAM Act Handbook (West 2008) and The Complete State Security Breach Notification Compliance Handbook (West 2009). In addition, Mr. Ballon serves as Executive Director of Stanford University Law School's Center for E-Commerce and serves as an member to the consultative group to the American Law Institute's Principles of the Law, Data Privacy project. |
 | Partner Art Beeman is a partner in the San Francisco office of Crowell & Moring. He focuses on the trial and management of complex intellectual property and commercial litigation. He has extensive experience handling cutting-edge patent, trade secret, and copyright matters in the telecommunications, internet, software, hardware, medical device, and construction machinery industries. Mr. Beeman has successfully represented clients in numerous "bet-the-company" disputes and has tried more than 30 cases to jury verdict in venues throughout the United States.. As lead trial counsel in cases involving patent infringement, he obtained a $47 million jury verdict for the inventor of a shock hazard protection device; a defense jury verdict for a Terex subsidiary; and an $8.5 million jury verdict, plus an award of attorneys fees and costs, for CollegeNET. A focus of Mr. Beeman’s current practice also involves the representation of licensees in major disputes with enterprise database licensors, including serving as lead counsel on behalf of Mars, Incorporated against Oracle Corporation in the only publicly filed complaint against the software giant for its audit tactics and conduct. |
 | Partner Dawn Belt advises technology companies on a broad range of general corporate and complex transactional matters, including startup counseling, venture capital financings, mergers and acquisitions, public offerings, SEC compliance and corporate governance. Prior to joining Fenwick & West, Ms. Belt served as a judicial extern for Magistrate Judge Joseph C. Spero in the U.S. District Court, Northern District of California. She worked as an economic consultant specializing in the valuation of technologies and business ventures. |
 | Partner Sandeep Birdi is a founder of CrossPond Law. He is both a European patent attorney and a Chartered UK patent attorney who specialises in prosecuting patent applications in Europe and the UK, drawing on his extensive experience gained from working in both boutique and multi-national law firms. Mr. Birdi has been able to service American clients in their local time zone, thus enabling a more interactive and collaborative working arrangement leading to improved quality and faster grant of patents. Mr. Birdi manages large portfolios of patent applications which include jurisdictions such as Europe, UK, Japan, Korea, China, Taiwan, Canada and India. |
 | Partner In his more than 37 years of experience practicing corporate and securities law, Steve Bochner has served as lead counsel for many of Silicon Valley's most prominent companies, assisting them in venture capital, public offering, and merger transactions valued in the billions of dollars. He also has represented numerous start-up companies, as well as major venture capital and investment banking firms. From 2009 to 2012, Mr. Bochner served as the chief executive officer of Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati and is currently a member of the firm's board of directors. Mr. Bochner was recently elected to a second term as a member of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco's board of directors. He is also chairman of the Nasdaq Private Market advisory board and a member of the board of directors of the Nasdaq Entrepreneurial Center in San Francisco. |
 | Partner Bryant (B.C.) Boren chairs Baker Bott's IP/Technology Litigation Practice Group. He has served as the first chair trial lawyer in dozens of high-stakes patent cases throughout the country for AT&T, Verizon, Cisco, Texas Instruments, Sprint, CSC, and many others. Mr. Boren started trying jury cases in 1980 and began to focus his practice on technology-related litigation soon thereafter. In addition to patent cases, he has served as lead counsel in trade secret, copyright, and trademark matters in state and federal courts, as well as a wide variety of software disputes. Mr. Boren has represented clients in matters relating to such diverse technologies as internet-based advertising, medical devices, videoconferencing hardware and software, microprocessor architecture, broadcast and IP-based video delivery systems, data aggregation, data processing outsourcing, database design, digital signal processing, video and audio compression algorithms, wifi networks, computer security, supply chain software, location-based services, and virtually all mobile telecommunications products and services. |
 | Associate General Counsel Juliana Capata serves as Associate General Counsel at Workday, Inc. Her areas of practice includes mergers and acquisitions, securities law compliance and corporate governance, debt and equity financings, labor and employment, real estate, finance and treasury. She has also practiced in-house at Zynga and LSI Corporation. She began her legal career at the Boston and San Francisco offices of Ropes & Gray as a corporate and securities lawyer. |
 | Partner Cass Christenson, a partner in Denton's Washington, D.C. office, represents clients at the trial and appellate level through the country. Formerly head of legacy firm McKenna Long & Aldridge's Trade Secrets and IP Litigation practice team, Mr. Christenson represents clients in disputes involving intellectual property, contracts, commercial transactions, government regulations, and emerging technologies. He has tried, arbitrated, and settled cases for clients operating in aerospace and defense, consumer products, VoIP and telecommunications, Internet technologies, banking and financial services, franchising, real estate, medical devices, and other industries. Cass has litigated patent infringement cases involving hundreds of millions of dollars, and he has successfully asserted and opposed many theories for calculating patent damages. He has developed strategies and evidence to prove willful infringement and induced infringement, recovering multi-million dollar jury verdicts, enhanced damages, and other remedies. In addition, Mr. Christenson has obtained jury verdicts in patent cases involving foreign manufacturing and has extensive experience in conducting foreign discovery and depositions. |
 | Partner Glynna Christian, Co-Head of Orrick's Global Technology Transactions practice, has more than 20 years' experience advising clients in corporate and commercial deals across virtually all operational and strategic areas of their businesses, including launching new technology and digital products, including blockchain, autonomous and connected vehicles, wearable devices, data products, payment solutions, mobile app services, Internet security services and Internet registry services; transforming traditional business models and internal service delivery models to digital models relying on cloud, blockchain, data (including Artificial Intelligence) and mobility; and M&A, financings, public offerings, joint ventures and other strategic transactions. Ms. Christian co-leads the firm's Autonomous and Connected Vehicles working group and also participates in the firm's AI and blockchain working groups. |
 | Partner Gina Conheady is a partner in the Corporate and M&A practice and head of A&L Goodbody's San Francisco office. Ms. Conheady advises US companies on all aspects of Irish corporate law, with a principal focus on international expansion, cross-border mergers and acquisitions, international corporate reorganizations and corporate governance. She works with a wide range of technology, biotech and fintech clients. Ms. Conheady is also a member of the firm's FinTech and Life Sciences Groups. She has extensive experience in leading multi-jurisdictional transactions and has advised in relation to some of the largest inward investment and restructuring projects in Ireland in the last number of years. |
 | Special Counsel Adam Connolly advises clients on a range of matters relating to technology, innovation and data, including privacy and cybersecurity, product development, digital marketing and technology transactions. Mr. Connolly counsels clients on privacy, cybersecurity, data use and consumer protection issues in a variety of contexts, including software and mobile product development, Internet of Things applications, data analytics, digital marketing and corporate compliance. He helps clients globalize their privacy programs to address the GDPR and other data protection laws around the world. Mr. Connelly also advises clients on data security issues, including incident response and information security programs. His transactional practice focuses on negotiating a variety of technology transactions, including cloud computing agreements, software licensing and software-as-a-service (SaaS) agreements, outsourcing transactions, collaboration agreements and professional services and consulting agreements. He also advises on privacy and cybersecurity due diligence and negotiation for M&A and other corporate transactions. |
 | Partner Paul Cowie is a partner in the Labor and Employment Practice Group in the Silicon Valley office of Sheppard Mullin and serves as the leader of the firm's Transportation Team. Mr. Cowie focuses on defense work for technology and emerging growth companies related to a wide range of employment disputes, including BYOD, social media, executive agreements, discrimination, independent contractors, workplace violence, harassment, wrongful termination and whistleblower complaints. He is also a leader in gamification to engage employees in the workplace. Mr. Cowie also works extensively in the area of single plaintiff and class actions, wage & hour compliance, founder disputes, and workplace investigations. He counsels clients on all aspects of employment, including assignment of intellectual property, privacy, cyber-security and protection of trade secrets. |
 | Partner Meredith Dearborn is a California Bay Area-based trial lawyer who represents clients in high-stakes commercial disputes. Ms. Dearborn has taken five cases to trial, representing clients in both federal and state courts in California. Her litigation practice extends to a diverse array of practice areas, including intellectual property, contract, California state statutory and common law, and antitrust, with a particular focus in the technology sector. Her clients have included Fortune 100 companies and technology startups. |
 | Partner Lothar Determann has been helping companies in Silicon Valley and around the world take products, business models, intellectual property, and contracts global for nearly 20 years. He advises on data privacy law compliance, information technology commercialization, copyrights, open source licensing, electronic commerce, technology transactions, sourcing and international distribution via Baker McKenzie's offices in San Francisco and Palo Alto. He is a member of the firm's International/Commercial Practice Group and the TMT and Healthcare industry groups. Dr. Determann has taught law at the University of California, Berkeley School of Law and at Free University in Berlin. He has published four books and more than 100 articles and treatise contributions on international and technology law subjects, including a practical guide and commentary, California Privacy Law, now in its 3rd edition. |
 | Partner Brandee Diamond focuses on domestic and international M&A transactions and represents strategic and private equity buyers, public and private company sellers, and stockholders on both friendly and hostile transactions.
She advises clients in all aspects of the deal process, including working with corporate boards and senior management on pre-acquisition planning, transaction structuring, drafting and negotiating acquisition and related agreements, and post-acquisition integration planning.
In addition to her transactional work, Ms. Diamond counsels emerging growth companies in connection with their formation and development, addressing formation, compensation, financing and other corporate matters. |
 | Partner Sam Dibble is a partner in the San Francisco office of Baker Botts. He advises clients on a broad array of corporate transactions, including leveraged buyouts, asset sales and other types of mergers and acquisitions. He has extensive experience in corporate finance, having worked on transactions ranging from bank loans and stock sales to complex issuances of high yield bonds and convertible debt and equity securities. Mr. Dibble's practice also includes advising blockchain-based technology companies in organization, operation and fundraising activities, including token pre-sales, SAFTs and other securities offerings. Mr. Dibble holds the Chartered Financial Analyst designation and prior to his career as an attorney, he was a financial consultant. As an attorney and CFA charter holder, Mr. Dibble often assists his clients with legal issues involving asset valuation, accounting and investment management. |
 | Partner Karen Dunn, a partner at Boies Schiller Flexner LLP, is one of America’s top trial lawyers best known for securing major courtroom victories on behalf of global tech titans including Apple, Oracle, and Uber. Called “a modern major-general,” Ms. Dunn is expert at crisis management, relied upon for counsel by C-suite executives and public figures, and regularly tapped to lead presidential debate preparations, including for President Obama and candidate Clinton. Earlier this year, Ms. Dunn led BSF’s defense of Uber in the Waymo v. Uber trade secrets case, which ended in a favorable settlement following four days of trial, including Ms. Dunn’s examination of former Uber CEO Travis Kalanick. Ms. Dunn also devotes time in her practice to litigating important social issues of the day and is currently co-lead counsel in a lawsuit against the neo-Nazis and white supremacists responsible for violence in Charlottesville, Virginia last year. |
 | Cloud General Counsel Landon Edmond, SAP’s Cloud General
Counsel for the Cloud Business Group (SAP Ariba, SAP Fieldglass,
SAP Concur, SuccessFactors and Callidus) oversees the day to day legal function of the cloud lines of the company's business globally. Mr. Edmond began his in-house career at Ariba, prior to its aquisition by SAP. He started in practice at Morrison & Foerster where he specialized in litigation with a focus on intellectual property matters and pro bono legal work for the Lawyer's Committee on Civil Rights. |
 | Partner Chris Eide's practice concentrates on domestic and international patent prosecution, IP strategic planning, IP due diligence, technology licensing, and intellectual property disputes involving complex technology. He has worked on matters involving such critical areas as Internet and software technology, natural language processing, machine learning, virtual and augmented reality technology, unmanned aerial vehicle software and hardware, semiconductors, data storage, and medical devices. Mr. Eide provides patent prosecution and counseling services to companies of all sizes, from industry leaders such as a California-based global smart phone and computer manufacturer to early-stage companies seeking investment. He has played an essential role in patent disputes involving high technology, including representing Oracle America against Google in a high stakes patent dispute over Java technology and Nichia Corporation against Seoul Semiconductor in a dispute over short-wavelength laser diodes and LED technology. |
 | Helena Engfeldt practices in Baker McKenzie's International/Commercial Practice Group in San Francisco. Before joining the firm, she was a Fellow at the Berkeley Center for Law and Technology. Ms. Engfeldt practices international commercial law with a focus on assisting and advising technology companies with cross-border transactions, drafting and negotiating commercial agreements, and advising on global data privacy law compliance. Ms. Engfeldt also advises software developers, e-commerce companies, and global mobile and web gaming developers on regulatory restrictions, intellectual property, contracting and data privacy. |
 | Partner Dean Fealk advises leading multinational companies on a wide range of legal and strategic issues related to doing business overseas. Mr. Fealk leads the Global Equity Practice at DLA Piper. He frequently serves as managing international legal counsel for multi-jurisdictional and multi-disciplined projects and matters implicating corporate, securities, regulatory, tax, labor, foreign exchange and data privacy. Mr. Fealk has considerable experience in cross-border equity-based compensation programs and international employment matters in Asia, Europe, Latin America, the Middle East and Africa. He regularly counsels on international and cross-border aspects of international data privacy, immigration, intellectual property protection, choice of entity, tax and corporate structure. He also advises on a broad array of international employment matters. On the transactional side, Mr. Fealk has provided counsel on more than US$30 billion in cross-border deals, among them mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, restructurings and integrations. |
 | Senior Vice President and General Counsel Ms. Flaminia joined Mellanox in September 2016 as senior vice president and general counsel. Prior to this, Ms. Flaminia served as vice president, general counsel and corporate secretary for PMC-Sierra from January 2007 until its acquisition by Microsemi Corporation in January 2016. Before that, Ms. Flaminia served as senior counsel at Xilinx, Inc. from March 2001 through 2006 where she provided legal services to the company's finance and corporate services, sales, marketing and human resources organizations worldwide. Ms. Flaminia served as manager of legal affairs for McAfee, Inc. (formerly known as Network Associates, Inc.) from December 1999 to March 2001. Ms. Flaminia was in private practice from 1990-1999, representing companies on a wide variety of corporate and litigation matters. |
 | General Counsel & Corporate Secretary David Fligor serves as ASSIA’s General Counsel and Corporate Secretary where he draws on deep legal, business and technical experience to provide counsel to the company's executive management, business units, and the Board. Prior to ASSIA, Mr. Fligor held legal and business roles for more than a decade within the communications industry, including serving as VP & Associate General Counsel and VP, Corporate Development and Strategy, at TiVo Inc., and VP, Licensing at the Kudelski Group. At TiVo and Kudelski, Mr. Fligor led teams of attorneys and other professionals responsible for a range of licensing, commercial transactions and intellectual property matters, including negotiation of a series of patent litigation settlements resulting in more than $1.6B in guaranteed payments to TiVo and a strategic business arrangement for the Kudelski Group. In addition to his in-house experience, Mr. Fligor's career has included more than seven years at private law firms working with high-tech companies, and started his legal career at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati. |
 | Partner Steven Garland,Managing Partner, and Chair of the Executive Committee at Smart & Biggar, has over 25 years of trial and appellate experience in intellectual property litigation of all types, including issues relating to patent, trademark, copyright, industrial designs, trade secrets and competition law. He has acted in many patent litigation matters that have involved a wide variety of subjects, including chemical, electrical, biochemical, pharmaceutical, biotechnological, telephony, mechanical and computer/Internet subject matter. Mr. Garland has appeared as counsel in intellectual property cases at both the Federal Court and Federal Court of Appeal, the Ontario Superior Court and Court of Appeal, the Nova Scotia Supreme Court and Court of Appeal, the Court of Appeal of British Columbia and the Supreme Court of Canada. He also appears before the Patent Appeal Board and the Trademarks Opposition Board. He has also been retained as a mediator in intellectual property disputes. |
 | Partner Ian Goldstein is a business lawyer with more than 20 years of experience advising emerging growth companies in the technology and life sciences industries as well as the venture capital firms and strategic investors that finance, partner with and acquire these companies. He also advises companies and institutions that are adapting to a technology-driven world on complex financial and strategic transactions and other initiatives designed to accelerate innovation and growth. Mr. Goldstein's practice is based in the growing and dynamic technology and venture market of the greater New York City region and leverages the knowledge, insights and connections of the firm's deep roots in Silicon Valley. |
 | Vice President, Legal and Chief Privacy Officer Alexis Goltra is Vice President, Legal and Chief Privacy Officer for Oracle Corporation. In that capacity, Mr. Goltra manages Oracle's global privacy and data protection compliance program, which includes advising all lines of business and internal organizations (including Cloud Services, Global Security, Information Technology, Marketing, Development and HR) on the application of global data protection laws to Oracle's services and operations. Mr. Goltra is also responsible for maintaining global privacy and security policies, coordinating security incident and regulatory inquiry responses, performing privacy by design system and product reviews, creating contract templates with required global data protection terms, and negotiating privacy and security terms to be included in customer and vendor contracts. |
 | Partner Veronica M. Gray is a prominent trial attorney in Orange County, California with four decades of experience litigating and negotiating employment issues for her clients. She chairs Nossaman's Employment Practice Group and represents employers throughout California, as well as meeting their out-of-state needs. Ms. Gray provides counseling, advice, and litigation services to private and public companies and public entities in a broad array of employment and labor related matters including sole plaintiff and class actions related to wage and hour, wrongful terminations, discrimination, harassment, unfair competition and trade secrets, data breach, cybersecurity, executive employment agreements and benefits, severance and separation agreements, leave laws, reductions in force/WARN Act, record retention, e-discovery, audits, labor relations and social media. Ms. Gray counsels employers on how to execute workplace standards that both contribute to the overall stability of their organizations and comport with state and federal laws. Her experience runs the gamut of strategizing and negotiating to mediation, arbitration, and trials on the federal and state level. |
 | Of Counsel Lora Green is Of Counsel in the Washington, D.C., office of Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, where she is a member of the post-grant review practice. From 2001 to 2018, Ms. Green was an administrative patent judge at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, which included serving as a lead administrative patent judge from 2011 to 2017. While at the USPTO, she managed post-grant review proceedings, such as inter partes and covered business method reviews. She also mentored judges who were new to post grant-review proceedings and reviewed opinions of other authoring judges. In addition, she decided ex parte appeals from the biotechnology and pharmaceutical examining groups. As a lead administrative patent judge, she supervised administrative patent judges who decided ex parte appeals and managed post grant-review proceedings and interlocutory calls and oral hearings. |
 | Partner Sarah Guske is a partner in Baker Bott's Intellectual Property group and has significant experience litigating software and electronics patent litigation cases. Clients rely on her to litigate matters in district court and before the PTAB involving a wide variety of technologies, including optical components, telecommunication protocols and systems, MPEG Multimedia data for broadcast, telephonic voice recognition software and graphic chipset design. Ms. Guske also represents clients in appeals and has served as an Adjunct Professor teaching patent litigation at the University of Colorado and University of Denver. She is an Adjunct Professor at the University of California Hastings School of Law for the 2017-2018 academic year, where she teaches in the IP department. |
 | Partner Christian Harmsen, based in the Dusseldorf office of Bird & Bird, is head of the firm's German Intellectual Property Group as well as co-head of its International Intellectual Property Group. He is experienced in all areas of intellectual property, but focuses on international patent litigation of all technical areas. Throughout his career, Mr. Harmsen has led and coordinated a number of multi-national proceedings for clients such as Caterpillar, Electrolux, Ericsson, GlaxoSmithKline and Honeywell. He also successfully represents mid-cap companies including a German railway company for which he achieved, after three instances, the breakthrough decision of the Federal Supreme Court "Laufkranz" in 2006. Mr. Harmsen is Deputy Chairman of the German Intellectual Property and Copyright Association's (GRUR) section West and sits on the GRUR committees on patent and utility model law and on the protection of plants. |
 | Partner Stephen Heifetz is a partner in the Washington, D.C., office of Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, where he advises clients on laws and policies at the intersection of international business and national security. Mr. Heifetz previously served in the U.S. government on the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) and regularly helps clients determine whether to make a CFIUS filing and how to navigate the CFIUS process, including negotiating mitigation measures as needed to obtain CFIUS clearance. He has been involved in hundreds of CFIUS cases and currently represents the National Venture Capital Association in connection with the rulemaking that will implement CFIUS reform legislation. Mr. Heifetz also advises clients on other matters of legal compliance and political risk and defends companies facing investigations and government enforcement actions. He represents clients with regard to anti-money laundering laws administered by the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network and other financial regulators, as well as economic sanctions administered by the Office of Foreign Assets Control and by the UN Security Council. |
 | Partner Jessica Heim is a partner in Vinson & Elkins' San Francisco office where she specializes in government investigations and white collar criminal defense. She has developed a national and international practice representing companies and executives in high stakes matters involving the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, antitrust offenses, trade secrets, security violations and representing companies in commercial disputes, including IP litigation and securities matters. |
 | Partner Justin Hendrix litigates IP cases that often involve technologies relating to medical devices, semiconductors, telecommunications, and consumer electronics, drawing on insight gained as a law clerk at the Federal Circuit. Much of the technical knowledge he has developed in his practice is built on his experience as an engineer in the U.S. Navy's submarine force. Mr. Hendrix has litigated cases in forums across the United States, including U.S. district courts, the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC), the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, state courts, and private arbitration. His experience covers all aspects of patent litigation, including discovery and depositions, motions practice, examining witnesses at trial, and post-trial briefing and appeals. Mr. Hendrix is also experienced in licensing matters and drafting settlement agreements to resolve disputes. |
 | Partner Josh Hofheimer combines two decades of corporate, commercial and technology law practice with the experience having run a public company to bring his clients focused, practical counsel to help them grow their business and maximize their value and returns. His practice focuses on representing clients in life sciences, agribusiness and food and information technology sectors. Mr. Hofheimer's work spans a broad array of technology, intellectual property and commercial transactions ranging from agricultural technology to medical devices, biotechnology and pharmaceuticals, software, Internet and new media transactions and includes developing and implementing business strategies for commercialization of multiple intellectual property platforms. He also has negotiated research, funding and commercialization agreements, licenses, and technology spin-outs, as well as developed strategies to exploit proprietary products growing out of the research programs of agri-tech and bio-tech clientele. |
 | Head of IP Services & Senior IPR Licensing Counsel Byron Holz serves dual roles at Nokia, as both Head of IP Services for Nokia Software, and Senior IPR Licensing Counsel. His work includes both transactional and litigation matters. In parallel with his work for Nokia, Mr. Holz has taught International Intellectual Property at Emory University School of Law. He previously worked in Alston & Bird’s IP Litigation group, and as a clerk for the Honorable Marilyn L. Huff in the Southern District of California. |
 | Strategy and Operations Jay Hull is a recognized leader in legal innovation and change management. He most recently served as Chief Innovation Partner at Davis Wright Tremaine in Portland, Oregon, concurrent with his almost three decades of practice at the firm as a business transactions partner. In his role as Chief Innovation Partner, his focus was on partnering with the firm's lawyers and clients to develop new staffing models to lower the cost of completing projects, implementing new technologies to create greater transparency in legal work, using data analytics to proactively mitigate risks and rethinking how law firms and clients work together to solve business and legal challenges. |
 | Partner Ashley Hurst is a commercial litigator and solicitor-advocate with a particular speciality in disputes relating to the internet, data, and reputation. His wide-ranging practice covers all sides of the media and internet spectrum, acting for broadcasters, publishers, content owners, website operators and internet intermediaries on a broad range of commercial and content-related disputes, investigations and risks. Mr. Hurst advises some of the world's leading technology companies and fast growth digital businesses on the challenges they face as they expand in Europe, including in relation to intermediary liability. He is a recognised expert in data privacy and cyber security and is the first port of call for numerous international companies for cyber incident response. Mr. Hurst is also a reputation and crisis management specialist. |
 | Partner Peter Huston is a partner in Sidley's San Francisco office and a member of the firm's Antitrust, White Collar and Complex Commercial Litigation practices. He has 25 years of experience in high-stakes civil and criminal antitrust litigation, trials, government investigations and merger clearance work. Prior to joining Sidley, Mr. Huston served as Assistant Chief in the San Francisco Office of the Antitrust Division of the United States Department of Justice where he led and supervised both criminal cartel matters and civil merger matters. Mr. Huston was the lead lawyer on multiple high-profile antitrust investigations and trials, including the Antitrust Division's successful prosecution of members of the LCD cartel, regarded by many as one of the most significant antitrust cases in recent history. He also led other criminal matters, including investigations conducted in coordination with foreign competition authorities, and helped oversee the work of the San Francisco office's prosecutors. Before his government service, Mr. Huston was in private practice for nearly 20 years. |
 | Partner Matt Jacobs is Co-Chair of Vinson & Elkins' Government Investigations & White Collar Criminal Defense practice, and is the Managing Partner of the firm's San Francisco office. A former federal prosecutor in the Northern District of California with more than 20 years of experience, Mr. Jacobs is recognized for his experience in internal investigations, government investigations, and white collar matters of all kinds, as well as complex commercial litigation. He frequently advises Boards of Directors, Audit Committees, and General Counsels on critical issues. as a national and international practice representing U.S. and foreign-located companies and executives in high stakes matters involving FCPA, antitrust, trade secrets, health care, and commercial disputes including IP litigation and consumer class actions. Mr. Jacobs is particularly experienced in “bet-the-company” and high profile matters. |
 | Privacy Counsel Risha Jamison's responsibilities at Stripe include creating data privacy policies and training, monitoring and developing privacy compliance programs in countries where Stripe operates, and providing internal guidance regarding the privacy and data use landscape. |
 | Patricia Jeng represents clients in a wide range of labor and employment matters in state and federal court, as well as before administrative agencies. She defends employers in wage and hour class actions, as well as against discrimination, retaliation, sexual harassment, wrongful termination, violations of privacy, and other employment related claims. Ms. Jeng also provides advice and counseling on all areas of employment law, including personnel policies, employee handbooks and manuals, arbitration agreements, wage and hour compliance, employee discipline and termination, internal investigations, and litigation avoidance. |
 | Partner Emily Jones is a specialist data privacy and technology lawyer and head of Osborne Clarke’s office in Silicon Valley. Ms. Jones has over 10 years’ experience advising on a range of data privacy issues and related contractual arrangements, including in the context of healthtech, telematics, smart meters, mobile payments, big data analytics, IoT and data monetisation projects. She works with clients to deliver a full range of data compliance strategies to ensure good data handling practices and procedures, global data transfers, security breach management and training, and is helping clients to manage their compliance with the EU General Data Protection Regulation. She also advises clients on technology transactions, including complex high-value IT procurements, IT outsourcing arrangements, cloud services agreements and in particular the related data privacy issues, such data transfers, cyber security and managing data processors effectively. |
Vice President, Legal | |
 | Partner Anthony Klein is the Global Co-Chair of Latham & Watkins' Technology Transactions Practice, Global Co-Chair of the Connectivity Industry Group, and a member of the Emerging Companies Practice. Mr. Klein's practice focuses on strategic counseling and negotiating technology-related transactions worldwide for a wide range of emerging growth and established technology and service companies and their customers, particularly in the fields of: semiconductor design and manufacture, medical devices, clean technologies, Internet services, e-commerce, software licensing and retail and commercial products. As part of his practice, Mr. Klein routinely structures, prepares, and negotiates US and cross-border agreements for a variety of technology related ventures, including technology and intellectual property transfers and licensing; outsourcing; OEM, VAR and other distribution and commercialization arrangements; and strategic alliances and joint ventures. |
 | Director Chia-Ling Koh is a Director of Singapore Law Practice, OC Queen Street LLC. He supports digital innovation, investments and critical infrastructural transformation. Examples of digital projects: commercialization of artificial intelligence neural network technology; unified communications, which may include multi channel support for customer contact such as email, chat, voice, mobile and social media; core banking and trading systems; satellite-based payment systems satellite-based transportation tracking systems; collaboration between two gaming Asian giants transforming game from the web to mobile platform digital; mobile payment systems; and high-profile IP/IT disputes involving digital innovation. Mr. Koh advises organizations on both contentious and non-contentious cyber security issues, data protection, data mapping, data governance, intellectual property management, validity and infringement, due diligence, telecommunications and media regulations, competition, FinTech and payments financial regulations. |
 | Partner Ute Krudewagen advises international and cross-border clients on a broad range of complex global employment matters, serving as trusted advisor and managing international counsel for a broad range of multijurisdictional and multidisciplinary projects. Her vast experience includes advising on global background checks, employment and independent contractor agreements, discrimination and harassment claims, social media issues, global policies and procedures, non-compete and proprietary information agreements, works council and union issues, codes of conduct and social responsibility, workplace privacy, employee assignments and global mobility programs, global reductions in force, restructurings and severance and retention plans. Ms. Krudewagen also counsels global employers on the issues associated with transactions, including cross-border mergers and acquisitions, outsourcing, post-acquisition integrations and tax restructurings. |
 | Partner Louis Lehot's corporate, securities and M&A law practice focuses on advising public and emerging private companies and their venture capital and private equity investors from formation to liquidity. Mr. Lehot has domain experience in public offerings and private placements of equity, equity-linked and debt securities, mergers, acquisitions, dispositions, spinoffs, strategic investments and joint ventures, as well as corporate governance and securities law compliance matters. He regularly represents US and non-US registrants before the SEC, FINRA, NYSE and NASDAQ. Mr. Lehot has represented both public and private clients in the United States and globally, with a focus on cross-border transactions. Prior to returning to Silicon Valley in 2005, he practiced in New York, London and Paris. |
 | Co-founder & President Christine Lemke is the Co-founder and President of Evidation Health. Previously, she was the Co-founder and Chief Operating Officer of Sense Networks, developers of the first machine learning platform for mobile phone activity data (exited to YP.com). She has also held roles at 3iGroup (Paris), Microsoft XBOX and co-founded Chicago-based Channel IQ, a product analytics platform. |
 | Partner As a partner in Covington's White Collar Defense and Investigations practice group, Aaron Lewis represents businesses, boards of directors, and individuals in sensitive, high-stakes government investigations, internal investigations, and regulatory enforcement matters. Mr. Lewis returned to Covington in 2015 after six years of service in the Department of Justice, first as Counsel to Attorney General Eric Holder in Washington, and later as an Assistant United States Attorney in Los Angeles. Mr. Lewis has advised clients facing alleged criminal and civil violations of the False Claims Act (FCA) and the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), as well as allegations of public corruption, mail and wire fraud, obstruction of justice, and espionage. He has advised companies and independent board committees in the aerospace and defense, automotive, technology, entertainment, and retail industries that were conducting internal investigations, including several involving allegations of ineffective internal controls and dysfunctional workplace cultures. |
 | Partner Nicki Locker is the securities litigation practice group leader at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati. An experienced litigator, Ms. Locker has represented companies and their officers and directors in more than 75 shareholder class actions and derivative suits throughout the United States. Ms. Locker also has substantial experience in corporate internal investigations and SEC investigations and enforcement proceedings. She has advised numerous boards and special committees in internal investigations regarding accounting improprieties, FCPA violations, stock option backdating, insider trading, off-label marketing, and embezzlement. Ms. Locker has represented over 20 companies in government investigations and has served as personal counsel to dozens of executives and directors in SEC matters. |
 | Partner Abbe Lowell is one of the nation's leading white collar defense and trial lawyers. His practice focuses on litigation, complex investigations and regulatory enforcement. In his wide-ranging career, Mr. Lowell has represented numerous high-profile corporate and individual clients and provided counsel in matters of national and international importance. He has successfully tried numerous complex civil and criminal cases throughout the United States, and has briefed and argued dozens of appeals before federal and state appeals courts and before the United States Supreme Court. In addition to trying cases and arguing appeals, Mr. Lowell advises clients in their dealings with the U.S. Congress and its committees, other legislative bodies, and numerous federal and state regulatory agencies. He also works with clients on internal investigations, voluntary disclosure decisions, and developing compliance programs to prevent issues from arising with law enforcement agencies. |
 | Partner Chris Lyon advises organizations on cutting-edge issues related to the collection, use, sharing, and safeguarding of data, including personal information of customers and employees. She serves as a trusted advisor, working with clients to develop global strategies to comply with U.S. and international privacy and data protection laws. Ms. Lyon's practice spans a variety of industry sectors, from information technology services to consumer products, and covers clients ranging from start-ups to large multinationals. She advises technology companies on building privacy protections into their offerings, including connected products and services (Internet of Things), cloud-based and mobile services, and social media initiatives, as well as on managing the related "Big Data" implications. She also assists clients in evaluating and managing privacy risks, including in strategic transactions such as IT outsourcing, and mergers and acquisitions. |
 | Partner Kyle Mach is a partner in the San Francisco office of Munger, Tolles & Olson who concentrates his practice on complex civil litigation. He has extensive experience in antitrust matters, but his practice also includes mass tort litigation, securities, commercial litigation, and other areas. He has represented domestic and foreign clients throughout the U.S. and has also assisted clients facing regulatory inquiries in the European Union, Japan and South Korea. In his active pro bono practice, Mr. Mach has successfully represented civil rights plaintiffs in several federal court proceedings. Mr. Mach is also active in the San Francisco legal community. Among other activities, he is the former Chair of the International Law Section for the Bar Association of San Francisco. |
 | CEO and Co-Founder Robert MacInnis is the Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder of ActiveAether, a company that has developed a “fog computing” technology that extends cloud computing to the “edge” of a network, enabling nearly any computing device to host software services and process data. Dr. MacInnis holds Bachelor of Science and Doctorate degrees in computer science as well as several patents, including those upon which the ActiveAether platform is based. In 2017, ActiveAether raised funds through a pre-sale of its FogCoin tokens.
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 | Partner Prashant Mara is a commercial lawyer specializing in strategic investments, collaborations, compliance and procurement projects -- mostly cross-border. He specializes in the digital business, defense (with a focus on technology transfer and licensing) and industrial (with a focus on technology deployment) sectors. His clients include Facebook, Expedia, TripAdvisor, Fitbit, AirBnB, News Corp, Indigo, MAN group, Zeppelin, Rolls Royce, Voith and Tech Mahindra. Mr.Mara has spent nine years in Europe, working with top-tier law firms in France, Germany and the UK. Over the last decade, he has worked closely, as a trusted advisor, with the in-house teams of his clients. This has equipped him to approach a transaction with its strategic rationale in mind, which makes the transaction interesting and the execution effective. Mr. Mara is proficient in providing compliance and crisis response advice, including dispute management, and acting as the interface between his clients and the regulator. |
 | Counsel Emily Marden is counsel in Sidley's Food and Drug Regulatory group. She has an expansive practice in which she addresses regulatory and strategic issues relating to pharmaceuticals, biologics, foods, dietary supplements and agricultural products for established and emerging companies. Ms. Marden has deep knowledge of issues involving drug exclusivity, complex drugs, biological products and agricultural products and has a scientific background in biology and genomics. She has acted as in-house counsel to both a large pharmaceutical and a successful biotechnology company, where she advised on a range of regulatory and business law issues. In addition, Ms. Marden directs research on genomics and innovation in agriculture and medicine at the University of British Columbia and teaches there in the Faculty of Law. She has published and presented widely on interrelated issues of intellectual property, regulation and innovation. |
 | Partner JD Marple is a partner in Latham & Watkins' Silicon Valley office and a member of the Corporate Department. His practice focuses on strategic counseling and negotiation advice with respect to technology transactions and outsourcing arrangements. Mr. Marple regularly structures and negotiates a wide variety of transactions, including strategic alliances, joint ventures, intellectual property asset acquisitions, patent and other intellectual property licenses, manufacturing, supply and distribution agreements, and marketing and advertising agreements. His clients range from startups to established public companies and their customers worldwide, particularly in the fields of e-commerce, Internet services, software, hardware, semiconductor design, and related industries. Mr. Marple also represents numerous clients in US and international outsourcing deals ranging from traditional IT outsourcing arrangements to focused business process deals. |
 | Associate General Counsel, Antitrust and Commercial Sarretta McDonough recently joined Intel's legal department. Her practice is focused on antitrust and competition counseling and litigation; Foreign Corrupt Practices Act counseling and investigations; U.S. and foreign regulatory investigations; and compliance counseling. Prior to moving to Intel, Ms. McDonough practiced at both Gibson, Dunn and Crutcher LLP and Kirkland & Ellis LLP. She is currently President Elect of the National Association of Women Lawyers. |
 | Partner Catharina Min represents both U.S. and international clients in mergers and acquisitions, private financings, joint ventures, strategic alliances, corporate partnering, securities offerings, and other corporate transactions. She also represents emerging companies in general corporate matters and venture capital financings. In addition, Ms. Min has extensive experience representing Asian clients doing business in the United States. Ms. Min is a frequent speaker at many organizations, including the Practising Law Institute, Association of Corporate Counsel, SV Forum, the Korean IT Network, and a number of Korean incubators covering topics related to cross-border transactions and venture capital financings. She also regularly shares her insights at events for California Women Lawyers, Asian Pacific American Bar Association, Asian Business League, and others on mentoring and advancement of women and minority lawyers. |
 | Partner Dr. Mody is a partner with OSKR, LLC in Emeryville, CA. She has provided financial and economic consulting on intellectual property cases, business valuation cases, antitrust cases and unfair business practices cases, among others. She specializes in the application of economic methods to complex business disputes and is retained in cases requiring economic analyses, financial analyses, valuations and/or damages-related analyses. Dr. Mody has constructed damages models in litigation involving reasonable royalties, lost profits, market share assessments, and but-for scenarios. Dr. Mody received a Ph.D. in Political Economy and Public Policy from the University of Southern California, and is a Certified Licensing Professional.
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 | Partner Joel Muchmore is a partner in the San Francisco office of Crowell & Moring, where he is a member of the firm’s Litigation and Intellectual Property groups. Mr. Muchmore has substantial experience with appellate issues and as a trial attorney, especially in litigating licensing disputes, patent infringement, trademark, trade secret, copyright, unfair competition, and other complex commercial disputes. His practice also includes representing licensees in major disputes with enterprise database licensors, including serving as counsel of record for Mars, Inc. against Oracle Corporation in the only publicly filed complaint against that software giant regarding its audit tactics and conduct.
Mr. Muchmore has represented a wide variety of clients in multiple industries, spanning the scope of software and hardware, internet and the cloud, retail and the arts (including Grammy-award winning musicians), life sciences and Fortune 500 consumer products companies. |
Head of Regulatory and Investigations | |
 | Partner David Navetta, vice chair of Cooley's cyber/data/privacy practice, is a prominent leader in privacy, information security and technology law. He has extensive experience counseling clients on novel and cutting-edge data protection issues, including data breach response, cybersecurity risk management, consumer and employee privacy, incident response planning and preparedness, technology transactions, vendor management, board of director advice and consultation, regulatory investigations, litigation and due diligence in corporate transactions. Mr. Navetta serves as a "breach coach" on an approved panel for numerous cyber insurance carriers and companies, and he has helped some of the world’s leading corporations to effectively respond to complex data security breaches and protect their enterprise. |
 | Partner Seth Neulight is a partner in the San Francisco office of Nixon Peabody LLP. Mr. Neulight is a dedicated labor and employment attorney with over 20 years of experience serving employers and senior executives. He represents clients in disputes before state and federal courts, administrative agencies, and arbitrations, with an emphasis on complex class actions, multi-plaintiff cases, trade secret theft and related business contract disputes. Mr. Neulight provides clients with practical, business-oriented advice on key employment matters such as workforce restructuring, wage and hour compliance, collective bargaining, and labor issues in corporate transactions. He serves clients in a broad range of industries, including healthcare, technology, food and beverage, higher education, construction, retail, financial services, and distribution. |
 | Senior Vice President and General Counsel Amy Fliegelman Olli joined VMware in August 2017 as Senior Vice President and General Counsel. She leads VMware's Global Legal Team and champions the company's commitment to integrity, ethics, compliance and risk management practices. Ms. Olli came to VMware from Avaya where she served as Senior Vice President and General Counsel from June 2014. In that role, she led the Avaya Law and Global Contracting organization, including Government Solutions; Ethics and Compliance; Corporate Security and Business Continuity Planning; Corporate Social Responsibility; Environmental, Health and Safety; Corporate Philanthropy; Global Trade Compliance; and Government Affairs. Prior to Avaya, Ms. Olli held a similar position at CA Technologies and spent more than eighteen years at IBM. |
 | Lead Counsel - Intellectual Property, Commercial, and Antitrust Litigation |
 | Global Employment Counsel Muizz Rafique is an in-house labor and employment attorney. He began his career at Morgan, Lewis & Bockius before moving to Littler Mendelson. In 2015, he joined SolarCity as Employment Litigation Counsel where he lead an in-house employment litigation team. Following the company's merger with Tesla, Mr. Rafique served as Senior Employment Counsel overseeing employment law compliance for Tesla's sales, service and delivery centers across North America. He recently joined Coinbase as Global Employment Counsel. |
 | Partner Gabe Ramsey is a partner in the San Francisco office of Crowell & Moring. Mr. Ramsey is a member of the Litigation, Intellectual Property, and Privacy & Cybersecurity groups. He focuses his practice on complex litigation involving intellectual property, technology and cybersecurity. Mr. Ramsey has substantial experience with proactive solutions for protection of intellectual property and deterrence of adversaries in the digital domain. He has expertise carrying out complex investigations and enforcement actions involving trade secret misappropriation, fraud and deceptive activity, cybercrime and brand violations. He has experience taking cybersecurity "active defense" out of the realm of the theoretical, into practice, to get ahead of threats, identify rogue actors and manage risk. |
 | Of Counsel Carolyn Rashby is Of Counsel in Covington's San Francisco office. Ms. Rashby provides business-focused advice and counsel to companies navigating the constantly evolving and overlapping maze of federal, state, and local employment requirements. She advises clients on a wide range of employment law issues, including wage and hour issues, worker classifications, employee accommodations, termination decisions, employment agreements, employee handbooks, and personnel policies. Ms. Rashby has particular experience guiding workplace investigations. Her approach is preventive, while recognizing the need to set clients up for the best possible defense should disputes arise. |
 | Dean and Professor of Law L. Song Richardson became dean of University of California, Irvine School of Law, effective Jan. 1, 2018. She previously served as interim dean. An award-winning teacher and scholar, Dean Richardson's interdisciplinary research uses lessons from cognitive and social psychology to study criminal procedure, criminal law and policing. Currently, she is working on a book that examines the legal and moral implications of mind sciences research on policing and criminal procedure. Dean Richardson's legal career has included partnership at a boutique criminal law firm and work as a state and federal public defender in Seattle, Washington. She was also an Assistant Counsel at the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. Immediately upon graduation from law school, she was a Skadden Arps Public Interest Fellow with the National Immigration Law Center in Los Angeles and the Legal Aid Society's Immigration Unit in Brooklyn, NY. |
 | Partner Melinda Riechert has experience litigating and arbitrating both class actions and single-plaintiff cases. Ms. Riechert defends clients in wage and hour, whistleblower, wrongful termination, discrimination, harassment, retaliation, breach of contract, trade secret, and all other types of employment disputes. She has won numerous summary judgments, arbitration awards, and court and jury trials. In addition to her litigation and arbitration practice, Ms. Riechert counsels clients on litigation avoidance strategies and on California's complex employment laws.She currently serves as Managing Partner of the firm's Silicon Valley office. |
 | Chief Technology Counsel As Chief Technology Counsel for American Express, Kevin Rothman heads the company's Technology & Digital Law Group, with responsibility across the enterprise for fintech, cybersecurity, social/mobile/digital, outsourcing, procurement, vendor management and real estate. Prior to joining American Express in 2007, Mr. Rothman practiced in Kirkland & Ellis' New York City office as a member of its Intellectual Property Transactions Group. He also spent several years at Cooley's Palo Alto office as a member of its Technology Transactions Group. |
 | Partner Jamie Rowlands is the Chief Representative Officer for Gowling WLG in Guangzhou, China. Mr. Rowlands is a partner who has had 15 years of experience enforcing and protecting valuable intellectual property rights, in particular patents and brands. His work has always been internationally-focused and includes acting on global disputes involving parties from the UK, Europe, USA, China, Japan and Africa. Mr. Rowlands combines in-depth technical expertise with broad sector experience. His work includes acting for clients in healthcare, aviation, advanced manufacturing and hi-tech sectors. Mr. Rowlands has experience in all areas of contentious IP matters, and has acted for clients on patents, trademarks and anti-counterfeiting in the Intellectual Property and Enterprise Court, High Court, Court of Appeal, Supreme Court and the European Patent Office. He also leads multi-jurisdictional disputes for a broad range of international clients. |
 | Partner Sarah Schaedler is an intellectual property partner in the San Francisco office of Kirkland & Ellis where she concentrates on the intellectual property and technology aspects of complex corporate transactions, including carve-outs, mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, private equity and venture capital investments and debt financing transactions. She represents clients in a broad range of industry sectors, with a focus on software and technology driven products and consumer products. Ms. Schaedler also regularly advises clients on intellectual property related transactions, including licensing (software and technology, data and content, registered intellectual property and trade secrets), software and other intellectual property development arrangements, and intellectual property transfer agreements, as well as commercial agreements (manufacturing, supply and distribution). |
 | Partner Brian Schar is a founder of CrossPond Law. He is an experienced patent attorney, who has prosecuted numerous patent applications across different technologies and in multiple foreign jurisdictions. Most recently, he has served as General Counsel for Dextera Surgical in Redwood City, California. Over the past 20 years, he has advised clients in private practice, as well as serving as in-house counsel. He has right-sized patent portfolios for small to medium-sized companies, aligning those portfolios with business needs in order to save those companies significant expenses. Mr. Schar is also experienced in handling tech transactions and general contract issues that arise in the course of global business operations. |
 | Partner Dr. Michael Schneider is a patent litigation specialist with more than 15 years of experience in representing and advising clients particularly in multi-jurisdictional infringement and validity disputes across a range of technical fields. He is a qualified German litigation counsel, and with German, English, and French as languages and substantial experience also in US patent litigation matters his focus is on helping clients to make the best use of their patents and related intellectual property rights across those jurisdictions. Dr. Schneider regularly advises clients from the high-tech, telecommunications, medical device, and life science sectors on pre-litigation strategy, including SEP/FRAND considerations, and coordinates cross-border enforcement or defense litigation. Prior to joining private practice Dr. Schneider worked at the European Patent Office where he was involved in the negotiation and drafting of European patent litigation reform proposals. |
 | Partner Jacob Schroeder focuses his practice on patent and trade secret litigation and appeals. He has handled numerous litigation and appellate matters in a variety of technologies, including computers, electronics, medical devices, and pharmaceuticals. Mr. Schroeder's litigation experience includes jury trials and covers all aspects of patent litigation: conducting infringement and validity analyses, drafting and arguing motions, taking and defending both fact and expert depositions, coordinating fact and expert discovery, cooperating with and coordinating joint defense group activities, and managing day-to-day litigation activities. He also drafts appeal briefs before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. Mr. Schroeder previously worked at Cisco Systems, Inc. as a software engineer in the Unified Communications Business Unit, developing components for MeetingPlace web-conferencing software. |
 | Partner Navin Sethi is a partner at EY. His primary work experience is in tax, law and accounting. He is both a licensed attorney and a CPA. Mr. Sethi has worked both in the public and private sector as a tax attorney and as an accountant. His technical expertise is primarily in hedge funds, high tech, venture capital, real estate and, most recently, crytocurrency. He also has extensive tax experience in large corporate issues, multi-state and foreign transactions. |
 | Partner Christopher Sharp is a partner specializing in intellectual property disputes. Before training as a lawyer, Mr. Sharp obtained a degree in Chemistry and worked as a research chemist for 12 months. He specializes in patent disputes in the pharmaceutical sector and has particular experience in the coordination and management of pan-European litigation. As well as being a solicitor qualified in England & Wales, Mr. Sharp is also a qualified Solicitor Advocate. |
 | Partner Grace Speights is the leader of the labor and employment practice at Morgan Lewis, managing more than 250 lawyers across the firm. Ms. Speights handles high profile and high stakes workplace matters for many clients and is often called upon by clients for crisis management assistance. She defends clients against employment discrimination claims, particularly class claims, and claims of discrimination in public accommodations. Ms. Speights represents clients in systemic investigations and litigation brought by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). She also counsels on best practices for corporate diversity initiatives. Ms. Speights leads the firm's multidisciplinary workplace culture consulting team of more than 30 lawyers across offices and practices. Combining employment and workplace law experience with investigative expertise, this team helps employers effectively investigate, defend against, and develop advance plans to avoid or minimize workplace crises stemming from claims of sexual harassment. |
 | Partner Brian Stretch is a seasoned trial lawyer with 23 years of litigation experience. He focuses his practice on the full range of federal enforcement and internal investigation matters, with a particular emphasis on corporate investigations, the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and criminal defense matters. Prior to joining Sidley, Mr. Stretch spent 18 years as a federal prosecutor in the United States Attorney's Office for the Northern District of California, where he personally handled securities fraud, mail and wire fraud, bank fraud, RICO, drug trafficking, firearms, and sex trafficking cases. During his career, Mr. Stretch served as the United States Attorney for the Northern District of California from March 2016 to January 2018. In addition to that post, he held other high-level positions in that office including First Assistant U.S. Attorney and Chief of the Criminal Division. |
Corporate Counsel | |
 | Jonathan Tam focuses on global privacy, technology transactions, intellectual property and cybersecurity. Mr. Tam is passionate about advising clients on how to achieve their commercial objectives while managing legal risks and challenges associated with activities involving data, technology and media.
He regularly contributes to, and is on the editorial board of, b:INFORM, a digital magazine hosted by Baker McKenzie designed for privacy and technology professionals. Mr. Tam has completed secondments at a global payment services provider based in London, England and a world-leading tech company based in Silicon Valley. |
 | Partner Andrew Thomases is co-head of Ropes & Gray's technology, media & telecommunications group and a nationally-recognized, first-chair trial lawyer with over 20 years of experience litigating complex patent and trade secret cases in federal courts throughout the country, as well as before the International Trade Commission. He has achieved numerous successes for companies in the fields of computer technology, semiconductors, analog circuits, wireless technology and medical devices, among other areas. Mr. Thomases recently served as lead counsel for flash memory chip maker Spansion in a large set of multi-patent litigations against its rival Macronix International. His representation included four ITC investigations, three district court cases, eleven inter partes review proceedings before the U.S. Patent Office, and coordination of multiple patent litigations in Germany. After two successful trials before the ITC, and after obtaining sanctions against Macronix, the litigations settled favorably for Spansion. |
 | EVP, Chief Innovation Officer Andrea Tinianow is the EVP, Chief Innovation Officer for Global Kompass Strategies, a US-based management consulting firm. She advises organizations to develop breakthrough opportunities by deploying blockchain and other emerging technologies. Ms. Tinianow helps create new business models, revenue streams and innovative solutions. She also creates strategic partnerships, identifying opportunities for organizational growth and driving change processes through to fruition.
In 2014, Ms. Tinianow was recruited to start the Division of Corporate and International Development, for the State of Delaware. Soon after, she created Global Delaware, the State’s first international brand. She continues to represent Global Delaware as its director. Ms. Tinianow conceived and was the founding director of the Delaware Blockchain Initiative which gave rise to the “Blockchain Amendments” to Delaware’s General Corporation Law. These amendments expressly authorize corporations to issue and maintain their stock ledgers on a blockchain. |
 | Of Counsel Richard Torczon is Of Counsel in the Washington, D.C., office of Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, where he is a member of the patent litigation practice. Prior to joining the firm, Mr. Torczon was an Administrative Patent Judge at the Patent Trial and Appeal Board, where, since 1996, he worked on patent interferences and appeals. During his tenure at the PTAB, he wrote more than a thousand opinions and orders on patent appeals, petitions, motions, and briefs. Richard was an early member of the interference trial section and authored many of the PTAB's rules. He has experience in the full spectrum of technologies reviewed by the PTAB, including computer-based inventions, biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, chemicals and medical devices, and plant and design patents. Before serving as a judge, Mr. Torczon was an associate solicitor in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office's Office of the Solicitor, where he represented the USPTO on patent and trademark matters, particularly before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. |
 | Partner Richard Vary is a partner in Bird & Bird's Intellectual Property Practice and Tech and Comms Sector Group, based in London. Although he specializes in multijurisdictional electronics patent litigation, Mr. Vary has been involved in a wide range of international litigation and arbitration matters, from competition law to commercial and tax disputes, as well as managing brand protection, trade marks, designs and copyright issues. Mr. Vary has a particular focus on mobile telecommunications patent litigation and arbitration work. He also has extensive experience of effectively dealing with IP on transactions and strategic IP advice. Before joining Bird & Bird in 2016, Mr. Vary was the Vice President and Head of Litigation at Nokia, where he managed Nokia's global commercial litigation and was a member of Nokia's Legal & Compliance leadership team. |
 | President, Legal & Corporate Affairs, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary Amy Weaver leads the legal, compliance, internal audit, security and government affairs teams at Salesforce. She is a member of the company’s executive committee. Prior to joining Salesforce, Ms. Weaver was executive vice president and general counsel of Univar Inc., where she was responsible globally for all legal and corporate affairs, governance, corporate transactions, compliance, litigation and employment law matters. Previously Ms. Weaver was senior vice president and deputy general counsel at Expedia, Inc. She also practiced law at Cravath, Swaine & Moore and at Perkins Coie LLP. Prior to entering private practice, she served as a legislative aide to a member of the Hong Kong Legislative Council and as a clerk on the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. |
 | Senior Attorney Abigail Wen serves as a venture attorney at Intel Capital. She works closely with investors on investments ranging from seed-stage to multi-billion dollar public company investments, in sectors covering artificial intelligence, AR/VR, new technologies, fintech and digital media. She advises board members over the life cycle of Intel Capital's portfolio companies from initial investment to IPO or acquisition. Ms. Wen began her legal career as a law clerk at the United States Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit before practicing at Sullivan & Cromwell and Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher. |
 | Partner John Whelan is a partner and head of the Commercial & Technology Practice at A&L Goodbody and a member of the firm's Fintech Group. Mr. Whelan advises clients on commercial, regulatory and contentious matters with a focus on commercial contracts, technology, privacy, IP and telecoms. On the IP side he has been involved in most of the significant patent cases that have come before the Irish courts. Mr. Whelan also advises US companies establishing operations in Ireland. Before joining A&L Goodbody as a partner in 2003, John worked with a global law firm in London and Hong Kong. He established and headed A&L Goodbody’s US offices in San Francisco and Palo Alto from 2013 to 2016. |
 | Partner Miriam Wugmeister is Co-chair of Morrison & Foerster's Global Privacy and Data Security Group and is regularly called upon by some of the world's largest and most complex multinational organizations to confront their most difficult U.S. and international privacy challenges. Ms. Wugmeister has worked on several of the most noteworthy and largest data security incidents over the past few years. She also works with dozens of companies to develop comprehensive customized incident response plans, training staff, conducting extensive table top exercises, and addressing key issues with Boards of Directors and executive management. Ms. Wugmeister advises organizations on the planning and execution of complex global compliance efforts, assists in the negotiation of strategic deals, and defends regulatory and litigation matters relating to privacy and data security in the U.S. and internationally. She serves as an arbitrator for the EU-US Privacy Shield Framework Binding Arbitration Program. As leader of the Global Privacy Alliance (GPA), Ms. Wugmeister encourages the rational development of privacy laws around the world and monitors privacy practices, laws, and regulations globally. |
 | Partner Christine Yiu is an Intellectual Property partner based in Bird & Bird's Shanghai office. Her particular expertise is in technology litigation. She has a strong reputation for her ability to handle numerous complex, high value disputes with a cross-border element. Ms. Yiu is an expert on the issue of FRAND resulting from the undertakings given by patent owners to various standard setting organizations as part of their IP policies, and advises international companies extensively on its development around the world. She also has substantive experience with regulatory issues relating to inventor remuneration policy and technology transfer in China. Ms. Yiu is involved in a number of high-level EU-China IPR discussions between the Ministry of Commerce and the DG Trade of the European Commission in Brussels. Ms. Yiu also participated in meetings with the Supreme People's Court to discuss potential reform of patent legislation. |
 | Executive Director and Cofounder Justin Zeefe is Executive Director and Cofounder of Nisos. Prior to founding Nisos in 2015, Mr. Zeefe spent a decade as an officer within the US Government collecting information against state- and non-state cyber actors, Industrial Control Systems, advanced threat capabilities/plans & intentions, illicit financial and supply chain networks, and state-sponsored/sanctioned activity. Mr. Zeefe operated primarily in Eastern Europe and additionally served tours in Afghanistan and Iraq where he twice received the highest award available for civilians in combat from the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Prior to government service, Mr. Zeefe practiced litigation at a law firm in Washington DC. |