Intellectual Property Counsel

Romi Akpala currently serves as Intellectual Property Counsel at Square. Previously, he served as Technology and Patent Counsel at eBay Inc. and as Patent Counsel at Hewlett-Packard. Prior to becoming an in-house lawyer, Mr. Akpala practiced as a patent attorney at the office of Townsend and Townsend and Crew.

VP Business Development for Research

Dr. Usha Arunachalam holds a PhD in Biochemistry from the Indian Institute of Science and an MBA from the Anderson School of Management at UCLA. She has worked in business development at a number of Bay Area biotechnology companies, including Chiron Corp., Kosan Biosciences,and Five Prime Therapeutics. She also served as CEO at Applied Protein Sciences. She currently serves as VP Business Development for Research at The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society in the New York area.

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 four-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).

Partner

Chris Banks is a trial lawyer who helps companies from startups to the Fortune 500 solve problems concerning unfair competition, trade secret misappropriation and data security, employee departures, wage and hour disputes, and other labor and employment matters. Mr. Banks also advises on intellectual property rights, technology licensing and development arrangements, and breach of fiduciary duty and other business torts. His accomplishments include serving as lead trial counsel for Japanese pharmaceutical company Asahi Kasei Pharma Corp. in a three-month trial that resulted in the largest contested jury verdict in the United States for 2011. In 2014, Mr. Banks helped uphold that judgment on appeal to the California Supreme Court, with Asahi Kasei recovering more than $523 million.

Chair of the Board of Directors

Michelle Banks is Board Chair of Minority Corporate Counsel Association (MCCA) and Board Co-Chair of UCLA Law Women LEAD. She speaks frequently on leadership and other topics as requested by professional organizations and educational institutions. For more than 17 years, Ms. Banks was Executive Vice President, Global General Counsel, Corporate Secretary and Chief Compliance Officer of global apparel retailer Gap Inc. (Gap, Banana Republic, Old Navy, Athleta and Intermix). During her tenure at Gap Inc, she led the global equity, foundation, franchise services, government affairs & public policy, integrity, legal, privacy, and sustainability functions.

Senior Director - Legal

Bill Barthell currently performs a dual role as Senior Director of Legal Operations and Trade Compliance at Symantec. He has 20 years of legal experience primarily at public and privately-held Silicon Valley technology companies including, in addition to Symantec, in-house roles at LSI Logic, Extreme Networks, Procket Networks, and Xilinx after earlier work at law firms in Japan. Key practice areas include Legal Operations, Trade Compliance, Corporate Compliance, Corporate Development, Technology Licensing, Government Affairs, and Investigations. Mr. Barthell has business and law degrees from the University of Wisconsin, a master's degree in Asian Studies and Japanese from the University of Hawaii, and a CPA certification. Most recently, he is focusing on the role of technology in transforming the way in which corporate law departments operate.

Partner

Ed Batts is Global Co-Head of Orrick’s M&A and Private Equity group. Mr. Batts, resident in the firm’s Silicon Valley office, regularly counsels publicly traded technology companies in complex mergers and acquisitions, corporate governance and cyber-security, including the following: fiduciary duty counseling of public boards, cross border transactions, tender offers and going private transactions; board matters and public reporting obligations, including activist investor situations, stockholder proposals and accounting related issues; and crisis management of significant cyber-security incidents as well as advice on regulators, plaintiffs and law enforcement. Prior to joining Orrick, Mr. Batts was partner and co-chair of DLA Piper’s Northern California Corporate and Finance Practice.

Vice President & Deputy General Counsel - Compliance, Employment, and Litigation

Brooks Beard oversees a global VMware team of more than 45 professionals covering subject matter areas such as litigation, government and internal investigations, ethics and compliance, employee relations, employment law, privacy and cybersecurity. He joined VMware in 2014 after spending 18 years in private practice, including as a partner at Morrison & Foerster’s San Francisco office. While at MoFo, Mr. Beard had a broad-based litigation practice focused on intellectual property (patent, trademark, and trade secrets), false advertising, breach of contract, trade secret, and civil rights matters.

Counsel, Litigation and Intellectual Property

At Hulu, A.J. Bedel has sole responsibility for all trademark, copyright, and domain name matters for the company, including portfolio management, enforcement, and defensive actions. He is the lead for reviewing content assets and marketing assets for potential infringement, conducting fair use analysis, and creating company policy for anti-piracy and content protection. Mr. Bedel also has primary responsibility for all general business litigation and pre-litigation threats at Hulu, including in the subject areas of trade secret, breach of contract, employment, and bankruptcy. His responsibilities in this role have included conducting internal investigations, working with outside counsel, and directly responding to pre-litigation threats. Prior to joining Hulu, Mr. Bedel practiced at Quinn Emanuel in its Los Angeles office.

Partner

Jonathan Blavin is a partner in the San Francisco office of Munger, Tolles & Olson. Mr. Blavin has substantial experience in high-technology intellectual property disputes, including claims brought under the Copyright and Digital Millennium Copyright Acts, the Lanham Act and state trademark statutes and trade secret laws. Mr. Blavin also has significant experience in Internet and privacy-related litigation involving the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act and the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. Additionally, he has litigated federal antitrust actions, consumer class actions in the wireless and telecommunications areas and constitutional matters.

Lead Counsel, Open Source Licensing & Technology

Jason Buttura is the lead in-house attorney at Cisco Systems, Inc. for all open source licensing issues. He has additional responsibility as the attorney covering all legal issues for Cisco's cable and optical routing business unit. Before joining Cisco, Mr. Buttura was the Senior Intellectual Property Analyst at Wind River Systems, Inc. (a software subsidiary of Intel, Inc.), focusing on software licensing and open source issues. He has spoken about open source licensing for the Practising Law Institute and is a contributing author to PLI's Intellectual Property Handbook Series.

Managing Director — Forensic Litigation & Consulting

Elaine Carey is based in Los Angeles as Managing Director at FTI Consulting, where she is a member of the Global Risk and Investigations Practice. Ms. Carey manages complex investigative, business intelligence and risk mitigation consulting assignments; she has advised senior executives of Fortune 100 and multinational corporations and law firms for more than 20 years, overseeing clients’ most complex and sensitive problems around the globe involving integrity, political, security and reputational risks. Previously, she served as National Director of Investigations for Control Risks; as a Director with PricewaterhouseCoopers Investigations; and as a Managing Director for Kroll Associates. Early in her career, Ms. Carey was an investigative journalist, reporting from more than 30 countries on political, economic, business and social developments.

Partner

Michelle Chan is a partner in Bird & Bird's Commercial Group, based in its Hong Kong office. She is a leading telecoms and media lawyer, providing strategic, commercial advice to a number of major players in the region. Ms. Chan has more than 15 years of experience in working on corporate, commercial and regulatory matters concerning the technology, media and telecom sectors in the Asian region. She also has considerable experience in advising clients on data protection issues and non-contentious IP projects. Her clients include leading regional and international telecom operators, media companies, technology companies and institutional investors. Ms. Chan is dual qualified as a Solicitor in England & Wales and Hong Kong, with complete fluency in English, Cantonese and Mandarin.

Partner

Cedric Chao is a trial partner and co-head of international arbitration at DLA Piper, resident in San Francisco and Silicon Valley. Mr. Chao, a former federal prosecutor, has first-chaired numerous high-stakes disputes in US courtrooms and international arbitration, including five disputes where the amount in controversy exceeded $1 billion. He has appeared in federal judicial districts and in trial courts throughout California, and has argued 17 times before appellate courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court and a Ninth Circuit en banc panel. He has led teams in international arbitration proceedings around the world and has sat as an ICC and SIAC arbitrator. Mr. Chao’s clients span industries and countries, and include a number of technology companies. He advises US clients going to China, and PRC clients coming to the US. In addition to active litigation, Mr. Chao advises clients during contract negotiations regarding optimal dispute resolution provisions and during pre-litigation strategic planning.

Senior Managing Director — Forensic & Litigation Consulting

Jean Chow-Callam is a Senior Managing Director in the FTI Consulting Forensic and Litigation Consulting practice and is based in Hong Kong. She is serving as Asia Leader – U.S. Regulatory and Anti-bribery. Ms. Chow-Callam is a testifying forensic accountant with over 25 years of professional experience in accounting and financial statement related matters. She specializes in financial investigations and analysis, including with respect to allegations related to the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), corporate internal investigations, securities litigation, fraud / earnings management investigations, embezzlement issues, options backdating issues, accounting process improvements, compliance programs, and other white collar crime investigations resulting from GAAP / SEC reporting violations. Ms. Chow-Callam has deep experience working on behalf of companies under investigation, for counsel to companies, boards, audit committees, and special committees, and for DOJ or court-appointed monitors.

Partner

Sherman Chu focuses his practice on China and US-based (including cross-border) technology transactions, joint ventures, strategic alliances, complex intellectual property and commercial agreements, and open source. He advises Chinese and US companies on effective structuring and operationalizing of transactions to gain approval on regulatory requirements such as CFIUS, export control, and anti-corruption. Mr. Chu joined DLA Piper from Cisco, where he oversaw major legal functions of the company with teams of 20 or more attorneys. He served as General Counsel for the Greater China region for six years, during which he was also responsible for all the major emerging economies (BRIC). Prior to that, he was head of Cisco’s worldwide transactions practice for ten years.

Partner

Clare Cornell is a European trademark and patent attorney. Her practice comprises trademark prosecution; maintenance; enforcement and opposition; clearance searching; portfolio management; IP due diligence; and IP licensing and assignment. Ms. Cornell provides a broad range of advice in high-level IP due diligence programs, advising on all aspects of IP as well as the preparation of agreements for the transfer of IP portfolios. She has assisted in multi-million dollar IP due diligence projects during both the acquisition and divestiture of businesses, as well as coordinated multi-jurisdictional post-acquisition IP assignment programs, and provided IP auditing services to clients who have acquired large IP portfolios, including portfolios having in excess of 1,000 rights. Ms. Cornell has particular experience working with attorneys in China on the opposition and cancellation of bad faith trademark applications and registrations.

Partner

Brendan Cullen is a partner in Sullivan & Cromwell's Litigation Group and serves as co-coordinator of the Firm’s Appellate Practice. Mr. Cullen has litigated a broad range of matters, including complex securities, commercial, intellectual property and antitrust litigation, frequently with a substantial technological element. He has advised and represented clients in arbitrations, in cases in state and federal trial courts and on appeals before state and federal appellate courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court. He also has conducted numerous confidential internal investigations, including investigations related to issues of corporate governance, securities matters and Foreign Corrupt Practices Act compliance. Over the last several years, he has been navigating his clients through legal issues arising from some of the most complex economic developments of the past generation, including the collapse of Enron, the California energy crisis and the financial crisis.

Partner

Jodi Daniel is a partner in Crowell & Moring's Washington, D.C. office and a member of the firm's Health Care Group, where she provides strategic advice to clients navigating the legal and regulatory environments related to technology in the health care sector. Ms. Daniel is the former director of the Office of Policy in the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC), U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). She served for a decade as the director at the ONC and 15 years at HHS, where she helped spearhead important changes in health information privacy and health information technology to improve health care for consumers nationwide. As former director at the ONC, she addressed privacy and security issues to ensure that there was clear guidance on how the initial Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) rules applied to health IT.

Vice President of Technology Solutions

Derek Duarte has been a senior partner with BlackStone Discovery since 2014 and manages the eDiscovery Consulting Group, Forensics Group, Case Management Team, Technology Development Team, and EDD and related production groups. As Vice President of Technology Solutions, Mr. Duarte is responsible for constructing comprehensive eDiscovery solutions that span the entirety of the EDRM spectrum for Blackstone’s clients. He ensures that the Forensics, Consulting, and Managed Review groups are working collaboratively with BlackStone's technical analysts to provide cost-effective solutions in information governance, data mapping, collections, early case analysis, culling and filtering, processing, review, and data presentation. Mr. Duarte has experience providing eDiscovery expertise to global corporations, government agencies, technology start-ups, and law firms.

eDiscovery Program Manager

Troy Dunham is an electronic discovery veteran. He has worked in the field since 1999 focusing on litigation readiness, meet-and-confer (FRCP 26(f)) sessions, collection, processing, review, and production. As a technologist with multiple technical certifications, Mr. Dunham brings full-spectrum, hands-on eDiscovery experience to his engagements. Over the past decade, he has worked on more than a thousand matters, including regulatory investigations and multi-billion dollar lawsuits involving hundreds of custodians and terabytes of data. Mr. Dunham has participated in numerous meet-and-confer sessions, negotiated protective orders, drafted document preservation and production protocols, and participated in depositions of expert (FRCP 30(b)(6)) witnesses.

Partner

Sandra Edwards, the chair of Farella’s Environmental and Product Law Departments, has extensive trial experience in federal and state court in her litigation practice and as a former Assistant District Attorney for the City and County of San Francisco. Ms. Edwards has strategically and effectively litigated on behalf of her corporate clients in high-stakes environmental lawsuits involving toxic torts, groundwater and contaminated sites, CERCLA, FIFRA and Proposition 65, as well as private attorney general actions and citizen suits. She also has significant experience in product-related litigation representing manufacturers and distributors in both individual and class action lawsuits that involve a wide range of products, including pharmaceuticals, medical devices, electronic equipment, agricultural chemicals and construction materials.

Partner

Beth Ferrill focuses her practice on all aspects of design patents, including prosecution, counseling, and litigation. She also has extensive experience in utility patent litigation in the areas of software- and hardware-related technologies. She has appeared before U.S. district courts, the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC), and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, as well as the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). Ms. Ferrill counsels clients who hold design patents as well as those accused of infringement. She has experience with consumer and industrial products, medical devices, transportation and construction vehicles, and graphical user interfaces and icons. She has prosecuted families of design patents before the USPTO, directed prosecution in foreign countries, and argued appeals before the PTAB.

Partner

Manuela Finger is an Intellectual Property partner specialising in soft IP, information technology and commercial matters. Her practice includes both contentious and non-contentious work for national and international clients from various industries, such as information and communication technologies, entertainment, fashion and retail. She has a special focus on the digital media and online area, including interactive entertainment, video games, online platforms, data protection law, protection of minors, regulatory matters, E-commerce and broadcasting. She has advised numerous clients on the multi-jurisdictional rollout of new products in the online and entertainment area. Ms. Finger has also been acting for various clients in the field of compliance and protection of personal data and data security, including data protection audits, advising on security incidents and structuring of processing of data in multinational groups of companies.

Partner

Bradley Finkelstein is a partner at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, where he practices corporate and securities law, with a principal focus on mergers and acquisitions, corporate governance and takeover defense, and complex securities transactions. Mr. Finkelstein has represented a wide range of public and private technology companies in negotiated and hostile corporate transactions, governance, and disclosure matters, as well as debt and equity financings. Prior to joining the firm, he served as a law clerk to the Honorable Paul R. Michel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit from 1996 to 1997.

Partner

Buzz Frahn is a Partner in the Litigation Department of Simpson Thacher. His areas of practice are intellectual property and antitrust. Mr. Frahn has first-chaired multiple jury trials and has tried numerous complex, high technology cases, including trial wins for Cisco and other clients in patent cases tried to verdict. He regularly represents Cisco, Intel, Qualcomm, SAP, Xilinx, Daiichi Pharmaceutical, Elpida and Human Genome Sciences in patent and other litigation. His antitrust experience includes a number of cases for technology clients, including achieving favorable results for Elpida in criminal and multi district civil litigation relating to the alleged price-fixing conspiracy in the Dynamic Random Access Memory (DRAM) industry. Mr. Frahn also represents leading investment banks and private equity funds.

Partner

Jim Gatto is a partner in Sheppard, Mullin's Intellectual Property Practice Group in the firm's Washington, D.C. office. He is also Co-Team Leader of the firm's Digital Media Industry and Social Media and Games Industry Teams, and Team Leader of the firm's Open Source Team. Mr. Gatto leverages his nearly 30 years of IP experience, business insights and attention to technology trends to help companies develop IP and other legal strategies that are aligned with their business objectives. His practice focuses on all aspects of intellectual property, internet and technology law, including patent, trademark, copyright, trade secret and open source. Mr. Gatto advises clients of all sizes on key legal and business issues relating to the use of social media, video games, social games and online gambling, virtual goods and currency, social networks, virtual worlds, mirror worlds, augmented reality, open source user-generated content, location-based services and gamification.

Head of Commercial, Legal

Jonathan Gentin is Head of Commercial, Legal at Proofpoint, a publicly-traded company(NASDAQ: PFPT) in the cybersecurity space. Prior to joining Proofpoint in 2016, Mr. Gentin was VP and Deputy General Counsel at CSR (now Qualcomm), where he also served as a Board Member.

Shareholder

Françoise Gilbert focuses her practice on U.S. and global data privacy and security in a wide variety of markets, including, among others, cloud computing, big data, connected devices, robots and other emerging technologies. Her clients include public or multinational entities, cloud service providers, big data analytics companies, connected device developers, B2C and B2B businesses, publishers, Internet stores, insurance companies, manufacturers, service providers, trade associations, non-profit organizations, software developers, and others. With more than 30 years of experience addressing cutting edge domestic and international computer, Internet and data protection issues, she brings a unique combination of practical business acumen, sharp legal skills, deep regulatory knowledge, and extensive experience of the information technology markets.

Partner

Stephen Gillespie provides strategic and legal advice to software, new media and technology companies. He helps his clients build and protect their value through careful management of the legal and intellectual property aspects of their key transactions. He structures, drafts, and negotiates mission critical agreements, including national and international development and distribution agreements, licenses, strategic alliances, and business process outsourcing transactions. Mr. Gillespie also manages the intellectual property aspects of mergers and acquisitions, including as lead outside IP counsel on acquisitions for Cisco, Symantec, Electronic Arts and other acquirers. In addition, he has significant experience in cloud/SaaS and open source business models and export control regulations. He has been a frequent speaker and writer on intellectual property issues in mergers and acquisitions, technology licensing, cloud computing, and open source business models.

Partner

Melissa Goodman is known for litigating and agilely managing sophisticated employment issues during mission critical scenarios. With over 20 years of experience, Ms. Goodman has litigated in multiple states, including having argued en banc in a case that created new noncompete law. She has also represented parties in employment arbitration before the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) and other arbitration forums. She serves as Co-Chair of Haynes and Boone's Trade Secrets Practice Group, and the former Chair of the firm's Labor and Employment Practice Group. Ms. Goodman focuses on litigation and advising top level corporate leadership - boards of directors, in-house counsel and chief executives - on unique, complex and often crisis-level employment affairs.

Partner

John Gorman works with a diverse group of clients, from global corporations to nonprofits, facing complex commercial disputes and intellectual property litigation. Representing plaintiffs and defendants, he handles all phases of litigation from inception through trial and post-trial appeals. He advises on commercial cases involving patent, trademark, trade secret, and copyright disputes in federal and state courts throughout the United States. Mr. Gorman's cases have involved consumer and industrial products, medical devices, computers, mobile devices, industrial tools, lighting systems, academic standardization tests, wireless products, and automatic fire protection equipment. Mr. Gorman is the leader of the firm’s IP disputes practice, and also serves as the partner in charge of training for Morgan Lewis’s litigation practice.

Partner

Veronica M. Gray is a prominent trial attorney in Orange County, California with over three 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, 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.

Bryan H. Heckenlively is a litigator in the San Francisco office of Munger, Tolles & Olson. He focuses his practice on complex civil litigation, with a particular emphasis on privacy and data security issues and class actions. In 2015, Mr. Heckenlively served as lead trial counsel for The Regents of the University of California in winning a jury verdict in favor of UCLA Health System, which had been accused of negligently releasing medical records in violation of California’s Confidentiality of Medical Information Act. After a seven-day trial, a Los Angeles jury rejected the plaintiff’s claim for more than $1.25 million in damages. In addition to his trial court practice, Mr. Heckenlively counsels clients on privacy and data security issues and has experience handling a variety of appellate matters in state and federal court.

United States District Judge (retired)

The Honorable Faith Hochberg is a former United States District Court Judge who retired from the bench in 2015. She now serves as an independent mediator and arbitrator in cases litigated in California, New York, and throughout the country. Judge Hochberg recently mediated one of the largest patent infringement cases in the Northern District of California between a large Silicon Valley technology company and a competitor based in New Jersey and its parent company in Japan. Judge Hochberg has been a Patent Pilot judge and was vice chair of the Local Patent Rules Committee in the District of New Jersey. Prior to ascending the bench, Judge Hochberg served as the United States Attorney for the District of New Jersey. She previously served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Treasury, where her responsibilities included supervision of the Office of Foreign Assets Control, Bank Secrecy Act enforcement, and leading the Treasury's international anti-money laundering initiatives. Earlier in her career, Judge Hochberg served as Senior Deputy Chief Counsel of the Office of Thrift Supervision, where she created and led enforcement of compliance and financial risk reforms in the banking industry, and as Legal Assistant to the Chairman of the SEC.

Partner

Lila Hope is a partner in Cooley's Life Sciences practice group and a member of its business department, resident in the firm's Palo Alto office. Her practice focuses on the representation of life sciences companies discovering, developing and marketing pharmaceutical, vaccine, medical device, diagnostic and digital health products. She counsels clients ranging from privately-held companies to Fortune 500 companies. Ms. Hope specializes in transactions involving complex intellectual property, business, operational and legal issues, including strategic partnerships, discovery and option deals, and complex asset purchases. In addition, she counsels clients' management, operational and legal teams on matters involving licensing, supply, distribution, clinical trials, research collaborations and vendor services. Ms. Hope is also regularly involved in the evaluation of a company's product rights and operational risks in connection with financing, public offering and M&A transactions.

Partner

Richard Hung leads complex technology matters for clients in state and federal trial and appellate courts, including both high-stakes patent litigation and litigation against non-practicing patent holders. The technologies at issue in these matters have spanned areas such as Internet search and advertising, cryptography, programmable logic devices, graphical user interfaces, smartphones, electronic books, and anticancer therapeutics. In addition to his IP litigation and counseling practice, Mr. Hung is the co-chair of Morrison & Foerster's IP Litigation Group, the cross-disciplinary Intellectual Property Group, and the Inter Partes Review and Post Grant Practice. A registered patent attorney, Mr. Hung represents clients in adversarial proceedings before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (PTO). Mr. Hung also regularly advises clients on strategic offensive and defensive patent licensing and patent acquisition issues.

Partner

A former federal prosecutor in the Northern District of California with more than 20 years of experience, Matt Jacobs is well recognized for his experience in internal investigations, government investigations, and white collar matters of all kinds, as well as complex commercial litigation. Mr. Jacobs frequently advises Boards of Directors, Audit Committees, and General Counsels on critical issues. He is Co-Chair of the firm’s Government Investigations & White Collar Criminal Defense practice, and is the Managing Partner of the San Francisco office of V&E. Mr. Jacobs has 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.

Partner

Emily Jones advises 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 monetization 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 prepare for the impact of the EU General Data Protection Regulation. Additionally, Ms. Jones 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 as data transfers, cyber security and managing data processors effectively; she also advises on dual-use export control regulations.

Executive Vice President, General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer

As EVP, General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer of Infosys, David D. Kennedy is responsible for all legal and compliance matters of the company. Mr. Kennedy has offered legal guidance to international companies for over 25 years. Prior to Infosys, he was Chief Legal Officer at JDA Software, Inc., General Counsel and Corporate Secretary at Better Place, Inc., and General Counsel and Secretary for Business Objects S.A. Mr. Kennedy began his professional career with IBM and held various legal leadership roles within a number of business units.

Partner

Jeffrey L. Kessler is a partner in Winston & Strawn LLP’s New York office who serves as the firm's co-chairman, is the chair of the global Antitrust/Competition Practice, and co-chairs the Sports Law Practice. Additionally, Mr. Kessler serves on the firm's Executive Committee. He focuses his practice on all aspects of antitrust/competition, sports law, intellectual property (IP), complex litigation, and government criminal and civil investigations. He has been lead counsel in some of the most complex antitrust, sports law and intellectual property law cases in the country, including major jury trials, and has represented a number of U.S. and international companies in criminal and civil investigations in the antitrust, trade, and Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) areas. Mr. Kessler is also one of the most prominent lawyers in the country regularly engaged in high-profile sports litigation.

Partner

With experience representing both large and small businesses, as well as individuals, Karen Kimmey handles a wide variety of commercial disputes, with particular emphasis on complex contract, fraud, unfair competition and negligence claims. She also has significant experience in class actions, intellectual property and products liability matters, defending clients in the biotechnology, software, manufacturing and entertainment industries. Ms. Kimmey is frequently called in to take over on matters from other law firms as they approach trial and require courtroom expertise. Ms. Kimmey frequently speaks and writes about trial strategy and skills, often addressing the challenges that litigation poses for businesses.

Partner

Rob Kramer is a partner in Dentons' Intellectual Property and Technology Practice and is the Co-Chair of the firm’s national Patent Litigation Practice. He is a trial lawyer with decades of experience representing clients in patent infringement cases in district courts throughout the country, including in California, Delaware and E.D.Texas. He recently was lead trial counsel winning two major hard fought, back-to-back, large patent infringement jury trials between competitor technology companies in May and June 2016 in the Finisar v. Nistica case, one of the largest patent infringement cases in the Northern District of California. He represents clients in patent litigations involving a wide range of products and industries, and is one of the most experienced patent litigators in the country. He has served as a member of the Board of Governors of the Association of Business Trial Lawyers (ABTL), a 2,000-member organization of trial lawyers and judges, and he is the Co-Chair of the ABA Intellectual Property Patent Litigation Committee's Section 112 Subcommittee. He is resident in Dentons' Silicon Valley and San Francisco offices.

Partner

Mark L. Krotoski represents and advises clients on antitrust cartel investigations; cybersecurity and privacy matters; trade secret, economic espionage, fraud, and foreign corrupt practices cases; and government investigations. During nearly 20 years as a federal prosecutor, Mr. Krotoski handled a variety of complex and novel investigations and high-profile cases. As the assistant chief of the National Criminal Enforcement Section in the DOJ’s Antitrust Division, he oversaw international criminal antitrust cartel investigations and successfully led trial teams in prosecuting antitrust and obstruction of justice cases involving corporations and executives. He also provided guidance on electronic evidence and forensic issues. Mr. Krotoski served as the national coordinator for the Computer Hacking and Intellectual Property (CHIP) Program in the DOJ’s Criminal Division, which involved approximately 250 federal prosecutors specially trained to prosecute cybercrime and intellectual property enforcement cases. He successfully prosecuted and investigated virtually every type of computer intrusion, cybercrime, and criminal intellectual property violation.

Partner

Peter Lamb, a partner in Orrick's Silicon Valley office, is a member of the Corporate Group. Mr. Lamb advises both emerging and well established companies, with a focus on consumer-facing and technology companies. His experience includes a wide range of public and private securities offerings, including equity, debt and convertible debt financings, as well as public and private company mergers and acquisitions and corporate governance and securities law matters. He has advised on the IPOs of companies such as Elevate Financial, Pandora Media, AVG Technologies, Portola Pharmaceuticals and ZS Pharma, and on a wide range of mergers and acquisitions for technology, life sciences and private equity clients. Mr. Lamb also advises a range of start-up clients on general corporate and financing matters.

Partner

Scott Lassman is a partner in Goodwin’s Technology & Life Sciences Group. Mr. Lassman’s practice focuses on providing life cycle support to biotechnology, pharmaceutical and medical technology companies at all stages of development. He has extensive experience counseling senior management on navigating the FDA’s complex administrative processes and structure, including its dispute resolution and Citizen Petition processes, and has successfully obtained preliminary and permanent injunctive relief from the FDA in drug and device cases. He routinely provides strategic advice on product approval and lifecycle management issues, including the Hatch-Waxman Act and biosimilars law, and also advises clients on corporate, licensing and intellectual property issues.

Principal

Dr. Lavoie is a Principal in the Silicon Valley and Twin Cities offices of Fish & Richardson. She represents a range of clients, from industry to academia, with an emphasis on early to mid-stage companies. Her practice focuses on client counseling and strategic portfolio development, patent opinions, due diligence and freedom-to-operate studies, and patent prosecution in the chemical arts. She has extensive experience in the areas of pharmaceuticals (including life cycle management), drug formulation and drug delivery technologies, biopharmaceuticals, small molecules, diagnostics, nanotechnologies, plant biotechnology and genomics, and green/environmental chemistries. Dr. Lavoie also has significant transactional experience in licensing, feasibility, and development and supply agreements.

William H. Neukom Professor of Law

Mark Lemley is the William H. Neukom Professor of Law at Stanford Law School and the Director of the Stanford Program in Law, Science and Technology. He teaches intellectual property, computer and internet law, patent law, trademark law, antitrust, and remedies. He is the author of seven books (all in multiple editions) and 153 articles on these and related subjects, including the two-volume treatise IP and Antitrust. Mr. Lemley is a founding partner of Durie Tangri LLP. He litigates and counsels clients in all areas of intellectual property, antitrust, and internet law. He has argued 22 federal appellate cases and numerous district court cases as well as in the California Supreme Court, and represented clients including Comcast, Genentech, DISH Network, Google, Grokster, Guidewire, Hummer Winblad, NetFlix, Newegg, and the University of Colorado Foundation in nearly 100 cases in his more than two decades as a lawyer. Mr. Lemley is a founder of Lex Machina, Inc., a startup company providing data and analytics around IP disputes to law firms, companies, courts, and policymakers.

Partner

Andrew Livingston, a partner in Orrick's San Francisco office, is the Deputy Practice Group Leader of the firm's Global Employment Law Group. He represents clients in a wide variety of industries, but specifically focuses on financial services, retail, technology, and advertising. Mr. Livingston has an extensive class- and collective-action practice. He routinely defends employers in such cases in state and federal courts, particularly in cases alleging violations of the wage-and-hour laws. He also defends employers in numerous other types of cases, such as those related to restrictive covenants and trade secrets, wrongful termination, discrimination, harassment and retaliation. Mr. Livingson regularly appears in state and federal courts, both at the trial and appellate levels, and he has substantial jury trial experience.

Partner

Betty L. Louie, a partner in the Rome and Milan offices of Orrick, is a member of the M&A and Private Equity Group. She practiced in New York for more than 10 years before relocating to Italy. Ms. Louie has extensive experience in the areas of mergers and acquisitions, private equity, strategic investments and capital markets; for close to 20 years she has advised on more than 100 cross-border M&A transactions, involving both private and public companies. Ms. Louie regularly advises Chinese corporations and financial institutions investing and operating in Italy and Europe.

Partner

Doug Lumish is Vice Chair of Latham's Litigation & Trial Department and former global Co-chair of its IP Litigation Practice. Mr. Lumish has litigated cases across a diverse technology spectrum including internet and web technologies, database, file system and operating system software, video game technology, touch screen and smartphone technologies, stents, aneurysm treatment and other medical devices, camcorders and PC connectivity, data networking equipment and networking protocols, semiconductor equipment and processes, capillary electrophoresis equipment and processes, PCR equipment and processes, disk drives, cellular technology, biotechnology equipment and processes, and analog and digital circuit design. Mr. Lumish co-taught a patent litigation course at Stanford Law School in 2010 and 2012. He is also a frequent speaker and writer on patent litigation matters.

Founder & CTO

Since starting Palamida in 2004 Jeff Luszcz has helped hundreds of software companies understand how to best use open source while complying with their license obligations and keeping on top of security issues. He leads the professional services team responsible for open source compliance and security audits. His team has performed reviews for some of the largest mergers and acquisitions in the technology industry. Prior to founding Palamida, Mr. Luszcz spent six years as a software engineer at NASA Ames Research Center where he implemented software for simulation and visualization of flat panel display technology and their related human factors. Throughout his career, he has been active in the Java, Macintosh and Open Source software communities. He is also the author of several well-known Macintosh software utilities and has served as a technical editor for Wrox Press.

Senior Managing Partner

Deborah Maddux is a founding partner of Van Dermyden Maddux Law Corporation. Prior to creating her employment law firm, Ms. Maddux served as Counsel to the University of California, Davis, where she was routinely called upon to advise all levels of management regarding a wide variety of employment law situations. In this role, she conducted, oversaw and managed many investigations and advised and collaborated with management regarding the appropriate follow-up to investigative findings and conclusions. She has also served as counsel to the statewide ethics watchdog, the California Fair Political Practices Commission, where she provided continuing legal education training for attorneys statewide, and ethics training to state employees as mandated by state law. Ms. Maddux’s practice now focuses on conducting workplace and Title IX campus investigations, expert witness work, workplace coaching for employees and supervisors and conflict resolution training.

Counsel

Kristin Madigan is a counsel in Crowell & Moring’s San Francisco office and a member of the firm’s Commercial Litigation Group. Ms. Madigan focuses her practice on representing clients in high-stakes commercial litigation, privacy and consumer protection matters, and complex technology disputes. An experienced litigator, she is also a former Federal Trade Commission (FTC) attorney with experience in the areas of privacy, data security, and consumer protection. Prior to joining Crowell & Moring, Ms. Madigan served as an attorney at the FTC in Washington, D.C., in the Bureau of Consumer Protection, Division of Privacy and Identity Protection. In that role, she led nonpublic investigations and prosecuted unfair and deceptive practices in privacy and data security matters within the FTC’s consumer protection authority.

Senior Director, Global Core Payments and Competition at PayPal

Rob Mahnke heads a team at PayPal responsible for competition law, employment, compensation and benefits, the stock plan, and real estate. Previously he was Global Competition Counsel at eBay Inc. where he managed all antitrust matters – including product and commercial counseling, regulatory affairs, litigation, M&A, and training and compliance – for eBay’s Marketplaces, Enterprise and PayPal business units. Mr. Mahnke also served as Trial Attorney with the Networks and Technology Enforcement Section of the DOJ’s Antitrust Division in Washington, D.C.. He was involved in the Division’s investigations of the combinations of CME and CBOT, Thomson and Reuters, and Oracle and Sun. Mr. Mahnke has also taught as an adjunct professor at Boalt Hall School of Law at the University of California, Berkeley.

Partner

Katharine (Katie) Martin is a partner in Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati's Palo Alto office, where she practices corporate and securities law. She currently serves as a member of the firm's board of directors, its governing body, and previously served as a member of the Policy Committee and as the leader of the firm's business law department. Ms. Martin has extensive experience in representing public companies. Her practice includes all aspects of company representation, including corporate governance, SEC compliance, 1934 Act issues, public offerings, private placements, and mergers and acquisitions. Ms. Martin also has represented underwriters in public offerings and issuers and investors in private equity financings. She is a frequent speaker on corporate and securities law, corporate governance, and mergers and acquisition topics.

Partner

Pamela Martinson represents major institutional and other lenders, lessors, borrowers and equity sponsors. She possesses extensive experience in complex financings of all kinds, including syndicated lending transactions (secured and unsecured), equipment leasing, asset-based lending, unitranche loans, subscription finance and structured finance. Ms. Martinson regularly handles the debt aspects of sponsor-led acquisition transactions. Her practice in large part centers on cross-border loans and security, intercreditor relationships and lending to technology and growth companies. She has been instrumental in developing loan and lease documentation for commercial lenders and equipment lessors and has experience in lease and loan financing of early-stage companies that include the issuance of warrants. She advises clients with respect to credit, workout and Uniform Commercial Code issues.

Partner

Stafford Matthews is the managing partner of Dentons' Silicon Valley office. He represents technology and industrial companies in the strategic development and exploitation of intellectual properties and products, complex contract negotiations and dispute resolution. His practice focuses on the licensing and transfer of IP rights and technologies in domestic and international markets; providing forensic advice on contentious contractual issues; establishing and enforcing distribution systems for products and services; antitrust and unfair competition matters in the US and the European Union; and the negotiation of cross-border alliances and other business structures. Mr. Matthews is dual qualified as an English solicitor and a US lawyer and has extensive experience in both European and Asian markets. He is a board-certified specialist in franchise and distribution law.

Partner

For more than twenty years, Nate McKitterick, has been an effective advocate as well as a trusted advisor, resolving insurance, indemnification, and management liability issues for corporations and individual executives. His experience spans a number of risk areas. In addition to deep knowledge of indemnification issues ranging from patent-related and other contractual indemnities, to management indemnification, Mr. McKitterick has experience in most forms of insurance coverage: directors and officers liability, cyberliability and privacy, commercial general liability, employment practices liability, technology errors and omissions, specialty transactional/M&A products and other types of property and liability insurance. He has advised corporations, as well as individual directors and officers, in almost every sector of the business world.

Associate General Counsel, Advertising & Privacy

Scott Mellon supports Facebook's measurement, insights and ad tech teams. He advises on a wide range of online advertising and privacy issues, including compliance with federal, state and international laws and regulators; online behavior advertising; commercial agreements with advertisers, publishers, and strategic partners; privacy policies; and privacy and security audits. Prior to joining Facebook, Mr. Mellon was an associate at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher.

Vice President - Global Payments Policy

John Muller serves as Vice President of Global Payments Policy at PayPal, Inc. Mr. Muller has been the Chairman and General Counsel of Paypal Asset Management, Inc. since January 2001 and 2000, respectively. He served as General Counsel, Vice President and Secretary of PayPal, Inc. and served as the Chief Compliance Officer and Secretary of Paypal Funds - Paypal Money Market Fund. Prior to joining PayPal, Mr. Muller was a Partner at the law firm of Brobeck, Phleger & Harrison, specializing in finance and regulatory compliance. Previously, he practiced law at Shawmut National Corporation and at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher. Mr. Muller serves as the Co-Chairman of the American Bar Association Joint Subcommittee on Electronic Financial Services and served as the Chairman of the California Bar Association Financial Institutions Committee.

Partner

Jessica Mussallem is a partner in Vinson & Elkin's San Francisco office. Her principal areas of practice include complex commercial litigation, government investigations and white collar criminal defense, including the representation of corporations, Audit Committees, and individuals in criminal and internal investigations involving the Department of Justice, the Securities and Exchange Commission and other government agencies. Ms. Mussallem has grown a national and international practice representing companies and executives in high stakes matters involving the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, antitrust offenses, trade secrets, securities violations, and representing companies in commercial disputes including IP litigation and securities matters.

Partner

Kristina Nordlander has a thriving EU competition, regulatory and litigation practice, representing major companies in a variety of sectors, including pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, financial services and payments, chemicals, mining, medical devices and technology. She has extensive experience advising clients on the full range of EU competition issues, including joint ventures and cooperation agreements, merger control proceedings, state aid, cartel investigations and antitrust compliance. Ms. Nordlander has represented a number of major pharmaceutical companies on issues related to the sector inquiry undertaken by the European Commission, and frequently advises pharma, biotech and medical device companies on antitrust risk relating to patent enforcement and settlement, life-cycle management, marketing, pricing practices and procurement.

Partner

Jeffrey Ostrow heads the Palo Alto office of Simpson Thacher. He is Chair of the Intellectual Property Practice and a member of the Executive Committee. For more than 20 years, Mr. Ostrow has litigated and tried IP cases for both large and small technology companies, including Intel, Cisco, HP, CSR, Seagate and Avistar Communications. He is also responsible for the corporate side of his firm's IP practice and is regularly called upon to counsel clients on complicated IP issues in a variety of deal structures. He is a frequent lecturer on IP issues and has taught at Stanford Law School and is currently teaching IP Strategy at Berkeley Law School.

Partner

Laura Oswell is a partner in Sullivan & Cromwell's Litigation Group and a practice group leader for the firm's Foreign Corrupt Practices Act practice. Ms. Oswell represents companies and individuals in a wide variety of matters, including transaction-related, securities class, derivative, commercial, contract, antitrust and employment disputes. She also represents companies and individuals in matters before the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the U.S. Department of Justice. Within the past three years, Ms. Oswell has tried three cases to verdict, achieving wins for both clients.

Partner

Weyinmi Popo, a partner in Orrick's London office, advises UK and international clients on M&A, private equity, infrastructure and energy transactions. Mr. Popo's practice has a particular focus on Africa. His experience includes advising various Africa focused private equity sponsors such as Helios Investment Partners, LeapFrog Investments and Adlevo Capital. Mr. Popo is a native of Nigeria and is a regular contributor to thought leadership on legal and other issues regarding cross-border transactions in Africa.

Partner

Jeff Poston is a partner in Crowell's Washington, D.C. office and is in the firm's Commercial Litigation Group. He is a trial attorney focused on complex commercial cases involving data protection, financial services, business tort, antitrust, and healthcare disputes. Mr. Poston has litigated and tried dozens of cases on behalf of corporate clients in a wide variety of industries. He has extensive experience in defending corporate clients against class actions and federal and state investigations alleging data security breaches. He has represented healthcare companies involved in some of the largest alleged data breach cases brought under the federal HITECH Act and various state privacy, data security, and unfair competition laws. Mr. Poston has negotiated favorable settlements of these claims with state regulators and attorneys general.

Partner

Benjamin Powell is widely recognized as one of the country’s top authorities on handling cybersecurity, data breach and related investigation matters. He is a leading attorney in handling complex regulatory matters relating to international investment and mergers, including matters involving the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) and the Defense Security Service (DSS). He also is regularly asked to be lead counsel on major investigations and strategic counseling across a variety of sensitive regulatory matters for the world’s most prominent companies. He is also frequently retained to perform due diligence on major domestic corporate transactions requiring expertise in government regulatory issues, including government contracting, security clearance issues with the Defense Security Service (DSS), export control and related issues. His background includes serving as General Counsel to the first three Directors of National Intelligence, Special Assistant to the President and Associate White House Counsel.

Partner

Nancy Pritikin is a partner in the Labor and Employment Practice Group in Sheppard, Mullin's Silicon Valley office. She has extensive courtroom experience and specializes in employment discrimination, wrongful termination, investigations of employee conduct, and sexual harassment matters. Regarded for her experience as a trial attorney, Ms. Pritikin is well-versed in high-profile employment class action matters. In addition to representing a police chief in a highly-publicized sexual harassment case and representing the Supreme Court of California in litigation alleging disability discrimination, she has successfully served as lead trial counsel for multiple class action cases, including wage and hour and discrimination claims. Ms. Pritikin appears regularly in state and federal courts, mediation, and arbitration forums and before the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing.

Partner

Bita Rahebi is a partner in Morrison & Foerster's Los Angeles office, where she focuses on intellectual property litigation, particularly patent litigation. She has litigated a wide variety of high-technology matters since joining the firm in 2000 and manages technology cases for global clients in U.S. District Courts and before the International Trade Commission. Ms. Rahebi’s patent matters have concerned graphical user interfaces, interactive media design, liquid crystal displays, product design tools, chip fuse technology, public key encryption, non-surgical medical devices, digital televisions, automated call processing, and virtual camera control technology. She has also been involved in trade secrets litigation involving programmable logic devices in California state court. Ms. Rahebi is President of the Los Angeles Intellectual Property Law Association.

Vice President, Intellectual Property and Litigation

Dana Rao is Vice-President of Intellectual Property and Litigation at Adobe. He oversees all aspects of Adobe’s intellectual property and litigation matters, including procuring, licensing, and defending Adobe’s patents, trademarks, and copyrights, and managing all aspects of Adobe’s litigation practice. Previous to Adobe, Mr. Rao was Associate General Counsel at Microsoft Corporation for eleven years, focusing on patent related matters. He began his legal career at the law firm of Fenwick & West, where he practiced patent prosecution, licensing and litigation.

Partner

Alan Raul is the founder and leader of Sidley’s Privacy, Data Security and Information Law practice. He represents companies on federal, state and international privacy issues, including global data protection and compliance programs, data breaches, cybersecurity, consumer protection issues and Internet law. Mr. Raul’s practice involves litigation and counseling regarding consumer class actions, FTC, State Attorney General, Department of Justice and other government investigations, enforcement actions and regulation. He provides clients with perspective gained from extensive government service, as well. Mr. Raul previously served as Vice Chairman of the White House Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board, General Counsel of the Office of Management and Budget, and of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and Associate Counsel to the President. He serves as a member of the Privacy, Intellectual Property, Technology, and Antitrust Litigation Advisory Committee of the National Chamber Litigation Center (affiliated with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce).

Partner

Adam R. Rosenthal is a partner in Sheppard, Mullin's Labor and Employment Practice Group in the firm's San Diego (Del Mar) office. Mr. Rosenthal represents a broad spectrum of employers in all areas of employment law before federal and state courts, and the American Arbitration Association and JAMS. He has significant trial and arbitration experience in single plaintiff and class action cases involving: wage and hour disputes such as allegations of missed meal and rest breaks, unpaid overtime, off-the-clock work and time shaving; wrongful termination; sexual harassment and disability discrimination; defamation; misclassification of manager "exempt" employees; and non-compete agreements and trade secrets.

Patent Counsel

Larry Rozsnyai has served as Patent Counsel at Gilead Sciences since 2013, where he handles patent preparation and prosecution, patent porfolio building, IP due diligence and licensing. Prior to joining Gilead, he served as Senior Director, Intellectual Property and Legal Affairs at Metabolex and as Director, Intellectual Property and Licensing at NovaBay Pharmaceuticals.

Partner

Jason Sanders' practice focuses on patent and trademark prosecution and counseling. He has advised companies across the spectrum from startups and universities, to Fortune 500 companies. In addition to practicing before the United States Patent and Trademark Office, he has experience in obtaining patents in Europe, China, Japan, Canada, Australia, Korea, Israel, and other jurisdictions. Recently, Mr. Sanders successfully prosecuted patents to allowance in less than one year through the USPTO Track One program. Prior to law school, Mr. Sanders was a temperature metrologist for Hart Scientific, where he studied and performed low uncertainty calibrations on various high precision thermometers. He also developed software that increased measurement precision. Mr. Sanders also worked as an electrical engineer at Enterasys Corporation. In addition, he was an adjunct professor at Utah Valley State College, where he taught undergraduate physics and astronomy courses.

Partner

Thomas Schmid, a partner in Orrick's Munich office, is a head of M&A and Private Equity. He focuses his practice on mergers and acquisitions, venture capital and private equity investments, capital markets and restructuring. Mr. Schmid represents clients in national and cross-boarder transactions, in particular international corporates and private equity funds. Prior to joining Orrick, Mr. Schmid was, inter alia, a partner in the Munich office of an international U.S.-headquartered law firm Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP and Inhouse Counsel at MAN AG.

Principal

Eric Schulman is a Principal in the Silicon Valley office of Fish & Richardson. His practice is primarily focused on patent prosecution and counseling, patent strategy and analysis, and development and management of patent portfolios. Mr. Schulman also has experience in trademark portfolio development, IP licensing and acquisition, patent post-grant proceedings, patent and trademark litigation, standards bodies, copyright, open source, M&A, commercial transactions, collaborative structures, broad IP strategy and legal management. Prior to joining Fish & Richardson, Mr. Schulman was Head of Intellectual Property (IP) at Uber Technologies, Inc., where he was responsible for all aspects of the company’s IP program, including strategy, team management, and execution. Before Uber, Mr. Schulman spent more than 9 years in-house at Google Inc., where he served most recently as Legal Director.

Partner

Sally Shorthose, a partner in Bird & Bird's London office, provides a full range of intellectual property commercial advice and support to her clients, including licensing, partnering and exploitation agreements, research, development and marketing collaborations. She also frequently advises clients on regulatory and ‘freedom to operate’ matters, and manages significant due diligence matters. As a transactional intellectual property lawyer, she provides advice in relation to the protection and exploitation of a full range of IP rights, both in stand alone transactions and as part of an acquisition, divestment or investment activity. Before joining Bird & Bird in 2006, Ms. Shorthose was head of IP and Life Sciences at Eversheds, and prior to that she spent 11 years working in-house, first as senior legal advisor at ICI/Zeneca and later as Legal Director of Novartis UK.

Rouven Siegemund advises national and international companies on all areas of corporate law, focusing on M&A transactions, venture capital financing, and start-ups. He advises founders of new businesses on all stages of development - from establishing and expanding their start-ups to exits, as well as venture capitalists and other investors in relation to their investments in promising companies. In addition to his professional practice as a lawyer, Mr. Siegemund is involved with numerous national and international start-up events in the capacity as coach, mentor, and jury member.

Partner

Amy Simmerman is a partner in the Wilmington, Delaware, office of Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati. Her practice focuses on providing advice on all aspects of Delaware corporate law, including with regard to fiduciary duties, mergers and acquisitions, stockholder activism, corporate governance, corporate formation, stock issuances and preferred stock investments, advancement and indemnification, dissolution and liquidation, and various statutory matters. She also has been involved in many special committee assignments and internal investigations and provides corporate advice in the context of litigation. Prior to joining WSG&R, Ms. Simmerman was corporate counsel at a global software company, where she focused on corporate law issues and M&A. Prior to that, she practiced for several years in the Delaware corporate law counseling group at a Delaware law firm.

Pernille Spiers-Lopez spent more than 20 years as an executive at IKEA, the multi-billion dollar Swedish home furnishings company with 130,000 workers operating in over 30 countries,.with stints as CEO of IKEA Group, North America and as Global Chief Human Resource Officer for IKEA worldwide. Ms. Spiers-Lopez currently serves on the boards of several non-profits.

Partner

Jim Steinberg focuses his practice on complex commercial transactions and general corporate matters for telecommunications, financial institutions, healthcare providers, technology and other companies. He frequently assists clients in structuring and negotiating outsourcing transactions, joint ventures, strategic alliances, IT procurement projects, and the commercialization and utilization of technology. Mr. Steinberg regularly represents Internet-related and other high-growth clients in all phases of their development, from formation, venture capital investment through public offering. He counsels clients in the process of identifying, developing and commercializing their intellectual property. Mr. Steinberg also handles a variety of sophisticated commercial transactions for Internet and other technology companies, including addressing the regulatory issues involved in their operation via the Internet.

Partner

Lisa Stimmell is a partner at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati. Based in the firm's Palo Alto office, she practices corporate and securities law with a focus on advising public companies and larger enterprise clients on complex corporate governance, SEC compliance, and 1934 Act disclosure matters. Ms. Stimmell has a broad range of transactional experience, including the representation of public and private companies in mergers and acquisitions and other strategic transactions; underwriters and issuers in public offerings; and issuers and investors in private equity financings.

United States Attorney for the Northern District of California

Brian Stretch serves as the United States Attorney for the Northern District of California. Prior to his current position, Mr. Stretch served as the First Assistant United States Attorney for five years. From 2007 to 2010, he served as Chief of the Criminal Division. Mr. Stretch joined the United States Attorney's Office in 1999 and has worked in the Oakland Branch Office, the Organized Crime Strike Force, the Anti-terrorism Unit, and the Securities Fraud Unit. In 2003 and 2004, Mr. Stretch was Chief of the Major Crimes Unit in the San Francisco Office. In 2005, he served as Chief of the Oakland Branch Office, and then returned to the San Francisco Office to serve as the Senior Litigation Counsel in the Criminal Division. Prior to joining the United States Attorney's Office, Mr. Stretch was a Deputy District Attorney in the Marin County District Attorney's Office.

Partner

David Teitelbaum is a partner in the Banking and Financial Services group of Sidley Austin LLP. He has a broad regulatory practice for all types of entities involved in our payments and financial systems, including insured depository institutions and their holding companies, payment processors and systems, money transmitters, prepaid program managers, mobile network operators, technology providers, virtual currency companies and retailers. Mr. Teitelbaum assists these companies in the wide range of regulatory issues that impact their business by providing a combination of thoughtful regulatory guidance, solution-oriented transactional assistance and strategic legislative planning. He routinely helps companies structure payment products to minimize regulatory burden, negotiate commercial agreements for the support and distribution of those products, and create customer interfaces and disclosures that balance regulatory requirements and business needs.

Partner

Travis Thomas a partner in Baker Botts Palo Alto office, has extensive experience in the development, management and monetization of patent portfolios for both large, established public companies and small start-up ventures. He also has extensive experience in pre-litigation disputes involving patents; patent and trade-secret litigation; the evaluation of patent portfolios owned by potential acquisition targets; and the negotiation of technology licenses and other agreements involving a wide variety of intellectual property rights. Mr. Thomas has worked on patent and trade secret disputes and drafted and prosecuted hundreds of patent applications covering switching and routing systems, optical communication systems, wireless and mobile communication systems, speech encoding, passive RF communications systems, packet and circuit switched networks, IP telephony, analog and digital circuit design and fabrication, circuit verification, and SRAM design.

Partner

Julie Totten is the partner in charge of Orrick’s Sacramento Office and that office's Employment Law and Litigation group. She has more than 20 years' experience representing companies in high stakes litigation. Ms. Totten represents employers in complex cases, including wage-and-hour class and collective actions, EEO claims and claims involving breach of contract and wrongful termination. She has also successfully represented clients involved in investigations and audits by the Department of Labor and the California Division of Labor Standards Enforcement, and she assists clients in developing compensation policies and compliance measures designed to reduce potential exposure. Ms. Totten also counsels and trains clients on a wide variety of employment law matters, including social media and employee privacy.

Partner

Eric Wang is Co-Chair of DLA Piper's Northern California Corporate and Finance practice. He has broad experience in general corporate and securities representation and business counseling of publicly traded companies, emerging growth and other privately held companies and venture capital firms. Mr. Wang also has significant mergers and acquisitions experience, having represented numerous public and private companies in various industries both within the United States and in cross-border transactions.

Patent Counsel

Jennifer Zanocco has served as Patent Counsel at Google Inc. since 2010. She joined Google from Fish & Richardson where she was a Principal.