2019 Faculty
(speaker names linked to full professional biography on firm/company web site)
Keynote Speaker
Partner
Maureen K. Ohlhausen led the Federal Trade Commission as Acting Chairman and Commissioner, where she directed all aspects of the FTC's antitrust work, including merger review and conduct enforcement, and steered all FTC consumer protection enforcement, with a particular emphasis on privacy and technology issues. Prior to her role as Commissioner, Ms. Ohlhausen led the FTC's Internet Access Task Force, which produced an influential report analyzing competition and consumer protection legal issues in the areas of broadband and Internet. Upon leaving the FTC, Ms. Ohlhausen joined Baker Botts LLP as a partner in the Washington, D.C. office, where she serves as Chair of the Antitrust & Competition Law Practice Group. A thought leader, Ms. Ohlhausen has published dozens of articles on antitrust, privacy, IP, regulation, FTC litigation, telecommunications, and international law issues in prestigious publications and has testified over a dozen times before the U.S. Congress. Ms. Ohlhausen has relationships with officials in the U.S. and abroad, with a particular emphasis on Europe and China, and has led the U.S. delegation at international antitrust and data privacy meetings on many occasions. She has received numerous awards, including the FTC's Robert Pitofsky Lifetime Achievement Award. Ms. Ohlhausen clerked at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.
Presenters
 | Associate General Counsel David Adams is an Associate General Counsel at Eaze, a leading cannabis technology platform and marketplace. Mr. Adams leads Eaze's efforts in Litigation and Privacy, and counsels all aspects of the company on risk, working closely with teams in operations, marketing, sales, product, engineering, and analytics to provide sound, business-focused guidance and break new legal ground at the intersection of cannabis and technology. Prior to joining Eaze, he spent 6 years as a litigation associate at Latham & Watkins LLP, where he represented clients in a broad range of subjects, focusing on commercial litigation, privacy, securities, and white collar defense. |
 | Assistant General Counsel - Corporate & Securities, Assistant Secretary Megha Aggarwal is the Assistant General Counsel - Corporate & Securities and Assistant Secretary at Synaptics Incorporated, a leading developer and supplier of human interface semiconductor product solutions in the PC, Mobile and IoT markets. Ms. Aggarwal manages corporate governance, securities, litigation, privacy compliance, regulatory compliance and M&A at Synaptics. Prior to Synaptics, she was at Imperva, Inc. where she helped lead the company through its IPO. |
 | Partner Megan Baca is a partner in Ropes & Gray's intellectual property transactions, life sciences, and technology, media & telecommunications practice groups. Ms. Baca is also a co-head of the firm's Digital Health Initiative. With a background in computer science, Ms. Baca advises companies, investors, and universities in strategic transactions involving valuable IP or technology assets. These transactions include collaborations, licensing, joint ventures, and complex commercial arrangements for research, development, supply, distribution, promotion, outsourcing, and other relationships. |
 | Senior Director, Litigation Nicole Bartow leads the team responsible for managing Uber's US commercial litigation matters, demand letters, small claims and third party subpoenas. She directs and oversees litigation matters, including complex commercial, trade secret misappropriation, patent infringement and consumer class actions. For almost two years Ms. Bartow served as lead day-to-day in-house counsel in the Waymo v. Uber trade secret litigation. Before joining Uber, she was Director, Labor and Litigation for Atmel Corporation, a San Jose-based semiconductor company. Her experience in private practice includes stints at Pillsbury Winthrop and Rogers Joseph. |
 | Partner Harper Batts is a partner in the Intellectual Property Practice Group in Sheppard Mullin's Silicon Valley office. Numerous Fortune 50 clients have relied upon his experience to represent them in highly contentious patent litigation disputes in many different venues, including Texas, Delaware, California, New Jersey, Wisconsin, North Carolina, and the Federal Circuit. His experience includes leading several large joint defense groups in complex cases involving numerous patents and accused product lines. Mr. Batts has represented patent challengers and patent owners in more than 35 CBM and IPR proceedings. He has extensive experience in cases before the Patent Trial and Appeal Board. Mr. Batts is experienced in numerous technology areas, including semiconductors, computer software, e-commerce, wireless technology, telecommunications, medical devices and hardware technology. |
 | Head of Privacy, Americas Laura Berger is Head of Privacy for the Americas at LinkedIn. She is a 23-year veteran of the Federal Trade Commission, where she enforced federal laws to protect consumers' privacy. Her law enforcement work included cases alleging privacy and data security violations by leading technology companies, retailers, Internet of Things manufacturers, and other consumer-facing entities. Ms. Berger graduated from the University of Michigan Law School. She is based in San Francisco.
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 | Partner Roger Bickerstaff a is member of Bird & Bird's International Tech & Comms Group and leads its Digital Technology Solutions, Internet Services and eCommerce industry initiative. He is based in the firm's London and San Francisco offices. Mr. Bickerstaff specializes in all aspects of technology and EU procurement law. His project work focuses on large-scale infrastructure contracts, including contract negotiation and procurement procedures, contract management issues and dispute resolution. He has over 20 years' experience advising on commercial and procurement law matters relating to large-scale technology projects. In addition to his techlaw skills, Mr. Bickerstaff has particular expertise in EU procurement law issues. He acts for both public sector contracting authorities and private sector bidders and specializes in the set-up and operation of framework agreements. |
 | 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 Valerie Blandeau recently joined Pinsent Mason's Paris office to head the Paris-based Social Law team. A lawyer for more than 20 years, Ms. Blandeau previously worked at Eversheds and Gowling WLG where she created and developed the labor law department. She regularly advises a large number of clients, especially foreign companies, specializing in the field of new technologies. Ms. Blandeau handles both employment counseling and litigation and has extensive experience of the legislation surrounding working time and restructuring. |
 | Director, Intellectual Property Renee DuBord Brown has served as IP, product and litigation counsel for various multinational technology companies. Her specialties include building worldwide patent portfolios, leading domestic and foreign IP litigation strategies and managing licensing, tech transaction and commercial matters. She previously held in-house positions at Knowles Electronics, Motorola Mobility and Tessera, and is a former law firm partner specializing in IP law. |
 | Partner Rob Carlson is a partner in the Palo Alto office of Sidley Austin LLP, where he focuses his practice on mergers and acquisitions, formation of private investment funds, public and private securities offerings, joint ventures, and other strategic transactions, representing publicly traded and privately held corporations as well as private equity and venture and growth capital funds. Mr. Carlson regularly represents strategic and private equity buyers and sellers in mergers and acquisitions, and sponsors and investors in connection with the formation and operation of private equity funds and venture capital funds. He represents issuers and underwriters in public offerings and private placements of debt and equity securities, and also counsels boards of directors and committees on corporate governance matters. His industry experience includes working with companies and investors in the biotechnology, software, hardware, telecommunications, medical device, e-commerce, payments, transportation, entertainment and gaming industries. |
 | Counsel Francisco Castro is a Counsel in Arent Fox's San Francisco office where his practice is focused on strategic patent counseling, including both domestic and international portfolio development. Dr. Castro has extensive experience assisting clients in the areas of multimedia technologies, wireless systems and devices, software, semiconductors, nanotechnology, photonics, and medical devices. In addition, Dr. Castro helps companies establish processes to effectively identify and manage intellectual property assets. He is also co-leader of the firm's Emerging Companies Practice Group, where he helps guide startup and small companies on patent and other intellectual property matters. Prior to practicing law, Dr. Castro was a Principal Staff Research Engineer at Motorola Labs' DigitalDNA Systems Architecture Laboratory and a member of the technical staff at Lucent Technologies. |
 | Partner Jina Choi is a partner in Morrison's Securities Litigation, Enforcement, and White-Collar Defense Group, a role she is particularly well-qualified for as a 16-year veteran of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Her tenure culminated in serving as the Regional Director of the San Francisco Regional Office of the SEC. As the head of the SEC's San Francisco office starting in 2013, Ms. Choi brought a succession of headline-making enforcement actions. Under her leadership, the agency's San Francisco regional staff of attorneys and compliance professionals established important precedents that, according to SEC Chairman Jay Clayton, the SEC "will continue to follow in the years ahead." In addition to her time at the SEC, Ms. Choi's government experience includes serving as an Assistant U.S. Attorney (AUSA) in the Northern District of Texas and as a trial attorney in the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice. |
 | General Counsel Thomas Chow is a seasoned executive with 20 years of experience in technology, legal services, and startup companies. He joined PubMatic as general counsel in 2018, where he oversees the company's global corporate, commercial, intellectual property and legal affairs.
Prior to joining PubMatic, he was senior counsel (head of adtech legal) at Snap, a leading camera and social media platform (NYSE: SNAP); general counsel, chief compliance officer & secretary at Exponential Interactive, a global digital media, adtech, and data analytics provider; vice president, general counsel at Vindicia, the leader in enterprise-class SaaS subscription billing (acquired by Amdocs, NASDAQ: DOX); and associate general counsel (acting general counsel) for TechSoup Global, an international e-commerce enterprise operating in 52 countries. Before practicing law, Mr. Chow served as an IT systems and network administrator. |
 | Deputy General Counsel As the Deputy General Counsel for Litigation and Intellectual Property, Sean Christofferson has responsibility for Arista's litigation oversight and management, its intellectual property development and product clearance, and the company's technology transactions, including software licensing and open source. Prior to joining Arista, Mr. Christofferson was a partner in Kirkland & Ellis's Palo Alto office, a Senior IP Counsel at medical device company Covidien and an associate at Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe in Los Angeles. Prior to beginning his legal career, he worked as a senior software engineer at BEA Systems. |
 | Partner Helen Corden is a partner in the Pinsent Masons employment team who provides advice to a large number of organizations, with focus on overall strategy and mindful of the potential costs involved in employment disputes. She is resident in the firm's Birmingham, UK office. Her expertise includes : TUPE/Outsourcing, equal pay, employment tribunal claims, discrimination, whistleblowing, disciplinaries, grievances, contractual issues, restrictive covenants, restructuring and redundancy. |
 | Partner Scott Cunningham is a partner in the San Francisco office of Covington, and a member of the firm's Food and Drug practice group. He represents pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and medical device companies as well as trade associations in matters before the FDA, Congress, state and federal courts, and other regulatory and enforcement agencies. Mr. Cunningham has significant experience in areas including new product development and clinical trials; IRBs; new product approvals; Hatch-Waxman exclusivities and product life-cycle management; advertising and promotion; False Claims Act and Anti-Kickback compliance issues and pharmaceutical investigations; Orphan Drug; pediatric exclusivity; manufacturing and cGMPs; import/export; controlled substances; SEC disclosure; and other aspects of federal and state regulation of pharmaceuticals, biologics, and medical devices. |
 | Partner John Davidson-Kelly is a UK Partner in Osborne Clarke's commercial team with particular expertise in the digital media and technology sector. He specializes in commercial contracts and in providing regulatory advice on intellectual property rights, consumer law and broadcasting regulation, which often involves coordinating multi-jurisdictional compliance exercises. He is also an expert in the EU Commission's Digital Single Market initiative. Mr. Davidson-Kelly has substantial experience in setting up digital platforms, products and services, advising on all legal issues relating to launch and beyond. He also has extensive experience in setting up and advising all types of digital platforms, from online marketplaces, to music streaming platforms to content aggregators. Mr. Davidson-Kelly is an expert in rights and content licensing, technology agreements and partnering agreements. Prior to joining Osborne Clarke, he spent 2 years as an in house lawyer at YouView as Head of Legal, which he joined as an unincorporated start-up and saw through to the launch of its hybrid DTT/IPTV platform. |
 | Partner Nancy Dearborn's practice focuses on workplace investigations, compliance-related employee training, and general employment law compliance advice. Ms. Dearborn has significant, hands-on experience with the kinds of issues that Human Resources professionals deal with every day, including hiring, organizational development, employee classifications, independent contractor issues, policy development, performance issues, and terminations. She has provided numerous trainings in the areas of sexual harassment, discrimination, and performance management, and has personally conducted investigations for both large and small clients into allegations of harassment, discrimination, and misconduct. Her prior experience includes serving as VP of Human Resources and General Counsel of Gemfire, a venture-backed start up, as head of Employee Relations at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich and Rosati as well as a more recent stint at Employment Practices Solutions. Ms. Dearborn began her legal career with Kirkland & Ellis in its Washington, D.C. office. |
 | Special Counsel Navi Dhillon focuses on complex civil litigation, and controversial regulatory matters. He is a trusted advisor to clients across diverse industries including energy, hedge funds, private equity, wine, mining, timber, infrastructure, agriculture and technology. His representations have involved a variety of sensitive business concerns, from securities, corporate governance, land use, and water pollution, to class actions, fraud, and unfair competition. Mr. Dhillon is a go-to lawyer for clients seeking to develop utility-scale energy and infrastructure projects. His energy and infrastructure work has included receiving approvals for or developing a 300MW battery energy storage system (BESS), a 250MW photovoltaic system, a complex off-shore wind project, and an ocean desalination facility. |
 | 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 Tom Duley, a partner in Sidley's San Francisco office, has extensive experience representing life sciences companies in a wide range of technology and intellectual property transactions, including strategic collaborations, joint ventures, licenses, asset purchase and sale transactions and other commercial transactions. Mr. Duley brings problem-solving creativity and operational experience to clients ranging from startups to large public corporations. His experience also includes numerous cross-border transactions, including working with clients to develop and commercialize products in China. |
 | Partner Chuck Duross serves as co-chair of Morrison's Investigations and White Collar Defense Practice Group and is a co-leader of the FCPA and Global Anti-Corruption practice. He is resident in the firm's Washington, D.C. office. With more than twenty-two years of experience principally focused on white collar cases, Mr. Duross's practice has an emphasis on complex white collar criminal matters, including internal corporate investigations, representing special committees, compliance counseling, due diligence regarding third parties and business transactions, and defense of clients before government enforcement agencies, and multilateral investment banks. Mr. Duross has handled cases and overseen investigations in dozens of countries. He previously served as a Deputy Chief in the Fraud Section of the Criminal Division of the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), where he led the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) Unit and was in charge of all of the DOJ's FCPA investigations, prosecutions and resolutions in the United States. |
 | Partner Konni Ewald is a Partner and Head of Tech, Media and Comms at Osborne Clarke, Germany. He advises leaders in the digital media and software industry throughout Europe and the US on all matters of digital media and IT law as well as IP/technology-related transactions. Mr. Ewald's practice focuses on advising on technology related matters with a particular emphasis on SaaS and PaaS cloud deployment models, complex software implementation and licensing projects, distribution agreements and white labelling strategies that safeguard IP. He is a specialist in E- and M-commerce law, as well as data protection issues. A large part of his practice is working with clients in the digital media/video game/mobile sector. Mr. Ewald regularly acts for major computer and mobile games developers and publishers as well as other rights owners who are licensing rights for use in interactive software products. He has published the first legal handbook on mobile apps and is editor-in-chief of Germany's leading blog about legal aspects of games www.onlinegameslaw.com. |
 | Partner Jamillia Ferris is a partner in the Washington, D.C. office of Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, where she is a member of the antitrust practice. She regularly appears before the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Federal Trade Commission, representing companies in government antitrust investigations, including mergers and acquisitions and other civil antitrust matters. Ms. Ferris also provides antitrust counseling on a wide range of business conduct, including joint ventures and pricing and distribution, among others. She served in leadership positions and has overseen mergers at both the Antitrust Division of the DOJ and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). She was hired in 2014 to lead the FCC's review of AT&T's proposed $49 billion acquisition of DIRECTV. In this role, she directed all aspects of the FCC process, including coordination with the DOJ. |
 | Partner Jennifer Fitchen is the global co-leader of Sidley's mergers and acquisitions practice. She is also the former chair of the ABA's Acquisitions of Public Companies Subcommittee. Ms. Fitchen counsels public and private companies on both friendly and hostile acquisition transactions, divestitures and spin-outs, mergers-of-equals, going-private transactions, deals involving earnouts and contingent value rights, and complex structures such as inversion, double-dummy and reverse Morris Trust transactions. Her experience includes transactions that are truly one-of-a-kind. She has handled hundreds of transactions involving in excess of $230 billion in value. Ms. Fitchen lectures around the country on M&A-related matters, including at events hosted by Stanford University, the American Bar Association, the Association of Corporate Counsel, Practicing Law Institute and other professional organizations. |
 | 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. |
 | Partner Katherine Forster is a partner in the employment department at Munger, Tolles. In addition to having litigated scores of wage/hour and discrimination class actions as well as collective and representative actions, Ms. Forster has particular expertise in helping companies navigate highly sensitive claims for sexual harassment, gender discrimination and pay equity. Her litigation experience includes whistleblower retaliation claims, executive compensation matters, trade secrets disputes, constitutional issues and claims arising under the Unruh Civil Rights Act, as well as federal and state employment laws. Ms. Forster also handles internal investigations and provides strategic labor law compliance advice to employers and management. She has extensive experience in the entertainment and media, technology, retail, food and beverage distribution, financial services, communications and nonprofit sectors. |
 | IP Counsel Lindsey Furtado is an intellectual property lawyer handling trademarks, copyrights, domains and brand at Square, a financial services, merchant services aggregator and mobile payment company based in San Francisco. Prior to joining Square, Mr. Furtado practiced in the Silicon Valley office of Hogan Lovells. |
 | Senior Intellectual Property Counsel Diane Gabl Kratz is Senior Intellectual Property Counsel at Seagate Technology. She is a USPTO-registered patent attorney with CIPP/US privacy certification. At Seagate, she manages the Consumer and Media patent portfolios, advising on strategy, prosecution, and IP-related transactions. She also leads Seagate's global trademark portfolio, developing worldwide strategy and combatting counterfeits. Ms. Gabl Kratz previously practiced IP litigation at Morrison & Foerster and Sidley Austin's Silicon Valley offices. She regularly presents at conferences throughout the United States and has been featured as a guest lecturer at Stanford University's Management Science & Engineering Department, the University of California-Berkeley's Haas School of Business, and the Practising Law Institute. She received her J.D. from the University of Chicago and a Physics degree from Cornell University. |
 | Global Chief Privacy Officer, Privacy/Security Attorney Flora Garcia is responsible for McAfee's privacy and data protection strategies and implementation. She leads a team of operations and legal professionals who handle corporate and consumer products and internal employee processes to ensure privacy, security and legal best practices and compliance. Prior to joining McAfee in 2017, she served in a similar capacity at MUFG Americas where she worked on privacy program activities and provided subject-matter expertise on large-scale bank initiatives across the Americas. Ms. Garcia directed data protection initiatives, identified and mitigated risks, and launched a formalized Information Security Compliance Governance program based on FFIEC guidelines. She also spent 14 years in-house with Time Inc. as the first full-time employee dedicated to customer, web user and employee privacy. |
 | Associate Brandon Ge is resident in Crowell & Moring's Washington, D.C. office, where he is a member of the firm's Privacy & Cybersecurity and Health Care groups. Mr. Ge advises clients on a wide range of privacy and cybersecurity laws, regulations, and standards. His practice has a particular focus on advising clients - from start-up digital health companies to large health plans - on all aspects of compliance with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). Mr. Ge also counsels clients on a variety of other privacy and cybersecurity issues, including the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA), and 42 CFR Part 2. He also frequently works with companies across a variety of industries to incorporate privacy and security by design based on guidance from the FTC, state attorneys general, and NIST. |
 | Partner Beth George is a partner in the San Francisco office of Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, where she represents companies in complex cybersecurity and data security matters. Her practice includes advising boards on cybersecurity governance and preparing companies for security incidents. Previously, Ms. George served as Deputy General Counsel to the U.S. Department of Defense, where she advised senior leadership on legislative, policy, and oversight matters. From 2011 to 2016, Ms. George served in various roles for the National Security Division of the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ). On detail from the DOJ from 2015 to 2016, Ms. George served in the White House as Associate Counsel in the Office of the White House Counsel, where she provided legal and strategic advice to senior White House officials. She also led responses for the office on cybersecurity and national security matters, including the response to the largest U.S. government data breach at the Office of Personnel Management. |
 | Partner Albert Giang is a litigation partner at the law firm of Boies Schiller Flexner. Mr. Giang serves as an advocate and "tech translator" for his clients - whether they are making their case to courtrooms, governmental agencies, regulators, or policymakers. He represents some of the most respected companies in the industry - including Lyft, Airbnb, Eaze, Postmates, and Snap. In addition to defending clients as outside litigation counsel, Mr. Giang has been asked to serve two stints in-house at a leading startup and provides strategic counseling on cutting-edge regulatory issues, governmental compliance, class actions, and complex consumer and employment disputes. Mr. Giang graduated from Stanford Law School and clerked for the Honorable Richard A. Paez on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. |
 | Partner John Gibson is a partner in Crowell & Moring's Litigation & Trial Department in its Orange County office and he serves on the firm's Management Board, as co-chair of the Diversity Council, and as chair of the 3D Printing Digital Transformation Working Group. A save-the-company trial lawyer, litigator, and thought leader with 30 years of experience, he succeeds in crisis situations for clients ranging from top technology and healthcare companies to professional sports teams and underrepresented pro bono clients. Mr. Gibson has an impressive track record of connecting with judges, juries, and arbitrators and has won a long list of headline-generating major cases for Fortune 500 and top international companies. A former software engineer who did coursework in organic chemistry, physics, and biology at Harvard, he also partners with clients to help them create - and protect themselves within - digital transformation ecosystems, including 3D printing. The United Nations recently tapped Mr. Gibson to chair the law program portion of its AI for Good Global Summit in Switzerland and California. |
 | General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer Jeremiah Gordon joined Google in 2011 and has been the General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer of CapitalG since its creation. In this role, he manages legal and regulatory affairs for the company and is involved in all aspects of its fund formation, deal execution, portfolio management and international investments. Before CapitalG, Mr. Gordon was a senior counsel at Google where he worked with Google's corporate development team on acquisitions, investments and special projects. Prior to Google, he worked at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati where he represented leading technology companies, entrepreneurs and investors in significant transactions and business challenges. Early in his career, Mr. Gordon was a corporate associate at Cravath, Swaine & Moore. |
 | Assistant General Counsel, IP Law & Policy David Green leads Microsoft's Copyright and Trade Secrets team, which helps Microsoft define and execute its global copyright and related IP strategy. Mr. Green counsels on a range of complex IP matters impacting Microsoft's devices, cloud and online services, and artificial intelligence (AI) and data sharing platforms. Previously, he served as AGC for Bill Gates's Corbis Corp, where he developed successful licensing ventures with Marvel, Sony, Hallmark, MGM, Playboy, Universal, and Fox. Mr. Green has deep experience in copyright, tech licensing, trade secrets, joint ventures, and licensing of entertainment, digital media, talent, films, promotions, and acquisitions of media, rights, and technology companies, as well as IP strategies relevant to online services, software, and artificial intelligence. |
 | Head of Compliance Michael Green serves as the lead in the strategic development and implementation of Arm's Global Compliance Program, including Ethics, Government Contracting and Data Privacy. He provides advice and strategic support to legal and regulatory compliance matters across the company, including the areas of ethics, code of conducts and anti-corruption/anti-bribery. Mr. Green monitors and evaluates the effectiveness of risk management processes and manages and conducts internal compliance investigations, risk assessments and remediations. He leads a highly talented and effective team consisting of a program manager and two attorneys and also serves as a member of the General Counsel's senior leadership team.
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 | Vice President & Chief Compliance Officer Mark Gursky recently joined KLA Corporation as a VP and Chief Compliance Officer. For the past six years he had in-house roles at Intel Corporation, including as Director of its Anti-Corruption Compliance Program and Associate General Counsel. He also practiced at Autodesk in a compliance role and began in practice as an associate at Morrison & Foerster in its securities litigation group. |
 | Deputy General Counsel & Chief Privacy Officer Laura Hamady is Deputy General Counsel and Chief Privacy Officer at Chronicle, an Alphabet company dedicated to helping companies find and stop cyber attacks before they cause harm. Born from X, the moonshot factory, Chronicle is the newest independent company within Alphabet. Prior to joining Chronicle, Ms. Hamady spent two years at PayPal, including as Head of Global Privacy and Chief Privacy Officer and a year at Levi Strauss & Co. as Associate General Counsel, Privacy and eCommerce. She also spent three years at Groupon where she served as Associate General Counsel, Regulatory and Chief Privacy Officer. |
 | Partner Katherine Henderson is a partner in the San Francisco office of Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati. Her practice focuses on corporate governance, the navigation of corporate fiduciary duties, and the representation of companies and their officers and directors in stockholder class actions, derivative suits, and complex commercial litigation. Ms. Henderson specializes in conducting investigations on behalf of management, boards of directors, and special board or management committees; advising companies faced with stockholder litigation demands; and representing companies in stockholder actions and "busted deal" litigation. She also advises with respect to directors' and officers' liability insurance coverage and indemnification issues. |
 | Partner Jeff Homrig serves as Chair of Latham's Silicon Valley Litigation & Trial Department. He is an experienced trial lawyer, handling complex and high-stakes intellectual property and commercial cases around the country for some of the world's most innovative technology and life sciences companies. Mr. Homrig represents plaintiffs and defendants in a range of intellectual property disputes, including patent, trade secret, and contract-based matters. He is an adjunct lecturer at Berkeley Law, teaching the Patent Litigation II course, and he co-authors the Federal Judicial Center's definitive how-to guide for federal judges on patent litigation, which is now in its third edition. Mr. Homrig served as a deputy district attorney for Santa Clara County in 2007, trying numerous criminal cases to verdict.
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 | Partner Peter Huston is a partner in Baker Botts' Antitrust and Competition Practice with more than 25 years of experience handling high-stakes civil and criminal antitrust litigation, trials, government investigations and merger clearance work, both in and out of government. Mr. Huston has represented clients faced with civil and criminal antitrust and unfair competition exposure and has represented entities seeking agency approval for mergers and acquisitions. He has conducted internal investigations for major international corporations in cartel matters, worked on many complex antitrust cases and has significant defense-side trial experience. Mr. Huston also provides clients with antitrust advice on numerous subjects and helps them establish effective compliance programs tailored to their specific needs. |
 | Principal Counsel, Merger & Acquisitions Nick Janof is the Principal Counsel for Mergers & Acquisitions at Arm Limited, a leading semiconductor and IoT company, where he leads US-based transactions, including investments, and supports corporate governance, capital markets, finance and tax matters. Prior to joining Arm, Mr. Janof practiced at Davis Polk and Jones Day, where he focused on M&A and Capital Markets. |
 | Partner Emily Jones is a partner and head of Osborne Clarke's office in Silicon Valley. She is a specialist in data privacy and technology, 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 monetization projects. Ms. Jones 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 helps 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 related data privacy issues, such as data transfers, cyber security and managing data processors effectively. |
 | Partner Scott Keller chairs Baker Botts' firmwide Supreme Court and Constitutional Law practice. He has argued 11 cases in the U.S. Supreme Court and has been counsel of record on over 90 U.S. Supreme Court briefs, including disputes involving regulatory, free speech, immigration, election, criminal, environmental, antitrust, intellectual property and interstate water issues. Two of his more recent U.S. Supreme Court cases involve state redistricting plans against constitutional and Voting Rights Act challenges. Mr. Keller is a former Solicitor General of Texas and a member of the Federal Judicial Evaluation Committee. He served as chief counsel on the Senate Judiciary Committee and clerked for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy. Mr. Keller regularly speaks and writes on appellate advocacy. |
 | Chief Legal Officer, Business and Basketball David Kelly is responsible for all legal matters affecting the Golden State Warriors. He manages matters related to the salary cap and luxury tax planning for the team, oversees the organization's human resources department and handles many of the company's key projects and initiatives on both the business and basketball side of the organization. Mr. Kelly also oversees player development and public/governmental affairs for the Warriors. He was heavily involved in the planning for the new Warrior's sports and entertainment complex, Chase Center,
managing entitlement efforts, the land purchase, construction issues and contracts, governmental relations and litigation. Outside of his work with the Warriors, Mr. Kelly serves on the board of directors for the Justice and Diversity Center and California ChangeLawyers. |
 | Partner Jeffrey Kessler 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 has also been the lead counsel in numerous IP cases involving frontier issues of IP law and lead counsel in numerous government criminal and civil investigations. He is also one of the most prominent lawyers in the country regularly engaged in high-profile sports litigation. |
 | Partner Vladimir Khodosh's practice is focused on technology transactions. He splits his time between Kirkland's Palo Alto and Chicago offices. Mr. Khodosh has handled a variety of software licensing, software development, and business outsourcing transactions. He has counseled clients in many intellectual property and information technology aspects of corporate transactions, including in the merger, acquisition, and bankruptcy contexts. Mr. Khodosh, a registered patent attorney, relies significantly on his software development experience, and his experience counseling clients on protecting patent, copyright, and trade secret aspects of business method, software, and Internet-based intellectual property assets, in representing clients in transactions. |
 | Partner Miriam Kim is a partner in the San Francisco office of Munger, Tolles. Her practice focuses on trade secrets matters, complex civil litigation and high-stakes investigations for technology companies. Ms. Kim has significant experience handling trade secret cases, copyright infringement cases involving software, and other IP matters for both plaintiffs and defendants. She has extensive experience leading internal investigations into potential theft of trade secrets or other confidential information. Ms. Kim speaks Korean and has successfully advocated for clients in a range of matters involving Korean companies. Ms. Kim's pro bono practice is focused on the needs of immigrants and victims of sexual abuse. Ms. Kim is also a frequent speaker on diversity issues. |
 | Patent Practice Leader Rich LaCava leads Arent Fox's Patent Practice Group. His diverse, international practice focuses on procurement and enforcement issues for products ranging from mechanical, semi-conductors, and textiles to pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, and medical devices. As a former packaging engineer at a leading cosmetic company, Mr. LaCava has particular proficiency with patent issues involving packaging and materials engineering. Having lived and worked in Japan, he is adept at addressing cross-border problems. He advises a number of Japanese and European companies on protection, licensing, infringement, and distribution issues. |
 | Partner Jennifer Lantz is a partner in the Palo Alto office of Haynes and Boone. Ms. Lantz focuses on helping companies develop their brands through enforcement policies, clearing their marks for use, registering marks in the U.S. and abroad, commercializing marks through licenses and merchandising agreements, assessing infringement risks, enforcing their trademark rights against others and defending them against allegations of infringement. In addition to her prosecution and counseling practice, Ms. Lantz has an active trademark litigation practice in federal courts around the country. She also handles opposition and cancellation proceedings in the United States Patent and Trademark Office and regularly counsels clients regarding domain name issues and trademark issues in social media. Ms. Lantz has spearheaded enforcement campaigns in the United States and overseas for clients in industries where counterfeiting and knock-offs are prevalent. |
 | Senior Competition Counsel Michael Lawrence is Senior Competition Counsel at Google in Mountain View, California. He primarily focuses on representing the company in antitrust investigations and antitrust litigation. He has handled significant matters for Google in the United States, Europe, Latin America and Asia. Mr. Lawrence is also responsible for competition counseling to the Google Search, Google Maps and Android business units. Prior to joining the company, he served as senior competition counsel at Intel Corp. Mr. Lawrence began his career as an associate at Latham & Watkins. |
 | Strategic Advisor, Life Sciences Industry Michael Listgarten is a veteran life sciences attorney who practiced at Genentech for more than 15 years in legal positions of increasingly responsibility. As Senior Associate General Counsel, Head of Health Care Law Mr. Listggarten led a group of 40 attorneys responsible for legal support for Genentech Clinical Development, Medical Affairs, Marketing, Sales, Managed Care, Regulatory, Quality, Government Affairs, Business Operations and Corporate Relations functions. His group supported the entire product lifecycle, including pipeline and over 25 marketed products in various therapeutic areas, including oncology, immunology, ophthalmology, respiratory, neurology and rare diseases. He began his legal career as an associate at Covington & Burling as a life sciences and technology attorney. Today, Mr. Listgarten provides outside strategic advice to a range of life sciences companies. |
 | Associate General Counsel, Corporate Jia Liu is the Associate General Counsel, Corporate at Airbnb where she advises on corporate securities, M&A, corporate governance and other corporate matters. Prior to joining Airbnb she served in similar capacities at SanDisk, VMware, and SunPower Corporation. She began her legal career in practice as a corporate associate with Latham & Watkins. |
 | Partner Christine Long is a partner in the San Jose office of Berliner Cohen and Chair of the firm's Employment Law Practice. She maintains a diverse litigation practice in employment and business litigation. Ms. Long advises employers on best employment practices and is an experienced litigator who regularly handles complex and class action litigation matters. She has taken to trial and obtained defense verdicts on both PAGA and class action claims. She routinely litigates wrongful termination, discrimination, harassment, breach of contract, wage and hour and other labor and employment-related matters. |
 | Partner Doug Lumish serves as Latham's Vice Chair of the Litigation & Trial Department and formerly served as Global Co-Chair of the IP Litigation Practice. He is resident in the firm's Menlo Park office. Mr. Lumish is a trial lawyer representing technology and life sciences companies across the spectrum of their intellectual property and technology litigation. He regularly handles patent, trade secret, trademark, and copyright cases in district and Federal Circuit courts across the country, and before the International Trade Commission (ITC) and customs regulators. Mr. Lumish frequently speaks and writes about intellectual property and taught a course on patent law at Stanford Law School. |
 | Counsel Kristin Madigan is a counsel in Crowell & Moring's San Francisco office and a member of the firm's Litigation and Privacy & Cybersecurity groups. Ms. Madigan focuses her practice on representing clients in high-stakes complex litigation with a focus on technology, as well as privacy and consumer protection matters including product counseling, compliance, investigations, enforcement, and litigation that typically involves existing and emerging technologies such as the Internet of Things (IoT), artificial intelligence, autonomous vehicles, enterprise and cloud-based software, blockchain, and distributed ledgers. Ms. Madigan is a Certified Information Privacy Professional/United States (CIPP/US). Prior to joining Crowell & Moring, she 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, Ms. Madigan led nonpublic investigations and prosecuted unfair and deceptive practices in privacy and data security matters within the FTC's consumer protection authority. |
 | Partner Mark Mao is an experienced litigator who helps organizations leverage their intellectual property while mitigating their privacy risks. He has successfully resolved hundreds of cases and helped take to market hundreds of data-based products. Mr. Mao focuses primarily on intellectual property and data privacy. He assists companies throughout various business and product life cycles for their evolving IP needs, in addition to addressing their data privacy concerns. Mr. Mao has successfully defended numerous organizations through difficult IP disputes, including patent, trade secret, and copyright and trademark litigation. In addition, he frequently handles litigation involving technology errors and omissions and directors and officers of technology companies. The consumer class actions he resolves often include evolving privacy and regulatory issues, such as in the areas of data breach and misuse, wiretap acts, the Fair Credit Reporting Act, and unfair and deceptive acts and practices litigation. |
 | SVP, General Counsel & Secretary Brian M. Martin is Senior Vice President, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary of Juniper Networks. He brings more than 20 years of corporate legal experience in the technology industry, most recently serving as Executive Vice President, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary at KLA-Tencor Corporation. He also spent 10 years in senior legal positions at Sun Microsystems, Inc. Mr. Martin was named Bay Area's General Counsel of the Year by the San Jose Business Journal/SF Business Times and as one of the 100 Most Influential People in Business Ethics by Ethisphere Institute. |
 | Partner Stafford Matthews is a technology transactions and intellectual property lawyer and the managing partner of the Silicon Valley office of the global law firm Dentons. He is US Co-Chair of Dentons Global Technology Media and Telecommunications (TMT) Sector. Mr. Matthews is dual qualified as an English solicitor and a US lawyer and has extensive experience in both European and Asian markets. He represents technology and industrial companies worldwide in complex contract negotiations; strategic development and the licensing and exploitation of intellectual property and products; litigation and arbitration of contentious contract disputes; the implementation and use of blockchain and smart contract systems; transactional antitrust and competition law matters in the US and the EU; and the negotiation of cross border alliances and joint development ventures. He speaks and writes extensively on current legal issues, including the integration of law and technologies such as artificial intelligence, machine learning and smart contracts. |
 | Partner Robert McCauley III, managing partner of Finnegan's Palo Alto office and co-leader of the trade secret litigation group, is an experienced trial attorney practicing patent, trade secret, and trademark litigation. A former deputy district attorney, Mr. McCauley has first chaired more than 30 jury trials and more than 50 bench trials. He has examined and cross-examined hundreds of witnesses in open court, and he regularly draws from those experiences when preparing clients for depositions and trial. Since joining Finnegan in 2000, Mr. McCauley has litigated cases spanning a wide range of technologies, including pharmaceuticals (Abbreviated New Drug Application (ANDA) litigation); medical devices; semiconductor devices, including flash memory; bicycle suspension systems and components; liquid cooling systems for data centers and computers; software; and optical networking. |
 | Partner Eric Meiring is a partner in the Washington, D.C. office of Winston & Strawn. He has significant experience investigating and prosecuting sophisticated corporate and economic crimes, including price-fixing, bid rigging, market allocations, no-poach agreements, fraud, bribery, theft, and obstruction of justice. Mr. Meiring utilizes that experience to mitigate the substantial global risk associated with international cartel investigations and prosecutions, and to counsel clients on preventing, detecting, addressing, and assessing risk associated with potential cartel behavior. He previously served as the Acting Chief and Assistant Chief for the Washington Criminal II Section of the U.S. Department of Justice, Antitrust Division. Prior to those appointments, Mr. Meiring served as a trial attorney in the Washington Criminal I Section and in an Antitrust Division Field Office. |
 | President Mr Mesel is the founder of Strategic Legal Advisors LLC, a Silicon Valley-based advisory firm specializing in complex international commercial transactions, corporate turnarounds, intellectual property and M&A transactions. He served most recently in 2019 as Interim General Counsel at Quantum Corporation, where he worked with the management team to complete a 3-year financial restatement, settle several major lawsuits and at the same time close a number of strategic customer transactions. He has served as General Counsel at a number of high tech companies including Unwired Planet, Inc., ASSIA, Inc., Corsair Components, Ikanos Communications Inc., Riverstone Networks, Inc., and Legato Systems, Inc. Mr Mesel has litigated numerous patent infringement cases as both plaintiff and defendant, in the U.S., U.K., Germany and China.
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 | Partner Jonathan Millard focuses his practice on counseling clients through complex technology transactions. Mr. Millard has extensive experience advising clients on technology aspects of mergers and acquisitions as well as advising on a broad range of commercial agreements and licensing arrangements for clients in the high technology industry. He has deep expertise in global outsourcing transactions and structuring and negotiating cross border transactions and strategic alliances for a broad range of clients. Mr. Millard also counsels clients with respect to privacy issues, particularly in the context of corporate acquisitions and international aspects of personal data processing and transfer, between the EU and the US. He is a member of the International Association of Privacy Professionals (IAPP) and is a Certified Information Privacy Professional (CIPP/E). |
 | Partner Christopher Monahan is a partner in the Washington, DC office of Winston & Strawn. His practice focuses on the U.S. regulation of international trade, including export controls and sanctions. He primarily counsels clients on compliance with the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR), the Export Administration Regulations (EAR), the sanctions programs administered by the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), and also advises on compliance with the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA). Mr. Monahan oversees internal investigations, audits, and compliance assessments and prepares disclosures and responses to government agency inquiries related to violations of the ITAR, EAR, and OFAC administered sanctions programs. He advises on the international trade related risks associated with corporate mergers and acquisitions, and counsels clients on legal questions related to complicated international transactions, global sourcing models, and corporate compliance structures. |
 | VP, Assoc. General Counsel, Product & Policy As Associate General Counsel for Product and Policy at Eventbrite, Linsey Morrison oversees Product Counseling, Payments & Regulatory Compliance, Privacy, and also Eventbrite's government affairs, content policy, and social impact functions. As Eventbrite's first privacy attorney, she created, launched, and currently sustains Eventbrite's Global Data Privacy Program consistent with GDPR, CCPA and similar regulations world-wide. Recognizing the importance of values-based corporate advocacy, Ms. Morrison envisioned and developed Eventbrite's 3-pronged Policy function. The Government Affairs team stays focused in areas such as online ticketing, the CDA, net neutrality, small business enablement and independent arts. The Content Policy side focuses on scalable approaches to content moderation and enforcement consistent with Eventbrite's values and the expectations of its users. Rounding out the Policy team, Social Impact focuses on non-profit advocacy, philanthropic giving, employee engagement, and ultimately intends to create the playbook that allows every live experience to positively impact its community and society. |
 | Director of Legal - U.S. Mohan Nadig is Director of Legal (U.S) for ByteDance, a Chinese internet technology company operating several machine learning-enabled content platforms, including the short video app TikTok and news aggregator service Toutiao. He is also a Lecturer in Law at the USC Gould School of Law. He previously served as a Senior Counsel, Technology and Product at Hulu for six years, first as the lawyer for Hulu Japan and later at the company's headquarters in Los Angeles. Mr. Nadig initially practiced as a corporate and securities lawyer at both Simpson Thacher & Bartlett and Shearman and Sterling. |
 | Partner Ian Papendick is a partner in Winston & Strawn's Litigation Department, resident in its San Francisco office. Mr. Papendick focuses his practice on antitrust litigation and counseling, international cartel investigations, complex and class action litigation, and sports litigation. He has represented clients in all stages of litigation, including discovery, trial, and appeals, and he has experience in both domestic and international arbitral proceedings. He regularly litigates matters in both federal and state court, including in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. In addition to his antitrust practice, Mr. Papendick represents the NFL Players Association in litigation relating to its intellectual property licensing business and in disputes with the NFL Management Council and its member clubs over player contracts and other labor issues before federal courts and arbitrators. |
 | Associate Kwan Park's practice focuses on employment and labor litigation and counseling. Mr. Park has represented clients in both defensive and affirmative trade secret misappropriation and employee mobility matters. He has defended clients against claims of employee and customer raiding and unfair competition and has also investigated and prosecuted claims in matters involving the misappropriation of proprietary and confidential information by former employees. In addition to trade secret misappropriation and employee mobility matters, Mr. Park has defended employers against a wide-range of employment-related claims such as discrimination, whistleblower retaliation, and independent contractor misclassification. He also has experience litigating complex wage and hour actions across the nation and has represented clients before the California Division of Labor Standards Enforcement and the California Employment Development Department. |
 | Partner Lisa Peets leads the Technology and Media practice in Covington & Burling's London office. Ms. Peets divides her time between London and Brussels, and her practice embraces regulatory counsel and legislative advocacy. In this context, she has worked closely with leading multinationals in a number of sectors, including some of the world's best-known technology, media and life science companies. Ms. Peets counsels clients on a range of EU law issues, including copyright, data protection, e-commerce and consumer protection, technology standards, cloud computing regulations, compulsory licensing, IPR enforcement and emerging technologies. She also routinely advises clients in and outside of the technology sector on trade related matters, including EU trade controls rules. |
 | Division Counsel Jennifer Prioleau is a Division General Counsel at HP Inc. with a successful career partnering with management at all levels for both domestic and international B2B and B2C business divisions. She is known as a collaborative business partner and motivational leader with outstanding communication, strategic planning, team building, negotiating, business development, IP and corporate transaction skills. Ms. Prioleau excels at synthesizing and simplifying complex risks and analytical assessments and delivering innovative business and legal solutions that manage risk/reward and execute on business priorities. |
 | Shareholder Gretchen Ramos is Co-Chair of Greenberg, Traurig's Data, Privacy & Cybersecurity Practice and focuses her practice on privacy, cybersecurity, and information management. Her clients come from diverse industries, including technology (SaaS), health care and life sciences, consumer products, manufacturing, academic institutions, and non-profits. Ms. Ramos provides clients with practical business advice on compliance with state and federal U.S. laws, GDPR, APEC, and other global privacy laws in relation to their external and internal privacy and security procedures, product and app development, and advertising practices. She also regularly drafts and negotiates contracts concerning data-related vendors, assists clients in assessing privacy risks in corporate transactions, and provides guidance on and conducts privacy and security assessments. She has managed dozens of data breaches, and helps clients prepare for and immediately respond to security incidents and breaches. |
General Counsel Christine Ring recently joined Nurix Therapeutics as its general counsel. The company is a pioneer in using small molecule therapies designed to control protein levels in cells as a new treatment approach. Prior to joining Nurix she served as SVP, Legal for Dermira, Inc., as SVP, Technology Strategy and Licensing at Amyris, Inc., as Director of Intellectual Property at Sunesis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and as senior patent attorney at Kosan Biosciences. Her law firm experience includes stints at Pillsbury Winthrop, Limbach & Limbach and Majestic, Parsons. Dr. Ring holds a Ph.D. in Pharmaceutical Chemistry and an A.B. in Biophysics. | |
 | Corporate Counsel - Securities and MA Erin Rinn is Corporate Counsel at VMware, Inc., focusing on mergers & acquisitions and strategic investments. Prior to joining VMware, Ms. Rinn practiced at Simpson Thacher & Bartlett. |
 | Director, Privacy & Public Policy Steve Satterfield is a director on Facebook's Global Public Policy team. He leads the team within policy that is responsible for privacy and data policy issues that involve Facebook's partnerships with third-party companies, its platform products, and its advertising products. He works closely with Facebook's product and partnerships teams and engages on behalf of the company with policymakers, regulators, consumer advocates, and other stakeholders on privacy and data issues.
Before coming to Facebook, Steve was a privacy lawyer at Covington & Burling LLP in Washington, DC, where he represented leading technology and media companies. He is a graduate of the University of Pittsburgh, Brown University and The George Washington University Law School.
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 | 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 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 Manny Schmid heads the German Employment & Reward practice at Pinsent Masons. He is resident in the firm's Munich office. Mr. Schmid's practice includes advising on trade secrets violations, worldwide employment reorganization and restructuring, acting as an external HR department, and advice on international assignments/secondments. |
 | Assistant General Counsel, Litigation Jill Schmidt is Assistant General Counsel, Litigation at Genentech, Inc., where she has managed high-stakes patent infringement cases and other commercial litigation matters since 2016. She has overseen dozens of IPR proceedings, multiple district court cases filed under the Biologics Price Competition and Innovation Act, and related litigation in other jurisdictions concerning foreign counterpart patents. Prior to joining Genentech, Ms. Schmidt was an attorney at the Palo Alto office of Sidley Austin LLP and, before that, at the Silicon Valley office of Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP, where her practice focused on patent litigation. Ms. Schmidt clerked for the Honorable William H. Alsup at the United States District Court for the Northern District of California and the Honorable Paul R. Michel at the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. She earned her J.D. from Stanford Law School. |
 | Partner Tracy Shapiro, a partner in DLA Piper's San Francisco office, advises on privacy, data security and advertising issues and defends clients in investigations and enforcement actions brought by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), state attorneys general and self-regulatory bodies. She helps technology companies comply with federal and state privacy laws, including the FTC Act, COPPA, VPPA, FCRA, student privacy laws and the California Consumer Privacy Act. Ms. Shapiro spent six years as an attorney at the FTC in the Bureau of Consumer Protection's Division of Privacy and Identity Protection and the Division of Advertising Practices, where she investigated and brought enforcement actions related to consumer privacy, data security and advertising. She helped create principles for industry self-regulation in the area of online behavioral advertising, and she led the FTC's first enforcement action involving online behavioral advertising. After her government service, Ms. Shapiro worked as in-house counsel for Yahoo!, where she advised on privacy, advertising and marketing laws. |
 | Partner Clara Shin is a first-chair trial lawyer who specializes in intellectual property and complex commercial disputes. She co-chairs Covington & Burling's Commercial Litigation Practice Group and is resident in the firm's San Francisco office. Clients frequently call on her in late stages of litigation to take matters to trial or reorient the strategic direction of a case. Ms. Shin's recent trial and arbitration victories include a complete dismissal of a $1.4 billion trade secret and breach of contract claim, a complete defense win in a trade secret dispute where the plaintiff sought damages of nearly half-a-billion dollars, and a unanimous jury verdict and punitive damages award in a trademark infringement trial. Earlier in her career, Ms. Shin served as a White House Fellow and Special Assistant in the White House Office of the Chief of Staff. |
 | Partner Andrew Shoyer co-leads Sidley's Global Arbitration, Trade and Advocacy practice. Mr. Shoyer focuses on the implementation and enforcement of international trade and investment agreements. He also advises companies on compliance with sanctions administered by the U.S. Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) and export controls and anti-boycott rules administered by the U.S. Commerce Department's Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS), as well as proceedings before the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS). Drawing on his experience at the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) and with the World Trade Organization (WTO), Mr. Shoyer advises companies, trade associations and governments on the use of WTO, NAFTA and other treaty-based trade and investment rules to open markets and resolve disputes. He works extensively with manufacturers and service providers on WTO compliance in Asia and on protection of intellectual property in bilateral and regional free trade negotiations. |
 | Partner Amy Simmerman is a partner in the Wilmington, Delaware office of Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati. Ms. Simmerman is one of the leaders of the firm's Delaware office and governance practice. Her practice focuses on providing advice on all aspects of Delaware corporate law, including fiduciary duties, mergers and acquisitions, stockholder activism, corporate governance, corporate formation, stock issuances, preferred stock investments, and various statutory matters. She frequently speaks and publishes on Delaware law and governance issues. Ms. Simmerman also has been involved in many special committee assignments and internal investigations and provides corporate advice in the context of litigation. Prior to joining Wilson Sonsini, she was corporate counsel at a global software company, where she focused on corporate law issues and M&A. |
 | Partner Randi Singer is a litigation partner based in Weil's New York and Silicon Valley offices, a member of the Firm's Intellectual Property & Media practice and Co-Head of its Cybersecurity, Data Privacy & Information Management group. She focuses primarily on copyright, Lanham Act false advertising and trademark litigation, as well as privacy and cybersecurity, in addition to complex commercial litigation and bankruptcy proceedings. Ms. Singer has earned the Certified Information Privacy Professional (CIPP/US) and Certified Information Privacy Technologist (CIPT) credentials and regularly advises clients in connection with privacy, cybersecurity, and social media issues in a wide variety of matters, including hundreds of transactions ranging from high-profile deals such as Facebook's acquisition of Whatsapp, Inc. to large public company mergers and small talent acquisitions. |
 | Partner James Soong is partner in the Intellectual Property Practice Group in Sheppard Mullin's Palo Alto office. Mr. Soong focuses his practice on intellectual property and patent strategy in a broad array of technical disciplines. He has wide-ranging experience representing clients before the Patent Office and the federal courts, including successful appeals to the Federal Circuit on cutting edge legal issues. Utilizing his technical background, Mr. Soong also represents industry-leading clients in portfolio development, pre- and post-grant including inter partes proceedings at the Patent Office, litigation in the federal courts, strategic initiatives, corporate transactions and licensing, corporate policies and best practices, and risk avoidance where intellectual property issues are core. As in-house counsel, he led the global intellectual property strategy at Siebel Systems for six years. |
 | Associate General Counsel & Head of IP Melissa Souza is Associate General Counsel & Head of IP for Poly, where she leads a team supporting worldwide intellectual property, strategic transactions, product, marketing, and security. She serves as key advisor and legal business partner to executive management, where she provides counsel and advice, drafts and negotiates strategic transactions, including inbound technology and alliance agreements, develops and implements new patent strategy, integrates IP portfolios and practices, and orchestrated legal support for the launch of the new Poly brand. Her career has included senior counsel roles at Micro Focus, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, and HP. She was a member of the Morgan, Lewis IP group. |
 | Partner Stacey Sprenkel is the head of the Litigation Department in Morrison & Foerster's San Francisco office and is a member of the firm's global anti-corruption and compliance team. She has extensive experience conducting corporate internal investigations on a broad range of issues both domestically and internationally, and she regularly assists clients with conducting global risk assessments, and with developing compliance programs, including reviewing and implementing anti-corruption and other compliance policies, controls, and training programs. She conducts anti-corruption due diligence in connection with M&A and private equity transactions, and provides counseling on a broad range of compliance issues. |
 | Partner Jennifer Stanley is Chair of the Copyright Group and the Games Industry Group at Fenwick & West. She focuses her practice on intellectual property, technology and media transactions and counsels regularly on copyright protection, strategy, and business model analysis and risk management. Ms. Stanley also advises on copyright disputes and copyright registration matters. She structures, drafts and negotiates complex commercial agreements including game development and publishing agreements (online, offline and mobile), content licensing and distribution agreements, and advertising agreements and has extensive experience in advising on all aspects of strategic commercial transactions. She is one of the go-to authorities on intellectual property issues relating to games, content licensing and social media. Ms. Stanley is also a member of the firm's Privacy and Cybersecurity practice, advising clients on all aspects relating to collection, use and disclosure of personal information. She also advises clients on the legal issues that arise when running sweepstakes, contests and promotions. |
 | John Steele's practice emphasizes legal ethics, the law of lawyering, and risk management. He offers counseling, opinion letters, and expert witness engagements. Mr. Steele taught approximately 40 semesters as adjunct lecturer in legal ethics at UC-Berkeley School of Law (Boalt Hall), Stanford Law School, Santa Clara University School of Law, Indiana University (Maurer School of Law), and Golden Gate University. He is a former member, COPRAC (2005-08) (State Bar of California's Standing Committee on Professional Responsibility and Conduct). |
Lead Counsel Bob Studley is Lead Counsel, Community Trust for Airbnb, Inc. Mr. Studley has been a member of Airbnb's legal team since June 2015 and managed U.S. litigation matters for his first four and half years with the company. In his current role, Mr. Studley provides counsel to Airbnb's Community Support and Trust teams on a wide range of matters and works closely with product and operational teams in addition to partnering with colleagues across the globe on privacy, litigation, law enforcement and regional legal issues. The Airbnb legal team is focused on providing cutting edge legal advice that advances the Company's mission of promoting belonging while working to support products and policies that protect Airbnb's community and its platform. Prior to joining Airbnb, he spent 4 years as a litigation associate at Latham & Watkins LLP and 3 years working with early-stage companies at Wilson Sonsini and Cooley LLP. | |
 | Partner Eric Tate is co-chair of Morrison's Global Employment and Labor Group. He has represented technology and other companies in the biggest and most highly-publicized trade secrets and employee raiding and mobility cases across multiple industries. Mr. Tate also represents companies in whistleblower, wage and hour, and other employment litigation. In addition, he counsels companies on employment law compliance and transactional matters, including enforceability of restrictive covenants throughout the United States, internal investigations of alleged executive misconduct and whistleblower activity, employment aspects of mergers and acquisitions, and collective bargaining and traditional labor relations. Mr. Tate is a leader in the American Bar Association (ABA) Labor and Employment Section and Employment Rights and Responsibilities Committee, serving as co-chair of the Covenants Not to Compete and Trade Secrets Subcommittee and recently elected to the governing Council for the Labor and Employment Section. |
 | Partner Amy Toro is a partner in Covington's San Francisco office. She advises both pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies regarding biologics, pharmaceuticals and devices, including in the digital health space. Ms. Toro works on all types of life sciences transactions, including major collaborations, licensing arrangements, clinical trial agreements, supply and distribution agreements, product development funding deals, and joint ventures and a variety of commercial agreements. She also works with her mergers and acquisition colleagues on product divestitures and asset transfers. Ms. Toro has served as a visiting professor of law at Northwestern University School of Law and at the University of California, Davis. |
 | Partner Susannah Torpey is a partner in the New York office of Winston & Strawn. She has experience representing major U.S. and multinational corporations in litigation and government investigations involving a wide array of federal and state antitrust issues, including monopolization, price fixing, wage fixing, no-poach agreements, group boycotts, exclusive dealing, tying, price discrimination, unfair competition, anticompetitive product redesign, and mixed issues of antitrust and intellectual property law relating to Fair, Reasonable, and Non-Discriminatory (FRAND) obligations, standard-setting, patent licensing, patent misuse, and fraud on the PTO. Ms. Torpey also counsels international and U.S. businesses regarding the minimization of antitrust risk and evaluates board and other corporate activities for antitrust compliance. |
 | Partner Anthony Tridico, managing partner of Finnegan's London office, has worked in Europe for most of his career, gaining significant knowledge of the European Patent Convention (EPC) and the diversity of laws and practice among the European national systems. His knowledge of the various legal systems and how they differ from the U.S. allows Dr. Tridico to effectively counsel clients across life sciences industries with global interests in intellectual property. He has over 20 years of experience representing clients with a focus on patent office trials and appeals (PTAB and EPO), patent prosecution management, IP due diligence and litigation. Dr. Tridico's practice includes experience in a variety of technical areas including biologics, immunology and biotechnology, chemical and pharmaceutical sciences, polymers and adhesives, food sciences, medical devices, and diagnostics and instrumentation. |
 | Partner As a partner and IP/IT specialist in Bird & Bird's Brussels office, Benoit van Asbroeck leads its Belgian Data Protection, Tech & Comms and Media practices, advising the firm's clients on legal issues in privacy, data, e-commerce, digital marketing, cloud computing, the Internet of Things, AI, 3D printing, cookies, electronic signatures, intermediary liability and automated objects. He also co-heads Bird & Bird's international special interest group on Copyright due to his large experience in copyright matters with the Court of Justice of the European Union. His practice is both transactional and litigation. Mr. van Asbroeck has extensive experience in drafting and negotiating complex TMT contracts. In addition, he has exceptional expertise in counselling clients on issues that require the coordination and integration of a variety of legal solutions, such as intellectual property, information technology, media, sport, competition and telecommunications issues. |
 | Partner Wendy Huang Waszmer is a litigation partner in the New York office of Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, where she is a member of the antitrust practice. She represents and defends public and private companies and individual clients in high-stakes government investigations and federal court litigation. Ms. Waszmer has in-depth criminal and civil experience in a range of industries, including tech platforms, life sciences, financial services, and energy generation. She previously served in several leadership and trial counsel roles for the Department of Justice (DOJ) in New York and Washington, D.C. She has been a first-chair trial counsel in all phases of federal court litigation, including jury and bench trials. As the Assistant Chief of the New York field office of the DOJ Antitrust Division, Ms. Waszmer supervised federal trials and criminal and civil investigations. |
 | State Senator Senator Bob Wieckowski was re-elected to a second term on Nov. 6, 2018 and represents the 10th Senate District in the California State Legislature. The district stretches from southern Alameda County into Santa Clara County and shares the member's focus on job creation, clean technologies, protecting our environment and reducing unnecessary regulations. Senator Wieckowski chairs the Budget and Fiscal Review Subcommittee 2 on Resources, Environmental Protection, Energy and Transportation. He is also a member of the Senate committees on Appropriation; Budget and Fiscal Review; Environmental Quality; Housing; Judiciary; and Transportation. Senator Wieckowski's district is home to some of the state's leading clean tech companies. Whether it's solar panels, electric vehicles or other breakthrough industries, the 10th Senate District is a major contributor to California's clean economy. The Senator is a state leader in advocating for climate adaptation programs and has participated on numerous regional, state and international panels focusing on climate change. |
 | Assistant General Counsel Stuart Wilks is Assistant General Counsel at Johnson & Johnson Innovation, California. In this role, he is the legal counsel for all transactions generated by the Innovation Center team. Previously, Mr. Wilks supported a diverse group of Johnson & Johnson operating companies and units, such as Alza, BabyCenter, Janssen Health Innovation, Janssen Research & Development, Janssen Supply Chain, Johnson & Johnson Development Corporation, Noramco, and Scios in a broad range of business and contractual matters. Before that, he was corporate counsel at Scios, Inc. in Fremont, California and at COR Therapeutics, Inc. in South San Francisco, California, and was an associate in the life sciences practice groups of the Palo Alto office of Cooley LLP. |
 | 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. |
 | Partner Stan Young is a partner in Covington's Palo Alto office, of which he was Managing Partner from 2008 to 2014. He uses his 30 years of experience to achieve the best results for his clients in intellectual property and other high stakes disputes. Mr. Young has represented companies in the telecommunications, computer, electronics, semiconductor, software and financial services industries in all phases of federal and state court litigation, arbitration and International Trade Commission investigations. |
 | Head of Global Litigation and Employment Law Leslie Yuan recently joined Varian Medical Systems as its Head of Global Litigation and Employment Law after spending twelve years at VMware, most recently as Assistant General Counsel and Director, Employment and Litigation where she counseled and executed on a full range of global employment, policy and compliance issues relating to privacy, recruitment/hiring, performance management, leaves of absence/accommodations, reductions in force/restructuring, employee relations, contingent workers, wage and hour requirements, employment contracts, background checks and investigations arising under Title VIL, FEHA, FMLA/CFRA, ADA, ADEA and other state, federal and international laws. Prior to joining VMware, Ms. Yuan practiced at Wilson Sonsini and Littler Mendelson.
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