Bill Abrams is the co-chair of the Intellectual Property Practice Group and the managing partner
of the firm’s Silicon Valley office. Bill has extensive experience in trials, arbitrations, mediations
and appeals involving intellectual property, business torts, constitutional law, employment,
contracts and complex litigation throughout the United States and abroad. Specific areas of
recent experience include patent infringement; trade secrets and misappropriation; unfair
competition and antitrust; technology transfer and licensing; trademarks and advertising;
copyright; Internet and media; start-up company formation and governance; non-compete and
non-disclosure disputes; and First Amendment and defamation. Many matters involve
international and trans-border disputes, and international tribunals.

Bill has tried to verdict and arbitration award, and argued appeals in many IP and other business
disputes in U.S. and international matters during his 30 years of experience. In Chambers USA
2007: America’s Leading Business Lawyers, Bill was noted as “a wizard of the patent bar” by his
clients and a “courageous litigator who understands both the broader picture and the social
context surrounding issues.” Bill was named a California Lawyer of the Year in 2010 by California
Lawyer magazine, one of the Top 100 Lawyers in California by the Daily Journal and one of the
Top 75 IP Lawyers by the Daily Journal in 2010.

Bill has represented public and private companies in a wide range of industries, including
software and hardware companies, internet and media, universities and research institutions,
life sciences, pharmaceuticals, medical devices, financial institutions, media and publishing,
and wineries and alcoholic beverage companies. Additionally, he has defended companies
against fraud, misappropriation and racketeering claims, and in wrongful termination, “whistleblowing,” harassment, discrimination and other employment matters.

Bill has handled a number of high-profile pro bono matters through the U.S. and California
Supreme Courts, particularly involving the death penalty, education, rights of children and youth,
and children’s welfare. Bill was awarded the California Lawyer Magazine 2009 Lawyer of the Year
for his representation of group foster homes against the state of California for the state's failure
to provide funding for care of foster children as required by the Child Welfare Act. He received of
the State Bar of California Wiley Manual Award for pro bono legal representation and a Daily
Journal Pro Bono Achievement Honoree. Bill was counsel for the city and county of San Francisco
in the successful litigation that prevented the San Francisco Giants from moving to Tampa, Fla.,
in 1992. He is active in the American Bar Association Death Penalty Representation Project, and
is counsel for defendants in capital cases in Alabama. Bill was the co-chair of the Silicon Valley
Campaign for Legal Services from 2007-2009.

Recent pro bono cases in addition to the death penalty work in Alabama include counsel for
group foster care homes in an action against the state of California to require compliance with
Child Welfare Act by the state in payment of costs for care of foster children (Calif. Alliance of
Child and Family Services v. Allenby, 589 F3d. 1017 (2009) and Calif. Alliance of Child and Family
Services v. Wagner, 2009 U.S. Dist. Lexis 107613 (2009). Bill is counsel for 64 students suing the
state of California seeking to obtain education funding in compliance with the California
Constitution. Bill is also counsel for applicants to the State Bar of California in an action to
protect against public disclosure of their private data submitted to the bar; representation of
students in a class action against the Berkeley Unified School District for unconstitutional
expulsions of students (with the Stanford Youth and Education Law Clinic and Legal Services for
Children); counsel for a disabled deaf child denied admission to the California School for the
Deaf because of her autism and other disabilities (with the Stanford Youth and Education Law
Clinic); counsel with the Stanford Law School Center for Internet and Society for a documentary
film maker to enforce fair use rights and rights under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act;
counsel for a minister challenging the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s order barring him from
ministering to juveniles in the Los Angeles County Jail (with the Youth Law Center); counsel for
plaintiffs challenging the state of California’s regulations regarding adoption of foster care
children (with the Youth Law Center); and counsel for minors in guardianship and asylum
proceedings. Other notable pro bono cases include In re Michael H., 10 Cal. 4th 1043
(1995); DeBoer v. DeBoer, 114 S. Ct. 1 and 114 S. Ct. 11 (1993); Sinclair Paint Co. v. State Board of Equalization, 15 Cal. 4th 866 (1997); Reno v. Flores, 113 S. Ct. 1439 (1993) (counsel for amicus curiae); and U.S. v. Lopez, 115 S. Ct. 1624 (1995) (counsel for amicus curiae).

Bill is a consulting professor at Stanford University, where he teaches courses on intellectual
property, policy, civil rights, children’s legal issues and the death penalty. Bill was honored as
the 2009 commencement speaker for the program in human biology and received the 2004
Human Biology Excellence in Advising Award. Bill founded the Abrams Fellowship at the Haas
Center for Public Interest, a program that awards fellowships for undergraduates to work in
public interest law. He is also an adviser to the Stanford Students with Disabilities.

Bill is a frequent commentator on IP and legal issues in the media, including on CNBC, TechTV,
KPIX, KGO-TV, the San Francisco Business Times and the Recorder.

 

Todd Albright serves as the Managing Director for IntraLinks’ Western Region and leads sales and client service across IntraLinks’ growing base of legal, strategic transaction, energy & utility and life science customers.   Mr. Albright is particularly enthusiastic about IntraLinks’ solutions for Chief Legal Officers, specifically in support of efficient, secure, and compliant collaboration with external counsel and LPO’s.  Mr. Albright has held previous leadership positions in other rapid-growth high-tech companies and consultancies, including Ernst & Young.  He is a graduate of Duke University.

 

Alexander Arato is the Vice President and Associate General Counsel of CA, Inc. In that capacity, Mr. Arato is responsible for managing relationships with outside counsel as well as assisting the general counsel in formulating and implementing internal policies and strategies. He is also primarily responsible for CA, Inc.’s eDiscovery and overall records management policies and procedures. Further, Mr. Arato is primary counsel to two CA business units and has managed various M&A transactions.

Mr. Arato has also served as CA’s Managing Attorney and been responsible for managing aspects of CA’s trade secret, contract, employment and tort litigation in federal, state and bankruptcy courts.

Prior to joining CA, Mr. Arato was counsel to and associated with the firm of Heller Ehrman White & McAuliffe in Los Angeles, California, where he represented clients in complex trade secret, product liability, contract, tort and class actions before federal and state courts. Prior to that, Alex was associated with the firms of Weinhart & Riley and Manatt Phelps & Phillips.

Mr. Arato has a B.A. in Economics from the University of California at Berkeley and a J.D, magna cum laude, from the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, where he was a member of the Law Review.

 

The Hon. Sharon R. Barner served as Deputy Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Deputy Director, United States Patent and Trademark Office (2009-2011) before rejoining Foley & Lardner LLP as a partner. She served as a leader in intellectual property (IP) policy, helped develop and articulate the Obama Administration positions on all patent, trademark and copyright issues, both domestic and foreign, and helped promote strategies to thwart the theft of U.S. IP around the world. She also helped develop and implement policies and initiatives to enhance the agency’s delivery of timely and high-quality patent and trademark examinations, and revamp and improve the patent appeals and reexamination system of the Board of Patent Appeals and Interferences. Prior to assuming her position as Deputy Under Secretary in 2009, Ms. Barner had been chair of Foley’s Intellectual Property Department and a member of the firm’s Management Committee.

As the Deputy Under Secretary of Commerce she continued her international focus through leadership in 15 overseas delegations, including eight China missions to Beijing, Shanghai, Dongguan, Guilin, Nanjing, and other cities. Her extensive knowledge in China at Commerce built upon her earlier Foley experience where Ms. Barner played a leading role in the establishment of Foley’s East Asia presence through establishing its first Asian offices, first in Tokyo, Japan and then Shanghai, China. Ms. Barner will play an active role in public policy and international issues.

Ms. Barner is a leading attorney in the field of intellectual property law. She represents clients in a broad range of technologies from genetically engineered corn seed, to computer software to satellites. She has tried numerous cases to verdict, as well as representing clients in IP strategic counseling and IP risk management. Her primary focus will continue to be upon participation in complex patent and intellectual property litigation, building upon first chair litigation experience and more than a quarter century of private practice patent litigation.

Ms. Barner has been featured in The National Law Journal, where she was named one of "The 50 Most Influential Minority Lawyers in America" (May 2008), Black Enterprise Magazine (November 2003), Diversity and the Bar (May/June 2003) and "Patent Plums: Who’s Enforcing the Most Important Patents" IP Law & Business (August 2001). She was also selected for inclusion in the Illinois Super Lawyers® lists for her intellectual property litigation work (2005-2009).* Ms. Barner was named in the top 50 Women Illinois Super Lawyers (2006-2008). She was recently selected by her peers for inclusion in The Best Lawyers in America® 2010 in the field of intellectual property.

Ms. Barner received her law degree from the University of Michigan in 1982 and graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree from Syracuse University in 1979. She is a member of the Illinois State Bar Association, the National Bar Association, and the Federal and American Bar Associations.

Ms. Barner is admitted to practice in Ohio, Illinois, and before the Federal, Sixth and Seventh Circuits and is a charter master member of the Richard Linn American Inn.

*The Illinois Supreme Court does not recognize certifications of specialties in the practice of law and no award or recognition is a requirement to practice law in Illinois.

 

Larry C. Boyd is executive vice president, secretary and general counsel for Ingram Micro Inc.  Ingram is the world’s largest distributor of information technology products and services.  Boyd leads a team of legal professionals located in Brussels, Lille, Munich, Singapore, Shanghai, Sydney, Mumbai, Miami, Mexico City, Sao Paulo, Toronto, and Southern California, and manages all legal aspects for Ingram’s global operations, from contract negotiations and employment issues to regulatory compliance and corporate disclosure requirements. He was promoted to this position in March 2004.

Boyd joined Ingram Micro in January 2000 as senior vice president, U.S. legal services. Prior to Ingram Micro, he was a partner with Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher where he practiced as a litigator for 22 years.

A 1977 graduate of Stanford Law School, Boyd also earned his bachelor's degree in political science from Stanford University.  He is a member of the State Bar of California, the American Bar Association and the Association for Corporate Counsel.

 

Connie is the Chief of Staff to the General Counsel and Legal Operations Director at NetApp.  Prior to joining NetApp she served as the Legal Operations Director at Oracle and Chief of Staff and Legal Operations Director at Sun Microsystems.  Prior to joining the corporate world in 2001, Connie was a civil litigator, in private practice, in Boulder, Colorado.  Connie has a JD and an MBA and a BA in Economics.  She has written on the topic of Legal Process Outsourcing and is a popular invited speaker on LPOs and Vendor Management.

 

Frederick Felman's career in marketing technology and related services spans 25 years. At MarkMonitor, he is responsible for defining and promoting the company's brand protection product offerings as well as leading Business Development. He and his team created the Brandjacking Index®, an often-cited measure of the trends in online abuse targeting the world's largest brands. As part of the MarkMonitor commitment to securing brands online, Fred also leads advocacy initiatives for brandholders' rights issues that intersect Internet governance. Before joining MarkMonitor Fred and hismarketing team at Zone Labs were early pioneers in creating the “freemium” model of software distribution in 1999.  Ultimately Zone Labs created a community of over 100 million users of their ZoneAlarm product that was acquired by CheckPoint. He received his Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from the University of Southern California.

 

Michael Fox is Senior Vice President and General Counsel of Jamba Juice. 

Responsibilities:

• Responsible for all legal affairs, including general corporate matters, securities law compliance (including SOX compliance), franchising, consumer products licensing, vendor contracts, real estate leases, employment law matters, trademark and other IP matters, FDA and advertising matters, and litigation oversight. 
• Corporate Secretary
• Compliance Officer
• Head of Crisis Management Team

Prior Positions:

• Founder; Vice President, Business Development and General Counsel – ProMost Inc.
• Senior Vice President, Business Affairs and General Counsel – Sony Signatures Inc.
• Assistant General Counsel (contract basis) – Meridian Point Properties
• Corporate and Securities Attorney:
    Pettit & Martin
    Wyman, Bautzer, Kuchel & Silbert
    Memel, Jacobs & Ellsworth  

Bar Admission:  California, 1984 
 
Education:
Hastings College of the Law
Juris Doctor Degree - 1984   

University of California, Berkeley 
Dual BA degree in Economics and Political Science - 1981

 

Sam joined Allergan in June 2009 as Senior Vice President and General Counsel, and became  Executive Vice President and General Counsel in August 2010.

Sam currently leads Allergan’s 60 person, global legal team, and supports the Board of Directors and Allergan’s senior management.  Sam is also the Vice-Chairman of APACE, Allergan’s PAC.  Sam has practiced law for over 20 years.

Prior to joining Allergan, during an 11 year span, Sam held various roles at Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc.  Sam was Vice President and General Counsel of the Laboratory Equipment Group where he was responsible for overseeing the group’s legal matters and providing general legal and business advice to the leadership team.  Sam was also responsible for Thermo Fisher’s corporate online legal training.  

Sam started his legal career at Thelen, Marrin, Johnson & Bridges in Los Angeles, California, then moved to the California Department of Justice where he served as a Deputy Attorney General. 

Sam graduated from Boston University School of Law, where he was a Paul J. Liacos scholar, and received an economics degree, cum laude, from Brandeis University. 

 

Bob has been Senior Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary of Safeway Inc., a food and drug retailer based in Pleasanton, California, since 2000.  Before that, he was a partner at Pillsbury Madison & Sutro in San Francisco (now Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman).  He is a graduate of Yale University and the University of Virginia School of Law, and he was a law clerk for James R. Browning on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

 

Kimberly (Kim) Griffin is Vice President and Corporate Counsel for 24 Hour Fitness USA, Inc., the largest privately-owned fitness chain in the US.  She joined the company as Corporate Counsel in 2000.  Her areas of focus today include Consumer Litigation (including class actions), Intellectual Property, Privacy, Marketing/Entertainment, and Insurance. Prior to joining 24 Hour Fitness, she was a Foreign Legal Consultant in Shanghai, China with a local law firm.  She began her legal career at Barger & Wolen with a focus on insurance coverage. She is a graduate of UC Berkeley and the University of San Francisco law school.

 

Jonathan S. Hoak is Senior Vice President and General Counsel for Flextronics International. He is also Secretary to the Board of Directors. He joined Flextronics on January 31, 2011.

Prior to joining Flextronics, Hoak was Vice President and Chief Ethics and Compliance Officer at HP, overseeing the strategy and implementation of HP's ethics and compliance program, including adherence to the Standards of Business Conduct. He served in that role for HP from October 2006 until January 2011.

Prior to joining HP, Hoak served as Senior Vice President and General Counsel for NCR from December 1993 until May 2006. In this role he was responsible for furnishing legal counsel and services to NCR on all legal matters on a global basis.

Prior to joining NCR in 1993, he worked for Heritage Communications in Des Moines, Iowa, from 1971-1974. After completing law school and a judicial clerkship, Hoak joined the Sidley & Austin law firm in 1979 and became a partner in 1985. While at Sidley & Austin, his principal client was AT&T, and he specialized in complex telecommunications litigation before administrative agencies and federal courts.

In 1990, he became general attorney for AT&T's Federal Systems Division. In that position, he led a group of attorneys who provided legal support for all of AT&T's provision of products and services to the U.S. Federal Government.

Hoak earned his bachelor of arts in 1971 from the University of Colorado in Boulder, with a triple major in psychology, history and political science. While at the University of Colorado, he earned Phi Beta Kappa honors. He also spent one year at Exeter University in Exeter, England. Jon earned his Juris Doctor in 1977 from Drake University.

 

Seth Jaffe is Senior Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary of Williams-Sonoma, Inc. (NYSE:WSM). Williams-Sonoma is the leading specialty retailer of high quality products for the home, with annual revenue of over $3 billion and a workforce of roughly 30,000 employees.  The company features six major brands – Williams-Sonoma, Pottery Barn, Pottery Barn Kids, PBteen, West Elm and Williams-Sonoma Home – which are marketed through approximately 600 stores, seven mail order catalogs and six e-commerce websites.  Seth’s responsibilities include advising the Board of Directors on a broad range of governance and strategic issues, as well as leading a department with accountability for all of the company’s legal matters, including securities and corporate law, labor and employment, intellectual property, major transactions, environmental and sustainability issues, real estate, product safety, government relations, and a wide variety of litigation matters. 

Prior to coming to Williams-Sonoma, Seth served as Chief Administrative Officer and General Counsel of CareThere, Inc., a Silicon Valley health care technology company with venture backing led by Johnson & Johnson.

Previously, Seth held several leadership positions in the legal department of apparel maker Levi Strauss & Co. These included General Counsel of Levi Strauss Europe, based in Brussels, and Chief Counsel for Levi Strauss, The Americas.  He began his practice at the law firm of McCutchen Doyle Brown & Enersen in San Francisco (now Bingham McCutchen), representing clients such as Coca-Cola, General Motors and the San Francisco Giants in intellectual property, antitrust, litigation and transactional matters.

Seth holds degrees with honors from Brown University and the University of Michigan Law School. 

 

Practice
Michael Kennedy is partner in the Mergers & Acquisitions Group based in the firm’s San Francisco office. Since 1984, he has concentrated on the corporate areas of mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, corporate partnering, joint ventures and corporate governance, with an emphasis in the technology, emerging growth, healthcare, biotechnology and media industries.

He has extensive experience in the private equity and leveraged buyout industries as well as decades of experience on transactions in a number of other industries, including automotive, defense, financial services, media, technology, healthcare and building products.  He represents many major investment banks in their advisory roles on M&A deals.

In addition, Mr. Kennedy has significant experience in the debt (bank and high-yield areas) and restructuring areas.  He is frequently asked by Boards to advise on hostile transactions, proxy fights and other governance matters.

Mike has been cited since the late 1990’s in the Chambers, the PLC Which Lawyer? and Who’s Who Legal – California guides as a leading lawyer in M&A and technology.  He frequently lectures at corporate seminars and continuing legal education forums.

Education
New York University, J.D., 1984
Yale University, B.A., 1981

Bar Admission/Qualifications
California
New York

Professional Affiliations and Business Activities

• Adjunct Professor, Boalt School of Law, University of California at Berkeley in the topic of Mergers & Acquisitions (1997-present)
• Chairman, PLI Technology Mergers and Acquisitions Program (1997-2002)
• Frequent lecturer at corporate seminars (e.g. Board Member magazine) and continuing legal education forums

Publications

• “A Rising Tide for M&A,” Corporate Board Member (2003 Special Supplement)
• “The End of Time – Delaware’s Search for the Fiduciary GUT,” M&A Lawyer (2003)
• “Whole Lotta Fiduciating Going On,” M&A Lawyer (2002)
• “The Business Judgment Syllogism – Premises Governing Board Activity,” PLI (1997-2002)
• “Public Private and Private Private Acquisitions,” PLI, Securities Regulation Institute, Glasser Legalworks, M&A Lawyer (2001)
• “Pricing Terms in Stock and Cash Transactions,” PLI – Corporate Governance Reporter (1997-2002)
• “Functional Fairness – The Mechanics, Functions and Liabilities of Fairness Opinions,”
  PLI – Corporate Governance Reporter (1997-2002)

 

John W. Kuo was named Corporate Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary for Varian Medical Systems in 2005. He joined the company as Associate General Counsel in 2003, focusing in the areas of securities, corporate governance and M&A. Today, his management responsibilities include the company's Legal, Trade Compliance, Environmental Affairs and Government Affairs functions. Kuo is also the secretary to the company's Board of Directors.

Prior to joining Varian, Kuo held senior legal positions at several companies including Broadvision, 3Com Corporation and Acer America. He was also previously with the law firms of Gray Cary Ware & Freidenrich (now, DLA Piper) and Fulbright & Jaworski. Kuo graduated from Cornell University in 1985 and earned his law degree from Boalt Hall, UC Berkeley in 1988. He has been admitted to the State Bars of California and Texas.

He also serves on the Law Cabinet of the United Way, Silicon Valley, and on the Board of the Boalt Hall Alumni Association.

 

Wendy Lazerson is the co-chair of the Labor and Employment Group. For over thirty years, Wendy
has been advising corporate clients and handling their employment disputes in the courts and
through arbitration and mediation. Wendy’s strategic approach to litigation has afforded her
clients successes that are available only through a thoughtful and proactive approach to dispute
resolution.

For the last several years, and before wage and hour class actions became the norm, Wendy has
been actively involved in the wage and hour arena, where she has attained successes for clients
in both federal collective actions and state class actions. She has avoided business disruption to
her clients by avoiding notice to any class members, and has defeated certification consistently.
Wendy is strategic in her approach and works with her clients to ensure that litigation strategy
complies with business goals. She is intimately familiar with class action procedure and law, and
her knowledge of wage and hour class law has led to excellent results for clients in a variety of
industries. She works with her clients to gain knowledge of their businesses, using the facts at
hand to win convincing victories. Wendy has defended these cases in the state and federal
courts of northern and southern California and in the arbitration forum.

In addition to her wage and hour work, Wendy handles a wide variety of employment disputes
including individual discrimination and wrongful discharge cases, as well as trade secret and
unfair competition cases. She is also very involved in assisting clients with the employment
aspects of mergers and acquisitions, including due diligence advice, drafting of agreements, and
strategically addressing both employee retention and reduction. Wendy also provides day-to-day
advice to California employers on workplace issues.

Wendy has lectured and written on issues related to the workplace and is frequently quoted in
the legal and business press. She was named a “Top California Employment Defense Lawyer” by
the San Francisco/Los Angeles Daily Journal in July 2010.

 

Mark LeHocky is Senior Vice President, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary for Ross Stores, Inc.  Headquartered in Pleasanton, California, Ross is a S&P 500 company (NASDAQ: ROST) with 2011 revenues of $8.6 billion, over 50,000 employees and over 1,100 off-price retail stores operating under the “Ross Dress for Less” and “dd’s DISCOUNTS” names.  Mark manages Ross’ legal affairs.

Prior to joining Ross, Mark was Vice President and General Counsel for Dreyer’s Grand Ice Cream, Inc., the nation’s largest manufacturer and distributor of ice cream products.  In 2002, he helped engineer Dreyer’s multi-stage merger with Nestlé, S.A.  Prior to joining Dreyer’s, Mark was a principal in the San Francisco law firm of Freeland, Cooper, LeHocky & Hamburg, where his practice focused on litigating antitrust, intellectual property and other complex business disputes.

Mark also serves as an appointed mediator for the United States District Court for intellectual property, antitrust and other complex business disputes, and has taught at Bay Area law and business schools on the subjects of antitrust law and the interplay of litigation and business decision-making.

Mark received his law degree from the University of California at Berkeley (Boalt Hall) and his undergraduate degree from the University of California at Los Angeles.

 

Mark Meltzer joined Intuitive Surgical in December 2007. Prior to joining Intuitive Surgical, Mr. Meltzer served as General Counsel of FoxHollow Technologies Inc from October 2004. Prior to FoxHollow, Mr. Meltzer has also served as General Counsel for Epicor Medical Inc. and Ventritex Inc. Mr. Meltzer graduated cum laude from UC Berkeley with a B.S. degree in electrical engineering. He received his J.D. from UC Hastings where he served on the law review. Mr. Meltzer, a registered patent attorney, was appointed as a special master in federal court where he assisted in the evaluation and administration of complex patent cases. Mr. Meltzer has tried cases to juries and has argued before the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. His pro bono work has included the representation of indigents and non-profits before courts and administrative agencies and volunteer service in federal anti-poverty programs.

 

Rosanna Marrero Neagle is Vice President of Legal Affairs for Nestlé Dreyer’s Ice Cream Company, Nestlé Direct Store Delivery Company.  In this role, she oversees all legal matters, including intellectual property, commercial transactions, sales and distribution matters, human resources and corporate governance.

Previously, Rosanna was Senior Vice President and General Counsel of Clif Bar & Co.  Prior to that, from 1993 to 2006, Rosanna served in several executive-level legal positions at Levi-Strauss & Co.  From 2002-2006, she was Regional General Counsel of the company’s North American division.  From 1999-2002, Rosanna served as Regional General Counsel of the company’s Europe, Africa and Middle East division located in Brussels, Belgium.  In these capacities, Rosanna developed and oversaw legal support for commercial transactions, sales and distribution strategies, antitrust compliance, intellectual property and employment matters.  Prior to 1999, Rosanna was associate general counsel for the company’s U.S. manufacturing and field operations. 

Rosanna’s professional affiliations include the American Bar Association and the California Bar Association.  She is also an active member of the Minority Corporate Counsel Association and the American Association of Corporate Counsel.

Rosanna holds a bachelor’s degree in Psychology from the University of California, Berkeley.  She earned her juris doctorate from the University of California, Hastings College of Law.

 

Steve Niparko serves as Senior Vice President and General Counsel for ARCADIS U.S., Inc. and its subsidiaries since 2002.  He has over 24 years of experience acting as counsel to variety of clients and providing business and legal advice on significant public and private enterprises. His career has included significant public service with various governmental clients, business advisor for private technology companies, and litigation in real estate development, eminent domain, and construction.

At ARCADIS US, Mr. Niparko is the Chief Legal Officer managing all corporate legal and risk management matters for the company and is a Member of the Board of Directors.  Under his authority is contract administration and negotiations, corporate governance, including ethics compliance, risk management, mergers and acquisitions, and general corporate representation. ARCADIS US is the subsidiary of ARCADIS NV (Euronext: ARCAD).

Past Professional Experience
Legal Counselor and Executive Consultant
Mr. Niparko served as the senior attorney in the development, construction and operation of Denver International Airport. Prior to joining ARCADIS, Mr. Niparko led the environmental remediation and deposition of the former Stapleton International Airport site that has become a notable urban development receiving global and national awards and recognition.

Mr. Niparko has served clients in a variety of roles as counselor and advocate. His prior work has included representation of governmental and private clients in the areas of real estate development and eminent domain, including various public entities and citizens groups in land use and zoning matters and major urban transportation projects.  Many of his projects involved the development of major economic development projects, including large-scale commercial/retail sites and single and multi-family communities.

Mr. Niparko has provided expertise as a consultant and advisor for private clients in government relations, representing clients before legislative committees and commissions, and on legal issues involving financial and governance matters.

Professionalism
Mr. Niparko has served as a speaker before the Committee on Human Rights in Bucharest, Romania, the Denver Law Club, and many other civic organizations on the issues of Public Policy, Constitutional Law, and Construction Law.  He has donated his pro bono time for representation of clients without the ability to pay requiring legal representation.  He serves on various local community boards and public districts.

 

Kam O’Keefe, a former practicing attorney and serves as Account Director for CPA Global. In her role, Kam helps corporate counsel more efficiently manage legal spend by analyzing the company’s current work flow and offering solutions that allow corporate legal departments to outsource the lower level repeatable tasks like document and contract reviews, transaction support and research allowing in-house legal teams the freedom to excel. 

Before joining CPA Global, Kam worked with Royal Philips Electronics N.V. as Enterprise Director working with AM Law 100, corporate legal departments and major hospital systems.  Further, Kam worked in development for Deloitte and Motorola.

Kam began her legal career as a Senior Officer with the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade (DFAIT) of Canada specializing in cross border trade and regulation. 

Kam graduated with honors from Loyola University - College of Law and was inducted into the American Inn of Court.  Kam resides in Chicago.

 

Thomas Onda is Chief Intellectual Property Counsel at Levi Strauss & Co. in San Francisco, California.  He is responsible for managing the company's intellectual property matters worldwide including trademark clearance, registration and infringement and anti-counterfeit matters.  Mr. Onda began his legal career at Pillsbury Madison & Sutro in San Francisco.  Prior to joining Levi Strauss & Co., he was a partner at the law firm of Steinhart & Falconer LLP in San Francisco. Mr. Onda is an adjunct faculty member at the University of San Francisco School of Law and guest lecturer at Stanford Law School.  Prior to his law career, Mr. Onda was a professional classical ballet dancer.

 

Arnold A. Pinkston is Beckman Coulter’s senior vice president, general counsel and Secretary. He joined the Company on November 15, 2005. In this role, Pinkston is responsible for all aspects of legal affairs related to Beckman Coulter and its products on a worldwide basis, serves as the corporate secretary, is responsible for the Corporate Compliance Program, Corporate Social Responsibility Program, Internal Audit Department and Knowledge Resources.

Prior to joining Beckman Coulter, Pinkston served as deputy general counsel for Eli Lilly and Company, where he was responsible for the legal affairs of Lilly USA, Lilly's global pharmaceutical products component and its global marketing and sales organization. He previously served as vice president, Pharmaceutical Products and deputy general counsel while with Eli Lilly. Pinkston also held the position of general counsel at PCS Health Systems and as senior counsel for McKesson Corporation. Prior to these roles, he spent six years as an attorney with Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe.

Pinkston received a Bachelor of Art's degree in geophysics from Yale College and a Juris Doctor degree from Yale Law School.

 

Andrew Pollack is responsible JDSU’s global legal function, including management of JDSU’s international legal compliance, corporate governance, securities, contracts, mergers & acquisitions, intellectual property and litigation services. From 2000 to 2010, Pollack held increasingly senior roles within JDSU’s legal department, most recently as associate general counsel, driving development of and managing the company’s global legal support and compliance structure, scalable commercial legal resource model, securities, and domestic and international strategic transactions.

Before joining JDSU in 2000, Pollack was in private practice in the San Francisco Bay Area, focusing on general litigation, corporate and labor and employment maters.

Pollack holds a B.A. in History from the University of California, Santa Barbara and a J.D. from Santa Clara University School of Law, and is admitted to practice in California and before the federal courts in California and Arizona.

 

Michael Pontrelli is senior director and corporate discovery consultant in the Western United States for Applied Discovery. In this role, Mr. Pontrelli consults with corporate legal departments and their outside law firms to navigate the entire electronic discovery process. He also works with clients to develop processes and cost-saving strategies in matters involving the collection, processing and review of large amounts of email and other electronic data. His clients include many Fortune 500 corporations. 

Before joining Applied Discovery, Mr. Pontrelli practiced in the San Francisco office of The Goldman Law Firm, where his work focused on medical malpractice defense and business litigation.  Mr. Pontrelli then joined iEnvision Technology, Inc., a systems and solutions integration company in the Bay Area.  At iEnvision, Mr. Pontrelli consulted with law firms and corporate legal departments to design technology solutions based upon the needs of the firm or legal department.

Mr. Pontrelli is a frequent speaker on the topic of electronic discovery and document review. He received his B.A. in Political Science from Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, and his J.D. from California Western in San Diego. He is a member of the State Bar of California.

 

Mr. Prickett is a partner in the Litigation Department of Seyfarth Shaw LLP, and is Chair of the national Securities and Financial Litigation Practice Group.  Mr. Prickett concentrates his practice in the areas of securities litigation, shareholder and corporate governance litigation, patent litigation, and other complex business litigation.

Mr. Prickett has extensive experience counseling and defending clients in securities litigation and SEC investigations and representing clients in shareholder derivative actions, merger and acquisition disputes, and other complex commercial disputes. Mr. Prickett devotes significant time to counseling clients on avoiding securities and insider trading liability and advising clients on fiduciary duty issues in mergers and acquisitions and other corporate transactions.

Mr. Prickett concentrates his intellectual property practice on patent infringement litigation, where he has successfully litigated patents involving, among others, oil and gas technology, recycling technology, dental products, laser angioplasty and encoded pay-per-view television technology.

In 2004, through 2010, Mr. Prickett was selected as one of the State’s "Super Lawyers" in a joint survey conducted by the publishers of Law & Politics magazine and Boston magazine as part of a special publication titled "The Top Attorneys In Massachusetts."

Prior to joining Seyfarth Shaw in 2005, Mr. Prickett was a partner and Co-Chair of the litigation practice group at his former firm, Testa, Hurwitz & Thibeault, LLP, where he had practiced since 1991.  Mr. Prickett started his career at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP.

 

Speaker bio coming soon...

 

Kimberley (“Kimm”) is a US-licensed attorney who completed her undergraduate studies at the University of Virginia and legal studies at George Mason University School of Law and comes with more than 15 years of overall experience. At Infosys LPO, Kimberley is a subject matter expert in e-discovery.

Prior to joining Infosys, Kimberley advised start-up LPOs in the creation of quality and process-driven services and conducted proof of concept testing and pilot projects to validate the workflow designs.  As the Managing Director of Litigation at Cobra Legal Solutions, Kimberley was accountable for the recruitment, training, process development and delivery for Cobra’s operations in Chennai, India. Earlier in her career, Kimberley was an associate with the Washington, DC office of Steptoe & Johnson, LLP, where she designed the firm's toxic tort litigation center in Rockville, MD, and oversaw the transition of a Fortune 50 Company's toxic tort caseload, which included developing the processes governing the intake of new cases and claims through to claim disposition.  As a consultant, Kimberley counseled and supported clients on the selection, implementation and training of computerized support systems for document management, early data assessment, and document review, and ensured that the technology solution was properly suited to provide efficiency, consistency and responsiveness to meet the demands of case specific or national litigation. She has a broad range of legal and project management experience in complex litigation, antitrust and energy matters.

 

Daniel Tyukody, a partner in the Los Angeles office, is a member of the Securities Litigation Group.  Mr. Tyukody's practice focuses on defending underwriters, issuers and individual officers and directors in securities class actions, derivative cases, "M&A" cases and SEC proceedings.  Mr. Tyukody has also represented the audit committees or special committees of Fortune 500 companies conducting special investigations. 
 
Mr. Tyukody has been named as one of the "Top 500 Lawyers In America"  by Lawdragon magazine from 2007-2010, and one of the "Top 500 Litigators In America" (2006).  Mr. Tyukody was also named as one of the "Top Securities Litigators in California" by the Daily Journal.  He was lead trial counsel and obtained a complete defense verdict in June 2005 in Miller v. Thane, one of only a dozen securities class action lawsuits tried to verdict since 1995.  This case was named one of the "Top Ten Defense Verdicts" in California by the Daily Journal and was recently upheld by the Ninth Circuit.

 

Stephen D. Whetstone, Esq., is the General Manager of Iron Mountain’s global eDiscovery business.  Iron Mountain eDiscovery (f/k/a Stratify) is widely-recognized as the leading eDiscovery provider in the global market, introducing lawyers to innovative features like highly-efficient and scalable online document review, conceptual organization, near-duplicate detection, and email analytics and visual maps.  In addition to managing the eDiscovery business, Stephen is also ultimately responsible for Iron Mountain’s Consulting practice, which helps global enterprises design, build and execute compliant records and information management and litigation readiness programs.

Prior to joining Iron Mountain, Stephen was an equity partner at Testa Hurwitz and a litigator at Skadden, where he specialized in securities actions and investigations and patent and intellectual property trials and arbitrations. He is a graduate of Bates College (B.A.) and Northeastern University School of Law (J.D.). Prior to law school, Stephen spent several years working in the political arena and with the media, including as Chief of Staff for Massachusetts State Senator (now Congressman) John W. Olver.

 

Hoyt Zia was born and raised in New Jersey, graduated from Dartmouth College, served as a US Marine Corps officer, and then received his law degree from the UCLA School of Law.

He is currently Senior VP, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary for Hawaiian Airlines, Inc.  Prior to joining Hawaiian, he was the publisher of Hawaii Business magazine, and before that the executive director of the Pacific Telecommunications Council, an international telecom industry non-profit organization based in Honolulu.   For most of his career, however, he was an attorney who practiced in San Francisco and Honolulu, both in law firms and in-house with Motorola, Inc. and Amfac/JMB Hawaii, Inc.  He also served in the Clinton Administration as Chief Counsel for Export Administration, Department of Commerce, in Washington, DC.

Hoyt is married and has two children. While in California, he served as president of the Asian American Bar Association of the Greater Bay Area, the Asian Pacific Bar of California, and the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association.  In Honolulu, he currently serves on several non-profit boards including the Consuelo Foundation, the Hawaii Institute for Public Affairs, the Better Business Bureau of Hawaii, and the Japan-America Society of Hawaii.