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IP Faculty Bios

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Biographies

Margreth Barrett
Margreth Barrett joined the Faculty in 1984, after practicing law for three years with Howard, Rice, Nemerovski, Canady, Robertson & Falk, in San Francisco. Graduated from Duke University School of Law in 1980, Professor Barrett served as the Editor-in-Chief of the Duke Law Journal, and held Duke Law School's Hardt Cup moot court championship. She completed her legal education by serving as a law clerk to the Honorable Gerald Bard Tjoflat, on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. After serving as Hastings' only Intellectual Property specialist for many years, she was delighted to welcome new colleagues in the field, and to work with them to build the College's Intellectual Property concentration.

Professor Barrett is the author of a casebook for the survey course in Intellectual Property (presently in its fourth edition), and numerous articles addressing a range of issues in the intellectual property field. Her articles have been judged one of the best intellectual property articles published in the United States in 2001, 2007, and 2009. In recent years she has focused much of her scholarship on the impact of the Internet on trademark rights. When she is away from work, she enjoys spending time with her two sons, Andrew and Robin, hiking, reading and classical music.

For students who are concerned that their liberal arts degrees may not have prepared them for a specialty in intellectual property law, Prof. Barrett notes her own bachelor and masters degrees in English literature (specializing in ancient Anglo-Saxon poetry) as evidence to the contrary.

Courses Taught: Intellectual Property Survey, Copyright, Trademarks and Unfair Competition, and Intellectual Property Capstone Seminar

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Ben Depoorter

Ben Depoorter is a graduate of Yale Law School (LLM, 2003). He also holds a JD (1999) and PhD (2003) from Ghent University and a Master's degree from the University of Hamburg (2001). He received a Fulbright Scholarship in conjunction with his LLM studies at Yale, during which he also served as an editor of the of the Yale Journal of Regulation and conducted research as a John M. Olin Fellow in Law, Economics, and Public Policy. He was a Santander Research Fellow at U.C. Berkeley and a recipient of BAEF and Fulbright scholarships.

Depoorter's research focus is on property law, the role of litigation and settlements in society, and the impact of technological developments on legal change and intellectual property law. He has authored more than 20 scholarly publications, including recent articles in Columbia Law Review, Cornell Law Review, Duke Law Journal, the University of Pennsylvania Law Review, the Supreme Court Economic Review, the International Review of Law and Economics, and the Journal of Institutional and Theoretical Economics. He is currently a co-editor of the Review of Law & Economics (Bepress publishing).

Over recent years he has presented his writings at conferences and seminars at Boston College Law School, Boston University Law School, Duke Law School, George Mason Law School, Stanford law School, University of California Berkeley Law School, the University of Connecticut Law School, University of Pennsylvania Law School, University of Texas School of Law, University of Toronto Law School, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign College of Law, and Yale Law School.

Courses Taught: IP Scholarship Workshop Seminar, Law & Economics

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Robin Feldman
Professor Feldman received a bachelor's degree from Stanford University and a J.D. from Stanford Law School, graduating the Order of the Coif and receiving the Urban A. Sontheimer Award for graduating second in the class. She also served in the Articles Department of the Stanford Law Review. After graduation, Professor Feldman clerked for The Honorable Joseph Sneed of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Professor Feldman specializes in Law and Science and is the Director of Hastings' Law and Bioscience Project (LAB Project).

Professor Feldman's first book, The Role of Science in Law, was published by Oxford University Press in 2009. Her second book, Rethinking Patent Law is forthcoming from Harvard University Press. Her articles have appeared in journals at law schools including Georgetown, Stanford, Texas, USC, UCLA and Virginia. Professor Feldman has received the Rutter Award for Teaching Excellence. Her piece, Patent and Antitrust: Differing Shades of Meaning, was judged one of the best intellectual property articles published in the United States in 2008.

Professor Feldman currently Chairs the Executive Committee of the Antitrust Section of the American Association of Law Schools. In 2007, she served as the Herman Phleger Visiting Professor of Law at Stanford Law School.

Professor Feldman has five children, and she and her husband enjoy hiking and biking with the family.

Courses Taught: LAB Project Seminar, Intellectual Property Survey, Intellectual Property Concentration Seminar, and Property

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Jeffrey Lefstin
Jeffrey Lefstin teaches and writes about patent and intellectual property law. He joined the Hastings faculty in 2003 after serving as a law clerk to Judge Raymond C. Clevenger, III, at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington, DC. Prior to his clerkship, he practiced patent and antitrust law with the biotechnology and litigation groups at Townsend, Townsend & Crew in San Francisco. In his previous life he was a molecular biologist, studying mammalian gene regulatory mechanisms and DNA-protein interactions. His scientific papers appeared in Nature, Genes & Development, and the Journal of Molecular Biology. His current research focuses on the intellectual architecture of patent law and problems of interpretation in patent litigation. He has served as an expert witness on patent law matters, and lectured for Patent Bar Review courses.

Courses Taught: Intellectual Property Capstone Seminar, Contracts, Patents and Trade Secrets, and Advanced Topics in Patent Law

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Dana Beldiman

Visiting Professor Dana Beldiman is a partner with the San Francisco law firm of Carroll, Burdick & McDonough LLP and specializes in international intellectual property law and international transactions. She has taught at the Santa Clara University School of Law and is currently a visiting professor at the Bucerius Law School, Hamburg, Germany and the Riga Graduate School of Law, Riga, Latvia.

Professor Beldiman holds an M.A. degree from the University of Bucharest, Romania, a J.D. from U.C. Hastings, an L.L.M. in Intellectual Property from Santa Clara University School of Law and a doctorate in law magna cum laude from the University of Bremen, Germany.

Courses Taught: International and Comparative Intellectual Property

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Denise Alter

Adjunct Professor Denise M. Alter represents global clients from Fortune 500 companies to kunsthallen with their art- and business-related transactional and litigation needs. To focus her practice on art and cultural property law, Professor Alter founded Bridge LawSM after leaving a litigation partnership at Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe in 2002.

A Lecturer at the University of California, Berkeley School of Law, for many years, Professor Alter has taught courses in Art and Cultural Property Law and in Civil Trial Practice. Before teaching at Berkeley, Professor Alter taught at the University of San Francisco, School of Law.

Professor Alter co-authors ARTelligenz.com—an online fine arts magazine—and she regularly speaks about art law issues to groups of art dealers and fine art collectors. Set to publish a new article entitled, “Corporate Art Collecting and Fiduciary Duties: A Guide for Directors and Officers,” in the upcoming volume of the Columbia Business Law Review, Professor Alter holds a B.A. in philosophy and sociology, an M.A. in art history and history of the art market, and a J.D. degree. For more information about Ms. Alter, see http://www.bridgelawgroup.com.

Courses Taught: Art Law Seminar

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Mark Baudler

Adjunct Professor Mark Baudler is a partner at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati. He has been an attorney in the firm's corporate and securities law practice since 1996.

Professor Baudler represents technology and growth companies at all stages of their development, from seed-stage start-ups to early-stage public companies to more mature public companies. He structures, manages, and negotiates merger and acquisition transactions, public equity offerings, private placement equity and debt transactions, strategic alliances, spin-outs, recapitalizations, and other corporate reorganizations.

Professor Baudler regularly advises public and private companies and their management on a broad range of corporate matters, including corporate governance responsibilities, equity incentive plans and arrangements, employment matters, intellectual property issues, regulatory compliance, and commercial transactions. In addition, he often counsels entrepreneurs on the formation of their companies, equity structures, and negotiations with seed and venture capital investors, and also represents and advises venture capital firms and other institutions investing in technology companies.

Professor Baudler is a graduate of Dartmouth College and The University of Chicago Law School. He can be reached by phone at 650.320.4597 or by email at mbaudler@wsgr.com.

Courses Taught: Venture Capital

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Brandon Baum

Adjunct Professor Brandon Baum is the founder of Baum Legal, an intellectual property boutique in the heart of Silicon Valley. Brandon has served as lead counsel in patent cases, Markman hearings, mediations, and arbitrations, and has first-chaired numerous jury and court trials. He has litigated disputes involving such technologies as telecommunication devices (hardware and software), thin films, computer methods and software, microprocessors, smartcards, business methods, computer aided design (CAD), Java, medical devices, cryptography and GPS devices. He also has extensive experience litigating business disputes, and has tried cases in such diverse fields as aircraft design, bankruptcy and wrongful death. Brandon is a court-appointed Early Neutral Evaluator for patent cases in the Northern District of California, and a regular contributor to PLI's Patent Law Practice Center. An AV-rated attorney, Brandon has tried nearly 100 cases to verdict, and was an equity partner at two top Silicon Valley law firms before starting his own firm.

Courses Taught: Patent Litigation

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Daniel Brownstone

Adjunct Professor Daniel Brownstone is an attorney at Fenwick & West LLP's San Francisco, California office. With an emphasis on patent strategic counseling and prosecution, Professor Brownstone's practice also includes intellectual property due diligence and patent litigation. His background in computer science and economics gives him a unique perspective on patent strategy, and his practice emphasizes patent portfolio development based on identifying innovations that are economically strategic to the enterprise, as well as managing the creation of high-value patent assets. Professor Brownstone has extensive experience before the Patent and Trademark Office, and has appeared before the Board of Patent Appeals and Interferences.

In addition to managing domestic and international patent portfolios for large corporations, Professor Brownstone works closely with nascent companies to identify, protect and enforce the core IP at the center of their business. His strategic counseling role frequently includes due diligence investigations of companies’ IP portfolios, including assessment of IP strength and its potential value-add to the acquirer's business. Professor Brownstone is also often involved in patent litigation matters, providing both technical analysis and litigation strategy.

Professor Brownstone received his law degree from Washington University in St. Louis in 1999, and his undergraduate degree in Economics and Computer Science from Duke University in 1996. Prior to joining Fenwick & West LLP, he worked on the Constitutional Subcommittee of the Senate Judiciary Committee, where he was an assistant to the ranking member, Sen. Russ Feingold. He is admitted to practice in California and before the USPTO. In addition to making numerous appearances before state and local patent bar organizations and in-house audiences, Professor Brownstone is a Director of the Pride Law Fund. In his free time, he flies a Cessna 172.

Courses Taught: Patent Prosecution

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Emily Burns

Adjunct Professor Emily Burns is a Trademark Counsel at Google Inc. Professor Burns' intellectual property practice encompasses trademark counseling, with an emphasis on the selection, adoption and use of trademarks, domestic and international trademark prosecution and enforcement, trademark portfolio management, and development of comprehensive branding strategies. She has expertise in anti-counterfeit enforcement, including counterfeit trademark litigation in federal courts, and working with customs authorities in the US and throughout the world to detect and detain counterfeit goods, and has published in the area of counterfeit trademark litigation.

Professor Burns received her law degree, magna cum laude, from the University of San Diego School of Law, where she served as Lead Articles Editor of the San Diego Law Review. In her spare time, she enjoys taking her family to Disneyland, and attempting to convince her children of the virtue of sleeping in on the weekends.

Courses Taught: Trademark Prosecution Seminar

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Eugene Crew

Gene Crew, Adjunct Professor, is of counsel at the antitrust and intellectual property law firm of Townsend and Townsend and Crew. Mr. Crew has tried many antitrust cases in federal and state courts for over 40 years and argued a major antitrust case before the United States Supreme Court. He has spoken on antitrust issues at many professional conferences and has published many articles on antitrust law. He taught basic antitrust law at the University of California-Hastings College of Law and taught Antitrust and Intellectual Property Law at both Hastings and the University of San Francisco for many years. He will be teaching basic antitrust law again this year (Fall 2010) and will continue teaching the advanced course on antitrust and intellectual property law at both Hastings and USF during 2010-11. Mr. Crew received his BA degree in Economics cum laude from the University of Portland and received his JD cum laude from the University of San Francisco. Mr. Crew is a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers. He received USF's Alumnus of the Year Award in 2008. In 2009 he was granted the "Antitrust Lawyer of the Year" award by the Antitrust and Unfair Competition section of the State Bar of California. In a published decision recently entered in a federal antitrust case won by Gene, Chief Judge Vaughn Walker declared: "Eugene Crew is a preeminent antitrust litigator, a lawyer truly at the top of the professional ladder."

Courses Taught: Antitrust and Intellectual Property

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Lothar Determann

Adjunct Professor Lothar Determann practices and teaches data protection and international technology law.

As a Principal with Baker & McKenzie LLP in San Francisco and Palo Alto, California, Professor Determann's practice covers counseling technology companies on taking their products, data, intellectual property and contracts international, as well as related commercial and compliance matters. Professor Determann is a member of Baker & McKenzie's Global Data Privacy Steering Committee, admitted to practice in Germany and California. He is recognized as one of the top 10 Copyright Attorneys / Top 25 Intellectual Property Attorneys in California by the San Francisco / Los Angeles Daily Journal (2008 and 2010 respectively), listed in the World's 250 Leading Patent and Technology Licensing Practitioners by the Intellectual Asset Management (IAM) Magazine and ranked as a leading lawyer in Chambers USA and Legal 500 USA.

Professor Determann teaches Data Privacy Law, Computer Law and Internet Law at UC Berkeley School of Law and Freie Universität Berlin. He is scheduled to teach courses on data privacy law at University of California, Hastings College of the Law in the fall of 2010 and at Stanford Law School in the Spring of 2011. Professor Determann has been a member of the Association of German Public Law Professors since 1999.

Courses Taught: Data Privacy

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Joseph Gratz

Adjunct Professor Joseph Gratz is a partner at Durie Tangri Page Lemley Roberts & Kent LLP.

Professor Gratz has litigated a number of important Internet copyright and trademark disputes. He represented Google in negotiating the settlement of class action copyright litigation related to the Google Book Search case and in the Rescuecom v. Google and Vulcan Golf v. Google trademark cases. He successfully defended the Ninth Circuit's judgment in favor of a credit card processing company in Perfect 10 v. VISA against en banc and certiorari attacks. In a pro bono case, Joe won summary judgment on behalf of Troy Augusto, an eBay seller of promotional CDs who had been sued by the world's largest record company. He currently represents artist Shepard Fairey in fair use litigation against the Associated Press over the Obama Hope poster.

Professor Gratz is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin - Madison and the University of Minnesota Law School.

Courses Taught: Cyberlaw

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Charles Tait Graves

Adjunct Professor Charles Tait Graves teaches a course on trade secret and employee mobility law. A partner at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati in San Francisco, he has published a number of law review articles on the theory, history, and practice of trade secret law and related doctrines. His writings place special emphasis on the public policy issues at stake in employee mobility disputes. Professor Graves has also been an editor of Trade Secrets, a leading treatise in the field.

Professor Graves received his J.D., cum laude, from U.C. Hastings in 1998 and his B.S., with honors, from U.C. Berkeley in 1994.

Courses Taught: IP Under State Law: Trade Secrets & Employee Mobility

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Sara Harrington

Adjunct Professor Sara Harrington is a partner in the technology transactions practice at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati. She focuses on counseling various companies involved in the development, distribution, licensing, disposition, and acquisition of technology and intellectual property rights for various start-ups and established enterprises. She has represented clients in a wide range of industries, including those involved in search technology, business application software (both open source and private source), e-commerce (business-to-business and business-to-consumer), Web 2.0, entertainment/media industries, database services, consulting, networking devices, semiconductor, telecom, medical device, consumer goods, and audio services.

Professor Harrington has constructed and negotiated a variety of international and domestic agreements, covering such areas as strategic alliances, marketing, development, licensing, advertising, distribution, services, outsourcing, open source, and manufacturing. She also has significant experience advising companies on intellectual property matters in connection with investments, financings, asset purchases and sales, corporate structuring (spin-outs), and mergers and acquisitions.

Prior to joining Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, Professor Harrington was an attorney at Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson in New York City, where she litigated corporate change-of-control and commercial litigation matters for various multinational corporate clients. She has a J.D. from Cornell Law School and received her undergraduate degree from the University of California, San Diego.

Courses Taught: IP Licensing Seminar

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Robert Hulse

Adjunct Professor Robert Hulse is an attorney in the San Francisco office of Fenwick & West LLP, where he is a member of the Intellectual Property Group. Registered to practice before the United States Patent and Trademark Office, Professor Hulse has drafted and prosecuted patent applications in a wide range of technical fields, including electronics, computer software, telecommunications, electromechanical and medical devices, and business methods. His practice also involves of intellectual property counseling, such as evaluating risks from third-party patents and assisting in efforts to design around those patents. Serving as an independent expert evaluator for a major patent pool, he has significant experience determining the essentiality of patented technology to a number of standards bodies' specifications.

Professor Hulse is a graduate from the University of California, Davis School of Law, where he served as the Senior Articles Editor of the UC Davis Law Review. Before law school, he received M.S. and B.S. degrees in engineering from Harvey Mudd College, and he double-majored in economics at Claremont-McKenna College. Professor Hulse also worked as a systems engineer at Hughes, where he designed in-flight entertainment systems for commercial aircraft.

Courses Taught: Patent Prosecution

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Michael Kernan

Adjunct Professor Michael Kernan was first exposed to entertainment law when he was an Executive Associate Editor of the Hastings Communications & Entertainment Law Review.

Professor Kernan teaches classes on both the "The Law and Business of the Entertainment Industry" and "Digital Dealmaking in the New Millennium." Since 2000, Professor Kernan has focused his work on the converging media of television and the Internet. During this time, he has worked with major brand advertisers and online partners to establish new formats for online programming and new cross-media business models. Professor Kernan is currently the CEO of NuMedia Studios, a hybrid digital production and management company which functions both as a personal management and consulting firm, and as a digital studio, taking advantage of the transition in media from traditional to digital. He was named this past year as a member of the Hollywood Reporter "Digital Power 50" list. On the studio side, NuMedia creates or packages content that uses the emerging markets such as Facebook as the distribution platform for that content. He has made new media content deals with many of the top technology companies in the world. Over the past year, Professor Kernan lent his expertise as a consultant for a leading television network as it sought to expand its digital presence through content with advertisers. And, on the Management side, NuMedia represents some of the top brands in digital media, such as Fatal1ty, the top professional videogammer in the world, and Xenophile Media, the most award winning interactive content and alternative reality game production company in the world.

Before launching NuMedia Studios, Professor Kernan spent eight years at the Los Angeles office of International Creative Management, ICM, one of the largest talent agencies in the world. Professor Kernan was an agent at ICM and rose to be the Vice President and Co-Head of Digital Media at ICM, handling digital media deals for ICM's Los Angeles, New York and London offices.

Prior to ICM, Professor Kernan was an entertainment attorney at two of LA's top entertainment law firms: Behr, Abramson & Kaller, and Lavely & Singer. Professor Kernan gained notoriety when he and his mentor Marty Singer successfully represented actor Jean Claude Van Dame in a trial televised on Court TV. Mr. Singer and Mr. Kernan went on to successfully represent Arnold Schwarzenegger again in Schwarzenegger's successful lawsuit against The Globe tabloid. Kernan concluded his litigation career shortly after he won a large arbitration award on behalf of actor Dana Carvey.

He has been a member of the California State Bar since 1996 and an Adjunct Professor at Hastings since the 2007/2008 school year.

Courses Taught: Entertainment Law and Social Media Law

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Catherine Kirkman

Catherine (Cathy) S. Kirkman is a partner and leader of the media practice at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati. With over 20 years of experience, Cathy has gained national recognition for her expertise in media law. She has been instrumental in key media and technology transactions for countless ventures in Silicon Valley, as well as in product strategy and business model advice. Cathy leads a deep bench on the media practice team, including counsel with specialized Hollywood and music industry expertise. She launched the firm's social media initiative, with domain expertise in copyright law, e-commerce, and Internet privacy. Cathy has served in various management positions at the firm, including on its Finance Committee and as chair of its Nominating Committee.

Cathy publishes the Silicon Valley Media Law blog, svmedialaw.com, along with commentary in publications such as Business Week, and speaks at forums such as Digital Hollywood, MacWorld, and the Milken Institute. She is an adjunct professor at UC Hastings College of Law, where she teaches a seminar on intellectual property licensing, and she has been a guest lecturer at Stanford Law School and the UC Berkeley School of Law. Cathy is an insurer-approved, expert advisor on copyright law to Stanford Law School's Fair Use Project for film documentaries. In addition, she holds multiple privacy specialty certifications from the International Association of Privacy Professionals.

Prior to joining the firm, Cathy practiced at the entertainment law firm Loeb & Loeb in Los Angeles, California, where she specialized in motion picture, television, and music transactions and received personal screen credit as production counsel.

Courses Taught: IP Licensing Seminar

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Robert Kornegay

Adjunct Professor Rob Kornegay is a partner at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati.

Professor Kornegay represents technology and growth companies at all stages of their development, from seed-stage start-ups to early-stage public companies to more mature public companies. He structures, manages, and negotiates merger and acquisition transactions, public equity offerings, private placement equity and debt transactions, strategic alliances, spin-outs, recapitalizations, and other corporate reorganizations.

Professor Kornegay regularly advises public and private companies and their management on a broad range of corporate matters, including corporate governance responsibilities, equity incentive plans and arrangements, employment matters, intellectual property issues, regulatory compliance, and commercial transactions. In addition, he often counsels entrepreneurs on the formation of their companies, equity structures, and negotiations with seed and venture capital investors, and also represents and advises venture capital firms and other institutions investing in technology companies.

Professor Kornegay regularly represents clients in the life sciences and information technology industries. Representative clients include Fluidigm Corporation, Occam Networks, RealNetworks, Copart, Maxlinear, Oncothyreon, and Transcept Pharmaceuticals.

Professor Kornegay also serves as adjunct professor at the Santa Clara University School of Law. He received an A.B. in economics from Georgetown University, an M.B.A. with a specialization in finance from The University of Chicago Graduate School of Business, and a J.D. from the University of California, Los Angeles, where he was comment editor of the UCLA Law Review.

Courses Taught: Venture Capital

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David Kostiner

Adjunct Professor David Kostiner is a founding partner of Counsel LLP, a boutique entertainment law firm based in San Francisco. A Hastings graduate, Professor Kostiner began his career as a professional musician drumming in jazz clubs, later playing for Dreamworks artists Creeper Lagoon and recording with others such as Matt Nathanson and Patrick Park. He later co-founded the Independent Online Distribution Alliance, was a sponsorship director for the Noise Pop Music Festival, managed internationally-known artists Rogue Wave and was an associate in the San Francisco office of Davis Shapiro Lewit and Hayes, LLP.

Professor Kostiner frequently appears as a panelist and public speaker, and has been published by the Hastings Comm/Ent Journal and the Santa Clara High Technology Law Journal.

Professor Kostiner’s practice includes the representation of musicians, record labels, music producers, songwriters, music publishers, visual artists, digital technology companies, music festivals and executives. He is responsible for negotiating and drafting agreements covering most aspects of his clients’ careers or businesses, as well as providing strategic guidance and informal dispute resolution services.

Professor Kostiner’s education includes a B.A. in Psychology from Tufts University and studies at the New England Conservatory of Music, Boston University's Tanglewood Institute and the Interlochen Arts Academy.

Courses Taught: Entertainment Law

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Cecily Mak

Cecily Mak, a fifth-generation San Franciscan, is currently with Rhapsody International Inc, a joint venture among Viacom International and RealNetworks, Inc. as the company’s Vice President and General Counsel. Mak is a graduate, professor and mentor at the University of California Hastings College of the Law and co-author of the timely book, “Music Law in the Digital Age,” published by Berklee College of Music’s press, Berklee Press, in 2010. Mak has been honored by Digital Media Wire as one of their 2011 “25 Executives to Watch in Digital Entertainment.” In addition to her significant contributions to both the legal and academic communities, Mak is frequently called upon as a thought leader for public speaking and expert panel engagements; she is a regular contributor to a range of music magazines, legal periodicals and releases from the International Association of Entertainment Lawyers.

In her role as Vice President and General Counsel of Rhapsody International Inc., formally a division of RealNetworks operating as Rhapsody America, Mak drives every aspect of The Company’s legal strategy, internally, across its entire business platform and, externally with label, publishing and strategic partners. In early 2010, Mak played the key legal role in Rhapsody International Inc.’s spinoff from RealNetworks.

Mak is a graduate from and professor at the University of California Hastings College of the Law; her classes explore the breadth of complexities of copyright and digital media law. She is also involved in the Hastings Law School Mentor Program, counseling mentees on career strategy, sharing her considerable professional knowledge base and providing an important role model for young, driven law students.

Courses Taught: Digital Media Law

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Rachel Proffitt

Adjunct Professor Rachel Proffitt is a senior associate at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, where she has practiced corporate and securities law since 2002. Her practice covers a broad range of general corporate and transactional matters, including day-to-day counseling, start-up company representation, venture capital transactions, public offerings, mergers and acquisitions and other strategic transactions, and public-company disclosure and corporate governance counseling. Professor Proffitt regularly represents public and private clients, as well as venture capital and investment banking firms, across a broad range of industries.

Professor Proffitt is a graduate of University of California, Los Angeles and University of California, Hastings College of the Law. She can be reached by phone at 650.849.3412 or by email at rproffitt@wsgr.com.

Courses Taught: Venture Capital

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Mark Spolyar

Adjunct Professor Mark Spolyar is an intellectual property attorney, specializing in intellectual property matters including complex technology licensing and transactions, strategic patent matters, and litigation-related counseling. He is a partner at Baker Botts L.L.P., residing in the firm’s Palo Alto office. Previously, he was the principal and founder of a technology law practice that serviced clients ranging from independent inventors and venture-funded start-ups to major Fortune 500 companies. Prior to founding his own practice, Mark gained substantial technology and patent-related experience as a law clerk to The Honorable Ronald M. Whyte of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, a Federal Court Judge nationally-known and acknowledged for his contributions to patent and copyright law. As Judge Whyte's law clerk, Mark was involved in several high profile and technologically-complex intellectual property cases. He extended his clerkship with Judge Whyte to assist with the Sun v. Microsoft case, a high profile licensing dispute concerning Microsoft's use of Sun's Java technology, which he handled from inception to settlement of the litigation. Mark's litigation-related experience includes an appointment as a Patent Law Expert assisting a Federal Court Judge in a complex, multi-patent litigation, Verizon California, Inc. v. Ronald A. Katz Technology Licensing, L.P., Case No. 01-CV0-09871 RGK.

Professor Spolyar is a member of the State Bar of California, and is registered to practice before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Prior to his legal career, Mark was a biomedical engineer at Alza Corporation in Palo Alto, California. He received his law degree with honors from the University of California, Hastings College of the Law, and a B.S.E. in Biomedical Engineering with honors from Duke University.

Courses Taught: IP Licensing Seminar

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