here - Top Rated Lawyers

2014
Gilead
Sciences
Large
Company
Emerging
Company
Palo Alto
Networks
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Get ready for
Litigation Departments of the Year
OPEN TO ALL FIRMS
NOMINATIONS OPEN DECEMEBER 1 | CLOSE JANUARY 16
WINNERS ANNOUNCED FEBRUARY 27
More info: James Cronin
jcronin@alm.com
415.490.9934
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RECORDER
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C
orporate legal departments are being asked to do more
than ever today. Companies are asking their lawyers to
manage major deals, navigate emerging regulatory regimes, manage complex and strategically critical patent portfolios, fend off or initiate bet-the-company competitor suits.
They’re also being asked to find efficient and effective solutions
for recurring and routine legal questions, leading them on a never-ending quest to prune budgets and tune processes.
The Recorder is recognizing the emerging company and large
company legal departments that have answered the call and
demonstrated they can produce superior outcomes. We sifted
through more than 70 nominations in choosing the stand-out
departments in eight key areas as well as the overall Legal Department of the Year.
We’ve profiled the winning departments in the pages that follow. Please join us in congratulating them.
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Emerging companies (less than $1 billion revenue)
Patent Strategy: Rambus
Deals & Acquisitions: Palo Alto Networks
Outside Counsel Partnering: NetSuite
Governmental Affairs: Rambus
Major Litigation Results: Palo Alto Networks
Employment: Palo Alto Networks
ALM SENIOR MANAGEMENT
BILL CARTER: PRESIDENT & CEO
KEVIN H. MICHIELSEN: PRESIDENT/LEGAL MEDIA
Global Compliance: Palo Alto Networks
Employer of Choice: SugarCRM
Legal Department of the Year: Palo Alto Networks
JEFF LITVACK: PRESIDENT/LEGAL INTELLIGENCE &
ADVISORY/CHIEF DIGITAL OFFICER
ERIC F. LUNDBERG: SVP/CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER
LENNY IZZO: SVP/CHIEF MARKETING OFFICER
Large companies
Patent Strategy: eBay
ARIC PRESS: VP/EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
Deals & Acquisitions: Salesforce.com
MICHAEL DESIATO: VP/REAL ESTATE MEDIA
Outside Counsel Partnering: NetApp
MOLLY MILLER: CHIEF PRODUCT & CONTENT OFFICER
Governmental Affairs: eBay
Major Litigation Results: Gilead Sciences
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Employment: NetApp
Global Compliance: Gilead Sciences
Employer of Choice: Salesforce.com
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Legal Department of the Year: Gilead Sciences
|3
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PAT E N T S T R AT E G Y
Rambus
Emerging
Company
I
n a 12-month span ending in June, Rambus obtained more than 150 patents.
Considering the process can take anywhere from three to five years, that reflects a mountain of work.
The Sunnyvale-based company runs on
its patent portfolio, said General Counsel
Jae Kim. To not pay full attention to the portfolio is to ignore its core engine, so the legal
department is structured around that fact.
A team of in-house attorneys, paralegals
and one patent agent work closely with the
company’s scientists and engineers, helping
the research and development team decide
what is most valuable and what products
should go up for patent prosecution.
“We have a very comprehensive patent
committee and a handful of outside counsel
firms that work with the [U.S. Patent and
Trademark Office],” Kim said. “There’s a
constant back and forth dialogue, and
hopefully we get to the prosecution process,
and hopefully we end up with a patent.”
With patent reform on the horizon for
much of the past year, Rambus has emphasized licensing over litigation. The compa-
ny resolved cases
against Micron Technology Inc. and Nanya
Technology Corp. that
had dragged on for
more than a decade, reducing litigation expenses and securing a
reliable revenue
stream.
In May, in what the
company calls a water- Left to right: Christoper Kosh, senior patent counsel; Jae Kim, senior vice president, general counsel; Michael Moore,
shed moment, Rambus deputy general counsel, IP; Judy Shie, senior patent counsel; Joseph Moniz, senior manager, patent operations.
joined the standardsetting organization
JEDEC Committee 40. The committee looks participating companies must license their right message to investors and the technolto set standards and criteria for integrated patents to the other companies in the orga- ogy community.
“It shows we want to collaborate, and with
circuits in semiconductor creation, increas- nization.
“If you have patents, to the extent that the strong IP position we have, we’re willing
ing interoperability between parts. Microchips, circuits, processors and more all need they are essential to the practicing standard, to make a commitment to disclose our patto work with similar equipment made by you agree to commit to license those pat- ent position,” Kim said. “It also shows we
competing companies. Think of it as a mod- ents to anyone practicing that standard,” want to license with respect to the commitern-day take on Eli Whitney’s interchange- Kim said. He said the agreement prevents tee and the folks inside it.”
able parts or the standard railroad gauge for one company from hijacking the standardsetting process.
train tracks.
—David Ruiz
Kim said joining the committee sends the
But membership comes with a catch: all
Large
Company
JASON DOIY
Portfolio
Focus
eBay
JASON DOIY
Balancing
Act
suits a year. The stakes
can be high, with the
cost to defend a case all
the way through trial
averaging $5 million to
$10 million.
In 2006, eBay fought
its famous patent case
against MercExchange
all the way up to the U.S.
Supreme Court, resulting in a ruling that draClockwise from top left: Mark Yuan, director of patents; Rory Bens, associate general counsel technology patents; Anup
matically changed the
Tikku, senior director patents and litigation; Emily Ward, vice president, deputy general counsel technology and patents;
landscape of patent litiSandy Godsey, senior director technology and patents.
gation.
Recently, the company has been taking advantage of less costly
nline commerce giant eBay takes ly granted patents, not the system itself.
“In any large system where there are mil- alternatives to litigation. In the last three
an approach to patent strategy
that is a little like a “balancing lions of patents being issued, there are of years, eBay filed for reexamination or inter
act”, says Deputy General Coun- course going to be some weak patents that partes review against 43 patents. It brought
get granted,” Ward said. “Like many other covered business method challenges
sel Emily Ward.
On the one hand, the company is com- technology companies, we often find our- against 13 patents in the same timespan,
mitted to building and enforcing a strong selves defending against non-practicing en- and invalidated several patents in the propatent portfolio. On the other, it’s on the re- tities, and we fight hard to invalidate weak cess.
Ward praised the U.S. Patent and Tradeceiving end of a lot of patent litigation from patents and have had a lot of success stopmark Office for knowing when to invalidate
ping licensing campaigns.”
non-practicing entities.
The company faces about 65 patent law- poor quality patents in these disputes.
The problem, according to Ward, is poor-
O
The company also won court orders dismissing infringement suits brought by UbiComm LLC and Clear With Computers
LLC. The two NPEs have sued companies
across many industries, including Ace
Hardware Corp., ModusLink Recovery
LLC, Forty Niners Football Co. LLC, Tesla
Motors Inc., Urban Outfitters Inc. and Fishing Holding LLC.
“When we’re fighting patent cases, we
care about the ‘what’ more than the ‘who,’”
Ward said. “It’s less about the case being
brought against us by an NPE, or ‘patent
troll,’ than it is about the quality of the
claims being brought.”
EBay boasts more than 4,500 patents and
patent applications. Earlier this year, Intellectual Asset Management magazine ranked
eBay No. 2 on a list of companies producing
the highest quality patents.
Ward said she hopes the company’s results can create a healthier, more sound patent environment in the future. “At the end
of the day we don’t stand for innovation
used as weapons to extract settlements.”
—David Ruiz
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|5
DEALS & ACQUISITIONS
F
Growing
Strong
ounded in 2005, network security
company Palo Alto Networks waited roughly eight years before making its first purchase. Three months
later, it made another.
In December, the Santa Clara-based company purchased Morta Security, followed
closely in March by its purchase of Israeli
endpoint security startup Cyvera.
“Cyvera was a strategic acquisition for us
and it helped us set up what we joke about
as the ‘holy trinity,’” said Associate General
Counsel Melinda Thompson, explaining
Emerging
Company
JASON DOIY
Palo Alto
Networks
Melinda Thompson, vice president, legal affairs; Jeff True, senior vice president and general counsel.
three important specialties for the company: network security, cloud capabilities and
endpoint security. “The acquisition catapulted us from wanting to enter the space
with probably a two-year lead time, if done
organically, to adding the leader in endpoint security this year.”
The $200 million Cyvera purchase was a
“significant jump” from the first, in terms of
value and distance, Thompson said. The
deal was completed in just 60 days, she added. During those two months, General
Counsel Jeff True was also in Delaware
helping the company in its suit against
Sunnyvale’s Juniper Networks for patent infringement.
“We were a busy little department,”
Thompson said.
The company used Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati for both deals, and Israeli
law firm Gross, Kleinhendler, Hodak, Halevy, Greenberg & Co. for its purchase of Cyvera. Thompson said the Morta Security
JASON DOIY
Large
Company
—David Ruiz
Salesforce
Tower of
Power
grate easily into Salesforce’s software. The
Left to right: Zach Dunn, corporate counsel; Wei Chen, assistant general counsel; Pamela Van Stavern, senior corporate
company has an investcounsel; Michael Kovaleski, corporate counsel.
ment portfolio of more
than 100 companies.
As its ranks have grown, Salesforce
alesforce.com has set itself up as a streamline each incoming transaction, she
leased more than 700,000 square feet of ofmajor dealmaker in the past two added.
In June 2013, the company purchased fice space in what will be San Francisco’s
years, backed by a legal team that
is ready for the increased workload. cloud marketing platform ExactTarget Inc. tallest building, and with the lease, effec“The attorneys on our M&A team for $2.6 billion. This July, Salesforce bought tively changed the name of the project
are seasoned, having completed more than big data company RelateIQ Inc., which au- from the Transbay Tower to the Salesforce
200 acquisitions and hundreds of strategic tomates data entry for customer service Tower.
As it began to gobble up more space,
investments over the course of their careers management, for $390 million. Then, just
here at Salesforce and elsewhere,” said Amy two months ago, the company announced Salesforce also sold much of its land in MisWeaver, general counsel. The company’s in- its Salesforce1 Fund—more than $100 mil- sion Bay to the Regents of the University of
house team can take on all aspects and lev- lion meant to be invested in mobile app de- California, the Golden State Warriors and
els of a deal, and have set up a process to velopers building products that can inte- Alexandria Real Estate Equities Inc.
S
deal, though much smaller, was just as important because of the talent it brought in.
It was closer to an “acqui-hire” than anything else, she said. The two deals were so
close to one another only because the opportunities presented themselves.
The legal department also inked a joint
agreement with VMWare to provide its security solutions to that company’s evolving
cloud platform services.
Salesforce has an in-house real estate attorney who worked with the company as
outside counsel before joining the legal department, Weaver said. She said the wide
breadth of knowledge and experience allows the team to tackle deals quickly and
efficiently.
“We not only advise on legal issues, but
also identify potential risks in all aspects of
a deal, including products, security, accounting, tax, employment, public relations, government affairs and operations,”
Weaver said. “Our attorneys understand
that our roles go much beyond drafters of
legal documents.”
—David Ruiz
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O U T S I D E C O U N S E L PA R T N E R I N G
JASON DOIY
Emerging
Company
NetSuite
Hands Off
“We have someone
that works as our global
systems integrator,
someone on outbound
Left to right: Emi Chuang, senior director legal; Michael Lee, vice president, legal; Douglas Solomon, senior vice presi- channels partner prodent, general counsel and secretary; Christina Robinson, senior vice president and associate general counsel; Scott grams, another on deMarcus, senior director, legal.
veloper platform programs, on licensing, and
etSuite’s General Counsel Doug and others,” Solomon said. “I became a lit- we have a team that works on acquisitions,”
Solomon says what a lot of other tle disappointed in that because sometimes Robinson said.
Solomon said the approach leads to a
top in-house lawyers do: hire the those specialists are working for our comattorney, not the law firm. Solo- pany for the first time and they don’t know smaller bill, too, as many of their outside
relationships are with solo practitioners or
mon goes a step beyond, the business at all.”
That led to a lot of time wasted on repet- attorneys at smaller shops.
though—sometimes he’ll split up a team of
“Sometimes our outside counsel are
attorneys because he already has preferred itive training, Solomon said. Instead, he and
Associate General Counsel Chris Robinson working out of their houses,” Solomon said.
specialists at small, boutique firms.
“When you have a sizable acquisition, it’s will pick from their outside team of special- By trusting outside attorneys with niche
regular that outside counsel throw all their ists. They have outside counsel for almost practice areas, Solomon and Robinson can
trust their outside counsel to gain expertise
bodies at us, with IP counsel, employment everything.
N as the company grows.
Robinson said outside counsel need to be
treated as insiders.
“If outside counsel are given some ownership over the lead, they can learn the business and be able to make judgment calls,”
she said.
The key to running an efficient legal team
is losing the idea that “one size fits all,” Solomon said. He said in-house departments
have to fit the right attorney to the right matter and keep them abreast of the business
at all times.
“Even though they come from small
firms, medium ones or big ones, we think
of everyone as individual lawyers, not their
firm name.”
Trial Lawyers
Litigating Complex Civil and Criminal Cases
for More Than 30 Years
633 Battery Street, San Francisco, CA 94111-1809 | 415 391 5400 | kvn.com
—David Ruiz
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|7
O U T S I D E C O U N S E L PA R T N E R I N G
NetApp
Playing Fair
ired of wasting time and energy on negotiating rates for outside counsel? Enter the “Further, Faster Rate Wizard,” used at NetApp.
“Before, you would work with a 100-person law firm where you might know half of
the people; now, general counsel are working with
2,000-person firms, and those firms find it convenient to send the annual ‘Our rates are going up 15
percent’ letter,” said General Counsel Matt Fawcett.
“It’s incredibly difficult for an internal law department to have an objective way of gauging the fairness and the rightness of these prices across such
a huge number of people.”
Connie Brenton, chief of staff and director of legal operations, took on the task of solving the problem. Working with a legal consulting firm and a
data analytics company, NetApp created a database of average rates for various legal work through
different levels of expertise. NetApp uses this data
to set a benchmark rate and compare it to quoted
rates from outside counsel. If the quoted rate falls
into the “fair” range, NetApp approves the quote.
If not, NetApp suggests what its data deems a fair
rate and it educates outside counsel on how it
reached its numbers. When presented with invoices, the legal department will pay what its Rate Wizard claims is fair, even if that’s less than what was
billed.
How’s that going over?
“It has been overwhelmingly accepted,” Fawcett
said. “Across hundreds of invoices, we’ve only been
questioned once or twice on the amount we pay versus what’s charged.”
Fawcett said he expects to see more companies taking a similar approach, but he believes NetApp is the
only company to use such a system. Brenton said the
technology and data supporting the rate-planning
procedure are so new that many companies have yet
to build anything similar.
“It takes time to lay the infrastructure to actually
arrive at a fair rate, and then the implementation is
next, and then the execution is next on that,” Brenton
said. “We haven’t had such good data available to us
in the legal industry until recently.”
—David Ruiz
JASON DOIY
T Large
Company
Left to right: Connie Brenton, head of legal operations; Michael Haven, senior
counsel, legal operations and litigation; Matthew Fawcett, senior vice president, general counsel and secretary; Kunoor Chopra, vice president of strategic accounts with Elevate Services; Emily Teuben, legal operations manager.
8 | NOVEMBER 17, 2014
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G OV E R N M E N TA L A F FA I R S
Rambus
Patent
Perspective
n May 2013, Rambus Chief Technology
Officer Martin Scott testified before the
International Trade Commission about
the importance of the U.S. patent system
in the digital trade economy. Without
protection and incentives to develop innovative technology, whole economic models
could falter, Scott said. Without the anticounterfeiting and security technologies
developed at Rambus, he said buyers and
sellers won’t trust the Internet as a secure
platform for commerce.
General Counsel Jae Kim said Rambus is
constantly watching the patent debate in
Congress and working to keep patent protections as strong as possible.
JASON DOIY
I
Emerging
Company
“Patents and innova- Left to right: Judy Shie, senior patent counsel; Jae Kim, senior vice president, general counsel; Michael Moore, deputy
tion go hand in hand,” general counsel, IP; Burch Harper, deputy general counsel for IP licensing and technology transactions.
Kim said. “We don’t
want legislation to go in
such a direction that weakens the U.S. pat- intellectual property, is a member of the In- who files a suit to disclose parties that would
ent system, so we’ve really been watching tellectual Property Owners Association pat- benefit financially from the litigation. It also
lambasts the misuse of bad faith demand
and indirectly participating in a lot of orga- ent law committee.
Kim said the company is concerned letters.
nizations.”
Rambus also works to maintain close ties
Rambus has coordinated visits by the U.S. about the Patent Transparency and ImPatent and Trademark Office and the Inter- provements Act of 2013 introduced by Sen- with the USPTO.
“The Patent and Trademark Office is critnational Trade Commission to its offices for ate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick
firsthand looks at the company’s research Leahy (D-Vt.) and committee member Sen- ically important to us because it is generatand development and to provide training. ator Mike Lee (R-Utah) last November. The ing the assets that we monetize,” Kim said.
Rambus executives regularly meet with ex- bill, aimed at lessening frivolous patent in- “We need to make sure that we have a strong
aminers and speak to patent reform groups. fringement suits against small businesses working relationship with them.”
Michael Moore, deputy general counsel of by patent trolls, would require everyone
—David Ruiz
2014
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|9
G OV E R N M E N TA L A F FA I R S
Large
Company
eBay
JASON DOIY
Leveling
the Field
based company has
also spent the past few
years working feverishly in support of its strategy on Internet sales
tax legislation. The
company has argued
that efforts to “level the
playing field” for large
online and offline reLeft to right: David London, senior director United States government relations; Jack Christin, associate general counsel
tailers could hurt
global asset protection; Tod Cohen, vice president, deputy general counsel; Kathy Free, chief of staff.
smaller eBay sellers by
forcing them to adhere
Bay’s approach to governmental af- to be able to do that,” said Tod Cohen, to complex tax remittance rules.
“If a seller is based in Connecticut, they
fairs is about advancing the inter- eBay deputy general counsel and vice
ests of the buyers and sellers who president, referring to a patchwork of shouldn’t be under the same tax policy for
use its global online marketplace. rules preventing resales of some products sales tax as Walmart in Arizona, just beIt advocates on everything from in some markets. “Those practices drive cause they sell a good into Arizona,” Cohen
when and where sellers must collect sales prices up, which means consumers have said. “Yes, buyers have obligations to pay
taxes in their own state, but we should not
taxes to what goods can and can’t be resold less choices.”
To combat these and other activities that put small businesses at a disadvantage
in different places.
“Whenever you have small sellers that may infringe on sellers rights, eBay has tak- against massive entities.”
The company relied on its users in
have an opportunity to sell globally, there en on the job of educating regulators around
are large sellers who may not want them the world on resale laws. The San Jose- launching a digital grassroots campaign to
E press their position with policymakers.
EBay also identified more than 2,000 “ambassadors” inside the company’s seller network and found more than 400 case studies
with information on how the proposed legislation would hurt business. The ambassadors met with congressional staff and
gave interviews to the media. The multipronged campaigns resulted in 1.5 million
letters sent to members of Congress.
Though the Senate has passed versions
of the legislation, most recently the Marketplace Fairness Act in May 2013, that’s as far
as it’s gotten.
The company also has its eBay Policy Lab,
a team focused on identifying emerging
technology policy challenges that could affect its operations and strategizing to best
address them. The lab is currently looking
at efforts to regulate online payments—a big
issue for its soon to be spun off PayPal business.
Findlay Craft PC
extends our congratulations to
on their recognition as 2014 Legal Department of the Year.
903.534.1100 | www.findlaycraft.com
—David Ruiz
10 | NOVEMBER 17, 2014
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EMPLOYMENT
Emerging
Company
Built to
Scale
P
alo Alto Networks is hiring in Tokyo, Hong Kong, Amsterdam, Tel
Aviv and Singapore. It currently has
more than 200 employee openings
across its almost 40 offices in 28
countries. Founded in 2005, the company
has more than 1,700 employees worldwide.
Before Erica Kelley came to the company,
much of that hiring was done piece by piece,
often without the help of the legal department. As the company’s associate general
counsel and director of global employment,
Kelley worked with the human resources
department on streamlining many employee matters.
“There were certain foundations and pro-
cesses that were not
quite in place,” Kelley Left to right: Jeff True, senior vice president and general counsel; Erica Kelley, associate general counsel, director,
said. To solve the prob- employment and compliance.
lem, she created a database with standardized employment documents and tem- problems across departments that are not Networks at the time. The new approach has
increased the efficiency and speed at which
plates. The drive can be accessed only by visible to others.
“I can help spot potential issues that are the human resources department moves
certain teams from the legal and HR departments. It includes employment agreements, either not HR-related, or may not be an is- and approves employee matters.
Palo Alto Networks has also created a
termination letters and procedures for pro- sue that HR can recognize yet,” Kelley said.
“Being able to see the risk in the bigger pic- “termination playbook” for its global entimotion.
Before the database, HR was far less in- ture, I can kind of jump in and say ‘Stop, ties. The playbook includes policies and
volved with the legal department, which everybody, stop. Let’s figure this out first procedures for terminating employees
worldwide.
Kelley said can be a risk. She said she hopes and then everyone can move on.’”
When Kelley made the database, she was
HR will reach out to her as early as possible
on any decision making, as she can find the only employment attorney at Palo Alto
—David Ruiz
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JASON DOIY
Palo Alto
Networks
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| 11
EMPLOYMENT
NetApp
Putting a
Template in Place
omputer storage and data management
company NetApp has roughly 150 offices
across the world housing 12,300 employees.
There are software engineers in Vancouver,
sales representatives in Beijing, consultants
in Dusseldorf and manufacturing managers back home
in Sunnyvale.
Whenever a candidate joins the multibillion-dollar
company—whether in Moscow, Bangalore, Sydney or
Tokyo—every employee should feel like they’re a part
of the same experience, said Senior Director of Worldwide Compliance and Employment Lisa Borgeson.
For that, NetApp created a plan to streamline employment. But that proved tricky.
“We wanted a template that made you feel like you
were joining Netapp no matter where you were in the
world, but also accounted for any specific local laws,”
Borgeson said. “Laws around vacation are different in
Turkey than in France.”
The project, which is completed but has yet to roll
out, was split into two parts: human resources and legal.
“Human resources took point on the processes—how
offers get extended, signed and stored, and who has
the authority to make revisions,” Borgeson said. “Legal
took point on the document that represents the offer—
what’s it going to look like, what order will items be in?”
Though NetApp originally attempted to create just
one template, it resorted to making several and now
has what Borgeson calls a “matrix” to rely on. The matrix of similar documents helps the human resources
department efficiently deal with new hires around the
world, and makes new hires feel they’re appreciated at
the company.
That employee experience is important, Borgeson
said.
“NetApp has been recognized over and over again
as being a great place to work, and culture is something
we think is a real differentiator for us,” Borgeson said.
It’s important for people to feel unified when they start
working for NetApp, and it’s the company’s responsibility to accurately project that, she said.
“It’s our first impression on a candidate and we want
to be able to do that well.”
—David Ruiz
JASON DOIY
C
Large
Company
Left to right: Michele Babb, senior corporate counsel employment and
compliance; Matthew Fawcett, senior vice president, general counsel and
secretary; Elizabeth O’Callahan, vice president, corporate compliance and
employment; Lisa Borgeson, senior director worldwide employment and
compliance.
www.kasowitz.com
12 | NOVEMBER 17, 2014
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M A J O R L I T I G AT I O N R E S U LT S
Emerging
Company
Palo Alto
Networks
JASON DOIY
Heat of Battle
before the U.S. Patent
and Trademark Office,
sued Juniper in the
Northern District of
California,
and
launched a collateral
attack in state court
against the patent law
doctrine of assigner estoppel. The principle
prevented Palo Alto
Networks from challenging the validity of
Left to right: Jeff True, senior vice president and general counsel; Michael Ritter, associate general counsel, senior
the asserted patents,
director of IP strategy.
because Zuk was listed
as an inventor, exf litigation is a game of leverage, Palo Irell & Manella team that included veteran plained Michael Ritter, the company’s diAlto Networks made sure it always had litigator Morgan Chu. The threat to Palo Alto rector of intellectual property.
“It’s an antiquated doctrine that allows
something to brandish during two-and- Networks was so severe that in 2013, the
a-half years of ferocious patent litigation company spent two full pages of its annual our competitors to be able to challenge vaagainst one of its biggest network secu- report to stockholders addressing the case. lidity, but not us, ” Ritter said.
Though the gambit fell short, Palo Alto
But lawyers at Palo Alto Networks refused
rity rivals.
Juniper Networks sued Palo Alto Net- to be cornered. The company tapped its Networks eked out a mistrial in the Delaworks for patent infringement in 2011 in own litigation dream team led by Morrison ware case in early 2014. The stalemate set
U.S. District Court in Delaware. The suit & Foerster partners Harold McElhinny and the stage for a settlement, under which the
claimed PAN’s founder, Nir Zuk, had Michael Jacobs and brought the fight to Ju- two companies agreed to cross-license the
disputed patents and to refrain from suing
launched the company using technology he niper.
The company took full advantage of new one another for eight years. Palo Alto Nethad worked on as an employee at Juniper.
Juniper was represented by a fearsome proceedings to challenge Juniper’s patents works paid Juniper $175 million in cash and
I Gilead
Sciences
—David Ruiz
Large
Company
Drug Defenders
n April, Gilead Sciences beat back one of the largest
pharmaceutical companies in the world on its
claims Gilead did not own a newly released drug
that was proving wildly successful.
Roche AG said it was the rightful owner of sofosbuvir—Gilead’s hepatitis C treatment, Sovaldi—under
a decade-old contract it entered with Princeton, N.J.based Pharmasset Inc., which Gilead had bought in
2011 for $11 billion.
Roche’s infringement claim hadn’t caught Gilead
off guard. “Before we bought Pharmasset, we spent
many months doing detailed research into any potential claim that could be made against us,” said Gilead
General Counsel Brett Pletcher. “We said that if Roche
made a claim, it would be without merit.”
With the help of Cooley’s Palo Alto-based chairman
and partner Stephen Neal, Gilead’s team persuaded
a panel of three arbitrators to rule in the company’s
favor. It was a big win: Sovaldi is one of Gilead’s most
successful drugs, generating $5.8 billion in sales in its
first two quarters.
Pletcher spoke highly of his team and the e-discovery attorneys necessary to provide a solid argument.
Gilead received other favorable judgments
around the world in the past year, including a decision in December 2013 before the Canadian Federal Court over a patent for several products. Gilead
obtained two favorable judgments against Idenix
Pharmaceuticals Inc. before the U.S. Patent and
Trademark Office and in Oslo, Norway, for its patent rights to Sovaldi.
The company reached beneficial settlements with
multiple generics companies for several of its products, as well.
“Sometimes, a settlement is a victory,” Pletcher said.
“It felt very good to get those.”
— David Ruiz
JASON DOIY
I
equity.
The resolution was applauded by investors.
Palo Alto Networks scored a more decisive victory this year against a sole inventor
who claimed the company stole his trade
secrets for firewall technology.
Plaintiff Qiang Wang based his suit on discussions he had with a Palo Alto Networks
executive almost 10 years ago but waited
until after the company’s initial public offering to file the claim.
“There’s a statute of limitations of three
years, and yet Wang waited six or seven
years, which was soon after we went public,
to come in asking for money and to be recognized as an inventor of our technology,”
Ritter said. Wang, represented by Niro,
Haller & Niro, was never an employee, he
added.
Palo Alto Networks, with the help of Durie Tangri, won summary judgment in April
based on the expired state of limitations and
negotiated a full settlement in which the
company paid nothing and Wang dropped
all claims with a zero dollar settlement in
April.
Clockwise from top left: Lorie Ann Morgan, vice president, intellectual property; Katharine Rice, counsel III, intellectual property; Brett Pletcher, senior
vice president, general counsel; Keeley Wettan, counsel III; Jamison Lynch,
senior counsel, intellectual property
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NOVEMBER 17, 2014
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| 13
14 | NOVEMBER 17, 2014
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GLOBAL COMPLIANCE
Emerging
Company
Palo Alto
Networks
JASON DOIY
Conquering
the Code
the company,” Kelley
said.
The new code of conduct was issued to internal employees and third-party channel
partners. Palo Alto Networks also made an
online training module for employees, guiding workers through the company’s policies,
including its new code of conduct. At the
end of the training, workers take a test to
show they’ve learned and retained the information. The online training educates
worldwide employees about anti-corruption and avoiding and identifying insider
training.
Kelley led the charge on all the content
Left to right: Erica Kelley, associate general counsel, director, employment and compliance; Melinda Thompson, vice
president, legal affairs.
director of global employment and compliance. “This is all from when we were preIPO, and it’s very common for a company
at that stage to have, well, U.S.-based policies.”
So Palo Alto Networks embarked on the
revision project with Baker & McKenzie.
The revamped and globally applicable code
of conduct contains information on the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, harassment, discrimination and basic treatment and respect guidelines. “It’s part of the fabric of
Gilead
G
Staying
Fed-Ready
ilead Sciences has a perfect score
in deflecting Department of Justice investigations around the
False Claims Act. Three times
now, the company has effectively provided accurate documentation and
record-keeping to stop potential civil and
criminal penalties.
The process can be nerve-wracking for
even the most capable of in-house attorneys.
“You’re stressed not because you think
the company has done anything wrong,
but because you have to give everything
—David Ruiz
Large
Company
JASON DOIY
A
mid rapid company growth, Palo
Alto Networks had to address its
increasingly obsolete and narrow code of conduct. The company was partnering with companies outside the U.S. and hiring beyond
state borders, so the document needed serious revision.
“The laws are very different globally, and
we had some hot spots within our code of
conduct that were very U.S.-centric,” said
Erica Kelley, associate general counsel and
created for the employee training portal—
its questions, scenarios and topics of interest. The company previously relied on
an outside company for its training program. By customizing the training to Palo
Alto Networks specifically, Kelley said the
program is far more useful and memorable.
“I could incorporate actual terms of our
own Code of Conduct, not the broad stuff
that comes from the shelves of a third-party vendor,” Kelley said. “I had to educate myself, too, on writing scenarios that are engaging and realistic.”
Left to right: Andy Rittenberg, associate general counsel; David Ralston, senior director business conduct; Stephen
over to the DOJ in the Chien, senior counsel.
timeframe they want,
and sometimes that can
be thousands and thousands of docu- its products. If the DOJ finds that a company
ments,” said the Foster City-based com- has been marketing, say, a treatment solely
pany’s General Counsel Brett Pletcher. He for cataracts as a treatment for astigmatism
said pharmaceutical companies have to and macular degeneration, the U.S. governexpect receiving a subpoena at any time ment can come in, review marketing materifrom the DOJ, and the best way to avoid a als, call files, appointments with local doctors
lawsuit is to emphasize global compliance and sales plans. Based on what it finds, it can
to the entire company, not just the legal advance its investigation and prosecute
against the company. Depending on how the
department.
Common pitfalls for drug developers in- investigation goes, the DOJ can also resort
clude how a company informs doctors about to using search warrants.
Gilead has lawyers in the U.S. and Europe
who partner directly with the sales team and
inform them about what they can and can’t
say when educating doctors about their
products. The lawyers make business planning decisions that protect the company,
and just this year, the lawyers had to learn
about two new products in Gilead’s pipeline: its hepatitis C and oncology drugs.
—David Ruiz
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NOVEMBER 17, 2014
| 15
EMPLOYER OF CHOICE
SugarCRM
It’s a Culture Thing
ugarCRM’s General Counsel Patricia Timm
believes her company’s unique work is
enough to pull lawyers in. But the lifestyle it
offers can help seal the deal.
“You can leave at 3 p.m. to catch the Little
League game, but then get back online at night to finish up work,” she said. “We respect the individual and
their choices to have flexibility in their schedules outside the office, but I still have a very high expectation
for myself and my team.”
Competing with giants like Salesforce.com, customer relations management software company
SugarCRM has to differentiate itself in the market by
having a different business model. Part of that model includes offering the product’s source code to all
its licensing customers, allowing licensees to customize the software to their needs. That means each license is a little different, and that means the legal
work for the Cupertino-based company is always nuanced.
“It’s not a very straightforward model, and it takes
a really sophisticated IP lawyer to take these issues
and understand them and articulate them to our sales
team, our customers and to outside counsel,” Timm
said. “There is a layer of finesse that might not necessarily exist at another company.”
Timm is immensely proud of her team of four lawyers and one paralegal, and she said she trains them
to eventually become leaders themselves, hopefully
taking general counsel roles when ready. She said the
internal organization allows for rapid skill development and frequent interaction with key executives
inside the company.
“We’re a small enough team to have a lot of diversity to our work, so no one is working in only one area
but instead filling their basket with legal issues on
products, on human resources, on litigation,” Timm
said. “You’ll never get that kind of experience if you’re
just pigeonholed in one department.”
Timm trusts that empowering her team with both
a fulfilling work environment and a fulfilling life outside the office produces better work. It’s not one or
the other, she said.
“Who says you can’t have both?”
JASON DOIY
Left to right: Rachel Courtney, assistant general counsel, global labor and employment; April Oliver, global compliance
attorney; Amy Weaver, senior vice president and general counsel; Todd Machtmes, vice president and assistant general
counsel; Daniel Reed, vice president, litigation.
I
gal issues outside of their normal scope on
a regular basis,” said General Counsel Amy
Weaver. “I also encourage and support
cross-functional training and many team
members have moved to different roles
within the legal team.”
Salesforce offers summer internship programs for law students and internal CLE
training events in multiple practice areas.
The company holds quarterly teleconferencing meetings in which Weaver updates
Clockwise from top left: Guadalupe Garcia-Pham, director, legal (corporate);
Patricia Timm, senior vice president and general counsel; Heather Yohn,
director, legal (products); Auddrena Mauga, senior paralegal; Emily Chiang,
attorney.
—David Ruiz
Large
Company
t doesn’t take a hard sell to get lawyers to
join cloud-based customer service management giant Salesforce.com. The fastgrowing company has challenging,
sometimes cutting-edge work, across a
wide spectrum of practice areas. It encourages employees to give back with paid time
off for volunteer work. And there’s never a
dull moment.
“Even with our large size, members of every specialty are called upon to address le-
JASON DOIY
S
Emerging
Company
Salesforce
Workplace
Nirvana
the legal department
on any business developments, welcomes
new members and recognizes employees
for their efforts. Two semi-annual global
company conferences also occur each year
in the company’s San Francisco headquarters. The department meets for two to three
days, learning about upcoming legal matters and listening to visiting business leaders share their thoughts and ideas.
“All of these meetings are excellent opportunities for the entire team to collaborate, as well as to socialize and get to know
one another personally,” Weaver said.
As part of the company’s “1-1-1” pledge,
employees are encouraged to take paid time
off to work with the Salesforce Foundation
on a number of volunteer opportunities
both in the U.S. and abroad. The company
has partnered with the American Red Cross,
UC-Berkeley, Girl Scouts of the USA, Invisible Children and the Grameen Foundation
as part of its philosophy to donate 1 percent
of its time, equity and product to nonprofits,
schools and social organizations.
—David Ruiz
16 | NOVEMBER 17, 2014
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JASON DOIY
L E G A L D E PA R T M E N T O F T H E Y E A R
Clockwise from top left: Mariam Craver, paralegal/contracts administrator; Katherine Hall, contracts coordinator; Melinda Thompson, vice president, legal affairs; Jeff True, senior vice president and
general counsel; Michael Ritter, associate general counsel, director of IP strategy; Erica Kelley, associate general counsel, director, employment and compliance; Roxanne Farahmand, senior contracts
manager; Sean Toth, corporate counsel.
Expansion Mode
Palo Alto
Networks
Emerging
Company
P
alo Alto Networks spent the past
year growing through acquisition,
defending a bet-the-company patent suit and expanding its human
resources policies to cover more
than 40 countries.
That’s a lot for a legal department with just
six full-time attorneys to handle.
In December, Palo Alto Networks made
its first purchase—a small “acqui-hire,” as
Associate General Counsel Melinda Thompson called it. Three months later, the company aimed for a much bigger target—a $200
million purchase of Israeli endpoint security startup Cyvera. The deal took less than
60 days.
At the time, General Counsel Jeffrey True
was in Delaware, helping the company defend patent infringement claims made by
network equipment company Juniper Networks.
After a hung jury led to a mistrial, the parties settled. Palo Alto Networks agreed to pay
$175 million in cash and equity to Juniper.
Both companies agreed to cross-license the
patents in dispute and avoid further litigation for eight years.
In that decidedly busy time for the department, Thompson also worked with Associate General Counsel and Director of
Global Employment and Compliance Erica
Kelley to rewrite the company’s code of
conduct for its employees and third-party
partners.
The problem? The code was too focused
on the U.S. Understandably so; it was written before Palo Alto Networks filed for its
initial public offering. The code now needed
to be modified to cover overseas hires and
international partner businesses.
Beyond that, Kelley created a database for
employment documents, making the information accessible to the legal and human
resources departments. She also helped create an online training module testing employees on the company’s revamped conduct code, which was rolled out this summer.
—David Ruiz
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NOVEMBER 17, 2014
| 17
JASON DOIY
L E G A L D E PA R T M E N T O F T H E Y E A R
Clockwise from top left: Jamison Lynch, senior counsel, IP; Marissa Song, associate general counsel; Lorie Ann Morgan, vice president, IP; Andy Rittenberg, associate general counsel; Jason Okazaki,
vice president, legal; Keeley Wettan, counsel III; Erica Chien, director, business conduct; Brett Pletcher, senior vice president, general counsel; Elin Hartrum, associate general counsel, IP; Katharine
Rice, counsel III, IP.
Bases Covered
Gilead
Large
Company
G
ilead Sciences’ successful legal
battle over its hepatitis C treatment, combined with the ability
to deflect potential Department
of Justice investigations while
maintaining a dialogue with government officials to avoid infractions, has earned the
company the honor of top legal department
among large companies.
Gilead faced off against the world’s fifthlargest pharmaceutical company this year
to defend its rights to license and sell a successful hepatitis C treatment. Before that,
Gilead had remained rather untouched by
litigation.
“Until about 2008, we really didn’t have
any litigation, so we didn’t have a litigation
team,” said general counsel Brett Pletcher.
That changed with the company’s purchase of Princeton, N.J.-based Pharmasset
Inc. in 2011 for $11 billion. One of the companies that eyed Gilead after the purchase
was Roche AG, which claimed it had exclusive rights to sofosbuvir, alleging the drug
was partially developed under a decade-old
contract agreement. An arbitration panel
disagreed and ruled in favor of Gilead.
Pletcher credits his in-house team and Stephen Neal, Cooley chairman and Palo Alto-
based partner, for the victory.
Along the litigation line, Gilead accrued
several favorable settlements against generics companies. Gilead asserted its right to
patent its hepatitis C treatment, Sovaldi,
against Idenix Pharmaceuticals Inc., before
the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and in
Oslo, Norway.
While defeating large suits and reaching
beneficial settlements, Gilead also keeps up
with Food and Drug Administration rules and
regulations, maintaining a consistent dialogue with the government to avoid problems.
Gilead has an enviable perfect record defending against possible Department of Justice
investigations under the False Claims Act. The
company has deflected three out of three potential fraud investigations by the DOJ.
Pletcher said the company must be compliant on all levels, not just legal. The legal
department’s 150 members—half of whom
are attorneys—pair closely with various sectors inside the company. In the U.S. and Europe, Gilead has attorneys working directly
with its sales teams to educate employees
about what they can and can’t say when marketing its drugs to doctors.
—David Ruiz
18 | NOVEMBER 17, 2014
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AN
RECOGNITION EVENT
CONGRATULATIONS
California is a breeding ground for innovation in the delivery of legal services, with lawyers here creating everything from moneysaving software and processes to new ways of reaching underserved communities. Recorder editors have named 25 of the most
interesting legal innovators, and will feature their work in a Dec. 8 special section and recognize their achievements at a Dec. 8
awards reception.
DECEMBER 8
| 6-9pm | THE CITY CLUB | SAN FRANCISCO
JULIO AVALOS - GitHub
ROGER ROYSE - Royse Law Firm
The GC’s legal department is open-sourcing its legalese.
The founder’s online document system provides for automated,
DIY documents, but requires attorney sign-off to release the docs.
ITAI GURARI / ADAM HAHN - Judicata
CRAIG JACOBY / MATT BARTUS / PETER WERNER
Cooley
Judicata’s founders have created a tool that turns unstructured
case law into highly organized data.
Championed by the three Bay Area partners, the Cooley GO site lets
some-day clients get free advice, and generate
basic business documents, on the fly.
BRYON BRATCHER - Reed Smith
Bratcher’s brain-child, Periscope, analyzes data to improve results
and reduce document review costs.
MARK RADCLIFFE - DLA Piper
MICHAEL WARD - Morrison & Foerster
The partner has been at the forefront of helping clients create
corporate venture programs and drive innovation.
The MoFo partner figures out new ways to protect valuable vegetables.
SCOTT RECHTSCHAFFEN - Littler Mendelson
ALLEN RODRIGUEZ / EVA HIBNICK - One400
The Littler chief knowledge officer has rolled out a series of tools that help
employment clients flatten and predict compliance and litigation expenses.
The co-founders boost legal tech startups with help in
marketing, growth and client acquisition.
RAY GALLO - Gallo LLP
NOREEN FARRELL / JOELLE EMERSON / MONALI SHETH
Equal Rights Advocates
The firm founder developed software to ease the mass handling
of claims in a post-Dukes world.
ERA staff and attorneys are bringing scale to sexual
harassment legal help, training more than 700 people
at 21 organizations to aid would-be claimants.
RON DOLIN - Stanford Law School
He’s leading a movement to use legal technology and design
to improve access to justice in underserved communities.
JENNIFER HAGLE - Sidley Austin
The Sidley Austin partner mentors female attorneys on
social media use, co-authoring papers and developing
the building blocks of their practices.
JOSH BECKER - Lex Machina
The legal tech CEO is leading the way in leveraging data in litigation.
DAVID FAIGMAN / MARSHA COHEN
Lawyers for America / UC-Hastings College of the Law
GERARD VON HOFFMANN / BRYAN WAHL
Knobbe Martens Olson & Bear
These professors have created a new fellowship platform for law students.
The partners collaborate on KnobbeMedical,
a portal to launch new medical device technologies.
GREG NITZKOWSKI - Paul Hastings
The managing partner helped institute Matter Management, which guides lawyers down the most efficient paths and has helped improve realization rates.
ROBIN FELDMAN - UC-Hastings College of the Law
The Institute for Innovation Law director’s Startup Legal Garage offers free
legal services while providing law students real world experience.
JANELLE ORSI - Sustainable Economies Law Center
The nonprofit chief’s Resilient Communities Legal Cafe offers pro bono legal
advice to small businesses at the heart of the sharing economy.
DANIEL LEWIS - Ravel Law Inc.
More than 5,000 attorneys use the founder’s technology
to reduce time spent searching for cases.
E. JULIE LEE - eBay Inc.
The legal program manager streamlined eBay’s RFP process
for more transparency and cost predictability.
EUGENE BLACKARD - Archer Norris PLC
The managing partner launched a client-service makeover
that all but did away with the billable hour.
GARRY MATHIASON - Littler Mendelson
The employment partner is building a robotics and
artificial intelligence group for the not-so-far-off future.
KEVIN JAKEL - Unified Patents
The CEO has put a new spin on the old patent-pool plan.
CARRIE LEROY - Skadden Arps
More than 2,000 high school students have participated in the
Skadden counsel’s program to prevent damaging social media practices.
DAILY AT WWW.THERECORDER.COM
NOVEMBER 17, 2014
CALIFORNIA CHAPTER
The Academy is pleased to recognize 40 professionals in Northern California
for Excellence in the field of Alternative Dispute Resolution, including...
John B. Bates, Jr.
San Francisco
(415) 774-2614
Norman Brand
San Francisco
(415) 982-7172
Ernest C. Brown
San Francisco
(800) 832-6946
Barbara S. Bryant
Oakland
(510) 558-0600
Dana Curtis
Sausalito
(415) 331-5158
Paul J. Dubow
San Francisco
(415) 495-6308
Katherine L. Gallo
Foster City
(650) 571-1011
Ruth V. Glick
Burlingame
(650) 344-2144
Urs M. Laeuchli
San Francisco
(415) 670-9602
Chris P. Lavdiotis
Oakland
(510) 433-2600
James R. Madison
Menlo Park
(650) 614-0160
Kenneth M. Malovos
Sacramento/Bay Area
(916) 974-8600
Douglas E. Noll
Clovis
(800) 785-4487
Susan H. Nycum
Portola Valley
(650) 851-3304
Richard Phelps
Oakland
(510) 612-0989
Malcolm Sher
Danville
(925) 906-0990
Robert M. Smith
San Francisco
(415) 242-9800
Maurice L. Zilber
San Anselmo
(415) 713-1914
Please visit our complete statewide California Chapter roster of members at
SmartPhone Link
www.CaliforniaNeutrals.org
To access our FREE National Directory of over 900 Top-Rated
Mediators & Arbitrators in all 50 states, visit www.NADN.org
The National Academy of Distinguished Neutrals is an invite only association of over 900 mediators and arbitrators who have substantial
experience in the resolution of commercial and civil disputes. Membership is limited to only the most experienced and in-demand neutrals
within each state, as approved by local defense (DRI) & plaintiff (AAJ) bar assocs. For more info, please visit www.NADN.org/about
| 19
12th Annual
20 | NOVEMBER 17, 2014
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Las
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o
R anc
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415 is
.49 ter
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GENERAL COUNSEL
CONFERENCE WEST COAST
November 18, 2014
1 04
1
Four Seasons San Francisco, CA
The General Counsel West Conference will take place on November 18, 2014, at the
Four Seasons Hotel in San Francisco. This one-day event is designed to provide
GCs with cutting edge information regarding key general counsel functions including legal
department management, intellectual property strategies and proactive options to data protection.
These ongoing corporate and legal challenges will be analyzed in light of how to identify and apply
solutions that foster efficiency, compliance, and brand protection.
THIS ISN’T YOUR TYPICAL CLE EVENT
This full day of substantive content is broken down into three different pods addressing
corporate counsel’s most pressing questions about legal department leadership and daily
management.
Each topic will include breakout roundtables for attendees from emerging and large
companies so audience members will be able to discuss relevant issues with those in
similar stages of the business life cycle.
KEYNOTE SPEAKER
KEYNOTE SPEAKER
Eleanor Lacey
General Counsel
The 8am-6pm schedule includes breakfast, lunch, & cocktail reception.
Complimentary Registration for In-House Counsel
http://at.law.com/gcwest
CONTACT US
•
For sponsorship opportunities contact Al Liberty at 212-457-9486
•
For programming inquiries, or if you would like to be considered as a discussion group lead at an emerging or large company breakout, contact Molly Miller at
mmiller@alm.com or Krishna Patel at kpatel@alm.com
SPONSORS
PRESENTED BY
ASSOCIATION PARTNER