The Cutting Edge
of Technology Law and Corporate Governance |
|
|
|
|
Ralph Pais |
Mark Leahy |
Lawrence Pulgram |
On the evening of August 27th, Ralph Pais, head of Fenwick
& West LLP’s international practice and popular negotiations
lecturer at the law school, treated our newly arrived LLM students
to a tasty dinner-reception at the firm’s impressive new Mountain
View offices. Following dinner, the students attended a fascinating
set of presentations by Fenwick & West partners Mark Leahy and
Lawrence Pulgram.
Indeed, both talks sparked question-and-answer periods that
lasted nearly as long as the presentations themselves.
“What will become of public companies,” Leahy pondered, “in
light of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002?” Discussing the Act’s
roots in recent instances of high-profile corporate corruption and
fraud, Leahy detailed the effects that this sweeping securities
reform legislation will have on all components of public companies:
boards of directors, CEOs and CFOs, auditors, and above all, lawyers
advising corporate clients.
Lawrence Pulgram went on to address
four provocative topics of technology law: copyright, the Digital
Millennium Copyright Act, trade secrets and the first amendment,
and the concept of trespass to chattel recently tested in the Ticketmaster,
Ebay, and Intel v. Hamidi cases. As lead counsel
for both Napster and ReplayTV, Pulgram analyzed how courts had restricted
(and in rarer cases permitted) technologies for the “collection
and circulation of information.” Wary to draw firm conclusions
about the future of IP legislation, he told the students, “Every
day I open the paper and find out what the law [about the Internet]
is today.” Still, he did not hide his view that judges have
recently acted more to limit than to protect technological innovation
and expression. He concluded by advising the LLM group to be creative
in their efforts to navigate and anticipate the shifting sands of
IP litigation.
In
the next address, Pais launched into an interesting overview of
the legal business and typical structure of U.S. law firms. Pais,
who opened the evening by welcoming the international students to
California, concluded by inviting
these LLM students back at the end of the academic year to share
their observations and evolved legal erudition.
Alumna
Catherine Manley provided students with insights into life as an
associate at a leading Silicon Valley law firm.
In
view of the high level of discussion and the students’ enthusiasm
for the topics presented, it is clear that both our host as well
as our LLM students have benefited from this unique opportunity
to get to know one another and to exchange ideas.
|