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.