2019 PILT Seminar Speakers and Materials
Federal Trade Commission Bureau of Consumer Protection, Washington D.C.
Lesley Fair is a Senior Attorney with the Federal Trade Commission’s Bureau of Consumer Protection. After litigating false advertising and technology cases for more than 20 years, she now specializes in industry outreach and education. She is the primary author of the FTC’s Business Blog, which the ABA Journal named as one of the Best Law Blogs of 2018. Lesley has also received the Robert Pitofsky Lifetime Achievement Award, among the highest honors for a career FTC staff member.
She served as a Vice-Chair of the American Bar Association Section of Antitrust Law’s Consumer Protection Committee, wrote the monthly “Fair Trade” column in Electronic Retailer magazine, and contributed chapters to Food and Drug Law and Regulation (3d ed. 2015) and Social Media and the FDA (2010).
On the faculty of the Catholic University School of Law since 1984, Lesley holds the title of Distinguished Lecturer and has been voted Outstanding Adjunct Professor. She also teaches Consumer Protection Law at the George Washington University Law School. Lesley is a graduate of the University of Notre Dame and the University of Texas School of Law. She clerked for United States District Judge Fred Shannon in San Antonio and served as staff counsel to the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.
Carr Butterfield LLC, Lake Oswego, OR
Emil J. Ali provides legal representation of professionals across many regulated industries to limit, defend, and deflect liability in regulatory and professional conduct investigations, enforcement actions, arbitrations, and court cases. His diverse experience affords him the ability to provide advice and counsel to licensed professionals including investment advisors, broker-dealers, registered representatives, and attorneys. Mr. Ali formerly investigated and assisted in the prosecution of attorney misconduct at the United States Patent and Trademark Office, Office of Enrollment and Discipline (OED). While at the OED, Mr. Ali helped to promulgate the USPTO Rules of Professional Conduct, which are based upon the ABA Model Rules of Professional Conduct. His unique experience affords him an understanding of the regulation of the legal profession. Mr. Ali has routinely presented and written regarding best practices for professionals to avoid regulator complaints. Mr. Ali is an adjunct professor of law at Lewis and Clark Law School in Portland, OR.
Dinsmore & Shohl LLP, Cincinnati, OH
Nicolas has a wealth of experience in preparing, filing and prosecuting domestic and international patent applications. His thorough understanding of the patent process enables him to guide clients through every step of obtaining protection and managing their patent portfolios, from conducting due diligence analysis to handling interference proceedings to drafting right-to-use and invalidity opinions. He also has extensive experience reviewing and drafting licensing agreements, having worked with clients in a variety of industries, including Fortune 500 companies. His background as a contract engineer, where he focused on designing and implementing pharmaceutical and manufacturing process lines, provides him with a unique outlook when reviewing and drafting agreements, enabling him to analyze documents from both a legal and business perspective.
Meyers, Roman, Friedberg and Lewis, Cleveland, OH
As a former General Counsel and Chief Operating Officer, David Croft offers a unique perspective on applying business law and understanding the needs of his clients. David’s practice includes counseling businesses and entrepreneurs throughout Northeast Ohio to launch new businesses and purchase or sell existing businesses, reviewing investment opportunities (both from an investor’s perspective as well as a business seeking investments), establishing internal governance mechanisms, developing agreements with customers and other businesses, preparing and negotiating business deals and contracts, and handling dissolution and liquidation matters. David also helps his clients determine and distinguish their market leverage and competitive advantages and then safeguards and defends the underlying intellectual property.
Baker & McKenzie, Palo Alto, CA
Lothar Determann has been helping companies in Silicon Valley and around the world take products, business models, intellectual property and contracts global for nearly 20 years. He advises on data privacy law compliance, information technology commercialization, copyrights, open source licensing, electronic commerce, technology transactions, sourcing and international distribution at Baker McKenzie in San Francisco & Palo Alto. He is a member of the Firm's International/Commercial Practice Group and the TMT and Healthcare industry groups.
Kent State University, Kent, OH
Bob Eckman serves as Chief Information Security Officer at Kent State University where he leads an amazing team of information security and identity and access management to protect the State of Ohio’s 2nd largest university in all things security. Prior to this role, Bob served as Security Principal and vCISO at MCPc Inc. a secured technology logistics and data protection company headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio. There, Bob guided MCPc’s cybersecurity services, solutions and staff. He has over 25 years of experience in security, technology and project/program management. Prior to MCPc, he was the cybersecurity program manager for FirstEnergy’s Nuclear division and served leadership roles at Progressive Insurance and Shearer’s Foods.
He holds adjunct professor status in cyber security at Kent State University and in 2016 was awarded an Outstanding Teaching Award. He also serves as an adjunct and Executive Director of Cleveland State University’s Marshall Law College’s Center for Cyber and Privacy. He has been recognized by the Ohio State Senate for his achievements in the classroom teaching undergraduate and graduate level cyber security courses at CSU Marshall School of Law and Kent State University. He holds an active PMP Certification and is an active member of ISC2 where he also holds his CISSP Certification.
Crowell & Moring LLP, Washington, D.C.
Vince is a counsel in Crowell & Moring's Washington, D.C. office and a member of the firm's Intellectual Property Group. His practice focuses on patent and trade secret litigation at the trial-court level, patent litigation before the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB), appeals at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, and other intellectual property and technology litigation, especially as it relates to computer and electrical systems. Vince also counsels clients on intellectual property monetization strategies, including portfolio management, enforcement, and licensing, and is involved in patent prosecution and rendering opinions on patent infringement, validity, and enforceability. Vince is also an adjunct professor at the Johns Hopkins University Information Security Institute in Baltimore, MD and teaches a course on privacy law in the Spring.
Taft Stettinius & Hollister LLP
Zach’s practice focuses on privacy and data security. Specifically, Zach assists clients in the areas of privacy compliance, defense litigation, class action defense and guidance in the aftermath of an information security event, including data breach. Zach has experience advising clients with respect to FTC investigations, federal privacy regulations such as HIPAA, FCRA, TCPA, and GLBA, as well as state laws governing personally identifiable information. For his clients, he also provides regulatory analysis, risk management, policy development, training and audits. Zach speaks and writes regularly on cutting-edge data privacy and cybersecurity issues and is a Certified Information Privacy Professional in the field of United States laws and regulations.
Gowling WLG, Toronto, Canada
Susannah Rolston is a Toronto-based Gowling WLG partner with more than 25 years' experience. She can provide you with strategic advice on trademark matters, including availability and registrability opinions, filing strategies, prosecution issues, oppositions and expungement proceedings. Through her experience managing worldwide trademark portfolios, Susannah can provide you with worldwide trademark portfolio strategies to enhance and protect your intellectual property assets. Susannah has experience with all types of clients from large corporate to fledgling startups. Susannah listens to client’s demands and provides advise that is not only sound and effective, but also user-friendly and straightforward. She is proactive and resourceful in pursuing success for her clients. She is an active member of Intellectual Property Institute of Canada (IPIC), the International Trademark Association (INTA) and European Community Trademark Association (ECTA).
