Jeffrey B. Fromm
Former Vice President, Deputy General Counsel & Director of Intellectual Property
Hewlett-Packard Company

In 2008, Jeff began a solo intellectual property (IP) legal practice after retiring from Hewlett-Packard Company as HP's Vice President, Deputy General Counsel and Director of Intellectual Property, responsible for HP’s IP legal strategy and for managing the Intellectual Property Section of HP’s Legal Department.  Jeff managed HP’s global IP legal function responsible for worldwide IP legal matters regarding patents, copyrights, and trademarks.

Jeff joined HP in 1970 as an R&D engineer, then worked as a production manager, joining the company's Legal Department in Palo Alto, California after graduating from law school. He held a number of positions in the HP Legal Department in California, Massachusetts and Colorado prior to retiring as Senior Managing Counsel in 2002.  After his first retirement from HP, Jeff practiced law at the firm of Drinker Biddle and Reath LLP before he rejoined HP in the beginning of 2006.

Jeff holds degrees in physics and electrical engineering from the University of Pennsylvania and a juris doctorate, magna cum laude from the Delaware Law School of Widener University.  He is a member of the bar in Pennsylvania, California, and Colorado, a registered patent attorney with the US Patent and Trademark Office, and is a member of the American Bar Association and the Institute of Electrical & Electronics Engineers.  Jeff is the author of several articles and has testified before Congress on the intersection of IP and antitrust law.

Gregory Gorder
Founder and Vice-Chairman
Intellectual Ventures

Gregory Gorder is a founder and vice-chairman at Intellectual Ventures where he focuses on a variety of projects relating to intellectual property and invention.

Prior to joining Intellectual Ventures in March 2000, Mr. Gorder spent 14 years providing business and legal advice to early-stage technology companies as a lawyer for Perkins Coie LLP, the Northwest’s leading law firm.  While at Perkins Coie, Mr. Gorder helped dozens of companies with initial and follow-on public offerings, acquisitions and divestitures, working closely with investment bankers, accountants and management teams.  He has also closed over 100 venture-capital and other private-equity financings, representing both companies and investors.  In this position, Mr. Gorder worked closely with emerging technology companies involved in software, telecommunications, networking and biotechnology.

After graduation from law school, Mr. Gorder spent his first year clerking on the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit for Judge Eugene Wright.  Before starting law school, Mr. Gorder worked two years with Arthur Andersen & Co. as a software systems consultant.

Mr. Gorder holds a B.A. in Business Administration from Washington State University and a J.D. from the University of Washington.  Previously he was president of the University of Washington’s Law School alumni association and currently serves on the Dean’s Advisory Board for the Law School.  He is also a board member of the University of Washington’s Shidler Center for Law, Commerce & Technology, an organization focused on providing law and policy information and research to lawyers and other professionals affected by emerging technologies and e-commerce.

William Heming
Deputy General Counsel & Chief IP Counsel
Caterpillar Inc.

Bill Heming is the Deputy General Counsel and Chief IP Counsel of Caterpillar Inc. Caterpillar is a global company offering earthmoving equipment, engines and power generation equipment, remanufacturing, and financial, logistics and railway services.  Bill has been with Caterpillar for 30 years, in various capacities such as financial services, venture capital and intellectual property.  He is a Director of Intellectual Property Owners Association and its educational foundation.  

Ramsey Homsany
Associate General Counsel
Google Inc.

Ramsey Homsany is Associate General Counsel for Google Inc., where he focuses on Google's commercial transactions and partnerships.   He also advises Google on product development, technology strategy and emerging technology issues.  Ramsey currently serves on several government and industry working groups in the areas of Internet policy and new media business issues and has lectured on technology transactions at national conferences and leading universities.

Prior to joining Google, Ramsey was an attorney in the Technology Transactions Group at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati where his practice focused on commercial transactions and intellectual property issues in high technology companies.  Ramsey received his B.S. in Chemical & Biochemical Engineering from Rutgers University and his J.D. from New York University School of Law.  He is admitted to the bar in California, New York and New Jersey and before the United States Patent and Trademark Office.  Ramsey is a Lecturer at Law at the University of Pennsylvania Law School, where he teaches a class on intellectual property transactions.

Jacqueline Leimer
Vice President & Associate General Counsel, Global Intellectual Property
Kraft Foods Global Inc.

Jackie Leimer has been at Kraft Foods in Northfield, Illinois, since November 1996, where she started as Chief Trademark Counsel. She became Vice President and Associate General Counsel, Global Intellectual Property in May 2005.

Kraft is the largest packaged foods company in North America. Kraft’s brands, including KOOL-AID, JELL-O, MAXWELL HOUSE, OREO, and NABISCO, are some of the most famous in the world. Kraft also owns one of the largest patent estates among its peer companies.

Prior to joining Kraft, Jackie was a partner at Kirkland & Ellis, Chicago, specializing in trademark, copyright and advertising law matters. She also has 10 years of prior in-house intellectual property experience at The Quaker Oats Company.

Jackie graduated from Valparaiso University School of Law in 1981, where she was Editor-in-Chief of the Law Review. She has a B.A. from Valparaiso University, as well.

Jackie was President of the International Trademark Association in 2004 and spent many years as a Director. She is a member of the USPTO Trademark Public Advisory Committee (TPAC) and a frequent speaker on Intellectual Property issues.

Robert D. Manfred, Jr.
Executive Vice President, Labor & HR
Major League Baseball

Since 1998, Robert D. Manfred, Jr. has served as Executive Vice President of Labor Relations for Major League Baseball.  His primary responsibility is Baseball’s collective bargaining relationship with the Major League Baseball Players Association.  He served as the chief negotiator for the Clubs in both 2002 and 2006.  Mr. Manfred is also responsible for the collective bargaining relationship with the World Umpires Association and the human resources function in the Commissioner’s Office in New York.

Mr. Manfred graduated from the School of Industrial and Labor Relations at Cornell University in 1980.  He received his law degree magna cum laude from Harvard Law School in 1983, where he was an articles editor of the Harvard Law Review.  While at Harvard, he wrote a Note concerning contribution limitations under the Labor Management Reporting and Disclosure Act.  Following law school, Mr. Manfred served as a clerk to U.S. District Court Judge Joseph L. Tauro in the District of Massachusetts.

Following his clerkship, Mr. Manfred joined the Labor and Employment Law Section of Morgan, Lewis & Bockius, LLP resident in the Washington, D.C., office.  He became a partner in the firm in 1992.  At Morgan, Lewis, Mr. Manfred represented employers in numerous industries, including transportation, healthcare, professional sports and airlines.  He participated directly in the formulation and negotiation of economic and non-economic proposals for Major League Baseball in two separate rounds of collective bargaining (1990 and 1994-96).  He represented individual teams in salary arbitrations and in grievance arbitrations and provided advice to teams on their individual salary negotiations with players.  Outside the professional sports context, Mr. Manfred negotiated agreements with nurses, operating engineers and service employees on behalf of the Washington Hospital Center.

In addition to this collective bargaining experience, Mr. Manfred represented a number of clients in employee-benefit related matters.  He served as counsel to the employer trustees on a number of jointly administered pension and health and welfare funds.  He also represented multi-employer funds in federal court litigation under the Multi-Employer Pension Plan Amendments Act.

Mr. Manfred’s other litigation experience includes the representation of employers in actions brought under the Railway Labor Act and various federal anti-discrimination statutes.

Active in professional organizations, Mr. Manfred is a member of the College of Labor and Employment Lawyers, is a member of the Labor Section of the American Bar Association and is a member of the Massachusetts and District of Columbia Bar Associations. 

Stanley Pierre-Louis
Vice President and Associate General Counsel, Intellectual Property & Content Protection
Viacom Inc.

Stanley Pierre-Louis is Vice President and Associate General Counsel for Intellectual Property and Content Protection at Viacom Inc.  He is responsible for managing major intellectual property litigation, developing strategies for protecting digital content, and leading other IP-related legal initiatives for Viacom and its brands, which include MTV Networks (MTV, VH1, Nickelodeon, Nick at Nite, COMEDY CENTRAL, CMT, Spike TV, TV Land, Logo and more than 130 networks around the world), BET Networks, Paramount Pictures, Paramount Home Entertainment and DreamWorks.

Prior to joining Viacom, Mr. Pierre-Louis served as co-chair of the Entertainment and Media Law Group at Kaye Scholer LLP (NY), concentrating on intellectual property counseling and litigation.  Mr. Pierre-Louis previously served as Senior Vice President for Legal Affairs at the Recording Industry Association of America, where he led several important strategic copyright litigations, including the entertainment industry’s litigations against MP3.com, Napster and Aimster as well as the landmark U.S. Supreme Court case MGM Studios v. Grokster, which resulted in a unanimous decision in favor of the film and music industries.  Before joining the RIAA, Mr. Pierre-Louis clerked for Judge David A. Nelson of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, and was an associate at Shea & Gardener (Washington, D.C.).

Mr. Pierre-Louis is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Clark University and earned his J.D. from the University of Chicago Law School, where he served on the Board of Editors of the University of Chicago Law Review.

Bruce Proctor
General Counsel, Intellectual Property
Diageo

Bruce is General Counsel, Intellectual Property with Diageo plc, splitting his time between London, United Kingdom and Norwalk, Connecticut.  He has worldwide responsibility for all of Diageo’s IP rights and issues and manages a team of 50 people based in both London and Norwalk. He joined Diageo in June of 2002. 

Prior to that Bruce spent five years as Chief Trademark Counsel for The Coca-Cola Company in Atlanta, Georgia where he had global responsibility for all of Coke’s trademarks and non-technical intellectual property rights.

Before joining Coca-Cola Bruce was with Unilever United States in New York for eight years where he was Assistant General Counsel, handling intellectual property and general corporate matters and managing a team of 10 people.

Bruce began his in-house career by joining Bristol-Myers Squibb in New York for a few years where he was Senior Counsel handling intellectual property and advertising law issues.

After law school Bruce spent five years as a litigator in New York handling intellectual property and related issues.

Bruce is a frequent speaker on intellectual property and related issues and is active in various intellectual property associations including The International Trademark Association and MARQUES, the Association of European Trade M ark Owners.

Bruce holds an LL.M. in Trade Regulation from New York University School of Law, a J.D. from Vermont Law School where he was an Editor of the Law Review, and a B.A. from the University of Buffalo where he graduated with Honors.  

Cary Sherman
President
Recording Industry Association of America - RIAA

Cary Sherman is the president of the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). The trade group's more than 350 member companies are responsible for creating, manufacturing, or distributing 90 percent of all legitimate sound recordings sold in the United States.

As the president, Mr. Sherman represents the interests of the $11.5 billion U.S. sound recording industry -- the largest market for prerecorded music in the world.  He coordinates the industry's legal, policy and business objectives and his responsibilities include technology, licensing, enforcement, and government affairs issues, among others.

National Journal has described Mr. Sherman as an “intellectual property guru” and “one of the top copyright attorneys in the country.”

Before joining the RIAA as General Counsel of the organization in 1997, Mr. Sherman was a senior partner at the Washington, D.C. firm of Arnold & Porter, where he was the head of the firm’s Intellectual Property and Technology Practice Group.  One of his special areas of expertise during his 26 years at Arnold & Porter was reconciling developing technologies and intellectual property laws.

Mr. Sherman graduated from Cornell University in 1968, and Harvard Law School in 1971.  A long-time musician and songwriter, Mr. Sherman is an officer of the board of the Levine School of Music in Washington, D.C.  He also serves on the anti-defamation league, the Copyright Society, BNA’s Patent, Trademark and Copyright Journal, and has served on numerous other boards, including the Washington Area Lawyers for the Arts, The Computer Law Association, and The Computer Lawyer.  He is also co-author of a two-volume treatise published by BNA Books, Computer Software Protection Law.