tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-187503792024-03-19T00:49:33.510-07:00Above SupraAn attorney in the Bay Area blurbs about the amusing and serious experiences of a legal career.Sansserifhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14646693812825812447noreply@blogger.comBlogger305125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18750379.post-30008099234237117962011-01-01T13:56:00.000-08:002011-01-01T14:30:49.274-08:00Full CircleA little over two years ago, I was devastated when my firm laid off me and half of my class as the economy tanked. After that, I was very lucky to land at Sun Microsystems, and even luckier a year later to move to a music startup. I eventually became Corporate Counsel at an amazing company of amazing people (including a General Counsel that I adore to this day) in the industry I love. It was Sansserifhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14646693812825812447noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18750379.post-79796082037988961182009-12-29T12:22:00.000-08:002009-12-29T12:32:30.897-08:00Open Floor PolicyOne of the things I really like about this media company is the work environment. Unlike my last job, where I was in a small office, we have an open floor plan here. The office is a large room with very high ceilings, and desks scattered around in clusters (plus the obligatory couches, coffee tables with turntables on them, and yes, ping-pong table). There are about 15 people at our location. Sansserifhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14646693812825812447noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18750379.post-7558212094985653542009-11-18T08:35:00.001-08:002009-11-18T08:41:52.719-08:00The IndustryWhen I interviewed for the position at this startup, one of the guys informed me that, if I didn't know already, the music industry is very old school. For example, he said, none of the industry attorneys will use the track changes feature to redline agreements. They mark them up by hand and have them emailed to you as a PDF. This seemed amazing to me, but believable. To be fair, I know olderSansserifhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14646693812825812447noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18750379.post-88263783807077200852009-11-10T15:30:00.000-08:002009-11-10T15:41:19.257-08:00Progress with ReversalsI'm very happy to report that I secured a part-time gig at a very cool company. It's a media company that works with musicians - and I'm a big music person. I also really like that the GC (who I'm working under) is a woman. That's a special treat because it's rare, and because she's cool.I was connected with this opportunity by one of the partners at my old firm, which has led to an odd Sansserifhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14646693812825812447noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18750379.post-84408866219766187152009-10-26T10:58:00.001-07:002009-10-26T11:05:15.075-07:00Live SearchI'm working on registering a trademark for my client. I spent some time on the PTO website (where federal marks are registered) searching their database. It's not flashy, but it has several levels of advancing search capabilities, such as boolean, different fields, etc. Then I went on the California Secretary of State website to search whether my client's name was registered in California. I Sansserifhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14646693812825812447noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18750379.post-51350990506242751352009-10-23T15:17:00.000-07:002009-10-23T15:37:30.425-07:00RecapTime to share some observations and advice on the market. Caveat being that I don't know whether my own experiences are part of a trend (local or global? industry-specific?), or the product of my own luck-making. - Salaried positions for entry-level attorneys are scarce and extremely competitive. I applied for an in-house transactions position, and saw that an attorney I know knew someone in HRSansserifhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14646693812825812447noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18750379.post-41970269636610495792009-08-21T14:01:00.000-07:002009-08-21T14:01:16.308-07:00The Happy ClientYesterday the news was out - the Oracle acquisition was approved in the US. I don't think there will be any changes until the EU approves it.In other news, I've discovered how to make every client happy: email them. Whenever I get a sweet email from a client, it's because I've been responsive. Even when I don't have any news, I send emails to let them know I haven't forgotten about them. And Sansserifhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14646693812825812447noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18750379.post-37881511056314058672009-08-07T15:42:00.000-07:002009-08-07T17:21:59.522-07:00Sun's Office of Career PlanningThere are many odd things about being in an acquisition, not the least of which is having an enormous support system for job searching. It's also wonderful. I have an interview coming up, and I don't want to jinx myself so I won't say much - except that I'm so excited about the position and the company that I've barely slept for several nights.The resources at Sun are amazing. I got advice Sansserifhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14646693812825812447noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18750379.post-65626422425894437912009-07-10T17:20:00.000-07:002009-08-07T17:28:36.739-07:00Pocket GuideIn an epic quest to increase my knowledge, a bit ago I started scouring the earth for resources on drafting agreements. What I really wanted was a book that would review individual provisions and tell me what they meant. (Eg, What's the difference between perpetual and irrevocable?) I got PLI podcasts on negotiation, and a two-volume collection on IP Licensing. The most valuable resource I'veSansserifhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14646693812825812447noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18750379.post-19466487034041103232009-06-24T17:16:00.001-07:002009-06-24T17:32:24.894-07:00Red LightsI've been repeatedly learning a lesson about working in-house: don't let your clients bully you. This is difficult because attorneys want to make their clients happy; even in-house, where your "clients" are other people at your company.For example, I had a program manager (an engineer) insist that we have the rights to use this code in a new Solaris build. I had to dredge up the agreement and Sansserifhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14646693812825812447noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18750379.post-68761260619148245392009-06-11T11:22:00.000-07:002009-06-12T08:44:50.521-07:00Speaking UpOn Tuesday I gave a presentation to the VPs of all the legal groups at Sun. I've been working with Sun's Vendor Manager on a new program for engaging outside counsel. I did much of the nuts-and-bolts - rewrote the policy on our wiki, generated the roll-out email, etc. - but the Vendor Manager is usually the one presenting our progress. She was out of town at a conference, so she asked me to doSansserifhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14646693812825812447noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18750379.post-71213878534420613302009-05-13T16:17:00.000-07:002009-05-13T17:38:12.158-07:00BrevityAt work I've been updating our retention agreement for outside counsel. This led me to read some materials on legal drafting (specifically the work of Bryan Garner, familiar to many law students). I know it's geeky, but I find it extremely satisfying to edit contracts in this way. I cut down Sun's retention agreement by 2 pages! Same info, fewer words. And turning a giant, impenetrable Sansserifhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14646693812825812447noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18750379.post-46798870073187224552009-04-20T16:10:00.000-07:002009-04-20T16:10:59.073-07:00On OracleI was on a call early this morning when Mike dropped by my office. Being on the phone, he wrote a message on my white board: You'll recall that I bonded with Sun's GC because we both blog. He clarified later that some of the info revealed to us was bloggable, but some not. I'll stick to the bloggable...The buzz here has been pretty positive - my own feelings, based purely on branding, is Sansserifhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14646693812825812447noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18750379.post-89322490937216965402009-04-07T17:13:00.000-07:002009-04-08T08:34:13.063-07:00An Open Door PolicyBeing one of those people who are usually cold, I learned to keep my office door closed to trap in the heat emitted by my immense monitor. It worked; my office was toasty. I observed carefully and found that about 50% of people kept their doors closed, probably for the noise. (I also play Pandora all day at work on external speakers, and worried about the sound getting out.)I kept my door Sansserifhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14646693812825812447noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18750379.post-7985467762340422822009-03-30T18:25:00.000-07:002009-03-31T08:39:52.175-07:00ServiceI came very close to being on a jury. I was summoned, and when I checked online, my group had to report. This is the third time in as many years that I've been summoned - the other end of California's massive prison system, I suppose. But I never had to show up before!It was actually pretty fascinating, even aside from the legal angle that would naturally interest me. There were about 40 of Sansserifhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14646693812825812447noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18750379.post-83550965046939694452009-03-30T17:59:00.000-07:002009-03-30T18:23:14.035-07:00The New TLA (Three Letter Acronym)It was a little surreal: I was about one mile into my commute to work two weeks ago, listening to NPR the way I do every morning. "The Wall Street Journal is reporting that IBM may be in talks to acquire Sun Microsystems." I managed to maintain control of my vehicle, but it was extraordinarily shocking. With a company as big as Sun, it's not exactly an anticipated possibility.Naturally Sansserifhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14646693812825812447noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18750379.post-37325186096686331392009-03-06T16:06:00.001-08:002009-03-08T15:49:36.045-07:00TransitionsAt the firm, I was repping tiny startup companies and clutching at the skirt of BigCo, pleading for provisions. Now I am BigCo. (Might as well come out with it: Sun Microsystems.) It's taken some getting used to; I'm still learning to say No in negotiations, and that sometimes it's okay to have residuals in an NDA.Some other things I've had to adjust to:* The lawyers I work with have time. Sansserifhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14646693812825812447noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18750379.post-56435598799810315632009-01-29T20:58:00.000-08:002009-01-29T21:12:39.349-08:00PhonixDuring my period of unemployment, I went to a party one night where I met a bunch of new people. In conversation, I struggled a bit when they asked me what I did - not wanting to spill out my sob story and all that. But after a few people I had an epiphany, and said, with real comfort, "I'm an attorney." It's nice knowing that no matter where I go or what I'm doing, I'm still that. So my Sansserifhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14646693812825812447noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18750379.post-55873513232991492302009-01-20T15:40:00.000-08:002009-01-20T16:00:37.097-08:00CC-BYI've been meeting with some attorneys (friends of friends) to talk about the industry. One of them is at a big corporate law firm, and he knew I had a blog. (He informed me that he writes Blogging Policies for his clients, and that he was coming around to the belief that an employee's blog posts should be attributed to the company for Securities law purposes.) He asked me at one point, wasn't Sansserifhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14646693812825812447noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18750379.post-27889825782487671322009-01-14T09:56:00.001-08:002009-01-14T10:27:25.533-08:00A Birthday PresentSo, good news! I've been hired, though it's not a salaried position. It's a contract position, but it's for a very big, very badass software/hardware company. I'm not going to name it, but if you've read this blog the following will probably let you figure it out. Nevertheless, I have to give credit where credit is due. I met the in-house counsel of this company while I was in law school. Sansserifhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14646693812825812447noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18750379.post-2189662244249006782009-01-07T17:28:00.001-08:002009-01-08T17:40:46.873-08:00Privacy TweakingI went to the first Tech Policy Summit of the year on Tuesday, a talk about privacy sponsored by Facebook. The speakers were my supervisor Jim Dempsey of CDT, Chris Hoofnagle of the Berkeley Law and Technology Center, and Chris Kelly, CPO of Facebook. I was especially interested when Kelly talked about how many users tweak their privacy settings. I think Facebook's privacy settings are Sansserifhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14646693812825812447noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18750379.post-54621690686948698522008-12-29T19:34:00.000-08:002008-12-29T19:56:15.422-08:00Love AffairsThe more I think about it, the more this feels like the end of a personal relationship. Like the first time I had my heart broken, I'm determined to make this teach me to recognize true love. In that vein, the best cure for a broken heart (I've learned) is to find someone new. I need to continue my training while I search for a new job - which could be awhile, in this economy. So for the Sansserifhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14646693812825812447noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18750379.post-10892042264465647112008-12-17T14:57:00.000-08:002008-12-17T16:57:06.413-08:00Waking From the DreamThe economic crisis hit home for me. At the firm there were rumors of an announcement last week, but it never came. On Monday, two partners swept into my office, and I knew. I was laid off.They emphasized that it was not personal, that everyone really liked me and my work product. It makes sense; I was the only first year in the IP group, and because they made cuts across all departments...Sansserifhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14646693812825812447noreply@blogger.com14tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18750379.post-12485291735270562202008-12-12T14:51:00.000-08:002008-12-12T14:56:19.932-08:00Voluntary, Collective, DeliciousEFF is "cautiously optimistic" about rumors that Warner Music maybe exploring the long-awaited collective licensing model for music file-sharing on college campuses (which I've gushed about). Universities would pay Choruss, a new nonprofit collecting society, in exchange for an end to the "John Doe" subpoenas seeking student identities, DMCA notices, lawsuits against students, and legislation Sansserifhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14646693812825812447noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18750379.post-51445063325324713482008-12-08T14:26:00.000-08:002008-12-10T09:53:15.653-08:00Law in MotionMy firm is moving to a new building in February. Currently we're in two buildings, and we're moving to a Google-esq complex with gym, cafeteria, outdoor pool. Amenities aside, the goal is for all of us to be in one building. It's amazing how proximity affects relationships, even on this scale: it's a lovely 5 minute walk to the other building, yet I'm significantly closer to the folks in my Sansserifhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14646693812825812447noreply@blogger.com2