Erin has extensive experience helping clients achieve success in high stakes intellectual property and commercial litigation.  She has represented a wide variety of small and large technology companies in complex, multi-forum cases before the United States District Courts, International Trade Commission, and the Patent Trials and Appeals Board.   

Erin has particular expertise in federal court litigation and case management, having recently served as a judicial law clerk to the Honorable James Donato, District Judge of the Northern District of California.  The Court's heavy civil docket included a vast range of commercial, contract, intellectual property, insurance, civil rights, employment, and housing disputes, consumer class actions, claims against federal, state, and local entities, and three civil trials.

Before joining the Court, Erin litigated complex intellectual property and breach of contract cases for eight years in the Silicon Valley offices of leading law firms Fish & Richardson PC, Weil, Gotshal and Manges, LLP and Fenwick & West LLP.   Erin had primary responsibility for developing litigation strategy and leading teams of junior attorneys and experts in driving successful resolution of these cases.   She managed all phases of litigation, including pre- and post-filing investigations, case assessment, case and budget management, client discovery support, fact and expert discovery, motions, trial preparation and trial, pre- and post-trial briefing, appeal, and post-settlement compliance.  She has helped clients develop successful discovery plans that provide comprehensive discovery while meeting budget targets.  Erin also has particular experience working with company witnesses and technical experts, and serving as their primary contact from initial investigation and discovery, all the way through trial.  

Erin has counseled clients on litigation avoidance matters as well, including counseling on product design strategies, freedom to operate, and intellectual property license and settlement agreement compliance.  In a number of matters, she provided extended project management for the client's efforts to develop and document successful product redesigns for intellectual property compliance. 

She has also performed assessments of client and third-party patents & portfolios for offensive and defensive purposes, and counseled clients on patentability of inventions.

In law school, Erin served as an extern to the Honorable Joseph Spero of the United States District Court for the Northern District of California in San Francisco.  She also interned for the Samuelson Law, Technology, and Public Policy Clinic, where she held stakeholder interviews and drafted an interdisciplinary white paper on privacy law issues in smart metering and related technologies.

Before studying law, Erin worked many years in the microelectronics industry, as a manager and leader in industry and academia.  She led groups focusing on the design and fabrication of high performance logic devices at IBM Research in Yorktown Heights, NY.  This work included developing patents and trade secrets, managing export control issues for international researchers, and training employees on related procedures.  She also researched and taught electronic device and processing courses at both Oregon State University and Kyoto University.  Erin holds a doctorate in Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences from the University of California, Berkeley, and is an inventor named on over 26 United States patents.

 

EDUCATION

  • J.D., University of California, Berkeley School of Law (Boalt Hall), Berkeley, California (2007); Law & Technology Certificate; Prosser Prize in Quantitative Methods in Law; Submissions Editor of Berkeley Technology Law Journal; Intern at Samuelson Law, Technology and Public Policy Clinic. 

  • Ph.D. (Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences), University of California, Berkeley, California (1996). Intel Foundation Graduate Fellowship, National Science Foundation Graduate Fellowship. 

  • B.S. (Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences), with highest honors and the departmental citation, University of California, Berkeley, California (1991).  College of Engineering Bechtel Achievement Award; Chancellor's Scholarship; Tau Beta Pi and Eta Kappa Nu Honor Societies. 

BAR MEMBERSHIP

  • Member of the State Bar of California (2007)

  • Admitted to the United States Courts of Appeals for the Ninth and Federal Circuits

  • Admitted to all of the United States District Courts for the State of California

  • Admitted to the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas