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ChIPs Women in Tech Law at Santa Clara Law: Year in Review

Student News
May 23, 2017 cdaniel

Missy G. Brenner JD ’17 is the Inaugural President, ChIPs Women in Tech Law at Santa Clara Law

By the Numbers
60 Student members—men and women—by the end of the academic year.
12 Local ChIPsters who generously gave their time this year and asked to be kept involved with student chapter operations and events.
6 Attorneys at White & Case LLP that generously hosted a ChIPster meet-and-greet that included a roundtable discussion about overcoming bias and interviewing skills with Emily Ward and Julie Mar-Spinola.
5 Women in executive positions at the United States Patent & Trademark Office’s headquarters who sat on a panel to discuss their careers, including:

  • Sharon Marsh, Deputy Commissioner for Trademarks;
  • Sarah Harris, General Counsel;
  • Angela Sykes, Director Technology Center 3700;
  • Caroline Dennison, Senior Patent Attorney;
  • Valencia Martin Wallace, Deputy Commissioner for Patent Quality.
4 “Brown Bag” events over the course of the academic year, including:
 

  • Networking and Elevator Pitch Workshop;
  • Career advice presentation by Denise Mingrone, of Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP (co-hosted with other law student organizations);
  • A presentation on artificial intelligence in patent management by Nicole Shanahan, of ClearAccessIP;
  • A presentation on the Biologics Price Competition and Innovation Act by Dr. Michele Gauger, of Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP (co-hosted with another law student organization).
3 ChIPster mentors working in collaboration with students: Julie Mar-Spinola as our outside contact, Laura Norris and Colleen Chien as faculty moderators.
1 First ever student chapter of ChIPs, designed for easy adoption at other schools…one ChIPs community working toward the advancement of women in IP-related fields.

ChIPs’ pilot student chapter at Santa Clara University School of Law had, by all measures, a wonderfully successful first year.  One hallmark of the pilot is a suite of documents that will ensure that future chapters can maintain consistency with ChIPs’ messaging and spring into action earlier in the academic year.

Looking forward, our incoming Board members are buzzing with ideas: skills-building workshops, how to send student volunteers to the ChIPs Annual Summit, and how to become involved with ChIPs Advocacy Leadership Innovation (ALI) Program.

Santa Clara Law looks forward to being joined by future student chapters.  Allen Wang, one of the attorneys who graciously hosted students at White & Case LLP and offered to mentor student members, summarized our goal well: “[I]t [is] both heartening and humbling to see [students] taking charge of their careers from the get-go and wanting to make an impact on the profession. Diversity in the workplace is a necessary and beneficial evolution of the practice, and the more people involved in making it happen, the better.”  In bringing ChIPs’ mission to campuses, we can embrace this crucial diversity earlier and prepare women for career challenges sooner.

Thank you to all who supported us in this great inaugural year!

Left to right: Payal Patel, Projects Manager; Aurina Malaki, Co-Vice President and 1L Representative; Stacey Chang, Secretary; Atussa Simon, Co-Vice President; Missy Brenner, President; Colleen Chien, Faculty Moderator & ChIPster; Laura Norris, Faculty Moderator & ChIPster.