The Clean Technology Revolution:

        Developing Solutions for Tomorrow’s Legal Challenges

January 29, 2010

The Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California

 Symposium Brochure

The 2010 Santa Clara Computer and High Technology Law Journal Symposium takes place in the heart of Silicon Valley, the nation’s center of technological development and  hub of innovation. The technologies developed here change and improve the lives of  people around the world and create new legal issues to be considered and debated. Over the years, the CHTLJ Symposia have served as an important forum for discussion. This year’s Symposium will address one of the most important issues facing the world today, clean technology, and the role that attorneys play in facilitating change.

The legal community is uniquely positioned to be highly involved in bringing forth the technological innovations being developed to solve the many problems threatening to disrupt Earth’s fragile balance. In order to fill this role more effectively and promote clean development, a variety of issues must be addressed.

The Clean Technology Revolution: Developing Solutions for Tomorrow’s Legal Challenges will address some of the unique legal challenges related to the development and implementation of clean technologies. In order to achieve the maximum result, innovations must be funded, supported by government, shared globally, and in accord with existing laws. Familiar issues of regulation, licensing, IP protection, and economics must be reassessed in light new goals, with nothing less than the future of the world at stake.

The 2010 Santa Clara Computer and High Technology Law Journal Symposium is proud to bring together some of the nation’s leading practitioners and academics to discuss and debate some of the most important legal issues associated with the development of clean technology. Our distinguished panelists will address the issues of international IP protection, private and government funding, standards setting, and how the legal community can work to more effectively support clean technology.

Friday, January 29, 2010

Panel 1: The Smart Grid: How Smart is Too Smart

Panelists:

Susan L. Lyon, Of Counsel, Perkins Coie

Michael Hindus, Partner, Pillsbury Winthrop

Steven Weissman, Lecturer in Residence; Associate Director for the Center for Law, Energy, and the Environment, UC Berkeley Boalt Hall School of Law

Moderator: Catherine Sandoval, Assistant Professor of Law, Santa Clara University School of Law

Panel 2: The Economics of Government Regulation

Panelists:

Peter S. Menell, Professor of Law; Director, Berkeley Center for Law & Technology, UC Berkeley Boalt Hall School of Law

R. Todd Johnson, Partner, Jones Day

Daniel Minutillo, Daniel C. Minutillo, A Professional Law Corporation

Moderator: Kenneth Manaster, Professor of Law, Santa Clara University School of Law

Lunch Keynote: Paul Dickerson, Partner - Haynes and Boone, LLP

Paul Dickerson, a recognized leader and sought-after speaker on issues of clean tech and energy efficiency, launched Haynes and Boone's Clean Tech practice group in 2008. Paul, a partner who offices in the firm's Houston and D.C. offices, returned to the firm to launch the group, a new concentration for the firm that builds upon the firm's broad experience in intellectual property, litigation, technology, financing and many other legal issues that companies in the nascent industry must face.

Paul served as Chief Operating Officer of the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) from 2006 until his return to Haynes and Boone (where he worked as an associate from 2000 to 2005). He oversaw the EERE's $1.8 billion budget and helped move alternative and renewable energy technologies from the "vision" stage to real-world development. 

Paul is knowledgeable on the pressing needs of the global energy market and regularly speaks about the tangible, real-world solutions that can be implemented now, from increasing efficiency, bio-fuels, solar and wind investments, to connecting venture capitalists with the cutting-edge scientific researchers in the field of sustainable energy. 

He also served as Chief of Staff for the United States and Foreign Commercial Service at the U.S. Department of Commerce. While at the Commerce Department, Paul was responsible for day-to-day management of the Commercial Service's worldwide network of 1,700 employees in 260 offices and for directing the implementation of the Commercial Service's worldwide priorities and policies. 

Paul has extensive experience with corporate turn-arounds and holds great knowledge about the new wave of renewable energy and energy efficiency technologies that will power America and the world in the 21st century. Under his leadership, the Department of Energy changed its direction toward commercialization of technology and quickened the pace of moving these groundbreaking energy solutions from the laboratory to the international marketplace.

He now helps Haynes and Boone clients as they continue to develop products and businesses in the Clean Tech arena, in the U.S. and abroad.

Panel 3: International IP Protection: Technology for Everyone?

Panelists:

Eric Lane, Associate, Luce, Forward, Hamilton & Scripps; Founder and Editor, Green Patent Blog

Bronwyn Hall, Economics faculty, University of California Berkeley
Todd Miller, Partner, Jones Day

Colleen Chien, Assistant Professor of Law, Santa Clara University School of Law

Moderator: Anna Han, Professor of Law, Santa Clara University School of Law

Panel 4: General Counsels and Venture Capitalists: What they want the outsiders to know

Panelists:

Sean Schickedanz , General Partner, Clean Pacific Ventures

Jason Wiener, General Counsel, Namaste Solar

Bruce Ladesma, General Counsel, SunPower Corporation

Moderator: Sylvia Burks, Partner, Pillsbury Winthrop

The Clean Technology Revolution: Developing Solutions for Tomorrow’s Legal Challenges

Premier Sponsor: Haynes and Boone, LLP