Pillsbury Chair Emeritus Mary Cranston received the ChIPs Hall of Fame Award in San Francisco.
ChIPs Week 2022 included three presentations recognizing the “best of the best” in tech, law and policy in San Francisco.
More than 150 industry leaders attended ChIPs Hall of Fame Dinner 2022 honoring Pillsbury Chair Emeritus Mary Cranston. Cranston was elected chair of the Global 100 law firm for three successive terms, leading more than 2,000 employees in 16 offices worldwide. Cranston was joined by her extended family, professional colleagues and friends like Dorian Daley, who gave a moving tribute to her career mentor and friend.
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“The ChIPs Hall of Fame honors the people in our profession who advance this mission and embody our spirit. Just 11 women have been inducted into our Hall of Fame. Tonight, we’re thrilled to honor the 12th,” ChIPs Executive Director Joan Toth said. “Mary Cranston joins an illustrious group of previous honorees including Nina Totenberg, Ursula Burns, Jamie Gorelick, U.S. Senator Mazie K. Hirono, the Hon. Michelle K. Lee and Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.” Cranston’s acceptance speech was marked by gratitude for her career and a call to action to the profession. The evening closed with a spirited three-way discussion between Daley, Cranston, and her daughter, Susie Cranston, author and chief operating officer of First Republic Bank.
Scholarships awarded
ChIPs also helped launch two careers with the ChIPs Scholarship Awards presented at the Global Summit by ChIPs co-founder Noreen Krall and Bita Rahebi, partner and co-chair of the global IP litigation group at Morrison Foerster. The scholarships were established by Morrison Foerster to honor the legendary litigator Rachel Krevans and expanded this year with a donation from Krall.
“Seven women have benefited from the scholarship so far,” Krall said, “and this year we are delighted to increase the scholarship award to $10,000 for each awardee. I am privileged to support the expansion of these scholarships.”
Rahebi said, “This year’s ChIPs Scholarship recipients were selected for academic excellence, community engagement and their commitment to IP law and the ChIPs mission of advancing women and diversity in tech, law and policy”
The two scholarships were presented to Rachael Geiger, a third-year law student at Santa Clara University School of Law where she is part of the Tech Edge J.D. program. This past summer she worked as a patent examiner at the United States Patent and Trademark Office. The second $10,000 scholarship was presented to Niki Camateros-Mann, who was on hand to receive it. She earned her Bachelor’s in Biological Sciences and is now in her third year of law school at the University of New Hampshire Franklin Pierce School of Law. She discovered patent law doing undergraduate research on micro-therapeutics and sustainable biomaterials. This past summer, she worked in patent prosecution and litigation at Lerner David.
Five for inclusion
ChIPs Honor Roll Awards for 2022 were presented by Cyndi Wheeler, senior director of intellectual property at Salesforce, and Caren Ulrich Stacy, founder and chief experimentation officer of Diversity Lab,
Wheeler said, “Each year ChIPs recognizes those firms in our industry that are delivering diversity, equity and inclusion results. The ChIPs Honor Roll is based on Diversity Lab’s Inclusion Blueprint, a joint research initiative between ChIPs and Diversity Lab.” More than 240 firms submitted data for the Inclusion Blueprint.
Ulrich noted that “the Inclusion Blueprint measures key benchmarks – diversity representation thresholds at or above average; year-over-year diversity representation tracking and year-over-year progress; and meaningful inclusion practices and activities.
Five firms were recognized for 2022: Orrick, Perkins Coie and WilmerHale for Excellence in Gender Inclusion; and Morgan Lewis and Nixon Peabody for Excellence in Inclusion for All.
In the Gender Inclusion category, Orrick was cited for “one of the highest scores for diversity representation in firm leadership among all the 240-plus submissions. They also “increased representation of women year over year at nearly every leadership level measured.” Perkins Coie scored the highest on Firm Leadership of any of the 240 plus law firms, and have an equity partnership that consists of more than 30 percent women.
WilmerHale’s IP Practice Group “earned the highest score of all IP submissions for gender equity and inclusion — in fact, it was the closest to 100% ever seen,” Stacy noted.
In the Inclusion for All category, Morgan Lewis “really stood out for its achievements relating to lawyers with disabilities,” Wheeler said. Nixon Peabody “stands out for the representation of LGBTQ+ lawyers in leadership and their IP practice group.”
Accepting the awards were Karen Johnson-McKewan on behalf of Orrick; Sarah Piepmeier on behalf of Perkins Coie; Monica Grewal on behalf of WilmerHale; Julie Goldemberg on behalf of Morgan Lewis; and Erica Van Loon on behalf of Nixon Peabody.
For Q&As with each of the five firms and best practices on diversity, equity and inclusion in the profession, read our ChIPs Honor Roll 2022 Report.
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Sounds like the fire got out of control!