Driving Diversity in Law & Leadership – Los Angeles

Ted Suzuki is Vice President and Associate General Counsel for AT&T. Currently, his team is responsible for support of Marketing and Growth Organization for AT&T. In this capacity, his team provides legal guidance and support for all consumer and business advertising matters which consists of AT&T’s wireless, broadband and other products and services. In addition, the team supports the company’s Brand and Sponsorship teams. Prior to the AT&T-DIRECTV merger, he was the attorney for DIRECTV’s Sales, Marketing, Advertising and Public Relations functions. In his role, he negotiated numerous deals involving sales, marketing, promotional and advertising matters for DIRECTV, including deals for National television ads featuring such celebrities and athletes like Kate Upton, Rob Lowe, Charlie Sheen, Beyoncé Knowles, Peyton and Eli Manning, Deion Sanders and Albert Pujols, among others.

Lynette M. Jones is the former Deputy General Counsel of Kroenke Sports & Entertainment, home of the 2023 NBA Champion Denver Nuggets and 2022 Stanley Cup-winning Colorado Avalanche. She provided litigation management, risk mitigation, transactional legal services, and other support to KSE’s teams, venues, media entities (TV, radio, and print), sponsorship, marketing, and IT groups.
Prior to her KSE role, Jones was Principal Counsel, Commercial Marketing, at The Walt Disney Company, where she supported the ABC, ESPN, and Freeform networks, as well as the Hulu streaming platform. Disney recruited Jones while she served as Senior Counsel for Warner Bros. Discovery. She provided legal guidance and support to the company’s Theatrical and Home Entertainment Marketing and International Distribution organizations. AT&T, the parent company of Warner Bros., assigned Jones to the marketing and distribution roles in March 2021.
Before Warner Bros., Jones supported the Content Licensing, Distribution & Original Programming teams at DIRECTV and AT&T Entertainment, with emphasis on digital media rights, television production, sponsorships, and AT&T’s Sports Networks that broadcast Major League Baseball, NBA, and NHL games around the country. Jones was responsible for negotiating and drafting talent and production services agreements for DIRECTV’s original NASCAR, NFL, documentary, gaming and special event programs, and managing live concert performance and music licenses for the company’s Emmy® Award-winning customer channel, the Audience Network.
Jones joined DIRECTV (before AT&T’s acquisition of the company in July 2015) as a member of the business affairs team supporting the Advertising, Sales, Marketing & Publicity groups responsible for subscriber acquisition, retention, and business development campaigns. She reviewed promotional materials, sweepstakes, and consumer products for state and federal regulatory compliance. DIRECTV recognized her team with the DIRECTV Innovation Award.
A native Nebraskan and Louisiana transplant, Jones holds a bachelor’s degree in Communication Arts & Sciences from the University of Southern California and a juris doctorate from Southwestern Law School, where she served as Chair of the Trial Advocacy Honors Program.
Jones is active in education and economic empowerment causes. She is Treasurer and a board director of the Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles; board member of the Southwestern Law School Entertainment & Intellectual Property Alumni Association; mock trial volunteer for Teach Democracy; a member of the non-profit scholarship organization Town & Gown of USC; and former treasurer and board director of the Association of Corporate Counsel’s Southern California Chapter. In addition, she led the AT&T Legal Department’s Pro Bono and Diversity committees for the Southern California region.

Sundi Bonfiglio is Associate General Counsel, Labor & Employment and Corporate Affairs and Assistant Secretary for Panasonic Avionics Corporation.  With over 16 years’ experience providing in-house counseling to global technology companies, she currently advises Panasonic Avionics and leads the legal teams that support labor & employment, litigation, legal operations, international expansion and corporate governance.

An imaginative legal strategist with a passion for people, Sundi is repeatedly selected by corporate leaders to navigate delicate personnel matters with sensitivity and courage, and tackle challenging projects that require creative problem-solving, diplomatic collaboration, and tactical savvy. With her theatre background and easygoing charm, she is as comfortable pitching plans in the boardroom as cracking jokes in the breakroom. She excels in environments that value curiosity, authenticity, and diversity of thought.

Prior to her in-house experience, Sundi spent several years practicing labor and employment law at firms in Washington DC, and is proud to call herself a “Double Hoo” of the University of Virginia, where she received both her B.A., Psychology with High Distinction, and her Juris Doctorate.

Cynthia Kao is a Senior Vice President of Business and Legal Affairs at Paramount Global.  She leads a team that focuses on supporting all commercial, operational and strategic initiatives at Pluto TV, Paramount’s free, ad-supported streaming television service.

Prior to joining Paramount Global, she led a team of attorneys at Sony Pictures Entertainment in support of its direct-to-consumer divisions, Crackle and Mobile Games.  Before then, she spent time working in digital advertising technology while at Viant Inc. (then Specific Media).  She began her legal career at Latham & Watkins.

Kevin currently serves as Associate General Counsel, Patents for Meta, where he has pioneered new ways to increase patent submissions from underrepresented inventor groups at Meta. He also counsels on legal issues related to the development of augmented and virtual reality products, including the Meta Quest line of VR products. Kevin currently resides in Southern California. His hobbies include golf and teaching his four-year-old son how to surf.

Karen Rindner has 20+ years of experience as in-house counsel, specializing in labor and employment law.  She holds a bachelor’s degree in political science from Cornell University and received her J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center.

Karen is currently Senior Employment Counsel for Warner Bros., where she engages with corporate clients in the Consumer Products, DC Entertainment and Studio Facilities groups regarding compensation, benefits, employee relations and litigations matters. She is also managing from a legal perspective the implementation of WarnerMedia’s Production Diversity Policy, which is aimed at building a worldwide culture of true belonging. Karen participated on the team tasked with creating and releasing the industry’s first annual Diversity & Inclusion Report.

Prior to her work at Warner Bros., Karen was General Counsel of Fidelis Cybersecurity in Bethesda, Maryland, a worldwide cybersecurity company. She previously held in-house counsel positions at large public companies and private and not for profit companies including Neustar, Sunrise Senior Living, National Geographic, and PBS. 

Jonathan Kwong is the Vice President, General Counsel of the Americas for KARL STORZ, which is a leading global medical device company. There he is responsible for managing the legal affairs of the company and provides strategic legal advice to the business on a broad range of issues, including healthcare fraud and abuse laws, FDA regulations, M&A activities, commercial and IP matters, and products liability litigation. In his role, Jonathan has also led and driven transformational initiatives through the company in the areas of healthcare and regulatory compliance with an emphasis on creating a global culture of compliance, improving effectiveness and efficiency in execution, and remaining competitive in the marketplace. Additionally, he is the proud executive sponsor for the company’s first AAPI employee resource group and is intent on finding ways to not only build community amongst AAPI employees, but to raise up AAPI leaders and establish solidarity with other ERGs.

Prior to KARL STORZ, Jonathan was a senior attorney in the diabetes division of Medtronic and the cochlear implant division of Sonova AG (Advanced Bionics) before that. He received his Juris Doctorate from Boston College Law School and bachelor’s from UC Irvine. He currently resides in Los Angeles with his wife, 5-year-old and 2-year-old sons.

Michelle Choe is Senior Counsel for Apple Media Services at Apple Inc., advising clients across various products and services, including Apple Music, Apple TV, and Apple Fitness+. Prior to joining Apple, Michelle was a technology transactions and copyright litigation associate at Covington & Burling LLP, representing clients on music, software, and entertainment deals, in mergers and acquisitions, and in general commercial, copyright infringement and constitutional rights litigation. She also was an inaugural Barbara A. Ringer Honors Fellow at the U.S. Copyright Office, advising Congress and the U.S. Department of Justice on complex copyright issues and conducting industry-wide policy studies and rulemaking proceedings. Michelle received her J.D. from Columbia University School of Law and her B.A. from Columbia University.

Sanjesh Sharma is Senior IP Counsel at Johnson & Johnson Vision, where she manages all aspects of intellectual property for the company’s Refractive Surgery and Laser Cataract Surgery product lines, including managing domestic and international patent portfolios, litigation support, opposition practice, product clearances, due diligence for asset acquisitions and licensing, as well as copyright and trademark compliance.  Before moving in-house, she worked at various national and global law firms, focusing mainly on patent and trademark litigation, licensing, due diligence, and counseling involving a wide range of technologies, including biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, medical devices, and consumer electronics.

Sanjesh received her undergraduate degree in Microbiology from University of California, San Diego, and her law degree from Loyola Law School.  She currently serves as a member of the Executive Committee and Chair of the Patent Interest Group for the IP Section of the California State Bar.  She regularly speaks on patents and in-house practice, and has been named Rising Star in Intellectual Property by Super Lawyers.