The Women, Diversity & Change Summit: Boston

Leslie Pearlson serves as Senior Litigation and IP counsel at LogMeIn, a cloud based software company. Ms. Pearlson oversees all company litigations, including numerous patent disputes, as well as manages LogMeIn’s patent and trademark portfolios.  Prior to working at LogMeIn, Ms. Pearlson was a patent litigator at Wilmerhale.  In addition, Ms. Pearlson has an active pro bono practice supporting the Women’s Bar Foundation’s Family Law Project, providing free legal services to survivors of domestic violence.  

Karen is a Senior Vice President and Deputy General Counsel for the Litigation and
Coverage Group, Liberty Mutual Insurance Company. Her team is responsible for the management of all litigation brought against and on behalf of the Company, provides enterprise-wide coverage advice and opinions, electronic discovery services in support of litigation and handles all third party subpoenas for the enterprise.

Prior to joining Liberty Mutual in 2006, Karen was an attorney with John Hancock Financial Services, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Manulife Financial Corporation. She held the position of Vice President and Counsel, responsible for the management of the Company’s litigation and employment law functions. Karen previously held various legal positions in the public sector.

Karen is a member of the Board of Trustees for Lesley University, Cambridge, MA, Bridge Over Troubled Waters, Boston, MA, and the Board of Overseers for Beth Isreal Deaconess Medical Center.

Karen is a graduate of Tufts University, Medford, MA and received her J.D. from Northeastern University School of Law in Boston. 

Melanie L. Todman’s practice focuses on advising clients in internal governmental investigations and complex civil litigation relating to securities, insurance and reinsurance, commercial and product liability, government procurement, and municipal law. Melanie serves as a board member of the Massachusetts Appleseed Center for Law and Justice and a delegate for the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce’s City Awake program. She was selected as a member of the 2017-2018 class of the Women’s Leadership Program sponsored by the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce.

I bring 21 years of experience as a technology and intellectual property transactions lawyer and currently serve as Executive Director and Head of the Intellectual Property/Technology law practice group at Aetna Inc., one of the nation’s premier provider of health care, dental, pharmacy, disability insurance. In my eight plus years at Aetna, I served a strategic role as the lead counsel on a number of pioneering initiatives including Aetna’s launch on social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook, lead counsel to the Digital Accessibility Center and instrumental in proactively establishing an Enterprise Digital Accessibility policy. I also led a strategic mission to build an Enterprise Patent Strategy and launch a Patent Center of Excellence. At Aetna I oversee all legal and strategic enforcement and maintenance issues relating to the Aetna enterprise and its subsidiaries’ intellectual property assets. In addition, my work focuses on brand counseling, IP licensing, advertising reviews, media, technology and software legal issues, oversight of the patent portfolio and social media. 

Before Aetna, I served as Senior Corporate Counsel at W.W. Grainger, Inc. where I was lead counsel to one of its subsidiaries, Lab Safety Supply. Prior to my inhouse career, I spent eight years in private practice as an IP and Technology Transactions lawyer at Kirkland & Ellis (Chicago office) specializing in technology and business process outsourcing and other IP transactions. 

I am a member of the PLI Faculty and a panelist on the Risks of Social Media at the Financial Services Technology Seminar for the past 4 years. I serve on the Board for the South Asian Bar Association of Connecticut and am a member of the In-House Practitioner’s Committee for the International Trademark Association. 

Aside from the practice of law, music is a passion and I love to sing. Of course nothing beats dreaming of what I could have been had I not been an IP lawyer.

Kate Peterson is Vice President and Senior Counsel for Employment & Litigation at Citizens Financial Group, Inc., a highly-regulated global banking and financial services company with over 17,500 employees. Kate is responsible for advising Citizens Bank and subsidiary entities on all labor and employment matters, including those relating to wage and hour issues, leaves of absence or accommodations, workplace investigations, reductions-in-force, and post-employment restrictive covenants. Kate provides strategic advice on projects and initiatives that impact Citizens’ colleagues as well as day-to-day guidance, training, and solutions. She has a comprehensive employment law counseling practice and partners closely with Citizens’ employee relations function. Kate also manages a broad range of employment-related litigation and investigations and provides advice to internal business clients in a complex, fast-paced environment. Kate effectively partners with division heads, human resources, compliance personnel, and key stakeholders to meaningfully respond to and defend litigation or regulatory inquiries. She is also frequently called upon to train Citizens’ colleagues and managers on employment law issues, with an eye towards compliance practices and risk mitigation.

Throughout her career, Kate has been a frequent speaker on a variety of labor & employment topics, ranging from wage & hour issues and ADA/FMLA concerns to the impact of social media on the workplace and related privacy implications.

Before joining Citizens, Kate was a labor & employment litigator counselor at Sullivan & Worcester LLP in Boston and Hinckley, Allen & Snyder LLP in both Boston and Providence.  Kate received her BA from Providence College and her JD and MPH from Boston University.

General Counsel and executive with significant high-tech experience. Focused on commercial contracts, intellectual property, information technology, licensing and strategic initiatives. Key accomplishments include: establishing a global legal function; drafting and negotiating complex commercial agreements and, working closely and effectively with sales and support organizations to facilitate revenue generation and growth. Proven achievement in entrepreneurial settings. Recognized for strong analytical skills and practical business judgment. Ability to communicate clearly and effectively with internal business clients, customers and partners.

Cheryl Pinarchick is a partner in the firm's Boston office and a founding Co-Chair of the Pay Equity Practice Group. She represents employers in all areas of employment law.

Cheryl has extensive trial experience in state and federal courts throughout the United States. She has successfully defended employment lawsuits alleging wrongful termination, employment discrimination, sexual and other forms of harassment, wage and hour violations, retaliation and other related claims. She has also successfully prosecuted trade secret and non-competition agreements in numerous jurisdictions.

Cheryl counsels employers on compliance with the law in areas such as pay equity, employment discrimination, wrongful termination, reductions in force, FMLA and leave laws, sexual harassment, and wage & hour matters, including issues related to employee classification. Cheryl also assists employers in their liability prevention efforts by conducting employee training, preparing handbooks and implementing policies, as well as conducting wage and hour and pay equity audits.

With the patchwork of emerging state and local pay equity laws, Cheryl has been dedicating significant time to the legal issues surrounding pay equality, state pay equity legislation and litigation and pay equity compliance audits.  She is a frequent presenter on pay equity both locally and nationally.

Marianne L. Kotubetey is Senior Corporate Counsel at OSRAM SYLVANIA, a consumer goods and electronics manufacturing company with its US headquarters in Wilmington, MA.  There, she serves as a strategic legal partner for various internal functions and business units, including Sales, Finance, Real Estate Logistics, and Compliance.  Prior to that, she was a Vice President and General Counsel at State Street Bank, where she supported the Cash Management and Global Operations functions.  She started her legal career at Cravath, Swaine and Moore in New York, where her primary focus areas were securities and banking corporate transactions, and then moved to the law firm of LeBoeuf, Lamb in Boston.

Marianne, who was born and raised in West Africa, is a graduate of the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service and Howard University School of Law.  She lives in Winchester, Massachusetts.

Chandrika Vira is a director in Sterne Kessler’s Trial & Appellate and Biotechnology & Chemical Practice Groups. Chandrika represents clients in complex patent litigations in federal district courts, in contested proceedings before the Patent Trial and Appeal Board, and before the Federal Circuit on appeal.

Chandrika has litigated cases involving a broad range of technologies in the pharmaceutical, biotechnological arts, and electrical arts. Chandrika focuses her practice on litigating cases involving small-molecule pharmaceuticals under the Hatch-Waxman Act and biologics and biosimilars under the Biologics Price Competition and Innovation Act (BPCIA).

In 2017 and 2018, Chandrika was named a "Rising Star" in Intellectual Property by Super Lawyers.

Prior to law school, Chandrika worked as a consultant for two technology companies where she advised companies on implementing technological solutions. While in law school at The George Washington University, Chandrika participated in the Law Students in Court Clinic where she had the opportunity to represent clients in the Superior Court of the District of Columbia in the Criminal Division. Chandrika received her B.A. in molecular biology from Coe College.

Eileen Martin leads the diversity and inclusion strategy (D&I) for EMD Serono (Merck Kgaa), where she focuses on all aspects of diversity, to promote a culture where everyone feels valued. In her role, Eileen supports initiatives that promote diversity, equity, access, and inclusion. Eileen is the co-founder of Women in Leadership for the U.S. headquarters of EMD Serono, and leads a team of global executives at Merck Kgaa, whose goal is to develop strategy to get more women into leadership roles in healthcare.  Before joining the human resources team at EMD Serono, Eileen served as the Regional Account Manager for New England.

Eileen’s background in business leadership spans twenty years in the pharmaceutical industry and includes roles of increasing responsibility in sales, sales management and account management within the manufacturer and insurer space.  Before joining EMD Serono, Eileen worked on the insurer side as a National Account Executive with Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts. There she was responsible for securing the retention and growth of national and international employer clients. Prior to her tenure at Blue Cross Blue Shield, Eileen served as a National Account Executive at Merck & Co. In that role, she was accountable for the profit and loss of contracts with several leading Northeast health plans. She worked as a Merck District Business Manager in the greater Boston market and was the first to pilot a position as Provider Group Manager, acting as sole liaison to large Massachusetts integrated delivery networks. That pilot evolved into a national rollout of the defined role throughout Merck US. 

Eileen is a multiple time award winner in her sales and management roles. Her accolades include EMD Serono’s Elite Award, Merck US Master’s and President’s Clubs. She holds an M.B.A, in Marketing and Healthcare Management, and a B.A. in English. 

Dr. Kelly Morgan leads Arbor's legal team to safeguard the company's research activities and drive the IP strategy for short and long term growth.  Prior to joining Arbor, Dr. Morgan worked with multiple start-up companies at a premier venture firm to guide development of initial IP, as well as educate and train early team members.  Originally trained as a cancer immunologist, Dr. Morgan brings over a decade of post-graduate experiences, both from her research bench and law firm training, aiding in opportunistic research design with proven impact on corporate development.  

Suffolk University Law School, JD.

Ellen Wong is a patent attorney at Microsoft Corporation, where she is part of the patent portfolio development team, supporting Azure IoT, Azure Storage, and Windows Silicon, Graphis, and Media Device Platform.  She has worked on a variety of IP projects: counseling clients on IP issues, working on projects for licensing, partnering with engineers to identify and patent cutting edge technology, and evaluating patent applications during the lifetime of the patent.  Prior to her experiences at Microsoft, Ellen was an IP litigator at Foley & Lardner LLP in Boston and served on several trial teams. Ellen obtained her B.S. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at MIT and a J.D. from Boston College Law School.

Ms. Perrelli is a partner and the immediate past Chair of Seyfarth’s national Litigation Department. In her tenure as Chair, the Department’s practice groups were awarded numerous honors for superb legal work and innovation, including Law360 Transportation Group of the Year; U.S. News Best Lawyers and Best Law Firms in Construction, Commercial Litigation, and Appellate Law; BTI Litigation Outlook “Honor Roll” recognition in Class Actions, Securities and Finance Litigation, IP Litigation, Complex Commercial Litigation, Everyday Commercial Litigation, and Product Liability Litigation; Top ranking in Trade Secrets by The Legal 500 USA, and numerous national and regional recognitions by Chambers USA.

Ms. Perrelli’s practice is national in scope and includes a wide variety of complex commercial and employment matters, including business and contract disputes, unfair competition, trade secret misappropriation and other intellectual property theft, restrictive covenant litigation, real estate litigation, franchise litigation, wrongful termination, and business torts. Her practice also includes counseling regarding employer compliance with the ADA, ADEA, Title VII, FLSA, and other state and governmental laws affecting employers. She is also frequently retained to conduct internal workplace misconduct and other corporate investigations. 

Ms. Perrelli is also a leading authority on the law of trade secrets and noncompetes. In addition to representing clients on such matters across the country in federal and state trial courts, arbitrations and mediations, she is a frequent speaker and writer on these topics. She also counsels clients on minimizing litigation risks and protecting confidential and proprietary business information and trade secrets. These services include preparation of individual and multi-state employer noncompete, non-solicit, nondisclosure and other restrictive covenant agreements; advice regarding onboarding of employees or groups of employees from a competitor, or departing employees joining a competitor; and preparation and implementation of trade secret protection programs, including trade secret audits.

Ms. Perrelli is a certified Six Sigma Green Belt. Using Lean Six Sigma and project management methodologies, the SeyfarthLean approach delivers increased value to our clients at a time of increased market pressures and competitive demands. Ms. Perrelli applies these principles to her practice and also counsels clients on the use of lean six sigma, process improvements, data analytics, and project management in legal processes. She also has considerable experience in and is a frequent speaker on devising and managing alternative, value-based fee structures.

Ms. Perrelli is a member of the ABA Intellectual Property Law Section and chair of the “Interaction with Employment Law” topical subcommittee of the Trade Secrets Committee.

Ms. Perrelli has been selected regularly as one of the state’s “Super Lawyers” in Business Litigation and “Top Women Lawyers” in a joint survey conducted by the publishers of Law and Politics magazine and Boston magazine, as part of a special publication entitled “The Top Attorneys in the Northeast.”  She was also selected by U.S. News as a “Best Lawyer” in commercial litigation.

Stacie Aarestad is a partner at Foley Hoag and Co-Chair of the firm's Capital Markets Practice. She focuses on corporate and securities law matters, public company representation and merger and acquisition transactions. Stacie represents issuers in a broad range of capital market transactions, including public and private offerings of debt and equity securities, and also advises companies with respect to tender offers, exchange offers, debt repurchases and stock buybacks.

A significant portion of Stacie’s practice includes counseling public company clients on their ongoing reporting obligations, corporate governance and related regulatory matters. She also regularly counsels clients with respect to Section 16 matters, insider trading regulations, executive compensation matters and various other matters affecting public companies and their officers and directors.

Stacie has more than fifteen years of experience advising companies in the life sciences industry. In addition to representing these companies in capital market transactions, Stacie acts as outside general counsel in ongoing issues of corporate governance.

Jessica Eisenhaure is an experienced healthcare attorney and executive. She is currently General Counsel and Vice President at Corrona, the leading provider of real world observational data for autoimmune diseases. In this role, she is tasked with helping the company grow while successfully navigating the constantly evolving healthcare and business law landscape, including FDA regulation, mergers and acquisitions, intellectual property, compliance, employment and privacy. 

Before joining Corrona in 2015, she was Associate General Counsel at Fresenius Medical Care, a $20 billion health care company with 110,000 employees that focuses on delivering care to people with renal and other chronic conditions. Previously, she worked at the law firms of Holland & Knight and Gardner Carton & Douglas. 

Jessica holds a J.D. from the Georgetown University Law Center in Washington, D.C. and a B.A. from Haverford College in Pennsylvania. 

Nancy Cremins joined Globalization Partners in April 2016. Nancy is known as one of Boston’s top lawyers for startups and entrepreneurial ventures, having been named as a Top 50 Women in Law, one of Boston’s “40 Under 40,” and “Fifty on Fire.” Prior to joining Globalization Partners, Nancy got extensive experience in the areas of employment law and conflict resolution over the past 10 years at notable firms such as Gesmer Updegrove LLP and Robinson & Cole LLP. Additionally, Nancy does incredible work within the community supporting female entrepreneurs. She’s the co-founder of an organization called SheStarts, and is also a board member for several non-profit organizations.

Nancy is a graduate of Boston College and the Northeastern University School of Law. She is a member of several societies including the Women’s Bar Association of Massachusetts.

Dr. Markowski focuses her practice on intellectual property law, where she has experience in inter partes review, district court litigation, IP procurement, counseling, opinions, and competitive strategy. She has extensive experience in researching, drafting, and prosecuting patent applications in the United States and worldwide.

Christina Licursi serves on Wolf Greenfield’s Executive Committee and is a shareholder in the firm’s Trademark & Copyright Practice Group where she advises clients on branding strategies and understanding the business and legal risks associated with the adoption, use, and registration of trademarks. She is very active in the Boston start-up ecosystem. She has a strong business acumen and demonstrated ability to work closely with all levels of business. Her clients cover a variety of industries, including biotechnology, e-commerce, food and beverage, clothing, medical devices, and software and telecommunications.

Ms. Connolly draws from her substantial legal experience in and out of the courtroom to assist her clients with complex commercial disputes in a variety of industries, including banking, investment advising, healthcare, aviation, telecommunications, and entertainment. Ms. Connolly understands that a business's legal strategy fits within its overall business strategy and she is deeply invested in resolving legal disputes in the most advantageous way possible for each of her clients' business needs.

Ms. Connolly joined FITCH after practicing at Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP in New York City and Goodwin Procter LLP in Boston. Her legal experience has involved highly complex, front-page civil and criminal litigation. Her civil litigation work has involved matters of fraud, contract disputes, partnership disputes, antitrust, securities, and intellectual property. Ms. Connolly's criminal matters have involved allegations of fraud, including securities fraud and health care fraud, public corruption, and violations of antitrust, campaign finance, and tax laws.

Ms. Connolly also has substantial experience in alternative dispute resolution, successfully arbitrating and mediating numerous cases on behalf of her clients.

In addition to her work in civil and criminal disputes, Ms. Connolly has conducted internal investigations for her clients, including investigating allegations of violations of tax laws, securities laws, the Federal Anti-Kickback statute and other civil and criminal violations.

Ms. Connolly is a member of the Editorial Board of the Commercial Lending Litigation.

Sara Sweeney is an experienced civil litigator who, in private practice, focused her trial practice on professional liability defense, employment law, business litigation and insurance coverage issues. Ms. Sweeney currently serves as in-house counsel for FM Global, an international commercial property insurer with over 6,000 employees. 

In her capacity as legal counsel, Ms. Sweeney oversees all aspects of litigation management, including investigation of potential subrogation actions and involvement in various insurance coverage matters. Ms. Sweeney is skilled in alternative dispute resolution, having handled numerous arbitrations and mediations, which she continues to participate in on behalf of FM Global. Most recently, Ms. Sweeney has been tasked with developing and implementing FM Global’s Records Management Policy.

Ms. Sweeney served as a student law clerk to Rhode Island Supreme Court Justice Paul A. Suttell and was past President of the Rhode Island Women’s Bar Association. In 2016, she graduated from Leadership Rhode Island, a community leadership development program that provides emerging leaders with knowledge and access to resources that enable them to positively impact their communities.

She is admitted to practice in Rhode Island, Massachusetts and Connecticut state courts, as well as the U.S. District Court, District of Rhode Island and the United States Supreme Court bars.

Denise is Senior Director of IP at Boston Scientific. Previously she held IP Counsel responsibilities at Velcro and Partner at Preti Flaherty.

She's a charismatic, dedicated, and occasionally witty intellectual property counsel and former first-chair patent and trademark litigator. Denise is experienced with a wide range of patented technologies, including medical devices, software, chemical, plastics, and biochemical materials.

Specialties: Intellectual property portfolio strategy and prosecution management; complex patent, trademark, and trade secret litigation; IP transactions and licensing; and, mergers and acquisitions.

Boston University School of Law, JD

Kimberly B. Herman is a partner in the Corporate Department of our Boston office and leader of the firm's Intellectual Property Group. Kim’s practice spans the United States, Europe and the Middle East and emphasizes the law and business of intellectual property. In particular, her practice focuses on structuring and negotiating complex commercial transactions dealing with media and entertainment (including representation of clients in the news, documentary, motion picture and cable network industries), First Amendment and privacy issues, gaming, sanctioned gambling and e-sports, software, music and art on behalf of leading media, entertainment, technology and consumer-products companies, as well as filmmakers, project financiers, artists, museums and art galleries. This representation extends to Kim assisting her clients in exploiting their brands, content and programming into different markets and entertainment distribution platforms through a variety of licensing, merchandising, publishing, sponsorship, agency and endorsement deals.

Courtney Worcester is a partner and litigation lawyer in the Boston office of Foley & Lardner LLP. Her practice focuses on complex commercial litigation involving corporations, venture capital and private equity firms, financial institutions and their directors and officers. She has represented clients in corporate governance, federal securities and shareholder litigation matters, including federal securities and consumer class actions, stockholder derivative litigations, and internal corporate investigations. In addition, she is experienced in diverse commercial litigation matters, ranging from contractual disputes to the protection of trade secrets, unfair competition, and other business torts. She is a member of the firm's Securities Enforcement & Litigation, Private Equity & Venture Capital and Business Litigation & Dispute Resolution Practices.

Stacie’s practice focuses on intellectual property litigation, due diligence and client counseling, with an emphasis on the life sciences. Her IP counseling and due diligence experience includes extensive counseling for product development efforts relating to biologics and reconstructive biomaterials, including products that utilize adult stem cells. In addition, Stacie has served on the trial team for several patent lawsuits involving major pharmaceutical companies.

Prior to attending law school, Stacie held a faculty position at SUNY Upstate Medical University. She also spent many years as a research scientist in the fields of neurology, virology and immunology, both at Northwestern University and SUNY Upstate Medical University, and has presented her original research at numerous scientific conferences.

Delphine Knight Brown is a litigator whose practice focuses on complex intellectual property and technology cases. Her patent litigation experience, including Hatch-Waxman cases for several generic pharmaceutical companies, has involved pharmaceutical, medical device, computer software and hardware, and business method patents as well as misappropriation of trade secret claims and unfair competition matters. Delphine also handles complex copyright and trademark infringement and licensing matters.  

Delphine’s experience includes representing foreign corporations and their subsidiaries and affiliates in legal proceedings in the United States. She represents corporations in state and federal courts nationwide in pretrial, trial, arbitrations and appellate proceedings.

Heather B. Repicky is a partner of Nutter McClennen & Fish LLP where she focuses her practice on civil litigation, with an emphasis on intellectual property matters. She works alongside her clients to resolve their complex IP disputes throughout all stages of the litigation lifecycle—pre-trial, trial, and appeal. For example, Heather has acted as lead trial counsel in both jury and non-jury trials in several jurisdictions throughout the country.

Because Heather spends the majority of her time counseling clients on IP, she has a depth of knowledge on patent, trademark, copyright, and trade secret issues facing companies both large and small from both a business and legal perspective. This substantive knowledge, combined with her strategic thinking, garners positive results for clients in cases across the country. The District of Massachusetts, however, is truly her home court. Because Heather brings a unique local perspective to cases in the Commonwealth, she has been recognized by several Fortune 500 companies who have retained her as counsel for their patent litigation in Massachusetts.