Ken Leppert Jr. Email & Phone Number

United States

United States

San Francisco, California, United States

(Secondment through Axiom Global) • Provided primary legal support for a range of Salesforce products and services, supporting the development, launch, and marketing of new and existing offerings.• Structured and negotiated strategic partnerships, third-party technology integration agreements, SaaS reseller agreements, SaaS white label agreements, and data acquisition agreements.

***Company acquired in 2018 by WeTransfer, BV***• Built the company’s legal function from the ground up; served as trusted advisor and business partner to the company’s CEO and other members of the management team (Product, Engineering, Design, PR, Sales & Marketing, Operations, Support, Community).• Negotiated two venture financings and the sale of the company; managed the company’s equity plan, cap table, and board affairs; negotiated the company’s acquisition of a software company.• Developed an intellectual property strategy and built a portfolio of over 50 patent and 120 trademark assets; sold two IP portfolios that returned cash to the company.• Partnered with the HR team on recruiting, hiring, immigration, performance management, termination, and a major employee restructuring in the company's pivot to an enterprise SaaS business.• Structured and negotiated a wide range of commercial agreements, including technology development, vendor, contractor, master services, and strategic partnership agreements.• Supported the product launches of the company’s Paste SaaS offering and MIX social media platform; developed an SDK licensing program.• Established a global product distribution and sales network for the company's Pencil digital stylus product for ecommerce and brick-and-mortar; navigated U.S. and int'l product regulatory issues.Streamlined numerous processes to make the legal function more efficient; managed outside law firms and reduced legal spend.• Migrated the company to a new PEO/benefits provider, thereby reducing payroll costs and improving employee health insurance coverage.• Provided guidance on data privacy issues and user-generated content; developed acceptable use policies and partnered with the Community team to establish guidelines for action on problematic posts.• Developed an open source software strategy and policy; provided ongoing advice on OSS issues.• Managed real estate affairs, including negotiating leases and subleases.

Led the Microsoft Research Legal Team, providing comprehensive support for the world’s largest computer science research organization and related incubation groups. Managed a wide variety of matters involving intellectual property, open source software, privacy, social media, transactional, human resources, public relations, regulatory, and other issues. Structured and negotiated strategic technical collaboration alliances with other technology companies. Achieved efficiencies in legal support by developing and refining tools, templates, processes, and training.

Launched new startups through IP-for-equity spinouts and divestitures of existing business units, incubations, and technologies in development. Structured and negotiated numerous complex strategic IP transactions with other tech giants.

Structured and negotiated over 30 collaboration, sponsored research, and research consortium agreements. Drove the legal support to establish a joint Microsoft/Intel research program for parallel computing. Supported tech transfer from basic research to prototyping to productization. Frequent speaker and panelist at conferences of professional associations related to scientific research.

Drove legal support for Microsoft’s involvement in numerous technology standards-setting consortia, providing executives with legal and strategic advice on the risks, obligations, and opportunities associated with participation in standards organizations; advised on associated patent, copyright, trademark, trade secret, antitrust, corporate law, and open source software issues. Structured and negotiated multi-party collaboration agreements with industry partners and competitors for the joint development of technical specifications.

(Formerly Preston, Gates & Ellis LLP)Member of the Technology and Intellectual Property Department. Represented clients in the following matters: joint technology development agreements; complex technology licensing transactions; technology standards consortia; international distribution arrangements; technology acquisition transactions; eCommerce/Internet issues (including privacy analysis and counseling, terms of use agreements, domain name disputes and acquisitions, Internet marketing agreements, privacy statements); shrink-wrap and click-wrap EULAs; trade secret counseling and NDAs; trademark analysis, prosecution, PTO office actions, and opposition actions. Presented numerous CLE courses and other presentations related to the Uniform Computer Information Transactions Act (UCITA), and general intellectual property and Internet-related legal issues.

(Formerly LeBoeuf, Lamb, Greene & MacRae LLP)Represented clients in technology and intellectual property matters (including copyrights, trademarks, security interests in intellectual property, disputes involving intellectual property rights, software, and licensing matters), Internet-related issues, due diligence investigations in connection with mergers and acquisitions, the Y2K computer problem, and other commercial and corporate matters. Presented CLE courses on the European Union Community Trade Mark and the Year 2000 computer problem.