General Counsel at Cemvita and Gold H2. Advise on matters of legal compliance, contracts, employment law, corporate matters, policies, and safety, among others.

Advise on matters of corporation formation, technology contracts, intellectual property, human resources.

I founded this law practice to assist small businesses with legal matters of technology, data protection and privacy, cybersecurity, intellectual property, and aerospace. I also provide general counsel services for my clients. For more information, see my firm website at https://www.sethjaffelaw.com/.

In my role as the sole cybersecurity attorney at USAA, I worked directly with the CISO to maintain a compliant cybersecurity program. I assisted in preparation of policies and procedures, reviewed the annual risk assessment, and maintained a legal database of applicable cybersecurity laws, rules, and regulations. I worked across all groups, assisting legal counterparts in the banking division and insurance divisions.

As the Vice President of the Incident Response Practice, I focused on leveraging my legal background with fourteen years’ experience in NASA’s Mission Control Center to bring a unique perspective to the incident response industry. Unlike conventional incident response plans, I employed a modular solution of discipline-specific procedures, rule books, and communication protocols that not only improves effectiveness of an incident response team, accelerates training, and facilitates teamwork, but it also saves clients money.

At Southwest Airlines, I was the lead Legal team member for the Incident Response Team (“IRT”). In that role, I was responsible for developing IRT procedures and policies, participating in incident response simulations, facilitating communication protocols with the other team members, and responding to actual incidents, should the need occur. I also sat on a steering committee charged with making strategic decisions about the company IRT plan. In addition, I served the role of technology attorney, where my practice included contract negotiation, intellectual property, and data protection and privacy matters. At Southwest, I worked closely with the information security department in creation of contractual security provisions, with the procurement group in management of our vendor contracts, with the brand and marketing department in prosecution of our trademarks, and with the innovation team in review of our patents and trade secrets.

At Norton Rose Fulbright, I was an associate in the intellectual property practice group and a member of the privacy and data protection group. Capitalizing on my diverse work experience in engineering, project management, emergency response, robotics, and automation, I brought value to my clients by better understanding their business and technology. In the intellectual property ("IP") group, I split my time between patent prosecution, patent litigation, and general IP transactional matters. One of my favorite opportunities at Norton Rose Fulbright was interacting with inventors, where I was able to tap into the effective communication skills used in Mission Control to facilitate knowledge transfer between the inventor and the Firm, allowing for better capture of the invention. My Mission Control experience has also been invaluable as a member of the data protection and privacy group. In that practice, I put to use my emergency management skills in preparing incident response plans for our clients. I also wrote for the Data Protection Report blog, where I tappped into my 15 years of home automation experience to author posts on the Internet of Things. During my time at Norton Rose Fulbright, I was fortunate to author briefs for Markman hearings, Inter Parte Reviews, and summary judgments. I have prepared Freedom-to-Operate opinions, taken cases through discovery, and negotiated patent licensing deals. I enjoyed working with the Corporate Group in performing due diligence projects.

During my tenure at NASA, I was fortunate to certify on both the Space Shuttle and the International Space Station (ISS). Consistent within both programs, however, is the unparalleled training to react to time-sensitive emergency situations. In Flight Operations, I took part in over 100 simulations, either as a flight controller, instructor, or evaluator. I logged over 3000 hours flying the ISS.I acquired significant project management skills at NASA, serving as flight lead for the STS-96 and Increment 16 missions, where I led a team responsible for launch-to-land planning, including contingency protocols for system failures. These skills have translated well into my post-NASA endeavors, and I have been able to leverage the organizational methods of Mission Control in my legal career. Because I was a senior flight controller, I was able to participate in the development of mission flight rules, set policy and standards for flights, and built risk matrices for missions. I became an instructor for command and control skills, resource management, and guidance systems, and created courses in rapid response, and telemetry assessment. One of my favorite roles, however, was as the instructor for effective communication. In the Mission Control environment, seconds count, and I created a rigorous classroom program to teach trainees how to effectively relay the relevant information in the most concise manner within the Mission Control room. In 1999, I did a tour of duty as the NASA liaison for the Russian Space Agency, where I negotiated with Russian personnel to facilitate operations during the beginning years of ISS. I was fortunate to receive the NASA Center Director Award for identifying a singularity in the attitude control software that resulted in a loss of control of the vehicle. I also was awarded the mission plaque award for most valuable technical leadership during Increment 16 for facilitating a propellant saving solar array startup procedure.

Major Offenders Division. Worked with U.S. Coast guard agents on matters of entry into seaports. Worked with EPA agents regarding smuggling case. Authored motion for reconsideration regarding definition of crime of violence within federal sentencing guidelines. Drafted proposed jury instructions.

Authored draft opinion for federal appellate jurisdiction and trademark law case. Composed draft opinion for motion to strike expert testimony.

Drafted order granting summary judgment on the subject of unauthorized communications. Researched ERISA, DTPA, RICO, and Sherman Antitrust issues.

Wrote memos on Medical Liability Insurance Act and Texas Medical Practices Act. Drafted Certificates of Appealability. Researched issues in the areas of the 13th Amendment, standard of proof under the Texas Medical Practices Act, Daubert interpretation, and commercial arbitration.

From the moment I started doing low voltage design work at Professional Robotics, I was hooked on automation. It is a hobby I have continued to this day. I furthered my skills while working in the security system business, becoming familiar with actuator technology, remote sensing and control, video streaming, VOIP, and remote access. This knowledge in hand, I became an early member of a relatively underground home automation community. We experimented in the early hardware of home automation, writing scripts to get the devices to talk to each other. My house is called Laszlo, after a character in the 80's movie Real Genius. Though he has had several phases during his 13-year lifespan, he has been able to control nearly every fixture in my home. As far back as 2003, Laszlo could interact with the tenants of the house, accepting voice commands via in-wall mic, through a networked computer, or over a telephone landline via PCI modem. He controls the alarm system, lights, air conditioning, audio system, and door locks. Before I cut the cable television cord, he auto controlled all of the video in the house, allowing me to stream recorded content from room to room, long before DVRs were mainstream. Laszlo has been connected to fingerprint readers, bluetooth proximity sensors, wireless temperature gauges, and various actuators. As the Internet of Things progresses as the next evolution in technology, I have found many of the legal and technical issues to parallel the problems we experienced in the home automation community. As such, I have been able to leverage this experience for the benefit of my clients, both in the Intellectual Property space, and in counseling on cyber security matters. This space is developing rapidly, and I have been fortunate to begin a multi-part series on the Data Protection Report blog.

For me, photography started when I picked up a 1964 Minolta SLR and snapped a photo of a friend of mine. I had a cursory knowledge of optics because I worked with robotic cameras in my day job, and I was able to marry that with an eye for composition. This was before digital photography, so manipulation of light was very important. Photography was a moonlighting gig for me, but I was quickly able to establish myself in the Chicago catalogue market. I did mostly editorial work with some advertising and campaigns. After Chicago, I worked in Miami and, finally in Sao Paulo and Salvador, Bahia. In any job, I'm always seeking out new ways of doing things. I experimented with many types of cameras for fashion work, including an original Lomo I picked up during my time in Moscow, and a full frame pinhole camera I built on the weekend. Perhaps my best work was a make-up story shot in black and white and then reshot, in part, in color. The double exposure gave it a Photoshop effect without using computers. In drawing from my experience as a photographer, in early 2000 I formed an LLC around Quindarbook.com, a social media website for linking up professionals in the fashion industry. On Quindarbook, users could review the work of others in the field, link to their individual sites, and communicate with them directly. The website also offered instant access to a model, photographer, or stylist's portfolio, saving time and thousands of dollars in messengering fees. Unfortunately, like so many other businesses at the time, mine fell victim to the dot.com bust of March 2000. But I am still proud that I produced a working social media website years before Facebook, Myspace, and even Friendster.

As a contract engineer, I designed and installed commercial security systems for field businesses such as car dealerships, construction sites, and storage facilities. This position entailed working in the field and managing a team of technicians under a tight schedule. In this role, I became well-versed in low voltage and relay electronics, VOIP, CCTV, video streaming, and computer networking. While at Global Axiom, I designed a unique video-enabled security hardware/software package with e-commerce capabilities and embedded video streaming, an anti-kidnapping system, and a neighborhood-based wireless network system. This job had me on the road 24/7, and I enjoyed working closely with our customers, solving problems unique to the location and needs of the job site, and pushing the envelope of the technology available at the time. A good deal of current technologies are based on the protocols I certified in during my time at Global Axiom, and I often use this knowledge to advance the interests of my clients at Norton Rose Fulbright.

Truelook, formerly Perceptual Robotics, has been a leader in controllable video streaming over the Internet since 1999. My primary role was in working with our clients to design and manage video solutions in harsh environments. I installed systems at construction sites, furniture showrooms, car dealerships, and countless other retail businesses. In addition, Truelook pioneered video-enabled fan interaction at sports arenas. I was lucky enough to attend events like the NBA finals and the MBA "Subway Series" of 2000. At Truelook, I became trained on robotic actuators, network protocols, and video streaming. I learned low voltage wiring that would eventually lead to my interest in home automation, the veritable predecessor of the Internet of Things. In addition, I learned to interface with clients, both at the management level and at the technician level, a skill I still use today when doing inventor interviews for patent prosecution.

At the dawn of the personal computer, I obtained a position as an Information Technology engineer at a physician billing service, where I was responsible for a VAX machine and approximately 45 terminals. We also had an interface with PC desktop machines, and I learned the original MS-DOS while at EPBS. Networking was exploding at the time, and I was tasked with designing and installing our first modular wiring system, leveraging the high speed of CAT-5 cable across our entire facility.