Legal Elite 2023: Intellectual Property Q&A

Title: Shareholder 

Other legal specialties: IP accounts for about a third of my practice. Another third focuses on employment law, and the rest is a mix of commercial litigation and acting as outside general counsel to small and midsized businesses.

Education: Bachelor’s degree, William & Mary; law degree, University of Richmond

Family: My wife, Tiffany, and I have four daughters, ages 9 through 15. The oldest is learning to drive and doing college visits, which is lots of fun.

Career mentors: The three judges I clerked for were each incredible mentors: District Judge Henry Hudson, District Judge (then Magistrate Judge) David Novak and the late Magistrate Judge Denny Dohnal. Dana McDaniel will never admit to it, but he probably had the most impact on me as a lawyer by forcing me to step back and look at things from multiple angles. Brendan O’Toole guided me when I was a baby lawyer and is still someone I turn to for advice. Elliott Park is someone who mentored me on being a lawyers’ lawyer and a client-minded entrepreneur in my own practice. 

Fan of: The Chicago Cubs, Chicago Bears, Chicago Blackhawks, Chicago Bulls, Chicago deep-dish pizza

What are your thoughts on the use of copyrighted IP as training materials for AI platforms? To me, this really depends on what type of copyrighted material is being used. If we’re talking about code, then it’s hard to imagine that the AI platform will create something that isn’t just an amalgamation of multiple authors’ works. I’m much less worried about training AI with things like music, art, photography or literature, because it seems that we should be able to more easily find ways to protect those original works. But the blend between functionality and authorship with code makes it harder to decipher the line between training AI and simply copying someone else’s work.

Check out the rest of the 2023 Legal Elite.