Juanita Brooks, Fish & Richardson. Courtesy photo

Fish & Richardson's Juanita Brooks represented Gilead Sciences at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit and won a precedential decision that not only clarifies the law regarding what is and is not business and litigation misconduct, but has changed how many technology companies handle due diligence and licensing negotiations. Brooks, who is among the 21 lawyers chosen by The Recorder as Women Leaders in Tech Law as part of this year's California Leaders in Tech Law and Innovation Awards, listed another of her cases as this year's favorite in discussing the year with The Recorder.

The Recorder: What's your proudest professional achievement of the past year and why?

Juanita Brooks: 2019 has had many highlights. However, I think that defending Illumina in Scripps Research Institute v. Illumina, prevailing first at the district court, and then at the Federal Circuit, was my proudest professional achievement. I worked closely on the case with Fish partner Craig Countryman, whom I was fortunate to work with on many matters over the years. He was a great lawyer and a dear friend. Craig was the architect of the winning strategy in the Illumina matter, and it was his victory of which I was proud to be a part. We lost Craig to cancer a few days before we received the Federal Circuit's decision.

What's your proudest personal achievement of the past year and why?

My proudest achievement is seeing both of my children's lives take off as they pursue their passions. This past year my son, Jai, moved to Los Angeles where he is pursuing his dream of becoming an electronic music producer. My daughter, Rose, who had been a lawyer in New York, also relocated to LA, where she is working on her Ph.D. with the goal of becoming a university professor.

What's one piece of advice you'd give to a woman starting out in tech law?

I would encourage women starting out in tech law to get involved in organizations that focus on the advancement of women in tech. One such organization is ChIPs, which stands for "chiefs in intellectual property," and was founded by several in-house women lawyers at tech companies. It is a fabulous organization where you can find other women doing what you are doing and feel supported and understood. I recently spoke at the ChIPs global summit, and to see almost 800 women in tech law all in one room was amazing and inspiring.

What concrete steps could be made to increase the number of women in tech law?

There are a lot of steps to be taken, and I am proud to say that at Fish, we are taking many. We have a 1L diversity fellowship program that provides annual fellowships to diverse law students, including women. Fish is one of 50 U.S. firms to have earned the highest designation of Mansfield 2.0 Certified Plus for successfully reaching at least 30% diverse lawyer representation in leadership roles and committees. We also participate in the OnRamp Fellowship program, which helps women reenter the legal profession after taking time off to be with their families. We start instilling the idea that women have a place in tech at a young age. Each year we send more than 30 middle school students to space camp, and many are girls.

The collective consciousness of the tech legal profession needs to be raised. With women not as visible in tech law as men, we all tend to default to putting teams together that are made up largely of men. Personally, I try to rethink each team and make an effort to put women on the team first.