Intellectual Property Law Program Full-Time Faculty

Professor Karl S. Okamoto has experienced business law as both an attorney and an entrepreneur. Professor Okamoto was an associate at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom and a partner at Kirkland & Ellis and at Dechert LLP before working as a consultant for Soros Fund Management and becoming senior managing director for Atticus Capital LP. A former executive officer and board member of Harvest Book Company LLC, he was a director of Champps Entertainment Inc. and currently serves on the board of Cosi Inc. His scholarship includes articles in the Washington & Lee Law Review, the Wisconsin Law Review and the Journal of Legal Education, among others.

Adam Benforado

Professor Adam Benforado’s experience in business law includes international transactional work as an associate with Latham & Watkins LLP in London. Professor Benforado also handled trial and appellate litigation matters in telecommunications, international antitrust and commercial contract disputes an associate at Jenner & Block LLP in Washington, D.C. As a scholar, Professor Benforado applies the lessons of social psychology and related fields to law and legal theory, including the means by which corporations advance their goals through the legal system.

Amelia Boss

Trustee Professor of Law Amelia Boss is an internationally recognized expert on legal issues in electronic commerce, a widely published scholar on codifying international commercial law through treaty, a member of the Council of the American Law Institute and the first professor and second woman to chair the Business Law Section of the American Bar Association. Professor Boss worked with the White House and the Department of Commerce under former President Bill Clinton to draft a position paper on global commerce that laid the foundation for U.S. policy in this arena. A member of the Permanent Editorial Board of the Uniform Commercial Code, she has been an integral part of the modernization of commercial law throughout the United States.

Intellectual Property Law Program Adjunct Faculty

Professor Jennifer Lynn Sheridan was a Visiting Professor of Law in the Clayton Center for Entrepreneurial Law at the University of Tennessee, and a teaching fellow at Columbia Law School. Before that, she practiced law in Silicon Valley including serving as General Counsel of two software companies. In addition, she taught for over a decade in the nationally recognized IP/high tech program at Santa Clara Law School. She began her career as a corporate law associate at Simpson, Thacher & Bartlett in New York City, and Brobeck, Phleger & Harrison in Palo Alto, California. She has served on the Executive Committee of the IP section of the California Bar. Her research and scholarly interests focus on intellectual law and policy with a special interest in law and technology theory. Her recent article “Does the Rise of Property Rights Theory Defeat Copyright’s First Sale Doctrine?” was published by the Santa Clara Law Review in 2012.

Professor Paul Dennis Connuck is a partner with Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel, LLP, where his practice concentrates on intellectual property licensing and transactions. He has counseled and litigated in all major areas of intellectual property law on behalf of clients engaged in various industries, including the life sciences (research, development and commercialization of pharmaceuticals, biologics and medical devices), software and systems development and licensing, e-commerce and web publishing, and designer label licensing.

Professor Steven Rocci is a partner in Woodcock Washburn LLP, where he focuses on patent litigation, counseling and procurement, with particular a emphasis on electronics, computer science, telecommunications and Internet technologies. Steve served as an adjunct professor of patent law at Temple University School of Law from 1989 until 2003. He has been named in Chambers USA Guide to America's Leading Business Lawyers, Best Lawyers in America and the Pennsylvania Super Lawyers Guide.

Professor Harold Fullmer helps develop, protect, and leverage intellectual property with one aim: advancing a company’s business goals. Hal is the rare lawyer who has engineered products and managed engineering projects in addition to acquiring, enforcing, and licensing patents. As an engineer and project manager for Allis (Chalmers) Company for 10 years, he also worked in research and development, focusing on mathematical modeling and computational fluid dynamics.