Hello! I’m a Professor at Santa Clara University School of Law where I teach courses in intellectual property and technology law, conduct empirical research on the patent system and the criminal justice system, and mentor law students. From 2013-2015 I endured a brutal commute to serve in the Obama White House as a Senior Advisor, Intellectual Property and Innovation, working on a broad range of patent, copyright, technology transfer, open innovation, educational innovation, and other issues. The privilege of public service was worth it.
Prior to joining the Santa Clara University School of Law faculty in 2007, I worked as a patent lawyer for Fenwick & West LLP in San Francisco, as an associate and then Special Counsel, and was a Fellow at the Stanford Center for Law and the Biosciences. I have been honored to receive the American Law Institute’s Early Career Medal and be named an IP "Vanguard," Eric Yamamoto Emerging Scholar, a Tech Law Leader, and one of the 50 Most Influential People in Intellectual Property in the world, the only list I will ever appear on with Angelina Jolie. I'm affiliated with the Stanford Computational Policy Lab and the Markkula Center for Ethics. I grew up an evangelical Christian in southern California, went to engineering school in northern California, worked as an investigative journalist in the Philippines and strategy consultant in Washington DC, and live in Oakland with my husband Dirk Calcoen and our two sons. I like to organize things, particularly gatherings of friends and food.