PATENT PROTECTION. ENGINEERED.

I understand that your team has recently developed a novel patent strategy. Can you tell me more about that strategy and how it helps serve as a competitive advantage for Juniper?

Giving the best possible support to our business teams means reevaluating our strategies as we grow in size and expand into different technologies. And as Juniper grew, we realized that each technology area encompassed by the company was at a different growth stage in terms of patent portfolio and strategy. We couldn’t apply the same strategy to every one of those areas; it became much more important to treat each area as its own start-up or business and provide each area with its own individual strategy.

In doing that, we’re ensuring that Juniper is capturing the most valuable innovations, efficiently prioritizing and allocating resources for those innovations, and enabling the company’s agility within the market space.

What a wonderful concept. Can you tell me a bit more about what it means to you to enable and facilitate these kinds of ideas?

The in-house counsel role is often stereotyped: we’re seen as the team that says no or the team that blocks creative projects rather than enabling them. If we want to be trusted advisors and partners to the business, we have to debunk that stereotype and be an enabler of ideas. This means understanding the business goals and helping the business meet those goals.

It’s about finding a healthy balance between legal risk and business gain. It requires having an open dialogue so that I say yes when possible, but I can also be confident expressing when there is a risk, and then work as a team with the business to find a solution. You can gain respect when you are honest but can also help find creative workarounds to meet business goals.

What advice would you give to an up-and-coming executive working in this space?

If something seems scary, say yes. Not everyone gets offered stretch assignments—so instead of worrying about whether I have enough experience, I view it as someone’s belief in my abilities and my grit. And typically, if you’re given such assignments, you will get support from a team and advice when you need it. Say yes.

Shumaker & Sieffert, P.A.:

“Erin has that rare combination of a sharp, experienced legal mind and a talent for developing practical, business-minded solutions. It is a pleasure to work with Erin as she applies these skills to protect the IP of one of the world’s most innovative networking companies.”

–Kent Sieffert, Founder