Immersed in IP

BY JEFF

“Would you still be interested?” they asked. “Definitely,” he said.

Collopy was already interested in intellectual property when he arrived at W&L Law in 1978. When one law school asked him to write an essay predicting what he thought he’d be doing in five years, he wrote that he would be working in Asia for an electronics company as an IP attorney.

“When I happened to find that essay 10 years later, I was working in Singapore for Motorola as an IP attorney,” he said. “It took 10 years, but I’d gotten there.” coming. We were never able to catch anybody in Thailand,” said Collopy, who also trained U.S. Customs agents to spot counterfeit Motorola products.

After assignments in Florida, Singapore and Phoenix, he landed with the burgeoning cellular division in Chicago, where he and colleagues met with inventors pitching new products.

From prosecuting murder trials in Southwest Virginia to executing a $6 billion deal to sell Motorola’s Asia facilities, DAN COLLOPY ’81L’s legal career has been anything but dull.

Take, for instance, that time someone broke into his home and burned it to the ground, leaving Collopy’s wife tied up on the back porch. He’d been a prosecuting attorney for about 4 ½ years by then and was assisting a federal investigation into an arson-forhire case at the time.

Two days later, Collopy got a call from an Atlanta firm where he’d interviewed for an IP job five years earlier.

60s

1969L

J.D. Humphries (’66) is retiring after practicing law for 52 years, most recently with Smith, Gambrell & Russell in Atlanta. 70s

1971L

David Baird and his wife, Stephanie, were honored for their volunteerism and support of the Christus Foundation for HealthCare at its 17th Annual Spring Luncheon.

Collopy took an in-house position with Motorola in 1989. He’d been there five years when he joined the company’s Singapore office, where he engaged in lobbying and negotiating cellular and paging standards with governments in Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and China. Counterfeit pagers had been proliferating, and he led anti-counterfeiting raids in Malaysia and worked with the Chinese government on the problem.

“We went into Thailand, but it was difficult there because you would present the subpoena at the local police station, and they’d send one of their guys to warn the people we were

80s

1982L

Dana Petersen Moore was named chief equity officer for the City of Baltimore’s Office of Equity and Civil Rights. Moore’s responsibilities include upholding local and federal civil rights and wage laws, as well as providing oversight of the Baltimore Police Department.

1987L

Scott H. Tucker has become a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers. He is a partner with Friday, Eldredge & Clark and head of the railroad litigation practice group.

1988L

Richard K. Welch is retiring from the Federal Communications Commission after a 32-year career. For the past 10 years he has served as

“I remember how this one guy brought in a fairly large phone with a screen on it. He said he wanted to address the teenage market. This was 1999, and cell phones were used primarily for business,” Collopy said. “He said the screen let you take a picture of the person on the other end of the line, which was something he thought would appeal to the teenage market.

“He turned to me and asked whether he could get a patent on the camera that he’d put in his phone. And I said, ‘Yes, you could get a patent on it, but who would ever want a camera in a phone?’ ”

After Motorola, Collopy went to Silicon Valley with the semiconductor company Advanced Micro Devices. When his wife became ill, they moved to Atlanta to be closer to grandchildren, deputy chief for appellate litigation in the FCC’s Office of General Counsel.

90s

1990L

Doug Herndon was elected to the Supreme Court of Nevada in Carson City, Nevada.

1991L

Jack Piller and Susanna Piller ’92L have retired from their full-time legal practices in the Adirondack region of New York State and are now working part-time remotely as “of counsel” to Adirondack area law firms. The couple relocated to Lexington, where they are enjoying farming, hiking and cycling.

Rebecca Womeldorf was named reporter of decisions for the Supreme Court of the United States. She will be the 17th reporter of decisions and the second woman to hold the position. The reporter of and Collopy worked remotely as vice president of Ingrassia, Fisher & Lorenz, a Phoenix firm that specializes in IP.

After his wife died in 2010, Collopy returned to Singapore, where he is a principal with the Australian-based IP firm Spruson & Ferguson. He also has teaching and training responsibilities with the IP Academy Singapore and Singapore University of Social Sciences.

Over his nearly 35 years immersed in IP law, Collopy has witnessed a remarkable shift in perception about the field.

“Back in the ’90s, I’d talk with people, CEOs and GMs who were supposed to be making the decisions, and they’d say, ‘Well, what does IP stand for?’ ” he said. “By the later aughts, people were beginning to realize you could extra a lot of value of these IP assets.”

Collopy was clearly onto something when he first set his sights on a career in IP at W&L. “I think W&L had only one IP course, and it was trademarks with Sally Wiant,” Collopy said. “But all my courses — property law, criminal law, labor law — got me started, and I’m grateful.” decisions prepares a syllabus or summary of the Court’s opinions for the convenience of readers. Womeldorf will also be responsible for editing the opinions of the Supreme Court and supervising their printing and official publication in the United States Reports. She will oversee a staff of 10 professionals who examine each of the Court’s draft opinions.

1992L

Michael Carlson joins Fulton County, Georgia, as executive district attorney for the major crimes division. In his role, Carlson will work on a variety of issues, from cold cases to capital murder to public integrity investigation. Known as an expert in the rules of evidence, Mike is the co-author of “Carlson on Evidence,” written with his father, University of Georgia law professor Ronald Carlson, which offers a detailed comparison between Georgian and federal rules on evidence.

Eric Nelson was named managing partner of Smith

Currie in Atlanta. His practice focuses on project disputes related to federal government construction, health care (including hospitals and laboratories) and EPC project delivery (including energy and process facilities).

1995L

Jennifer and Tal Franklin have moved from Dallas to Portland, Maine.

1996L

Kristen Konrad Johnstone joined Parks Zeigler as the managing partner for their Roanoke office. She focuses primarily on family law matters.

Michael Spencer joined Rimini Street in Las Vegas, as group vice president and associate general counsel for ethics and compliance. Rimini Street is a global provider of enterprise software products and services.