Corporate Counsel - March 2010 (Sample Issue)

Women Leaders in the Law®
EMMANUELLE PORTE

Emmanuelle Porte’s practice is focused on corporate, M&A transactions, corporate reorganizations, and venture capital investments.

She has focused on venture capital and emerging companies, advising several biotech-nologies companies, founders, and venture capital investors on financing rounds (from seed to subsequent rounds), build up operations, exit strategies, management and employment incentive plans, and shareholders’ agreements. She also participates in the Life Sciences initiative at Nixon Peabody.

She also has significant experience in IPOs on the NYSE Euronext (Euronext and Alternext), advising banks, listing sponsors, and small to medium-sized issuers from various industries (including a French animal biotech company having 16 subsidiaries in 12 countries).

Ms. Porte has been involved in various domestic and international M&A transactions, from the coordination of due diligence exercises, to the drafting and negotiating of SPAs, warranties agreements, joint ventures, and assets deals (including on listed companies). She also has worked on several management buy-outs.

Attorney at the Paris Bar since 1997, she first worked for Archibald Andersen law firm for eight years before joining the Private Equity team at Taylor Wessing in 2005, where she became a partner in May 2008. She joined Nixon Peabody Paris as a partner in October 2008.

Emmanuelle is a native French speaker and is fluent in English.

JANET GARETTO

Janet Garetto, a partner in Nixon Peabody LLP’s Intellectual Property Department, devotes her practice to intellectual property counseling and litigation. Ms. Garetto has experience with the daily management of the patent and trademark portfolios of her clients and the other patent and trademark-related issues that impact her clients. Her transactional experience in the patent area encompasses drafting and prosecuting patent applications in various chemical and mechanical areas and preparing infringement, invalidity, and due diligence opinions. She has prosecuted patents and provided counseling to clients in a variety of technical areas. Ms. Garetto’s transactional experience in the trademark area encompasses general counseling regarding trademark matters, trademark prosecution, and handling proceedings before the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board. She has assisted companies from diverse industries with trademark and trade dress matters. When litigation or other forms of dispute resolution is necessary, Ms. Garetto’s trial experience includes preparing fact and expert witnesses for trial and drafting motions.

Ms. Garetto has been an active follower of the recent proposed changes at the U.S. Patent Office. In 2006, Ms. Garetto chaired the U.S. Patents Committee for the Intellectual Property Law Association of Chicago (IPLAC). Since then, Ms. Garetto has actively followed the rule changes pending before the U.S. Patent Office and has presented on this subject.

A leader in her field, Ms. Garetto was recently elected as Vice-President of the Intellectual Property Law Association of Chicago. In 2006, she was named as one of the “ 40 Illinois Attorneys to Watch Under 40” by the Law Bulletin Publishing Company. The past three years, Ms. Garetto has been honored as a Rising Star by the Illinois Super Lawyers magazine.