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June 23, 2021 Feature

ABA Science & Technology Law Section Nominees for 2021–2022 Section Officer and Council Positions

The Nominating Committee is pleased to announce the following slate of nominees for 2021–2022 Officer and Council positions in the Science & Technology Law Section. The Section membership will vote on the slate of candidates during the Section’s Annual Business Meeting, which immediately follows the Council Meeting on Friday, August 6, 2021, during the ABA Hybrid Annual Meeting.

Chair

Ericka Watson

Chair Elect

Garth Jacobson

Vice Chair

Laura Possessky

Secretary

Joan Bullock

Delegate

Julie Fleming

Council

Brian Scarpelli

Donata Stroink-Skillrud

David Husband

Section Chair

Ericka Watson will stand for election as Section Chair at the completion of the 2021 ABA Hybrid Annual Meeting. Ericka is the Chief Privacy Officer at Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, a leading biotechnology company using the power of science to bring new medicines to patients in need. She has strategic and tactical experience of implementing and enforcing comprehensive corporate privacy programs and cross-business working environments in the management of regulated data. She is responsible for leading the effort to develop and communicate Regeneron’s global data privacy compliance strategy and advises Regeneron on a wide range of business matters and data strategies.

Ericka started her career with GE Healthcare, where she developed and drove their privacy program. She expanded her expertise in healthcare privacy when she joined AbbVie, a global biopharmaceutical company, as their senior privacy leader. She later joined Danaher Corporation, a global science and technology innovator, as their Global Data Privacy and EU Data Privacy Officer. She drove global efforts for these companies, enabling compliance with data protection requirements through strategic partnerships, legal analysis and application, and implementation of tools and awareness programs.

Ericka currently serves as the Section’s Chair-Elect and Co-Chair of the Long Range Planning Committee. She served as Section Council Member (2014–2017), E-Privacy Committee Vice Chair (2017–2018), Healthcare Technology Committee Co-Chair (2016–2017) and Vice Chair (2010–2015), Membership and Diversity Committee Member (2013–2018), and Cyber Security Legal Taskforce Liaison.

Ericka received her BA from CUNY-Hunter College and earned her JD from the University of Wisconsin – Madison. She is currently an active member of the Illinois and Wisconsin Bars.

Section Chair-Elect

Garth B. Jacobson recently retired after serving as a Senior Government Relations Attorney and Compliance Officer for CT Corporation for sixteen years. Previously, he worked at Preston Gates and Ellis LLP and held the position of Chief Legal Counsel to the Montana Secretary of State, where he successfully litigated election law cases before the state trial and appellant courts and federal courts and served on the state bar committees that drafted business entity legislation, including profit and nonprofit corporate acts and revisions to the partnership laws and the limited liability company (LLC) act. He also developed and administered alternative dispute resolution of business name infringements, served on the Montana Ethics Advisory Commission and the Board of Trustees of the State Bar of Montana, and was President of the Montana First Judicial District Bar Association.

Garth served as an observer/advisor to various Uniform Laws Commission business entity drafting committees, participated as an observer on the Series LLC drafting committee, and was the ABA advisor on the Wage Garnishment Committee. He currently serves as the SciTech Section’s Vice Chair, Administration Division Chair, Chair of the Internet of Things National Institute Planning Committee, Long Range Planning Committee Member, and Officer Liaison to the Privacy Security and Emerging Technology Division. He also serves as Chair of the ABA Business Law Section’s LLC, Partnership and Unincorporated Entities Committee. Previously Garth served as SciTech’s Budget Officer and Co-Chair of the E-Filing Committee. He is a member of the bar in Washington and Montana.

Garth received a BA degree in Economics and Philosophy and a juris doctorate and master’s degree in Public Administration from the University of Montana. He holds an LLM in Taxation from the University of Washington. The Counsel of State Governments named him a Toll Fellow for outstanding leadership and service in state government.

Garth has served as a presenter, organizer, or moderator of numerous continuing legal education (CLE) programs and has conducted programs on a variety of topics, including tax law, corporations, LLCs, UCC, service of process, anti-money laundering, and legal ethics. He also taught, as an adjunct professor, business law classes at Carroll College, Helena, Montana.

Section Vice Chair

Laura A. Possessky is Vice President of Business Affairs and Assistant General Counsel with the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Prior to joining CPB she was a partner with Gura & Possessky, PLLC, where she practiced intellectual property, media, and entertainment law and represented clients on transactional matters for media content and technology convergence. Laura currently serves as the Section’s Secretary, Co-Chair, Membership and Diversity Committee, Internet of Things National Institute Planning Committee Member, Long Range Planning Committee Member, and Officer Liaison to the Interdisciplinary Division.

With twenty-five years in leadership in the District of Columbia Bar, Laura currently serves as a D.C. Bar Delegate to the ABA House of Delegates. She was the inaugural Chair of the DC Bar Technology Committee, which convened legal and internet technology professionals to provide advisory guidance on IT modernization for the bar and member services. She has served as President of the Women’s Bar Association of the District of Columbia, Washington Area Lawyers for the Arts, and Docs In Progress.

Laura has frequently lectured and authored articles on the implications of content distribution through digital platforms, including “House of Cards: Will Copyright Issues in Online Distribution Topple Foundations or Revolutionize the Film and Television Industries?’ and “Throwing the Baby Out with the Bathwater: Lenz v. Universal and the Future of DMCA Safe Harbor Takedown Notifications” both of which appeared in Landslide. She was honored with the Woman of Vision Award in 2011 by Women in Film in Video for her contributions to the DC film community and the Frederick B. Abramson Award in 2017 for her outstanding service to the DC Bar.

Laura received her JD from Georgetown University Law Center and her BA, magna cum laude, from the University of Pennsylvania. She is licensed to practice in New York, Maryland, and the District of Columbia.

Section Secretary

Joan R. M. Bullock, MBA, CPA, is dean of Texas Southern University Thurgood Marshall School of Law. She has over thirty years’ experience in the legal academy as a professor of law and over a decade of decanal service. Joan is a Michigan lawyer and CPA who has practiced before the United States Tax Court and provided business advisory services to law firms and various organizations.

Joan currently serves on Council in the Section and has served as Co-Chair of the Membership and Diversity Committee. She is a Fellow of the American Bar Foundation, ABA Law Practice Division Delegate to the House, past Chair of the Law Practice Division, and former member of the Council for Racial and Ethnic Diversity in the Educational Pipeline. Joan has a focus on bringing the legal academy into the twenty-first century in recognition of the impact of technology in law practice operation and on substantive law issues.

Section Delegate to the ABA House of Delegates

Julie A. Fleming served as Chair of the SciTech Section in 2019–2020. A Section member since 1997, Julie has held a variety of roles, including SciTech Council member, Chair of the Biotechnology Committee, Chair of the Life Sciences and Physical Sciences Division, and Editor-in-Chief of The SciTech Lawyer.

Julie practiced law for over a decade, focusing on patent litigation, before launching the legal business development consultancy Fleming Strategic. She is the author of three books: The Reluctant Rainmaker: A Guide for Lawyers Who Hate Selling, Seven Foundations of Time Mastery for Attorneys, and Legal Rainmaking Myths: What You Think You Know About Business Development Could Kill Your Practice. A Fellow of the American Bar Foundation, Julie holds a JD from the Emory University School of Law, a BS from Georgia State University, a BA from Vanderbilt University, and a certificate in leadership coaching from Georgetown University.

Section Council

Brian Scarpelli is Senior Global Policy Counsel at ACT | The App Association, a not-for-profit trade association representing thousands of small business tech firms and software developers. In his role at the App Association, he is responsible for advocacy on a range of legal and policy issues including intellectual property, competition, privacy, cybersecurity, disability access, connected healthcare, and other areas.

A longtime Section member, Brian currently serves as the Program Committee Chair, Vice-Chair of the Artificial Intelligence and Robotics Committee, Vice-Chair of the Big Data Committee, and Vice-Chair of the Internet of Things Committee.

Previous to joining the App Association, Brian worked for over five years at the Telecommunications Industry Association, a trade association representing the interests of telecommunications manufacturers and vendors. He has also spent time with the Federal Communications Commission, the District of Columbia Public Service Commission, and the Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions. He is a graduate of Albion College and Western Michigan University Cooley Law School and is licensed in the Commonwealth of Virginia and the District of Columbia.

Donata Stroink-Skillrud is the President and Co-Founder of Termageddon, LLC, a software as a service company that has generated thousands of Privacy Policies and kept them up to date with changing legislation. Donata is the legal engineer behind the product and has extensive experience drafting policies that comply with various privacy laws and tracking privacy legislation. Donata is a Certified Information Privacy Professional and serves as a Vice-Chair of the ABA Science and Technology Section’s ePrivacy Committee. Donata is also the Chair of the Chicago Chapter of the International Association of Privacy Professionals and often speaks at events on privacy and technology. Donata received her JD from the John Marshall Law School and her BS from Saint Xavier University in Chicago. Donata is licensed to practice law in Illinois.

David Husband is Counsel at the Federal Reserve Board of Governors, where he specializes in privacy and cybersecurity law. He also advises on open data, insider threat, cloud computing, and records issues. He has helped develop the Board’s privacy, incident response, insider threat, and open data programs. Prior to his time at the Board, he was a National Security Appellate Fellow with the Electronic Privacy Information Center, where he co-authored five briefs.

He currently serves as the Section’s Co-Chair of the Law Student Engagement Committee and Vice-Chair for the Homeland Security and E-Privacy Committees. David has been involved with the ABA since law school, serving as the 1st Circuit Governor and joining the SciTech Section as an Emerging Leader with the Young Lawyers Division. David graduated magna cum laude from the College of William and Mary with a BA in History and Government and cum laude from Harvard Law School.

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