Dewey & LeBoeuf

Eric M. Reifschneider

Partner

Eric Reifschneider is the Managing Partner of the Northern California offices and the Chair of the firm's global Technology and Intellectual Property Group. His clients include leading companies in the semiconductor, software, hardware, wireless communications, insurance and renewable energy industries.

Mr. Reifschneider has prepared and negotiated agreements for a wide range of technology-based transactions, including intellectual property asset acquisitions, joint ventures, patent licenses and litigation settlements, semiconductor wafer manufacturing, solar panel production line sales and university collaborations and spin-outs. He is also highly experienced in the intellectual property aspects of mergers and acquisitions.

For two years, Mr. Reifschneider headed the Semiconductor Entrepreneurship Program of M.I.T. Club of Northern California; he now serves on the club’s board of directors. As a member of the Committee on Negotiated Acquisitions of the ABA, Mr. Reifschneider was the primary editor of the Model Stock Purchase Agreement published by the ABA in 1995.

Mr. Reifschneider was named a "Leading Lawyer" for Technology: Transactions by Legal 500 US in 2010 and 2011. In 2008, he was included in Lawdragon's "500 Leading Lawyers in America" and in The Best Lawyers in America. In 2007, he was recognized as one of The Daily Journal's "Top 20 to Watch under 40" lawyers in California. In 2006, he was recognized in Lawdragon's "500 New Stars, New Worlds" as "a tech transactions titan" who "tallies big deals for semiconductor, software and wireless clients."

Mr. Reifschneider has lectured frequently on a wide range of technology and intellectual property topics. Recent speaking engagements include:

GSMA Mobile Asia Congress IPR Legal Summit: U.S. Patent Exhaustion (November 2010);
Practising Law Institute: Advanced Patent Licensing 2010 (October 2010);
Licensing Executives Society, Silicon Valley Chapter: Patent Reform on Trial (June 2010);
University of Texas at Austin – Technology Law Conference: Special Licensing Issues Involved with Spin-Outs: Joint IP, Cross-Licensing and More (May 2010);
Silicon Valley GC Convergence: Licensing and Litigation Trends (May 2010);
West Legal Works – Advanced Patent Licensing (chair) (November 2008);
Licensing Executives Society, Silicon Valley Chapter – Industry Standards: Friend or Foe? (June 2008);
Silicon Valley Association of General Counsel: Patent Cross-Licenses – Traps for the Unwary (December 2007);
Law Seminars International – Technology M&A: Conducting the IP Due Diligence Investigation (September 2007);
West Legal Works – Drafting and Negotiating Patent License Agreements (chair) (May, June 2007);
Licensing Executives Society: Is an IP Holding Company Still Just a Troll? Licensing and Enforcement Strategies for IP Holding Companies and Others (April 2007);
Licensing Executives Society: Trans-National Patent Licensing (October 2005);
Los Angeles Intellectual Property Law Association – Spring Seminar 2004: Drafting Problem Free License Agreements (May 2004);
American Conference Institute – Advanced Forum on Intellectual Property: Structuring Intellectual Property Rights in Joint Ventures/Strategic Alliances (December 2003);
Licensing Executives Society: Advanced Patent Licensing (October 2003);
National Conference and Research Group – The Advanced Legal Business Forum: IT Outsourcing (March 2003);
Fabless Semiconductor Association: Fabless Q&A Series: Optimizing Intellectual Property Business: Fact, Fiction & Necessity (March 2003);
American Conference Institute: Advanced Technology Licensing Conference (June 2002);
Santa Clara University – IP and Tax Legal Challenges for the High Tech Industry: Disposing of the IP Assets of a Troubled Company (May 2002); and
Practising Law Institute: Doing Deals: Software Licensing (2000-2003).

Before joining Dewey & LeBoeuf, Mr. Reifschneider was a partner and firmwide head of the Technology Transactions Group at a major Bay Area firm. Prior to that experience, Mr. Reifschneider worked at Motorola, Inc. in Schaumburg, Illinois. Preceding his time at Motorola, he practiced corporate law at a large Chicago firm.

Mr. Reifschneider graduated magna cum laude from Harvard Law School in 1992, where he served as executive editor of the Harvard Law Review and was the primary editor of the casebook Sports and the Law. He has Bachelor of Science degrees in Physics and Mathematics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he graduated first in his class and was named the top scholar-athlete in his senior class.

Selected Activities

Member, American Bar Association
Member, California Bar Association
Member, Licensing Executives Society – Silicon Valley Chapter
Member, American Intellectual Property Association

Education

Harvard Law School, 1992, J.D., magna cum laude; Executive Editor, Harvard Law Review
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1989, B.S. (Physics), B.S. (Mathematics)