Leaving silicon valley

In Silicon Valley, devices are an essential part of daily life. But many of the tech titans creating these products choose to power down when they leave the office, following industry giants like Bill Gates and Steve Jobs who restricted their own kids' access to technology at home. "Truth About Tech" campaign takes on tech addiction Pierre Laurent, who has worked for companies including Microsoft and Intel, said he and his family typically leave their phones at a table to charge when at home. He says the tech industry designs products to hook users, reports CBS News' Jamie Yuccas.  "I don't think the parents are aware of that. They don't see the consequences because nobody's told them, you know, there's no warning on the product," Laurent said. Pierre and his wife Monica became concerned that their three children would miss out on real-life experiences while on their devices so they decided to limit their screen time. Researchers are still learning more about how … [Read more...] about Why many Silicon Valley parents are raising their kids tech-free

Cat Zakrzewski, The Washington Post Published 6:43 am PDT, Thursday, March 28, 2019 SAN FRANCISCO - Executives from top tech companies and California's attorney general aren't waiting for Washington to take action on pressing tech policy issues. At the first Technology 202 Live event here in San Francisco, they described how companies themselves are making changes to their own platforms to address public pressure on privacy and curbing disinformation on their platforms - and how states are seeking to rein in the tech giants with new legislation. "When it comes to the federal government, they move a lot slower," said California state attorney general Xavier Becerra. Here are some highlights: 1. The next time a public official - perhaps even a president - tweets something that violates Twitter's standards, the message could be accompanied by a label that provides more context, Twitter's Vajaya Gadde told my colleague Elizabeth Dwoskin. Twitter is exploring how to annotate … [Read more...] about The Technology 202: Silicon Valley isn’t waiting for Washington to address privacy, disinformation

Never underestimate the power of visible trailblazers. They were sorely lacking when Anirma Gupta began as a patent attorney in 1993.“The firm I worked at had no intellectual property partners in the electrical/mechanical field,” says the deputy general counsel for litigation and IP at Intuit in Mountain View, Calif. “I had no female role models.”Ditto for Michelle Lee, Google’s deputy general counsel for patents, also in Mountain View. “When I was going through the ranks, there wasn’t a plethora of women.”Does that matter? It did to Mallun Yen, who only became confident she could step into the demanding role of being head of IP at Cisco Systems after seeing another female lawyer successfully manage her intense career and personal life.“I told the general counsel, ‘I can’t fly to China on two hours’ notice; I need some balance in my life,’ ” recalls Yen, now executive vice president at RPX Corp., a … [Read more...] about She-roes: Women Strive to Promote Their Own in Silicon Valley IP Law

A husband-and-wife team is leading a team from Perkins Coie in Silicon Valley to a new office for Atlanta-based King & Spaulding.The couple—partners Paul Andre and Lisa Kobialka—are leaving with a group of associates, the California Recorder reports in a story posted by New York Lawyer (reg. req.).Andre is described as a well-known IP litigator who joined Perkins in 2003 after working at Quinn Emanuel Urquhart Oliver & Hedges and the now-defunct Brobeck, Phleger & Harrison. Kobialka, who headed Perkins’ commercial litigation practice in the Valley, also is an alumnus of Quinn Emanuel and Brobeck. … [Read more...] about Silicon Valley Couple Leads Perkins Group to King & Spaulding

At age 9, Michelle Crosby was put on a witness stand and asked which of her divorcing parents she wanted to live with. Years later, similarly traumatized by her own divorce, Crosby was convinced she could devise a kinder, gentler process. The former family law attorney founded Wevorce, which seeks to streamline amicable divorces using software.The company, according to Crosby, is complementary to the collaborative law movement. But Wevorce is “high tech and high touch,” she says. The company’s methodology is built on the typical legal, emotional and financial elements of divorce and the cloud-based, custom case-management software enables couples to populate legal documents themselves. Teams of mediators, counselors and financial advisers trained in “neuroscience, archetypal patterns and reframing families from one household to two” facilitate settlement agreements that are then reviewed by the couple’s own attorneys, Crosby says.Priced up front, the … [Read more...] about Silicon Valley venture capital group wants to provide kinder, cheaper way to divorce