InnovaCounsel Team
Partners
Stuart Blake
Founder/Partner/CEO of InnovaCounsel Services, LLC
Stuart Blake is an attorney with more than 30 years of in-house corporate legal experience. He has vast knowledge of the legal issues involved in consumer products industries, for which he has counseled on general business, commercial contracts, employment matters, litigation mergers and acquisitions, and corporate compliance and government. He has built a solid track record of forging successful working relationships with executive management teams.
Stuart was the Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary of Kinko’s, Inc., for five years, the Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary for Baskin-Robbins, USA, Co. for six years and spent six years as Corporate Counsel and Senior Corporate Counsel with the Burger King Corporation. He formerly served on the Board of Directors of the Community Services Branch of the YMCA of Orange County and the Board of Directors of the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society of Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino Counties and the Southern California Chapter of the Association of Corporate Counsel America (ACCA).
Michael Oswald
Founder/Managing Partner of InnovaCounsel, LLP
Michael Oswald is an attorney with over 25 years of in-house corporate legal and management experience. His broad range of experience spans aerospace, construction consulting and technology, and he has counseled on a wide variety of general business, government contracts, commercial contracts, employment matters, litigation, mergers and acquisitions and corporate compliance and governance.
Michael most recently served as Vice President and General Counsel of SRS Labs, Inc., a publicly traded developer and licensor of audio and voice technologies. He previously acted as Vice President and General Counsel of Lantronix, Inc., a publicly traded provider of computer networking technologies. Prior to his public company experience, Michael was General Counsel and Chief Administrative Officer at NowDocs, Inc., and General Counsel at Acuity Corp. He held several management positions at SEMATECH, a semiconductor industry research and development consortium. He has also served as Assistant General Counsel to a government construction contracts consulting firm and a Subcontract Administrator at Lockheed and Ford Aerospace.
He has served as Adjunct Professor of Law at Western State University College of Law, where he taught business law courses, and also served as Assistant Director of the school’s Business Law Center. Michael also serves on the Board of Directors of the Southern California Chapter of the Association of Corporate Counsel – America (ACCA).
David M. Blackwood, Partner
David Blackwood is an attorney with more than 25 years of experience, nearly 20 years of which have been as general counsel. David has in-depth industry experience in the accounting, investment banking and consumer electronics industries, and has particular legal expertise in general business matters, complex contract negotiation, litigation management, employment law, mergers & acquisitions, product marketing and distribution, intellectual property and compliance. As general counsel, David has worked closely with CEOs, CFOs and other members of senior management as a trusted business and legal advisor.
David came to InnovaCounsel from McGladrey & Pullen, LLP, the fifth largest accounting firm in the U.S., where he served as Assistant General Counsel. David also served as Executive Vice President and General Counsel of McGladrey Capital Markets LLC (recently acquired by D.A. Davidson Equity Markets), an international investment bank specializing in middle-market mergers & acquisitions. Prior to his ten years at McGladrey, David served almost ten years as Executive Vice President and General Counsel of Canon Computer Systems, the computer peripheral systems subsidiary of Canon Inc., where he helped grow that company from a start-up to a $1.4B market leader. Prior to his in-house legal career, David was a transactional attorney at several prominent firms in New York City.
David earned a BA degree from Cornell University in 1982, and earned his JD degree (with Specialization in International Law) from Cornell in 1985. David is actively involved in several local and national legal, industry and charitable organizations.
Karen Tegger Ward, Partner
An attorney who has spent the majority of her career as corporate counsel for such firms as The Boeing Company, Yamaha Motor Corporation and Ricoh Electronics Inc., Karen Tegger Ward joined InnovaCounsel as a principal in October 2006. At Boeing, Karen managed international commercial contracts and traveled frequently to Japan to work with subcontractors. At Yamaha, she was responsible for training sales staff, supervisors and customer service personnel. She managed all types of litigation, from breach of contract to employment cases. Karen worked closely with the HR department on employee relations issues at Ricoh, where she reviewed contracts and was involved with internal compliance issues. Karen works well with top executives and employees “in the trenches.” In addition to her experience working for large international corporations, Karen co-founded Harassment Training Counsel, a firm that provides companies with sexual harassment and discrimination prevention training.
Karen graduated from California State University, Long Beach, in 1992 with a degree in political science. She earned her JD degree from Southwestern University in 1995. Ward is an active member of the Southern California Section Association of Corporate Counsel and the National Association for Women Business Owners.
Vincent J. Roth, Partner
Vincent J. Roth is a highly educated and very broadly experience corporate attorney. Having provided legal services in the high-technology, healthcare, entertainment and real estate industries, Vincent transitioned to the biotechnology industry in November 2004 working as General Counsel, Vice President of Human Resources and Assistant Secretary for CardioVascular BioTherapeutics, Inc., a publicly traded, development-stage biotechnology company and Phage Biotechnology Corporation, a private biotechnology contract manufacturer and thus is very familiar with highly regulated industries. Vincent currently serves as the dedicated, part-time General Counsel for a number of companies.
Before November 2004, Vincent worked for Lantronix, Inc., a publicly traded device networking company in the high-technology industry where he served as Deputy General Counsel primarily handling corporate and securities matters. Prior to this, Vincent served as General Counsel, Vice President and Secretary for Myrient, Inc., a publicly traded communications networking company in the high-technology industry where he managed the legal department and human resources department. In addition to transactional practice, Vincent has litigation experience having served as counsel-of-record on over a dozen cases. He is a member of the Association of Corporate Counsel and is now a partner with The General Counsel, LLC, a collaborative group of corporate attorneys who serve as outsourced general counsels for start-up, young and developing companies.
Vincent received an LL.M. in Business and Corporate Law from the University of San Diego where he graduated #1 in his class, a Juris Doctor and M.B.A. from Temple University, a Master of Liberal Arts in Sociology from the University of Pennsylvania and a B.B.A. in Marketing and Human Resource Administration from Temple University. In addition to these five degrees, he was also awarded three master certificates.
Counsel
Warner Broaddus
Warner Broaddus was Vice President, General Counsel & Secretary for Ligand Pharmaceuticals Incorporated from 2001-2007. Prior to joining Ligand, Warner served as General Counsel and Secretary of Invitrogen Corporation, a biotechnology reagents & equipment maker, where he was employed from October 1994 to November 2000. In these capacities he had overall responsibility for the company’s legal affairs, including intellectual property, corporate and securities matters, litigation, compliance and corporate governance. From 1986 to 1990, Warner was an analyst for Morgan Stanley & Co. and UBS Securities, Inc. (now UBS Warburg).
Warner holds a J.D. from the University of San Diego and a B.S. (computer science) from the University of Virginia.
Alan Gutterman
Alan Gutterman is a well known and widely respected business counselor to small and large businesses, entrepreneurs and investors. He received his law degree from Boalt Hall at the University of California at Berkeley and has also earned a PhD from the Faculty of Law at the University of Cambridge. He has been a partner and senior counsel at internationally recognized law firms where he specialized in general corporate and securities matters, venture capital, mergers and acquisitions, international law and transactions, strategic business alliances, technology transfers and intellectual property. He has also served as the chief legal officer of a leading international distributor of IT products headquartered in Silicon Valley.
Alan is the author of Business Transactions Solutions, the top-selling resource for transactional attorneys available through Thomson Reuters. Alan has also authored a number of other books and articles on various topics including intellectual property, financing start-ups, counseling emerging companies, online business activities and international transactions. Alan has academic training in business management—an M.B.A. degree, with a specialization in finance, from the University of California at Berkeley and a D.B.A. degree from Golden Gate University in San Francisco. In addition, he has had “on the ground” experience managing an emerging business as the chief operating officer of a broadband media company.
Ramona Petersen
Ramona Petersen joined The General Counsel in February 2009, bringing with her several years of Corporate Counsel experience for companies such as K&N Engineering, Inc., Focus on the Family and Kustom Phinish, Inc. In addition, Ramona spent three years running the Benefits Department for the 17,000+ employees of the County of San Bernardino.
Recently, in addition to her corporate counsel responsibilities, Ramona served as CEO for a design/finish carpentry business. She believes this experience was invaluable in teaching her all aspects of running a small corporation. She not only served as a member of the executive team but also directed the marketing and business development activities of the company and worked with all levels of employees. Ramona took the construction experience she gained from those years and now serves as an adjunct professor in the Construction Technology Department at Fullerton College, teaching Business Administration and Construction License Law.
After graduating with a Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology and Criminal Justice from Chapman University, Ramona earned her JD degree at Western State University College of Law in 1997 and in 2004 earned a CEBS (Certified Employee Benefits Specialist), Retirement Plans Associate and Group Benefits Associate Designation from the Wharton Business School at the University of Pennsylvania. She is the current President and co-founder of the Venus Elite Network for Professional Women, a member of the Association of Corporate Counsel and the In-house Counsel Committee of the Intellectual Property Section of the California Bar Association. She is also a past mentor for Volunteers in Parole, a group that matches attorneys with women reentering society upon being paroled.
Dana Newman
Dana Newman joined The General Counsel in November 2009. She is a seasoned business attorney with over 15 years of in-house legal experience. Dana has extensive expertise in negotiating and drafting complex commercial contracts, intellectual property licenses, corporate/company formation documents, asset purchase agreements, commercial real estate purchase and lease agreements, employment and labor agreements, and government contracts and bids. Dana has also managed an extensive intellectual property portfolio of trademarks and copyrights, and has written and edited a wide variety of business documents, including corporate and employment policies, software manuals, advertising materials, and RFP responses.
Dana worked as General Counsel and Secretary for Moviola, an entertainment technology industry leader with offices in Los Angeles and New York. She was a key management team member for Moviola and its affiliates (Paskal Lighting and Magnasync Corporation), where she advised senior management on all aspects of business and legal affairs, including contracts, human resources, insurance, intellectual property, corporate governance, and litigation management.
Dana graduated from the University of California at Berkeley with a B.A. in Comparative Literature in 1989, and completed her law degree at the University of San Francisco School of Law in 1993. She was an extern for Hon. Robert Takasugi in the U.S. District Court in Los Angeles. She has been involved in the Association of Corporate Counsel, the First AME Church/UCLA School of Law Community Legal Clinic, and the Women Lawyers Association of Los Angeles. Dana co-authored an article on copyright terminations, “Copyright Grants: as Powerful as Kryptonite?” which was published in the Los Angeles Daily Journal in September 2009.
Michael (“Mickey”) Green
Michael (“Mickey”) Green joined The General Counsel as a Principal in 2010. Mickey has been an attorney for almost 40 years, having practiced in government, private practice and corporate legal departments. Mickey has extensive experience in providing counsel on a broad range of legal matters, including Acquisitions and Divestitures, Antitrust, Bankruptcy, Commercial Transactions, Corporate Governance (including Sarbanes-Oxley, NYSE and NASDAQ Rules), Corporate Secretarial Functions, Debt Refinancing, Employment, Governmental Investigations, Litigation, Real Estate, Risk Management, SEC and other federal and state regulatory practice, Trademark and General Administrative duties.
Mickey was most recently the Vice President, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary for Vitesse Semiconductor Corporation for three years. Prior to that, he was the Vice President, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary for Worldwide Restaurant Concepts, Inc. for over eight years and Counsel for ARCO for almost fourteen years. Mickey was a Senior Attorney in the Washington, D.C. office of Montgomery Ward & Company, an associate at a Washington, D.C. law firm and also a Trial Attorney in the Antitrust Division of the United States Department of Justice. Mickey also served as a Judicial Law Clerk to the Chief Judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Mickey attained his J.D. from New York University in 1971 and his B.A. from Brooklyn College of the City University of New York in 1967.