ABOUT PAV

PAV S. ATHWAL

General Counsel | Technology Law | Adjunct Professor | Board Member

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

Head of Legal and Compliance| LILT March 2024 – Present

High growth Series C startup with 150+ employees.
Artificial Intelligence Law
Transactions
Compliance

Principal Attorney (Owner & Founder)| Hyperion Legal, APC | April 2021 – Present

Solo law practice providing legal services, primarily in technology law. Formerly Erudite Consulting, Inc.

25+ clients from startups to Fortune 500 companies and venture capital funds.
Issues handled include transactions (MSAs, DPAs, NDAs, etc.), cybersecurity, privacy, artificial intelligence, blockchain, intellectual property, open-source software, process and policy improvement, regulatory compliance, and real estate.

Head of Legal | Nexthink, Inc | July 2021 – May 2023

High growth (50% YoY in 2021-22) unicorn B2B SaaS startup with over $1b valuation, $200m in annual revenue, and 1,000+ employees specializing in Digital Employee Experience (DEX) software.

Unicorn SaaS company; leader in Digital Employee Experience (DEX) software.
Led and scaled a global legal department, and managed a team of attorneys; interfaced with C-suite and Board of Directors.
Rebuilt commercial transactions process, resulting in 75% decrease in response times. Also negotiated complex and critical transactions (mostly SaaS, mostly go to market), demonstrating much improved response times and generally generating favorable negotiating outcomes.
Rebuilt and led the Partner Ecosystem and Public Sector programs, resulting in 250% increase in sales through partners.
Interacted with the CCPA and EU on regulatory issues, including cybersecurity and AI.
Led cybersecurity, privacy, and artificial intelligence matters.

Senior Legal Counsel, Partner Ecosystem and Public Sector (SLED) | Docusign, Inc. | April 2020 - April 2021

Public B2B SaaS company with $2b in annual revenue, and 7,000+ employees specializing in electronic document signature and contract management technologies.

Supported transactions, primarily in the partner ecosystem (reseller, partner, distributor, etc. motions) and Public Sector (SLED) areas.
Processed and closed 900+ legal cases in 11 months, per Salesforce metrics.
Transactional types include Master Services Agreements, Master Partner Agreements, FedRAMP related deals, BAAs, DPAs, SOWs, dozens of different kinds of addenda and attachments.
Experience in Privacy and Information Security (IRT, IRP, etc.) areas.
Contracted via Paragon Legal for first four months.

Senior Director, Intellectual Property | Raytheon Applied Signal Technology, Inc. (formerly Applied Signal Technology, Inc.) | August 2003 – February 2012

Managed team of over a dozen senior contracts professionals.
Negotiated over $600m of government contracts; heavy experience in federal regulations, including FAR and DFARS.
Increased profitability of government contracts by over 10%, resulting in additional profits of over $6m.
Significantly reduced outside legal costs by bringing trademark prosecution, management of patent prosecution and various other matters in-house.

Helped change company culture to emphasize protection of intellectual property by conducting regular training programs for various groups of employees.
Participated in due diligence activities related to mergers and acquisitions.
Maintained company’s intellectual property portfolio and managed patent prosecution and litigation matters.
Supported Supply Chain and Procurement team with legal advice.
Successfully integrated intellectual property, research and development and various other legal disciplines and practices with Raytheon Company.
Applied Signal Technology, Inc. acquired by Raytheon Company in 2010.

Senior Corporate Counsel – Technology Licensing | Juniper Networks, Inc. | April 2015 – January 2020

Public B2B hardware, software, and SaaS company with $5b in annual revenue, and 10,000+ employees specializing in networking technology.

Built and led NPI (“New Product Introduction”) program and associated Product Legal discipline, including managing a team (of 7-8 employees; 100% retention rate) for all 25+ product lines. Included management of diligence and compliance efforts for upcoming product releases, continuous improvement, utilization of automation tools, training programs for thousands of employees, and quarterly reports detailing the program’s progress and risk reduction efforts.
Lead attorney for several divisions at company, including Silicon, Services (high margin), Security (high growth) and Junos (company’s flagship software product).
Helped manage company-wide open-source program, which included 10,000+ components and 1,000+ requests per year.
Licensing (inbound and outbound), procurement, and M&A support.
Led and managed multiple and varied process improvement projects within Legal Group, such as refreshment of company template agreements, new workflows for negotiations resulting in reduction of over 25% in execution times, and new tools to help manage product diligence.
Co-Chaired company's Diversity & Inclusion Committee.

Head of Legal, Intellectual Property and Licensing | Raytheon Applied Signal Technology, Inc. (formerly Applied Signal Technology, Inc.) | February 2012 – April 2015

Wholly owned subsidiary of public defense contractor with over $50b in annual revenue and 200,000 employees.

Spearheaded efforts (from legal and business aspects) to monetize intellectual property that resulted in increase of IP related revenue from 0% to as high as approximately 40% of company’s profits since 2004.
Managed both Supply Chain and Contracts teams of 30+ contract professionals (95% retention rate). Streamlined processes, improved operations, increased profits by 5%, and helped company pass its first DCMA (“Defense Contract Management Agency”) CPSR (“Contractor Purchasing System Review”) audit.
Managed invention process and IP portfolio (~100 patent filings; ~1,000 invention disclosures), as well as IP aspects of research and development activities.

Senior Director, Intellectual Property | Applied Signal Technology, Inc. | Aug 2003 – Feb 2012

Public defense contractor with over $200m annual revenue and 1,000+ employees; Applied Signal Technology, Inc. acquired by Raytheon Company in 2010, becoming Raytheon Applied Signal Technology, Inc.

Managed team of 12+ senior contracts professionals (95% retention rate).
Negotiated over $600m of contracts; heavy experience in federal regulations, including FAR and DFARS.
Increased profitability of government contracts by over 10%, resulting in additional profits of over $6m.
Reduced outside legal costs by over 50% by bringing trademark prosecution, management of patent prosecution and various other matters in-house.
Built and maintained company’s intellectual property portfolio (~100 patent filings; ~1,000 invention disclosures) and managed patent prosecution and litigation matters.
Successfully integrated intellectual property, research and development, and various other legal disciplines and practices with Raytheon Company.

OTHER EXPERIENCE

General Counsel and Board Member | Staffeto, Inc. | January 2023 - Present

Early stage high growth SaaS startup company that that primarily manages data integration in the cloud.

Focused on both horizontal and vertical growth, as well as providing legal and business guidance on other issues, primarily transactions, privacy, cybersecurity, open source, and regulatory guidance.

Adjunct Professor | Santa Clara University School of Law | January 2023 – Present