Claire Rachel Howard

• Established position as trusted advisor to senior management team on wide range of legal matters including corporate governance, intellectual property and licensing, mergers and acquisitions, negotiation and drafting wide variety of contracts, labor and employment issues, and general risk mitigation.
• Counsel all levels of stakeholders within organization in every aspect of legal affairs impacting nationwide consumer goods manufacturer with more than 3,000 employees, and its affiliated companies.
• Manage paralegal and administrative legal staff and mentor junior legal counsel
• Maintain company-wide trademark docket for company regional and national brands (Hood, Brigham’s, Planet Oat, Heluva Good!, Crowley, Hagan, Rolling Hills Farm, etc.).
• Primary responsibility for all capital project legal planning, contracting and implementation, including two current $100M+ expansion projects in large, fully automated aseptic/ESL processing facilities
• Develop and implement policies and procedures to ensure compliance with federal, state, and local laws and regulations.
• Address legal aspects of regulatory matters including those involving OSHA, EPA and other state and federal regulatory agencies.
• Manage outside counsel on wide variety of matters related to, among other things, employment and benefit matters, specialized litigation matters, transportation related claims, and foreign export and distribution issues.
• Assist with establishing law department budget for outside counsel, technology needs and other law department related expenses.

Counsel clients on broad variety of matters related to:

Mergers and Acquisitions

• Structure, negotiate and document complex asset and stock-based transactions and associated financing for sales of middle tier privately held companies
• Manage multiple transactions and coordinate team of professional advisors

Intellectual Property and Privacy Law

• Chair of firm Intellectual Property Practice Group
• Prosecution and licensing of trademarks and copyrights and training of associate attorneys in intellectual property law matters
• Coordination of firm trademark docket and intellectual property portfolios for general business clients consisting of 150-200 marks
• Assist multiple clients with privacy issues and state notification procedures during in data breaches

General Corporate Counsel

• Serve as outside general counsel for approximately 100 companies across broad variety of industries with focus on technology companies
• Negotiate, review and draft contracts dealing with wide-ranging subject matter including, but not limited to, SaaS Agreements/EULAs, Confidentiality and Noncompetition Agreements, Supply Agreements and various financing documentation

• Negotiated, drafted and advised on wide variety of contract matters, including vendor and supplier contracts, license agreements and NDAs by balancing business and legal objectives.
• Serve as Secretary for several clients and maintain documentation and oversee general corporate law matters.
• Prosecution and maintenance of copyrights and trademarks.

• Represented clients in general corporate law matters.
• Evaluation, preparation and filing of federal trademark and copyright applications.