GLA Leadership
& Advisors

Logan Anderson is a member of the Global Energy Project Finance group and advises clients on a wide variety of complex commercial arrangements, with a focus on the renewable energy, retail, financial services and transportation sectors. Logan has particular experience in transactions involving structured financing or cross-border elements.

Logan has helped his clients navigate highly structured financing transactions, whether their role is debt financing party, equity investor or borrower. Logan has also assisted his clients in the financial services and retail sectors to expand their footprint beyond their country of main operations and is well versed in all aspects of international business expansion. Logan has lived and worked in Brazil for a number of years and is fluent in Portuguese and Spanish.

Prior to joining GT, Logan was Vice President and head of international legal for a large, privately held financial technology business with operations in over 30 countries. Logan began his career in private practice in New York City as a member of the banking and finance group of a large, Wall Street law firm.

Pearson Beardsley is Of Counsel with LawFirm GC, where his practice is focused on serving as outside general counsel to businesses and representing clients in various transactions.  He has been involved in the legal community by serving as a member of the State Disciplinary Board of the State Bar of Georgia (formerly the Investigative Panel) from 2011-2020 and the State Disciplinary Review Board from 2021-2024. He has also served as a founder, board member, and volunteer for various nonprofit legal organizations. Pearson received his B.A. in English, magna cum laude, from Vanderbilt University in 1997, where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. He received his J.D. from Washington & Lee University School of Law in 2001.

Joe has been practicing intellectual property law for over 20 years and recently retired as a partner at Taft, Stettinius & Hollister. Joe counsels clients in all areas of patent law and his practice primarily focuses on biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, chemistry, biosimilars, cannabis, medical
marijuana and medical devices including dental products. For several years, Joe’s practice has focused on the generic drug industry. Prior to entering law, he served on the faculty of the Wake Forest University School of Medicine. Joe is a graduate of the University of North Carolina School of Law, Loyola University Chicago (Ph.D., Pharmacology) and the University of Southern California (B.S., Biological Sciences).

Besides providing pro bono work to the arts community through the GLA, he also sits on the board of the A5 Volleyball Club, the premier junior club volleyball organization in the Southeast for both girls’ and boys’ volleyball.

In his spare time, Joe plays the guitar and can often be found on hiking trails the world over his wife of 25+ years, Dr. Barbara Bennett.

David is a senior associate on Alston & Bird’s Litigation & Trial Practice Team. He concentrates his practice in general business and commercial litigation, with special focus on consumer and privacy class action defense, business torts and contract disputes. David has served as lead counsel and assisted in all phases of the litigation process in Georgia’s state and federal courts and has been involved in matters in federal courts throughout the country.

David has substantial experience representing companies in major consumer class action litigation, including cases involving privacy issues. He has represented a number of Fortune 500 companies in such litigation, moving to compel arbitration on multiple occasions, gaining dismissals through Rule 12 motions, and obtaining favorable settlements for clients in bet-the-company litigation.

David was named to the Georgia Super Lawyers “Rising Stars” list for 2017 in the area of business litigation. He received his J.D. from Vanderbilt University in 2007. Before law school, he worked in the public relations departments for the Colorado Rockies and the Atlanta Braves, providing media relations assistance, statistical research, and support for the baseball operations departments of two Major League Baseball teams. David also worked as a student assistant in the sports information department at Duke University, where he received his B.A. in history in 2002.

Katherine A. Gruner is a licensed attorney with expertise in contract drafting and negotiation, as well as intellectual property law, branding, and new business counseling. She studied Biology and Spanish at Hiram College and earned her Juris Doctor and Masters of Law in IP from the University of Akron. Katherine began her legal career as a patent attorney with Pearne & Gordon LLP in Cleveland, Ohio where she gained extensive experience writing legal opinions relating to pharmaceutical patent documents, as well as drafting responses to USPTO Office Actions in patent and trademark cases. Since entering the legal profession, Kae has enjoyed leading public seminars on topics relating to business, contract law, innovation & patents, trademark law, and other legal issues often encountered by inventors and entrepreneurs.

Bob High, a former law clerk at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, focuses on patent litigation, post-grant proceedings, and appeals. He represents clients across industries developing many different innovations, including mechanical, aerospace, medical device, electrical, and computer technologies.

Bob handles intellectual property disputes in U.S. district courts and before the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Offices (USPTO), the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC), and the Federal Circuit. He works on cases involving various technologies, including image and video processing, telecommunications, data storage, drones, construction equipment, fitness equipment, home appliances, and various other mechanical, electrical, and computer technologies.

Bob has experience at each phase of litigation and has been involved in more than thirty post-grant proceedings before the PTAB, including inter partes review (IPR) and post grant review (PGR). At the trial level, his experience includes pre-filing strategy; infringement and validity analyses; complex fact and expert discovery; claim construction; motions practice; trial practice; and post-trial briefing. Before the PTAB, his experience includes drafting pleadings for both petitioners and patent owners, deposing experts, and arguing before the Board. At the appellate level, Bob has experience preparing appeal briefs and providing strategic advice regarding appeals.

Bob also represents disabled veterans in cases before the U.S. Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims.

Marnishia is an associate in the firm’s Privacy + Cyber practice. Before focusing her practice on the privacy industry, Marnishia handled a wide range of complex commercial litigation and consumer protection matters. In this capacity, she regularly counseled clients across various industries and provided advice related to compliance with local and federal consumer protection statutes, including the Restore Online Shoppers’ Confidence Act and California’s Automatic Renewal Law.

Additionally, Marnishia has significant experience defending clients in business litigation. She has been involved in all aspects of litigation, from receipt of a demand letter through trial and appeal.

Marnishia has also maintained an active pro bono practice and demonstrated commitment to service. She currently serves as an advisory board member of Georgia Lawyers for the Arts, an organization which serves the legal needs of artists and arts organizations.

Becki Lee is an attorney at IHG Hotels & Resorts, where she manages an international trademark portfolio and counsels the business on IP and marketing matters. Becki was an intern at GLA in 2012 and has stayed active with the organization ever since.

Before law school, Becki worked in the entertainment industry for 10 years as a publicist, marketer, and event planner. She also owned her own music-focused public relations firm, so she has firsthand knowledge of the challenges involved in starting and running a creative business.

Becki lives in Decatur with her husband, two kids, and a dog, and she plays the drums when she gets a chance. In 2020 and 2021, Becki published the first two books in her Little Gavels series of children’s books, introducing kids to the concepts of intellectual property and contracts.

Nicole Morris is a Professor of Practice at Emory University School of Law and the inaugural Director of the Innovation & Legal Tech Initiative as well as the TI:GER® Program Director.

TI:GER® is (Technological Innovation: Generating Economic Results) is an innovative technology commercialization program wherein law students work with technology innovators to transform highly promising research into economically viable products. In 2021, the Emory TI:GER program partnered with the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) to assist with the technology commercialization efforts within the Department of Energy (DOE) National Laboratories.  Emory law students in the TI:GER Program work with scientists at the Labs to evaluate the commercial prospects for the technology. In addition to teaching, Professor Morris mentors innovators, helping them define product value and gain a competitive edge. Prior to joining Emory Law, she practiced patent law for over twenty years in large and mid-sized law firms and has represented clients in patent and trademark matters.

Professor Morris was Managing Patent Counsel for The Coca-Cola Company where she was responsible for the development and implementation of the Company’s global patent strategy. Before attending law school, she worked as an engineer for six years with 3M and Eli Lilly and has over thirty years of experience working with consumer products and technology commercialization.

Professor Morris is a frequent speaker on innovation topics including AI ethics, legal ethics, trade secrets, patent law, innovation strategy and IP licensing.  She has a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Northwestern University, a M.S. in Chemistry from the University of Michigan, and a J.D. from the University of Minnesota Law School.

Nicole Morris is a Professor in Practice and Director of the TI:GER (Technological Innovation: Generating Economic Results) program at Emory University School of Law. TI:GER is an innovative partnership between Emory and Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech) that brings together graduate students in law, business, science, and engineering to work on ways to take innovative ideas from the lab to the marketplace. As a Professor in Practice, her areas of expertise include patent law, patent litigation, patent prosecution, IP licensing, and strategy.

Nicole Morris is a Professor of Practice at Emory University School of Law and the inaugural Director of the Innovation & Legal Tech Initiative as well as the TI:GER® Program Director.

TI:GER® is (Technological Innovation: Generating Economic Results) is an innovative technology commercialization program wherein law students work with technology innovators to transform highly promising research into economically viable products. In 2021, the Emory TI:GER program partnered with the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) to assist with the technology commercialization efforts within the Department of Energy (DOE) National Laboratories.  Emory law students in the TI:GER Program work with scientists at the Labs to evaluate the commercial prospects for the technology. In addition to teaching, Professor Morris mentors innovators, helping them define product value and gain a competitive edge. Prior to joining Emory Law, she practiced patent law for over twenty years in large and mid-sized law firms and has represented clients in patent and trademark matters.

Professor Morris was Managing Patent Counsel for The Coca-Cola Company where she was responsible for the development and implementation of the Company’s global patent strategy. Before attending law school, she worked as an engineer for six years with 3M and Eli Lilly and has over thirty years of experience working with consumer products and technology commercialization.

Professor Morris is a frequent speaker on innovation topics including AI ethics, legal ethics, trade secrets, patent law, innovation strategy and IP licensing.  She has a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Northwestern University, a M.S. in Chemistry from the University of Michigan, and a J.D. from the University of Minnesota Law School.

Eli is a Partner at Pacific Law Group, where he manages the firm’s Peachtree City office.  He specializes in residential real estate closings, and dabbles in commercial work for specific clients.  Prior to his transition into transactional law, he worked as a civil litigator for more than 3 years, resolving real estate, insurance, and transportation disputes.

Eli received his Bachelors of Landscape Architecture and Political Science in 2011 from The University of Georgia and his JD in 2015 from Emory University School of Law.  Most recently, in 2022, he completed his Masters in Industrial-Organizational Psychology from UGA.  While at Emory, he enjoyed a fantastic semester-long externship with GLA under Meredith, which prepared him for future galas where Meredith would inevitably say,’Pony up!’

Eli is passionate about learning how people, business, and technology can serve one another to improve and grow the workplace.  When he’s out-of-office, Eli enjoys spending time with his wife (a fellow Emory Law graduate), daughter, finding space in the yard for more plants, and biting off more than he can chew in other home renovation projects.

Shannon Patrick focuses on patent litigation related to Abbreviated New Drug Applications (ANDA) and biologics, proceedings before the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), and client counseling. She has technical experience within the chemical and biologic fields, including small molecule Cyclin dependent kinases (CDK) and Janus kinase (JAK) inhibitors as well as adeno-associated virus (AAV) vectors.

Sarah is a Partner at King & Spalding LLP. Sarah represents corporate debtors, institutional banks, private credit funds, and other parties in interest in a broad range of matters involving special situations and restructurings – including high-profile chapter 11 cases, out-of-court transactions such as liability management exercises, and distressed M&A. In addition, she represents litigants in contested matters, adversary proceedings, federal court appeals, and other complex bankruptcy and insolvency litigation.

Prior to joining King & Spalding, Sarah served as law clerk to Judge James E. Graves, Jr. of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit and Chief Judge Paul G. Hyman, Jr. of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Florida.

Sarah grew up in small town in the Poconos and earned a B.A. in History from the Pennsylvania State University and her law degree from the Michigan State University College of Law. In her free time, Sarah enjoys traveling the world with her husband and son. She also enjoys reading, skiing, and yoga.

Brent M. Radcliff is Associate Counsel for Genuine Parts Company (‘GPC’).  He is responsible for developing, maintaining and enforcing GPC’s intellectual property rights worldwide; negotiating, documenting and providing strategic direction on IP and technology transactions; collaborating with commercial business units, technology, branding, and marketing to promote the discovery, development, management and protection of new ideas; building stakeholder relationships, in particular with intellectual property authorities and professional associations; training internal clients on IP and its implications on various functions within the organization; and providing general legal support on related matters arising in day-to-day operations.

Prior to joining GPC, he served as an attorney for a national firm where he concentrated on brand management, intellectual property counseling, litigation, and enforcement. Before that, Brent worked for several years inside the US Patent and Trademark Office and Customs and Border Protection on IP matters.

Outside of work he has served in leadership positions for several bar associations including the Washington Bar Association, National Bar Association, U.S. Intellectual Property Alliance, and International Trademark Association, finding ways to create programming for the training and betterment of fellow attorneys and education of the community at-large.  He also serves on the Advisory Board of the Georgia Lawyers for the Arts and the Board of Directors for KidsGym USA, an organization which aims to provide life skills to children in the Metro Atlanta area through gymnastics.  Brent holds a Juris Doctorate and Bachelor’s degree from Howard University.

Chloe was born and raised in Miami, Florida, where her love and appreciation of the arts was fostered from an early age through museum visits and concerts with her family. Chloe earned a bachelor’s degree in Art History from the University of Florida before moving to Athens to study law at the University of Georgia. In law school, she interned at GLA, was Chair of the Business Negotiation Team, President of the Equal Justice Foundation, and a Notes Editor of the Georgia Journal of International and Comparative Law.

Chloe now practices as a real estate attorney at McLain & Merritt, P.C. in Buckhead. She lives in Morningside with her fiance, Mason, and enjoys going to concerts, trying out new restaurants and exploring Atlanta with the family dog, Manney.

Susan is a partner at Capstone IP Law and a trusted advisor to her clients of all scale on their trademark, copyright, social media, and advertising transactions, prosecution, enforcement, and litigation matters. Her clients comprise many diverse industries, including technology, banking and finance, manufacturers, healthcare, government, entrepreneurs, real estate developers, energy resources, apparel and fashion companies, musicians, social media companies, and consumer retail and product companies.

Susan provides collaborative, practical, and actionable counsel to her clients on their trademark, copyright, and trade secret transactions, prosecution, enforcement, and litigation. She also advises clients on complex domestic and international intellectual property law disputes, social media, online legal disputes, as well as right of publicity and advertising law.

Susan earned both her Bachelor and Juris Doctor degrees from the University of Oklahoma, was a Visiting Scholar at Emory University School of Law in Atlanta, at Columbia Law School in New York, and at Max Planck Institute for Intellectual Property in Munich, Germany, and earned her LLM from the University of California, Berkeley. Additionally, she served on the Editorial Board of several academic journals, received the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (German Research Foundation Scholarship), was a member of the Order of Barristers, and won the National Best Brief award at the Saul Lefkowitz Moot Court Competition.

Susan is committed to giving back to her community through volunteering her time to working with pro bono clients. Susan has volunteered time to working with a military veteran develop and protect its trademark and copyright portfolio. In addition to serving on the Advisory Board for Georgia Lawyers for the Arts, Susan volunteers more than fifty hours of time each year to helping local artists protect and enforce their IP rights, and navigate all manner of agreements. Susan also dedicates time to working with families who have children with disabilities enforce their Reasonable Accommodation Requests under the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Mr. Saunders is licensed in Alabama and Georgia to practice law, and focuses his practice in estate and trust planning and administration, probate matters, and nonprofit/tax exempt organizations.

He assists individuals and families preserve and transfer wealth to their loved ones and charitable organizations by crafting and implementing a variety of estate planning techniques, including the routine preparation of wills, powers of attorney, advance health care directives, and revocable and irrevocable trusts. Mr. Saunders also assists individual and corporate administrators, executors, and trustees with estate, probate, and trust administrations. Such strategies focus on advising individuals and families with regards to estate planning, income, estate, gift, and generation-skipping tax issues, and tax savings and minimizing strategies. He has helped blended families, non-married couples, and others configure optimum estate planning options. Mr. Saunders advises family businesses about succession planning and other entrepreneurs in entity formation matters.

His practice also involves representing beneficiaries of estates and trusts. Mr. Saunders frequently supports a family’s team of accountants, financial planners, insurance agents, and other financial advisors in the preparation of estate plans, and filing of gift tax returns, estate tax returns, and fiduciary income tax returns. He also routinely receives guardian ad litem appointments from local courts.

Mr. Saunders often works closely with nonprofit and tax-exempt organizations, from counseling donors in achieving charitable planning and giving goals to helping numerous entities and organizations of all sizes and budgets obtain and maintain federal tax exemption as well as routinely guiding these nonprofit and other tax-exempt organizations with incorporating or designing effective policies.

Emily Schifter is a partner in the Labor & Employment section at Troutman Pepper Locke. She represents clients in a variety of labor and employment-related matters, including employment discrimination, leave, disability accommodation, and wage and hour litigation. Additionally, she counsels employers on many aspects of employment law and human resources issues, such as employee handbooks, policies and training and drafts agreements and restrictive covenants for a variety of circumstances, including as part of mergers and acquisitions,.

Emily received her B.A. degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and her J.D. degree from the University of Georgia. Before joining Troutman Pepper, Emily served as a law clerk to a federal judge in the Northern District of Georgia in Rome. Emily lives in Atlanta with her husband, Adam, her son Mac, and their rescue dog, Murphy. In her free time, she loves exploring the city’s restaurant scene, live music, spending time outdoors, and reading.

Mikhael focuses his practice on the clearance, maintenance, licensing and enforcement of intellectual property rights, including trademarks, and copyrights. He has experience with trademark and copyright infringement enforcement and defense.

Mikhael also evaluates the strength of brand names, identifies infringing domain names, and helps clients implement domain name enforcement strategies. Mikhael also protects and enforces clients’ trademarks, and intellectual property rights on social media, on user-generated content sites, and at physical locations throughout the world.

Laura Kanouse Vining focuses her practice on biotechnology and pharmaceutical intellectual property litigation. Her experience includes representing clients in various U.S. district courts and before the International Trade Commission (ITC) and Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB).

Laura leverages her technical background to defend and enforce clients’ intellectual property rights in cutting-edge technology, including CRISPR (clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats), proteomics, small molecule drugs, bioelectronics, and medical devices. Her litigation experience includes all phases of pretrial litigation.

Laura is also deeply committed to pro bono work and community involvement. Currently, she is lead associate on a trial team seeking grant of asylum for a family of four as part of the Firm’s Border Project. In addition, she serves on the Advisory Board for Georgia Lawyers for the Arts, a nonprofit organization that provides legal assistance and educational programming to artists and inventors.