Pearson Beardsley is the founder and managing attorney of Beardsley, P.C., a small firm focused on representing clients in business transactions and a variety of other corporate matters.  He has been involved in the legal community by serving as a member of the Disciplinary Panel of the State Bar of Georgia (Investigative Panel) since 2011, and as a board member and volunteer for various nonprofit organizations.  Pearson received his Bachelors of Arts in English, magna cum laude, from Vanderbilt University in 1997, where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa.  He received his Juris Doctorate 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.

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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.

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Josh earned his BA at the University of Florida and his JD at the University of Michigan. Now, at Barnes & Thornburg Josh focuses on creating and preserving value in IP assets through aggressive enforcement and protection of IP rights. He has represented numerous companies in high-stakes patent, trademark, and copyright litigation. In addition to litigation work, Josh has experience negotiating and drafting IP licenses, assignments, and coexistence agreements. He has also assisted clients with the prosecution of trademark and copyright registrations.

Josh also has extensive experience in advertising litigation and counseling. He has defended clients against false advertising claims brought between competitors, and by consumers individually and as a class. In addition, Josh routinely advises clients on claim creation and substantiation to help minimize the risk of litigation.

Josh is married to Jennifer Kalb – something he is thankful for every day – and has two amazing kids, Fisher and Sydney, who actually make waking up early on the weekend enjoyable.

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.

Prior to joining the Emory faculty, Nicole was the former Managing Patent Counsel at The Coca-Cola Company and was responsible for the development and implementation of the Company’s global patent strategy and providing day-to-day advice and counseling to business stakeholders.

Nicole received her B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Northwestern, her M.S. in Chemistry from University of Michigan, her law degree from the University of Minnesota, and is a registered patent attorney. She has over twelve years of experience practicing patent law in large and mid-sized law firms and has represented clients in patent and trademark litigation matters, as well as patent prosecution matters. She also worked as an engineer for six years with 3M and Eli Lilly and has over twenty years of experience working with consumer products and technology commercialization.

Nicole is a frequent speaker on innovation, technology commercialization, and patent law topics including patent strategy, IP licensing, and the role of corporate counsel in patent transactions. She is heavily involved in the IP community as a member of the American Intellectual Property Law Association (AIPLA), Atlanta IP Inn of Court, Atlanta Bar Association, National Bar Association IP Section, a board member of Georgia Lawyers for the Arts, and Minority In-House Counsel Association. In 2013, Professor Morris was awarded the 2013 “Rising Star Corporate Counsel Award from the Atlanta Business Chronicle and featured in the August 2013 issue of Corporate Counsel magazine.

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.

Jonathan currently serves as Assistant General Counsel for Delta Air Lines and has practiced law for over 20 years in a combination of in-house, big firm, and small firm environments. A triple graduate of the University of Georgia, Jonathan holds a Bachelors degree in German literature (1992), a Masters degree in German linguistics (1994), and a Juris Doctor (1997).

Jonathan is an avid meditator and teaches Eastern philosophy and yogic-style meditation to students from around the country. He is passionate about international travel, and his many journeys have included extended trips to India, Egypt, Europe, Latin America and the Far East.

Jonathan and his husband, renowned landscape architect, John Howard, have assembled a growing modern art collection over the course of their 16 year relationship. They count among their collection artists whose works hang in major international galleries around the globe. Jonathan’s passion for the arts called him to begin serving on GLA’s Board in 2017, and he is delighted to support the arts community in this capacity.

Michelle is an associate  at Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton . Michelle’s practice focuses on trademark and copyright litigation, prosecution, and enforcement. Prior to law school, Michelle worked as a standards and practices editor for television programs and movies. She received her BA in Journalism from Elon University, her JD from Georgia State University College of Law, and worked as an extern for Georgia Lawyers for the Arts during law school. During law school, Michelle also served as an associate articles editor of the Georgia State University Law Review and as a graduate research assistant in the school’s Center for Intellectual Property.

Michelle is active in the Atlanta legal community, serving as a member of the IP Inn of Court, a member of the IP Section of the Georgia Bar Association, and a member of Georgia State University’s Law Alumni Council. Outside of her legal practice, Michelle enjoys traveling, exploring Atlanta’s restaurant and music scenes, running, and spending time with her family and friends.