Litigation Management: Managing Your Outside Resources and Costs 2019

Leah Montesano is the Vice President of Litigation at Discovery, Inc. She is the Global head of litigation, managing domestic and international litigation strategy on a range of issues, including commercial disputes, breach of contract, torts, defamation, bankruptcy, and intellectual property.

Minh Merchant is the Associate General Counsel at Myriad Genetics, Inc.

Erika Selli is a Partner at the New York office of Haug Partners, who focuses her practice on patent litigation. Ms. Selli has represented clients in all stages of trial and appellate proceedings before federal district courts, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, and the U.S. International Trade Commission. Her litigation practice extends to a variety of technologies, including pharmaceuticals, computer software, business methods, and commercial products.

In addition to her litigation practice, Ms. Selli also has experience in freedom to operate and validity opinions, performing IP due diligence investigations, and assessing FDA issues pertinent to patentability issues and litigation proceedings. In law school, she was a member of the St. John’s Law Review and gained practical insight regarding the judicial process while interning for Magistrate Judge A. Kathleen Tomlinson of the Eastern District of New York.

Before law school, Ms. Selli received her B.S. magna cum laude from Union College, where she conducted research related to the embryonic development of the PPT1 gene in drosophila.

Karin Ashford is the Vice-President of Legal and Business Affairs at Penn National Gaming, Inc., a Pennsylvania based casino gaming company which, through its subsidiaries, owns, operates or has interests in 29 casinos and racetracks in 17 jurisdictions in the U.S. and Canada, and which has recently expanded into social online gaming offerings. She concentrates her work on representing the company in litigation brought against, or sometimes brought by, the company. She is the legal advisor for the company on all cyber-related issues.