Fenwick & West Symposium Brings John Doerr, Cleantech Experts to King Hall

  • by Gia Hellwig

Thanks to private support from Fenwick & West, UC Davis School of Law was able to bring renowned venture capitalist John Doerr and other industry leaders and legal experts to King Hall for the 2009 Fenwick & West Technology, Entrepreneurship, Science, and the Law (TESLaw) symposium.  The November 6 event drew a large audience of attorneys, academic experts, students, alumni, and industry professionals to the Law School for discussions of "Cleantech in the New ‘Environmental' Environment: Mapping the Evolving Landscape for Cleantech Entrepreneurs and Professionals."

The TESLaw symposium was the second in what will be a series of five annual events made possible through support from Fenwick & West, a national law firm with offices in Silicon Valley, San Francisco, Seattle, and Boise that specializes in providing comprehensive legal services to technology and life sciences clients of national and international prominence.    

Designed to explore developments in the entrepreneurial environment and the expanding role of universities and governments in providing financial, regulatory, and technological support for environmentally friendly "clean" technology, the 2009 symposium included keynote remarks from Doerr, who is a General Partner with Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers in addition to being part of the Obama administration's Economic Recovery Advisory Board.  Also delivering a keynote address was Daniel Sperling, Professor of Civil Engineering and Environmental Science and Policy, Founding Director of the Institute of Transportation Studies at the UC Davis, and author of Two Billion Cars: Driving Toward Sustainability.  The presentations may be viewed online at http://www.law.ucdavis.edu/publications-broadcasts/lectures.html.

In his address, Doerr called clean energy "perhaps the largest economic opportunity of the 21st century," and said that so far the United States has not been competitive in terms of developing a clean energy industry.  "For all practical purposes, we're not even in the race right now," said Doerr, who has played a key role in directing venture capital to a wide range of technology companies including Google, Intuit, Amazon.com, and Sun Microsystems.  Doerr suggested that government needs to play a larger role in creating an environment where investment in clean energy will increase. 

Sperling also suggested that public policy changes are needed to spur changes to more environmentally friendly forms of energy and transportation.  "Clean technology is absolutely fundamental to the survival of our country and the world, but to make cleantech happen, especially in the transportation sector, we're going to need strong policy incentives," he said.

The symposium included panel discussions on:

  • "Accessing Public Technology: Issues in Government and University Technology Transfer," featuring Professor Peter Lee; Dr. Erik Stenehjem, Director, Industrial Partnerships Office, Lawrence Livermore Lab; Bill Tucker, Executive Director, Office of Technology Transfer, University of California Office of the President; and Peter Van Deventer, President and CEO, SynapSense; and moderator Mark Ostrau of Fenwick & West.
  • "The (Increasing) Importance of Government in Developing the Clean Technology Industry: A Bigger Role Than in Many Other Industries?," with Martha Krebs, Executive Director in the UC Davis Office of Research and Public Interest Energy Research, and Science Director, California Energy Commission; Hal La Flash, Director of Emerging Clean Technologies at Pacific Gas & Electric; Hari Osofsky, Associate Professor of Law, Washington and Lee University of Law; and Peter F. Ward, Program Manager of the Alternative Fuel and Vehicle Technology Program at California Energy; moderated by Colleen Chien, Assistant Professor of Law, Santa Clara University.
  • "Opportunities and Options for Entrepreneurs," with Eric Dresselhuys, EVP and Chief Marketing Officer, Silver Spring Networks; Andy Hargadon, Faculty Director, UC Davis Center for Entrepreneurship and Professor, UC Davis Graduate School of Management; Paul Holland, Partner, Foundation Capital and Board Member, Serious Material; and Sayre Stevick of Fenwick & West; moderated by Professor Thomas Joo.

Among the UC Davis faculty members in attendance were Dean Kevin R. Johnson, who gave opening remarks and introduced the keynote speakers, and Professors Andrea Bjorklund and Albert Lin.  UC Davis Chancellor Linda Katehi was present for the symposium's closing reception, and several King Hall staff members and students attended various panels and addresses.  King Hall alumni attending the event included David Bell '97 and Robert Hulse '00, both of whom are partners at Fenwick & West, Bruce Worthington '74, and Amy Quirk '81.

Fenwick & West has sponsored the TESLaw series to provide practitioners, academics, and students in law, management, bioscience, high technology, and other related fields with the knowledge base required to successfully address the challenges inherent to the growing, ever-changing markets of the 21st century. 

UC Davis School of Law depends on private support to fund special events such as the TESLaw symposium, as well as a wide variety of events and activities that supplement and support classroom activities and provide opportunities for students to assume leadership roles, learn practical lawyering skills, develop professional relationships, and become more involved in the Law School and the greater legal community.  For information on how you can support the Law School special events, contact Jean Korinke, Assistant Dean for Development and Alumni Relations, at (530) 752-1067 or [email protected].