Fenwick & West TESLaw Symposium Draws ‘Cleantech' Experts to King Hall

The second annual symposium in the Technology, Entrepreneurship, Science, and the Law (TESLaw) series sponsored by Fenwick & West was held in King Hall on November 6, drawing more than 200 attorneys, academic experts, students, alumni, and industry professionals to the Law School to hear industry leaders and legal experts discuss issues related to "Cleantech in the New ‘Environmental' Environment: Mapping the Evolving Landscape for Cleantech Entrepreneurs and Professionals."

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 symposium included presentations from John Doerr, General Partner, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, and 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. 

In his keynote 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 the development 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 technology will increase.

Sperling also suggested that public policy changes are needed to spur a movement 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 Gordon Davidson, Chairman, 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 members of the King Hall staff and current 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.

The symposium was the second in a five-year series at the Law School sponsored by Fenwick & West 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.