McDermott Will & Emery Partner Honored by California Diversity Magazine
ORANGE COUNTY (November 2, 2009) — McDermott Will & Emery LLP is pleased to announce that Orange County Intellectual Property, Media & Technology partner Soyeon (Karen) Pak Laub was selected as one of the Most Powerful and Influential Women in California by the California Diversity Council, which is part of the National Diversity Council.
"It is a tremendous honor being recognized by the California Diversity Council,” said Ms. Laub. “I am thrilled and excited to advance my leadership skills and commitment to community well-being as I simultaneously grow my practice.”
"We couldn’t be happier that Karen is being honored as a powerful and influential individual,” said Mark Itri, a member of the Firm’s Capital and Management Committee and head of the Orange County Intellectual Property, Media & Technology Department. “Karen is a lawyer who has a unique skill set and values excellence and we are delighted for her.”
The award honors women who have demonstrated leadership excellence in the public and/or private sectors, has sustained a record of accomplishments and/or contributions to field of work throughout scope of her career, has clout within her organization in terms of significant impact on revenues, profitability, and/or direction of the organization, demonstrates leadership and commitment to community well-being and/or high visibility in the community and exhibits and demonstrates a commitment to the highest ethical standards and professional excellence.
Ms. Laub represents a variety of technology companies from Fortune 500 to start-ups. Her area of practice is focused in the areas of semiconductor, integrated circuit, computer hardware, software, architecture, digital processing, optical, and display and communications industries. She has substantial corporate intellectual property and legal experience, having served as in-house general counsel for a leading chip company for telecommunication and wireless products.
Prior to joining McDermott, Ms. Laub worked for more than six years at Hughes Research Laboratories, where she utilized her extensive technical experience to help build multimillion dollar signal processing computers for aircrafts. One computer was delivered to the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. She is the principal inventor of U.S. Patent No. 5,744,284 relating to a novel semiconductor interconnect technology. In addition, Ms. Laub has co-authored numerous publications regarding 3-D computers in the International Conference on Wafer Scale Integration, Nepcon, the Journal of VLSI Signal Processing and other technology-related publications.
Ms. Laub understands the language and culture of Korea and Japan, as she was born in Korea and attended schools in Seoul, Korea and Tokyo, Japan. She currently teaches Sunday School.
While at Loyola Law School, Ms. Laub was elected to the Order of the Coif. She received a master’s degree in electrical engineering from U.C. Berkeley and a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from U.C. Los Angeles, where she received the Outstanding BS Candidate Award at graduation. She was on the National Deans List awarded to the top 0.5 percent of students in the nation.
California Diversity focuses on diversity and inclusion in the state of California. The magazine covers diversity issues and features regular departments including financial literacy, diversity best practices, perspectives, community, and diversity resources. The publication’s content caters to business professionals, diversity-owned businesses, educators, students, government officials, institutions of higher learning, and non-profit organizations. For more information about California Diversity, visit www.californiadiversitymagazine.org.
