Canadian Lawyer InHouse

41 CANADIANLAWYERMAG.COM/INHOUSE JULY/AUGUST 2019 content on the web. It is a great privilege and awesome responsibility to be granted resources to put toward defending the in- ternet," she says. Lacavera attended the University of To- ronto, where she received her undergradu- ate degree in engineering in 1997 and her JD/MBA degrees in 2001, as well as an honorary law doctorate from the university in 2017. Lacavera says she knew from an early age that she wanted to be an intellectual prop - erty lawyer and to work in a corporate legal department. Looking back, she says, her law school admissions essays were even about her desire to work at the intersection of law, technology and business — her three areas of study. Her background in engineering gave her a strong foundation to be part of this field, she says. "I think engineering is an excellent foun - dation for any field of endeavour. You learn these tools and skills and ways of breaking down problems into digestible parts and de- veloping scalable solutions that are useful in any field," says Lacavera. "I've dealt with more than 1,000 patent lawsuits and tens of thousands of defama- tion cases. To be able to do that at scale without constantly adding more people re- quires a bit of an engineering way of think- ing of things, creating optimizations and reusable work product." In 2001, she moved from Toronto to New York City to practise at White & Case LLP as an intellectual property as - sociate, where she remained for four years. Lacavera says her time in private practice helped arm her with both hard and soft skills to lead her large legal team at Google. She says the training and guidance pro- vided by experienced partners is useful for young lawyers before making a move to an in-house position. "Having experience growing up at a ma- jor law firm, being trained and having the mentorship and experience of working on high-risk cases is really formative for young attorneys," she says. In 2005, Lacavera joined Google. She says she was drawn to the technology sector because of her background in computer en - gineering. Her previous role involved work in the pharma- ceutical industry. She says the scope of Goo- gle's legal work is broad, and even with a large in-house legal department working on thousands of active cases, some of the work needs to be outsourced to external legal counsel. Google con - ducts business globally, says Lacavera. She says she is involved in the recruitment process of external legal counsel for the company, and she will fly out to meet poten- tial hires to ensure they're the right fit for the legal team. "[W]e have thousands of active cases at any given time, so that's employing a vast army. I spend a lot of time doing that," says Lacavera. "I was in Munich for a while, where we had a ton of patent litigation, and I went and lived there, and spent time meet - ing counsel on the ground there because I do think to understand a jurisdiction re- quires quite a time commitment." Although Lacavera's career at Google has taken her around the world, she still main- tains strong ties with her roots in Canada and with her alma mater, the University of Toronto. She frequently participates in speaking engagements at the university and remains a mentor to students through its various startup incubators and student groups, such as the Women in Science and Engin - eering group. She also served on the Canadian govern- ment's Venture Capital Catalyst Initiative committee starting in 2018, which aims to "fund and improve the venture ecosystem." She says the venture capital and startup communities have come a long way from when she was in school. "When I was studying at the University of Toronto, I would do an assignment and would hand it in, get my A, throw it in a drawer and forget about it, never thinking to turn it into a company," she says. "The Canadian venture ecosystem has come so far from when I was [a university student], and I'm really excited about the future." Lacavera is participating in one of Goo - gle's largest lawsuits, a copyright law case between the company and Oracle, as it heads to the Supreme Court of the United States. "I am very lucky to work at a company that has a moral compass and where I can genu- inely stand up every day and feel like the cases that I'm fighting for and defending are not just good for Google but good for the world," says Lacavera. "I absolutely love my job." IH 60 SECOND SNAPSHOT T H E L A W Y E R Catherine Lacavera T H E C O M P A N Y Google • Runs Google's global litigation, employment, discovery and regulations team. • Holds JD/MBA degrees and an honorary LLD from the University of Toronto. • Admitted to the Massachusetts and New York State bars and holds registered in-house counsel designation in California. • Maintains strong ties with the University of Toronto, where she mentors students. P r o f e s s i o n a l P r o f i l e "I've dealt with more than 1,000 patent lawsuits and tens of thousands of defamation cases." - Catherine Lacavera

• Cover
• 2-44