Philip Milestone

EXPERIENCE: Straight out of law school, Philip joined Bingham McCutchen in San Francisco, where he litigated intellectual property cases, worked on private equity acquisitions, and assisted clients in antitrust investigations.  He soon realized helping people build businesses was more fun and interesting than suing them, so he joined the Business Transactions group of Farella Braun + Martel where he was active in their commercial group as well as their beverage and alcohol practice.

A sample of Philip's experience:

  • e-commerce: Philip negotiates contracts involving the purchase and lease of software, software-as-a-service, service level agreements and consulting agreements. He has also worked with internet retailers to enforce service level agreements and software contracts.
  • renewable energy:  Philip has worked on several transactions for solar energy companies, including drafting and review of transactional documents, due diligence (corporate, IP, general, land use), environmental reports, insurance, state and local compliance and labor issues.
  • intellectual property counseling: Philip counsels his clients to ensure their IP is protected, to comply with IP law, and to avoid infringement. He prepares trademark applications, and worked through appeals from adverse decisions on trademark applications. He counsels clients on trade secrets and has litigated trade secret actions through summary judgment.
  • corporate counseling: Philip counsels clients on entity shape, structure, profit or not-for profit decisions, and governance to make sure the entity and business are in line with the goals of the business owner and other stakeholders. He also works with business owners on financing strategy including timing, debt vs. equity, and business goals.

Philip also volunteered for the three years of law school with the Legal Aid Society - Employment Law Center, representing people with unemployment insurance appeals before the California Employment Development Department as well as wage and hour claims before the California Labor Commissioner.

BIOGRAPHY: Before he was a lawyer, or a Californian, Philip worked as a waiter, bookseller, busboy, cook and landscaper in Wisconsin (where he was born) and New York City (where he lived between undergrad and law).  While in NYC, he spent time as an analyst with a tech startup and crunched numbers for Brooks Brothers as a planner managing budgets and building spreadsheets (where he became an Excel expert though he never learned to tie a bow tie).  It was also in the big city that he met his wife and muse, Lisa, who works as a graphic designer from her studio in the Bay Area.  He lives in Alameda, with his wife, son, a cat and two dachshunds.

EDUCATION, MEMBERSHIPS and LANGUAGES

- University of California Berkeley School of Law, 2006 - Juris Doctor
- University of Wisconsin Madison, 1999 - BA (Philosophy) Phi Beta Kappa
- Admitted to practice in California
- Conversant in Danish

RECENT SPEAKING ENGAGEMENTS