2026 Trade Secret Summit

The AIPLA Trade Secret Summit is the leading trade secret conference in the nation, with speakers from across the spectrum of private practitioners, in-house counsel, government, and academia, as well as fantastic networking opportunities.

Registration Rates

AIPLA Regular and other Member Rate: $495
AIPLA Solo/Small Firm Member Rate: $395
AIPLA In-House Counsel $399 (special form required for non-member in-house counsel)
AIPLA Junior/Government/IP Paralegal-Tech Advisor Member Rate: $199
AIPLA Student/Academic/Judicial Member Rate: $55
Non-Member Rate: $895

Thursday, April 23

8:00 - 8:45 AM - Breakfast
8:45 - 9:00 AM - Welcome & Intros
9:00 - 10:00 AM - Trade Secrets in Texas
10:00 - 11:00 AM - Industry Panel: Trade Secrets in Financial Services
11:00 - 11:15 AM - Break
11:15 - 12:30 PM - Government Enforcement and Legislation of Noncompetes
12:30 - 1:30 PM - Lunch
1:30 - 2:30 - Trade Secrets Damages: Latest Trend of Large Verdicts Being Set Aside and Apportionment
2:30 - 3:30 PM - Back to School: Professor Panel
3:45 - 4:45 PM - Combination Trade Secrets

Friday, April 24

8:30 - 9:00 AM - Breakfast
9:00 - 10:00 AM - How Forensics Can Make a Difference in Your Trade Secrets Litigation
10:00 - 11:00 AM - AI and Trade Secrets
11:00 - 11:15 AM - Break
11:15 - 12:15 PM - Trade Secrets Defenses: Generally Known or Readily Ascertainable
12:15 - 12:30 - Close

Hotel Details

Sheraton Fort Worth Downtown Hotel
1701 Commerce Street
Fort Worth, Texas, USA, 76102

CLICK HERE TO RESERVE YOUR ROOM

Single/Double Standard Room Rate:
$229 per night, plus applicable taxes (currently 19.34%)

Reservation Cut-Off Date:
April 3, 2026

Cancellation Policy:
Reservations must be canceled at least 48 hours prior to arrival to avoid a cancellation fee.

Early Departure Fee:
An early departure fee equal to one (1) night’s room rate, plus applicable taxes and fees, will apply if a guest checks out prior to their confirmed departure date. To avoid this fee, guests should notify the Sheraton Fort Worth Downtown Hotel at or before check-in of any changes to their length of stay.

Important Notice:
AIPLA does not engage third-party vendors to assist with hotel reservations. All reservations should be made directly using the booking link above or by calling 1-888-236-2427. Guests should identify themselves as part of the AIPLA group when booking.

Thank You to Our Sponsors!

Speakers

• Beck, Russell

  Beck Reed Riden LLP | Founder

  Russell Beck is a business, trade secrets, and employee mobility litigator, nationally recognized for his trade secrets and noncompete experience. He was invited to the Obama White House to develop guidelines for the proper use of noncompetes, and has been cited as an expert on trade secrets and noncompetes by The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, the White House, the Treasury Department, National Public Radio, the BBC World News Service, PBS Newshour, Le Monde, and many others.
• Dearing, Lea

  Berman Fink Van Horn PC | Shareholder

  A Shareholder at Berman Fink Van Horn, Lea counsels companies regarding disputes that arise in every day operations.
• Elkon, Michael

  Fisher & Philips LLP | Partner

  Michael Elkon is a partner in the Atlanta office. He helps companies recruit talent from competitors in a legal fashion and ensures that former employees do not exploit companies' key information and relationships.
• Fink, Benjamin

  Berman Fink Van Horn, P.C. | Shareholder

  Benjamin Fink is a shareholder at Berman Fink Van Horn P.C. in Atlanta, Georgia. His practice focuses on business and commercial litigation with an emphasis on competition-related disputes, including noncompetes and trade secrets. A published author on restrictive covenants, he blogs regularly on noncompete and trade secret topics (www.bfvlaw.com/blogs) and serves as a co-host of the Fairly Competing podcast. In recognition of his thought leadership in the trade secrets arena, he was invited to attend The Inaugural Sedona Conference on Developing Best Practices for Trade Secrets Issues that was held in December 2017. He served on the Sedona Conference drafting team for Principles/Best Practices Commentary on Protecting Trade Secrets in Litigation as part of Working Group 12 on Trade Secrets. He currently serves as Chair of the Trade Secrets Committee of the AIPLA.
• Gerber, Seth

  Morgan, Lewis & Bockius | Partner

  Seth M. Gerber is a partner with Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP in Century City, California. His trial practice focuses on trade secrets and non-compete litigation. Mr. Gerber has practiced extensively in both state and federal courts, and he has jury and bench trial, arbitration, and appellate experience.
• Hall, Dawn

  FTI Consulting | Senior Managing Director

  Dawn Hall is a Senior Managing Director in the Dispute Advisory Services (“DAS”) practice within the Forensic & Litigation Consulting segment at FTI Consulting and is the co-leader of the Intellectual Property practice. She is based in New York.
• Katz, Marc

  Vartabedian Katz Hester Haynes | Partner

  Marc is a leading authority on global employment practices and trends, has a sophisticated, broad-based national litigation practice, and has been repeatedly recognized by Chambers USA, The Legal 500 United States and other law-firm research guides as a top practitioner in his field. Marc has significant experience representing corporate clients in high-stakes trade-secret, employee-mobility, restrictive-covenant and unfair ­competition litigation, as well as fiduciary-duty and partnership disputes and collective and class-action litigation cases throughout the nation. 
• Klapow, Mark

  Crowell & Moring LLP | Partner

  Mark A. Klapow is a partner in the firm's Litigation Group. He litigates complex commercial and intellectual property disputes, including trade secrets cases. Mark has represented Fortune 500 companies including Alcoa, AT&T, Caterpillar, Dow, Ericsson, ExxonMobil, Intel, Lenovo, Molson Coors, and Western Union in federal and state courts across the country.
• Lui, Cathy

  Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe | Litigation Partner

  Cathy Lui is a litigation partner at Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe and she is based in the San Francisco office. Cathy primarily specializes in trade secrets litigation and her practice crosses all industries and sectors including tech, life sciences, retail, and financial services, among others. Cathy also engages in complex commercial litigation including employee mobility, false advertising, and other commercial disputes. Her matters are often high-profile and industry changing. For her achievements, Legal500 has repeatedly recognized her as a “Next Gen Lawyer” in Trade Secrets and the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association honored Cathy as a 2019 Best Lawyer Under 40. Cathy is also very involved in her community and with DEI initiatives. She previously served as Orrick’s hiring partner for San Francisco, was a Fellow with the Leadership Council on Legal Diversity, and a former co-chair of the Judiciary Committee for the Asian American Bar Association of the Greater Bay Area.
• Marsh, John

  Bailey Cavalieri LLC | Member

  As the Co-Chair of the Firm’s Business Litigation Practice Group, John’s commercial litigation practice concentrates on trade secrets and the enforcement of restrictive covenants throughout the United States. John has been consistently recognized by Best Lawyers of America for Intellectual Property Litigation, including Lawyer of the Year in Columbus in 2022 and 2024.
• Ostroff, Eric

  Meland Budwick, P.A. | Managing Partner

  Eric Ostroff is the managing partner of Meland Budwick, P.A., where he chairs the firm’s Trade Secrets and IP Department. He is a Chambers-ranked lawyer who focuses his practice on business litigation and trade-secret litigation. He has extensive experience representing both companies and individuals in these matters, across a variety of industries. Eric is a trial lawyer who has tried a number of bench and jury trials dealing with trade secrets and business litigation issues. Eric earned his JD, summa cum laude, from the University of Miami School of Law, where he currently teaches Trade Secrets Law.
• Pelletier, Dean A.

  Pelletier Law | Founder

  Dean has been practicing IP law for 25 years and focuses on leveraging patents and trade secrets. Dean’s litigation, trial and appellate experience includes experience in federal and state courts and at the ITC.
• Pooley, James

  James Pooley PLC | Founder

  James Pooley is one of the world’s foremost experts in trade secret law and management. His legal treatise, “Trade Secrets,” updated semi-annually, is the leading lawyer’s desk reference on the subject. His latest business book is “Secrets: Managing Information Assets in the Age of Cyberespionage” (Verus Press, 2015).
• Powitzky Steely, Rachel

  Foley & Lardner LLP | Partner

  Rachel Powitzky Steely is a leading female trial lawyer in Texas. Rachel has been recognized as one of the top 50 female lawyers in Texas, selected as a Houston elite 100 lawyer and was named a top 20 female trial lawyer by Texas Lawyer Magazine, the only trade secret/employment attorney to receive the honor. Rachel’s trial experience includes employment, commercial, corporate and insurance matters. She has won multimillion dollar verdicts and defended companies against claims exceeding 100 million dollars.
• Southwick, Stephanie

  Burford Capital | Director

  Stephanie Southwick is a Director with responsibility for originating new business with law firms and companies as part of Burford’s US commercial investment team.
• Weibust, Erik

  Epstein Becker & Green, P.C. | Partner

  Erik Weibust is a Partner in the Boston office of Epstein Becker & Green, P.C., where he is Vice Chair of the firm’s Trade Secret & Employee Mobility practice group. Many of the world’s leading pharmaceutical, biotech, medical device, technology, financial services, staffing, and insurance companies look to Erik for thoughtful and practical advice concerning how best to protect their trade secrets and customer relationships from misappropriation by former employees, ex-business partners, competitors, and hostile actors in the United States and abroad, and to avoid liability when hiring from competitors. When necessary, clients rely on Erik for aggressive representation in litigation, where he has won substantial victories in court and at the negotiating table, including broad-reaching injunctive relief and multimillion-dollar payouts, in trade secret misappropriation, unfair competition, and breach of restrictive covenant cases.
• Weil, Michael D.

  Morgan, Lewis & Bockius, LLP | Partner

  Michael Weil represents employers in a wide range of employment disputes, with a focus on class and representative actions asserting multimillion dollars in damages and high stakes noncompete, employee mobility, and trade secrets matters arising from a variety of industries, including life sciences, technology, retail, and financial services, throughout the United States.
• Vaughn, Jim

  iDiscovery Solutions | Managing Director

  James D. Vaughn, a Managing Director of iDiscovery Solutions (iDS), is a court-recognized expert who has given testimony in nearly 70 cases involving topics such as evidence preservation, documentation of events, and computer forensic methodologies and procedures. In addition to being an EnCase Certified Examiner (EnCE), Mr. Vaughn is certified by the International Association of Computer Investigative Specialists (IACIS) as a Certified Forensic Computer Examiner (CFCE).

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