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

Coming Soon!

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.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.

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