An Interview with Andrew Byrnes, Presence Learning

• Author: Andrew F. Halaby
• Position: Andrew F. 'Andy' Halaby is a partner at Snell & Wilmer L.L.P. based in Phoenix, Arizona. A business trial lawyer, he focuses his practice on intellectual property and professional responsibility matters.
• Pages: 7-9

Published in Landslide® magazine, Volume 9, Number 3, a publication of the ABA Section of Intellectual Property Law (ABA-IPL), ©2016 by the American Bar Association. Reproduced with permission. All rights reserved. This

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I had done. Being an IP litigator focusing on patents for 16

years gave me pretty signicant insight into patents and the IP

world. Alongside that, I had been active in politics for a long

time. While the PTO is perhaps somewhat less political than

many other agencies in Washington, it certainly was helpful to

understand some of the players and processes about how things

get done in government. More generally having been involved

in the community really gave me insight into opportunities for

collaboration and ways of being a leader in an organization that

would bring people along rather than divide them. That was all

very helpful preparation for the role.

Now, in terms of surprises, as in life, no matter how famil-

iar you are with something from the outside, it’s often not

exactly what you expected when you get to the inside. And in

this case, the surprise came with the Chief of Staff role itself.

It is not a common role outside government. Even though I

went in thinking the role would be broad and impactful, it

surprised me just how broad and impactful the role really

could be. I credit some of that to Director Lee, who became

director after I started, because she is a very hands-on person

with a lot of goals and initiatives. I had to keep up with her.

So that was both wonderful and not entirely expected.

There is, sometimes, an undercurrent or theme in some of

the political statements some people make, to the effect that

motivation, effort, inspiration, and other things that help an

organization prosper are more abundant in the private sector

than in the public sector. I wonder whether, with all of your

private and public sector experience, you have any reaction?

There certainly are different sets of incentives in the public

and private sectors. One important aspect of the public sec-

tor—and this is true of the PTO—is that it’s an agency that

is directed toward the interests of all Americans and, through

its international work, the global innovation community. Ulti-

mately, few in the private sector can have that same breadth of

focus and commitment. So if you believe that you’re particu-

larly innovative and you have all of the answers and the right

way of doing things, you may be frustrated because not every-

body in government is immediately going to see your view.

And even if your colleagues do, there may be others in the

Andrew Byrnes served as chief of staff of the United States

Patent & Trademark Ofce from September 2013 to Octo-

ber 2015. Before President Obama appointed him to that

role, Byrnes worked in private sector positions as a partner

at Covington & Burling and a shareholder of Heller Ehrman,

focusing on patent litigation. He has been heavily involved

in philanthropic and political endeavors, including working

with Full Circle Fund and Cystic Fibrosis Research, Inc., and

serving as a national co-chair of both Lawyers for Obama

and Technology for Obama, and in leadership positions in

the California Democratic Party. Byrnes also founded Twin

Triumph Productions, LLC, which produced an international

award-winning feature length documentary, “The Power of

Two,” addressing organ donation and transplantation, and

cystic brosis awareness. He now serves as executive vice

president, general counsel, and chief compliance ofcer of

PresenceLearning, a San Francisco Bay area telemedicine

startup that enables qualied clinicians to provide live, online

therapies and assessments in education and health care

settings. Byrnes graduated from Stanford University and Har-

vard Law School.

Let’s begin with you describing your experiences as Chief of Staff

of the United States Patent & Trademark Ofce.

It was a fantastic experience. The team from Director

Michelle Lee on down was truly top notch and I worked on a

broad range of really high impact matters every day. I spent

a lot of my time overseeing the operations of the agency,

including legal, HR, and IT, on behalf of the Director. The

rest of my time was focused on policy and public engagement

work, for example, working with an interagency team on pat-

ent reform, and speaking to groups around the country about

the agency and the Administration’s efforts to promote inno-

vation. It really was an incredible two years.

This was the rst time you worked in a government agency,

correct? How did your varied work experiences in the run up

to that opportunity help prepare you for it? What, if anything,

surprised you when you got there?

Correct, this was my rst time in government as an

employee. From a professional perspective, I’ve long lived at

the intersection of technology, business, law, and policy. While

the PTO is denitely a different conguration of those ele-

ments, in many ways it was quite consistent with the work that

CONVERSATIONS IN IP LAW

An Interview with Andrew Byrnes

Executive Vice President and

General Counsel, PresenceLearning

By Andrew F. Halaby

Andrew F. “Andy” Halaby is a partner at Snell & Wilmer L.L.P.

based in Phoenix, Arizona. A business trial lawyer, he focuses his

practice on intellectual property and professional responsibility matters.