Rebecca Eisenberg

General Counsel & Entrepreneurial Attorney

San Francisco Bay Area

Current
Past
  • Vice President, New Market Development and Legal at Ecast, Inc.
  • Principal, Consultant at Cole Valley Group Consulting
  • Columnist, Noveau Geek at CBS MarketWatch
  • Regular Guest, Sometime Producer at TechTV
  • Columnist at San Francisco Examiner/Chronicle
  • Director, Product Manager, Editor, Early Employee at Cyborganic Media
  • Judicial Law Clerk at U.S. Circuit Court, 5th Circuit Court of Appeals
  • Judicial Law Clerk at U.S. District Court, District of Columbia, Washington, DC
  • Judicial Law Clerk at U.S. District Court, Central District of California, Los Angeles, CA

see less...

9 more...

Education
  • Harvard Law School
  • Stanford University
Recommended
Rebecca has 4 recommendations 4 people have recommended Rebecca
Connections
500+ connections
Industry
Internet
Websites

Rebecca Eisenberg’s Summary

I am an entrepreneurial and effective General Counsel. I get things done.

Rebecca Eisenberg’s Specialties:

Expert on legal issues for emerging and growing technology companies. Understand both the legal and business components of business: strategy, corporate development, marketing and business development.

Rebecca Eisenberg’s Experience

  • General Counsel

    Pure Digital Technologies

    (Privately Held; Consumer Electronics industry)

    September 2008 — Present (1 year 3 months)

    As General Counsel of Pure Digital Technologies, makers of the Flip Video family of handheld digital camcorders, I handle all legal issues for this consumer electronics technology company,

    This has included the following:

    • Handled successful Exit: $615 Million merger with Cisco Systems, Inc.
    • Successfully settled multi-million dollar (claimed) patent suit, managed all other litigation and threatened litigation.
    • Handled all commercial transactions, licensing, sales and business development deal support (technology, software, content, co-marketing), including with YouTube, MySpace, AOL and other industry leaders.
    • Led HR legal organization, provided advice, contracts, separations, consulting, conflict management.
    • Handled all intellectual property portfolio: patents, trademarks, copyrights.
    • Provided leadership on executive management team, provided strategic decision making, interfaced with Board of Directors.
    • Managed and hired resources, handled multi-million dollar legal budget.

  • VP, General Counsel & Secretary

    AdBrite, Inc.

    (Privately Held; 51-200 employees; Internet industry)

    March 2007 — September 2008 (1 year 7 months)

    I was the chief legal officer at exciting, quickly growing Internet ad marketplace AdBrite. Duties included:

    - Corporate governance: Secretary of the Board, handled minutes, attended board meetings, drafted resolutions, secured and approved 409A valuations, handled legal aspects of options, securities and venture capital investments.

    - Commercial Transactions: Negotiated all commercial transactions, including sales, business development, strategic alliances, licenses, real estate transactions, vendor agreements and others.

    - Intellectual Property: Managed IP portfolio, patents, copyrights, trademarks.

    - Litigation avoidance: Resolved issues to prevent lawsuits; created policies that maintained positive relationships with partners, competitors and customers.

    - Executive management: Served on management team to participate in strategic decision making and provide counsel to team regarding legal matters. Handled budget and planning.

  • Director, Treasurer

    Craigslist Foundation

    (Non-Profit; 1-10 employees; Non-Profit Organization Management industry)

    May 1999 — May 2007 (8 years 1 month)

    Founding member of Board of Directors of the Craigslist Foundation since 1999 through 2007.

  • Senior Counsel

    PayPal

    (Public Company; 10,001 or more employees; EBAY; Internet industry)

    July 2001 — March 2007 (5 years 9 months)

    Manage team in charge of all commercial transactions, product and marketing review at PayPal. Negotiate and draft commercial contracts, advise company on legal issues w/r to marketing and product development, assist in business development and regulatory matters, worked on IPO, secondary offering and public company merger.

    Achievements include:

    - IPO, Secondary Offering, Public Company Merger with eBay Inc.
    - Large multi-million/billion-dollar strategic deals with: DELL, Apple, Yahoo!
    - Develop and grow legal support system, including all support for sales in PayPal's $1.5 Billion Revenue organization
    - Intellectual Property advice, marketing strategy, product development assistance
    - User Agreement, Privacy Policy, Ts&Cs - both consumer & merchant facing
    - Support on International deals and initiatives
    - Support on HR, PR, Communications
    - Risk Management, conflict avoidance, settlement support

  • Vice President, New Market Development and Legal

    Ecast, Inc.

    (Privately Held; 51-200 employees; Internet industry)

    October 1999 — May 2001 (1 year 8 months)

    • Managed strategic and business development as well as most legal and corporate development, domestic and international.
    • Negotiated and drafted complex legal agreements, including distribution agreements, software licenses, strategic partnership agreements, co-marketing agreements, options contracts and private equity agreements.
    • Successfully closed deals including: digital music licensing with all 5 major labels, distribution deals with wireless and technology companies and $7 million dollar international software license/equity investment agreement.
    • Helped raise more than $18 M for the company, wrote private placement memoranda, attended board meetings.
    • As the first licensed attorney to join the executive team of this fast-paced start-up, also served as lead on risk management, compliance and marketing review, as well as delivered competitive analysis and business strategy.

  • Principal, Consultant

    Cole Valley Group Consulting

    (Privately Held; 1-10 employees; Internet industry)

    October 1995 — May 2001 (5 years 8 months)

    Consultant: Internet business strategy, M&A advising & marketing (both self employed and as part of Cole Valley Group Consulting Group)
    • Conducted strategic, technical marketing and business development services for numerous clients including Pixar Animation Studios, Quokka, Yoga Journal, Adjacency, Inc. (now Sapient), StarMine, Cyborganic Media, MediaCast, Sound Exchange Records, Electric Minds, Verbum and ChemisTree, among other start-ups and new media companies.
    • Wrote more than 10 business plans for start-ups, most of which successfully raised venture funding; consulted start-ups and established companies on mergers & acquisitions and other exit strategies.
    • Contributed ghost writing services for SmartPatents (Aurigin) for Rembrandts in the Closet, book on intellectual property and business; featured in several books; appeared on numerous television shows discussing the Internet on TechTV, PBS and CNBC.

  • Columnist, Noveau Geek

    CBS MarketWatch

    (Public Company; 1001-5000 employees; MKTW; Online Media industry)

    August 1998 — April 2001 (2 years 9 months)

    • Published approximately 100 columns discussing software, hardware and Internet stocks, businesses, strategy and market issues for the Internet’s most visited financial news site, nearly 4 M readers/month.
    • Researched and analyzed individual stocks, businesses and markets in technology and Internet space; Extensively covered high tech legal issues, including UCC2(b), Antitrust and Copyright infringement in digital media..
    • Won journalism award for column unveiling and analyzing strategy behind WebMD/Healtheon merger (HLTH).

  • Regular Guest, Sometime Producer

    TechTV

    (Internet industry)

    1997 — 1999 (2 years )

  • Columnist

    San Francisco Examiner/Chronicle

    (Privately Held; 1001-5000 employees; Newspapers industry)

    June 1997 — October 1999 (2 years 5 months)

    Wrote Net Skink, a bi-weekly column on Internet issues featured in the Sunday Business Section, packaged with the Chronicle.

  • Director, Product Manager, Editor, Early Employee

    Cyborganic Media

    (Privately Held; 1-10 employees; Internet industry)

    December 1995 — October 1997 (1 year 11 months)

    • Key contributor to one of the Internet's first web startups -- a too-early-for its time MySpace-meets-Yelp-meets-SixApart.
    • Produced and managed Cyborganic’s first Web product, GeekCereal.com.
    • Hired, trained, managed and edited group of 12 individuals creating, updating and managing Web site GeekCereal.com.
    • Revised Cyborganic business plan, helped raise angel funding.

  • Judicial Law Clerk

    U.S. Circuit Court, 5th Circuit Court of Appeals

    (Government Agency; Legal Services industry)

    August 1995 — December 1995 (5 months)

    Judicial Law Clerk, Chief Judge Carolyn Dineen King.

  • Judicial Law Clerk

    U.S. District Court, District of Columbia, Washington, DC

    (Government Agency; Legal Services industry)

    August 1994 — July 1995 (1 year )

    Judicial Law Clerk, Honorable Gladys Kessler.

  • Judicial Law Clerk

    U.S. District Court, Central District of California, Los Angeles, CA

    (Government Agency; Law Practice industry)

    August 1993 — August 1994 (1 year 1 month)

    Judicial Law Clerk, Honorable A. Andrew Hauk.

Rebecca Eisenberg’s Education

  • Harvard Law School

    JD , Law , August 1990 — May 1993

    Activities and Societies:
    Harvard Law Review, Editor,
    Graduated Cum Laude,
    Harvard Law Record, Columnist,
    President, ABA, Harvard Chapter

  • Stanford University

    BA , Decision Sciences - Psychology , September 1986 — June 1990

    Activities and Societies:
    Phi Beta Kappa,
    Graduated with Departmental Distinction,
    Booth Prize for Excellence in Writing,
    Psi Chi Psychology Honors,
    Cap and Gown,
    KAO

Additional Information

Rebecca Eisenberg’s Websites:

Rebecca Eisenberg’s Interests:

BOARD MEMBERSHIPS: • Board of Directors, Craigslist Foundation, Treasurer, Founding member, 1999-2008. • Board of Advisors, Kiva.org (Microfinance Nonprofit), 2006-present. • Board of Advisors, The Webby Awards, and Member, International Academy of Arts and Sciences, 2003-present. • Board of Advisors, Broadband Mechanics (Marc Canter’s Company), 2004-present.

Rebecca Eisenberg’s Groups:

LOCOPARENTIS (ask me about this!), Hillary Clinton for President
Celebration 55: Women's Leadership Conference at Harvard Law School

  •    PayPal Corporate Alumni (worked there previously)
  •    Harvard University Alumni
  •    Harvard Law School Alumni Network
  •    ACC-SFBA
  •    Pre-IPO PayPal employees
  •    Stanford University Alumni
  •    Kappa Alpha Theta
  •    Stanford University Alumni Association
  •    WomenCount
  •    Harvard Club of San Francisco (HCSF)

Rebecca Eisenberg’s Honors:

• Winner, Top 25 Women on the Web, 1999 (Judge 2000, 2001).
• Winner, WELL Writing Award, Journalism and Overall Grand Prize, 2000.
• Numerous appearances on national television, including CNBC’s Hardball with Chris Matthews, and PBS Computer Chronicles and Internet Café. Was regular on ZDTV/TechTV’s Silicon Spin.
• Featured in full-length chapter in the book, Web Rules: How the Internet is Changing the Way Consumers Make Choices by Tom Murphy.
• Run two mailing lists and maintain blog (used to maintain very highly trafficked personal website, 1995-1999).

PUBLICATIONS:

• More than 300 columns and articles, including regular columns for CBS MarketWatch, the Chron/Examiner, Digital Mogul, Time Daily, Wired, Red Herring, Upside, Knowledge Management Magazine, Fast Company and more.
• Academia: 2 articles in Harvard Law Review (1992-93); published article in Yale Journal of Law and Feminism, Volume 6 (1994).
• List of published clips available http://www.omino.com/~dom/clips/

Rebecca Eisenberg’s Contact Settings

Interested In:

  • career opportunities
  • consulting offers
  • new ventures
  • job inquiries
  • expertise requests
  • business deals
  • reference requests
  • getting back in touch

View Full Profile

Public profile powered by: LinkedIn

Create a public profile: Sign In or Join Now

View Rebecca Eisenberg’s full profile:

  • See who you and Rebecca Eisenberg know in common
  • Get introduced to Rebecca Eisenberg
  • Contact Rebecca Eisenberg directly

View Full Profile