Last month, The Bar Association of San Francisco celebrated excellence and innovators in the world of in-house counsel at our In-House Counsel Awards. Hosted at the iconic and beautiful Ohana Room at the top of the Salesforce Tower, the awards recognize in-house lawyers, teams and departments on the cutting edge and making a difference in their field.
Cathleen Hartge, General Counsel of Runway–an applied AI research company building the next generation of creative tools–was selected to receive BASF’s Rising Star Award for her substantial impact in the field. Cathleen has stood out among her peers as a lawyer, leader, and game-changer at each career stage. Prior to joining Runway, Cathleen founded and built the legal department at mobile linking and attribution company Branch, where she advised the leadership team through five years of global hypergrowth. Cathleen’s in-house success is built upon the foundation of her early litigation experience at Munger, Tolles & Olson, where her analytics, writing, and judgment on essential matters were recognized for being beyond her years in the legal profession.
Thomas Mandel Onda, Chief Counsel, Global Intellectual Property, Brands and Marketing for Levi Strauss & Co. (LS&Co.), was honored with BASF’s Lifetime Achievement Award for his innovative achievements in the legal field. Onda is a nationally recognized expert on brand protection and fashion law. Onda has successfully managed hundreds of IP-related matters, during which he has strengthened and broadened LS&Co.’s rights in its valuable IP assets. Beyond his IP role, Tom was a part of the team that developed a revolutionary technology that contributed to LS&Co.’s sustainability goals and, on a broader level, achieved transformational changes in LS&Co.’s operating model. Tom shows exceptional, innovative commercial, social, and environmental sustainability achievements.
Danielle Coleman, Senior Director & Associate General Counsel at VMware, received the Community Champion award for her outstanding dedication in pro bono work. Coleman’s pro bono work includes representing low-income tenants in unlawful detainer settlement negotiations and helping a Nicaraguan woman obtain asylum in the U.S. Danielle is also passionate about supporting individuals eager to reenter the workforce but struggling due to criminal records. Through her involvement in the reentry court program and the record-clearing project for Fire Camp volunteers, Danielle has worked with underrepresented individuals to prepare them for employment opportunities and help them reintegrate into society.
Laura McAdams, Lead Counsel at Cruise, received BASF’s Diversity Champion for her commitment in conceptualizing and implementing Cruise’s Legal Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging (DEIB) program. The DEIB program promotes inclusive workplace policies that are applied fairly and equitably, as well as addresses systemic discrimination, such as recruiting candidates from underrepresented backgrounds; she instituted DEIB Scorecard requirements for outside counsel and incorporated pro bono into the framework. She shows total commitment to building and fostering a strong DEIB culture in the legal field.
OpenAI’s legal team received BASF’s Outstanding Small Law Department Award for tackling complex legal issues brought by the ground-breaking AI technologies. The legal department has adroitly navigated these issues and cleared the path for the company’s meteoric rise. In addition, they provided product counsel and a wide variety of commercial arrangements to OpenAI’s engineering and business teams throughout the development of DALL-E. They have helped shape use policies that require humans in the loop for high-stakes use cases like legal and medical and remain active in discussions about AI safety standards.
The Outstanding Large Law Department award went to the legal team of Alphabet’s Regulatory Response, Investigations & Strategy (ARRIS) at Google. The team handles high-risk issues involving regulatory scrutiny, enforcement actions, and other proceedings such as shareholder litigation, internal investigations, data incidents, and other emerging risks across Alphabet globally. ARRIS comprises an extraordinary cohort of lawyers and directs matters of the highest profile and greatest sensitivity.
Congratulations to our winners, and thank you for your work and trailblazing in the legal field!