COURSE PLANNER AND MODERATOR
John B. Farmer, Leading-Edge Law Group, PLC / Richmond
John B. Farmer is a member of the Leading-Edge Law Group, PLC, an intellectual property (“IP”) boutique law firm in Richmond, Virginia. He served as chairman of the Trademark Public Advisory Committee of the United States Patent and Trademark Office. He writes a monthly IP and technology law column for the Richmond Times-Dispatch. He is listed in the top rank of Virginia IP attorneys by Chambers USA and listed for IP in Best Lawyers in America.
Mr. Farmer is a past chair of the IP Section of the Virginia State Bar. He is a past president of the Greater Richmond Intellectual Property Law Association. He graduated from the University of Virginia and its law school. After graduation from law school, he clerked for the Hon. Donald S. Russell, Judge of the U.S. Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals, and for the Hon. James C. Cacheris, Judge of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, Richmond Division.
FACULTY
Seth Guggenheim, Virginia State Bar / Richmond
Seth Guggenheim has practiced law in both the public and private sectors for over 40 years. He has held leadership positions in the Alexandria Bar Association, and lectures frequently on legal ethics and professional regulation to bar associations and other groups. He is an adjunct professor at the Washington College of Law at American University, having taught a course for nine years entitled Ethics for Trial Lawyers. He also volunteers to judge law students at mock trial competitions.
Between February of 2000 and April of 2012, Mr. Guggenheim was a prosecutor for the Virginia State Bar. He is now assistant ethics counsel for the Bar, giving Ethics Hotline advice to attorneys, presenting at seminars, and reviewing lawyers’ proposed advertising. He has assisted the Bar’s Standing Committee on Legal Ethics in the generation of legal ethics opinions. Before serving the Virginia State Bar, Mr. Guggenheim defended the District Columbia in civil matters as an assistant corporation counsel in what is now known as the District of Columbia Office of the Attorney General.
Mr. Guggenheim attended the George Washington University and Boston University, where he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree. He is a graduate of the Washington College of Law at American University, where he was awarded a Juris Doctor degree. He is an active member of the Virginia State Bar and an inactive member of the District of Columbia bar.
Michael McCabe, McCabe Ali LLP / Potomac, MD
Michael E. McCabe, Jr. is a registered patent attorney specializing in ethics advice and representation of intellectual property professionals before the Office of Enrollment and Discipline (OED) of the U.S Patent and Trademark Office and in related State Bar matters in Maryland, Virginia, and the District of Columbia. He has proudly represented more IP professionals in ethics matters before the USPTO than any other lawyer or firm. His practice encompasses every type of ethics proceedings before the USPTO, including character and fitness inquiries, ethics investigations, settlements, disciplinary trials, and appeals. He has represented over 200 patent and trademark practitioners in the U.S. His clients' matters involve the gamut of IP professionalism issues, including ethics and disciplinary inquiries resulting from criminal misconduct or convictions, reciprocal state bar proceedings, and scores of matters relating to the provision of patent or trademark legal services.
Mr. McCabe is the creator of IPethics & INsights, an award-winning law blog he started in 2014 as a resource for the intellectual property bar as well as law firm risk managers, in-house counsel, and legal malpractice insurers. He is regularly invited to speak at bar association meetings and for private clients on all types of matters relating to best practices in patent and trademark law and to assist his attorney and other legal professional clients when an ethics investigation is commenced, or disciplinary complaint is filed.
Patent and trademark attorneys and in-house IP counsel frequently engage Mr. McCabe for help in identifying problems in their practices, either internal to an organization or with clients or others. He is a team player who works constructively with his attorney clients to develop practical solutions while ensuring their practices comply with the standards of professional conduct governing intellectual property practitioners. He has helped guide his patent and trademark lawyer clients faced with ethics and liability issues on most every procedural matter that can arise in an intellectual property case, including ethics and disciplinary issues arising from claims or adjudications of inequitable conduct, sanctions orders, Rule 11 and Rule 37 violations, fee-shifting orders under Octane Fitness, disqualification orders, protective order violations, client complaints, conflicts of interest, missed deadlines, and other alleged improper behavior that can arise in an IP practice. HE has had the pleasure of representing some of the country's most respected IP lawyers and law firms whenever their professional behavior or ethics are called into question.
Mr. McCabe has practiced law for over 27 years, with a strong background in federal litigation. From 1992 until 1995, he was a litigation associate at Shapiro & Olander in Baltimore, Maryland, where he represented clients in commercial and insurance litigation matters in federal court and before state and federal agencies.