Mitchell Hamline School of Law is awarding its first-ever Robins Kaplan LLP Distinguished Professorship in Intellectual Property Law to Sharon K. Sandeen, professor of law and director of Mitchell Hamline’s Intellectual Property Institute.
Professor Sharon K. Sandeen
“Robins Kaplan is a leading intellectual property law firm and a longstanding and valued partner of Mitchell Hamline,” said President and Dean Mark C. Gordon. “We are so grateful to the firm for this opportunity to support and enhance the research, outreach, and teaching of Professor Sandeen, one of the leading scholars in this important field.”
Professor Sandeen is an internationally recognized expert on trade secret law and co-author of the first casebook on trade secret law in the United States. She began her full-time teaching career in 2002 at Hamline University School of Law, one of Mitchell Hamline’s predecessor schools. Before becoming a professor, Sandeen practiced law for more than 15 years in Sacramento, Calif., focusing on intellectual property litigation and counseling. She earned a B.A. in political science and LL.M. from the University of California, Berkeley, and a J.D. from the University of the Pacific, McGeorge School of Law. In 2016, she was elected to membership in the American Law Institute, considered the country’s leading independent organization producing scholarly work to clarify, modernize, and improve the law.
Robins Kaplan, along with two of its partners, funded the Distinguished Professorship in Intellectual Property Law as part of a $1.125 million gift in honor of the firm’s 75th anniversary. That gift, the largest from a law firm and its partners in the school’s history, also expanded scholarships for women and established another endowed faculty position. The Distinguished Professorship in Intellectual Property Law is the first in the field of intellectual property at the law school and one of only a few dedicated to IP law in the nation. It is one of 13 endowed faculty positions at Mitchell Hamline School of Law.
“Robins Kaplan is thrilled to witness the establishment of this professorship in our name, to support the work of Professor Sandeen, and to enhance legal education in the vital area of intellectual property law,” said Martin Lueck, Chairman of the Executive Board of Robins Kaplan LLP. “We have found an ideal partner for our giving in the Mitchell Hamline School of Law, an institution which, like Robins Kaplan, is steeped in tradition yet continually breaking new ground in its field.”
Robins Kaplan is among the nation’s premier trial law firms, with more than 220 lawyers located in Boston; Los Angeles; Minneapolis; Naples, Fla; New York; and Silicon Valley. The firm litigates, mediates, and arbitrates high-stakes, complex disputes, repeatedly earning national recognition. Firm clients include—as both plaintiffs and defendants—numerous Fortune 500 corporations, emerging-markets companies, entrepreneurs, and individuals.