![\"Professor](\"\/\/mitchellhamline.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2016\/10\/Sandeen_Sharon-214x300.jpg\")
<\/a>Professor Sharon K. Sandeen<\/p><\/div>\n
\u201cRobins Kaplan is a leading intellectual property law firm and a longstanding and valued partner of Mitchell Hamline,\u201d said President and Dean Mark C. Gordon<\/a>. \u201cWe 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.\u201d<\/p>\n 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\u2019s 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\u2019s leading independent organization producing scholarly work to clarify, modernize, and improve the law.<\/p>\n 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\u2019s 75th anniversary. That gift, the largest from a law firm and its partners in the school\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n \u201cRobins\u00a0Kaplan\u00a0is thrilled to witness\u00a0the\u00a0establishment of this professorship in our name,\u00a0to support the work of Professor Sandeen, and to enhance legal education in\u00a0the\u00a0vital area of intellectual property law,\u201d\u00a0said Martin\u00a0Lueck<\/a>,\u00a0Chairman of\u00a0the Executive Board of\u00a0Robins Kaplan LLP.\u00a0\u201cWe\u00a0have found an ideal partner for our giving in the\u00a0Mitchell Hamline School of Law, an institution which, like\u00a0Robins\u00a0Kaplan, is steeped in tradition yet continually breaking new ground in its field.”<\/p>\n