Victoria A Cundiff

Partner, Litigation Department

New York

T 1(212) 318-6030

F 1(212) 230-7643

Victoria A. Cundiff is a partner at Paul Hastings and is based in the firm’s New York office. Ms. Cundiff is a leader of the Litigation department’s global Trade Secrets practice, which is ranked in “Tier 1” by Legal 500 and is regularly named a “Leading Lawyer” nationally in the field by Legal 500. See http://www.legal500.com for criteria. She helps clients acquire, protect, and maximize value from intellectual property. Ms. Cundiff’s clients include emerging companies, joint ventures, and Fortune 50 companies in a variety of industries, including software, media, financial services, insurance, medical devices, pharmaceutical, chemical, marketing, and sales and distribution organizations. Much of her work focuses on issues arising at the intersection of intellectual property and employment law, including avoiding the loss or receipt of trade secrets and other valuable assets when key employees move between competitors, analyzing and litigating restrictive covenant and intellectual property ownership disputes, and designing confidential investigation procedures and verification protocols for resolving intellectual property use and ownership disputes outside of court.

Ms. Cundiff has tried intellectual property and related commercial disputes throughout the United States and before a variety of arbitration and mediation tribunals, and has coordinated on such disputes internationally. As important is her work to help organizations avoid litigation. Ms. Cundiff writes extensively on intellectual property law issues, including “Preventing The Inevitable: How Thinking About What Might Happen Can Help Ensure That it Won’t,” “Reasonable Measures to Protect Trade Secrets in a Digital Environment,” and “How to Place Your Intellectual Property at Risk,” and has contributed to the ICC Trade Secrets Task Force Report on Trade Secrets Legislation. She is a frequent speaker on the implications of recent IP developments. Ms. Cundiff serves as an instructor in programs sponsored by the USPTO on trade secrets law for, among others, representatives of governments of a variety of U.S. trading partners. She has contributed to amicus curiae briefs filed in the United States Supreme Court on copyright and intellectual property licensing issues. She has also completed a certificate in Chinese IP Law from the Berkeley Center for Law & Technology.

Ms. Cundiff is a Member of the American Law Institute, serving as an Adviser on the Restatement, Third, Conflict of Laws. She is a member of the Executive Committee of the New York State Bar Association’s Intellectual Property Section and is the past Chair of that section. Ms. Cundiff serves as Vice Chair of the Sedona Conference Working Group on Trade Secrets Law and co-chair of the group’s Equitable Relief Drafting Team and has served as the Vice Chair of the IPO’s trade secrets committee. She was an invited civilian guest at the U.S. Army War College National Security Seminar and has been recognized in The Best Lawyers in America; Chambers; Legal 500; and New York Super Lawyers, among other lawyer directories and guides.

Ms. Cundiff is a Visiting Lecturer in Law at Yale Law School, where she teaches intellectual property law, and the University of Pennsylvania, where she teaches trade secrets law.

Ms. Cundiff received her B.A. degree from the University of Denver, where she was a Boettcher Foundation Scholar, and received her J.D. degree from Yale Law School. She is on the advisory board of the Yale Law School Center for the Study of Corporate Law. Ms. Cundiff was a founding member of the Print Club of the City of New York. She serves on the boards of the United States Senate Youth Program Alumni Association and the York Theatre Company in New York, and has served as the Chair of the Yale Law School Executive Committee.

Speaking Engagements and Publications

Speaker, “Thinking About Trade Secrets,” MIT Sloan School, November 2019
Vice Chair and Moderator, Sedona Conference Annual Meeting on Developing Best Practices in Trade Secrets Law, November 2019 (Charlotte)
Program Chair and Speaker, “Trade Secrets: What Every Lawyer Should Know,” October 2019 and November 2018 (San Francisco)
Author, “What to Learn from Disputes over Driverless Cars, Data Analytics, and More,” PLI Course Handbook Number G-1431 (October 2019)
Speaker, “The Latest Developments in Trade Secrets Law,” Practising Law Institute Intellectual Property Law Institute September 2019 (New York)
Speaker, “What Entrepreneurs Need to Consider About Trade Secrets Law,” MIT Sloan School, March, 2019
Vice Chair, Sedona Conference Meeting on Developing Best Practices in Trade Secrets Law, November 2018 (Los Angeles)
Author, “One State is Not Like the Others: New York Rejects Avoided Development Costs as a Measure of Trade Secrets Damages,” NYSBA BRIGHT IDEAS, Winter 2018
Author, “A Trade Secrets Crash Course 2018,” PLI Course Handbook Number 1392 (November 2018)
Speaker, IPO Annual Meeting, International Developments in Trade Secrets Law, September 2018 (Chicago)
Speaker, Trade Secrets Institute, Best Practices Dialogue on Drafting and Implementing National Trade Secret Laws: “Access to Evidence,” May 2018
Speaker, Fordham IP Institute, “Global Trade Secrets,” April 2018
AIPLA Trade Secrets Summit, Speaker, “When Trade Secrets Disputes Cross Borders,” March 2018
Speaker, Sedona Conference on International Patent Enforcement, Speaker, “International Trade Secrets Enforcement,” Washington D.C., February 2018
Brooklyn Law School, Trade Secrets Institute Annual Symposium: “New Developments in Trade Secret Enforcement,” Speaker, February 2018
IPO Chat Channel: Speaker, “Settling Trade Secrets Cases,” February 2018
Twenty-Five Year Anniversary of the Formation of the New York State Bar Association’s Intellectual Property Law Section: Lessons Learned from Former Chairs, Speaker, January 2018
Co-Chair and Moderator, Inaugural Sedona Conference on Developing Best Practices for Trade Secrets Issues (a policy program for the judiciary, corporate counsel and experienced practitioners), “Equitable Relief in Trade Secrets Cases: Finding the Best Fit,” Scottsdale, Arizona, December 2017
“Trade Secrets and Innovation Policy,” Presentation at MIT Sloan School October 31, 2017
Program Chair and Speaker, Trade Secrets Institute: What Every Lawyer Should Know, sponsored by the Practising Law Institute, New York, San Francisco and webcast. October (New York) and November (San Francisco) 2017, “A Trade Secrets Crash Course” 2017
Moderator, AIPLA Judicial Roundtable, “The First Year Under the DTSA.” Washington, D.C., October 2017
Speaker, Practising Law Institute Annual Intellectual Property Law Institute, “What Driverless Cars, Solar Panels, and Finger Tapping Robots Can Teach Us about Trade Secrets Law,” New York, October 2017
Presentation to MOFCOMM delegation (Chinese Ministry of Finance Delegation and representatives of state owned industrial organizations) on United States Trade Secrets Law sponsored by (and invited by) the United States State Department at Fordham Law School, July 2017
Speaker, AIPLA Webinar, “Tips for Managing Trade Secrets in an Insecure World,” May 9, 2017
Speaker, USPTO “Developments in Trade Secrets” Symposium, Washington, D.C. on “The DTSA in Practice.” May 8, 2017
Speaker, Fordham IP Institute April 2017, “Global Enforcement of Trade Secrets Rights”
Speaker, CEO Connection Mid-Market Convention, sponsored by the Wharton School, “Take Trade Secrets Seriously to Maintain Your Competitive Advantage”
AIPLA Trade Secrets Summit March 2017, Atlanta. Speaker, “Managing Your Trade Secrets Case”
Author, “What You Need to Know About the Defend Trade Secrets Act,” NYSBA BRIGHT IDEAS, Fall 2016

Rankings & Awards

Recognized by Chambers USA 2020
Chambers USA 2020: America’s Leading Lawyers for Business listed the firm in 37 research areas and named 104 firm lawyers to its rankings of leading lawyers and law firms in the United States.
May 01, 2020

Ranked by Chambers USA 2019
Chambers USA 2019: America’s Leading Lawyers for Business listed the firm in 44 practice areas and named 107 firm lawyers to its rankings of leading lawyers and law firms in the United States.
April 26, 2019

Recognized by Chambers USA 2018
Chambers USA 2018: America’s Leading Lawyers for Business listed the firm in 45 research areas and named 112 firm lawyers to its rankings of leading lawyers and law firms in the United States.
May 15, 2018

Recognized by Chambers USA 2017
Chambers USA 2017: America’s Leading Lawyers for Business named 46 of the firm’s practice areas and 112 individuals to its ranking of leading lawyers and law firms in the United States.
June 05, 2017

Recognized by Chambers USA 2016
Chambers USA 2016: America’s Leading Lawyers for Business named 47 of the firm’s practice areas and 112 individuals to its ranking of leading lawyers and law firms in the United States.
June 08, 2016

Practical Law Company
The Paul Hastings Intellectual Property team has been recommended and broadly recognized in the United States, and more specifically, in Washington, D.C. and New York, by Practical Law Company Which Lawyer?. The following individuals have been recognized by PLC: Victoria Cundiff and Larry Gotts.
May 23, 2010

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Victoria A Cundiff

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