I subscribed while still interviewing, admittedly under a different address. :) Thanks for the warm welcome, James- I look forward to working with everyone.
Luis On Tue, Feb 19, 2013 at 3:49 PM, James Alexander <jalexan...@wikimedia.org>wrote: > Responding to this to to make sure it gets to Wikimedia-l and to be the > first to say on Wikimedia-l \o/ WELCOME! > > Luis seems like the perfect dGC for us with his experience and background. > Watch out for Geoff he's dangerous and crafty! > > James > > Copying in Luis since I'm not sure if he's on here yet or not :) > > James Alexander > Manager, Merchandise > Wikimedia Foundation > (415) 839-6885 x6716 @jamesofur > > > On Tue, Feb 19, 2013 at 3:37 PM, Geoff Brigham <gbrig...@wikimedia.org>wrote: > >> *Hi everyone, * >> * * >> *I’m simply thrilled to welcome Luis Villa to the Foundation as our new >> Deputy General Counsel.* >> * >> Thanks to Kat Walsh, I met Luis during my first months at the >> Foundation. Kat loves Luis, and it is no wonder why. In addition to >> being a superb lawyer, Luis is an open source developer, has worked with >> leaders in our Internet legal circles, and has a great personality that >> embraces our culture. >> * >> * >> His most recent adventure took place at the Palo Alto office of Greenberg >> Traurig, one of the top global law firms. There he worked with well-known >> Internet lawyers like Ian Ballon and Heather Meeker. Luis focused on >> technology transactions, helping clients create solutions to licensing >> problems, with a particular emphasis on open source and software standards. >> His clients included Mozilla, the Open Compute Project, and a variety of >> clients large and small. Luis successfully defended Google in the >> Oracle-Google/Android lawsuit, primarily working on the question of API >> copyrightability. I hired Luis as outside counsel to work on a tough >> legal matter for us, and his answers were on point, clear, and practical. >> * >> * >> Luis’ first contact with free software came was when he was in college >> at Duke University. There he studied political science and computer >> science, began using Linux, and helped triage Mozilla's bugzilla. A >> professor paid him to play with Lego, resulting in brief maintainership of >> the GPL’d LegOS operating system and co-authorship of the book "Extreme >> Mindstorms". >> * >> * >> After graduation, Luis worked at Ximian, a Linux desktop startup, doing >> quality assurance and eventually managing the desktop team. As part of >> that, he got heavily involved in the GNOME desktop project, becoming >> bugmaster and then getting elected to the board of directors. After Ximian >> was acquired, Luis became "geek in residence" at Harvard Law School's >> Berkman Center. At Berkman, he translated from lawyer to geek, and managed, >> maintained, and developed several software projects. >> * >> * >> After Berkman, Luis started his legal ventures in life at Columbia Law >> School, where he was Editor in Chief of the Science and Technology Law >> Review, was awarded honors each year, and was co-recipient of the class >> prize for excellence in intellectual property scholarship. His thesis dealt >> with the use of software standards as part of antitrust enforcement. >> Outside of class, he participated in the GPL revision process, worked in >> the General Counsel's office at Red Hat, and developed a surprisingly >> strong attachment to New York City. >> * >> * >> After law school, Luis worked in the legal department at Mozilla, where >> his major project was revising the Mozilla Public License. The license got >> over a thousand words shorter, and gained stronger patent protections and >> compatibility with the Apache and GPL licenses. Luis also worked on >> privacy, contracts, standards bodies, and other issues. >> * >> * >> Outside of work, Luis is an invited expert to the World Wide Web >> Consortium's Patents and Standards Interest Group, and a board member and >> chair of the Licensing Committee at the Open Source Initiative. He also >> enjoys biking, photography, history, Duke basketball (men's and women's), >> and eating. >> * >> * >> Luis's first Wikipedia edit under his current user name dates to Feb. >> 2007. Like any good pedant, he has also been making minor spelling and >> grammar corrections anonymously for many years. >> * >> * >> So, as you can tell, we are extremely excited about having Luis on our >> team and wish him a warm welcome. >> * >> * * >> *Cheers, * >> * * >> *Geoff* >> -- >> Geoff Brigham >> General Counsel >> Wikimedia Foundation >> >> >> _______________________________________________ >> Please note: all replies sent to this mailing list will be immediately >> directed to Wikimedia-l, the public mailing list of the Wikimedia >> community. 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