Whit’s years of broad-based tech-related transactional experience include the business side of deals as well as the legal side.
As an IT Procurement Manager with Microsoft, Whit drafted, reviewed and negotiated multi-million dollar agreements concerning Microsoft’s inbound use of third party intellectual property and related services on an enterprise-wide basis, principally in the areas of data communications and networking. At Aventail Corporation in Seattle (which, prior to its 2007 acquisition by SonicWall, Inc., was a mid-sized technology company engaged in the development and sale of Internet security software, hardware appliances and associated services to customers throughout the world), Whit served as the company’s Director of Commercial Affairs, as well as its Corporate Counsel. During his six-year tenure as a shareholder (and, prior to that, Of Counsel) at Cairncross & Hempelmann, Whit’s practice involved domestic and international technology-related transactions, with an emphasis on complex services arrangements, particularly in the areas of outsourcing (to date, the contract value of deals Whit has participated in closing easily exceed $3 billion), commercial telecommunications arrangements (both those involved in infrastructure build-out and go-to-market offerings) and large-scale technology procurement projects.
Prior to joining Microsoft in 1999, Whit’s practice focused on counseling and litigating on behalf of banks, capital financiers and businesses regarding distressed transactions and insolvency matters. After a year clerking for the Honorable John J. Wilson in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Central District of California (1991-1992), Whit became an associate at Lobel, Winthrop & Broker, practicing in the area of Chapter 11 bankruptcy litigation and associated transactional matters (1992-1995). In 1995, he joined Bullivant Houser in Seattle, Washington as an associate attorney, where his practice expanded to include business transactions, including those involving intellectual property matters (1995-1999). He is a 1991 graduate of Loyola Law School in Los Angeles, California, and is a member of the state bar of Washington, Oregon and California.
Prior Experience
- Shareholder, Cairncross & Hempelmann, P.S.
- Of Counsel, Cairncross & Hempelmann, P.S.
- Director of Commercial Affairs and Corporate Counsel, Aventail Corporation (now a business division of SonicWall, Inc.)
- IT Procurement Manager, Microsoft Corporation
- Associate Attorney, Bullivant Houser, PC
- Associate Attorney, Lobel & Opera, PC
- Law Clerk, United States Bankruptcy Court, Central District of California
- Executive Editor of the California Bankruptcy Journal, 1993-1996
- Entertainment Law Journal, Editor, 1990-1991; Staff member, 1989-1990