InterDigital General Counsel Retires as Huawei IP Fight Continues

InterDigital Inc., a mobile and video technology company, has promoted deputy general counsel Richard Gulino to succeed the retiring Jannie Lau as chief legal officer on Jan. 1.

Lau joined InterDigital as an associate general counsel in 2008 and was elevated to the company’s general counsel role in late 2012. She took on the chief legal officer title in January 2018. Succeeding her in that role and as InterDigital’s top in-house lawyer is Gulino, hired by InterDigital as a deputy general counsel in September.

Gulino, whose recent responsibilities at InterDigital have included the company’s corporate, commercial, and licensing functions, previously spent nearly three years as general counsel of Washington-based biopharmaceutical firm Vanda Pharmaceuticals Inc.

In a Dec. 9 statement announcing the law department’s new leadership, InterDigital president and CEO William Merritt, himself an attorney and a former general counsel of the company, praised Lau for her guidance and “remarkable progress in the face of significant global challenges.”

Philadelphia-based InterDigital has been locked in an ongoing patent dispute with Chinese technology giant Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd., which it sued earlier this month in the U.K. over inventions related to wireless mobile telecommunications.

Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati has represented InterDigital in its fight with Huawei and the firm has handled most of the company’s outside litigation matters over the past five years, according to Bloomberg data. Wilson Sonsini has also done corporate work for InterDigital.

Quarterly filings with the U.S. Senate reveal that through the first three quarters of this year, InterDigital has paid $210,000 to Kelley Drye & Warren to lobby on patent reform legislation and issues related to trade and the development of 5G wireless communications.

Political Involvement

Lau did not respond to a request for comment about her decision to retire from InterDigital. Her husband, fellow University of Pennsylvania Law School graduate Todd Longsworth, has served as general counsel since 2012 of NovoCure Ltd., a global cancer treatment company that has administrative offices in Malvern, Pa.

The couple have been active in Democratic Party politics. In 2016, they hosted a fundraiser for Hillary Clinton at their home in Villanova, Pa., which featured a conversation with former CIA agent Valerie Plame. Records on file with the Federal Election Commission show Lau made $2,100 in donations this year to the presidential campaign of Beto O’Rourke, who dropped out of the 2020 race last month.

A Dec. 9 securities filing by InterDigital states that Lau will provide part-time transition services to the company for 100 days following her Dec. 31 retirement. In return, she will receive $400,000. A proxy statement filed by InterDigital shows Lau earned nearly $1 million in total compensation during 2018.

Gulino, her successor as chief legal officer at InterDigital, will receive an annual base salary of $350,000, roughly $700,000 in stock options, and be eligible for an incentive-based bonus, according to a Dec. 9 securities filing by the company.