LWT Perspective Profile: Elizabeth Morris

Leading Women in Technology (LWT) Co-Founder, and former Board Executive Chair, Elizabeth Morris, isenthusiastic about law, technology, and the advancement of women in the workplace. Elizabeth Morris is AssistantGeneral Counsel & Director of Intellectual Property Law at KLA-Tencor Corporation. She has worked for over adecade in IP law as both a patent prosecutor and litigator.

Why did you start Leading Women in Technology?

I joined on the board of Women in Licensing, a subcommittee of LES (Licensing Executive Society), in 2008 becauseof strong leaders like Mona Sabet and Wendy Lim. I became president in 2010, and at that point it became clear thatwe were a strong enough organization to incorporate on our own as Leading Women in Technology. For instance,we had consistently put on quarterly evening CLE programs for our general membership, and we had additionallysuccessfully started our popular “Wilpower” program. When we formally incorporated in 2011, Kanda Ishihara and Iwere the organization’s first President and Board Executive Chair. The board was very strong at that point, and Iremember how thrilled I was at that year’s holiday party after we incorporated to see such a huge turnout ofmembers together sharing in our excitement for the new independent organization.

What is your favorite Leading Women in Technology program?

Well, I’ve always loved the holiday party! I have been heavily involved with planning some of them, which I loved, butthe legendary fun of the holiday party preceded my involvement with the organization. Actually, one of the firstthings anyone told me about Women in Licensing was how great the holiday parties were! But putting parties aside,probably my favorite program LWT does is Wilpower because it is so effective. The benefit to the members thatcome from a yearlong series of classes is immeasurable. When you go to an individual program you tend to sit withpeople you already know and passively learn from the speaker. When you attend a series of workshops you havetime to work on the skills you learned between the workshops and then report on your progress with your fellowparticipants at the next workshop. As such, you are much more motivated to practice what is taught at eachworkshop. Also, the relationships that are built between participants become strong. I read somewhere that typicallyyou need to have 5 unique experiences with someone before they become a true “friend.” Wilpower with itsnumerous workshops affords you the opportunity to become friends, not just mere acquaintances with many of theother participants. These friendships lead to business opportunities, job prospects, board nominations, etc. Theyalso lead to and plain old fashioned fun over lunch. For instance, years before we incorporated LWT, Kanda and Iwere in the same Wilpower class, and we still get together regularly over lunch. We hold similar positions in ourrespective companies, so we chat about best practices ideas for patent portfolio management. We also discuss ourfamilies and non-work related projects too. I have the same sort of relationship with several other people from myWilpower class. These combined personal and professional relationships are extremely valuable to me.

What are some of the challenges of Leading Women in Technology faced?

I remember when Mona first pitched the idea of Wilpower to the then board of Women in Licensing some of theboard members at the time were daunted by the suggested undertaking. They were concerned that we could not

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take on the responsibility of 9 or 10 additional programs every year. They commented that the quarterly evening CLEprograms we were already providing were hard enough to plan and expressed concerns that we would be “bitingoff more than we could chew” so to speak. Of course Wilpower was (and is) a huge commitment for board members,but once we got it up and running it got a lot easier to plan than the same number of individual CLE events wouldhave been. For instance, the hosting locations got good at setting up the room, ordering the food, and providing theappropriate AV requirements. Also, a lot of the same speakers have come back year after year to teach theirparticular topic, so the curriculum planning got easier too. That consistency has given the board time to look beyondlogistics and concentrate on increasing quality and reach like adding the mentoring circles and expanding tomultiple locations.

How does LWT help women succeed?

There have been many excellent speakers and programs that LWT has provided over the years that address theneeds of women leaders. Also, I think because LWT is run by women we have a sense of how to best help women.For instance, it was very important to me that the Wilpower sessions be held early in the morning, rather than in theevening, for child care reasons. Specifically, most daycares allow you to drop kids off as early as 6am, but they won’tkeep kids past 6pm. Finding childcare in the evenings is yet one more hurdle for mid-level moms that could keepthem from attending a career enhancing program like Wilpower. Also, for me at least, it was easier to make up thework time I missed while doing Wilpower by working at home in the late evenings than it would have been to be goto a workshop over the traditional workshop timeframe of 6-8pm. Also, I felt that even if I had childcare coverage,from my husband for instance, loosing time in the evenings meant losing some of the best quality time I had with mykids. It was much easier for me to miss work in the morning and make up the work when my kids are sleeping thanto miss those quality hours with my kids.

How has LWT helped you succeed?

The first time you try to do something new it’s fairly daunting. The second and third time it’s way easier. Theconcerns our early board members had about starting Wilpower are a bit analogous to a recent growing experienceI had in my own life. Just a few weeks ago I was asked to sit on a panel for an IP law related conference. I had neversat on a legal conference panel before, and quite honestly, I was not an expert in the topic the panel had beentasked to speak about. I told a Wilpower colleague about it, and that I had planned to turn it down. She encouragedme not to, and suggested just learn about the topic instead. I believe her exact words were. “This is a respectedconference. You can’t turn down this opportunity.” So I said yes, but I have to admit, I was pretty nervous because Ididn’t know what to expect. It turned out to be no big deal though. My panel was well prepared with slides anddiscussion questions. Now I understand the formula for panel planning. I understand how a group of people can sitdown on a raised podium be well prepared to provide an interesting panel discussion after having one or two phonecalls together, a set of slides, and a series of questions and answers. I think now I will be able to follow the advicegiven to me by another friend, to “never turn down the opportunity to be on a panel.”

Do you have any advice for LWT members?

One thing that really sold me on starting Wilpower, was Mona’s comment that part of the motivation for providing theprogram was specifically to keep mid-level women in the workforce and moving up. In a lot of ways I’ve found thatit’s easier to be a manager than it was when I was just an individual contributor. For instance, if you’re a manager,you’re more in control of your own time, and you start having more people you can rely on working under you. Butto get there you have to struggle through those middle years and develop the skills to take you from an individualcontributor to a leader. For me, those middle years also included three maternity leaves and the struggle of work lifebalance. Those are challenging years, but keeping engaged with programs that improve your skills, rather thanfalling into the routine of just working and going home is the best way to drive through them and achieve aleadership position. I think LWT’s programs uniquely address some of those mid-level career obstacles, so myadvice is to stay engaged with LWT!

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