Bio

As a partner in our Corporate, Finance and Investment Practice Group practice, Jill Mcwhirter identifies and solves cutting-edge intellectual property issues in complex commercial and technology-based transactions as well as in restructuring matters. Jill’s technical credentials help her in not only providing critical and practical strategic advice to global clients but also the ability to have a strong understanding of the technology at issue. Jill counsels companies in a wide range of intellectual property transactions to help them profitably develop, share and exploit their technology and IP assets. For over twenty five years, Jill has provided clients with marketing-leading and innovative IP strategies, as well as insights into the legal challenges they may face. With a background in nuclear engineering, Jill has particular knowledge of the energy sector and its IP transactional challenges. In any new deal, investment, acquisition or license, intellectual property can play a critical part of that process. Jill works with technology clients including those advancing technologies in clean tech, nuclear, carbon sequestration, advance materials, energy efficiency, energy storage, biofuels, hydrogen and carbon capture on all types of IP issues that may arise in daily operations, as well as company-changing transactions and restructuring matters. Jill works across practice areas to provide critical support on joint ventures, strategic alliances and research and development collaborations. In addition, Jill handles numerous IP-related matters in the Middle East and in the petrochemical, oil and gas industries, partnering with clients to develop overall IP strategies. Jill’s software licensing expertise is extensive. She works with in-house counsel, procurement and IT departments on complex software licensing transactions. She has advised on and negotiated over 250 related agreements in the last five years ranging from software and data licensing (both in-bound and outbound), exploitation and distribution of software assets, framework and enterprise agreements, as well as cloud computing and software service agreements. With this experience, Jill is able to bring significant benchmarking opportunities so that companies understand the risks and the terms being negotiated across the industry.