Gwyn Murray
Experienced Commercial and IP Licensing Lawyer
California
CA, DC
"Gwyn was very thorough and was great to work with."
About
upcounsel
experience
Practice Areas
Client Reviews
"Gwyn was very thorough and was great to work with."
"Gwyn is amazing...I recommend her highly."
"Gwyn was the perfect choice of IP lawyer for my small high-tech consulting company. She assisted with numerous open-source intellectual property issues, contract negotiations, and legal risk management. She has the rare ability and willingness to triage legal situations, help craft solutions that addressed the risks in a practical way as well as possible, while also keeping within the resource limits available to the small business."
"Gwyn is amazing. She has helped my SaaS company with numerous projects, including helping us negotiate a partnership contract with one of the world's largest software companies (top 4). She also helped update our software licensing, partner docs and helped negotiate several business contracts with very large customers. I recommend her highly."
"I had the pleasure working with Gwyn, who supported the sales team during a hyper growth phase of customer adoption at our company. Her quick study in understanding our product and correctly positioning contractual expectations with customers accelerated our closure rate. I highly recommend Gwyn for fulltime or contractual counsel for software companies of all sizes."
Work History
Matau Legal Group
Founder and Principal
Sep 2002 - Present
The Matau Legal Group was founded in 2002 by Gwyn Firth Murray and is based in Silicon Valley, CA. The Matau Legal Group was created with the goal of providing premier legal services to privately and publicly-held companies in a cost-effective manner and with reasonable rates.
Areas of specialty include commercial sales and licensing both domestically and overseas, open source/ free software licensing, information technology, and assistance to companies providing consulting and/or professional services in the areas of open source and proprietary software development.
Geeknet, Inc.
Outside Counsel
Jan 2009 - Jun 2010
Assisted General Counsel with all legal aspects of Company business, including advertising sales and Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) form-based agreements, HR, Real Estate, ThinkGeek retail sales, SEC reporting (proxy statement preparation), Website terms and conditions, and providing open source licensing advice for SourceForge.net
SugarCRM, Inc.
Outside/ Interim Legal Counsel
Jan 2010 - Apr 2010
Served as interim GC for SugarCRM during its search for permanent in-house counsel; continue as outside counsel for the Company
ITM Software
Outside Legal Counsel
Jan 2002 - Jan 2005
Acted as outside general counsel for the Company, handling a broad range of issues including HR, Real Estate, creating form agreements and, most importantly, negotiating and closing license and services deals.
Kanisa, Inc
Vice President and General Counsel
Jan 2001 - May 2002
As General Counsel, managed all legal matters of the company. Structured and negotiated complex software licensing and services agreements with Fortune 100 companies; and designed and implemented the company's intellectual property strategy around patents, copyrights and trademarks.
VA Linux Systems
Vice President, Legal Services
Dec 1999 - Dec 2000
Managed all legal matters of a pioneer commercial company in the Linux and open source software arena.
SGI
Senior Counsel, SGI Global Services. Counsel, Americas International.
Jan 1995 - Jan 1999
Supervised worldwide legal affairs of SGI Global Services; developed and implemented legal "infrastructure" supporting SGI's professional services and customer support businesses.
Managed all legal matters of SGI's subsidiary and branch offices in Latin America and Canada, including drafting and negotiating commercial and services agreements with resellers and distributors.
ALZA Corporation
Corporate Attorney
Aug 1994 - Jul 1995
Primary lawyer at the company responsible for FDA compliance; worked closely with the direct sales team on sales agreements and marketing issues.
Apple Computer
Counsel
Sep 1990 - Jun 1994
Supported Apple’s Management and Board of Directors on corporate governance, transactional and securities matters. Served as lead lawyer for financial transactions for the Company’s Treasury Group, including interest rate and currency swap transactions, equity option programs, and a $500 million debt offering. Negotiated and drafted agreements for Apple’s investments in, loans to, and associated product licenses with start-up software and hardware companies.
Arnold & Porter
Associate
Jan 1988 - May 1990
Worked on international trade and finance transactions, including general assistance on restructuring of Brazilian external debt and litigation of anti-dumping matters on behalf of the Asociacion Colombiana de Exportadores de Flores.