The Business Journal held its 15th annual General Counsel Awards on Nov. 6 at the Irvine Marriott, where five legal minds were honored for their outstanding work representing companies in various categories, including healthcare, manufacturing and medical technology.
One winner, Mark Blake, head of IP Litigation at Medtronic, was called out for overseeing trials in six different countries. In his acceptance speech, Blake said he wouldn’t be where he is today without his mentors.
“They taught me how to give advice, how to talk with people with patience and empathy, how to solve complex legal problems, and quite frankly, they taught me how to be a better person,” he said before a crowd of about 275 attorneys and business executives.
Erwin Chemerinsky, dean of the University of California, Berkeley School of Law, returned for his 11th year as master of ceremonies, keeping the crowd laughing with a steady stream of jokes, including a mention of President Trump’s much-talked-about $300 million ballroom and East Wing demolition.
“It is a time when truth seems stranger than fiction, where what happens every day could literally be a skit on Saturday Night Live, or even something from South Park,” he said.
The constitutional scholar ended his remarks with a joke about a local elementary school teacher wrapping up a geography lesson by asking students wearing baseball caps where their teams were from.
A boy in a Pirates cap said his team was from Pennsylvania, a girl in a Kansas City Royals cap correctly answered Missouri, and when the teacher asked a boy in an Angels cap, “Where is Anaheim?” the student replied, “In last place again.”
The Five Honorees
The winners were selected from 41 nominees representing a diverse range of private and public companies, as well as nonprofit organizations.
– Bryan Wahl, general counsel, Tarsus Pharmaceuticals Inc., in the Public Company category.
– Ako Shimada, vice president, general counsel, corporate secretary, Ushio America Inc., in the Private Company category.
– Mark Blake, head of IP Litigation, Medtronic, in the Specialty Counsel category.
– Scott Becker, general counsel, corporate secretary, Willow Innovations, in the Rising Star category.
– Paul Bokota, vice president, general counsel, Hydrafacial, in the Lifetime Achievement category.
For more on this year’s event, as well as write-ups on each of the winners, see the Nov. 17 print edition of the Business Journal.
