[Wikimedia-l] [Wikimedia Announcements] Luis Villa joins WMF as Deputy General Counsel

Wed Feb 20 20:26:13 UTC 2013

Sounds like a great choice for WMF Legal. Welcome :) Watch out for that guy
you'll probably see quite a bit of, Philippe, pure troublemaker ;) I
haven't seen the product of him and Geoff together, but you'll probably be
in for a double slam if they join forces. :P

DeltaQuad - Mobile phone
English Wikipedia Administrator and Checkuser
On Feb 20, 2013 11:15 AM, "Samuel Klein" <meta.sj at gmail.com> wrote:

> Hear, hear!  Welcome Luis, this is excellent news. I can't think of a
> better person to take on the role.
>
> Plus now you can wikilawyer while you lawyer...
> On Feb 19, 2013 6:51 PM, "Luis Villa" <lvilla at wikimedia.org> wrote:
>
> > I subscribed while still interviewing, admittedly under a different
> > address. :) Thanks for the warm welcome, James- I look forward to working
> > with everyone.
> >
> > Luis
> >
> >
> > On Tue, Feb 19, 2013 at 3:49 PM, James Alexander
> > <jalexander at wikimedia.org>wrote:
> >
> > > Responding to this to to make sure it gets to Wikimedia-l and to be the
> > > first to say on Wikimedia-l \o/ WELCOME!
> > >
> > > Luis seems like the perfect dGC for us with his experience and
> > background.
> > > Watch out for Geoff he's dangerous and crafty!
> > >
> > > James
> > >
> > > Copying in Luis since I'm not sure if he's on here yet or not :)
> > >
> > > James Alexander
> > > Manager, Merchandise
> > > Wikimedia Foundation
> > > (415) 839-6885 x6716 @jamesofur
> > >
> > >
> > > On Tue, Feb 19, 2013 at 3:37 PM, Geoff Brigham <gbrigham at wikimedia.org
> > >wrote:
> > >
> > >> *Hi everyone, *
> > >>  * *
> > >> *I’m simply thrilled to welcome Luis Villa to the Foundation as our
> new
> > >> Deputy General Counsel.*
> > >> *
> > >> Thanks to Kat Walsh, I met Luis during my first months at the
> > >> Foundation.  Kat loves Luis, and it is no wonder why.  In addition to
> > >> being a superb lawyer, Luis is an open source developer, has worked
> with
> > >> leaders in our Internet legal circles, and has a great personality
> that
> > >> embraces our culture.
> > >> *
> > >> *
> > >> His most recent adventure took place at the Palo Alto office of
> > Greenberg
> > >> Traurig, one of the top  global law firms.  There he worked with
> > well-known
> > >> Internet lawyers like Ian Ballon and Heather Meeker.   Luis focused on
> > >> technology transactions, helping clients create solutions to licensing
> > >> problems, with a particular emphasis on open source and software
> > standards.
> > >> His clients included Mozilla, the Open Compute Project, and a variety
> of
> > >> clients large and small.  Luis successfully defended Google in the
> > >> Oracle-Google/Android lawsuit, primarily working on the question of
> API
> > >> copyrightability. I hired Luis as outside counsel to work on a tough
> > >> legal matter for us, and his answers were on point, clear, and
> > practical.
> > >> *
> > >> *
> > >> Luis’ first contact with free software came was when he was in college
> > >> at Duke University. There he studied political science and computer
> > >> science, began using Linux, and helped triage Mozilla's bugzilla. A
> > >> professor paid him to play with Lego, resulting in brief
> maintainership
> > of
> > >> the GPL’d LegOS operating system and co-authorship of the book
> "Extreme
> > >> Mindstorms".
> > >> *
> > >> *
> > >> After graduation, Luis worked at Ximian, a Linux desktop startup,
> doing
> > >> quality assurance and eventually managing the desktop team. As part of
> > >> that, he got heavily involved in the GNOME desktop project, becoming
> > >> bugmaster and then getting elected to the board of directors. After
> > Ximian
> > >> was acquired, Luis became "geek in residence" at Harvard Law School's
> > >> Berkman Center. At Berkman, he translated from lawyer to geek, and
> > managed,
> > >> maintained, and developed several software projects.
> > >> *
> > >> *
> > >> After Berkman, Luis started his legal ventures in life at Columbia Law
> > >> School, where he was Editor in Chief of the Science and Technology Law
> > >> Review, was awarded honors each year, and was co-recipient of the
> class
> > >> prize for excellence in intellectual property scholarship. His thesis
> > dealt
> > >> with the use of software standards as part of antitrust enforcement.
> > >> Outside of class, he participated in the GPL revision process, worked
> in
> > >> the General Counsel's office at Red Hat, and developed a surprisingly
> > >> strong attachment to New York City.
> > >> *
> > >> *
> > >> After law school, Luis worked in the legal department at Mozilla,
> where
> > >> his major project was revising the Mozilla Public License. The license
> > got
> > >> over a thousand words shorter, and gained stronger patent protections
> > and
> > >> compatibility with the Apache and GPL licenses. Luis also worked on
> > >> privacy, contracts, standards bodies, and other issues.
> > >> *
> > >> *
> > >> Outside of work, Luis is an invited expert to the World Wide Web
> > >> Consortium's Patents and Standards Interest Group, and a board member
> > and
> > >> chair of the Licensing Committee at the Open Source Initiative. He
> also
> > >> enjoys biking, photography, history, Duke basketball (men's and
> > women's),
> > >> and eating.
> > >> *
> > >> *
> > >> Luis's first Wikipedia edit under his current user name dates to Feb.
> > >> 2007. Like any good pedant, he has also been making minor spelling and
> > >> grammar corrections anonymously for many years.
> > >> *
> > >> *
> > >> So, as you can tell, we are extremely excited about having Luis on our
> > >> team and wish him a warm welcome.
> > >> *
> > >> * *
> > >> *Cheers, *
> > >> * *
> > >> *Geoff*
> > >> --
> > >> Geoff Brigham
> > >> General Counsel
> > >> Wikimedia Foundation
> > >>
> > >>
> > >> _______________________________________________
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> > >>
> > >>
> > >
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