Mountain View, CA (May 14, 2013)– Fenwick & West is pleased to announce that trademark chair Sally Abel has been selected by San Francisco Business Times as one of the “Most Influential Women in Bay Area Business.” The list recognizes “outstanding women leaders,” commended for both their business success and for their commitment to their communities.
Abel names creating and building the firm’s trademark group among her proudest accomplishments. In awarding Abel gold status, and the trademark group “gold” status in California and “silver” status nationally, World Trademark Review 1000 recently called Abel “fantastically talented” and the group “efficient and streamlined,” noting that “the dedicated trademark team enjoys well-deserved high standing” for the work they do for “pioneering technology enterprises.” From humble beginnings, the group has grown to representing some of the world’s most valuable and cutting-edge technology brands like Facebook, Twitter, Cisco, Google, Pinterest, NVIDIA and Symantec.
Abel says she uses her own experiences to support the women with whom she works and to provide them with career opportunities.
“I encourage women to know their own personal power,” Abel says. “Over the years, I have found that women are much more powerful in the workplace than they think.” Her group has produced some of the most well-respected and influential women trademark attorneys in Silicon Valley and beyond.
One of only three woman partners at the firm when she had her first child, Abel didn’t think of herself as a pioneer. “I just did what I felt I had to do. It wasn’t until I looked back on this and similar experiences that I realized I was forging a space for professional women in the workplace,” she said.
When her children were young, Abel made time to coach their AYSO soccer and YMCA basketball teams in addition to serving on an international committee deciding the fate of the internet domain name system (the IAHC) and on the Board of the International Trademark Association.
Abel says that her grandmother, who addressed every letter to her in college as “Dear Congresswoman,” taught her to never stop believing she could be whatever she wanted to be.“I outgrew the desire to be a congresswoman, but not the sense of self she taught me,” Abel says.
A surprising fact about Fenwick’s trademark chair Sally Abel? “I raise free range chickens for organic eggs,” she says. “The members of my current flock of four are named after strong democratic women: Eleanor, Hillary, Madeleine and Nancy [Pelosi].”
Abel is currently writing a memoir about her life as an urban farmer, tentatively titled Bob the Immaculate Conception Rooster and Other Urban Farming Legends.
About Fenwick & West
Fenwick & West provides comprehensive legal services to ground-breaking technology and life sciences companies at every stage of their lifecycle. Fenwick’s award-winning trademark group is one of the largest trademark practices at a full-service law firm focusing exclusively on all aspects of trademark counseling. We craft innovative, cost-effective and practical solutions for established and emerging companies, helping some of the world's most recognized companies become and remain market leaders.