Stephen S. Wu
Partner
Cooke Kobrick & Wu LLP

Steve Wu’s practice includes commercial and intellectual property litigation with an emphasis on disputes involving technology companies. He also drafts and negotiates technology contracts and deals for Silicon Valley technology companies, including terms of service, privacy policies, software licenses, software development agreements, semiconductor development and sales agreements, and Internet service agreements. Mr. Wu acts as outside general counsel to Silicon Valley businesses. He has organized many corporations and limited liability companies for Silicon Valley entrepreneurs.

Mr. Wu also provides counseling services concerning e-discovery, digital evidence, and legal matters relating to information security and privacy, including regulatory compliance, security breach liability, incident response, disaster recovery, authentication, electronic contracting, digital and other electronic signatures, and public key infrastructures. He also advises clients concerning legal issues involving virtual worlds (such as the Second Life® world), new media, Web 2.0, and the 3D Internet.

Mr. Wu serves as Chair-Elect of the American Bar Association Section of Science and Technology Law. He is a member of the Section's Virtual Worlds and Multiuser Online Games Committee, its eDiscovery & Digital Evidence Committee, its Artificial Intelligence and Robotics Committee, and its Information Security Committee (ISC). Steve Wu was ISC co-chair from 2001 to 2004.

Mr. Wu is President of the SL Bar Association in the Second Life® virtual world, where his avatar is “Legal Writer.” He has been featured in magazine articles in the American Bar Association Journal and the California Lawyer Magazine on lawyers’ activities in the Second Life® virtual world and his election as President of the SL Bar Association.

Mr. Wu has written or co-written five books on information security law and frequently speaks on data protection, privacy, e-discovery/forensics/e-retention topics before forums such as the RSA Security Conference, Vanguard Security Expo, the American Bar Association Annual Meeting, and Practicing Law Institute. Mr. Wu was an in-house attorney with VeriSign, Inc. for almost five years, where he was in charge of the company’s worldwide policies and practices governing its digital certification secure ecommerce services.

Prior to joining VeriSign, Mr. Wu practiced with the Pittsburgh offices of Jones Day Reavis & Pogue and Kirkpatrick & Lockhart LLP in the areas of computer law, intellectual property, and general litigation, following a clerkship with a United States District Judge in Columbus, Ohio. He received his law degree from Harvard Law School in 1988 with honors, and served as Topics Editor for the Harvard Journal on Legislation.  

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