Casey Mangan
COUNSEL
ALLSTATE INSURANCE
NORTHBROOK, IL, USA
MEMBER MILESTONE: COMMITTEE MEMBER OF THE YEAR NOMINEE 2015
COMMITTEE AFFILIATION: INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY COMMITTEE
What influenced you to join the Association of Corporate Counsel?
There were a number of reasons I was and remain attracted to ACC. First, the focus of ACC is unique; directing its resources, programming, and developmental opportunities exclusively to its in-house constituency. Another factor that remains important to me is the availability of the learning opportunities through participation in committee activities. In my seven years in ACC, I’ve taken advantage of speaking opportunities at several Annual Meetings (as a moderator and as a speaker); I’ve organized a collaborative team day-long event at the PTO with ACC members and leaders from the USPTO, the PTAB, and the TTAB; I’ve moderated a webcast on fluid trademarks; I’ve drafted advocacy recommendations as advocacy chair of the Intellectual Property Committee; I’ve provided regular copyright, trademark, and trade secret updates to the Intellectual Property Committee; and I’ve co-authored an article for the ACC Docket. Having had such opportunities has really been enriching for me and allowed me to grow.
Also, ACC’s commitment to affording speaking opportunities to in-house counsel is critical to promoting the development of its members. ACC understands that its members want to hear from fellow in-house counsel and learn from their practical advice on how to address matters of common concern. I further learned early on that the Intellectual Property Committee offers access to education and programming covering all areas of intellectual property. For in-house practitioners who advise clients on all forms of intellectual property, ACC meets our educational needs with its diverse programming. An additional reason I’ve found ACC valuable is its programming philosophy to make its webcast and written content available to members at no additional cost. ACC’s approach is consistent with the new reality of in-house practice where learning must occur in the most cost-effective way possible. The content quality is first-rate and always assists me in responding to my client’s problems in a highly efficient way.
What has been the most rewarding aspect of your career thus far?
A couple of thoughts come to mind. Early in my career, I clerked for the Illinois Appellate Court, and one case I worked on was affirmed both by the Illinois Supreme Court and the US Supreme Court. That’s pretty exciting for a newly minted attorney. And my entire clerkship was a great experience. I learned a lot from my judge, was introduced to many novel questions of civil and criminal law, and became aware of what amounts to effective, and not so effective, advocacy. Also, in my in-house career, I’ve been part of obtaining some significant and innovative intellectual property protections. We’ve obtained patents covering our business processes that are significant for our companies. We’ve created a copyright compliance intranet for our employees to assist them in understanding copyright protections and to identify uses for which permission may be warranted. In the trademark area, we sought and obtained protection for a long-standing Allstate advertising jingle. We were able to argue that our jingle should receive protection not limited to a particular key based on existing precedents. Ultimately, we were granted our registration without the limitations initially sought by the PTO. When you are able to participate in obtaining protections for your client that are novel and valuable, it’s very rewarding as in-house counsel.
What ACC resources have been the most beneficial to you?
Probably the most valuable has been the opportunity to participate on a committee. I’ve learned so much from my colleagues and our wonderful law firm sponsor. I also really enjoy and benefit from our Legal Quick Hits each month, where I can be brought up to date on a particular relevant intellectual property topic (chosen in part by our committee leaders) in 30 minutes. I also appreciate the supporting materials to reinforce our learnings. I’ve worked with our law firm sponsor on a branding InfoPak, which was a great opportunity to learn in depth about a substantive area of intellectual property law. I’ve also really enjoyed writing for the Docket and speaking at the Annual Meeting, activities through which I’ve both expanded my knowledge of various subject matter and developed rewarding relationships with the other participants, arising out of the same collaborative experience — really worthwhile and fun!
What is the most interesting aspect of working for Allstate?
I’d say that Allstate affords its professionals the opportunity and freedom to develop and expand their skillsets throughout a career. What’s been really engaging for me is the richness and diversity of the legal work available to Allstate counsel. In my career, I’ve handled transactional matters (contract negotiations, reinsurance protections, licensing, M&A deals, and sponsorships), regulatory issues (licensing an insurance product in each state, negotiating and resolving disputes with regulators), litigation and dispute resolution (offensive and defensive patent, copyright, and trademark disputes), and counseling (obtaining protection for IP assets and advising how to avoid risks). The variety of my work assignments and roles keeps my work interesting and allows me to keep developing as an attorney. The fact that I’ve spent almost 30 years with one company is testament to the freedom I’ve been afforded to keep growing and assuming varied challenges.
What are the biggest challenges in-house attorneys will face in the coming years?
There will be continuing pressure to be more efficient, and to demonstrate that efficiency to the business. Of course, as in-house counsel, we’re in a unique position to know our clients, and to provide them with just the right amount of information to meet their needs without excess. This knowledge should allow us to work efficiently and continue to add value.
Along these same lines, the law department as a service provider will be required to adopt technology and measurements to manage its resources efficiently and to provide easy access to reports that illustrate how its resources are being used by our clients.
We’ll continue to have to refine our legal risk analyses, and to understand the risks more quickly, so we can educate our clients to make decisions on a fully informed basis where possible. Of course, we’ll need to say “no” when the facts warrant that conclusion.
The complexity and abundance of regulation will continue to tax in-house resources, as we will be expected to understand the implications and find ways to comply in an efficient and consistent manner while devoting a reasonable amount of internal resources.
From a positive perspective, I anticipate in-house counsel will become more integrated into the business in the future, as our clients will need to rely more heavily on us to educate them about new legal risks, and to help them navigate a lawful path quickly, with reduced risk to the business and themselves.
The pace of in-house practice will continue to accelerate, which will tax us to learn about new legal issues and risks proactively, and to anticipate their implications for our business. We will need to find ways to get in front of our clients and explain these risks, and then we’ll need to consider these challenges together with them and devise solutions to address them before they affect our business adversely. Overall, we’ll continue to have a lot to do!
You were nominated for committee member of the year last year. Tell us about your contributations and accomplishments in service to the Intellectual Property Committee.
The most important point to make here is that the work product and initiatives of our Intellectual Property Committee (IPC) are always collaborative with our other IPC members and leaders, and with our sponsor law firm. Currently, I serve in four roles: as IPC secretary, advocacy chair, chair of our What’s Hot – Trademarks and Copyrights monthly segment, and as InfoPak chair. As secretary, I manage the agendas and minutes for the Executive Committee monthly meeting. In my advocacy chair role, I have identified issues warranting possible input from the ACC and drafted position statements for ACC advocacy leadership to consider. I helped organize an ACC/PTO day in June 2015 in Washington, DC, where ACC members heard from a number of PTO leaders about current initiatives there. We’re also in the early stages of planning an ACC event with the Colorado Chapter at the PTO’s new offices in Denver to recognize the new commissioner there, and to provide a forum for local ACC members to learn more about the PTO local office operations. As the What’s Hot chair, I provide periodic updates on trademark and copyright issues or cases for our monthly IPC meeting. We keep the two monthly segments (e.g., trademarks/patents or copyrights/transactional) five minutes each to ensure meeting time is available for other committee content. As InfoPak chair, I worked with our law firm sponsor Kilpatrick Townsend to complete a comprehensive examination of Best Practices for Developing and Protecting Strong Brands. As part of this effort, we included a number of sample documents that will be useful to ACC members in providing branding services and advice to their clients.
In 2013, at the Annual Meeting in Los Angeles, I was fortunate to receive an award from the IPC Committee named in honor of Judy Powell of Kilpatrick Townsend, who served as the firm’s liaison to our committee for many years. This recognition meant a lot to me, and I’m very proud to have been considered worthy of receiving it.
