Michelle Ybarra, honored as a Women Leader in Tech Law Litigation at the 2024 California Legal Awards on Tuesday, was interviewed by The Recorder.
In reflecting on her accomplishments in the past year, she described returning from parental leave to two cases heading into back-to-back trials. “I went immediately into trial prep mode, flying across the country to prep witnesses and experts and to argue pretrial motions in court. It was like going from 0 to 100 mph in the span of a week.” One case settled on the eve of trial and the other, a 12-patent case for Netflix, was continued to 2025.
Asked to give advice to women starting in tech law, Ybarra stressed the importance of deeply learning the client’s technology and business to be able to explain it credibly to a judge or jury.
“Know your clients and their problems, and make them your problems too. … It’s critical that you do the work to understand the issues from the ground up.”
Read more the full profile in The Recorder.