Trade Secrets Under Pressure: Cross Functional Strategies for Protecting Your Company’s Most Valuable Assets

Protecting trade secrets has never been more challenging, or more critical, for companies as they are recorded electronically and can be easily transmitted. This engaging Continuing Legal Education (CLE), presented in partnership with the Northeast Ohio Association of Corporate Counsel, explores the hottest trade secret issues emerging across the US. Through scenario‑based exercises and interactive polling, participants will test how they would respond to a range of risk situations, from employee mobility to data hacks.

The program also addresses emerging risks associated with employee use of generative AI and automated tools, including how to safeguard proprietary inputs and prevent inadvertent disclosure. A dynamic panel discussion will tie these issues together, offering practical, actionable strategies drawn from the intersecting perspectives of legal disciplines that routinely shape trade secret protection. Attendees will learn to identify red flags, navigate overlapping obligations and implement effective measures to strengthen trade secret protection strategies in their day‑to‑day roles.

Key Takeaways

Participants will:

• Learn trade secret protection best practices, including trade secret identification, access restrictions, policies and confidentiality agreements

• Learn how to quickly spot, and plug, your company’s biggest trade secret vulnerabilities, including internal and external threats

• Gain practical, ready‑to‑implement strategies for responding to real‑world trade secret threats, using scenario‑based exercises and polling that mirror situations in‑house counsel face every day

• Understand how emerging technologies, especially generative AI, create new legal and operational risks to trade secrets and discover concrete steps to respond to mitigate these risks

• Walk away with cross‑disciplinary insights from intellectual property (IP), employment and data protection perspectives that will help you strengthen internal measures to protect your company’s trade secrets, guide business leaders and best position your company to respond to threats to steal its crown jewels

Panelists:

Colleen Curran, STERIS
Colleen Curran is Deputy General Counsel, Compliance, at STERIS and an executive-level regulatory and compliance attorney with more than 20 years of experience in the healthcare, medical device and life sciences sectors. Colleen provides legal support for STERIS’s global compliance and information technology initiatives, including program design, regulatory strategy, risk management, and enterprise-wide compliance governance. Colleen has deep expertise in federal and state regulatory frameworks, internal investigations, and advancing organizational compliance maturity, and is recognized for translating complex regulatory requirements into practical, business-driven solutions. Colleen earned her law degree from Cleveland State University College of Law with honors.

Steve Auvil, Squire Patton Boggs
Steve Auvil is the Managing Partner of Squire Patton Boggs’ Cleveland office and a leading intellectual property trial lawyer with significant experience litigating trade secret disputes across a wide range of technologies. Drawing on his engineering background, he has served as lead trial counsel in numerous patent, trade secret, copyright and trademark cases in federal courts nationwide, before administrative agencies including the US Patent and Trademark Office and the US International Trade Commission, and in arbitration proceedings. In addition to his extensive trial work, he counsels clients regarding IP strategy and technology related transactions. Steve is ranked in Chambers USA (Band 1), The Best Lawyers in America and Forbes’ Best in State Lawyers for 2025.

Traci Martinez, Squire Patton Boggs
Traci Martinez is the Managing Partner of Squire Patton Boggs’ Columbus office and a nationally recognized trial lawyer whose practice spans complex employment, trade secret and high stakes commercial disputes. She regularly represents employers in matters involving alleged misappropriation of trade secrets, restrictive covenant enforcement and employee driven competitive misconduct, drawing on deep trial experience across Ohio, Missouri and Kansas. Traci also advises boards and C suites on sensitive internal investigations, executive agreements and compliance with federal and state employment laws. Known for her strategic, early assessments of litigation risk, she has secured full defense verdicts in multiple jurisdictions and is a trusted counselor to organizations facing complex workplace and business challenges.

Moderator:
Colin Jennings, Partner, Squire Patton Boggs
Colin Jennings is the Cleveland Government Investigations and White Collar Practice Group Leader and serves as primary outside global compliance counsel for more than 35 multinational companies. He is a leading adviser on trade secret protection, cyber incident response and criminal investigations. A seasoned trial lawyer, he has handled civil and criminal trade secret matters, including defending Economic Espionage Act cases and pursuing claims arising from cyber enabled theft. Colin also maintains a robust cybersecurity practice, regularly coordinating forensic analysis, regulatory engagement and multistate breach responses following significant domestic and international cyberattacks. He frequently conducts internal investigations worldwide involving employee misconduct, fraud and data misuse, and is a recognized speaker and author on global compliance and cyber risk.

Format:

90-minute panel discussion, followed by a reception

Agenda
2:45 - 3 p.m. Check-in
3 - 4:30 p.m. Panel Discussion
4:30 - 5:30 p.m. Networking Reception

This program is pending CLE for 1.50 hours in NY and OH. If you require another jurisdiction, please contact Robin Hallagan at robin.hallagan@squirepb.com.