Attorney Cathy L. Reese '82 Speaks With Students
Cathy L. Reese ’82 spoke with Houghton students on Monday, March 19 in chapel at 10:15 a.m. and again over dinner at 5 p.m. Reese shared her experience in the workforce and discussed her amazing personal story with the community.
Cathy L. Reese is a Principal in the Delaware office of Fish & Richardson, heads the firm’s Chancery and Corporate Governance practice, and is Co-Chair of the IP Risk Management Group. She is an established trial attorney with extensive experience in corporate, technology, trade secrets and complex commercial litigation, as well as corporate governance counseling and corporate opinions. According to every edition of Chambers USA: America's Leading Business Lawyers, which conducts in-depth interviews with clients and practicing attorneys and does not list lawyers "unless they are strongly recommended by the market," Reese is one of a small group of lawyers ranked as the leading litigators in Delaware in the areas of business litigation and the handling of matters before the Delaware Court of Chancery. Reese has also been selected by Delaware's legal community and a "Blue Ribbon Committee" of retired Delaware judges as one of the top 10 corporate litigators in Delaware, according to a poll of 2,700 members of the Delaware State Bar Association published in Delaware Today magazine. Reese has also been named by Law & Politics as a "Delaware Super Lawyer" in the area of business litigation based on a "rigorous multi-step selection process," including a statewide survey of lawyers, a separate evaluation of indicators of peer recognition and professional achievement, and peer evaluation by practice area. She has also been listed in the national 2008 and 2009 Corporate Counsel Edition of Super Lawyers for Business Litigation.
Reese counsels corporations, their boards of directors, committees of the board (including Science and Technology Committees), officers, stockholders, and investors regarding corporate and fiduciary issues pertaining to corporate transactions and intellectual property. Her Chancery litigation practice includes: breach of fiduciary duty claims, corporate governance and election disputes, and statutory proceedings under the Delaware General Corporation Law. Reese has also had substantial successes in other complex litigation, including fraud claims, trade secret and technology disputes and intellectual property litigation in Delaware's U.S. District Court and Chancery Court. Reese often is called upon by outside law firms to provide opinions on Delaware law issues or "Delaware counsel."
Aside from Reese’s extensive and impressive professional credentials, her personal story is one that weaves intrigue and suspense with the redeeming grace of God. Featured as a guest writer in Christianity Today in 2000, Reese relays the story of how God delivered her from two very dangerous situations. At the age of 19, Reese was kidnapped. As she drove down the road in a beat-up pick-up truck, she prayed aloud for her kidnapper. He turned the car around and returned her to her family unscathed. Reese’s kidnapper has since become a Christian and takes his family to church regularly. The second scare for Reese came a few years ago when she received a call at work from the FBI. Because of her involvement in a court case, her life and her husband’s life were in danger. Irish assassins were paid to eliminate six people involved in the case – including the Reeses. The FBI had intercepted a communiqué that had Reese’s home address, noted that one of the assassins had entered the United States and the attacks were to be carried out within the week. Again, by the grace of God, Reese’s life was spared.
For her dinner remarks, click here.
