Cecilia Lofters is General Electric’s senior intellectual property counsel for financial services. She is responsible for all aspects of intellectual property for GE’s four financial service businesses on a global basis. She oversees the patent filing and IP policy, as well as licensing, litigation and counseling in intellectual property matters for the company’s 25 business units.
Before she came to GE, Lofters gained extensive experience with litigation in patent and trade secret cases while practicing in law firms, and was heavily involved in patent prosecution and negotiating IP-related agreements.
Experience has taught her to build a broad base of skills. “While it is great to have a primary interest and expertise, be sure to acquire expertise in several related areas as well.” She also encourages women to develop mentoring relationships, noting that cross-gender and cross-ethnic mentoring is also successful. Finally, Lofters urges women to “Look for opportunities to take on added responsibilities and exceed expectations!”
Among other activities, Lofters is the chairperson of the Scholarship Committee for AIPLEF’s Sydney B. Williams Scholarship, which is awarded to minority students planning a career in intellectual property law.
She has a B.S. in mechanical engineering from MIT, a M.S. in the same from U.C. Berkeley, and a J.D. cum laude from Harvard Law School.
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From the March/April 2003 issue of Diversity & The Bar®