Susan L. Heller

Heller’s expertise is in the global strategic monetization of big name brands. She is chair of Greenberg Traurig LLP’s global trademarks and brand management practice, co-chair of the firm’s Global Women’s Initiative, and co-managing shareholder of the firm’s Irvine office.

“I do the really large global trademark portfolios with a lot of moving parts,” she said.

Last year, she continued on a major project to coordinate the efforts of more than 60 international law firms to help Alcoa Inc. perfect its international rights to its new name Arconic, resulting from its monumental global rebrand. She took the lead in going after third-party infringers of the new brand and related domains, with a zero tolerance approach to maintaining the integrity of the brand at all costs, she said.

“Trademarks are only part of the brand,” she said, pointing out that she increasingly counsels clients in the strategic use of branded hashtags to create image awareness and increase the monetization of underlying trademarked assets. She added that the fast-growing increasing in the use of hashtags to make a statement, create a cause and relay a socially responsible message has now made it a central element of most branding campaigns.

“Social media is both an opportunity and an area to be careful about,” Hellersaid. “Hashtags are part of social speak right now, but you have to be ready to go after anyone who uses them as if they own your brand.”

Heller helped cloud storage firm Dropbox Inc. prepare for its initial public offering this year. She said she incorporated real-world considerations into her legal assessments, allowing Dropbox to re-evaluate its portfolio’s size, reach and coverage to ensure it best served its customers. She has guided the highly visible tech startup from the initial rollout of its brand portfolio years ago to the present.

“Pre-IPO, we evaluated Dropbox’s positioning, making sure its reach is aligned properly. We did an entire audit — and fortunately Dropbox has done everything right and everything is well-coordinated,” she said.

For an undisclosed client, Heller guided a company facing a significant public relations problem resulting from bad business activities that threatened a major devaluation of brand value. She partnered with senior executives and outside experts to develop a new name, image and message with a corresponding global portfolio footprint. “There appears to be initial success as customers have started to return,” she said. “Significant ongoing work continues.”

— John Roemer