Daphne M. Higgs

She also advises on intellectual property, privacy and data security matters in connection with mergers and acquisitions, venture capital, private equity and spinout transactions. She is a strong collaborator who leverages the firm’s full range of capabilities—drawing on the knowledge, resources and experience of cross-practice teams—to help clients address their most critical legal and business challenges from every angle.

Her industry experience includes AI, infotech, edtech, fintech and Internet of Things (IoT), as well as consumer products, entertainment, digital health, cybersecurity, semiconductors, quantum computing, cloud services, health care, cleantech and digital assets.

Daphne is a thought leader and highly regarded speaker on legal informatics, intellectual property regimes and responsible innovation, and she is active in mentoring and supporting diversity within the legal profession. She is a member of Law360's Legal Tech Editorial Board (2024) and serves on the Advisory Board of Lost Women of Science. Her recent honors include recognition by The Recorder (Women Leader in Tech Law, 2022), Silicon Valley Business Journal (Women of Influence, 2023) and Euromoney (Technology Lawyer of the Year, 2024).

Before joining Pillsbury, Daphne held leadership roles at other international law firms, including serving as managing partner of a Silicon Valley office and on several firmwide leadership and strategic committees, including those focused on partner compensation, associate evaluation, legal practice management and AI.

• Structured and negotiated an application-development arrangement with a Grammy-Award-winning performer and Relative Wave (acquired by Google).
• Structured and negotiated a strategic partnership between a company that designs, builds and supports automated solutions for manufacturing, warehousing and distribution and a warehouse-robotics provider to deliver full-task robotics as part of an intelligent-automation offering.
• Advised numerous companies spinning out of Stanford, CMU, Berkeley, MIT and other institutions with respect to IP licenses.
• Advised a leading AI-powered-virtual-care platform and on-demand-primary-care provider on a series of high-stakes transactions underpinning its relaunch as a telehealth software-as-a-service company.
• Drafted service and product-offering documents that substantially shortened the initial engagement-to-execution timeline, increasing revenue.
• Advised a company that develops an AI-based application connecting pet dogs with their owners on IP ownership and exploitation matters.