Rita A. Rodin is a partner in the Intellectual Property and Technology Group
in Skadden's New York office. She represents clients in a variety of
areas, including outsourcing, information technology, Internet and
e-commerce, software applications and services, consulting, banking and
insurance. She has handled matters for companies ranging from start-ups to
global institutions.
Ms. Rodin's experience includes counseling clients on domestic and
international outsourcing transactions, strategic alliances, joint ventures,
technology transfers, distribution agreements, licensing arrangements and
marketing agreements. She also has extensive experience handling
intellectual property and technology issues that arise in connection with
mergers and acquisitions, initial public offerings and project finance matters.
Projects on which Ms. Rodin has worked include the representation of:
* Skype Technologies S.A. in its acquisition by eBay Inc. for $2.6
billion up-front cash plus potential performance-based consideration;
* Capgemini North America in its agreements with TXU Energy Company LLC
and ONCOR Electronic Delivery Company to form a joint venture to provide IT
and other business processing outsourcing services to TXU;
* Cendant Corporation in its agreement with United Airlines to operate
United's internal airline reservation system and build an Internet booking
agent for its United.com Web site;
* IBM Corporation in all intellectual property and technology matters
relating to its acquisition of the global consulting practice of
PricewaterhouseCoopers, including the negotiation of domestic and
international transition service agreements;
* Banco Itaú S.A. in its investment in, and joint venture with, AOL
Latin America to create an Itaú-branded customized AOL service for Itaú
customers; and
* Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu in connection with various software and
technology license agreements with Arthur Andersen LLP arising from
Deloitte’s acquisition of certain partners from Arthur Andersen’s global
tax practice.
Ms. Rodin has worked extensively on matters relating to the Internet
Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (“ICANN”) since its formation
in 1998. These matters include representing clients as well as working on
policy initiatives. For example, she represented two of the seven first new
top level domain registry operators — Afilias, Ltd., operator of the .info
registry, and Global Name Registry, operator of the .name registry. With
respect to Afilias, she also assisted in the preparation of its successful
bid to operate the .info registry. On the policy side, Ms. Rodin assisted in
the drafting of ICANN’s Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy
(“UDRP”), which is used today by thousands of companies to challenge
domain name registrations. She also served as a member of the ICANN
committee that drafted documentation to implement the UDRP. In 2002, Ms.
Rodin was appointed by ICANN to chair an international task force that
established the Policy Development Process that is now used by ICANN to
develop and implement future ICANN policies.
Ms. Rodin is a frequent lecturer and author on a variety of technology and
e-commerce related topics, including outsourcing, e-mail policies, Internet
security, trademark and domain name developments, and privacy-related
issues. She was also selected for inclusion in Chambers USA: America’s
Leading Lawyers for Business 2006.
J.D., St. John’s University School of Law, 1993
B.S., Finance, Boston College, 1990 (magna cum laude, Beta Gamma Sigma)
Law Clerk to the Honorable Thomas C. Platt, U.S. District Court,
Eastern District of New York, 1993-1994
"Revised GPL Open Source License Released for Public Comment"
Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP, January 31, 2006
"Top 10 Information Technology Legal Developments in 2005" Skadden,
Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP, January 18, 2006
"New York State Information Security Law Goes Into Effect" Skadden,
Arps, Slate, Meagher & FLom LLP, December 14, 2005
"New Jersey Law Prohibits Foreign Outsourcing of State Services
Contracts" Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP, May 6, 2005
"Second Circuit Clarifies a Licensee’s Right to Modify Software
Under Section 117 of the Copyright Act" Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom
LLP, April 21, 2005
"Ninth Circuit Curtails Ability to Challenge 'Gripe Sites'" Skadden,
Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP, April 21, 2005
"Top 10 Information Technology Legal Developments in 2004" Skadden,
Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP, February 2, 2005
