Janna Smith

Janna Smith is currently a Board Member at VGBA. Prior to that, they were an attorney at the Interactive Entertainment Law Group from November 2017 to March 2018. The IE Law Group is the premier boutique law firm servicing clients within the games and interactive media sector. Responsible for providing strategic guidance and counseling clients, as well as reviewing, drafting, and negotiating various agreements. www.ielaw.net

From May 2016 to January 2018, Ms. Smith was General Counsel at Swrve. In this role, they were responsible for the legal needs of a high-growth multinational, SaaS-based mobile technology start-up. Janna oversaw all legal and compliance matters for the company across all practice areas. Ms. Smith provided strategic legal guidance to product, engineering, and business teams on a variety of matters, including intellectual property, open source, product development, trade secret, HR, immigration, marketing, and litigation. Janna also negotiated and advised on complex commercial contracts, such as software licensing agreements, partner & OEM agreements, data privacy and security addendums, and other commercial agreements with major companies such as eBay, Electronic Arts, Activision, Microsoft, Emirates Airlines, Salesforce, Verizon and Samsung.

Ms. Smith also has experience with regulatory & privacy matters. Janna developed global legal policies and procedures and provided general regulatory advice. Janna was also responsible for the company's General Data Privacy Regulation (GDPR) compliance program. Additionally, they drafted the Privacy Policy and provided critical legal advice to executive management, product, engineering, and security teams on changing international privacy laws and other relevant regulatory frameworks, including with regard to privacy by design, EU-US data transfers, and COPPA.

Finally, Ms. Smith has experience with intellectual property matters. Janna provided legal advice on IP matters, including creating and managing an IP docket, enforcing existing IP rights, and working with external counsel to extend trademark and patent protections. Janna also worked with software development teams to track and review use of open source and similar software.

In addition to their legal work, Ms. Smith has also supported M&A activities and D Round funding; managed and directed any litigation matters; managed effective use of outside counsel resources, reducing overall costs by 70%; and acted as interim head of HR.

After completing their undergraduate studies, Janna Smith attended Santa Clara University School of Law, where they earned their Juris Doctor (J.D.) degree in intellectual property law. Janna then went on to earn a Master of Arts in German & European Studies from Georgetown University's Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service.