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Areas of
Practice:
Business/Corporate
Commercial Transactions
Business Acquisitions
Labor and Employment
Real Estate
Technology Licensing
Bar
Admissions:
California,
1986
U.S. District Court, Northern District of California
U.S. Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit
Education:
University of
San Francisco, 1977—B.A. History
University of California, Los Angeles, CA, 1979—M.A. Medieval
History; 1981—C.Phil. Medieval History
University of
California, Hastings College of the Law, 1986—Juris Doctor
Publications:
“The Medieval Circulation of the De Chorographia of Pomponius
Mela,” with A. Rouse and M. Rouse, Mediaeval Studies vol.
XLVI (1984)
Professional Associations and Memberships:
Member, Board
of Trustees, Presidio Hill School; Chair, Trustee Committee
2003‑2005; Co-chair, Director Search Committee, 2005-2006
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CATHERINE M.
GORMLEY was born in Washington, D.C. and raised on the East Coast
and then in Taipei, Taiwan, where she attended the International
School of the Sacred Heart. While in Taiwan, she studied classical
Chinese opera. Ms. Gormley graduated from Taipei American School.
It was that experience of living in Asia that helped develop Ms.
Gormley’s deep interest in Pacific Rim cultures. Ms. Gormley
received her B.A. in history, cum laude, in 1977 from the
University of San Francisco. After living briefly in Mogadishu,
Somalia, and Paris, France, she returned to the United States to
pursue her Masters Degree in history, which she received from the
University of California at Los Angeles, California in 1979. She
was awarded a C.Phil. from UCLA in 1981, and then obtained her J.D.
at Hastings College of the Law in 1986. At Hastings, she earned the
Milton D. Green Top Ten Award and was a member of the Thurston
Society, received the American Juris Prudence Award in Torts, and
was Articles Editor for the Hastings Law Journal. Immediately
following graduation from law school, Ms. Gormley joined the firm of
McCutchen, Doyle, Brown & Enersen in San Francisco (now Bingham,
McCutchen), where she received rigorous training in the corporate
and mergers and acquisitions practice. Her continued interest in
Pacific Rim businesses led her to join Teraoka & Partners LLP in
1992. Since that time, her practice has expanded to include general
corporate, mergers and acquisitions, labor and employment,
intellectual property licensing and other licensing, general
business operations, including the legal aspects of distributions,
brokerages and marketing arrangements, and regulatory compliance for
general business operations.
Ms. Gormley assists
clients with cross‑border IP licensing for U.S. subsidiaries of
foreign public companies, including parent companies in Japan and
Norway, as well as providing IP licensing for domestic start‑ups
ranging from GUI software development tools to video game software.
Ms. Gormley assists clients in
managing and documenting transactions through the entire chain of
manufacturing, marketing and distributing products, in the computer,
hardware and software licensing industries, as well as traditional
areas of consumer goods and food products. She advises business
clients on all aspects of manufacturing, marketing, and distribution
of their products, including pricing, distribution structures, sales
representatives’ and distributors’ rights, and related business
matters.
In labor and employment, Ms.
Gormley helps clients navigate the confusing labyrinth of federal,
state and local laws regulating a diverse range of personnel issues,
including hours and wages, employee benefits, equal opportunity and
affirmative action compliance, as well as harassment prevention and
enforcement matters. She has helped clients to understand the
distinctions for exempt and non-exempt employees, as well as the
distinction, under both federal and state laws, of employees versus
independent contractors. She has successfully appealed both federal
IRS and state Board of Equalization characterizations of independent
contractors for clients in a diverse range of industries, including
the tour guide industry, advertising industry and others.
Ms. Gormley provides advice to
food and beverage distributors nationwide and to local restaurants
regarding ABC liquor licensing compliance, and has assisted one
client in the unique issue of obtaining a liquor license for its
first‑class lounge at the new San Francisco International Airport.
Ms. Gormley has conducted
harassment prevention training to clients throughout the United
States desiring to comply with the change in regulations,
particularly those promulgated in California regarding harassment
prevention. She has also provided sexual harassment investigation
services and defended clients before the Department of Fair
Employment and Housing and the Federal Equal Employment Opportunity
Commission with regard to sexual harassment and discrimination
cases.
Ms. Gormley continues to practice
in the area in which she was originally trained—negotiating and
closing mergers and acquisition transactions for both global and
domestic corporations. She has advised clients in stock and asset
purchase transactions for global, Japan‑based gaming companies and
domestic manufacturing companies, among others. In 2002,
Ms. Gormley negotiated the joint venture transaction that brought
the monthly magazine, Shonen Jump, one of the longest-running
periodical manga compilations in Japan, to the United States. In
its first U.S. issue (January 2003), it became the top-selling comic
book of any kind for that time period in the United States.
Above all, Ms. Gormley enjoys very
much the professional relationships and general rapport she has
developed advising clients with cross‑border relationships who need
advice regarding the diverse range of legal issues involved in the
operation of a business in the United States.
Ms. Gormley has been active in
several non-profit and community organizations. She also advised
the Women’s Economic Agenda Project in 1988, helped to obtain
tax-exempt status for Healing Hearts in 1989, and served as a
founding member on the Board of Trustees of the Eva Leah Gunter
Foundation for Education, where she remained as a trustee from 1997
to 2001. Since 1993, Ms. Gormley has devoted much of her non‑profit
work as a member of the Board of Trustees of Presidio Hill School in
San Francisco, an independent progressive school founded in 1918 by
Flora Arnstein and Helen Salz. She has chaired the trustee
committee in 2002 and 2003 and recently co‑chaired the search
committee that brought Director Brian Thomas to the School in 2006.
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