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Mark Chandler

Executive Vice President, Chief Legal Officer

General Counsel

Mark Chandler is Executive Vice President, Legal Services, and General Counsel for Cisco, and is also Cisco's Chief Compliance Officer. In these roles, he oversees Cisco's global legal activities and policies, as well as ethics, compliance and regulatory affairs, employee relations, investigations, and brand protection. He has been General Counsel since 2001.

Previously, he was Managing Attorney for the Europe, Middle East, and Africa region, based in Paris. A primary part of his focus is developing solutions to simplify the support for Cisco's sales and services transactions, including process automation and anticipation of future transactional needs.

Chandler joined Cisco in 1996, when Cisco acquired StrataCom, Inc., where he had been general counsel. Prior to StrataCom, he served for six years as vice president of corporate development and general counsel for Maxtor Corporation, a Fortune 500 hard disk drive manufacturer. From 1986-1988 he worked in the marketing department of Siemens AG, Munich, and in 1985-1986 lived in Germany as part of the Robert Bosch Foundation Fellowship Program.

Chandler is a member of the Dean's Advisory Council for Stanford Law School, the Board of Directors of the Law Foundation of Silicon Valley, and the Board of Trustees for Belmont Hill School in Belmont, Mass. He previously served as a member of the U.S. Department of Commerce Manufacturing Council, member and chairman of the City of Palo Alto Planning Commission, and member of the Palo Alto Utilities Advisory Commission. In spring 2016, he was a Lecturer in Law at Stanford Law School. In 2010, The National Law Journal named him one of the 40 Most Influential Lawyers of the Decade, and in 2013, American Lawyer numbered him among the Top 50 Big Law Innovators of the Last 50 Years.

Chandler received a JD degree from Stanford Law School in 1981 and a BA degree in economics from Harvard College in 1978.

You can also follow Mark on the German Blog site, and on the Cisco Newsroom.

Articles

January 25, 2016

EXECUTIVE PLATFORM

Protecting Innovation: Cisco seeks only fair competition

Arista’s filing of bogus antitrust claims today is not accidental or a coincidence. The claims, most of which were included in earlier Arista filings, are a smokescreen to divert attention from the important ruling expected from the International Trade Commission (ITC) on February 2*. This is when J…

November 16, 2015

EXECUTIVE PLATFORM

Protecting Innovation – Moving Forward

With the second International Trade Commission (ITC) trial regarding Arista’s use of Cisco’s proprietary networking technology patents almost complete, now is a good time to provide an update. As you will recall, Cisco filed copyright and patent infringement cases against Arista last December in the…

August 18, 2015

EXECUTIVE PLATFORM

Protecting Innovation: Update on District Court and ITC Actions

Our legal action to stop Arista’s copying and use of Cisco’s intellectual property is proceeding according to schedule. With a number of important procedural steps about to take place, we feel now is a good time to provide an update. Last December we brought two actions in the United States District…

Oracle v Google: Implications of the SCOTUS decision

We’ve promised to provide regular updates about important events related to our litigation to stop Arista’s wrongful copying of Cisco’s copyrighted and patented intellectual property. An action by the Supreme Court of the United States this week has the potential to change the landscape for our US D…

June 11, 2015

EXECUTIVE PLATFORM

Statement on House Judiciary Committee 
Passage of Patent Reform Legislation

The House Judiciary Committee today approved patent reform legislation that helps create a level playing field for those seeking to encourage innovation. This is the second time in two weeks that a key Congressional committee voted in favor of reform. It is a clear demonstration of the bipartisan, b…

June 4, 2015

HIGH TECH POLICY

Statement by Mark Chandler on Senate Judiciary Committee Passage of Patent Reform

The Senate Judiciary Committee today overwhelmingly approved patent litigation reform, clearing a hurdle which proved insurmountable in the last Congress. This is a major milestone that demonstrates strong bipartisan, bicameral support for meaningful patent reform. It clears the way for the Senate t…

April 29, 2015

HIGH TECH POLICY

Cisco Welcomes Introduction of Senate Patent Litigation Reform Bill

The introduction of Protecting American Talent and Entrepreneurship (PATENT) Act of 2015 represents a major milestone on the long road to patent reform. On behalf of Cisco, let me thank Senators Grassley, Leahy, Cornyn, Schumer, Lee, Hatch and Klobuchar for their work to forge bipartisan support for…

March 25, 2015

EXECUTIVE PLATFORM

Governments Need Global Standards of Conduct for Surveillance

Privacy and human rights advocates, technology companies, and trade associations have today called on U.S. political leaders to reform the country’s surveillance laws. We add our voice to those calls. These reforms will help show the world that the U.S. Government is ready to lead the dialogue on gl…

February 10, 2015

EXECUTIVE PLATFORM

Protecting Innovation: Update on Status of Arista Litigation

In our last posting, we referenced Arista’s effort to consolidate the two International Trade Commission cases we had filed. Arista acknowledged that their move would have the effect of delaying the resolution of the cases for up to six months. With that effort rejected by the Commission, today Aris…