CARY PLATKIN founded the Platkin Law Offices in 2007, specializing in technology licensing, business transactions, and outside general counsel services.  Mr. Platkin’s practice focuses on deal work for software, software-as-a-service, and software appliance product companies.  Mr. Platkin and his team currently support such clients as Adobe, NetSuite, Chordiant, Marketo, Cloud9 Analytics, and Virtual Instruments.

Prior to starting his firm, Mr. Platkin was Division Counsel of the EMC Software Group, a $1 billion dollar division of global technology provider EMC Corporation.  As a member of the President’s executive staff and a direct report of the CFO, Mr. Platkin was a trusted strategic advisor and effective department manager.  He successfully integrated and reorganized two separate legal groups from acquired companies to create a cohesive global team of 20 attorneys and legal staff.  In addition to supporting corporate compliance, internal audit, employment matters and disputes, his team’s responsibilities included domestic and international support of direct and channel sales, in- and out-bound OEM licensing, integration of several acquired companies, procurement, and regular domestic and international travel to regional offices to conduct legal and business practices training.

Prior to EMC, Mr. Platkin was Director of Legal Affairs at Siebel Systems, Inc. (2001-2005).  As a manager in the commercial transactions group, he led a team of attorneys and legal staff in closing all types of company transactions, primarily software licensing, professional services, alliance, distribution and procurement deals.  He handled national and international sales territories, supporting large client bases to close high quantities of deals with large and SMB companies in several vertical industries.  He also lead the Legal Operations group for the Siebel Legal Department, managing the development and maintenance of contract processes and policies, contract templates, negotiation playbooks, sales practice pointers and training programs, and management approval matrices.  These responsibilities involved several cross-functional initiatives with Sales, Sales Ops, Finance, Global Services, Executive Quality Assurance, and IT.

While at Siebel, he was assigned to manage legal support of the Siebel CRM OnDemand division, Siebel’s foray into software-as-a-service (SAAS).  He gained advanced experience with subscription licensing and the business/legal issues surrounding hosted applications, including service level agreements, consumer privacy and data security.  Separately, he managed the integration of acquired companies into Siebel, including leading due diligence teams in analyzing target company contracts, creating new contract processes and templates for acquired companies, and training and supporting new employees.  He was a recipient of the CEO’s Circle Award in recognition of job performance, leadership, and commitment to customer satisfaction, and a Legal Department Core Values Award.

Prior to Siebel, Mr. Platkin held a variety of legal and business roles at innovative technology and media companies, including Web Services Programs Manager at enterprise portal server vendor Epicentric, Inc.; Director of Legal Affairs and Strategic Development at online education service Hungry Minds, Inc.; and Associate General Counsel at Lycos after its acquisition of WIRED Ventures, Inc.

He is licensed to practice law in California, and holds a juris doctorate degree from the University of San Francisco (1995) and a bachelor’s degree from The George Washington University (1992).