Executive Vice President, General Counsel & Secretary, Mks Instruments
Search every verified Kathleen Burke interview, podcast appearance, and on-the-record quote — each transcript cross-checked by AI and human review to confirm speaker identity. In December 2021, Burke testified at a DMCA Section 1201 hearing, arguing that the environment for video game console repair had changed since 2018. She stated that Microsoft had stopped repairing devices not in active production, such as the Xbox 360 and Xbox One, leaving consumers with no official repair options. She also cited global supply chain vulnerabilities, including the COVID-19 pandemic and trade relations with China, as reasons for the necessity of repair exemptions. In September 2021, Burke participated in a virtual discussion where she described her approach to managing a legal department. She said that the right contract review process depends on a company's risk profile and available resources, and that training non-legal staff and developing a playbook can allow for greater autonomy. Burke emphasized the importance of hiring lawyers with business pragmatism and a sense of humor, and noted that her department grew from a one-person role to a team of 20 as MKS Instruments' revenue increased from $300 million to $2.3 billion.
“I think the right answer depends on the nature of the business that you are representing. What might be right for my company wouldn't necessarily be right for somebody else's. You have to look at what's the risk profile of your business agreements, the skill set available, and other qualitative and quantitative factors...”
“Anything that has to do with IP ownership, when you're talking about developing something with a customer or a vendor, or anything that has to do with development and IP, that's going to get reviewed by lawyers. There are certain product categories that are particularly complex and bring their own set of risk factors,...”
“For some companies, you might just have a dollar threshold and say under a certain dollar threshold we're going to live with this. But sometimes, at least in the case of my company, we layer qualitative factors on top of that.”
“If you are able to train the other people who are touching the contract in terms of saying here's our risk profile that we can live up to — we can't live with unlimited liability — so if that's proposed, escalate it. You can also set parameters and if you go beyond these parameters, then you escalate it.”
Kathleen Burke explains how the environment in video game console repair has changed in the last three years, leaving ...
Gemma Dreher, President of ACC-Northeast speaks with Kathleen Burke, Senior Vice President and General Counsel from MKS ...
A Virtual Discussion with Kathleen Burke, GC MKS Instruments and Gemma Dreher, President, Acc-Northeast. The path to GC ...
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