Wilson Sonsini partner James Yoon has been inducted as a Fellow of the American Bar Foundation (ABF), a global honorary society of attorneys, judges, law faculty, and legal scholars whose public and private careers have demonstrated outstanding dedication to the highest principles of the legal profession.

Founded in 1952 by the American Bar Association (ABA), the ABF was created to fill the need for an independent center for interdisciplinary research into the law. With a generous gift from the American Bar Endowment (ABE), an ABA affiliate charity offering insurance products to ABA members, the ABF was built as “a research center for the organized bar of America.”

Although the ABF was founded by the ABA and is funded mainly by the ABE, it remains an independent organization. This ensures research projects have full academic freedom. All ABF studies have been undertaken in an objective manner and are not influenced by the views of the ABA or ABE.

The mission of the ABF is to expand knowledge and advance justice through innovative, interdisciplinary, and rigorous empirical research on law, legal processes, and legal institutions.  To further this mission, the ABF will produce timely, cutting-edge research of the highest quality to inform and guide the legal profession, the academy, and society in the United States and internationally.

James is a leader of the patent trial and litigation practice at the firm, with more than 25 years of experience as a trial lawyer, patent litigator, counselor, and IP strategist. He has litigated over 200 patent cases and has tried numerous cases in federal courts, in state courts, and at the International Trade Commission. He has also litigated major disputes in arbitration. James has an active strategic patent counseling practice and has advised over 100 companies on patent related issues in a wide variety of transactions. As part of these transactions, James is frequently involved in risk assessments, valuations, forecasts, and analytical modeling. In both his patent litigation and strategic counseling practices, James has been a pioneer in the use of data analytics in legal decision making, strategy development, and risk assessment.

To learn more about the American Bar Foundation, please click here.