Rita Rodin Johnston is a partner in Skadden’s Intellectual Property and Technology; Information Technology and E-Commerce; Media and Entertainment; and Outsourcing practices. She focuses her practice on domestic and international transactions involving the Internet, content, emerging media and complex technologies on behalf of clients that are start-up entrepreneurs, investors and multinational corporations. She regularly structures and negotiates technology and intellectual property transactions — including strategic alliances, joint ventures and other partnership arrangements; trademark, copyright and technology licensing agreements; development and distribution agreements; information technology and business processing outsourcing agreements; and marketing and co-branding agreements. Her practice includes strategic intellectual property asset purchases and sales; technology mergers and acquisitions; initial public offerings, restructurings, and project finance matters. She also advises companies on social media issues, business and compliance issues, open source issues, privacy matters and branding issues. Ms. Rodin Johnston repeatedly has been selected for inclusion in Chambers Global: The World’s Leading Lawyers for Business, Chambers USA: America’s Leading Lawyers for Business, and The Best Lawyers in America. She is a frequent lecturer and author on a variety of e-commerce, media, trademark and technology-related topics.

Projects on which Ms. Rodin Johnston has worked include the representation of:

• Skype Technologies SA, and its founders, Niklas Zennström and Janus Friis
• China Real Estate Information Corporation
• IBM
• Capgemini North America
• Telnic, Ltd
• Compagnie Financière Richemont SA
• Dynamic Diamond Corporation (formerly Madison Avenue Diamonds)
• Lincoln Center
• Merck KGaA
• ING
• CME Group Strategic Investments LLC
• Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group, Inc.
• Deloitte & Touche USA LLP

Ms. Rodin Johnston has worked extensively on matters relating to Internet policy and, in particular, in connection with the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). She assisted in the drafting of ICANN’s Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP), which is used today by thousands of companies to challenge domain name registrations. She also currently is a director on ICANN’s board of directors.

Ms. Rodin Johnston is a member of the firm’s diversity committee, and is actively involved with various groups dedicated to promoting women in the legal profession and generally. She is on the steering committee of The Kate Stoneman Project, a leadership organization for women partners of 10 leading New York-based law firms, and the board of directors of Womens e-News, a nonprofit daily Internet-based news service dedicated to covering substantive news stories on issues of particular concern to women and providing women’s perspectives on public policy matters.